— Chapter 25 —

Winter

The next morning, Winter woke up alongside the first rays of sunshine, which were already reflecting nicely on his white scales.

His eyes opened and he saw that Qibli was already awake and sitting at a side, looking at the group while waiting for them to awake. Kinkajou was sleeping on a big branch at a nearby tree. And the two Nightwings and Turtle looked like they were in the deepest sleep.

"Hey there, good morning," the Sandwing said, far too gleeful upon seeing Winter awake, shooting him a grin.

And Winter of course just promptly ignored him and stared down at the small sleeping body of Oracle with clear impatience in his face.

"You aren't just going to shake him awake, right?" Qibli asked, stepping closer.

"If he doesn't wake up soon, I might have to. He said today we are finding Hailstorm, and the Talons are probably going to come back soon so I'd like to know what's the plan before that happens," he said with a huff.

"Hey, have something resembling sympathy for once. Don't you feel like yesterday was a lot for him in particular? I'd say anyone that experienced a face-melting deserves as big of a nap as they want.

Winter shuddered at the reminder while at the same time he also got annoyed about Qibli being right like he, regretfully, often appeared to be. And he also wished the Sandwing didn't actually give him the reminder. Seeing a melted half of a face of another dragon up to the bones was a sight he didn't need in his life, and as much as he dislikes the Nightwings, it was still highly uncomfortable to watch that.

And it also begrudgingly made him mentally give some respect to Kinkajou, not in a thousand years he'd have thought a Rainwing would accompany him to search for his brother, and like most dragons in Pyrrhia, Winter didn't think much of the Rainwings. But now that he saw yesterday the potency of their venom, now he knew better than to underestimate them.

"... Okay, he can sleep some more," Winter conceded, it does feel surprising how some time after getting his face melted down, the small dragon had then proceeded to put on a whole show for them, he must have more energy than his little framing might give away.

And now that he thought about the show, Winter realized that he wanted to stop thinking about it right away, if it was all real, then he knew more of the Darkstalker than any other Icewing, and yet that tale somehow made him feel conflicted in his mind. First, Arctic had willingly left alongside a Nightwing due to actually loving her.

And lastly, Darkstalker sounded like a decent dragon during his childhood, the stories painted him in such a way that it wouldn't look surprising if he had murdered someone as a baby. And yet there Winter had seen it, a dragonet with a tough childhood and an unloving father, and he was capable of feeling love towards others, be it his mother, his sister, or Clearsight.

What was Winter even meant to think about all this? It conflicted with everything he ever knew. So he decided to just stop thinking about it for now.

Kinkajou had awakened a bit later, waving at them happily, with Qibli returning the wave while Winter just gave her an acknowledging nod. It was odd but he felt like the Rainwing looked at him more than the others at times. And now she has begun to search for fruit.

At last, Oracle had started to move and shift, with Winter looking down at him, the small dragonet now stood up slowly, and that's when the Icewing noticed he'd been sleeping with his forelegs wrapped around a round steel basin. Where did he get that from? And why sleep like that?

"Good morning to you, had a good beauty nap?" Qibli asked, and Oracle nodded at that, his expression looked very distracted. And Winter could tell Qibli had already noticed the basin.

"Yeah, thanks Qib… Hm, how are you two? After tonight? All good?" He asked nervously as he always does.

"Are you kidding? Of course it's all good, I'm sure that thing will get us places," Qibli responded with an even bigger grin.

Oracle nodded slightly, and Winter was about to ask him about Hailstorm, but right then a bunch of fruits were thrown down into his basin.

"Mango! I mean, morning! But there's also some mangoes there if you want," Kinkajou said from the side of Oracle after throwing in the fruits.

"Mangood morning to you too, Kinkajou," Oracle said with a nod while picking up that fruit, which made the Rainwing giggle and Qibli grin, while Winter scoffed at the terrible pun.

"Please don't even consider doing stand up comedy if you ever "act" for us again," the Icewing said.

"I gotta say, I am surprised you even know of that type of comedy," Qibli said with a surprised expression.

