— Chapter 5 —
Qibli
Morning came upon Jade Mountain, and Qibli immediately rose from bed, being an early bird and waking up earlier than most dragons as he stretched and stood up, looking around his cave he halfway expected to see his clawmate just sleeping in a proud and arrogant manner, but of course he wasn't there.
Right, he's back home, with his evil sister and a confused brother, so hey, at least half of that sounds nice enough. Hope he's fine over there.
After thinking about Winter for a minute, Qibli began to leave the cave and made a quick walk towards the prey center to grab some breakfast before classes started. There weren't many dragons on the way nor in the prey center due to how early it is, so he got himself a chicken and just like he always does, he simply thought.
And oh did he have a lot to think about: he's part of a magical court, they got a magical scroll that can cast magic with some limitations, one of his friends has always been magical… And did he already mention that there's magic?
Indeed, Qibli felt quite the enthusiasm when thinking of this topic, and even if that one talk with Oracle just two nights ago had partly quelled the way he thought about Animus, that didn't mean he couldn't still grin at this, especially since the Nightwing did still trust him enough with it to ask for his help when making the rules.
He was done with breakfast but decided to just wait here at the prey center so he could meet up with his friends before the first lesson, which should be self-defense with Clay. And after some time, the big cave was starting to be filled with multiple dragons and then he spotted some of his friends and promptly waved at them.
Moon and Kinkajou were the ones that he had waved at, Moon sent a smile towards him and quickly went to catch a pig before she went over towards him. Meanwhile Kinkajou had grabbed a talonful of fruit and happily bounced over too.
"Good morning, Qibli," Moon said as she sat down nearby.
"Yeah, morning!" Kinkajou said happily, ending on the opposite side with her fruit.
"Heya," Qibli said with a big grin. "Good to see you. Here I'm waiting for the whole exclusive club to come in."
"In that case, let's wait together. There's probably a few things we could talk about," Moon said with a nod, biting down on her pig.
Next one to arrive a couple minutes later was Turtle, he smiled at them as he went to get some fish that Webs had brought back as usual, then he joined the group.
"Hello," he said calmly, munching on his fish as he sat down. "Are we having an early court meeting or something?" He said in a whisper after taking a quick glance to make sure nobody's nearby.
Qibli chuckled slightly at the question. "Guess you could call it that. Really I just thought that we probably should be discussing sooner than later whatever comes next, even though Winter took a temporary leave from our council. If we can still do things for better change, then we probably should."
"Trueeeee," Kinkajou said with a quick nod. "We can't really know it's over until Oracle says it is!"
"We still have two prophecies to deal with," Moon said, lowering her voice. "Oracle said he knows the contents of mine, but even then we still need to deal with these contents, coupled with Oracle's prophecy, which he was not able to predict."
Turtle moved his neck closer, his green eyes expressing clear worry. "But we should be fine, right? With a couple of seers and the… Thing that we got, I want to think we can keep things on track…"
"But change beckons change" Qibli quoted from the second prophecy. "That part stuck out to me, it really sounds like things could differ from what Oracle predicted, and possibly a lot."
Right on cue with this topic, from the corner of his eyes, Qibli spotted Oracle running as fast as he could into the prey center and grabbing a couple of bananas on the way.
"Look who arrived. You really were cutting it close given that classes start in a little bit," Qibli said grinning at him.
"I woke up quite later than usual, and I'm still feeling… Sleepy," the small Nightwing said, and with a look at his eyes, Qibli could tell he indeed appeared tired.
But even then, after saying that he gave a smile at everyone in the group, and Qibli noted how he smiled at Turtle for exactly one second longer, coupled with his body language for that little second, it made the Sandwing mentally smile a bit.
That truly is just fishy. He thought amused now. Seen plenty of the smallest details like that during their interactions. If it ever happens, I'll be cheering for them.
After that one thought, he stopped thinking about it and just gestured at Oracle so he sat too, and the Nightwing did, going to Kinkajou's side to eat fruit as well. Although for just half of a split second, Qibli was sure that he saw some discomfort in his expression when he did that, it was an extremely short shift, and he assumed it came from instinct.
Oh… I can see why. He thought with sympathy.
"So, what's the conversation about?" The small dragonet asked after eating half of a banana.
"We were talking about the future and the prophecies," Qibli casually replied, and Oracle gave a small nod after a moment. "So we were wondering about what's next exactly?"
