Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Author's Note: For better or worse, I've finally gotten back into the habit of writing fanfiction. I decided I'd make another AU, not necessarily to fix any explicit character assassination like last time but just for the sake of the what-if. Happy reading!

Do note this fic starts very close to the main book's timeline. Many lines are taken verbatim from the book, in fact, but it changes as it goes.

Prologue

Moonwatcher

"Um," Moon said, shifting on her talons. "You know, I think I might head to history a little early, if that's alright."

"Why?" Kinkajou, who had just been rambling about how much Moon talked in her sleep, asked in a puzzled tone.

"I just – I want to see if I can catch some of the other members of our winglet and chat." Now that she said it, it was actually an interesting idea. If she caught Qibli, he could possibly help her with the headaches she had been having. The nonstop noise caused by all of the dragons around her milling about was really starting to get to her, and while she couldn't actually tell the Sandwing what was happening, perhaps he had some general way of fixing it.

Or she could meet Winter. As much as she disliked the general feeling of anger and self-loathing that came from him, she'd been noticing it starting to wear thin as of late. He was almost– almost– starting to warm up to people by now, so it would be interesting to listen into his thoughts.

Who knew what would happen if she met Turtle.

Moon was shoved out of her thoughts and faltered as a flash of light suddenly blistered through her mind, then vanished.

She stopped, blinking and disoriented. She was halfway down the tunnel to the history cave.

What just happened? Moon thought to herself. It would be very convenient to have another mind reader to explain, but Moon didn't have such a luxury in this day and age. No, instead, a slow pounding was working its way up her spine, along her neck, to the base of her skull…

A moment later, pain shot through her like a claw brutally stabbing into her eye socket.

She collapsed to the floor, clutching her head, and the vision came.

Roaring flames tearing along the walls of the history cave, swallowing the maps, leaping to the seated dragonets in the space of a breath. Fire blistering along Moon's scales, her own voice screaming. Beside her, Kinkajou shrieking and burning, while amid the smoke. Qibli, Winter, Turtle, all on fire.

Everyone dying.

All of them, dying.

It took Moon a long minute to drag herself back to her senses. She staggered up and caught herself against the rough stone side of the tunnel.

Moon had experienced visions before, but they usually came to her while she was asleep, not randomly in the hallway. And certainly not with that jarring pain all throughout her body or the uncontrollable terror she was now feeling.

Panic started to fill Moon's body as she began rushing toward the history cave. But only a few steps in, the vision returned, fiercer and more agonizing than before.

Now Moon was outside the history cave, and fire was pouring out into the tunnel, along with the screaming, burning figures of her friends. Kinkajou stumbled to the ground in front of Moon, her wings turning crisp as the fire ate them away. Carnelian's voice howled in pain from inside. Tamarin and Umber lay half in, half out of the cave, gasping as dark smoke filled their lungs.

Moon forced herself onto her feet, biting her tongue and returning herself to reality. She began to run toward the history cave desperately, only one thought filling her mind:

I have to stop it.

It was a vision, visions tended to come true most of the time. Granted, her nightmares hadn't quite occurred yet, but this felt more urgent, more real – it was horrifying how sure she was that this was about to happen.

The vision slammed into her again, stamping her to the ground like a giant talon. More fire. Another burning dragon, maybe Pike or Bigtail. Umber lying in a charred heap on the ground, Sora sobbing beside him. Qibli with his wings in flames, screaming for help.

"What is wrong with you?" A cool, arrogant voice asked from above her. Is she alright? His brain worried, more sympathetically.

"Winter." Moon shook her head, trying to clear it. The Icewing was really there, standing right in front of her, really not on fire, not dead. His scales were smooth, pale blue, unburnt. His eyes were arctic pools.

"Some kind of Nightwing seizure?" he asked, looking down his snout at her. His tail flicked and he took a step back, toward the history cave. She could see the archway only a few paces ahead of them, quiet and flame-free.

"You can't go in there!" Moon lunged forward and grabbed his forearm in her talons.

