DISCLAIMER: I do not own Wings of Fire. It and the characters within (Qibli, Winter, Thorn, Moon, Riptide, Kinkajou, Turtle, Capybara, Cobra, Vulture, Sunny, Peril, Tsunami) are Tui T. Sutherland's. Falcon, Oleander, Arid, Pearl, Moor, Morass and Moloch were created by me.
Here we go again with the next chapter! Enjoy!
Qibli felt like he was perched upon a cliff's edge as every possible emotion fled through Winter's dark eyes. Okay, he'll be shocked. Duh. Just give him a few seconds to process it. As much as he re-assured himself, it was impossible not to second guess his choice. Should I have asked Moon or Kinkajou? Was it really my secret to tell?
Regardless, he knew deep in his heart the type of dragon Winter was and he wouldn't lie to himself; this was someone he could trust to the ends of the continent. Someone who thought for other dragons, not just himself. If only knowing that would make holding his gaze easier, he thought looking away.
"Really?" Winter breathed. As quiet as his voice was, it felt like it held volumes, ringing out loudly in the void that enveloped just the two of them.
When he tried to reply, Qibli's throat felt like it had swallowed a dune full of sand, rinsed down after the fact with cactus thorns. Instead of speaking, he just nodded, staring at his talons. As the silence stretched out, he could imagine his tether to Winter stretching tight: ever thinner, pulling and pulling until it would inevitably snap.
Instead, he felt Winter place his chin on the tip of his snout and wrap his wings around him in an unexpected but tender embrace. He returned it immediately and thanked the moons. Nonetheless, confusion filled every ounce of his being and the places they touched almost felt numb. He isn't mad? Doesn't he want to yell at me?
"Thank you for telling me, Qibli." Winter squeezed him a little tighter and took a shuddering breath which was a hint that he wasn't completely okay.
"You're not angry?" Qibli asked cautiously, taking Winter's sharp talons in his, under the sanctuary provided by their wings.
Winter stared at their talons for a few heartbeats before replying. "Of course! But also… not?" He looked away. "It's very confusing, I don't know exactly what I'm feeling. My mind is telling me to be angry, but everything else is the opposite. Honestly I feel like I have more questions about… everything."
"Aww looks like I'm rubbing off on you," he hummed, idly stroking Winter's long talons. "You're welcome, your life is going to be very frustrating from here on out!" Even though he wanted to lighten the mood, he still appreciated that Winter didn't try and hide his feelings with a quick 'yup! everythings fine!'
Winter let out a small (and very missed) snort. A sign of his normal self. "Well, unlike you I have half the brain to find the answers instead of moping around like a depressed lizard."
Qibli just gave him a goofy smile. Wow, I don't think this continent-shattering revelation could have gone any better. He also felt lighter, as if he wasn't shackled by secrets. No more 'nothing's or 'never mind's! He thought excitedly.
"I hate it." Before Qibli's attitude was completely swept away, he realized that Winter's gaze had drifted off to the side. "I don't know what I should be feeling. I've given up on my blanket hate for Nightwings already, but I still hate what he did."
"Naturally," Qibli said, trying to be supportive "But accepting the Nightwings doesn't mean you can't hate Darkstalker."
"I know. And I even know that rationally I should hate him. Yet, I don't know if I do." Winter turned desperate eyes on him as if he wanted Qibli to tell him what emotions to have. A look Qibli never thought he'd see in Winter's eyes.
When Qibli didn't answer, Winter pushed on. "Knowing the truth in my heart about Foeslayer, can I really blame him?" The more he revealed, the more it felt like all of these events had weighed on his mind, grinding away his sanity like a glacier over a mountain.
Qibli winced as Winter's talons suddenly dug into his palms.
"I know how angry I was before coming to Jade Mountain. If I was an animus, and I had the ability to explore futures where my tribe was slaughtered by Nightwings, I wouldn't hesitate." A slight growl edged its way into Winter's voice. "In fact, I would have prided myself in finding a way to wipe out their tribe." His voice broke as he finished. "Dragonets and all."
