Chapter Text
Moon walked down the hallway towards her history classroom. It’s been at least two weeks since she last saw Winter.
He promised that he’d come back…
She shook her head. He probably didn’t want to hang around us anymore. He had a chance to go home with his brother. Who wouldn’t take that? Especially an Icewing.
“Icewings are loyal to their own kind first. Their entire tribe is based off of ridged social structures composed of…” She recalled, mumbling to herself about the scroll she read yesterday, one about Icewing history and culture.
She greeted Webs at the door, taking a seat at the front. History was her favorite recently, ever since they got to the original queens who settled after the Scorching.
“Students, settle down. We have a small announcement before class.” Webs grumbled tiredly as her classmates filed in.
“Tsunami?” He called. No one responded. Webs poked his head out of the doorway and called Tsunami’s name again.
She rushed in from the teacher’s quarters with Sunny and Clay trailing her.
“Sorry, we kind of…tried to phrase this in a way that it won’t scare them.” Tsunami said, more subdued than she usually was.
Sunny looked dreadful. Her eyes were teary and red, and she looked like she hadn’t slept for at least a day or two.
That’s not good…
Clay soothed Sunny, tapping her shoulder and whispering something that made her smile. She cleared her throat.
“Unfortunately, the Jade winglet is one dragon short…again.”
Moon’s dread finally caught up to her.
“I-I’m so sorry.” She mumbled. Sunny started to tear up again.
“I don’t know why—! They didn’t give us a reason other than ‘natural causes’, okay?! Blaze was right—”
She cried. She took a glance at Moon’s poorly concealed pained expression. Sunny snapped her jaw shut and crept behind Clay. Tsunami shook her head.
“Ehem,” Tsunami coughed. “We have a replacement Icewing that should be arriving this afternoon, requested by Queen Glacier. Please…be nice to her.”
Moon was filled with unexplainable anger. Why was the Icewing queen sending a replacement?
Why was she so angry at a dragon she’d never met before…?
She exhaled, closing her eyes and soothing her bothered soul.
First Carnelian, and now Winter. Which one of her friends would die next?
Who is this dragon anyway? Who does she think she is—trying to replace another of her close friends?
(Even if Winter was kind of rash, and maybe a little rude and pompous at times.)
“Lynx will be here by lunch, and if someone from Jade winglet would show her around, that would be awesome. Thanks. Bye.”
Tsunami mumbled in that familiar, slightly irritated tone that she was known for.
The three dragons turned back out into the hallway. Clay had Sunny’s head in his talons as she sobbed silently.
She thinks she’s a failure… Moon thought sadly.
You’re not…I promise.
I have to tell Qibli.
“Webs?” She asked. He turned towards her with a stick of chalk in his claws.
“Hm?”
“Can I grab my scroll from my room really quickly?”
“Yeah, sure. Be quick.”
Moon smiled a thanks at Webs. She slunk out of the room as quietly as she could before bolting off to Qibli and…Lynx’s quarters. Her name felt weird in place of Winter’s. Her claws scraped on the smooth stone as she briskly walked to Qibli’s cot.
“Qibli—Qibli!” She hissed, poking him in the side with her pointer claw. He groaned.
“Wake up! I need to tell you something..!”
One of his eyes poked out from his blanket. “…huh..?” He looked a bit green still.
Moon caught herself wondering why in the world would he ever be dumb enough to take that dare in the first place. But it happened, and she couldn’t stop him from doing it when the event had already passed.
(Umber had dared him to eat a weird fish they found in the underground lake. It was not, it turns out, in fact, edible in the slightest.)
“Sorry…can we talk?”
“…Sure..?” He rubbed his eyes, quickly tucking his tail barb before she could prick herself on accident.
“You look worried—oh wait, you’re always worried…But you seem more worried this time—what’s wrong?”
Moon fidgeted with her claws anxiously.
“I know you’re a little under the weather, but please try not to throw up when I say this—“ Qibli looked at her in concern. She sighed, “Winter’s dead.”
Qibli chuckled nervously. He blinked at her a couple hundred times. “What..?”
Moon grimaced.
“You-you’re kidding, right?”
He read her face scarily well. He frowned back.
“Nope—not kidding. Awesome.”
Qibli sat up, wobbling on his talons a little bit as he did. He leaned in close with concern on his face. His eyes widened a little before settling back to their normal size.
He has an idea, doesn’t he?
