— Chapter 6 —
Sunny
Just a few months ago, Sunny believed that she was fated to become a hero and change the world by ending a decades long war. The whole "fated" part turned out to be a lie, but even then she and her friends had managed to persist, and with their own hard work, and admittedly a few strokes of luck too, they had ended the war and brought hope to the whole continent.
And now there she was, working in the hopes of slowly but surely shape the next generations, as she always held the belief that a Pyrrhia where all the tribes are friends with each other, and they know what others can do, how they live and what they lived through, and can bond over their personal experiences, could exist.
The first days here at the school were a rather mixed bag to be honest, most of the students had been great, and the novel idea of the Winglets appeared to be a success, but then there was an explosion in which at least nobody got hurt, nearly an entire winglet fighting a princess, and then that group just departing the next day just to return yesterday.
Those things probably gave her friends some headaches, but for the most part she had remained confident on the thought that the winglet would return, and her hopes paid off, they came back, and even found a lost prince of the Icewings so all's good.
Classes were done for today and there still was the left of the afternoon, so for now she headed back to her office cave which also worked as her own room, however before she got to actually do anything there, she heard footsteps approaching her cave.
"Hey Sunny, are you there?" A familiar voice called out to her, so she quickly stepped out of the cave.
And out there she saw two dragons waiting. There was Qibli right in front of the entrance, and some steps away to a side was Oracle the prophetic Nightwing. An unexpected encounter here, but one she's happy to have.
"Oh hello! It's nice to be seeing you," Sunny said with a smile at the other two dragonets.
"Same to you, how are you doing?" Qibli said with one of his signature grins.
"Hi Sunny," Oracle simply said at the same time, looking nervous about something.
"Everything's fine, today was a rather calm day," she said with a nod.
"Nice, that's good, because it is good to feel fine as that's a good thing," Oracle stammered, and Sunny tilted her head a little at him.
"Oracle, this was literally your idea," Qibli said in an amused tone.
"I knoooow… I just thought more about this as we approached and began to feel my usual awkwardness again…"
Qibli shook his head for a moment and focused back on Sunny.
"So, can I help you with something? What's this about Oracle's idea?" She asked with interest.
"Oh it's very simple, really. Oracle simply thought that we should tell someone, more specifically you, that the two of us are leaving for a few days," Qibli replied right away.
Sunny blinked confused as she just processed that for a few seconds before replying with a very baffled tone. "Wait, huuh? But you just came back to school!" She protested a little now.
"When duty calls, then sometimes one just needs to skip school," the other Sandwing said, just confusing her even more.
"And what duty would that be? Because I'm sure that talking about duty's call, you might get a call from my mom because I probably should mention to her that you keep skipping classes?"
For once, it seemed like Qibli actually was out of words for just a moment, growing momentarily nervous before he composed himself and let out a chuckle.
"Oh, well there's no need for you to tell Queen Thorn about me skipping school, I'll let her know myself when we get there," he said.
And now that just caught Sunny even more off guard, tilting her head even further.
"Eh? You're going back to the Sand Kingdom?" She asked, looking at Sandwing and Nightwing in front of her.
"Yup! And since this concerns you as well, we thought that we should let you know that…" Now even Qibli was looking the tiniest bit awkward too, wow, what might have them both like that?
"Let me know what?" She asked, curious about all this.
The two dragons eyed each other for a moment, Oracle opened his mouth as if he was going to say something, but then closed it again.
"Okay, not gonna make this situation any more awkward if possible so I'll just say it. We're going to help Queen Thorn," Qibli quickly said.
Sunny's ears immediately perked up at that. It is not surprising at all that Qibli would want to help her mom at whatever, what is surprising is that suddenly there seems to be something that she needs help with.
"Huh? Did my mom send you a message asking for you to come back?" Sunny tried to guess since it could be that, or it could be that ever so loyal Qibli was just deciding to quit school.
"Iiii can explain this part," Oracle suddenly chimed in, rubbing his head with a talon. "So hm, you remember the part about me being a seer? Can see the future and all that stuff?"