Qibli let out an unintentional squeal and tried to clamp it out of existence. The sound snapped Winter back to reality and he stared horrified at Qibli's talons, which had pressed hard enough to draw lines of blood. Winter released his talons immediately and Qibli pulled them out of sight so Winter wouldn't stare.
Winter deflated. "I wouldn't have been able to stop myself, I can barely stop my emotions from overpowering me now. Is it really right to judge Darkstalker when I'm no better?"
I won't stand for that, he thought when Winter made his last desperate plea. "But it's not like you actually tried to wipe out another tribe!" Qibli exclaimed. "Don't compare yourself to the horrors he did commit!"
"That's just because I wasn't an animus!" Winter blurted.
"And wanting and doing are very different." Qibli said. "Did you know Darkstalker offered to make me an animus?"
The shocked look on Winter's snout was all the answer he needed. Oops, I guess one more secret, he winced internally. "Obviously I turned it down, but you know as much as anyone how much I wanted it. But reality is so much more nuanced than that."
Winter looked away so Qibli broke their embrace so he could shift around and press his side against Winters. "I care infinitely more about what you've done, and who you are turning out to be."
Winter resigned himself. Then he calmly picked up Qibli's talons and drew his soothing tongue over the scratches he had imposed. "Anyways, I don't know if I can hate him. And now that he's under a spell, I — I even feel sorry for him," Winter said between licks. "I think…"
Qibli scrutinized Winter, unsure of whether he heard correctly. On one talon, the terrorizer of his tribe. On the other, a young ambitious dragon that reminds him of himself — or Hailstorm, he realized immediately.
"I mean," Winter continued as if he didn't really want to think through what he was thinking of. "Is it right to trap him under a spell? Is a spell powerful enough to completely erase a dragon? I could have sworn something felt… off the short few minutes I was Pyrite." The expression on his face remained woefully unconvinced though.
Right. Qibli thought, not wanting to interrupt in no small part since he didn't have any clue what to say. Of course Winter would be doubtful being one of the few who's been under a spell. Twice. "But, it really didn't seem you had any knowledge of yourself when you were Pyrite." He said honestly.
Winter didn't look placated in the slightest. "That's also a lot for a spell to come up with right? I mean, I'm not exactly an expert on animus magic but can it really go as far as to plot out an entire life?"
Qibli paused and tilted his head to the side, hearing his earring clink like the puzzle pieces shifting into place in his mind. "Actually, yes. Well, no, to be precise but functionally yes?"
Winter gave him a glare that bordered between affection and exasperation. "I do hope you're going to explain that one."
"Well," he began, clearing his throat first to give his mind some time. "Just look at what Peril told us about Queen Ruby. She was transformed into a meek dragon who would never challenge Scarlett. After living under a spell for who knows how long, she was eventually able to evolve. Perhaps building on top of that dragon to the point where she could and would challenge Scarlet even though the magic should have made it impossible."
Now it was Winter's turn to have his gaze drift to the well-lit cave around them. "So it's like the magic only acts at that point in time, and everything subsequent, unless specifically built in like 'loyalty to queen Scarlet', is more… fluid?" He hypothesized, words coming out slowly.
Their gazes met as they both thought about what was said. That does appear to make logical sense. Qibli sighed and shrugged his wings. "I honestly don't know, because look at Darkstalker's spell! Dragons trusted him even though they knew something was wrong. Maybe over time they would have broken free… but, I just don't know." He looked into Winter's eyes. "I don't think it's worth it trying to understand the inner workings of animus-magic-wish-fulfillment."
"But doesn't that mean Darkstalker, or whatever he goes by now, could still become an evil dictator?" Winter mumbled.
"As likely as any other Rainwing dragonet could suddenly spring foresight, mindreading and animus powers." Qibli gave him a rueful grin. "No matter how much someone tries, I don't think they can change that about themselves. Their mind, sure. Fabricating powers? I doubt it."
"He's a Rainwing?" Winter barked, surprised at likely the least important information in that sentence.
"Well, half Rainwing." Qibli answered. "Kinkajou thought it would be amusing."