“I think…maybe, just maybe, his parents got to him.” Qibli admitted. “He told me once that his parents were just as bad as mine. And Cobra would throw me in a pit of Dragonbite vipers if she got three pieces of treasure for it…”
He tapped his snout in thought.
“If I know anything, this might’ve been a scheme to do… Something. Like Cobra selling me so she didn’t have to provide for me anymore. Once they had Hailstorm back, I guess they didn’t need him,” he guessed, “Winter might not even be dead. It could be a cover-up for all we know.”
Moon felt relieved, even if she’d never see him again, at least he had the possibility of being alive.
“You should get back to class, Moon. I’ll talk to you at lunch, alright? I feel a little better, so I should be in the prey-grounds today.”
Moon nodded with a weary smile. She rushed over to her room and grabbed her notes-scroll and inkwell.
“What took you so long..?” Webs asked tiredly. There were about five points on the board that she’d missed: facts about the original Pyrrhian queens.
“Sorry—I had to look a while for my inkwell, I must’ve misplaced it yesterday.” She replied.
(Moon wasn’t too keen on lying, but she didn’t want the trouble right now. Her emotions had enough for the day.)
Webs sighed. “Fine. Just…sit down and write these notes. They’re on the test next week Friday.”
Moon grumbled, uncapping the little pot of ink. She heard someone snicker at her from the back of the classroom as she hastily wrote on the small space at the bottom of the parchment.
I hope he’s still alive. Please, please. Three moons, let him be alive.
Darkstalker laughed at her. The one time he actually wanted to interact with her, and it’s to make fun of her. Great.
Let me take notes, Darkstalker…!
He actually listened to Moon this time, and shut his ancient trap. Thank the moons. Moon didn’t know how to deal with Darkstalker in the jumbled mess that was her mind right now. She didn’t want another voice in her head to tell her what to think.
In about twenty short minutes, she was zoned out again as Webs droned on about the original queen’s heritages and lineages. Blah blah blah, common dragon ancestry, blah blah blah. Thankfully, class ended with the sound of Tsunami shouting “LUNCH!” From down the hall, banging that gong that always made her head hurt slightly more than usual.
Moon sighed, rolling up her scroll and capping her inkwell. Umber slunk out of the doorway silently, like he always did. Exactly when the gong started up again. Moon was still perplexed about how he could be so silent all the time.
Maybe I should try talking to him more.
She took a detour to her quarters, away from the noise of dragon claws and stupid quarrels in the main entrance about prey.
“Look, I feel like you should cool down a bit—haha, cool down …” said a female voice.
“All I’m asking is if he’s still alive or not.” Qibli said.
Moon approached the two fighting dragons. It was Lynx. She was a pale dusty blue with little storm-grey freckles across her snout and parts of her shoulder blades. Her snout reminded her of Qibli’s.
“Which I don’t know. The Diamond Trial isn’t something that’s taught in school or talked about at all, Queen Glacier keeps that information under lock and key.” Lynx argued, flaring out her wings. She seemed to be trifling about Winter’s things, packing them into boxes and shuffling items around.
“I thought you were friends with her daughter?” Qibli pressed.” Why can’t you tell me anything..?”
Lynx grimaced.
> I shouldn’t tell him. He’s his friend as much as Winter was mine.<
Lynx snapped her head towards Moon. She probably felt Moon’s eyes on her head. Or maybe Icewings have Nightwing power detection classes or something.
“Oh! Uhm…hey.” She mumbled.
Moon greeted her with a soft smile. She still wanted a good first impression with Winter’s replacement. Maybe she was nice.
“My names…Ly—“
“I know—“ Moon blurted as Lynx tried to introduce herself. She felt her cheeks flush red in embarrassment.
Lynx smiled at her, mouth half open in confusion.
“Wow, first Nightwing I meet and you’re already reading my mind!” She joked. Lynx tilted her head at Moon, perplexed,
“You do have powers, don’t you?”
Moon shuffled with her inkwell and grimaced.
“Well—no. She has prophecy powers, but she won’t read your mind, right?” Qibli interjected with scary speed.
Moon stood there, startled.
What are you up to, Qibli?
She decided to play along. He probably has a plan to get information out of her. Fine.
Moon nodded slow. Lynx sighed in relief.
“Good—I’m was a little nervous because my thoughts are just EVERYWHERE right now—I’m hungry, but also not. Isn’t that weird?” Lynx said in a blurb of nervous laughter.
>I hope she can’t read my thoughts about Snowfall. Please, please for the love of seals. If she read my thoughts coming here about her—<
Moon stopped listening.