Sunny laughed for a moment at that question. "I doubt I would ever forget that part."
To her, being told just a few days ago that there truly existed seers and real prophecies, it was a massive and also incredible reveal. Tsunami hated the revelation and still has been grumbling about it today.
But for Sunny, it meant that there was yet another way to bring hope for others. Even a literal fake prophecy had shaped the world around a lot ever since it was first told. So real prophecies, with Nightwings that she believed could actually be trusted? They had such potential to set things right.
"Well, that's good too, and the reason why I asked? Because, hm… The Sand Kingdom will have some issues later on so we're going to stop them, beforehand." Oracle continued.
For like the second or third time during this conversation, Sunny got completely taken aback, just how many surprises will she receive after just a few days?
"The Sand Kingdom will be in trouble? Will my mom be okay?" She asked with worry.
"Weeell… That's why we're going to prevent any complications?" Oracle replied in a sheepish tone.
Sunny looked at these two with a sigh. Oh gosh, her mom had just become queen a few months ago, and there already was the need to save her with the help of a seer? Not the best outlook, but at least other dragons are truly interested in helping others before something actually happens, that is rather nice.
But now that she was told all this, she knew that she had to say something and make a decision, and during these moments, it was completely clear to her.
"Qibli, Oracle, I have to thank you for telling me all this, but I am afraid that I cannot let you go…"
Right after, Oracle comically staggered backwards in surprise, and Qibli looked shocked by this.
"Huh, Sunny? We'll be trying to save Queen Thorn and all that so, maybe you want to reconside-?"
"... Without me!" Sunny suddenly followed with a big smile as she opened up her wings.
"Whaaat!?" Both Qibli and Oracle said at once, now being the ones that looked surprised instead.
"That's right! Did you think that you would just tell me that my mom is in danger, and I'd just sit back? Send a letter or dreamvisit next night? Ah, no, I will help her too!"
"Hm, I feel like Queen Thorn might actually just kill me if I bring you to danger, knowing that there will be danger," Qibli replied.
"Well in that case, she'll have less reasons to be mad after the whole kingdom is saved, no?" She said, still smiling.
"Or she'd congratulate us, then proceed to get mad right afterwards," Qibli pointed out.
"Then we'll brace ourselves when the time comes, after she's safe," she said, but then looked at Oracle for a moment, remembering something as she winced. "Although, huh… Maybe you should be in another room when she gets mad?"
Oracle tilted his head in confusion, but Qibli seemed to realize as he let out a short awkward chuckle.
"Sunny, Queen Thorn is not like that towards any Nightwing she meets. And besides, Oracle is different to these ones." he quickly said, and Sunny noticed a look of realization in Oracle's face.
"Yeaaah, but I'd still prefer to be safe, maybe I'll stand in front of him there," she said now.
Oracle nervously cleared his throat, looking more uncertain now. "Hm, Sunny? Before we have all this talk about you going and explaining to you what's going on… Don't you have to, like… Tell your friends that you're taking a short leave for a few days?"
Sunny raised a talon for a moment as she thought of a quick reply, but then she lowered it back as she realized and let out a short groan.
Oh, right, agh! They will tell me so much that I should stay and be safe. These months they haven't just been looking at me as much like some cute helpless lizard, but old habits die hard, no?
"Well, good luck convincing them," Qibli said with a grin after seeing her face.
Oracle shifted on his talons for some moments, then looked at her. "Oh! Hm… Sunny? Since you're gonna talk to your friends… Would you like to hand them over something I found during these days outside?"
Sunny looked at him, then nodded after a moment, which made Oracle shyly smile. "Great! Hm… I'll be back here in a few minutes, waaait for me!" He said now then suddenly ran off.
"Do you know what thing he means?" She asked Qibli, who thought for a moment before answering.
"I believe that I may have a hunch."
After a couple of minutes, quick talonsteps were heard approaching, and there was Oracle peeking around the corner as he approached, holding something on his talons, and Sunny noticed a soft grin on Qibli's face when he looked at that.