"So it really was Kinkajou who took him down…" Winter reminisced before chuckling to himself. "Always knew she was more clever than everyone believed."
"But not more than me right," Qibli urged with a pointed glance, doing his best to look charming.
"Well, you only stopped the war, she stopped The Darkstalker." Winter gasped in awe, widening his gaze with a swoon.
Qibli shot to his talons and advanced in mock anger, a talon pushing into Winter's chest. "I always knew there was something going on between you two! Always off chasing scavengers together!"
Winter likewise feigned fright and shuffled backwards, half collapsed on the ground. "It's true! She just understands me like no other dragons have."
Qibli let out a growl and jumped at Winter, who quickly used his momentum to roll over onto him. But I wasn't going down that easy! Learning from the past, Qibli rammed his shoulder into Winter's chest knocking the wind out of him.
Winter let out a loud 'Oomph' as he stumbled back slightly disoriented. That gave the precious milliseconds necessary for Qibli's second attack, which flipped Winter over and pinned him down, wings splayed beneath them.
Standing victoriously, Qibli gave Winter a teasing look. "Let this be a reminder that you belong to me. And only me."
Winter glared at him and flicked an ear in obvious disapproval, but there wasn't much he could do being immobilized. "I don't belong to anyone…" he hissed. "But if I did, a big strong dragon like yourself isn't so bad," Winter whispered, softening his voice like snowflakes touching down in the vast tundra.
Qibli froze thinking his ears had betrayed him. What did he say?! At the same moment, Winter twisted out of his slackened grasp and shook himself as he got to his talons. Qibli merely stumbled to the side, eyes now locked on Winter in confusion. Uhhhhhhh. It's like his brain didn't know what to think, much less understand what was said.
"You mean that?" Qibli said finally, not caring at all that Winter was now free.
"Mean what?" Winter asked, once again gruff as always.
"What you said!" He was very glad he wasn't a Rainwing, or else his scales would be betraying the catastrophic cacophony of thoughts and emotions bombarding his mind.
"Of course I do," Winter stated. "I don't belong to anyone."
Qibli waited for what he was beginning to realize would never come. Now Qibli began to glare at Winter. "You play dirty," he grumped, looking away.
Winter shrugged, and began to brush the dust off of himself. "Then quit trying to pin me down. I'm already yours."
Qibli snapped his head back to Winter who looked as if nothing had happened. "I hate you." Qibli declared, his emotions rising and falling like ripples in the sand.
"Now you know how I feel," Winter replied, much too quickly and scuttled off to poke through the various instruments in the music cave.
Even though Qibli knew Winter was toying with him, it was hard to prevent his heart from jumping each time. Does the same thing happen to him? He thought, curious more than anything. Not for the first time, he found himself wishing he could step into another dragon's scales. That would be a fun animus wish.
"Anyways." Qibli finally submitted, calling out to Winter. "I can't say for sure but I don't think there's anything we can do about Darkstalker. Foeslayer is happy, and they're both given a chance to start over. Live a normal, peaceful life." An ordinary life. But is that so bad?
All my life I've been hating myself and desperately hoping I wasn't ordinary. But now… he peeked at Winter and found the same look he was sure was on his face, reflected back at him. Would I not give anything to spend time with Winter without constant risks? To care less about daring and heroic efforts to save Pyrrhia, and more about being happy? Making him happy?
To care more about what I want and what I feel instead of just an enticing title?
"I wouldn't ruin that." Winter whispered in a voice that wavered, yet rung with certainty. "I promise."
Neither would I, Qibli echoed to himself. "I think… all dragons deserve a chance to be happy. And that includes giving them a second chance."
Winter smiled at him and stepped close enough to give him a soft kiss on the tip of his nose. "Then I'll take my second chance. Now come on," he said, flicking a wing towards the cave entrance. "Let's quit feeling sorry for ourselves."
Qibli nodded and just as he passed him, he tapped his snout with his wing and yelled "TAG!" and bolted off. He didn't stick around to find out whether Winter was giving chase, but from the playful growl behind him, he wouldn't have to!
