Chapter One --- Argil.

Argil was upset. As he was most of the time. He sat down in a puddle, his mud colored wings drooping to the ground after being pushed down by another dragon. The dragon who pushed him was named Ditch. Aka, Argil's greatest enemy. At least to Argil, he wasn't sure if he was even considered a threat to Ditch.
The bigger dragonet started laughing. It really was a cruel sound.
"You'll never win, salamander." And he was right. Argil couldn't amount to anything. He was just a stupid little-

"Argil! Wake up already!" A voice called. "Helloooo? You dead or what?"
Argil slowly opened his eyes. He was sprawled out on the floor, big eyes looking down on him.

"Argh- Wha- I'm not a-... Uh, wait, silt..?" He mumbled in a confused voice. Silt sighed with relief.

"Three moons. I thought you were dead, idiot." Silt said. "Don't scare me like that. It's annoying."

Argil rubbed his head.
"Ugh, where am I?" He asked her, half asleep.

"You're in the infirmary." She said, moving to sit down next to him. Her glossy scales almost blending in with the light wood floor. "Apparently, you got into a fight with Ditch, and he knocked you out. Luckily, I got you to safety before they could beat you up some more." She boasted, raising her head higher. "I'd recommend you not flying for a while. Not that you'd be doing that anyway,"

Argil shook his head. It was true. Flying was a bit difficult for him...
He tried to stand up, but felt a sharp pain in his leg. He winced, knowing it might be broken.

"You probably shouldn't move at all, really." Silt said. "It might hurt you more."

"You're not a doctor." Argil said to his little sister. He tried to stand up once more to no avail. "Let's just wait for Muskrat to come help me, and not have you do any surgeries. Today, or ever."

Silt laughed, tilting her head back. "Hey, you never know when you might need emergency surgery."
Argil scoffed. "Even if I did, I wouldn't get it from you." He said, pushing her away.
Then the cloth door to the infirmary was violently flung open.

"Argil!" Muskrat said in a stern voice. "What did I say about you getting into fights?"
She was searching in her bag for something, pouring out different ointments and wrappings and what looked like a whole bag of frog eggs.

"Good to see you too, Ma'am." Argil said sarcastically.
Muskrat glanced at Argil from over her round glasses. "Seriously. You have to stop getting yourself in situations like this, where you can't get lit of them. You're going to get yourself killed one day... aha! Here it is."
She pulled out a bag of bandages and wrappings, along with a blue bottle and a knife.

"Um, Ma'am," Silt started to say.

"Please," Muskrat said. "Call me Muskrat. Saying Miss or Ma'am makes me feel old..." she rubbed her temples.

"Oh, right. Muskrat," Silt continued. "Will this hurt Argil? I mean, I know it will help him but..."

"Awh, you're worried about your older brother?" Argil teased while Silt frowned.

"On second thought, do you have anything you can use to poison him with?" She asked with a smirk directed at Argil.

"Hey!" Argil said, pouting. "I'm the one with the broken ankle here!"

Muskrat sighed. "No, silt. this isn't going to hurt Argil. I'm just trying to figure out if it's actually broken or not." She said moving over to where the siblings were sitting. "You might feel a slight pinch though."
She put her one of talons up against Argil's leg and pressed.
"Does this hurt?" She asked.

"...no?" Argil replied. "Is it supposed to?" Muskrat ignored the question and put her talon on his ankle.

"Does this hurt?" She asked again.

"Oof- Mhm." He replied.

"Alright." Muskrat said. "Now I want you to try to move your ankle around in a circle. Can you do that?"

Argil put his leg up on a pillow lying on the floor. He managed to circle his ankle twice before wincing in pain and stopping.

Muskrat sighed.
"Looks like you just sprained it." She said. "Pretty lucky for you."

Argil looked at her, annoyed.
"And what's that supposed to mean?" He snapped.

Muskrat shrugged.
"I'm just saying that you're lucky to have not broken it." She said. "Now sit still so I can bandage it."

Argil sighed in defeat. "Alright, but-"
Then an alarm went off. It was earsplittingly loud, and almost equally annoying.  The three of them looked up in confusion from where the sound was coming from.

"Three moons, what is that?" Silt shouted over the noise.

"Why are you looking at me?" Muskrat asked. "I don't know. I didn't even know we had speakers installed here."

A voice came over the loudspeaker. It was crackly and breaking up, but it was there alright.
"Uh, H-llo? Is th-s thing o-? My na-e is —ksskh—I am s-rry to say th-t qu—n
Moor-en is -kssshhhk———tomor-ow will b-e my fi-st d- —kssshhhk— I thi-k I'm br- —ksshhk— I'm so- -y but we hav- to l-ve with it. We'll be m—ksssssssssssssssshhhh- klink-"

After that weird... voice, the noise quieted down, but only for a bit. than the alarm started blaring again, this time with an automated message playing over it.
"All dragons must evacuate the building. There has been a code green violation. Locate the nearest exits. There are safe houses at the current Queen's Castle."

