Author's note: Happy new years! I hope y'all had a great start of year! I originally wanted this chapter to come out yesterday, but alas it wasn't meant to be, so here it is one day later!
— Chapter 15 —
Oracle
Never before in his whole life had Oracle felt such amounts of relief as he did right now, hugging Qibli and crying until his tears ran dry. He'd never cried like this before, but he didn't care, it was completely justified considering that this day was absolutely hellish.
Qibli's scales felt absolutely great for a hug, their warmth being very comfortable as he enjoyed this massive moment, getting some bonding, something nice after facing the worst day ever.
When he was done crying, he gave the smallest of smiles now, he did not think he would manage to do that after everything, but the relief and happiness were washing through his body.
After a few minutes, he'd heard the sounds of footsteps as other dragons appeared, he instinctively flinched slightly as he turned his head, but saw that they were just a few other soldiers, no black coats or anything.
Qibli must have noticed because he looked at him and gave Oracle one of his classic grins. "Looking a bit jumpy there, so how about we all get out right now and never come back, then you sleep for a whole day?"
"N-Not a bad plan, let's get outta here…" Oracle finally let go of Qibli and took some short steps forward, but the moment he looked at the ruined down hallway he shrunk back, closing his eyes as he shivered.
His Sandwing friend quickly got in front of him, luckily blocking the view of that spot for him, he opened his eyes a bit when he felt Qibli in front of him.
"I get it," he said, of course he'd know exactly what he was thinking. "I've seen many heinous things in this place, but I can imagine that seeing the aftermath of something like that, it would stick after everything."
Qibli turned his head back to look at the hallway for a second before looking up to the surrounding walls.
"You know, it's not like that place is the most pleasant exit anyway, with the smell and smoke, how about we don't even go that way and instead we get you a lift over the walls?" He proposed, making Oracle eagerly nod as he let out a relieved sigh, trying his best to not look that way.
Hearing that, a rather big and strong looking Sandwing approached, and after receiving a more sheepish nod from Oracle, he would be lifted off the ground and carried into the air and above the tall walls, leaving the compound like that while QIbli followed right by their side.
They flew for just a few minutes towards the front of the Scorpion's Den, where the rest of Thorn's troops were gathered after the attack, with many dragons flying above and encircling the place to keep watch. Oracle got carefully placed down on the ground and Qibli landed right next to him.
"Better now?" He'd ask now.
"Y-Yeah, now that we're outside…" Oracle gave a short nod, taking a deep breath of relief.
He felt the sand beneath his talons and took some slow steps forward, and accompanied by Qibli they joined the group that was out here, with these dragons still waiting for the ones at the Compound.
Many eyes turned to the two of them, making Oracle look down nervously while Qibli just remained confident as usual and waved at the other dragons.
"Our Nightwing here is finally safe and free again, but he requires some medical attention. Anyone here could help at bringing him safely to the palace?" Qibli asked.
One of the nearby Sandwings approached after a moment.
"I could help with that, I should go and give a quick report to the queen about the events anyway," she offered, and a nearby general gave an affirmative nod to allow it.
"Alright, great! And just so you all know since I just came from there, Vulture's lair was taken and he's being chased while on the run, so good job everybody," Qibli said to the rest of the soldiers, receiving a general cheer in victory as response.
And once more, Oracle felt himself being lifted by someone else's talons, and feeling like a sack of potatoes with how much they were carrying him around, and then they took flight back to the Sandwing Palace, back to safety.
While Oracle was being carried like this, the Sandwing being really gentle while holding him, and with the sun setting on the horizon so the temperature was overall fine, he could feel just how tired he truly was after everything, so many emotions and horrible things happened since he last woke up, so even though he didn't want to be a bit of a bother to this kind dragon, he couldn't really control it, he fell asleep for the rest of the flight in another dreamless sleep.
He was carefully shaken awake a while late, the Sandwing moving him on her talons a bit as he opened up his eyes and saw that the palace was basically in front of them and they were just about to land.
"O-Oh, thank you…" Oracle said with a short thankful nod.
The Nightwing saw Qibli land first in front of them, and then the other Sandwing hovered over the ground and placed him down first before she landed at the side while Oracle stood up on his talons.
"Alright here we are, I'm betting you that Queen Thorn will be in the very entrance hall with an impatient and a subtle worried expression then immediately run to us," Qibli predicted with his casual tone, getting another little smile from Oracle.
"Wow, you're gonna steal my role if that and any other future predictions are accurate…" He said, managing to joke a little.
