Chapter Text
Qibli watched him fall every night. The same screams, copper-on-silver flashing, and the rancid smell of burning scales he couldn’t seem to get out of his head.
Winter, shouting. Winter, burning. Winter, Winter, Winter-
He woke up with a start, his wings spreading unconsciously as his claws reached out for a dragon who wasn’t there. Glancing around the dimly lit cave, he saw Moon and Kinkajou sleeping together in a pile of wings and tails on a hammock. Good, he breathed. I didn’t wake them. The two had become inseparable after Darkstalker was defeated, the past week or so spent recovering from the harrowing journey they’d taken on. Moon refused to eat strawberries anymore and poor Kinkajou was trying her best to comfort her best friend.
None of them felt good sleeping alone, and since the ‘empathy spell’ (as Anemone called it) had accidentally sent Winter home, his cave felt painfully hollow. This resulted in him moving in with the Nightwing and Rainwing, putting his bedding on the ledge that used to belong to Carnelian. Turtle was now sharing a room with Anemone, the two finding some solace in each other as fellow animus dragons. Though Jade Mountain Academy had been pretty strict about staying with your clawmates at the beginning of the year, the prophecy dragonets had far more to worry about than a few cave swaps at this point.
Slowly getting off his mat and shaking off the last of the nightmare, Qibli made his way towards the exit. He needed to stretch his legs, that was all. Maybe he’d check to see if Winter was back. Yes, he thought, still half- asleep, maybe he came back last night. Maybe he’s just waiting in our cave, ready to complain and be all regal and annoyingly shiny-
Qibli shook his head, knowing (hoping?) that Winter would have come looking for them if he had returned. Still, he stuck his head into their cave, and felt a cold disappointment that it was still devoid of dragons.
Moons, he missed Winter. He missed his voice, his dry and rare sense of humor, even his stupid face. Because Qibli had realized just how much he cared for the silver prince after watching him slam into death. The encounter with Peril out in Possibility hadn’t left any lasting physical scars, but there was an awful, chokingly real moment where Winter might not have made it out alive. Before he knew what he was doing, Qibli was standing next to the rock ledge that Winter slept on, reaching out to brush his talons over the frigid stone. It brought him a strange sense of comfort, reminding him of Winter’s scales, and so he settled in on the hard surface to doze off until morning. Drifting in and out of sleep, Qibli vaguely imagined a cold body next to him, wings meeting, and he felt warm.
Qibli woke up to a shadow standing over him. He yelped and whirled off the ledge he’d been on, scrabbling to get his footing and making sure his tail barb was in position, was it Darkstalker how could it be who else need to warn the others need to run
“…bli? Qibli!”
He blinked, the haze of sleep and the lack thereof slowly clearing from his eyes to reveal-
“Moon?”
“Yeah, it’s me,” she said, worry creasing its way into her snout. “Sorry for the scare, I didn’t mean to wake you-”
“It’s alright.” Qibli relaxed his tail, letting out a breath he’d been holding for too long. “I’m awake now.” He paused, glancing around for the familiar ball of oversaturated colors he was used to seeing. “Where’s Kinkajou?”
“She’s…still asleep. I, uh, wanted to talk to you about something.” Moon’s posture shifted into the nervous hunch she’d worn the first few days at the academy. Something in her expression made Qibli anxious, his brain going through a list of all the possible things that could have gone wrong. But her next words made his train of thought go utterly silent. “It’s Winter. I think… I could be wrong, but I think something’s happened.”
Qibli’s wings tensed involuntarily. “He- he was sent to the ice kingdom, right? I mean, that’s where he lives, maybe he just wanted to spend some time there.” Winter was alright. He had to be, they’d saved the world! And Qibli tended to overthink things, work himself into a state of anxiety, that’s all this was–but Moon looked more upset at his comment. Her gaze darted down at the cave floor where light was just beginning to filter in through the leaf windows.
“I… heard some things, in his dad’s, um, thoughts- before the battle, I mean. And Icicle’s thoughts. Things about…. well. Winter.” She was obviously rattled, and flickers of doubt ignited in Qibli’s mind.
He tilted his head, his infamous earring swinging at the motion. “What do you mean?”
“Qibli… when they saw Winter they- were surprised to see him, they’d all thought- that he was dead.”
Qibli gaped at her for a moment. “They,” he rasped, mouth suddenly dry- “What?”
The corners of Moon’s eyes shone more than usual, whether a reflection on the silver scale or something else he wasn’t sure.
“And then- and then his dad thought… he can’t even die right.”
The pieces he’d tried to ignore all started falling into place. Winter’s hesitation to talk about family, the way he threw up his princely facade whenever Icicle was around, three moons everything Icicle had ever said to her brother was at best rude and at worst downright manipulative, but for Winter’s own father to think that… sure, Qibli’s family was objectively awful, but he’d found a home elsewhere. Winter…hadn't.
He took a shaky step backwards, his tail flicking back and forth in an attempt to calm himself down. “Moons, that’s- he- and now Winter’s with them, his family- they’re-” he shuddered at the memory of Icicle with her claws to Starflight’s throat. “Why didn’t you tell me sooner,” he breathed, a hot and angry feeling starting to boil in his gut.
“I- I’m sorry, I just… it seemed wrong, to expose something like that- and, well, I was just… I had a lot to think about with, um, Darkstalker, and I’d really honestly not realized until this morning-” Qibli reached out and let his talons rest on Moon’s shoulder.
“Breathe,” he ordered, trying to channel some of Thorn’s put-together-ness. “It’s alright, Moon, he’s going to be okay.” The heat had started rising to his chest, a fury he’d never felt before. This was bad, he couldn’t- he wouldn’t lose Winter.
“How do you know,” Moon whispered, slowly sinking to the floor. “How can you know that?”
The words left Qibli’s mouth before he even registered them.
“Because I’m going to go get him back.”