— Chapter 8 —
Qibli
To walk through a magical tunnel from a side of the continent to casually stroll into the other extreme was never something that appeared in Qibli's large mental to-do list, but honestly if it weren't for the looming sensation of wrongness that came with the magic, he wouldn't mind it at all.
The magical trek was taking a few minutes, so he began to think about this short visit to the Rainforest. Meeting Queen Glory was quite good, he even dared to think that given enough time, she might be second to Thorn in the queenly rankings, although he would have to meet other queens to make a full and fair opinion, like meeting the aunt of Prince Winter.
But something that wasn't good was looking at Oracle, he gave the poor Nightwing several short and subtle glances ever since they entered the rainforest, and as he expected, Oracle wasn't just nervous and awkward as he usually was, but extremely nervous and awkward. Qibli wished they could have stopped to give him a chance to talk to him, but he didn't want to do it out in the open, it might have just made the small dragonet even more nervous if a Rainwing like Glory heard about this, it was on Oracle if he wanted to reveal that to anyone else.
Qibli was very familiar with trauma and its triggers, though in his case it was more of mentally frowning at times when he saw a dragonet being loved by their mother, or think about the past when looking at coconuts, he hasn't eaten one in a while if he could choose otherwise, which meant on some rather tasty snacks, but it was fine.
Oracle, on the other talon, showed his fear and trauma in a far more visible and noticeable way, while Qibli kept these thoughts and reactions to himself, and it was so evident how badly Oracle was feeling while in the rainforest that Qibli had to contain himself from going over to help.
When we get to the Sandwing palace we'll have time and space to talk, without the thought of possibly dozens of invisible dragons eavesdropping. Then he remembered the secret, hidden Rainwing that Glory apparently sent with them. Well, maybe one, but I hope they read the room and don't spy on that.
Finally, the tunnel was reaching its end and Qibli saw there began to be more sand on this side of the cave, and the air was getting drier, then Sunny stepped ahead, pushed off a bunch of sand covering the other side, and there was the exit, they walked through and now were directly on the Sand Kingdom at evening.
Sunny came out first, then Qibli, and then Oracle followed right after… And immediately after stepping out, he let out a small sneeze as some sand from the tunnel's exit fell down to his nose, and then he proceeded to let out a second achoo.
"Bless you!" Sunny said as nicely as always to him before turning her head once more and looking to the distance, and there it was, the Sandwing Palace, as incredible and magnificent as its always been ever since Thorn became Queen and took away the rather ugly decor that Burn used. And the palace only looked to be about half an hour away.
"Woah, I will really need to get used to using that shortcut, it feels weird but really convenient," Qibli commented, looking back at the hole, which was already getting covered in sand to conceal it.
"Yep, I don't like why these portals were made, but this one is really useful besides that fact," Sunny nodded, already starting to open her wings, so Qibli did the same, then Oracle a moment later.
"Okay, let's not make Queen Thorn wait any longer, let's go!" Qibli said, thinking of how close they're to their goal, yet he doesn't actually know quite how they'll solve all these issues, the plan was still under construction.
"So, Oracle, just to make sure, you're fine with my mom knowing about your power?" Sunny asked.
"Huh, yeah! Sure, in this case it makes sense, it would be hard to convince her that I can help if we hide that," he nodded.
The trio took off towards the palace, the sun shining down on them still brightly within its last hour before the moon rises, and Qibli heard Oracle huffing a bit right behind him.
"I am a dragon, a fire breathing animal, and fire is very hot, so Qib, what's the logical and scientific explanation for the heat from outside to still affect me?" Oracle questioned.
"That, my dear Oracle, is a very good question with a very simple and clear answer which I… Actually do not know," Qibli replied with a grin, looking back at him.
"Welp, if not even you know, guess I'll never know the answer… Buuuut at least I can say that I gotcha with a question you had no answer to," Oracle said with a small giggle.
"Nice job! Not many do that," Sunny said in a supportive manner.
At last, after a short half hour flight with a good amount of Oracle huffing and puffing due to the heat, they were able to fly down and descend close to the gates of the palace. The guards stationed there instantly recognized Qibli and Sunny and just let them pass without any question, just giving them some friendly nods, although they did look at Oracle with a curious expression.
"Princess Sunny, we didn't expect you two to visit so soon, I'll inform the Queen that you arrived," a Sandwing that just appeared told them before quickly going back into the palace.
"I hope you'll enjoy the palace. In my absolutely unbiased and very fair opinion, it is the best in Pyrrhia after some refurbishing," Qibli said to Oracle, turning his head at him.