"So, hm, Sunny? You… Are acquainted with… Animus touched objects, yes?" Oracle said in a whisper, and her eyes immediately widened.
"Why, yes, I am! Are you actually asking me that because you…?"
The Nightwing dragonet raised one of his talons and presented what he was holding: a quite elegant looking silver chalice. And she looked curious at this thing.
"I… Found this during our escapades, and I'd like to make a contribution for the academy by gifting this quite useful item," Oracle said with a small smile.
He handed it over to her, and now Sunny was the one holding it on her talons as she examined the chalice.
"What does it do?" She asked with great curiosity, tapping it with a claw a few times.
"I think you'll quite like to know what we learned… This chalice, if you hold it and say "Heal me" to it, it'll fill itself up with healing waters, and based on testing… It seems like they can cure about any sort of injury and such."
Sunny let out a short gasp after hearing that, eyes open in surprise. That sounds amazing, and she was already imagining some incredible uses for it, but she had to make sure before getting all of her hopes up.
"For real? You're sure about it? To what extent have you tested?" She asked.
She immediately saw him wince and look even more awkward, and she saw Qibli give Oracle a short comforting smile.
"I-I… Would prefer to not talk too much about what it has healed…" Oracle muttered. "But I will confirm to you something: I've seen it heal blindness from one eye."
Sunny immediately felt awe and excitement after hearing these words, but at the same time it was mixed with worry and alarm.
If it is that strong, she thought in wonder. Then maybe I could help out my friends! But the way he's reacting…
"Oh three moons, Oracle, whatever happened to you, I'm really sorry for that, are you okay?" She asked, getting closer to him. As one of her students, he is also her responsibility, and she cares about all of her students.
"I am okay, yeah, I just really prefer to not talk much about it, that's all…" the dragonet said sheepishly.
"If you don't want to talk about it, I understand and I won't press you much on this, but I want you to know that I feel extremely grateful to you for this gift," she said with a warm smile, and he returned it after a moment.
"So about that gift… Maybe you could give that to those who need it… And we meet up in the great hall?" Oracle asked, tilting his head, probably trying to switch topics.
"Sounds like a good plan, so you two better don't try going without me while I do this," she told them before sprinting off to gather her friends.
Finding her friends was a very easy task, she knew that Tsunami was most likely in her cave office, and she found Clay having a second lunch in the prey center, and Starflight putting some scrolls in place alongside Fatespeaker.
"Surprise meeting at Tsunami's cave! You have to come here quickly," she said with excitement at her friends upon spotting them, taking a look at Clay's leg and Starflight's face, and it just made her feel even more resolute.
She entered Tsunami's cave, who jumped up when she just literally rushed in.
"Three moons! Sunny, what has gotten into you?" She questioned.
"We're having a meeting right now, I already called the others here," Sunny said with a smile.
"I feel like you should consult with the headmaster before summoning others for a meeting in her own office," she said with a huff.
Clay arrived soon enough while still munching on something, and the two Nightwings came after him.
"Did something happen? You were looking even happier than normal," Clay asked upon entering and Sunny smiled at him.
"It's some great news. So as you know, the members of the Jade Winglet, and Oracle from the Gold one returned yesterday," Sunny began to talk and Tsunami grunted.
"Yes, I am very aware about that, did they not realize the headache that we could get from that? Two princes decided to just vanish for almost two days alongside other students. Did they not think about the issues that could have caused if something happened?" Tsunami complained.
"The Icewings would certainly have been very mad at us," Starflight nodded. "Although in the case of the Seawings, Queen Coral probably wouldn't have cared much as long as it wasn't Anemone."
Tsunami glared at Starflight, absolutely unamused by that.
"That's not true! My mother would care if one of the princes got hurt or vanished!"
"You very excitedly told us on the first day of the academy that you have 32 brothers, odd how she never mentioned that when we first visited the Sea Kingdom," Starflight retorted.