Someone has a crush~
But I shouldn’t tell her about that. She’ll be freaked out.
I can’t let another Icewing get defensive before I know I can trust them with that knowledge first. Thanks, Qibli.
Lynx looked surprisingly happy for an Icewing leaving the Ice Kingdom and its wall of pure ice that would stab anyone close to it.
She had about a hundred scrolls scattered in a little pile in the corner. Moon felt elated.
A reading buddy!
>A reading buddy!<
(Not like she DIDN'T like Qibli reading bedtime stories for little dragonets with her…or anything.)
Lynx laughed warmly as Moon gawked at her scrolls.
“Yeah, I know, Snowfall HATED me bringing half of the royal library with me, but I’m not just going to LEAVE all of them, you know? She said “pack the necessities, not all of this reading JUNK” and I hissed at her with ‘A Mystery Carved In Ice’ in my claws and said “pry this from my cold dead talons!” It IS a necessity, I’m telling you!”
She rambled on about how she ‘was getting to the good part’ and ‘now she could read all she wanted without Snowfall being on her tail about battle training’. She seemed harmless for the most part. Kind of like Kinkajou. But more spikes. And, like any Icewing, really blue.
Moon missed Kinkajou.
She missed her bubbly little ferocious eyes and her beautiful scales. She’d give Kinkajou a description of her favorite novel character at the time, and she’d near perfectly imitate the image in her head every single time. It was like she was reading *her* mind.
“Are you okay, Nightwing?”
“Oh, yep! Right—just zoned out for a little bit. Sorry!” Moon said, blinking like a mad dragon and attempting a smile. Qibli laughed at her as he rest his head on his pillow.
“Also, I probably shouldn’t keep calling you ‘Nightwing’, huh? It’s like if I called Winter or Snowfall ‘Annoying’. That would get me clawed. You seem nice enough to not claw my face off though, right?”
Lynx wrapped her arm around Moon’s shoulder.
“What’s your name, mystery dragon?”
“Moonwatcher,” She replied, ”but you can just call me Moon.”
“And that’s Qibli. I guess I should show you the rest of the winglet…”
Lynx nodded at her, beckoning Qibli to follow them. “That’s a nice name, Moon!”
Moon showed her down the hall to the prey-grounds, tactically avoiding Peril and her fiery, very deadly hot scales. She didn’t want another incident where Peril intimidated another one of her friends with the tip of her tail setting someone ablaze.
Turtle greeted them at the door. He was re-reading his mother’s stories again, it seemed. ‘A Tale of Blood’ she recognized from the small stack of tablets.
Lynx likes him. That’s good.
She felt a ray of joy emit from Lynx’s brain, one so strong that Moon wasn’t even the only one that felt it. She saw Qibli flinch too at her wildly excited face at finding someone else to read with.
“ANOTHER READING PARTNER! Hah! Take that Snowfall, there ARE dragons that want to read with me!” She shouted into the sky at an invisible dragon.
Turtle backed up from her, intimidated from her loudness. Moon would’ve thought that he would be fine with the noise, since he was starting to talk to Peril more often. But right now, he looked like a blob of green nervousness again.
“Uhm…yep. I…I don’t mind reading with you. If you’re not always this… loud.”
He tucked his tablet into the bottom of the pile and snacked on a piece of cod.
Lynx pulled out a piece of strange meat from moons knows where and sat down right between Moon and Turtle.
“Have you guys tried polar bear before?” She asked with intrigue. “It’s a little cold though. Who knew that Icewing scales could keep your food cold for a day or two?”
Lynx plopped down a little slab of bloody meat. “Stole this from Queen Glacier’s farewell feast. Snowfall told me that ‘you need to eat all of that here before you go’ and I said ‘you said that I needed necessities. This is a necessity!’” She said. Turtle inched away from her with a side eye.
Lynx really doesn’t shut up, doesn’t she?
Like Kinkajou.
She smiled at the vision of Kinkajou and Lynx hanging out together. They’d love each other and one another’s loudness. They would be impossible to get to shut up.
Her head hurt a little from the thought of never being able to sleep again without fear of a prank being pulled on her.
Qibli nudged her arm and leaned in to whisper in her ear. “Anything evil from her yet?”
Moon glanced at Qibli with a frown.
“Of course not-! She’s just an Icewing Kinkajou. That’s all I’m getting from her thoughts.” She whispered back, slightly harsher than she meant it to sound. Qibli didn’t respond with what she thought he would. He smiled. Qibli took the opportunity to peck her on the forehead with a kiss. Moon laughed and pushed him off playfully.