Oracle meanwhile was just happily munching on a mango, Kinkajou having breakfast too, and it is at that time that Moon woke up, looking over to them.

"Hey Moon! Want some fruit? I brought plenty!" Kinkajou waved, Moon gave what looked like a tired smile and approached over there to eat, only Turtle remained asleep for now.

She looks very tired, did she not have a good sleep? Winter wondered to himself, slightly worried about her.

And then while he wondered about that, Qibli talked now. "Hey so, what's with the sudden big bowl? I sure don't remember anyone carrying it, did you find it somewhere for fruit holding?"

"Oh! Hm… Right…" Oracle looked at Moon, who was looking rather shy and nervous, and after some moments the smaller dragon took out the scroll from the pouch. "So hm… last night…"

"Did something happen while you were guarding?" Kinkajou immediately interrupted, looking around as if expecting something to happen right now.

"Huh, not quite, it is just that, and just so you see I am not hiding anything, I wrote two spells in the scroll…" He began to say opening it, and Winter could tell that Moon looked more uncertain.

Qibli quickly stepped closer and took a look at the new spells. "Hm, those are rather specific," he commented.

"Well you see… Moon…" Everyone was looking at her now, and she was looking back at Oracle. "Had trouble sleeping last night after the stuff about Darkstalker, so I decided to have a mental conversation for an hour to not talk and wake up any of you in the middle of the night… And I thought a nice distraction could be neat, so I made this thing to look a bit through some events in history."

Winter leaned closer to the scroll too, seeing the two newest spells below the rules. And internally he felt slightly bad, hearing that Oracle had written down spells himself during the night was not exactly of his liking, but he wrote these just to help her? And that second spell does look… interesting.

"Hm, talking about that… With all we learned about Darkstalker… I thought that maybe we could add something onto the rules?" Moon talked now and the others looked at her. "Technically this kind of spell would only affect oneself, so I think we should mention parameters for things like invincibility and immortality…"

Qibli looked impressed at her. "How did I not think of that? You're absolutely right, I'll quickly write that then," he said, and Oracle handed over the scroll to the Sandwing

"Huh… What's this talk about?" Turtle's voice spoke up as he slowly and lazily got up from the ground, rubbing his eyes.

"Hi Turtle! We're… talking about my newest spells and about how we should add something to the rules," Oracle replied.

"Okay so how about this? I offer this spell: Adding onto the rules of this scroll above, to make someone either immortal or invincible it requires the agreement of at least 5 members of the council to take effect." Qibli said.

"I accept," everyone spoke almost in unison, and that is written down now and gave a nod, with Moon looking clearly relieved. After that was done then Turtle approached to also get a look at what Oracle had written last night.

"Oh woah, this is a very interesting spell, I never would have thought of something like moving images," he admitted with interest.

"Neither would I, not a bad idea at all to get a better look at something. So you just describe something? Does that mean you have to know about it?" Qibli asked, and Oracle looked in thought.

"So far I only said a thing that I knew occurred, I guess technically one could try throwing some guesses with names coupled with events and see if they stick?" He finally answered.

"This thing could be the greatest bringer of knowledge in the world! Imagine what some old dragon interested in history like Webs could ask, we could see something as old as the Scorching for example, we know it happened and we have some details," Qibli shot an example, his mind must be racing with possible events he could try getting knowledge of.

"Just knowledge? We could also enjoy it! Like, we could see our favorite moments in life!" Kinkajou suddenly chimed in, a yellow talon extending to the magical object. "Me, Kinkajou, meeting my best friend Moon on our first day at Jade Mountain Academy!"

Winter looked in shock as the water began to move, and in it as if reflections were moving images, and everyone else was leaning close too as they saw the magic.

In the water, Kinkajou had run into the cave at full speed, and Moon, who happened to be near the entrance, nearly got trampled by her talons.

"So your first meeting was one of you basically crashing against the other, neat," Turtle said with a small smile, and weirdly enough, Oracle had looked awkward and shy after that comment.

He really is not the best at hiding things, I will make a guess that's how these two met, just based on his obvious reaction, Winter thought.

