The Midnight Scroll

This story is written for Skyscraper's writing contest!
Prompt: The Rainforest, a clock, and a NightWing.
==Characters==
Blackstar-A dark gray male NightWing with ivory underscales. The stars on his wings are much larger than normal.
Whiteberry-A spotted dark blue and white male RainWing with silver underscales. The white scales are from his vitiligo, and he can never get rid of them.
Skinktail-A sandy SandWing-RainWing female with a blue tail and two dark brown stripes running down her back, between her sails.
Forget-me-not-A tiny lilac IceWing. She often wears a sky blue scarf.
==Notes==
-This takes place in the post-canon timeline two hundred years after the third arc.
-RainWings change their scale color by sending signals to change their pigment cells, and scales with a lack of cells (which occurs in albinism and vitiligo) aren't able to ever change the pigment. This is why Whiteberry's white can never change.
-Bamboo Motel and Services is a family-run business by SandWing-RainWings. Skinktail is about half, and her daughter is mostly SandWing with a small portion of RainWing. Animus genes are common in the bloodline.
-Actual clocks don't exist in this timeline, and the Midnight Scroll is a replacement of one with a few tweaks.
==The Midnight Scroll ==
Word Count-1,360
In the Rainforest kingdom, there lay a giant bamboo structure high above the treetops. Several RainWings were resting on top of patios laid out for sun-time, while others ate at tables scattered around like glitter.
One large room, visible through the half-filled walls, had two dragons, a hybrid and a NightWing, at a wooden table. The room was a library, illuminated by the soft orange hue of lanterns in every corner.
“-But anyhow, I really appreciate Prince Dhole’s effort on SkyWing non-fiction. Ever since his mother became queen, they’ve been open to everyone,” Skinktail gladly said.
Blackstar nodded. “Mhm, she’s signed an alliance agreement with Queen Saturn. The last queen would’ve absolutely broken her face.”
The SandWing-RainWing hybrid chuckled. “Yeah, so have the SandWings and RainWings.” She paused for a moment before raising her neck in an echoing yawn. “Well Blackstar, it was nice talking to you, but I still need to work on my duties. I can’t slop around all day.”
She lazily walked to the front desk, where on a busy day would have several dragons renting scrolls and books. Her blue RainWing tail vanished behind the desk as she settled on a stool and began to scavenge around.
Her expression turned to a mixture of annoyance and hate, Blackstar noticed. He impulsively pointed it out. “Hey Skinktail, what’s-”
“Argh, three moons! I thought I had that darn scroll right here!” she said while searching through the top of her front desk a second. Blackstar stood back, confused. “What?” he spoke.
Skinktail sighed, staring into his gray eyes with her dark brown ones. “I have, or had, this scroll that was enchanted by my father. The scroll has four numbers on it, and it counts down to midnight. Tada.”
“Well, then I’ll gladly help you,” he replied. This scroll seemed pretty important to the owner if she was turning tables for it.
“No, I’m fine, Blackstar. You don’t even know what it looks like!”
“But you just described it to me!” Blackstar tensed his leg muscles. He couldn’t just stand there, watching her. He wanted to move around and go on a quest of some sort.
“I didn’t describe it, just what it does,” she denied. Skinktail started to rummage through some bookshelves. Forget-me-not ducked under her, the IceWing’s eyes wide in concern.
Blackstar gave her a deathly stare. For three moons, the bamboo building was a large place, and this scroll could be anywhere. He wanted to get his hands on it, do something, and did he really need her permission?
He paced out to the library exit, and Skinktail spoke out. “Hey, where are you going?”
“I realized I didn’t need permission to help you, so I’m gonna look for that scroll elsewhere!”
She rolled her eyes, sputtering a snort. “Yeah, come back in two years.”
Blackstar grunted as he turned left at a small bookshelf. While throwing around his claws, he thought of how stubborn Skinktail was; why would she deny help? In Blackstar’s book, that is the physical form of stubbornness itself.
At least she shared the same energy as Blackstar, as they would always talk about random debates, and keep adding on random, but probably dumb, stuff. And she would always stand up to the delusional, using her smart words and remarks to claws and teeth.
He kept peeking through random tables and shelves besides motels where dragons could stay. It got repetitive, and Blackstar was getting bored. Maybe Skinktail was right, and she’d already found it without ease.