Oracle quickly finished eating the banana before slowly responding. "Right… Hm, well… Give me just one minute to think of the timeline and what we can still do right now after the changes…"
Qibli nodded, so he and the others waited a little while Oracle appeared to be in thought, most likely analyzing what's possible right now and how to deal with it, until he began to talk again.
"Ooooh, riiight… Hm, so, well… Qib?" Oracle spoke with uncertainty.
"Yes?" the Sandwing replied, tilting his head.
"Well, to start with… You should… Talk to your friend, Ostrich."
"Ostrich?" Qibli perked up instantly, looking surprised. "What will happen to her?"
"You should tell her to not leave the mountain for a while," Oracle replied. "And to not follow other Sandwings outside, especially Onyx from my Winglet."
"Woah, woah, woah," Qibli replied, looking baffled. "Care to explain things a bit better? What's the deal with Onyx?" He asked, looking around once more. Most dragons had started to leave the prey center, and at least he didn't see Onyx anywhere nearby.
"Well, thing is… That if I told you all the details right now, I know you'd be immediately rushing out of the mountain," Oracle replied awkwardly.
"And if it's that important for me to do so, is that bad?" Qibli questioned.
Oh moons, what is it? He talked about Sandwings like Onyx, and I'd rush out of the mountain for only a few reasons… Is it related to Queen Thorn? She wouldn't be the queen that he mentioned would die in the other timeline, right?
The Nightwing rubbed his eyes a little. "Qibli, we just came back here last night. We're basically ahead of the schedule by like over a week, I am not saying to rush out in days or anything, no. But can I explain to you in more detail and even go along to help simply later today?"
Qibli wanted to argue, but looking at Oracle's face, he recalled some of the stuff that occurred during the journey, and the fact that sitting near Kinkajou had put forth a short reaction, and Qibli mentally winced, okay, he could imagine that the smaller dragonet might have expected at least a short break after everything before venturing into more possible danger, whatever it is.
So he decided to give him a nod. The Nightwing must be very well aware of whatever might come next, and Qibli didn't want to just keep putting more pressure on him, that'd just be plain cruel.
"You're right, I mean, I still really want to know what's the deal here, but it would do us no good if our seer broke from sheer exhaustion, no?" He said with a small grin, and Oracle looked very thankful.
"Well, I'll go talk to Ostrich and then meet you all in class," Qibli now said as he stood up, and after a moment began to walk to try finding his fellow Outclaw.
He found her soon enough, walking out of the prey center while still munching down on whatever her latest catch was.
She clearly must've heard him approaching, as she turned and faced him now.
"Qibli!" Ostrich said with a smile, which Qibli returned.
"Hey Ostrich," Qibli said casually while at the same time his eyes quickly analyzed around, luckily still finding no traces of Onyx being near.
Ostrich must've noticed because she subtly began to look around as well, she wouldn't know what to look for, but she still looked.
Then at the same time they began to walk around a little to not look odd by standing on the place and speaking low.
"So, what's the issue now?" Ostrich asked in a whisper, she's truly very smart.
"I'm doing a super secret investigation around the academy, investigating stuff… In secret," Qibli replied with a smirk at her.
"Ooh, so you're an actual detective now?" Ostrich asked with a curious tone.
"That's right, and Detective Qibli is willing to share some stuff with you, as long as you promise to not try getting into the case and listen, okay?"
That just made Ostrich look even more curious, but she gave him an accepting nod after a second.
"Good, okay then. So this is still a work in progress, but I have reasons to believe that you should remain inside the mountain until I can confirm it's safe," he said, and she looked surprised but nodded again. "And I've also got one name for someone you should be wary of and not follow: Onyx of the Gold Winglet."
The younger Sandwing just looked surprised. "Onyx? That large adult Sandwing? What did she do?"
"Well, that's the point of a secret investigation," Qibli said, wrinkling his snout, amused. "I'm finding out exactly about that."
"Aah, okay. Well if you ever actually need an extra pair of talons and eyes for detective work, make sure to tell me," she said helpful.
"I'll keep that in mind, but until then, please stay safe on the mountain, alright?"
Ostrich agreed to this, and feeling much better now, Qibli headed off to the first class of the day.
And then it must be some work of fate, because today's self-defense class was shared between the Jade and Gold winglets, so now he actually spotted Onyx hanging at the back of the cave, seemingly not doing anything. Although he knew her eyes must have hovered over him for a split second.