So they observed for some minutes how Moon and Kinkajou met, which was mostly a lot of the colorful dragon shouting and exclaiming how exciting this was while Moon looked utterly awkward.

After some minutes of time, Winter was thinking deeply. This basin… it could give so many answers, I could see things that happened. I supposedly will finally see Hailstorm today… but I want to see clearly what happened to him.

One of Winter's talons moved forward, touching the enchanted object and he said "Stop."

"Heey! What was that for?" Kinkajou complained with a small pout.

Winter ignored her and, still touching the basin, spoke now.

"Prince Hailstorm of the Icewings meeting Queen Scarlet after his capture."

Everyone froze in silence, clearly not expecting that. Winter could feel Oracle fixating his gaze on him but he didn't care. The Nightwing may guide him to his brother, but Winter deserved to know what happened exactly.

The water shifted again and images appeared, and after 2 years, Winter's eyes were seeing Hailstorm again.

He was chained down from his talons in Scarlet's throne room at the Sky Kingdom Palace, metal bands around his wings so he couldn't open them, and staring up to the queen who was sitting on her throne with a wild grin plastered in her face, and at least at first sight it didn't seem like there was anyone else in the room.

"Oh, finally," Queen Scarlet spoke. "You've been so horribly boring. I hope you intend to be exceptionally thrilling now to make up for it."

"Greetings, your majesty," Hailstorm said. "I'm sorry we have to meet this way."

Winter tried to keep a neutral expression, but he couldn't deny that he felt something upon hearing his brother's voice again, not just in his memories, but the Hailstorm in the water just sounded so real as if he was talking right there.

Scarlet examined him for some seconds, then there was a small smile on the corners of her mouth. "Instead of in combat?" She asked.

Hailstorm smiled back slightly like that, and Winter just could see how despite being chained down and facing one of the most horrible queens of Pyrrhia, he still kept his natural pride and confidence.

"Yes. The battlefield is where I prefer to meet all my enemies. Although then the acquaintance doesn't last very long," Hailstorm said with his usual tone.

"Arrogant," Scarlet replied. "Like all Icewings. Take a note of that," she said, suddenly looking behind her shoulder.

Something had moved on the shadows, and now everyone noticed there was another dragon there, and everyone except Oracle looked baffled upon noticing who. A young looking orange Skywing, her orange being almost the color of gold.

"Pyrite!?" Winter exclaimed, staring down at the water and then to Oracle, remembering the Nightwing's warnings the previous day. This has to be it, that twitchy dragon was there when Hailstorm talked to Scarlet, that's her significance, she's one of the very few dragons that knew what happened!

"K-Keep watching…" Oracle whispered, staring down at the basin, his tone speaking as if there was more to it…

"Are you sure you want to do this, Your Majesty?" Pyrite asked.

Scarlet hissed at that question. "Yes, he's dangerous the way he is, anyone can see that. I can't use him in my arena if I want to trade him later, and I don't want to deal with any messy escape or rescue attempts.

"You understand I'm not sure what the consequences will be," Pyrite said. "If we stick to your… Unusual specifications, I mean."

"I told you I'd only use you for special cases," Scarlet replied as she angrily lashed her tail. "This is one."

"Very well. Then he's gone," Pyrite answered. "No one will ever be able to find him. Trust me."

Scarlet replied at that with a snort. "Not one of my favorite activities, trusting other dragons. But I'll give it a whirl just this once, He's all yours."

The orange dragon stepped closer to Hailstorm, and Winter's eyes narrowed when he saw her talons reaching for a pouch around her neck, grabbing a piece of scroll from it. And then Pyrite was gone, in her place was a really large and menacing looking Nightwing, and he was leaning closer to Hailstorm.

"What!?" Kinkajou exclaimed first, eyes wide open in surprise.

"Magical shapeshifting pouch…" Qibli muttered.

"Now, don't worry," the Nightwing in the water said with a cold smile and tone. "This will take less than a minute."

He took off the pouch he was wearing, emptying it, the contents being a quill, a black inkpot and… the scroll.