We're touching – she's – I'm – her scales against mine – I can't want this – his mind whirred.

"What are you doing?" He barked, but didn't pull away.

"Please don't go in there," she managed. The vision was storming back. "Something terrible is going to –"

Qibli burning. Tamarin burning. Winter safe, Icicle safe, Kinkajou burning –

Winter was holding her up; she'd fallen against him and he was trying to lift her back upright, his wings supporting hers. "What something terrible?" he said, his voice rising. He shook her. "How do you know?"

All she could hear from Winter's mind were worries about whether they would be safe – whether Icicle would be safe, whether he himself would be safe, whether Moon would be safe –

"Hey, leave her alone." Qibli's voice interjected.

"Stop!" Moon cried, pulling away from Winter and throwing herself in front of Qibli and Turtle. "Don't go in! No one can go in!"

"Whoa, calm down," Turtle said gently. "You're having some kind of panic attack."

"No, please listen." Moon couldn't catch her breath, not with the visions coming faster and the intensity of the thoughts around her. Tamarin dead, Kinkajou sobbing, Carnelian burning. She's losing her mind. "Please, please, don't let anyone go in there."

"I'm listening," Qibli said, crouching to look into her eyes. "We're here, don't worry." Must be something serious. Look at her eyes, she's terrified. Did Winter do this to her? No, he doesn't know what's going on either. What can I do for her? Find the threat, neutralize it.

She grabbed Turtle's talons and tried to wrap his muffled mind around hers. "Kinkajou, I have to stop Kinkajou." The image of the Rainwing burning kept coming back, over and over, like a knife plunging repeatedly into her heart.

"She's right behind us," Qibli said. He put one wing around her. "Moon, what is happening?"

"Yes," Winter said. "What do you know?"

Moon could feel the footsteps of other dragons through the floor. Dragons were coming for class. How could she stop them? How could she stop all of them?

She let out a cry of pain and closed her eyes. Another vision, and this time Peril was there, engulfed in flames, clutching someone in her talons. Was she the cause of the fire? If Moon could stop Peril, could she save everyone?

She couldn't think straight, couldn't focus long enough to come up with a convincing lie or a plan or anything.

"Moon, it's alright! Moon, breath, here, lean on me." Warm rainbow wings wrapped around her. "We have to take her to Clay and Sunny, they'll know what to do."

Good idea, Qibli thought. I should've thought of that.

"Kinkajou," Moon sighed, leaning into her friend. The walls were fading in and out, the torchlight flaring then disappearing and flickering back.

"I don't know, she just collapsed." Winter was saying to someone.

"Hey Carnelian, don't go in there." Qibli said quickly.

"Why not?" the Skywing's voice demanded.

"Uh," he said. "Teacher's orders. We don't know yet, but it's pretty important."

"I wasn't informed," Carnelian growled. "But fine."

"Come on, Moon," Kinkajou said, tugging her along. "We'll go find help."

"But the cave –" Moon started to say, but she was cut off.

With a whoosh and a boom, the cave exploded in a huge fireball.

Moon was blown backward, slamming into the cave wall behind her. She wasn't sure if she lost consciousness for a moment or if her eyes were full of smoke. She couldn't hear anything. She could see Kinkajou screaming at the edge of the flames, but there was no sound.

Everything was coming through loud and clear inside her head, though. Most of it was panicked, wordless images and feat, cascading faster and faster until Moon felt as if she couldn't be any more afraid or it would kill her.

Moon blinked at the billowing black smoke that was pouring out of the history cave. A burning scroll rolled out, stopping just before her talons. Shards of glass from the broken light globes were scattered all over the floor. Winter and Qibli were running toward her. Turtle was pressed to the tunnel way beyond them; behind him, two dragons were approaching. Only a few seconds had passed.

"Moon!" Winter skidded to a stop in front of her, reaching for her shoulders and then pulling back as she flinched away. "What was that?" Is she hurt?

