— Chapter 18 —

Winter

This was absolutely unacceptable.

Winter's mood had already been soured the moment he left the Ice Kingdom to get into an increasingly hotter and drier temperature, while trying to resign himself to the fact he's literally leaving to meet up with a certain Nightwing whose existence he still felt conflicted about.

And now of all times his ears had to be grated by the extremely obnoxious voice of a Sandwing shouting "Yoo-hoo! Winter! Over here!"

Great Ice Dragon. How is it possible that in this whole searing desert, I happen to fly right above where he's at?

He didn't get much time to think however, as he spotted a few more shapes next to the Sandwing. Namely two rather recognizable small dragons and then some random Rainwing.

Weird group, but I suppose is to be expected for any group with these two to be weird. He thought with a mental scoff as he began to descend, no point in trying to act like he did not see them, and besides, considering who he was going to talk to in the first place, it was annoying but it might be good to talk with this Nightwing now. Saves him time from needing to waste time talking to him later at the academy anyway.

"Ah isn't it ever so nice to talk with the nephew of Queen Glacier? He's back now after so long!" Qibli said with one of his usual dumb grins.

"It's been literally less than a week," Winter replied in a matter of fact tone.

"More than enough for your shining presence to be missed at the academy," he immediately replied. Winter just ignored him and looked at the others behind.

"Prince Winter, it's nice to see you again!" Sunny talked next, giving him what was probably a warm smile, but he just gave her an acknowledging nod.

"Hey there, Winter…" The small Nightwing said, giving a small wave with a talon while having a sheepish expression.

Winter stared at him for a bit longer, there was something different, and then he noticed some long cuts on his body and few red spots, making him slowly raise an eyebrow while he looked down.

"It's… A long story…" He muttered.

Winter didn't ask anything or questioned it. If the Nightwing got into a fight despite his condition, it wouldn't be surprising to come out like this. All that mattered is that he remained alive afterwards.

"A prince? That sounds neat. Hello, name's Pineapple," the random Rainwing introduced himself, and Winter acknowledged him with a simple nod as well. He really did not care, but ever since the incident, he considered it better to not ignore that tribe.

"Were you heading back to the mountain? Because so were we, with a little detour to the Rainforest if you wanna join," Qibli said.

"Little? Practically going from an extreme to the other then back to the middle is more than "little"," Winter said with an exasperated huff, honestly, he expected them to have at least looked at a map in their lives.

"Oh, but we have a super special shortcut, and we were about to go inside right before you appeared," the Sandwing replied, turning to look behind himself as he pointed to the ground. "Ta-da!"

Winter was thoroughly unimpressed.

"That's sand," he said in a deadpan tone. "And if you're expecting me to join in some silly antics like diving into sand and swimming out of the desert, forget it. I do not like sand like you do."

"Because it's coarse, rough, and it gets everywhere on your scales?" Oracle suddenly said, and Winter was certain that he was smirking for whatever reason.

"Yes, you could say it that way, thanks for simplifying it for him," he agreed.

He heard Sunny giggle just further back. "Not like that, there's actually a very useful tunnel below the sand, and it connects this place to the Rainforest, a 5 minutes walk."

"That's absurd," Winter snarled in disbelief at how dumb they're sounding right now. "How is it possible that all of you could honestly belie-?"

He got interrupted by Sunny and Oracle quickly moving forward and digging on a specific spot for a few moments, moving sand to the side to unveil a rather big hole. And looking at it suddenly gave Winter an odd feeling.

"What is going on with this hole? Why does it feel like that?" He immediately questioned.

"Magic, oooooh," Qibli said in a mysterious tone.

Everything immediately clicked in Winter's head, of course, now this was more of a reasonable explanation, especially after recently seeing many new types of spells.

"And why didn't you start with that part?" Winter asked with a huff, but only received a grin as an answer.

"Aaaanyway, since we'll be heading back to the mountain after sharing the good news to Queen Glory, want to join us so we all go back together later?" Sunny asked.

A small part of Winter did feel some curiosity at seeing how a magic tunnel would connect two very far away places. But a bigger part thought about how it'd be a time waste, the Rainforest certainly must be awfully warm, bug-ridden, and besides he has other things to do.

"Will have to refuse. I've told someone that I'd meet them on the way back, we talked about this, remember?" He said, his eyes looking towards the Nightwing. He was the one with the idea to make him free the Darkstalker's mother, so he should deal with her situation too.