"First palace I ever set foot in, so I am already interested," Oracle said, turning his head and looking around as they entered.
Qibli made sure to keep his gaze on Oracle's face, and his grin immediately grew after Oracle's eyes widened and gawked slightly at the inside.
"Wowie…" Oracle said impressed, looking at the gigantic size of the palace from inside, seeing the many hallways, the woven tapestries covering many of the walls, the carvings of lizards, cacti, suns and more, the very tall ceilings that allow flight to reach the upper levels.
"Okay, fine, this is impressive," Oracle immediately admitted, fluttering his wings to hover in front of some of the tapestries to inspect them with curiosity.
As he examined them, the Sandwing from earlier came close to them and cleared his throat. "Queen Thorn is ready to receive all of you, and she told me to tell you that you better have a darn good motive to suddenly come here at this hour," he said, looking at Qibli.
He brought a talon to his forehead in a solemn way and gave a nod. "Yup, extremely good reasons to suddenly appear almost at nighttime."
Oracle flew down from where he was and joined them once more on the ground, and then Qibli quickly began to lead them around towards Thorn's favorite room: a small oasis within the palace, with a large white tent placed right next to it, and indeed, the Queen of the Sandwings was sitting down right outside the tent, looking at them entering as she stood up, and Qibli immediately bowed, seeing Oracle clumsily do so too.
"Hi mom!" Sunny called out.
"Sunny," Thorn said with warmth in her tone, opening her wings for Sunny to come closer, and then she wrapped them around the dragonet, "You two surprised us all with your sudden visit, not that I personally mind."
"Sorry for that, but at least you get another surprise appearance from your daughter," Sunny said with a smile.
"True, although I do still have to ask what brings you here, didn't your amazing school project start just one week ago?" Her eyes then focused on Qibli. "He didn't do something silly to justify this, right? Insisted on not leaving my side and convinced you to come here?"
"Oh no, Qibli has been a perfectly fine student," she replied, but then looked at Qibli with a slight grin. "Well, there was the time where he escaped from school for two days with like five other dragons, but nothing bad happened."
"Thanks, Sunny," Qibli said with slight sarcasm as Thorn looked at him.
"No problem, just doing my job as a teacher of telling your legal guardian anything important," Sunny replied.
"So you ran away from my daughter's school," Thorn said, analyzing him with her smart eyes. "You considered yourself too smart so thought you could skip school?"
"Oh no, not at all, it's not like that at all, it was a perfectly reasonable reason that many would agree with," Qibli denied.
"And what would be that reason, then?" The queen asked.
"I-It was me, your majesty..:" Oracle suddenly spoke up, catching Thorn's attention.
"Oh, greetings, who might you be?" She asked.
"Oracle," he replied, and Qibli could see that he was holding on better than when he talked to Glory. "And the reason that Qibli did that was because he and some others were great dragons and helped me with some big issues, so it wasn't his fault," he said, surprisingly standing up for Qibli.
"Hm…" Thorn considered his words, then turned back to Sunny. "Did you bring this Nightwing simply to explain Qibli's actions?"
"Ah, no, no, there's quite more to it, but huh before that, there's something I should probably mention?" Sunny said.
"Well, what is it?" Thorn asked, noticing the uncertainty in Sunny's voice.
"Can you promise that you won't hurt him?" She said, much to Thorn's obvious surprise. "Last Nightwing that I saw telling you something you didn't like to hear, you kinda just killed him."
Thorn frowned slightly at that. "Sunny, I know that really was not the best first impression I could have given to you, but I can assure you that I don't get killing outbursts anymore just because I might get angry, because ruling a kingdom can be really taxing, and it'd be bad if I killed one dragon a month due to anger, no?"
Sunny nodded a bit at that. "Right, sorry, it's just hard to shake off that part from when we finally met. So you won't do anything to Oracle?"
"You have my word," Thorn promised, although her eyes kept going from Sunny to Oracle as she seemed to be thinking of something based on her expression. "But I think that I might know what it is that makes you so nervous."
"Huh? Really?" Sunny asked, confused.
"Hooow?" Oracle asked, and meanwhile Qibli tilted his own head with interest.
"Yes, I believe so," Thorn said, her eyes gleaming with amusement. "So you decided to follow in your mother's talonsteps in the matter of which tribe to choose, and you thought that my own experiences would make me mad when you just presented me to your new Nightwing boyfriend?"
Sunny immediately let out a small eep and jumped back in surprise, looking completely embarrassed, and Oracle let out a sudden surprised squeal at that, wings reflexively opening up. And meanwhile, Qibli just began to laugh profusely.