"We have to get out of here," Qibli said, sliding his wing under one of Moon's and helping her up. "The smoke –" He broke off in a fit of coughing.

"But Tamarin –" Moon gasped.

"What do we do?" Kinkajou yelled, "What do we do?"

Qibli and Moon staggered a few steps forward and the two approaching dragons came into focus: Sora and Umber. Sora's eyes were wild and terrified, and her mind was a mess of mud and battle flashbacks.

"I'm going to get help!" Umber shouted. He tore off up the tunnel.

"Is anyone hurt?" Sora squeaked. "Where's Icicle?"

Since when was Sora worried about Icicle's safety? Need to look into that, Qibli thought.

"She's all right, she wasn't inside," Moon said. She twisted around, but she couldn't see Sora's clawmate anymore. Even through the thick smoke, Icicle's gleaming white scales should have been visible, but there was no sign of the Icewing where Moon had seen her before the blast.

"At least two dragons were in there," Winter said. Moon felt sick. Tamarin and another dragon whose thoughts she heard but couldn't identify.

"Stand clear," a voice shouted, footsteps thumping toward them. Moon flinched back against Qibli as the ferocious heat of Peril's mind swept through her head, a moment before Peril herself came charging through the smoke. She didn't stop to look at them; she ran straight into the burning cave.

"Three moons," Kinkajou whispered frantically, clutching her talons together.

A moment later, Moon heard three more dragons running toward them; she could hear that one of them was a desperately worried Clay. He stopped briefly near Moon, his stress increasing.

"How many are still in there?" He asked.

Sora opened and closed her mouth, unable to speak.

"We don't know for sure," Kinkajou jumped in. "At least Tamarin. Peril went back in, too."

Clay didn't ask any more questions. He ran into the fire, limping on his scarred leg, flames licking hungrily across his fireproof scales. Moon could hear how much it hurt him – his power meant he healed quickly, but the fire still burned him, even if just for a moment – but he didn't hesitate.

Sora let out a choked sob and fled.

"What in the three moons what that?" Carnelian's voice called. It was the first time Moon had heard the Skying since the blast – she had been half-convinced the red dragon had been engulfed in the flames, herself. "Who DARES to stage an attack like this?!"

"We don't know," Qibli assured her, but Carnelian already knew that in the back of her head. Qibli tried to steer moon away from the fire. "Whoever did it, we shouldn't be breathing this. This smoke is as bad as the fire, if we breathe too much."

"I'm not leaving until I know Tamarin's alright," Kinkajou said.

Moon shook her head in agreement and Qibli gave up.

A movement in the smoke, and then Clay emerged, carrying a dragonet slung across his back. Behind him was Peril with another dragonet.

"Is it all clear?" Winter asked Clay.

Clay nodded tiredly. "We swept the entire space. No one else is in there."

Winter ran toward the cave, opened his mouth, and poured out a blast of icy air. He advanced on the fire, putting it out with his frostbreath as he stepped through the smoke, into the cave.

I hope he's safe, Moon thought, and then all her thoughts were crowded out by the sight of the dragonet Clay was sliding gently to the ground.

"Tamarin!" Kinkajou cried.

The blind Rainwing was not as badly burned as the dragon Peril was now setting down. She was unconscious – but she was still breathing. Kinkajou bent over her, white and green patches pummeling each other across her scales, and carefully lifted one of her friend's talons.

"I think she might have smelled something, maybe smoke, right before the explosion happened," Clay said. "She was behind one of the scroll racks, as if she'd tipped it over in front of her. It might have saved her life." If she lives, he thought despairingly.

"Tamarin, you're alright," Kinkajou said, biting back a sob. "You'd better be alright or I will tie you to a tree and cover you with hallucinogenic frogs. Tamarin, please wake up!"

"We should get her some of those Rainwing tranquilizing darts before she wakes up," Clay said, touching Kinkajou's wing with his own. "Those burns are going to hurt a lot." He crouched to study the other dragonet, lying on the ground in front of Peril.