"Wouldn't that be something?" Qibli replied with a grin.
It turned out that Qibli was truly a Sandwing with foresight, and Thorn wasn't even in her actual throne room or by her tent, but right there inside the palace and close to the main door, pacing around alongside Sunny while several guards remained close.
And the two of them ran straight at them both, and Oracle could perfectly see the expressions of relief in mother and daughter.
"It worked, you're finally back," Thorn said upon approaching and Oracle could feel her smart eyes gazing at them in detail, and her eyes narrowed slightly upon seeing Oracle's state.
"I knew you would do it, I had hope that you would come back soon, and you did!" Sunny said happily upon approaching, warmly smiling at Qibli and Oracle, before she let out a little gasp after seeing him fully. "Oh three moons! That's awful. There, let's get you to the infirmary right now and then you'll feel better, okay?" The cute Sandwing said with a tone that surprisingly didn't leave room for any sort of refusal.
"Exactly what we were planning to do," Qibli nodded at Sunny as he moved to the front to start walking, Oracle following right behind.
"Your majesty, I am here to give reports on the battle too, we've been victorious, albeit with a significant amount of losses too," the Sandwing that carried Oracle said to Thorn.
"Hm, I see," Thorn said, turning to the others. "Well go along and get him healed up, I'll go visit you later."
Oracle nodded slightly, although his expression looked rather nervous, imagining the many, many things that Thorn could shout at him, even though she'd been keeping quite calm so far.
The Queen of the Sandwings must have noticed his expression, because her eyes turned to look at him again, and she let out a sigh. "There is a lot I would love to tell you, and I've had a long time to think of things to tell a Nightwing, but I can read the room, you know?"
"R-Right," Oracle said with relief and a sheepish nod, the last thing he needed to end this day was Thorn shouting very imaginative insults at him, even though he quite deserved them after everything he caused.
He got brought to the room that had the Sandwing Healers, who quickly began to attend him, setting him up on a bed and started to spread some sticky, nice stuff from cacti and such plants over his wounds, and a good amount on his head and face, making him start to feel better and less twitchy, the stinging sensation on his face from that moment growing weaker.
And meanwhile, Qibli and Sunny would be nearby and making sure he was fine, and physically he was starting to get better as cuts and bruises were being covered, and after a short painful tug, someone had quickly put his wing back into place… But now that he was receiving treatment and finally starting to feel a little calmer, guilt was starting to wash over him.
"... I'm sorry…" He suddenly said after some minutes of silence, directed to his two friends here, his eyes looking down in shame.
"Huuuh? What for?" Sunny asked in a confused tone, tilting her head.
But the way Qibli looked at him, Oracle guessed that he already was quite correctly assuming what he meant.
"What for? I caused every single issue today," Oracle said bitterly. "I was the one to propose the idea to Qibli, and then I got myself captured, and now… Many dragons died because of me…" He finished that with a shiver, thinking about how many dragons must have died in the battle itself…
And the dragons that he had killed.
"Oracle, I get why you would think that way, but you also have to know it's not fully accurate," Qibli immediately responded. "If you were to ask Thorn, she'd most likely say this as well: this battle was something that had to be done for the good of the Sand Kingdom anyway. Freeing the Scorpion's Den from my grandfather, ending his militia, capturing my mother… What this did was motivate her to finally do it."
Oracle just remained completely silent, still looking down to the ground in a sorrowful manner as he tried to consider it, but even if Qibli was 100% right, the mere fact of causing such a battle, even if needed or not, did not sit well with him.
Qibli looked at the healers, who were looking at the trio and listening with curiosity, so he cleared his throat. "Do you think you could give us a few minutes alone? We need some privacy for certain topics."
The healers gave Oracle a quick inspection to make sure he'll be fine for a bit, and then left the room, looking back for a moment before stepping outside, afterwards, Qibli approached him.
"In that other timeline you've been talking about, did any of this happen? You got any idea about what ends up going on with Vulture?"
Oracle thought about it for a moment, thinking like he's been often doing these last few days about Qibli's book, the events of the first half, and then the epilogue that's like at least a month later…
"Hm, no… These plans I mentioned were thwarted but he's not outright stopped or anything, things at the Den would be the same, at least as far as I saw…" He admitted.
"Well, then it's a good thing that something was done earlier. If grandfather got as far as he did in just six months, then I can't imagine if he possibly got many more," Qibli added.