"Okay, everyone's here? You all ate enough before coming?" Clay asked as he walked into the back of the classroom, then turned to the two groups. "Today I was thinking that maybe some friendly sparring would be good, no clawing, biting, stinging or firing, just seeing how each of you do at talon-to-talon so I can give some pointers."
Then they were assigned in pairs randomly, which made a lot of sense to Qibli since most of the time you can't really choose who you'll fight, and Qibli's opponent ended up being… Oracle.
The Nightwing got closed and let out a very awkward and nervous chuckle. "Was Clay planning on eating these bananas earlier? Only reason why I can think I'd have you as my sparring partner."
"C'mon, it's not that bad," Qibli said, amused as he saw the small dragon approach.
"It's noooot fair, any other member of your winglet at least I think I could land one hit on them. You on the other talon? Yeaaah…" Oracle said, shaking his head.
"Don't worry, I can go easy on you," Qibli replied with a smirk.
Going "easy" meant that it actually took about 20 seconds before Oracle was on the ground with his legs stretching to the sides while he looked completely un-surprised.
"If this is going "easy", I tremble from thinking about you going average, not even trying, just average," Oracle said as he slowly stood up.
"Hey, a good part of having me as your sparring partner is that I can help you too with your posture," Qibli replied.
Clay had approached too, and the two of them gave some pointers to Oracle on how to stand to keep better balance, how to more properly throw a punch as he did it rather weirdly, and such.
After that, they tried some more sparring, and this time Oracle actually managed to not immediately get swept off and lose balance on his talons for some longer, coupled with a little more dodging, and he lasted double as much before just falling to the ground again.
"Your skill level has doubled already, that is quite good," Qibli said with a reassuring tone to Oracle, who was pouting a bit.
"Yeah… Guess when you word it like that, you're right, thanks Qib," he said after a moment as he stood up.
The class ended after a while and it appeared like today is one of these days where two winglets will hang together for all classes, the next day it'd probably be all classes with another winglet for these.
Today it appeared to be a quite artistic day, next they had music class, and there Qibli went for his preferred instruments, the drums. Doing a mix of drumming and dancing as he watched everyone else.
Turtle was doing some slow dancing at a side, while Kinkajou was doing the exact opposite with an energetic dance, which was really a sight since she was near Tamarin's slowly dancing figure. Umber and Sora were having a good time, with Umber on the bass and Sora on another pair of drums. The Nightwings were also at the instruments with Moon using the mbira once more and Oracle cheerfully shaking some maracas.
Oh and Carnelian and Flame were off at an opposite side of the room each, looking grumpy and just so devoid of fun.
And lastly art class was a lot of fun as well, with Qibli trying his best to draw as much as he could of the Sandwing palace's exterior. And at the end everyone presented to each other their own work: Moon had made a really well done and breathtaking painting of the night sky, most likely from the perspective of the rainforest based on the trees she drew at the sides. Turtle had made some clumsy drawings of some different fishes, Kinkajou made a… Truly strikingly colorful piece that he wasn't able to discern what it'd even be, and Oracle proposed that maybe its meaning depended on whoever saw it, but Qibli still only saw a conglomeration of colors.
And Oracle had made the funniest and most random piece by doing an attempt of drawing himself as a very comically long black snake that was casually flying in front of a mountain. And based on the expression he gave off after presenting it, the Sandwing assumed it was some fun reference that he wasn't quite getting.
After the classes were all done, Qibli was feeling quite alright given how entertaining they were. He never forgot for one moment that Oracle told him they'd talk about the next situation after these were over, but he didn't stop himself from just enjoying these events together.
But now it is time to get slightly more serious, so after they had a snack at the prey center, he approached the small Nightwing who had seen him approach and took a deep breath.
"Y-Yeah, yeah, I know… Time to say what's next, and hm, sorry for delaying and all, but I just… Knew that you wouldn't like it a single bit, and I was feeling that tiredness during the morning… And well…" He began in his usual awkward tone before clearing his throat. "Something's going to happen at the Sand Kingdom."
Qibli shuffled on his talons for a moment, yep, that's exactly what he was expecting the news to be, all that was left is to know what will happen.
And meanwhile the rest of the group had begun to gather closer to hear the next spoonful of News From The Future.