"What!? No, no, it's not that at all!" Sunny quickly protested.
"G-Gah! Y-Your majesty! That's not… Hm, not that…! Your daughter is super awesome and huh super duper nice company and probably the happiest dragon in Pyrrhia but it's not like that and we've barely had real interactions until today and I-I already, huuuuh… Sorry, Sunny?" Oracle began to ramble on.
"Eh? Don't apologize! I wasn't thinking about anything like that either! It's just my mom!" She complained.
"Hah! Calm down, I was mostly joking, not fully in case that actually was the truth," Thorn said to them.
"Moooom! That wasn't necessary!" Sunny said.
"I've only been able to wield the power of making this sort of parent jokes for 6 months, so I will try to make up for the lost time in that regard," Thorn replied, rubbing Sunny's head with a wing, who pouted a bit.
"I could do without that part of mom powers, thank you," she replied, shaking her head before clearing her throat. "Now, if I may explain what the deal is?"
"Yeah, you can, I promise I won't interrupt again," the queen nodded.
"Okay, thanks. So basically, we're here because our friend Oracle happens to be a seer and he wanted us to come here so we can help with stuff that might happen" Sunny said.
Qibli eyed around from his spot a little, it was possible that his grandfather was listening in, but all things considered, just saying that Oracle is a seer is not much compared to actually revealing out loud what they do know of the future, or about the scroll's existence. And if Vulture already knows that Oracle is a seer, it would only make him suspicious if now they didn't mention it and he could suspect that they know that he knows.
And meanwhile, Thorn's mood very clearly instantaneously dampened after hearing that, throwing a glance at Oracle.
"A seer, you say?" She said, clearly trying quite hard to keep up a neutral and formal tone.
"Mom?" Sunny quickly said with some worry, stepping closer to the other small dragon.
"I know what I promised, and I will uphold my word, but I really want to make sure that you're certain about this," she said, looking at Sunny.
"Oracle proved that his knowledge seems to be very accurate, and you don't know how much he helped back at the academy," she replied assuringly.
"As said, me and others did some escapades with him to fix some stuff, and I can confirm, we did a lot after what he told us," Qibli added.
Thorn examined Oracle some more. "Hm, both my daughter and Qibli seem to trust you, and I can't ignore their words, but I want to make some things very clear to you. First off, I assume you've met that has-been called Morrowseer?"
"Actually… No," Oracle replied, much to Thorn's surprise. "I… Was hatched and raised in the Sky Kingdom, away from the horrible Nightwing territory, so I've only really started to meet other Nightwings since like, last week? Although of course I… Know all about Morrowseer, the prophecy and all that…"
Thorn appeared to calm down a little, and Qibli assumed that she knew it wouldn't make sense to take out her issues with Oracle if he never really followed the Nightwing tribe and their customs.
"I see, in that case I'll just say this: due to that dragon's crazy predictions, my daughter's egg was taken away from me and we lost 6 years of being together," she reminisced bitterly. "So keep this in mind, if you are not what you claim to be and you put my daughter into unnecessary danger with lies, then you won't like what would come next."
Oracle recoiled, eyes wide open and looking in fear. "I-I understand, y-your majesty… I… Am the real deal, I-I promise that I know what I'm talking about, and I would never want to put your daughter at risk or just ask her to do something dangerous."
"Good, at least we're understood in that part," Thorn nodded, and her demeanor turned calmer. "So with that done, what's the to-be news?" She so casually asked Oracle as if she was asking for the weather.
"O-Oh, yeah, well I've been able to foresee that seemingly a lot will happen in the Sand Kingdom… Details still are nebulous…" Oracle said vaguely, earning a glare from Thorn.
But Sunny quickly came to his rescue and put the scroll they've been using to talk about important matters literally in front of her face, tapping at some spots on it.
The queen quickly read it, and Qibli was impressed on how she managed to keep her composure after learning what the issue was, only seeing an eye twitch as her sole reason.
That's why she's the best in times of crisis. He thought proudly.
"I see… In that case, feel free to report to me when you can give more details, thank you, if there's nothing else, then feel free to walk around the palace, or ask for the guest rooms if you want to rest," she continued as if nothing happened.
"T-Thanks, queen Thorn. It's been a pleasure to meet you today," Oracle said with another bow.
"I need to do some talking and I would also appreciate some rest, so I will also see you two later," Thorn said to Sunny and Qibli.
Probably checking if any spies at Scorpion's Den got any news related to this. Qibli guessed.
"Alright then, goodnight!" Sunny waved gleefully at her.
"I wish you a good rest, queen Thorn," Qibli replied, bowing at her.