"Oh moons, agreed! That could get so awful!" Sunny immediately nodded after hearing that, likely imagining Vulture just building up even more strength over time.
"I… Guess so…" Oracle mumbled, giving a short nod.
"You already went through so much today, you don't have to add more things to the pile, especially not something like this, it's unfair on yourself," Qibli assured, and Oracle finally looked up to him again, giving more of a nod this time.
"R-Right…!"
After some time, with Oracle's body slowly starting to get better, they heard footsteps outside as the queen herself stepped into the room, approaching them.
"I see you're getting well taken care of, are you feeling better?" Thorn asked.
"Yeah… Your healers did a great job, thanks." He quickly confirmed, earning a nod from the queen as she stopped nearby while Sunny, Qibli and Oracle all looked at her.
Finally she spoke. "Like I said, I am keeping myself quite hard from doing my typical reactions, because oh you really put me on edge," Thorn said, making Oracle shrink back before she quickly followed. "But that wouldn't be how to respond either to someone that's been trying rather hard to help. Not even from this kingdom and you come over to give advice, shattered everything we knew, then casually strolled into the most dangerous place to steal an artifact," she finished shaking her head after recounting.
Oracle blinked a bit after hearing this, surprised about having such a conversation with Thorn, truly a good thing that the queen had been learning self-restraint. And he felt a little flustered as she just mentioned these things.
"A lot of things, you did so much for the Sand Kingdom in like two days!" Sunny added with a warm smile, looking happily at Oracle.
"So if you're fearing some sort of punishment for escaping like that, I don't think you deserve it after everything, but just… Don't do something like that again while you're here, understood?" Thorn added, her tone more stern at the end as she gave him a look, so he quickly accepted.
"I won't sneak out like that again, I've learned my lesson, I promise," Oracle said afterwards with a sheepish expression.
"Good to hear, now just focus on healing, alright?" Thorn replied with a nod.
Oracle agreed, laying down on the bed as he started to relax, tucking his legs and talons beneath his body and taking a deep breath as his eyes were starting to close again…
Before he suddenly jolted awake a moment later and stood on the bed as he remembered something very important they should've mentioned day 1.
"Qibli! Have we ever told Thorn about the other super important issue besides Vulture yet!?" He exclaimed in a rush, remembering the plot once more. And considering that Qibli momentarily froze, that already gave him his answer. Uh oh…
The queen, meanwhile, was not looking amused at all as her eyes moved from Qibli to Oracle and back. And Sunny was looking quite surprised on the side.
"There's more? What did you forget to mention now?" She questioned as she facepalmed.
"With everything that happened, I didn't really have time to mention that detail, but I also heard someone hinting to it today during the raid so, you might potentially be challenged for the throne very soon," Qibli explained, his face not looking very happy.
"Oh that's just great, just what I wished to hear," Thorn said dryly with one of her eyes twitching. "So may I ask who's supposedly going to try to take the throne?"
"One of our classmates at the mountain…" Oracle said now. "Her name's Onyx and well… She's Smolder's secret daughter that not even he knew about, so due to being of "royal blood", as part of Vulture's plan, she'd challenge you to a fight."
Thorn looked at them with such a deadpan expression for several seconds, that Oracle was starting to feel more and more awkward.
"Yes, that would be something to mention on the day of your arrival! Ugh, I was not accounting for anyone to actually go for the throne yet, anyone else who has prompted the idea just immediately takes it back after the Eye is mentioned, so I guess now I can only hope I am not too out of shape," she said in a grumpy tone.
"Not too out of-? Wait, what? Are you saying that you're just going to take the challenge?" Qibli questioned in shock, turning his body to the queen, while both Sunny and Oracle looked with their mouths wide open in surprise.
"What exactly were you expecting me to do? Order her capture and execution in sight because she wants to give a royal challenge?" Thorn quickly replied.
"Well, maybe not the execution part, but still something else considering she's working for my grandfather and would aid him if she became queen?" Qibli said.
""Realistically, so could many dragons, considering how well connected Vulture has to be. And since I kind of broke the royal bloodline tradition, anyone could challenge me after they get over their fear of being blistered," the queen retorted.
"... Okay, that is fair, but I still don't really like the thought," Qibli admitted.
"Mom, is this really the way? Is a fight truly needed? We got the Eye!" Sunny protested.
I've been reading, and when the Eye was used, it wasn't just handing it over to anyone who wanted the throne and checking if they exploded or not, they'd have to do a fight and the Eye would decide who's worthier," Thorn said, furrowing her brow.
