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ChaoticPotato
Sunny wakes to the sound of someone being horribly murdered. She snaps awake and looks around frantically only to find the loud screaming was actually being produced by a crow. Caide swats at the bedside table, muttering
“Just five more minutes...” Pistachio grunts and pulls her pillow over her head while Apollo, much like Sunny, mistook the crow’s call for a scream and snapped awake. Apollo’s eyes landed on the crow and widened an impossible amount
“oh, no, oh nonono, not again CAAAAAIIIIIIIDEEEEEEE!!!!!!” He screamed, causing the wildclaw to jump and sit up in a panic
“What! What is it!?” Apollo points a shaking claw across the room towards the cursed bird in the window. Caide takes a moment to process this before bursting into laughter. Sunny gives her a quizzical look
“Apollo has had some... unfortunate experiences with crows” Caide explained between fits of laughter. Apollo narrows his eyes at the crow and shudders
“They haunt me to this day” Sunny presses her lips together in an attempt to stop herself from laughing and failed miserably.
“WILL YOU ALL JUST SHUDDUP!!!!” Pistachio yelled and threw her pillow quite violently in Caide’s direction, who dodged at the last moment. Caide, in turn, picked up her own pillow and threw it at Pistachio in retaliation, who caught the pillow one handed and threw it at Sunny, who was not as lucky as Caide, and caught it full in the face. The room immediately dissolved into a warzone. Caide and Sunny had just cornered Pistacio and were about to bean her with pillows when Apollo yelled
“STOP!” Caide turned in confusion as Apollo would normally take great pleasure in an all-out pillow war and was even more concerned when she saw the Imperial’s expression which was alert and completely serious – which Apollo was never - with a hint of concern and fear. Caide opened her mouth to make a witty comment when Apollo shushed her
“There it is again” And this time the others heard it too; the sound of distant screaming...
Three councilors rushed to the door while Pistachio lay on her bed looking miffed that her pillow war had been interrupted so suddenly. Caide rammed into the door so hard it ripped clean off its hinges and landed on the ground with a dull thunk while the three dragons pushed and shoved to get out first which resulted in all of then getting stuck in the door frame in a mess of screaming chaos and flailing limbs. Apollo was the first to break free and immediately bolted, shouting ‘suckers’ over his shoulder, leaving Caide and Sunny in a disoriented, tangled mess on the ground. Caide, fueled by rage at Apollo’s taunts, shoved Sunny away from her and tore after Apollo, and shortly after, a less rage-filled Sunny also joined in the chase. Apollo ran like his life depended on it – which it probably did considering Caide’s current mood – he ran down the hill towards the five cabins, took a sharp left, ran through the mess hall, a right turn and into the woods. Apollo looked behind him to see Caide right on his tail, literally, Apollo yelped as Caide stomped on his tail, causing both of them to trip and tumble right to the edge of an enormous hill. An amber blur hit them at maximum velocity, and they all tumbled down the hill and slammed into a tree, causing it to shake violently and release something that was stuck in its branches. Said something fell directly onto the dazed trio causing immediate chaos. Caide jumped a meter in the air and scrambled away with a shriek, Sunny although still dazed, followed suite a few moments later. Apollo, unfortunately for him, somehow got tangled in his sundrapes and failed to escape, he yelped as he fell on his face and attempted to scramble away but resulted in entangling himself further with the object which was now on top of him. Apollo panicked and started violently squirming and writhing, squealing
“EW! GET IT OFF! GET IT OFF!!!!” like the immature hatchling he was. After several minutes or frantic kicking, biting, flailing and screaming, Apollo finally managed to disentangle himself from whatever it was, and they could finally see what it was. It wasn’t so much of an ‘it’ of a ‘who’, a ‘who’ so mangled and bloodied you could barely see the blue of his scales:
The blue liquid in his smashed capsule was seeping out and pooling on the ground, his limbs were almost completely cut off and he had a wooden sign around his neck with the word ‘BRUTAL’ written in what they assumed to be Moonglow’s own blood. Apollo screamed again –the drama queen – Sunny gasped
“M-moonglow? But h-how? W-why?” Caide walked over cautiously and poked the corpse to make sure it wouldn’t come back for vengeance, turn into a zombie or something like that. The corpse did not move. Caide nodded in approval. Apollo, having finally regained his composure, approached Moonglow cautiously and eyed it
“I -erm t-think we should take M-Moonglow's – um – remains back to camp s-so that I can study it and g-get an idea of w-who, or what, did this and then perhaps give him a burial?” Caide nodded
“least we can do” Apollo hoisted Moonglow’s corpse over his should and started walking back towards the camp followed by Caide and Sunny...
