Wings of Fire | Assassin in Jade Mountain (HEAVILY EDITED VERSION)

At last Swamp announced that Jasmin could return to her own cave.

"Remember not to stress out your body too much, and not participate in anything that requires physical activity," He warned as he made sure all her wounds were bandaged and she had eaten her medicine. "If you're starting to feel any severe pain, come back immediately."

Jasmin limped through the tunnels slowly, stopping only when Sunny told her that her nest was back in place. 

She spotted a familiar flash of ice-blue scales, but when she turned around, Winter had already turned around the corner.

As soon as she entered the sleeping cave, Jasmin was greeted by a rather excited bundle of yellow-and-pink energy.

"MIRAGE!" Kinkajou beamed, flinging herself at Jasmin, who drew back with a hiss. "YOU'RE BACK!"

"Not for long if you keep that up," Jasmin snapped. 

"Sorry." The little RainWing settled back down, barely controlling her excitement. 

"I'm glad you're back, Mirage." Moon, who was much calmer yet equally relieved, smiled. "It was too...empty here for a while."

She knew the NightWing dragonet was talking about the death of Carnelian. Kinkajou drooped just a tiny bit.

"I'm a little hungry." Jasmin quickly changed the subject- no need for saving Kinkajou's life and losing her to depression. "Let's go to the prey center."

Kinkajou perked up. "Yay! Let's go! Three moons, I'm literally starving. I could eat the entire fruit pile!"

They trailed after Kinkajou, who skipped ahead, her scales swirling with eye-scorching yellows and pink. She ran straight for the fruit pile and began inhaling the avocados.

Jasmin pounced on a nearby chicken, feeling a little glower of pride when she caught it. She ripped off a wing. The bird shrieked. It glanced at the wing still in her mouth and shrieked even louder.

Moon shuddered. "You know we normally kill stuff before we eat it, right?"

Jasmin shrugged, then bit off the head. "Food's food no matter how loud it screams." 

Moon still looked pretty horrified, but her expression quickly changed to terror. She ducked behind Jasmin, huddling her wings close to her body.

Jasmin looked up to see what had made her so frightened. 

It was Winter; the IceWing prince was sweeping the crowd of dragonets with his cold gaze. His eyes rested on Moon.

One more day left, They clearly warned. One more day until I ruin your entire life.

A low growl escaped Jasmin's throat. She glared at him, summoning all the hate she had towards the IceWing in her eyes. It wasn't all that hard- she absolutely despised him.

Winter glanced at her once before sweeping away, clearly shaken by her glare.

"I wish he'd just leave the school," Jasmin muttered to Moon. "Win-win, since he seems to hate it here-"

There was a loud crash. She spun around to see what had made the noise.

Icicle stood just a few inches away from the crumbled remains of a stalactite. Her face was frozen in an expression of shock and fury.

"I knew it," She snarled. "I was the target all along. They set this up to kill me."

"Who would want to kill you?" Winter snorted. "And no one could have known you'd be in the history cave early."

Icicle's face lit up in rage and fury, and Jasmin knew immediately that the IceWing knew exactly who it was. Moon stiffened behind the hybrid, and she turned around.

"What?" Jasmin. Moon looked around, then tugged her out of the cave. Qibli and Kinkajou followed quickly.

"What is it, Moon?" Qibli asked, worried. She ran past them and raced to the library.

"There's not enough time!" She shouted. "Icicle will kill her!"

"Who?" Kinkajou yelled. 

"Sora!" Moon cried. "Icicle's gone to kill Sora!"