Muskrat furrowed her brow as the warning repeated itself. The two dragonets looked at each other, unsure of what to do. Muskrat shook her head and turned to them.

"Out. Now." She pointed to the flap.

"But-" Silt started.

"No buts." Muskrat said. "Go to the castle. Now. I have to make sure all of the students evacuate quickly." She turned away, but Argil could hear her murmur, "Not that I want all of them to..."

Argil looked out through the cloth door as Silt pushed past him and into the mess of dragonets. Argil followed, wincing as he took a step. As he walked into the hallway, he was almost immediately knocked over by a herd of students desperate to get out. One of them looked back and growled, while the others didn't pay any attention to him at all. He got up again, and ran. His leg hurt, and it seemed like he wasn't ever going to get out of there. But he ran. He ran and ran and ran. Dragons were pushing him to the point where he couldn't stand up anymore.

"Moons, are you really that hurt?" A large dragonet looked over at him, stopping the herd of dragonets and helping Argil up.

"Hey! Let go of me!" He growled. "I'm fine. Leave me alone!"

The other dragonet looked at him skeptically. "It doesn't look like you're fine." He said. "I know you hate me, but getting trampled isn't going to help anything."

He picked Argil up, being careful not to drop him, and made his way to the exit.

"PUT ME DOWN!" Argil shouted, wiggling around like an almost-dead caterpillar.

"Stop... Squirming..." The other dragonet said, looking annoyed. "We're almost out."

Argil frowned, but stopped. It was true, he could see the exit now. Sighing, he gave in and let himself be carried. Eventually, Argil and the bigger dragonet made it outside, and he set Argil down in a patch of dirt.

"you're welcome." He said, beginning to walk off.

"Wait!" Argil shouted, not knowing what he was doing.

"Hmm?" The dragonet turned around. "What?"

"Uh..." Argil frowned. "...Where should we go..?"

The other dragonet shrugged. "You heard the message, right? They said safe houses were at the Castle. Anyway... See you at dinner..?"

Argil huffed. "Fine, Sedge."

The other dragonet, Sedge, smiled. Well... Smirked, at least. "Later, Argil."

Argil growled and stood up, glaring at his brother. "Moons, just go away..." He said, mostly to himself. He began walking in the opposite direction, not wanting to encounter Sedge or Ditch, only to have Silt run into him, knocking both of them over.

"Ack!" Silt said, laying on the ground. Argil just groaned and rubbed his head.

"How many times am I going to be pushed over today..?" He said to himself, dazed.

"Oh my moons, are you okay?" Silt rushed over to him.

"Ugh, yeah, I'm okay." Argil gave her a half smile. "Just tired."

"You sure..?" Silt held out a talon to help him up. "Doesn't look like you're okay..."

"You sound like Sedge." He noted, taking her talon. But instead of standing back up, he pulled her down with him. "Ha! A taste of your own medicine."

"But I thought you told me I shouldn't be a doctor," She said elbowing him.

Argil closed his eyes, smiling. "Be whatever you want. I'm not stopping you,"

Silt smiled sincerely for a moment, then went back to being her usual snarky self. "Alright sleepy bones, time to get up."

"Five more minutes..." He covered his eyes with his talons in a joking manner.

"Come on." Silt stood up.

Argil let his tongue roll out of his mouth and made a silly face. "Silt... Go on without me. It's too late... I'm already done for. I leave all of my possessions to you. Sprinkle my ashes over the mud pool."

Silt shook her head. "Get up. We have to get to the safe-houses."

Argil opened his eyes. "Oh yeah. I forgot about that."

Silt stifled a laugh. "How could you forget? It only happened like... 30 minutes ago."

"Man, you're bad with time." Argil tried to stand up, but still couldn't. "A little help here?"

"Alright, but don't pull me this time!" She held out her talon and Argil got up, wincing as he put weight on his ankle.

"...You sure you're good?" Silt said, looking worried.

"You keep asking that question," Argil had to be careful not to fall over. "and I keep giving you the same answer. I'm fine, Sil."

Silt looked worried, but sighed. "Okay. But I'm worried about you... You keep getting into these situations... Being hurt... I'm worried one day, you'll fight someone who... well... Really doesn't like you... You might not come back."

Argil looked uncomfortable. "H-Hey, It's okay..." Argil put a talon on her shoulder. "We'll be alright. Let's focus on the task at hand. Let's go to the safe house." He smiled.

Silt wiped her eyes. "Okay..." She sighed. "Okay. You're right. Let's get to the castle." Her face suddenly brightened up again. "The Castle! I can't believe we get to go! Do you think Moorhen will be there..?"

She ran off towards the direction of the castle before Argil could answer. He was smiling, but he couldn't stop thinking about what Silt said. It was true... He wouldn't be around forever...

He shook off the thought and began following Silt.

(Edit: fixed grammar. I think.)

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