"O-Oh…! Right, hm, guys? Iiii will catch up with you later, I huh, know that dragon and should go there, too," the Nightwing said, as awkward as always.

"Oh really? Wow, Winter is asking you out on a flight with him to meet someone? How lucky!" Qibli said with a big grin, and Winter immediately threw him a hard glare.

"What are you even trying to imply? I recommend you keep your mouth closed."

"Nothing really, anyway, I'm coming with you as well," the Sandwing said with an irritating tone, and Winter narrowed his eyes at this.

"What? No, you're not, when did I invite you?" He questioned, baffled by the fact that the Sandwing just invited himself.

"Well, sorry to say, but I think I'll still go anyway. Gonna make things more interesting, and also more comfortable for our friend here," Qibli said, and Oracle gave him a small grateful smile, as if just being with Winter would be that horrible.

Sunny suddenly cleared her throat. ""Heeey, I think you're all forgetting something? Just saying."

"Riiight, sorry about that, things can just turn up at times and plans change, you know?" Qibli replied, but Sunny didn't look very amused, then she turned to the Rainwing.

"Pineapple, could you do me a favor? If you could go back to the Rainforest and give Glory a rundown of what happened, while telling her that we'll all be seeing her later, that'd be great!"

"Wait, what?" Winter immediately questioned, staring down at the Sandwing. No, she couldn't possibly mean…?

"Yep, I'll keep tagging along with you all for just a bit longer!" Sunny added with a smile in response to Winter's expression.

"I… Huh… Eh?" Oracle muttered, clearly taken off guard as well.

"Why is everyone today just suddenly inviting themselves when no one asked them to?" Winter asked with a small growl, feeling baffled by what's happening.

"As a reminder, I am still the teacher of you three, and I can notice patterns. And so far the pattern seems to be that if two or more members of your group are left by themselves, then you will escape or sneak away or do anything no matter the risks. You already made my friends and I panic, so we'll split up when I see you back in the academy," she argued with a determined expression.

"Woah, you really are your mother's daughter," Qibli said in an impressed tone after a moment of silence.

"Thank you," she said with a smile. "Oh and just in case, I'll let you know that Queens Glacier and Thorn would very likely be most interested about hearing you did escapades and were left without staff supervision, again, totally wouldn't stir up trouble."

Winter's eyes widened as he actually stared in horror at the small Sandwing, feeling disbelief about what she was casually implying.

"You wouldn't," he quickly said with a snarl. Those words are the worst thing that Sunny could possibly do, he does not need any more issues back home than the ones he already has.

Am I seriously being threatened? And by the stunted Sandwing? Oh this is incredibly humiliating…

"As your teacher I would and literally have to if I want relationships to remain stable, so no more of almost a whole Winglet worth of dragons just leaving without warning, okay?"

"Oookay, Sunny can be a scary one when she wants to be so I guess she'll come along, haha…" Oracle said, and Sunny smiled at him.

This has to be some sort of joke. She better not bring us any trouble with her…

"So, will you?" Sunny asked the Rainwing with a nice tone, who quickly nodded.

"Sure, I'll let the queen know. Hopefully we can meet again later," he replied with a smile as he walked towards the hole on the ground and stepped through it.

"Bye, Pineapple!" Oracle said with a happy wave.

"See ya later," Qibli said with a grin.

"So, where exactly did you need to go meet that dragon?" Sunny asked, and Winter tried to not roll his eyes with how irritated he was.

"Further to the east, soon after entering the Sky Kingdom," he decided to answer while extending his wings.

"Let's meet them in that case! I'm curious to know who your new friend is, and hope they won't mind the extra company," she said with a giggle as she did the same.

After less than a minute, everyone was ready to take off, and Winter leaped off the ground first, the others following after him. Sunny wasn't too far behind, but Qibli and Oracle were annoyingly far back, he turned his head to look in disapproval. The Nightwing is the slowest flier of the group, that was always clear, but this is ridiculous right now.

"Three moons, are you able to fly any slower? We're going to lose you if you move like this for the whole flight," he snapped.

He was actually quite surprised when Qibli was the one who threw him a look. "Hey, chill down and give him a break, okay? Oracle, does your wing still hurt?" He said, still sticking close to the small black dragon.