His clicking claws clacked clearly through the halls and announced his presence as his body twisted this way and that. I doubt Sunny would like all of the commotion in her school! Luckily most of the students had settled down after the long school day, which emphasized just how much talking he had done throughout the day. Again.
All the more reason for a fun game, he justified! The stone pounded beneath his talons as he avoided the Icewing no more than one pace behind him. The few students they did pass looked confused or excited. Obviously some students wanted trouble in the school so they could talk about the drama in the morning..
"Ack!" He screamed when he nearly impaled himself on a stalagmite. WATCH WHERE YOU'RE GOING QIBLI! And he scrambled sideways, half skidding which apparently launched him right towards Winter! How did he get there!?
They collided with a loud thump and if he wasn't already out of breath from the chase, a rather solid Icewing on top of him would do the trick.
"Not… Fair…" he wheezed.
"It's not my fault you were distracted with who knows what. You have eyes for a reason." With that eloquently settled, Winter bolted away. At the same time, he thwacking Qibli's chest with his tail and yelled "you're it!"
"OW spiky prince!" Qibli roared, twisting so he could get back up. He pumped his wings twice to launch himself forward after the retreating pile of ice. He'll pay for that.
Talons were swiped at horns, and wings were cuffed in rapid succession. As they hunted through the tunnels trading blows, it became apparent that Qibli's lithe form held the advantage.
Nonetheless, before long, his lungs ached and begged to quit. Winter appeared equally worn out. His pace ahead of him could barely count for a jog, but even so, Qibli could barely muster the energy to catch up!
Qibli focused his energy for one last push and pounced at the only thing in reach: Winter's tail. He wrapped his jaws around it and clamped down lightly. At the same time, he went limp like an anchor.
"TAAAAAAGGG" he huffed as well as he could around Winter's tail. Winter collapsed almost immediately and they laid there awkwardly in the middle of the halls gasping. Qibli felt his thumping heart start to slow and closed his eyes. I'm glad there's not many dragons around. The halls were completely empty now, which made for lots of fun since they could bolt around at top speed.
"I think I won." Winter stated, leaning himself up against the wall.
"How could you have won?" Qibli retorted after spitting out Winter's tail. For emphasis, he picked up the end still covered in his saliva and showed it to Winter.
"I think you were 'it' more than I was." Winter rebutted.
"No way." Qibli countered. "Your big lumbering body could barely keep up with me!"
Winter shrugged. "It's not my fault I'm in such good shape," he said, striking a pose as well as he could while propped up by the wall.
Qibli's let out a snort so he didn't have to respond. Another fruitless argument anyways. He suddenly realized that the roles seemed reversed. Here was Winter striking a silly pose, to which he just let out a signature snort.
"So what were you three doing in the music room?" Qibli asked instead of reminiscing about the weird turn of events. Now that his mind didn't have to worry about running into a wall, the reasoning behind Winter being in the music cave was suddenly much more important.
"Hiding from you." Winter said and got to his talons.
"Well great job with—" He began before realizing that it had taken him a while to find them since he'd never imagined Winter in the music cave. Instead, he said "That doesn't answer my question!"
Winter started padding down the halls, scanning the tunnels in front of him. "If you actually listened to what I said, you'd realize it does answer your question," he sniped.
Qibli let himself be led away. "But that's just a typical 'sarcastic Winter' response, not an actual reason!"
Winter rolled his eyes and stuck with navigating through the halls, now (thank the moons) at a slower pace.
"You're really not going to tell me?" Qibli asked, putting as much sadness and longing as he could into his voice.
Winter stopped so he could turn around and meet his tragic eyes. They swirled and Qibli could feel Winter's defenses melting as the seconds passed.
"Nope," Winter said at last, shattering his hope before carrying on walking.
Qibli's jaw dropped as he stared at the Icewing's spines. How could that possibly fail? Perhaps I'm losing my touch, or Winter really has no heart.
"Keep up!" Winter called without turning around. It was as if his voice knew the torment he was putting Qibli through. With no choice, Qibli trailed dejectedly behind Winter. I suppose I'll just have to find out the old fashioned way: good old fashioned torture should do well.