"Is that dragon…?" Turtle whispered.

Winter's mind was racing, his eyes basically not blinking as he glared down at the water, feeling immense dread and fear looming over him.

In the basin, the Nightwing was writing something on the piece of scroll he had grabbed earlier, close to himself so they couldn't see exactly what with this perspective.

And then he put only the scroll's piece back in the pouch and grabbed the pouch, approaching Hailstorm who looked terrified and almost hypnotized.

And then the pouch was wrapped around Hailstorm's neck.

Winter couldn't stop himself, yelling in anger and indignation unfit for a prince as his talons crashed on the water, shaking it, and his eyes were seeing through the waves how Hailstorm disappeared from the scene and Pyrite was right where he stood.

Winter now knew what happened to his brother.

Winter was angrily pacing around the clearing, breathing heavily, thinking about what he just saw in the magical item.

Oracle was sitting down in front of him as Winter paced around, the Nightwing shifting nervously on his talons as everyone else watched from the sides.

"Hailstorm was right here yesterday, why didn't we free him right then?" Winter finally questioned.

He could see Oracle wincing as he cleared his throat. "Prince Winter… I really apologize for not being clear on that yesterday, but I personally considered the possible threat of Chameleon and him keeping the scroll to change forms quite significant so I thought to focus on him first… And I couldn't have known beforehand who would fight who, so I didn't want you to possibly feel distracted or stressed right before the confrontation?"

Winter wanted to just immediately argue with him, but he did try to not just snap at Oracle and think these words a moment. Get distracted? He's a warrior… but given how he cares about his brother, there might be room to worry about what he might do at that moment.

"Focusing on ambushing Chameleon and getting the scroll was important, he can add write as many things as he wants for his shape, he could come back as an invincible, unstoppable dragon to kill us if needed, and then you wouldn't enjoy much your family reunion…" Oracle finished talking.

"And that would be quite bad," Qibli suddenly chimed in. "Winter, it's one day of difference, and if you already forgot again, a lot happened at the end of that brawl to actually go for Pyrite right then."

Winter scoffed at that but didn't outright answer. Oracle had said he wanted to focus on the all-powerful magic scrollfirst, and one had to begrudgingly admit that such a thing would be a high priority as much as he wanted to believe his brother was the biggest possible priority. And it is possible that Oracle would've given mention of the Pyrite stuff soon after taking the scroll if he wasn't distracted by his face getting melted, which is also, admittedly, a good reason.

Finally, Winter sighed, looking down at him. "I will let this one slide, fine. I don't like it, but we probably have better things to talk about, like how we'll free Hailstorm from that spell."

"O-Oh, I believe that part should be… Simple enough? Just let me tell them how I have become aware of another transformed dragon, and that they should bring Pyrite without her knowing we're going to take off her pouch," Oracle replied, and Winter gives a slight nod at that.

"It does sound rather simple…" He admitted.

"Yeah… So very soon, you'll see your brother, I promise," Oracle said with a serious tone.

Winter really hoped that was true, Hailstorm is so close, he couldn't fail now, especially not after seeing what happened to him, he was still seething from that. Scarlet needs to pay for what she's done to him.

"So hm… With that settled, you three…" Oracle pointed at Turtle, Qibli and Winter. "Haven't had breakfast yet, so I'd say get something to eat before the Talons arrive, better be energized just in case, no?"

Winter felt that Oracle and Qibli had something in common, and the two of them probably know as well given how much they talk at times. They're always with smart comments and being annoyingly right a lot of the time, but while Qibli is confidence incarnate, Oracle is the most shifting dragon he's ever met.

Turtle went into the river to catch some fishes, Qibli walked in a direction to hunt something, and not wanting the Sandwing to consider him a hunting partner, Winter went to another direction.

And Winter could hear small steps following after him, he turned to see the small Nightwing behind.

"Now what are you doing?" He questioned.

"Winter… I… I want us to be able to become friends at some point," he said looking up to him and Winter huffed at such a crazy idea. "So I thought maybe I could… have you privy to some knowledge, only for you to hear?"