For a moment, Moon thought whoever it was must have been burnt beyond recognition, and then she realized his scales were black. It was Bigtail, the other Nightwing. He was clearly dead.

Clay turned to Carnelian for a moment. "Qibli tells me you were pretty close to the archway when it happened. Are you-?"

"I'm fine." Carnelian snorted a puff of smoke from her nostrils, "But the perpetrator won't be when I get my claws on them." Perhaps this is an opportunity to show queen Ruby how I am already more than capable and do not need this blasted school, Moon heard the Skywing think.

"The underground lake," Pike said suddenly, breaking off from glaring dangerously at Carnelian. "Let's put the Rainwing in the lake. It's not far. Submerging her in water will help. I've seen – I saw this work – after the attack." He cut himself off, darted forward, and tried to lift Tamarin, but he was thin, and she was a little bigger than he was. He staggered, and Clay stopped him.

"I'll carry her. Show me the way,"

"I will search the school for the assailant. If you find anything, TELL ME." Carnelian hissed the last words particularly loudly – Moon could infer she really wanted to be a part of it when the dragon who set off the fireball was found – and took off down a hallway that led to the main cave.

"Go to Sunny," Clay said to Peril. "Tell her to bring tranq darts and meet us at the lake." Peril nodded, glancing back at the smoking cave, and hurried away.

Qibli helped lift Tamarin onto Clay's back. Pike scurried away, running full tilr, with Clay right behind him.

Kinkajou took a step after them, then wavered, looking back at Moon and Qibli. By the time her mind said, Go with Tamarin, Moon will be fine, they were gone, and she didn't know where the lake was.

"Moon, you're bleeding," Qibli said. Moon finally noticed the trail of blood down her left shoulder and the sharp pain at the back of her head.

"I'm alright," she said, touching her skull gingerly. She could hear a lot more dragons coming their way – Tsunami and Sunny among them.

"Let's get you to the infirmary," Kinkajou suggested.

"Wait," Winter said, emerging from the cave. Behind him, the fire was hissing out. The wrecked cave was covered in ice crystals, a gleaming layer of silver over black, frost over soot. Scraps of burnt scrolls littered the ground, and the ashes of the maps on the walls were still drifting down.

At least it wasn't the library, Moon thought. How had everything burned so fast? Even with the scrolls and maps, there shouldn't have been such a big fire, surely. And how did it start?

It wasn't a normal fire. She knew that. Something had exploded. But did that mean… that someone had set it on purpose?

"The real question –" Winter started, before glaring down the tunnel. The approaching dragons' footsteps were audible now, and Winter had clearly noticed. Somewhere else, his mind growled.

Winter suddenly clamped his claws around her uninjured forearm. Moon let out a yelp as the freezing shock of his scales met hers.

"Hey!" Kinkajou protested.

"Don't –" Qibli started.

But Winter didn't stop. He dragged Moon down the tunnel, away from the smoke. She could hear Qibli and Kinkajou and another pair of claws scrambling to follow them, but Winter didn't seem to care. If anything, that seemed like an intended consequence.

"What are you doing?" Moon asked him. His grip was like being trapped in ice; trying to pull away did no good. And were most dragons' minds became clearer when she touched them, his became too bright and painfully dazzling, reflecting back at her like a flash of sun off a field of snow. All she could get where flashes of sharp anger, which she really could have figured out on her own from his expression. It didn't seem like his mind was always like this – she had been leaning on him just earlier with no trouble – but he was furious, and anger did strange things to dragons' minds.

"Here," Winter said, pushing her into a tall, narrow cave where the air was clear enough to breathe, They were out of sight of the fire damage, but close enough that Moon could still sense the dragons gathering there. Her claws scraped against squat stalagmites jutting from the floor. The sound of water dripping somewhere slowly, drop by drop, echoed against the looming walls and distant ceiling.

Qibli, Kinkajou, and Turtle burst into the cavern behind them, bristling with outraged thoughts. Qibli had grabbed a torch along the way and shoved it into a crack in the wall, adding another circle of firelight to the space.

