Scargiver POV

I walked quietly down the hall, watching everyone else pass me, usually talking to their friends. I was kinda sad that nobody had become my friend, but I was super insecure, so I guess it made sense. Who knows, maybe I'd have a friend by the end of the year.

"Hey Scar!" Someone called out. I turned to see. Shadowseeker?! We'd parted ways after being released, for safety measures. I hadn't thought I'd see him here.

"Shadow! Oh my moons, are you alright? How have you been?" I worried, racing over to him. He smiled. "Chill out, dude. I'm fine, lived in a forest near some StarWings, they were pretty nice and gave me food and stuff occasionally. How've you been, man?" He playfully nudged my shoulder.

I grinned. "Been good, stayed in an abandoned cabin near the castle since I couldn't fly far. Managed to walk here in time," I replied. We continued down the hall together, catching up. I told him about meeting Droplet and Phoenix, two younger dragonets who took care of me after leaving the castle, and he told me about his StarWing girlfriend.

"She was as beautiful as the full moons," he declared, staring blissfully into the distance. I chuckled as he continued, "It was such a sad moment when I told her I had to leave. The look on her face was of such sadness, it almost looked... wicked."

"Wicked?" I asked. "Doesn't that seem weird?" He faced me with a questioning look. "At the time it made sense, I guess. Whatever. We're here, by the way," he added.

Sure enough, we'd entered the food area. At one end, cows and pigs and other animals were being slaughtered by the dozens to feed all the dragnets here. On the other end, gentle RainWing hybrids handed out fruits and glasses of water, milk, and coffee along with some exotic juice I'd never seen. And the noise...

The noise was like... I can't even begin to describe it. Chaos was putting it lightly. It was like hell, all of hell, compacted into one rather large cave, but even more chaotic. Hell might be a little generous, actually. It was like the spirits of the damned were screaming into oblivion while thousands of super-volcanoes erupted at the sidelines and a thousand sharpened claws were being forcefully drawn across a smooth, hard plate of metal. It was that bad. And everyone seemed fine with it.

Maybe it was because the cave I grew up in was generally quiet. Occasionally there would be screams, but they were always followed by either more screams or immediate silence. Never in my life had I experienced something as violent as this. I glanced tentatively at Shadowseeker, who was covering his battered ears with his talons. He nodded ahead. "BE FAST, GET ME SOMETHING GOOD. I WANT SOME JUICE. GO, GO, GO!" He yelled across the noise. I nodded quickly and raced through the tight crowd, holding my wings close to my head and chest like a shield.

I burst through the crowd at the fruit section. Quickly I grabbed a couple pineapples, bananas, dragon fruits and two cups of the weird juice stuff, then I scurried away before anyone could catch me. I shut my eyes and tore across the mass of dragonets, thinking of my favourite song in my head to keep myself sane.

The song was called, "Forest" made by some scavengers and translated into dragon speak. It was such a good, underrated song that I loved a lot.

I broke through the mound of dragonets as the chorus took shape, ironically. It was kind of cool. I glanced around frantically, in search of Shadow, but was then tackled to the ground by another dragonet before I could catch his eye.

"Were you the numbskull who cut the line and took food?" A voice growled in my ear. A familiar voice.

"Droplet?" I asked-shouted at the dragonet pinning me down.

"Scar? Geez, didn't know you'd be coming here!" She exclaimed, letting me go. I stood up and faced her, my food lying on the ground around me. I swept it in closer to my feet, glad that the drinks came in unspillable containers.

Droplet watched me in curiosity, her turquoise eyes calculating my every move. "Didn't expect to see you, either," I agreed, looking over her blue-grey scales for any imperfections.

She laughed, and I asked, "How's Phoenix? Where is she?"

Droplet shrugged, pointing an icy white talon to the crowd in general. "Somewhere over there, fighting for food. She's totally fine, we're in the same group and everything."

I nodded. "Alright, well I should get going," I said, "my friend Shadowseeker that I told you about is waiting."

"Bye!! I'll see you around!" She called as I swept up my food and speed walked to where I left Shadow.

And there he was, standing there with the stupidest grin on his face. "Is that your girrrlfriend? Tell me about her!! I'm so happy for you!!"

"Aw, shove off. That's Droplet, the girl I was telling you about, remember? She's just a friend. Shut up." I elbowed him (can dragons elbow each other? Oh well they can now) as we made our way to a deserted couch and sat down. I passed him a dragon fruit and cracked open my own as we both dug in.

"Man, what a way to start the year, eh?" Shadow exclaimed through a mouthful of fruit flesh. I nodded and we continued eating in silence. It was the best meal I'd had in forever, no matter if it was almost nothing.

At least it was memorable.