"Wait, so you could win the battle but the Eye might just consider her worthier? Is that how it works? But what if it is biased to her?"
"Qibli," Oracle suddenly said as he remembered some other parts. "Before you go crazy about this whole thing, know that the Eye has literally no biases to royal blood or lineage or whatever, and I think your queen here knows a little secret about the lineage topic?"
Thorn actually looked to be taken off guard by his comment, likely not expecting him to know that tidbit of Sandwing history, but she nodded as she leaned closer to Qibli.
"Your friend's surprisingly right, listen, the previous royal family? Oasis and her daughters? They did not have any more royal blood than any of us does."
Qibli and Sunny both looked bewildered by that piece of info. "What?" Qibli questioned, learning something new.
"Exactly what you just heard, and you can thank the Eye for that. Smolder and I have been reading old texts and legends, and there was a time where it picked a commoner it was most fit to save the kingdom, so that "royal bloodline" ended right there," Thorn explained, and Sunny at least looked amazed.
"So it's going to be a completely fair fight in that matter, she only needs to win the battle," Oracle assured.
He could see Qibli's posture relaxing, and Oracle himself felt relieved. Qibli lacks the weather bracelets in the first place, but it's best to not risk him doing something else that could cause mayhem since technically, a well worded spell with the scroll could be a play instead.
"Okay, to know that is admittedly very reassuring," Qibli confessed. "And if I can be certain of something, is that Thorn is a great and experienced fighter," his tone sounded more like he was saying it to himself for further assurance.
"You trust me on winning just one duel, right? I'd hope years of leading the Outclaws wouldn't be for nothing," Thorn said, and Oracle just could tell that she was interested about this whole thought of a duel.
"Oh please be careful. At least after this maybe you could change the royal challenge? Like… Chess! That'd be a good thing to qualify for Queen," Sunny pleaded.
"I am honestly bad at chess, I start raging by the time half of my pieces are out, or the moment someone takes my King," Thorn admitted, making Qibli snicker.
"Yup, I remember that," he nodded.
"Then some other game or thing to compete in! If we still had to choose a Queen based on just who's the strongest or better fighter, then Burn should have won in that case," Sunny protested a bit.
"Agreed with Sunny, a ruler being a better fighter doesn't say a whole lot of their ruling capabilities," Oracle quickly chimed in.
Thorn closed her eyes for a moment as she considered this.
"Fine, that does make sense, and I admit that I should have also considered this earlier, but I didn't think that there literally would be an actual challenger just 6 months after I started," she said.
"Of course, it's not even been a year since that night, and plenty already happened, anyone would understand if you wouldn't think much about the royal challenge," Qibli quickly nodded.
"I'll take this challenge now, because it's not like I can just casually rewrite tradition in a day without a lot of controversy, and after that I'll focus on thinking of something better," Thorn promised. "Well, I suppose I'll go and train until she appears, to be as ready as possible. If anything happens in the meantime I'll let you know," she said as she left the room.
"I think I should go and check on her, help her if I can. I just got her back so I don't want to just lose her already," Sunny said with a determined tone. "I wish you a quick recovery, Oracle! And thank you for your help," she added before leaving, giving him a cute, warm smile, which he quickly returned.
Qibli stood by his side, appearing to be in deep thought after everything that was said.
"Hey, Oracle," Qibli began. "So what happens now, it'll be an unknown, right? You never got to see the actual result because I messed up with magic."
"I'm confident that Thorn will be able to take it," Oracle replied. "Onyx might've been working with Vulture for an unknown amount of time, but realistically how much experience could she truly have compared to the former leader of the Outclaws?"
That made his posture relax slightly at least as he gave a nod. "Yeah, you're right, I should believe in her ability, it's just a rather terrifying thought to think there's a chance it could all end soon."
And then even Qibli looked sheepish as he leaned closer to whisper at Oracle.
"I considered the scroll a few times in my mind, first I thought about replicating your chalice to help you, and now I thought to do something to strengthen her, but I realized having yet more miraculous things would at last spark questions," he admitted.
"O-Oh…! Hm, thanks for thinking about that for me, but huh yeah, I'll just heal naturally. All the wounds vanishing out of nowhere would look suspicious, and Sunny already saw a healing item from us, can't really explain a second one," Oracle replied.
"And I don't know if Thorn would truly accept just being magically enhanced to win whatever, so I suppose it's a matter of wait and see," Qibli said.