"So something that I won't like one bit will happen later? No problem, I will just fix it all now at present time and then I'll simply like it," he said, remaining casual.
"It's… About your… Family?" Oracle said with a wince, and Qibli's expression immediately turned far more strained while still attempting to look normal. He didn't expect that to be the topic, so that also meant that inevitably, the rest of his friends will hear more about what he had hoped to be leaving behind.
"My family? Oh, and I assume that what the future holds is not some joyful, heartwarming reunion followed by a party?"
Oracle took a look around, making sure as well that nobody was nearby and listening, then in a whisper he spoke. "Huuh… Not quite? More like your… Grandfather would have kidnapped Ostrich by making Onyx trick her so he could bait you with a setup that'd end with you bringing your mother to the Sand Kingdom's palace where she attempts to assassinate Thorn but fails?"
Qibli rubbed the back of his head with a claw after Oracle literally blurted out these sentences, oh that just hurt.
He thought of his mother, who he always hoped would someday show some sign of love, of affection, but that never happened, there wasn't place for such seemingly frivolous things in her heart.
And then there's his grandfather in this topic as well and that made him shudder, so many parts of his nightmares and worst memories were the times where grandfather was just menacingly looming over, and it felt like his mere presence made the shadows around grow, or maybe these weren't just shadows but his goons, all in black robes with horrifying tattoos of dragon skulls as their own personal kill counter.
And he was planning a coup to murder Queen Thorn in her own castle.
"Well, great, at least that finished with good news, "assassination fails" is always an excellent string of words to be hearing," Qibli said, trying to not let any of his nervousness slip outside.
"And there's… Another detail which is a far bigger variable because when it happened in the other timeline, it got magically interrupted.." Oracle was clearly trying to evade Qibli's gaze and not meet his eyes by this point. "Onyx miiiight be Smolder's daughter, so based on her royal bloodline, she challenges Queen Thorn to a duel for the Eye to witness?"
"Oh, come on…" Qibli wasn't able to hide his reaction this time, his body stiffened as his thoughts raced at maximum speed. Onyx is a royal princess? Absolutely nothing, no clue or read he might've gotten on her could ever have made him assume that, and it is a very dangerous truth.
"Qibli?" He felt Moon's soft, soothing voice at his side, she had placed a talon on his shoulder and he turned to look at her.
"I'm okay," he quickly said, although he wasn't truly feeling all that well. "It's just… Wow, so I guess this is how our favorite royal nephew felt after Oracle did his thing with him."
But at least he got the good news of the brother he adores to be alive and out there. This is just a barrage of bad news right now.
"I… Am sorry for being really bad at sharing this stuff when I have to," Oracle said in an apologetic tone, looking down.
"Well, I can imagine that it is not the most common topic during a conversation, so you just need some more training on that part too and it'll be all good," he replied, trying to make Oracle to still feel alright. "Hey, so you said that the challenge got "magically interrupted", what did you mean by that?"
Somehow, that managed to make Oracle look even more awkward. "Hm, Qib… You remember what I told you once about something you accidentally do…?"
Qibli's mind quickly headed towards all of his previous conversations with the Nightwing, stopping by one of the most recent ones, the night they had talked about Animus magic…
Oracle told him that night about how he accidentally unleashed a whole giant sandstorm upon the palace. So coupled with the new information and context, it sounded like he had messed with magic to protect his queen, and then almost caused a whole catastrophe by himself.
"Oh, that thing, riiight," he just nodded, feeling even more uncertainty now.
"What are you going to do?" Turtle asked after a short silence, tilting his head.
"It sounds clear enough to me, I need to go back to the Sand Kingdom to warn Queen Thorn of these dangers, and from there I'll see how I can stop that whole plot," he quickly explained.
"You'll go by yourself?" Moon quickly asked, looking worried by the thought.
"I am one of Queen Thorn's most trusted followers, and this is a lot of family business," he said, already imagining what she might be thinking. "You don't actually have to follow me on this. Knowledge is power, ain't it? I got it from Oracle, so I should be good now."
He couldn't imagine himself dragging any of them to the Sand Kingdom at this point of time, with his grandfather in the middle of some grand plan. Grandfather might just be the scariest dragon that he's ever seen in his life so far, and he wasn't going to do something like bringing Moon anywhere close to him.
"But aren't we the magical court?" Kinkajou suddenly spoke. "Can't we just fix whatever riiiight now?"