"She probably was just distracted with, dunno, having her lost daughter return to her, so that slipped her mind during these few days?" She argued back.
Sunny saw Starflight opening his mouth, about to give another argument but she quickly interrupted.
"Stop! Before you get into one of your arguments, could you listen to what I have to say? I haven't even shared the actual news!"
Luckily, they did listen and stopped before some typical argument broke out, and she was grateful that they didn't just ignore her like they often did.
"Thank you. So there's more, Oracle found a really amazing magical item!" Sunny announced, holding up the silver chalice, everyone looking at it now besides Statflight.
"Wait, so he just stumbled upon an Animus object? What is it and what does it do?" Starflight asked.
"It's a quite pretty silver chalice, and from what I was told, one can just speak some specific words to it and it will fill up with healing waters!" She explained.
Tsunami raised an eyebrow. "Healing waters? They heal what, exactly?"
"From what I was told, it should be almost anything," she replied, looking at Clay and Starflight, then Fatespeaker let out an excited gasp.
"WOAH! That powerful? So are you saying that it could even get Starflight his vision back!?"
Even with his eyes being covered, Sunny could tell based on how his face and mouth shifted that he must be feeling quite surprised.
"And possibly Clay's leg too…" She added, looking at the Mudwing, who was looking back at her.
Ever since the Sandwing war ended, Sunny had often felt guilty at times when she looked at Clay, and it took some time for her to realize that it's not just sympathy or pity, but the fact that she felt it was because of her.
They all had followed her plan to stop the war, but hindsight over the months made her think about how crazy, desperate and luck-reliant her idea to bring the sisters to the same place was, they quite literally just did that and hoped for the best.
And Clay, who had always been possibly the kindest dragon she ever met, always trying to protect them, ended with such an injury during the event that she started, and would have died if it wasn't for Peril appearing. And then all of her friends could have been in danger if it wasn't for Flower showing where the Eye of Onyx was.
The war ended that night, and after the war both Tsunami and Sunny were princesses, Glory was queen of two tribes, while Clay and Starflight ended with a limp and blinded respectively. It wasn't fair after everything they've done for the others, so now she hoped this would work.
Slowly, Clay approached her, bringing a talon over towards the chalice.
"If you think that it will work, then I'll trust you on that, and I offer myself to give this a test, and besides, I'm feeling kinda thirsty," he said with a smile, and that made her giggle.
Sunny handed over the chalice to Clay, and he looked down at it with interest.
"So, what am I supposed to say? What's the magic word?" He asked.
"You only need to say "heal me" while holding it, and then you drink," she quickly said, trying to contain herself with how excited and nervous she's feeling about this working.
"Heal me," Clay said, and the chalice immediately filled itself to the top with clear, fresh water. "Well, I'll toast this one for Sunny," he said as he raised the chalice up to his mouth and quickly drank it all after just a moment.
The effect was instant, across Clay's body, all the leftover scars he got through his life, be it small ones that remained from times where Kestrel was too rough with them, or the large ones across his leg and thigh where Peril burned the venom.
Clay was looking down at his own body with an impressed expression, then he slowly raised the once injured talon, looking at it before placing it back on the ground and taking some steps.
"It feels as good as new," he announced with a smile.
And Sunny immediately lunged at him, wings extended, and gave him the best hug that she could possibly give.
A few seconds later, one of Tsunami's wings had wrapped itself over Clay's back as she remained right against his side, and then Starflight went over to the other side, a grin on his face. And they all remained close together like this for a full minute, Sunny wishing that Glory was here right now as well.
"This is incredible," Clay finally said. "My body's feeling alright in every sense, I don't remember feeling this well besides the first time I got to be outside and touch mud."
"It's a really nice item to have," Sunny said with a warm smile, and then she looked at Starflight with excitement. "Are you ready, Starflight?"
After hearing that, Clay stepped back a bit so he could turn and bring the chalice he was still holding closer to Starflight, so it touched one of his talons so he could grab it. But oddly enough he didn't take it.
