Chapter Text
“AAAAAUGH!” Qibli’s exclaimed.
None of the documents that Moon had found match Winter’s claw-writing, nor the letter in question. Now they had to deal with the possibility that if they do find Winter, it could bring down Jade Mountain.
“I wish all of this prophecy stuff wasn’t so vague though…It’s kind of annoying, don’t you think?” Asked Lynx.
Moon nodded in agreement, “I wish I could make it less vague—but I don’t even know what I mean!”
Umber brought out a few more of Winter’s assignments, being granted permission from the dragonets to trifle through his things, since he wasn’t a student anymore.
“Most of these are math ones, though…I don’t know if they’d help or not.” He admitted, setting them down on the growing pile of paperwork.
”Thank you, Umber—Anything helps right now…” Qibli muttered. He opened another scroll and wrote down the inconsistencies he saw in each word. “So…Moon? Any idea how we can divert Winter being found from bringing down the mountain?”
She shook her head. “I…It’s just a theory. I’m unsure whether or not it’s true…”
Qibli wrote something else down, circling it about thirty times. He looked up to greet her eyes.
“It’s the most probable so far. Any theory about the prophecy helps. Besides, I found something.”
Umber, Lynx and Moon peered down at his findings.
“I…I’m unsure, but this kind of matches Narwhal’s writing. It’s from this acceptance letter that he wrote to the school about sending Winter here. It’s a little janky, but I think it might work.” Qibli compared the two. Narwhal’s writing was a little more haphazard, more rushed and annoyed it seemed, but for the most part, it was a match.
“Forgery, awesome.” Qibli sank into the wall behind him, sighing. “Now…back to prophecy aversion…”
Umber looked dreadfully uninformed. He kept close to the nearest bookshelf and looked quite skittish. Qibli turned to look at Moon.
“What do we know so far…?” Qibli asked, “We know the talons of fire, who’s the talons of power…? Jade Mountain will fall beneath thunder and ice…The ice is probably Winter, but what’s the thunder?”
Moon thought for a moment. “Turtle could be the Talons of power…right? And I’m not sure about the thunder, but I think Darkstalker has something to do with the ‘lost city of night’. He’s centuries old, right? He’d know where that is to avert the crisis!”
Qibli beamed. “Exactly!” He frowned, “But…I don’t trust Darkstalker. The legends that Winter told me about are still rattling around my brain. There’s something wrong about trusting him, even if he’s trapped still.”
Moon frowned back at him. Umber and Lynx were muttering theories of their own behind Moon’s back. They were too far to hear.
“But I believe that he’s changed. He hasn’t said anything that would make me believe that he’s evil still.”
”Time changes dragons, Qibli.”
Qibli rolled up the scrolls and stacked them in a neat pile below the windowsill ledge he was sitting on.
“That’s what he wants you to think. That’s the problem here. How can you trust what he says over what he did—or even what he’ll do in the future?”
Umber perked up, “I trust what Clay says—even if he wouldn’t do anything like fighting if he could help it…”
Qibli shook his head. “Clay is trustworthy. That’s different. You can trust him, but not anyone like Darkstalker. Those kinds of dragons hide a lot more than they’d like to tell you.”
“Are you speaking from experience..?” Lynx asked rather bluntly. “Is there something you’re not telling us?”
Moon fanned her wings out in appall. “He’d never hide anything from us—right?” She glared at Qibli. He glared back.
Three moons Qibli, don’t fight with me on this. I know you have your secrets, okay?
Moon peered at him. She told him her thoughts as best as she could convey them without words. Thankfully, he conceded.
“Not necessarily. As an Outclaw, I need to keep secrets for my Queen, so they aren’t personal secrets. But they are ones that I’d like to keep.” He said, playing it off rather swiftly. Qibli’s eyes were a shiny black that hid so many things.
“Is Kinkajou alright..?” Umber asked, out of the blue. Moon’s ears perked up a little unintentionally.
“She’s in a hospital in Possibility. I…don’t think she’s awake though.”
Umber winced. “Why…?”
It was Qibli’s turn to flinch. “Scarlet has this…huge Nightwing following her around. We think that might be her animus. He knocked Kinkajou out and put her in a coma when we saw him a while ago.”
Poor Umber…He doesn’t know anything about the prophecy or Kinkajou’s injuries. We didn’t even let him join us.
“Oh…forget that I asked…” Umber mumbled.
He fidgeted with his claws, staring out at the world through the windowsill. “Do you think she’ll wake up?”
Moon shook her head.
“Her head trauma was far too much to just get up afterwards from. The doctor said that she’d be in a coma for at least two months.” Moon admitted. Saying it out loud was so much worse than just thinking about it. “Her ribs were fractured and—“
Moon had to stop before she cried. Kinkajou didn’t deserve it—she was the smallest member of the Jade winglet, even lankier than Umber. What kind of monster would hurt her?
Someone who likes Scarlet. That kind of monster.
Moon felt disgusted at the huge Nightwing. She wanted to blast him with another round of ice breath to the face. Why would a member of her own tribe be so vile to another?
But Winter paid him back in ice. He’s not going to attack anyone anymore. I hope.
Does Lynx have a weird pension for attacking the face too?
One part of her mind hoped that she’d be able to see that Nightwing again—to pay him back with a coma and four broken ribs. But the other begged her to not seek trouble. It would cost someone’s life. And she didn’t want anyone else to die. Her visions would protect everyone. Hopefully.