"It'll be alright, I'm sure of it," Oracle assured, trying to sound as confident as he could.
"Well, thank you for the support. So is there anything else you'd like to talk about? Otherwise I could let you rest now and come if anything happens," Qibli asked.
"Hm… A good night's sleep is sounding really good right now, so I'll take you up on that offer, thanks Qib," he replied with a little smile.
"Alright then! Have a good rest, and we'll talk again later," he replied, and with a wave of a talon, left the room.
"Bye Qibli…!" He replied before taking a deep breath, slowly lowering his body and just like before he was interrupted by his thoughts earlier, tucked his legs in a loafing manner and lowered his head as his eyes closed once more.
Oracle woke up a few hours later, his ears catching sounds of a lot of talking and some cheering, and for being seemingly late at night, that was surprising.
As he was standing up from the bed then slowly getting off to walk towards the door, he almost stumbled upon Qibli who had come over quickly.
"Oh hey! You're up, nice. So here's some news, they're all back from the Scorpion's Den, absolutely no more activity from that group, and there should be news about grandfather," Qibli explained.
"Well, let's go then! I need to hear this…" Oracle said as he started walking, his legs felt much better by now so he was able to move normally at this point.
So they both walked at a good pace towards the main hall, Qibli in the front and Oracle following just a few steps behind, and they saw the large army walking inside and stopping in the middle. Oracle could see they appeared to be in a good mood, even if some were sporting some notable wounds.
And among the crowd he could see dragons, mostly with black cloaks, that were heavily tied down and looking everywhere with wariness or annoyance. He saw a large female one in particular, and based on the way that Qibli focused on her for a few moments, that had to be Cobra.
Queen Thorn appeared in the room, accompanied by yet a few more guards, with Sunny following behind and looking at the returning group with a big smile.
"Goodness, you're all back, and I can already tell that it was a complete success?" the queen said, approaching Six-Claws, who's standing at the front.
"As well as it could have, the merchants and residents have been allowed back into the city after we explored several of the tunnels around and closed them," he agreed.
"And Vulture?" Thorn asked.
"He… Escaped, they chased him for hours, but he kept flying South and made it to the sea where they lost him. It appears that he's a good enough swimmer that he must have come out from a farther spot and left," Six-Claws admitted, and Oracle felt anxious upon hearing that. Vulture… Got away?
"But it's not all lost at the very least," Six-Claws added, and signaled the queen to go somewhere else. Thorn spotted Qibli and Oracle and signaled them to come over so they followed until they reached the oasis where she had set up the tent.
There, Six-Claws grabbed something from a pouch he was carrying.
"At least with all the ceaseless pursuit and attacking, I was told they managed to land some hits on Vulture, and he was forced to drop what he was holding on a talon."
And from the pouch, he retrieved a large, oval and shiny object,. It was the Obsidian Mirror.
"You got it back!" Sunny said with relief plastered in her expression.
"Oh thank the moons, no more writing everything down," Qibli said with a grin.
"Is… Is it the real one? I got tricked by a fake one…" Oracle mumbled.
"Well, only one way to find out," Queen Thorn replied, carefully grabbing the Obsidian Mirror and holding it in front of her. "Vulture," she said in a clear tone, throwing some smoke from her mouth and onto the smooth surface, making the smoke coil and twist around its edges for a few seconds before it got absorbed into the black surface, and then a white and yellow smoke tendril appeared from the mirror and took the shape of a dragon's neck.
Everyone brought their heads closer, and they were able to hear the sounds of constant wingbeats, and of waves crashing against each other.
"Looks to me like it is the real deal, and we can confirm now that he's still on the sea," Thorn said with satisfaction.
Oracle sighed in relief, no more being in constant fear of having a crime lord constantly spying on him and learning all of his secrets and fears. Vulture lost his strongest tool, his lair, most likely going to lose his treasures, and most if not all of his army. The only remaining obstacle would be the eventual appearance of Onyx.
And then this chapter of the story with the Sandwings will be closed for good.
Author's Note: ORACLE LOAF IS CANON!
Anyway, here it is, the second to last chapter of the Sandwing plotline, after the next one we'll move back to having several other POVs haha, the rest of the Winglet will be here soon!
Oh also something to mention, update schedule will change, because when it's the Rewrite's turn to get content, I'll do two to three chapters in a row for that one before moving to the rest of the stories, because it is the CLOSEST one to be fully done, so it makes sense to me to juggle around 3 stories instead of the current 4.