"Starflight?" Sunny asked, tilting her head upon seeing that, and her friend was looking down, and she knew him enough to know he was nervous.
"I… Well hm, you see, Sunny…" Starflight rambled for a few seconds before clearing his throat and trying to straighten up. "I… Don't feel like I should drink that, at least not yet."
Sunny looked confused by this, and looking at both Tsunami and Clay, they did as well. Fatespeaker didn't look all that shocked though.
"Huh? What do you mean not yet?" Tsunami asked first, not understanding at all.
Starflight looked slightly more nervous before answering to them. "Well, I am still working on these scrolls I talked about a few times, ones that other dragons that are also unable to see could read too… And if I get back my eyesight right now? Then I don't think it'd be the same. Just having my eyes closed while making these wouldn't quite be the same either, and I'd just be closing my eyes to the dragons that need it."
Sunny was speechless by these words, looking up to the Nightwing. And then she saw Fatespeaker looking proudly at him and not too surprised, and she wondered if he had touched on that topic when talking to her at some point.
But after some seconds of silence, Sunny walked closer to Starflight, and twined her tail with his.
"You are one of the most noble dragons I've met, you know that?" She said with a warm smile, and after appearing taken aback for a moment, he smiled at her.
"Thank you, Sunny, I just want to be able to bring some hope too for some dragons, make them feel appreciated, like you did everyday by just existing," he then considered something for some seconds. "And as I said, it's also just a "not yet", when the system is perfected then I can take a sip, and you all better show me your smiling faces that day, Glory included."
Sunny laughed for some seconds, and then Tsunami walked over to grab the magical chalice.
"Until that day, I think it'd be best if we keep this somewhere like my cave to safekeep, and then we can bring it out whenever it's truly needed. Because I am not just going to have this sit in the healing center where someone could snatch it," she stated.
"Makes sense, and our Rainwing healers would end without a job if we just used that for everything," Starflight agreed, and so did the others.
Tsunami grabbed it and placed it out of view by her bed, and now that everything looked quite settled and done, Sunny realized what the next topic would be about.
"So hm, guys? There's another thing that I need to talk to you about," she said, and everyone immediately looked at her once more. "I need to take a few days off to go back to the Sand Kingdom."
As she expected, her friends argued with her for a while after she explained the details. She could have just said she wanted to visit her mom, but lying never sat right with her, and she knew it would just spark conflict afterwards upon returning.
Surprisingly enough, Starflight had been on her side when she explained that the Sand Kingdom and her mother will be in danger at some point in the future, and so she and two students had to save the day.
But after about half an hour, the others finally accepted, although Tsunami told her that she will be checking on her with the Dreamvisitor. And Clay told her to pack a good amount of food before leaving, just in case.
So after everything was said and done, she was able to walk towards the great hall, and just like they said, Oracle and Qibli were sitting down near the exit and waiting for her while chatting.
"There you are!" Qibli said, turning his head towards her after hearing her approach. "How did things go with that?"
"They went amazingly, thanks," Sunny said with a bright smile, looking at Oracle, who gave her a smile in return.
"So, you're still coming with us?" The other small dragon asked her.
"Of course! I got them all to agree, and it's been 6 months since I've gone out to save a kingdom, so it's probably good to not get rusty," she joked and the other two laughed as they started heading to the exit.
"So, shall we fly to the Sand Kingdom now in such case?" Oracle asked.
"Nope!" Sunny replied, and Oracle almost tripped in confusion. "We need to get to the Sandwing palace fast, so instead we'll head to the Rainforest and take a shortcut there that'll bring us all the way there with the palace in sight."
She began to run as her wings flapped, then leaped up to the air and took off towards the direction of Glory's kingdom, Qibli and Oracle following right after.
"And make sure you tell me what exactly is going to happen, we'll be there early enough, and there's probably a lot of catching up."
Author's Note: So, Sunny is my second favorite dragon in the franchise after Turtle, and I really wanted to at least do something with the DoD so, here's this!