That immediately got Winter's interest, future knowledge just for him? Now that feels more like what he deserves to get.

"I'm listening…" Winter stated, and Oracle nodded at that.

"Okay… Well, there's quite the important things you should know for after you reunite with your brother. After that you'll head back to the Ice Kingdom with him, right?" Winter nodded at this. "Well, there's several things to take into account… Listen, I want to get you a much better future, okay?"

"Much better? You say it like my typical future is… Not ideal," Winter said, having a bad feeling about these words, what in the world happens to him?

"Well. you end alive and without permanent physical scars, but other than that, it's enough to make me pity you a lot," Oracle said with a sympathetic tone but Winter just stared at him.

"I don't want your pity. Just tell me what you want to say," Winter rushed him and the Nightwing quickly nodded.

"R-Right… Okay so hm… This is happening a decent amount of days earlier than the regular timeline, so maybe this time Queen Glacier is present for your arrival… She'll be out for some diplomatic stuff in some days at least," Oracle began to speak, and Winter felt odd about listening to a Nightwing talk about what his queen will be doing. "If she is, dunno how exactly things might change, but here's a very good warning for you… Don't accept being first in the ranking."

Winter stared absolutely baffled by this, here a Nightwing is telling him to refuse what basically every Icewing dreams of attaining? First rank? Wait so that means Oracle has seen him get it…

"Are you crazy? You're telling me to refuse that? Nobody ever in the history of the Icewings has pulled a blunder such as that. So there's a good chance I become number 1 and you want me not to?" Winter snapped.

"You end up in first place for a single day…" Oracle spoke slowly. "And then you put yourself in a self-imposed exile, you can't go home anymore."

Winter froze, ending in a rare stunned silence. He felt as if all the words he could say or all the angry complaining he might shout had slipped away, leaving him numb.

Me… Exiled? I impose it on myself? WHAT?

"... What are you talking about? How could I, a prince, end in exile?" Winter finally managed to speak.

"W-Winter… Do you know about… The Diamond Trial?" Oracle asked and Winter just felt even more baffled by such a question.

"I am Icewing royalty, how would I not know about our own customs?" He questioned.

"T-True, so hm… So with that trial, the Icewing at the very bottom of rankings gets to try to aim for the top, yes?" Oracle asked and Winter just gave an impatient nod. "And… What happens to the dragon that's currently in first place?"

Winter tried to remember the rules of the trial for a moment since it never happened during his lifetime, and then he could feel as if his blood froze from the realization.

"I end in the Diamond trial…" He muttered now.

"That's… Correct, and you've got your parents to thank for that," Oracle said with a wince, and Winter stared down at him harshly.

"Be very careful with what you might be about to say next…" He warned, he has to let Oracle know he can't just potentially insult them.

"They set you up, you bring Hailstorm back, Glacier is out so they're in charge for the time being until she returns. They believe that placing both of their sons in the First Circle would look unfair, so they put Hailstorm at the bottom and you in first place," Oracle shot, barely stopping at all.

My parents… Set me up… to DIE!? Winter's mind exclaimed, out of all reveals the seer could've given, this was not in his mind at all. They'd have both him and Hailstorm compete, knowing Hailstorm is far more likely to win any challenge, and they'd end with their favored son back in first place.

"S-Sorry for all this, it's a lot… But you deserve to know. And I also believe that you deserve to be able to still have a home to go back to, especially when your brother is finally returning after years. That timeline is extremely unfair to you in many moments and… I want you to get a happy ending."Oracle quickly muttered.

Winter remained silent, thinking about everything. So if things went without changes thanks to Oracle, he'd barely get to be with Hailstorm for some days, and then he'd be forced into a challenge where only one comes out alive, while it was all carefully planned by his parents that Winter can now far more clearly tell, don't care about him.

He felt empty upon such realizations, deep down he always knew that his relationship with his parents always were complicated, and even more so after Hailstorm was taken due to his fault. But to hear that if they could they'd just immediately take the chance to get rid of him to get Hailstorm back to the top… What sort of parents do that?