“That’s good.” He commented.
“You’re feeling better, aren’t you?” Moon joked.
“Not sure. Turtle gave me this jerky that tasted a little funny. Now I feel fine. Probably some Seawing medication.” He shrugged.
Turtle bent his neck away from Moons gaze. She was a little confused. She didn’t remember jerky having food poisoning cures in them. Maybe it was just Seawing medicine. Turtle was well read enough—he might’ve found a way to give that to him without shoving a spoonful of Willow sap down Qibli’s throat.
>Magic jerky!< Lynx thought enthusiastically.
Moon cleared her throat. “This is Turtle, and that’s Umber.”
She pointed towards her friends. Umber was hanging around Peril and Clay. Peril seemed slightly annoyed at Umber being there. Her crush was known to the entire school already, so most dragons would avoid them when they were together—to avoid any accidental contact with the ‘fiery death monster’.
But not Umber. He was a curious little thing. A bit larger than Anemone but a little shorter as well. He didn’t seem to be scared of anything, as far as she could tell.
Speaking of Anemone.
She walked through the door, guiding Tamarin through the doorway and into the prey-grounds.
“Watch your step, Icewing tail.” She mumbled in Tamarin’s ear, steering her to safety around Lynx’s tail.
She paused to peer at her.
“Wait, you aren’t Changbai—“
“Hey, new Seawing!”
Anemone looked like she was in a foul mood. Like she normally was nowadays. She looked like she wanted to rip her head off.
“It’s PRINCESS Anemone to you! Heir to the Seawing THRONE.” She snapped pompously. Anemone held her head high.
Lynx laughed at her. Anemone didn’t take that well. She pouted and squeaked at her like Winter’s old pet scavenger.
“Sorry, sorry. You remind me of Snowfall—!” She said through a laugh. “You’re funny!”
Anemone frowned at her again. “No wonder they sent you away from home, you can’t respect ROYALTY when you SEE IT!”
Turtle sighed at her.
“Anemone… please.” He grumbled, “you act like that around ME. I’m also royalty…You know, I’m your brother?”
Anemone sputtered. “That’s DIFFERENT! Come on Tamarin. We’re going to go over there, and we’re not going to get smarted to the moons by my BROTHER.”
She steered a very tired looking Tamarin to the sunbathing ledge with about two and a half other Rainwings basking in the sunshine. (Pineapple was halfway off the ledge with his mouth open, snoring.)
Qibli looked a bit lost in thought, like he usually did when he was trying to figure out a hard math equation, or trying to split a lizard into thirds for him, Ostrich and Onyx to share without any fights about who got the bigger piece.
He flicked his earring and stared blankly at the floor. Lynx watched him with interest, picking off bits of polar bear and passing them to people around her.
She handed some to Moon with a smile. She took the bloody chunk of meat and sniffed it. It was cold and very wet with fresh blood. Like it wasn’t two days old. (A little gross.) Moon nibbled at it. It tasted surprisingly like goat and beef, albeit a bit more game-y and tough. And with less fur, that’s for sure.
“Soooo, any luck with the bear? Doing anything for you?” She asked.
Moon nodded. It was good meat, but a little too heavy for her tastes.
Is this what Winter likes? This was the stuff that his sister brought in one day with an eye roll and bad attitude...
It isn’t bad, really.
Lynx handed a piece over to Qibli. He didn’t react, eyes glazed over in intense thought. She waved it around in his face.
“Hellloooo?”
He shook his head and looked up at the piece of meat, picking it up gently with two claws.
“What is this…?”
“Polar bear!” Lynx replied enthusiastically. Moon bit off a little bit extra—to not be rude.
Qibli narrowed his eyes at it. It dripped blood onto the floor.
“Oh…how uhm…sweet of you.” He said, grimacing at the bloody floor. “I have to clean this before medicine and health, don’t I?”
“Oh it’s FIIINE. There’s blood from rabbits and things here, so who cares?”
He sighed and nibbled a piece off of the bottom.
“I…prefer camel,” He mumbled, trying to be polite. “Moon, do you want this?”
Moon glanced at him with a ‘if you give this to me I will be extremely disappointed’ look. She managed to eat the rest as Lynx watched her with morbid curiosity.
“Ah…uhm. Sure.” He snapped his jaws around the chunk of bear and smiled wearily at Lynx.
Turtle passed on it entirely, focusing on his reading instead.
[Are you ever going to tell anyone what you really think of them…?] Darkstalker asked in a sly manner. Mocking her.