"Huh, a bit… I can feel it strain, more if I flap too fast, sorry," Oracle replied in an apologetic tone, looking at Winter.

He let out a huff and was about to say something else, but Qibli would quickly fly forward. "How about you get a quick rundown too about what's been going on at the Sand Kingdom?"

"Sounds like a great idea to me, that way you can catch up and understand why some stuff might be happening. Besides, we're a few hours away from the Sky Kingdom, it'll help as a distraction," Sunny quickly agreed.

It didn't seem like he would be given much choice, and admittedly, doing nothing but to fly through the very annoying heat of the desert would only make his mood worse, so might as well listen.

"Though, don't tell him of that one discovery I revealed about them, I want to surprise everyone later with it," Oracle quickly said with a giggle.

"Noted! I was actually thinking about that part too," Qibli replied, laughing for a moment as well.

Winter threw them an odd look. A surprise? What were they hiding? He imagined it could only be something silly and unfitting for him, though at the same time, if it was some discovery from the seer, maybe it would be relevant.

Not long after, he was starting to feel increasingly surprised and baffled by what he was told, not in a lot of detail, but at least he learned of that Mirror, which only made his skin crawl at the thought of magic spying him or other Icewings. Qibli was truly related to a master criminal, which wasn't unexpected at all. And these two were the reason he was defeated, albeit not before the Nightwing's capture.

Winter thought earlier about how he couldn't care if Oracle ended in some fight and obviously ended up injured as result, but new thoughts and sensations crawled within himself as he heard them rush through that part, the Nightwing practically only saying "I… Got captured, a-and… They rescued me later that day," before saying almost nothing until the narration ended.

He didn't need to be told details, that alone brought the injuries he'd dismissed under a new light. And right now, even with him being a Nightwing, who's absurdly vague and bothersome in the way he tries to help, even Winter knew that he still wouldn't deserve that. Ever since freeing Foeslayer and learning of a few horrors from her life, begrudgingly he had to admit to himself that it caused some effect on him.

This is absurd, the two of them are Nightwings, why do I care now? Why should I? They're…

But within his mind, he knew very well the reason why, but he did not want to accept that reason, or else it would mean accepting several other things. The words that Oracle spoke to him soon before they got Hailstorm back were re-appearing in his mind.

"Winter, these thoughts and feelings you have, they're all real. But even if you do everything else right, you won't get a happy ending with her if you insist on acting the way you do and hurting the ones you like, you need to soften up for her."

He knew, the Nightwing knew, possibly since before even meeting Winter in person. He knew of his future, his decisions. And also his mistakes and failures. Being told that someone wouldn't end up with him even before his feelings were completely settled felt odd, and by this point he wasn't fully certain of what to think.

Soften up, a Nightwing asked me to be soft. I am the way life shaped me to be, as a prince for my tribe. I can't just go and be whatever you want me to be.

… But should I try…?

He shook off these thoughts for now, they did not matter at the time, all they'll have to do is to fly for some more time and they'll be right where he left off the ancient Nightwing, and maybe the smaller one could reveal more.

Finally, there was much less sand now than there was before as he spotted the edge of the Sand Kingdom, and the thought of not having any more of the rough substance flying onto him made him feel quite better.

"Phew, I don't enjoy this much heat a whole lot, so this is actually nice," he heard Oracle comment from behind, and for once, he could agree.

Some time later and they were officially out of what Winter considered to be Pyrrhia's worst kingdom so far, even though he didn't feel that the Rain Kingdom would be all that much better.

"We're close, last I saw her, she was relaxing on a nearby grove, so hopefully she's still right there," Winter announced.

"Can't wait to meet her!" Sunny said happily.

More like you can't wait to throw yourself into things that don't concern you. He thought, still bothered.

He would eventually spot that grove and start descending, with the rest of the group doing the same thing, landing on the ground and just walking forward until they were below the trees, there were enough trees to at least hide an adult Nightwing.

"Hello? Are you still here? It's me, Prince Winter… With company," he said the last part with some reluctance.

For a few moments, nothing. But then he would hear footsteps and as he turned that way, Winter saw the large Nightwing appearing from the shadows beneath the trees, the creepy way only a Nightwing could do.

Before anyone said anything else, Sunny let out an obnoxiously happy sound. "Oh Prince Winter, a Nightwing? And one not from the academy? Very good job, yep indeed."