"... I'll think about what you told me and see what I do back home…" Winter finally replied, because he can't give a clear answer right now, he truly needs to think and see the situation better.

"O-Okay… And hm, there's two more things I'd like to talk to you about before you depart." Oracle said now, and Winter just looked at him, listening.

"While you're there in the Ice Kingdom, there's something related to the Diamond Trial… Hopefully now you won't be forced to enter the trial in this timeline, but there is something you could do that could be possibly helpful for the future if hm… Things go awry, in the cave of the Diamond Trial there's a thing that… Hm… Okay to show the importance of this, I'll say it in prophecy verse," he suddenly announced.

"What? You'll just give me a prophecy?" Winter asked, baffled.

"No, no, I'll just recite my knowledge in a way that sounds like a prophecy, it's not brand new knowledge," Oracle said as he cleared his throat and now entoned:

In the Kingdom of Ice, something from long ago remains,

a grudge that never went away, a punishment long overdone,

In the trial caverns devised by the ancient queen find the old one,

one must end the gift of vengeance, and then Hope will emerge.

"... How long have you been practicing that?" Winter questioned.

"I started to think of the verses yesterday," Oracle admitted.

"So even if I don't end up doing the trial, you want me to explore its cavern anyway? And end a gift of vengeance?" the Icewing asked.

"It'll be really helpful, and you're the only one that can do this since you're the Icewing here, and you have a better understanding of others than the average dragon from your tribe… Please Winter, consider that too," the Nightwing pleaded.

Winter thought for some seconds, he felt like entering the cave when outside of trial must break some rules, and whatever he must end is probably another rule break as well. But maybe he could at least see quickly what it is and then consider if he should or not.

"I… Will see what I do when I'm back home if I don't end up betrayed by my own parents anyway," Winter huffed, and Oracle nodded grateful.

"Thank you… If you do it, you'll need to bring one of the gleaming spears used in the trial, you have to unfreeze someone in the caves," Oracle explained the task now.

"Okay… And what's that last thing you wanted to talk about?" Winter said to change topics and not think about possibly breaking any laws or rules.

And then Oracle's expression softened more. "I just wanted to say… When you leave for the Ice Kingdom, don't be hasty or too harsh on how you say a farewell, even if Hailstorm is watching, and don't just tell someone that you were never friends…"

"What are you talking about?" Winter questioned, confused.

Oracle's silvery eyes met Winter's eyes directly as the small dragon tried to lift himself up to increase his height slightly. "Winter, these thoughts and feelings you have, they're all real. But even if you do everything else right, you won't get a happy ending with her if you insist on acting the way you do and hurting the ones you like, you need to soften up for her."

Winter staggered back as if Oracle had used firebreath right at his face, his glare was outright murderous and staring down at the smaller dragon who was flinching and stepping back.

He KNOWS! How does he know? Is it REAL? But he could only truly know if in the future I said something about it. What do I do? Nobody should know this! She's a Nightwing, I'm a prince of the Icewings, it's just confusing feelings over realizing she's not that bad, nothing else or deeper.

"You… Never again will open your mouth about that, or else I'll break your frozen body to pieces, and not even your healing chalice could do something," Winter snapped coldly in his most threatening tone, and he could see the Nightwing starting to shake and shiver under his glare.

He said that I need to change, and right here I am almost scaring another Nightwing to death. Do I end up acting like this to her? No, stop, why should I care so much? I don't care… I can't care…

"I-I'm sorry… I just wanted… For you to be finally happy…" Oracle stuttered while shaking.

Finally happy… That would mean he thinks I am not happy. I am a prince, I have the best brother in the world and I'll reunite with him soon and bring him home, and I might get a good ranking upon returning, that's all I need to be… Happy…

But Winter's mind was arguing with him deep down at the same time about that.

And then this whole conversation got interrupted upon hearing the sounds of wingbeats approaching.

Looking up, he saw some of the Talons of Peace descending, he immediately realized that Pyrite wasn't with them, but it didn't matter, they'll get the Talons to bring her.

And then Hailstorm will finally be back and everything will be better.

Author's Note: The next POV should be interesting.