They stepped out of the oasis room and back into the palace's hallways, and just one minute later they ended up facing another approaching dragon that was most recognizable to Qibli.
"Smolder," he greeted with a respectful tone. He didn't dislike him, but he was very vigilant of that royal ever since he began to make moves on Thorn, with her slowly doing so too.
"Hey there, Smolder!" Sunny said cheerfully. It sometimes perplexed Qibli just how nice and forgiving she could be, even to a dragon that captured her twice.
"Heya," Smolder said with a smile. "I heard that you two came over for a sudden visit, so I had to come by to say hi at least
"Well, we're truly here, and probably staying for a few days at least!" Sunny said.
"I'm glad to hear that," Smolder nodded. "And I also heard that a Nightwing is visiting alongside you," he commented, looking towards Oracle, who gave a small wave.
"Name's Oracle, nice to meet you," he said with a little nod.
"Samewise, as you've heard my name is Smolder. And I thought I should tell you myself about a rule that's been in place since a while here."
He turned his head to look at his own back, where a female scavenger was standing and looking happy, especially when she looked at Sunny.
"Hi, Flower!" Sunny said even more happily, moving closer and nudging her lightly with her snout, with the small creature rubbing it with her paws.
"This is Flower, my pet scavenger for 20 years, so I wanted to let you know just like everyone else in the palace that you can't eat her or stomp on her," he told Oracle, who looked very excited.
"Oh you don't have to worry at all about that!" He replied right away.
"My friend here is very knowledgeable on scavengers, he said many things that I had no idea about," Qibli explained to Smolder, who looked interested.
"Aha, so another one interested in scavengers?" He asked.
"Oh, much more than mere interest," Oracle said with sparkling eyes as he approached Flower. "Heya, Flower," he said with a wave and a smile, with the scavenger waving back.
"I've wanted to do this for a while, I could've tried to show this with Winter's scavenger, but Sora told me that there wasn't much progress yet due to his personality, but here? Oho, prepare yourselves to be surprised!" Oracle announced.
"What are you talking about?" Qibli asked, actually confused.
Oracle leaned closer to the scavenger, raising a talon slightly and pointing at himself.
"O-ra-cle," he said very slowly, tapping himself as he spoke. "O-ra-cle. Oracle."
He was looking at Flower with a very hopeful expression and a smile, his eyes looking pleading, and meanwhile, Smolder laughed for a moment.
"Oh that is funny, she obviously can't say that. She's smart and can understand signs and sounds like a bell, but scavengers can't understand Dragon, I heard her once trying a full phrase of random words she must have heard and it looked so funny and clumsy as she wouldn't know what she was saying" he said with an amused tone, but Oracle ignored him completely.
"Oracle. Oracle," he repeated some more, looking at Flower with high expectations, and then…
"O… Orc?"
Qibli froze as he heard that, hearing a growl in dragon coming from a scavenger felt so unusual and wrong, he looked at Sunny, who was observing with wide open eyes.
There is literally no way that can actually work.
"Haha, no!" Oracle said with a giggle, shaking his head and wagging a claw at that. "I'm not an orc! It's O-ra-cle. O… Ra… Cle…" He said, tapping himself again.
"..."
"... Oracle?"
Silence, the three Sandwings present here did not speak at all for some moments, eyes just darting back and forth between Oracle and Flower. And then the Nightwing began to laugh.
"Well! I think that she knows she can associate me with that word!" He said, smirking at Smolder.
"W-Wha-? How?" Qibli finally managed to speak up first, looking absolutely stunned by this.
"How did you even do that!?" Smolder asked at the same time.
"WOW! She talked!" Sunny said, very impressed.
Oracle chuckled and literally just… Ignored all of them! "Flower, here's a name that you probably will get to say a lot," he then pointed directly at Smolder. "Smol-der, Smolder, Smolder…"
After several moments of repeating himself, Flower answered with "Mold!", which made the actual Smolder look even more baffled while Oracle giggled and corrected her. And that's when Qibli noticed from a corner of one of his eyes that a few dragons were peeking at the hallway, seeing everyone was just staring at Nightwing and Scavenger.
"Smolder?" she said, looking at Oracle for approval, who nodded his head, and then Smolder let out a gasp.
"Smolder!" Flower said with more energy, looking straight at the dragon she just mentioned.
Qibli's thoughts were rushing at a neckbreak speed, his mouth hanging open due to the sheer confusion as suddenly everything felt completely out of place and in shambles as it seemed like Oracle was completely changing his perception on something.