Everyone looked at each other, and then to the pouch on Oracle's neck, not needing to even say a word out loud.
Of course, magic is always there as a very simple alternative, and right now there's 5 members of the court, so if he used the right words it would be possible to make so many solutions possible, like making Thorn super durable or invincible, or giving her an aura that makes dragons not want to overthrow her.
Or with there being exactly 5 here, there were always the other type of solutions… Like making his grandfather not want to do evil anymore but instead to donate all of his riches to those who need it, or make his grandfather…
And that's when Qibli knew the exact answer to Kinkajou's question. "No, we can't do that right now."
The Rainwing looked quite surprised by that, her colors shifting to ones that spoke of her surprise. "Eeeh? No magic?" She questioned, surprised.
"Or at the very least, nothing really too significant," he replied, his eyes now actually meeting Oracle's, who tilted his head in curiosity.
I want so much to say yes and just cast a spell, but at the same time… We got it two nights ago. How would it look if I already tried to do something too big with it? Logically, the scroll is the best choice, but also the worst, because now I can't be quite sure whether these spells would be the "right" choice. I feel that Oracle would be very disappointed if I controlled anyone, and verbally agreeing to kill someone from a distance would sound like a last resort to most.
Thorn being invincible or such would be awesome, but I also should meet up with her or else she'd probably have my head for enchanting her without her knowledge.
If… I want to be trusted with power like magic, I need to show I am making an effort to do things right.
And by that point after a couple of seconds, Oracle had given him a shy smile.
"So what, you plan to just leave by yourself and stop everything? Not even Oracle was sure about what the result would be if Onyx fought Queen Thorn, what if it gets to that and…?" Turtle asked, leaving the last part of his question hanging in the air.
"Gotta agree with Turtle there," Oracle said with a quick nod. "And if you insist on not bringing too many with you… At least… Have me around?"
Everyone's heads immediately turned to the small dragonet when he said that, and Oracle just appeared to shrink a bit more after seeing everyone gaze at him like that. "W-What?"
"I know that you had already made an offer to go along during breakfast, before you said all these details," Qibli said. "But I just really didn't think now that you'd truly want to come with me, to the Sand Kingdom, where I'll have to deal with my grandfather."
"I… I am one of the seers here, I surely still have something up here that can help…" The Nightwing said, tapping his forehead. "I could help you and Queen Thorn… And besides, if we end up needing to use any magic, just the two of us cannot cast anything risky or harmful for others, but I know that together we can make a great Animus when we think of what to write."
Qibli carefully considered everything. He didn't want any of his friends to get hurt or die, but at the same time it's likely that they thought the same about him. And a companion is always an advantage, even if not exactly the most physically fit. Oracle had been the first to offer. And he's a Nightwing with the power of prophecy, which worked even better as more of a reason to not need to bring Moon into danger if she still wanted to come…
After thinking about this for about a minute, Qibli decided to give his answer. "Alright, that's fine, guess I would get to show you more of my tribe and present you to Queen Thorn!" He tried to think positive, he'd just bring one member from the group with him so the chances of someone getting hurt would be much lower.
"Will you truly be okay?" Moon asked softly, and Qibli remembered how at times, before he got his skyfire, he'd think about his family and some of the things that happened back then. It was possible she had accidentally seen some of that and would be worried about him going towards them.
"It'll be all okay, just a quick trip down memory lane and then we'll be playing some sweet tunes again before you even know it," Qibli promised with confidence in his voice.
"So hm, Qib?" Oracle began to speak now, making him turn towards the other Nightwing. "Don't you think that before we leave, we should maybe talk to someone like… Sunny? This is about her mother after all, and besides… You'd probably be called camel spit and a lot of other things related to camels if Queen Thorn learns you basically escaped from the academy, twice within a few days."
Qibli clicked his claws on the ground for a moment. "You know what? You're right, wouldn't want to be the great reinforcements arriving at the direst hour, just to be called camel turd and be told to walk back to school."
And so after giving their farewells to the others, Oracle and Qibli headed for Sunny's office, and Qibli hoped that right after that they should be able to just go and get to the Sand Kingdom by tomorrow, midday.
He'll go back home.
Author's Note: Sorry for the delay with this chapter, I had wanted to write for my other fic as well, and besides I've been thinking a good amount about this fic's events and the order I want things to take!