They returned to Camp to be not-so-friendly greeted by none other than Pistachio who took no regard for the bloody corpse Apollo was carrying and went right to scolding them
“Well, took you long enough. While you were off chasing Mr. Golden sparkles like immature hatchlings, I took the responsibility of checking all the campers to make sure everyone was still in one piece" She gestured behind her where all the campers were lined up organized by cabin
“I think there is something you should see” Pistachio pointed a claw to the Oak cabin and started walking towards it. Sunny and Caide followed nervously Perused by Apollo after he had deposited the corpse on a picnic table. Pistachio entered and gestured to one of the beds where a dragon lay motionless:
Apollo gasped and Sunny nearly fainted. Caide rolled her eyes in sync with Pistachio
“Geez, calm down, he’s only dead” “Yeah guys, by the looks of whatever that was Mr. Golden sparkles was carrying you guys have seen worse” Snorted Pistachio. Apollo went into full Sherlock mode
“Ah, but you see my dear nut, Moonglow had an unnecessarily visible cause of death whereas our friend Paladin here has no visible cause whatsoever, that is what renders this particular murder so shocking” Caide stared at him, stunned at his sudden advanced vocabulary
“Apollo, have you been reading the dictionary... Again?” “Hmmm? No... Perhaps... Maybe...Yes” Caide facepalmed and Apollo got to work. While Apollo checked the bodies, Caide decided to get herself some coffee from the mess hall, she returned a few moments later with a nice steaming cappuccino in her hand, being extra careful to check it thoroughly for stray eyeballs before she took a sip. When Caide returned, Apollo had finished and was chatting with Sunny and Pistachio, the bodies were covered in a black blanket on the picnic table.
“So, what did I miss?” asked Caide, rudely interrupting whatever the others had been discussing. Apollo harrumphed and started pacing back and forth in front of Caide
“Weeeell, as I was telling Sunny and the Nut here before I was so rudely interrupted, was that I have studied the bodies and I can conclude that Moonglow was probably strangled while they slept” He gestured to some damaged scales around Moonglow’s neck
“Now unconscious, they were then dragged outside where the killers maimed and severed his limbs, made that dreadful sign, and left him in that tree for us to find. Paladin, tough, has no obvious signs of intentional murder. HOWEVER” Apollo stopped
“I did detect a strong connection between the two, kind of like what twins or SOULMATES might have” Sunny gasped dramatically, Caide remained unimpressed, and Pistachio rolled her eyes.
“Sooooooooooo, any idea who or what might have done this?” Apollo looked offended
“Elementary my dear Caide” He said as he took a piece of something out of his pocket and brandished it in front of her.
“but any idea who. That. Belongs. To???” Apollo huffed
“Weeeeell, the colour of the fluff looks like something on the darker side of the colour wheel, like a blue, purple or maybe even black?? I don’t know exactly, it’s too covered in blood to tell exactly” Caide huffed in frustration
“Well then how are we going to know who did it?” Apollo flashed her a smile that almost blinded her
“I say we call a vote!” *Dramatic music
Dam, the soulmates are out first thing, Moonglow and Paladin were the soulmates, killed by the ghosts and the Dryad. You may now commence the voting!