At the end of the hallway, the other peeking dragons were starting to whisper and murmur in surprise among themselves, looking at each other then to Flower in bewilderment.
"What's with all the ruckus out here?" Queen Thorn's voice echoed through the hallway as she left the room she was in, now wearing her crown.
"One second," Oracle told Thorn, who raised an eyebrow at the small dragonet, then he turned at Flower and pointed up to Thorn's crown. "Queen, queen, queen," he said, repeating that word a few times, then lowered his claw to point at the dragon herself. "Thorn, Thorn, Thorn… Queen… Thorn…"
"What are you trying to accomplish here?" Thorn questioned.
"Queen… Horn?" Flower's voice spoke up, and the queen actually froze for a second before reacting.
"Jumping snakes! How in the world did you do that!? What kind of trick is this?" Queen Thorn immediately asked.
Oracle shook his head a bit at Flower, repeating "Thorn" again, making each part of the wording as clear as he could.
"Queen… Thorn," Flower said, and Oracle nodded in approval before facing Thorn, who was looking at the scavenger who just said her name with very open eyes.
"No tricks at all, your majesty. Flower here simply now knows your name, same with mine and Smolder's, all thanks to me teaching her how to say the words and who to relate each word to."
"But scavengers can't do that, they are not able to learn Dragon like this," Thorn argued.
"And you know that… How?" Oracle asked, tilting his head, earning a confused look from absolutely everyone present. "Did you or anyone else standing in this hallway, or in this entire palace, ever actually try to teach the resident scavenger how things are said?"
"Well, there didn't seem to be much point…" Smolder said, although he was sounding very uncertain.
"And why is that? Merely because all of you have some preconceived notion that scavengers are dumb?" He asked, looking at everyone's faces.
"That is kind of what we were all taught, yes," Qibli said, still trying to think about what in the world just happened.
"I didn't think they were dumb, just cute, fluffy creatures that could sometimes get lucky and bring down a queen?" Sunny said sheepishly.
"So nobody ever in five thousand years actually bothered to check if these beings with their own language, that build towns and cities, and clearly can make their own weaponry and have roles, are actually this smart?" Oracle said with a sarcastic tone.
"The scavengers never made themselves look that smart in front of dragons," Smolder said.
"Maybe it is because when a scavenger and a dragon meet, normally it ends with either the scavenger ending burnt to a crisp or eaten not even a minute later, immediately captured and put to fight in an arena or in some cage to conserve for lunch. And the dragons have never even bothered to start a friendly conversation with one and teach them the basics?"
It happened very rarely, but for the first time in his life, Qibli was feeling very stupid.
Oh we are all so dumb, he… He's right! How did it take so long for someone to notice they're smart? How did I not even consider this?"
And to make Qibli's surprise even greater, Oracle had made Queen Thorn… Speechless, literally nobody does that, and yet he just did, and she needed a few moments to start talking.
"You're confident it's all of them? Wouldn't Flower be different simply due to being around dragons for so long?" Thorn asked.
"Every scavenger would have the potential to hold a conversation with you if anyone bothered to tell them how, they're a smart species as a whole."
Qibli looked slightly to one side, and noticed one of the spectating dragons' faces starting to turn slightly green.
"I… Just ate a scavenger last month out in the desert!" He announced with a disgusted and shocked tone, making others turn to him.
And then based on Thorn's own reaction after hearing that, looking slightly disgusted and ashamed, Qibli wondered if she ate at least one scavenger in her whole life and she was starting to regret it.
"Well, at least it seems like you regret it, that's good. Now that you know, and this could turn into more widespread information, maybe some actions could be taken to prevent such terrible scenarios?" Oracle said, turning his head at Thorn, with Qibli realizing the subtext.
He's hoping to convince an actual queen, he showed evidence and gave his speech, so he might be trying to get some new law made for this.
"I'll have a long talk about this with my advisors, and I will need to confirm that what you're saying about it being general is correct," Thorn replied.
"Sure, take as much as you need to check more about this truth, at least it already should be well wedged in your mind," Oracle nodded.
If there's ONE dragon that can so easily cause general shock or an uproar, or literally get the possibility of a brand new law to be written after just speaking for a few minutes, that is Oracle. Qibli thought, absolutely impressed.
And then that same dragon just casually opened wide his maw and let out a deep yawn now.
"Woah, I'm tired. Yo, Smolder, maybe you could tell me where the guest rooms are, and on the way I'll tell you more things about scavengers?"
Smolder basically nodded right away, and the two dragons just walked off, leaving behind a shocked audience.
Author's Note: Oracle is physically unable to go on a full day without bringing out some shocking reveal to those around him haha!