However, a familiar set of scales sparked his interest and questioned in confusion. “Whiteberry, what are you doing here?”
The former turned their head, his white masks glowing in the dull lantern light. In his navy blue talons was a scroll, a pretty bland one to be honest.
Blackstar was starting to make the ridiculous idea that maybe, just maybe, this was the certain scroll Skinktail was looking for. No, that would be a one in a million chance if that were the case.
“Well hey, Blackstar, more like what are you doing here? This place is just laying down and doing nothing for a whole day, not your style, you know. Anyway, I came to get some lunch, it was pretty good by the way,” Whiteberry swiftly spoke, almost running behind Blackstar.
The former nodded slowly as his curiosity grew for the thing in his talons. “Lemme guess, a sweet mango smoothie?”
“Duh, you know it’s the only thing on the whole continent that’s worth the price. Goodness me actually, you should see the prices here, so expensive!”“Aren’t you sure you just don’t have that many gems?” Blackstar unthoughtfully remarked.
Whiteberry’s body shifted to a red-violet, besides his white scales that could never go away, and his grin morphing into irritation. “Agh, no! I’m perfectly stable! Why would you dare tease me like that!”
Blackstar stood blankly at his RainWing friend, feeling a tempest of guilt flood his brain. He must’ve gone a little too far trying to entertain the scene. “Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry. It wasn’t my intention; also, what’s on that scroll?”
“Oh, this. Glad you asked, it has something quite charming on it,” he excitedly replied as his scales turned back to his passive cool blue. There was tension in the NightWing’s claws.
“There’s four numbers on it, and every so often, the right one changes by going down one. The left one hasn’t changed yet, but I think it will. You think it’s some sort of pattern, and why do they change?” his friend continued, twisting imaginary glasses to ‘see’ the scroll better.
Dread filled Blackstar. Of course it had to be the scroll! But why worry, Whiteberry would simply give it to him, right? “Uh, Whiteberry?”
“Yeah?” he asked.
“So I was looking for a scroll that counted down to midnight, and I think that’s it,” he mumbled with defiance. This really couldn’t be it.
Whiteberry furrowed a brow, his scales bursting into a seafoam green. “Oh?” he said, putting on a sly grin. The RainWing stepped back, and with question Blackstar did the same. What was he doing? Whiteberry kept pacing back, each step getting slightly faster. Then in the blink of an eye, he turned around and raced out of the building entrance.
Blackstar, shocked, yelled, “Hey!”
Whiteberry shouted with humor behind it. “If you need it, come here you slug!” He started to flutter away into the rainforest, which was probably a bad thing. He still had his green scales.
The NightWing stumbled upon Whiteberry’s path outside, but like a wedge, Forget-me-not seemed to just materialize out of nowhere. He slammed into the lilac IceWing with his stocky build. “Blackstar, what was that for?” she said as she tightened her sky blue scarf back into place.
"Uhm, nothing major or anything like that," Blackstar said impatiently, nudging her out of his way. He could hear her mutter a mild swear.
When he got outside, the heat of the sun and humidity burned his scales; three moons, it was a heatwave out here. The forest beyond was dense and thick, you know, the best place to find a dragon that can blend in quite well. He sunk into deep thought for a moment, trying to think out where in the world he may be.
And actually, why did he even do that? Was he trying to be playful, or take revenge on him in some form?
He was about to enter the forest when the call of a familiar voice ringed his ears. As he stared for the source, a bundle of laughter came from above. There was an invisible dragon splattered with cold white scales. Whiteberry.
Filled with impulsiveness, he lurched his talons with a giant leap in the air. He tried to snatch the smaller dragon, but he missed his slank build and Whiteberry hovered even higher.
"Goodness me, just stop already!' Blackstar growled.
Whiteberry's scales melted back to his blue, disappointment frozen on his white face. "Aw c'mon, you got no spirit today!"
"It's not that, just that the scroll's pretty important. And by important, it's the owner's!" Irritation danced on him.
wip!
Category:Fanfictions
Category:Fanfictions (Incomplete)
Category:Fanfictions (Semi-Canon)
Category:Genre (Adventure)
Category:Genre (Short Story)