He wanted to facepalm, of course she would take it that way, thinking all about the hammy friendship between all tribes, even though Winter and Foeslayer weren't even friends, he's only helping her.

Foeslayer turned her head to look at Sunny, raising an eyebrow slightly as she turned back to Winter. "It's good to see you again, and I presume these are your friends?"

"No," Winter said at the exact same time Qibli stepped forward and answered with "Yes", making them look at each other for a moment, one with a frown and the other with a grin.

"We're classmates at the same school," Oracle said. "And one of our teachers," he added while pointing at Sunny.

"The acquaintances I told you about the other day," Winter said with a shrug.

"I recall, yes," Foeslayer nodded, and he saw her eyes were focusing on Oracle, who was looking back at her with an actually hard to read expression.

"Nice to meet you, I'm Oracle," he presented himself, giving a small smile. "And this here is my good friend Qibli."

"My pleasure! Any friend of Winter is a friend of mine," Qibli replied with a nod and a smile of his own.

"My name's Sunny, I'm truly glad to be meeting you too," the other Sandwing said.

"My name…" Foeslayer started, before stopping for a moment to look at the group. Winter imagined the issue: she wouldn't know if everyone was informed about the situation or only Winter and Oracle.

But since Qibli knew about her story after that crazy performance, and he doubted the Sandwing would ever look that far back into Nightwing history, Winter subtly nodded at her.

"Is Foeslayer," she finished. Winter subtly looked to the side, and saw Qibli's expression immediately becoming more thoughtful as he looked at Foeslayer as if she was the most interesting thing ever. And Sunny remained blissfully unaware.

"Oh, Nightwing names will never stop surprising me, probably the only tribe that can do that," Sunny said with a small laugh, and Foeslayer smiled a bit.

"You are quite the varied group, an Icewing alongside a Nightwing and Sandwings, not something I see everyday," she commented.

"Thanks! My friends and I are trying to make things like that more widespread, and I believe it is working," Sunny said gleefully.

Foeslayer nodded, and for the next following minutes it was mostly just a regular conversation,although Winter was trying to lead it and just speaking of stuff from their side to have Foeslayer answer as few questions as possible. And Qibli was actually following along on that at the very least by mostly speaking about himself or others.

But eventually, her eyes shifted again to look at Oracle and she cleared her throat. "It's very interesting to be talking with dragons like you, but admittedly I have to say that I also haven't talked to anyone from my tribe in a while, so I'd like to hear some news."

"Oh, sure thing! Let's go talk over there and I'll tell you some news," Oracle immediately nodded, at least able to catch the extremely obvious cue as he walked forward.

"Okay buddy, we'll just be waiting back here while you Nightwings have your cool and mysterious talks," Qibli said with a smile as he stepped back. While Sunny blinked in surprise a few times by how suddenly everyone was moving.

"Huh, okay!" She finally ended up saying, her expression not really showing any concerns about her student going to talk in private with a complete stranger, which by this point did not surprise Winter in the slightest, considering what he's seen of her.

The Nightwings stepped some distance away to talk without being heard by the others, and Winter wondered just what might come from this. He actually followed Oracle's request and released Darkstalker's mother, so what now? If right after this, Oracle suddenly decided to ask him another favor or wanting him to get yet more ancient dragons, he's going to feel extremely irritated.

As he got seated some distance away from the Sandwings, much to his annoyance he saw Qibli immediately go towards him and sit at his side so casually.

"So, a lot's been happening," Qibli whispered, turning his head to him for a moment. "And I'm curious to know what you've been up to these days. I assume Oracle told you to do this?"

Winter let out a small grunt in response, not wanting to talk much about it, but Qibli took it as some affirmative response.

"I imagined. You know, seeing her right now just made several things kind of click, I've been looking back to the past days and things we were told, and I think I've made a brand new breakthrough."

Winter straightened his posture, actually looking at the Sandwing. He had some sort of new information? What does he know? "What is it? How could you make a breakthrough in the few minutes since you met her?"

"Thinking about it, something like this should have been obvious, I didn't consider how he might want to act about that situation," Qibli said in thought, just further confusing Winter.

"You know what he's planning to do next?" Winter asked, wanting some actual answers.

"It's only a guess, really. And I'll personally trust Oracle on letting us be in the know later, but I think for once I have an idea on what he's planning about the future," he finished, looking forward in curiosity at the spot where the Nightwings headed to talk.