Why would I?! That would cause more harm than good.
[It’s so simple…all you need to do is tell her four simple words…”No one likes you”]
But I do! No one should say something like that to ANYONE.
[But your old Icewing friend said it. Very often in fact.] He said with a snicker.
[Why is it that he can speak his mind, but you can’t?]
Because—because I like to keep friends close to me. He didn’t.
[ Because Icewings think so highly of themselves that they wouldn’t talk to anyone that wasn’t an Icewing themselves. Arrogant, haughty stains on this world—]
DARKSTALKER!
She glanced at Lynx. She was smiling and talking to Umber about something. Umber seemed happy.
Lynx isn’t a ‘haughty arrogant Icewing’. She’s a dragon like you or me. Isn’t your father an Icewing?! Don’t act like you’re superior just because you’re a Nightwing..!
If you say stuff like that, you’re no better than them. So be quiet.
Darkstalker snorted and withdrew from her mind. He had nothing to protest. Or maybe he was just trying to make himself seem right. Moon scoffed at the notion that one tribe of dragon could be superior to the others.
Moon caught Qibli staring at her in curiosity. She turned her head to look back at him.
“Are you…okay?” He asked. “Your face is fun to read when you’re staring off into the abyss.”
He stared in thought for a moment before making a sour expression.
Qibli leaned down to whisper in her ear. “What if ‘Lynx’ is enchanted like Hailstorm was? Do you know any animi?”
Moon looked at him in confusion. “Anemone..?”
Qibli shook his head. “Queen Coral wouldn’t let her be used that way. Do you think there’s one in the Ice Kingdom?”
Moon shrugged at him. She didn’t think so, because their animus lineage went to the Nightwings…Right?
Unless…it wasn’t an Icewing animus. It could’ve been someone from another tribe. Moon thought this was a little bit of a stretch though. Lynx wasn’t wearing any article of clothing that seemed to be enchanted.
“I don’t think so. They haven’t had magic for generations. Besides, their magic went to the Nightwings.” She whispered. “And why would anyone want to enchant Winter anyways? He’s probably just in hiding. That’s all.”
Qibli looked unsatisfied. He straightened out his wings and stared in thought again.
“It just doesn’t seem right to me. None of my theories are connecting to what we know. It’s either magic, a massive coverup by Queen Glacier to save face, or he’s really dead.”
He frowned in discontent.
“None of it makes sense. Why wouldn’t he come back? He’s supposed to be at school—Queen Glacier wouldn’t just keep him back at the Ice Kingdom…”
Turtle leaned in to eavesdrop on them. Trying his hardest to listen without being caught.
“Turtle?” Moon called. He stirred, a bit startled at his name being mentioned.
“Uhm…nothing. I didn’t hear ANYTHING.”
“You can listen, it’s fine.” Qibli responded, “We’re discussing what happened to Winter. It’s all one big mystery that id love to unravel right about now, but it’s just one big mess.”
Turtle stood there, puzzled. He shuffled with his tablets anxiously.
“Did you need ideas..?”
Qibli lit up like a candle. “Yes, please!” He said with a spark of energy.
“He didn’t come back after he left with Hailstorm at Possibility, right? So what if he’s just living at home?”
Qibli frowned at him. “Thank you, captain obvious. We already ruled that out.”
Turtle deflated a little bit.
“But it was a good theory—! The most probable one, actually. No need to get sad about it. The thing I’m worrying about is that he’d most definitely write to the school. At least to Moon. You know, ‘charming prince of the Icewings’ romantic crush type stuff. He wouldn’t just let us forget about him.”
Turtle hummed to a song his sister Anemone made up on a whim. It was a rather nice tune, she wouldn’t lie, but Moon was getting a little sick of sea-shanties. Ever since Anemone’s tiny cult of Seawings had been singing it around the school.
He snapped out of his rhythm with a spark in his eyes.
“After school. My room. Umber is going out with Clay for a late night hunting session—I…I can..” he hesitated, glancing around the room at the dragons filing out for their next class. Clay was cleaning up prey bones and scraps of fruit left behind.
“Never mind. Talk to you both afterwards.” He muttered, slinking off to his next class: history with Webs.
“Go to class, Jade winglet…” Clay said tiredly as he tossed a few bones into a little cart.
It had firewood and a few other burnable scraps inside of designated barrels. It read “Bonfire Scraps” on the sides of each barrel.
She sighed and made her was out of the door to her ‘Hunting 101’ class.