He skipped ahead and got uncomfortably close to Winter, brushing up against him and purring audibly. Winter did his best to ignore it, but Qibli made sure to get under his paws 'accidentally', causing him to trip on more than one occasion.
When that failed, he decided to attack on the auditory front as well. "I knew you were never brave enough to speak honestly to me." Qibli reminisced. "No wonder you were banished. An honorable Icewing would be proud of themselves! Without a second doubt! They would be strong and certain!"
"And totally full of themselves or their place in the rankings," Winter rebuffed.
"Mmm, someone who's confident and speaks their mind, that sure is attractive!" Qibli peered at Winter out of the corner of his eye but none of his blows were landing. Maybe I can unnerve him?
Qibli immediately stopped his onslaught and walked patiently beside Winter, obviously staring at him with a blank expression. They walked in silence for minutes, twisting by student's artwork that was hung in the halls. Every second felt awkward. The silence was unsettling. The clacking of the talons was unsettling. His blank expression was unsettling!
"Finally, some peace and quiet," Winter said.
His words just echoed as Qibli stayed tight-lipped, refusing to give in. When Winter looked at him and saw his resolve, he just rolled his eyes before looking back at where he was going
Click clack… their claws echoed.
It was so quiet that he could have sworn that he heard his scales shift against each other. The time seemed to crawl by, exacerbated by his need to find out.
Was Kinkajou showing him a song she was working on? Was she actually mad that I needed to talk with Winter? I don't think I ever made her mad… Were they really using it as cover to hide from him? To talk about something they didn't want him to know?
It suddenly came to his attention that he had no idea how to torment Winter into telling him his secrets. He was utterly helpless now that Winter seemed to accept their relationship. I had no way to embarrass him, at least in private! But he quickly scratched that idea. There was no way I could publicly embarrass Winter — because that would likely mean embarrassing myself.
After his self-reflection, he came to the conclusion that he would just have to wait for Winter to tell him in his own time. He just needed to trust him and be patient.
"Can you tell me where you're leading us?" Qibli asked. "Or is that a sworn secret of the Ice Kingdom too?" he joked.
Winter looked at him in suspicion, but when he saw nothing malicious, he answered honestly. "To the guest caves. I'm tired so I thought we could settle down. Kinkajou told me there were guest caves near the founders. The school has been trying to invite guests to speak to the students so it was only fitting to create some proper guest caves."
"You're willingly sharing a cave with me? Oh how the times have changed!" Qibli gushed.
"Don't get ahead of yourself. I never said we're sharing a cave."
"Oh you know you'd be sadder than I am if we didn't, cuddle claws" Qibli teased.
Winter's laugh was sharp and disbelieving. "Oh is that so?" Winter said with a dangerous look. "Careful what you wish for."
When they reached the caves, there were three next to each other with bright carved signs that said 'Vacant.' Winter entered the first, flipping the sign over so it said 'occupied'. When Qibli tried to follow him in, Winter cleared his throat. "Sorry, the sign says 'occupied'"
I will have the last laugh, Qibli convinced himself silently. Without showing any emotion, he bowed his head slightly and said "Good night!" and stepped over to the next entrance over.
The room was very cozy to say the least. It seemed to have more arrangements for sleeping dragons than space would have allowed. Oh, so that whatever tribe was visiting could choose and be comfortable. Rather tired himself, he swept together some of the sand piled in the corner to cushion his tired muscles. It wasn't until he settled down that he realized just how sore his muscles were. The nap mid day helped with his grogginess, but only emphasized his physical fatigue.
Curling into himself, he laid his head down on his tail. He would miss Winter's presence, but sacrifices would need to be made if it meant he was going to win! But it turned out that he didn't need to wait long. He wasn't sure how long he was asleep for before he was roused by Winter wrapping protectively around him. While being covered by those protective wings, he gave a happy sigh and let sleep retake him, now nestled comfortably against Winter's.
Well, what do you think? Are things getting a bit unbelievable? Or are things respectful to how the characters would have developed over time? As always, constructive criticism is appreciated.
Thanks for reading!