She stared out of the window with Umber. “Should we go back to Possibility to check on Kinkajou?”
Qibli thought for a moment. The library was full of nightly noises, but it was still eerily quiet. Usually, on nights like these, Moon would be up reading with Qibli, Turtle, or on the rare occasion; Winter. She knew all of her friend’s story preferences by heart.
But tonight was different.
It seemed quieter. Colder. More desolate. Without Turtle’s funny jokes of Winter’s remarks on how dumb the characters were being, it just felt…sad. There was too much stress to read any more. Too many timelines to keep track of so no one would make a mistake that would cause the prophecy to come true in a horrible fashion.
Never again. Moon wouldn’t skip over any of them ever again. In Possibility, there were four timelines out of the eight where Winter didn’t return. Three of them consisted of him being alive, but in hiding out of spite for his parents. She’d stopped there, not bothering to check the last one. That was a very, very bad mistake. Even if she wasn’t as good at reading timelines as Clearsight was, she could’ve tried.
But now the timelines veered in other directions. She couldn’t go back to see which one had happened. She couldn’t figure out if he was alive any more.
“I think we should go visit Kinkajou.” Qibli said. “I miss her.”
Moon nodded. She had nothing to say. She was still wrapping her brain around her emotions, past all of the visions and thoughts of what happened to her friend. It was so hard to think nowadays. It was so tiring. She was tempted to take off her skyfire to ask Darkstalker for help, but Qibli’s words cut through those thoughts like a knife to butter.
“How can you trust what he says over what he did—or even what he’ll do in the future?”
I can’t. He’s right. I can’t trust him.
“Do you want to set off tonight?” Qibli asked. He tilted his head towards her with a warm and kind smile.
“I…I need to do something first. I want to dream visit someone.”
Qibli nodded. He grabbed the pile of scrolls nearest to him, beckoning Umber to help him put the assignments back in their place. Moon looked around the room.
Lynx was gone. Had she slunk off? To where?
Her mind was put to ease as she saw Lynx looking through a few scrolls—murder mysteries. Moon had a feeling that those were her favorites, judging by how many Icewing originals she had in her room.
How many scrolls does she have that no one has ever seen before? How many authors could she discover from that little pile? Moon shrugged off those thoughts with more urgent ones. Like talking to her mother.
She hurried off down to Sunny’s office-slash-room. She was sitting on a very nice pillow (that Moon would’ve loved to crash on right about now) and filing out paperwork.
“Oh! Hey, Moon.” She whispered. Sunny dipped her claw back into the ink and wrote out another sentence. “What’s wrong?”
“Did you need anything?”
”I wanted to dream visit someone. Can I?” Moon asked, fidgeting with the fringe on Sunny’s carpet.
“Sure!” She chirped, “Just make sure you stay in my room to do that. I don’t want you stowing it away in yours.”
Moon nodded, taking the dreamvisitor from her claws. She sat down on the pillow opposite of Sunny’s. She placed it on her forehead.
Secretkeeper.
She was transported to the rainforest. The sounds of the rain and wind comforted her. Secretkeeper turned her head. “Moon!”
Moon beamed in delight. She ran to hug her, but she merely phased through her mother.
“Is this a dream? Am I dreaming right now, Moonwatcher?” She asked, pinching herself playfully.
“Mhm…! I’m dream visiting you with Sunny’s dreamvisitor. I missed you, mother!” She said happily. Secretkeeper smiled sadly. “How’s school? You look stressed, my child.”
“…We’re going to go to Possibility—me and Qibli and Umber—And maybe Lynx, if she wants to come.” Moon explained.
“Who’s Lynx?” Her mother asked.
“She’s Jade winglet’s new Icewing. She’s my friend.”
“I thought your Icewing friend was Winter, was he not?”
Moon grimaced at her mother’s calm, happy smile. She didn’t want to break it to her that another dragon was missing—maybe dead. Her mother would take her out of school, away from Qibli, away from the library..!
“I…I’ll see you later, mother.” Moon blurted.
She had to leave before she said something that she’d regret. Her mother needed to be safe. If she knew anything, Moon wouldn’t be able to help her winglet if her mother wanted to pull her from school.
“What—where are you—? Moon!”
She took the dreamvisitor off of her forehead. Sunny peered at her from behind her desk. “Are you done?”
“…Yes.” She muttered. Moon gave Sunny the dreamvisitor and thanked her.
Moon walked off to bed. She needed all of the energy she could get before the flight. But she needed something. Moon peered into Turtle and Umber’s room. Turtle took his pouch of animus things, but he’d left the map. It was quite discrete, to his benefit. She snuck past Umber, who was snuggling up in his blankets. She slipped the map into her claws and slunk off. In her room, she stared at Kinkajou’s empty cot. She really missed her little Rainwing friend.
One last look before bed.
she unfurled the map, lighting a lantern nearby with a small ember. The small dots showed her in her room, Onyx in the opposite wing (probably sleeping), Qibli, and Turtle, who was near a small river about halfway to Possibility. The skyfire in the Ice Kingdom remained unmoved, for the most part, although she could’ve sworn that it was shifted barely a millimeter to the right every so often. Like someone was holding it. Moon was still feeling unsatisfied, though. She wanted a lot more information about the holders of the skyfire. But that was no fault of Turtle’s. He did what they asked, and nothing more.
She rolled up the scroll and drifted off into another round of nightmares about the imminent prophecy.