"You can't just push your friends around like that," Kinkajou said, hurrying over to Moon. "Especially when she's hurt. Moon, there's something in this wound." She reached out but didn't touch it. Moon twisted her neck and saw that there was something sticking out of the cut in her shoulder, like a collection of tiny, sharp splinters.

Winter's livid thoughts were briefly cut by a momentary gap of confliction and concern, but his anger quickly returned as he just snorted. Qibli lifted his venomous tail and glared at Winter, but before he could say anything, Winter took a menacing step toward Moon and pointed one silver claw at her.

"You knew," he snarled. "That's why you tried to stop us from going in. You knew about the explosion and the fire before it happened." He took another step, until all she could see was the bright orange reflection of the torchlight in his eyes.

"So," he hissed. "Exactly how did you know?"

AN: By the way, I'm not cohosting a Discord server with my friend and fellow author Firehawk1100 for other authors, readers, fans, and especially Winterwatcher enthusiasts!

We'd love to have you here!
Link is this: discord .gg/yJJ6j5jMsd

Chapter Text

Author's Note:  This is our first real chapter. The last one was just setting up for the future, showing where we are and how Moon is reacting to not having a Darkstalker around to help her. Now, we'll get into the meat and potatoes of the fic.

Thanks to everyone who's enjoyed and supported the fic thus far! Happy reading!

Chapter 1

Moonwatcher

Winter's words had an instant effect on the other three dragonets.

He's right, Kinkajou realized. How– What–

Turtle's mind was as opaque as ever, but he shifted on his talons and gave Moon a curious frown.

Worst of all was Qibli. How did she know? She couldn't have done this – could she? She's a dragon with secrets, and Thorn said not to trust the Nightwings – but why would she? I know I haven't figured her out yet, but I don't see violence in her. And yet, how did she know? But if she set the fire, why would she try to stop us from going in? But surely she wouldn't – she couldn't have – I can't even believe I'm thinking this –

"You didn't – sorry, but – you didn't have anything to do with –" he started.

"No!" Moon cried. "Of course not!" She brushed away tears, trying to keep her voice steady. Trying not to think about Tamarin. Or how everything was now falling apart. "I would never hurt anyone."

Or that's the way you want to appear, Winter thought bitterly.

"I know," Qibli said, but not convincingly. His thoughts betrayed that he was unknowingly in partial agreement with Winter. She was better at hunting than anyone expected. There is strength beneath those scales. In the right circumstances, wouldn't any dragon be capable of hurting another? Even her? But why? Find the motive, Qibli.

"If you didn't do it, then do you know who did?" Turtle asked. He hadn't spoken since the blast; he hadn't moved from his spot by the wall until he came chasing after then, He looked shaken, but not destroyed. Moon wished she knew what he was thinking. Did he suspect her, too?

"Or maybe you saw something?" Kinkajou suggested hopefully. "Something that warned you?"

Moon paused, shifting uncomfortably and looking down. On the one talon, she could very easily use that as a good excuse for what had happened without giving away her powers – but wasn't her keeping secrets and lying what was causing this confusion and mistrust in the first place?

The longer she waited, the worse it would be when she had to tell them.

"There's only one explanation," Winter hissed through his teeth, looking down his snout at her. "You did this. You set that fire. I don't know why yet, but I will find out."

The other explanation was there, hovering at the edge of his mind, but he couldn't quite bring himself to believe it yet. He'd been so sure – so sure – that the Nightwings were lying about their powers all along.

Among other things he'd been sure about.

"I swear I didn't," Moon said. She spread her wings helplessly. "Please believe me."

"Can't you tell us how you knew?" Kinkajou pleaded.

Moon couldn't speak. She felt as if there were claws clamped around her throat, as though her worst fear was trying to choke her so she wouldn't reveal her secrets.

Winter stared at her for a long minute, and then he lashed his tail, spikes clattering against the stubby pillars dotting the floor. He wanted to believe there was some other explanation, she could feel those thoughts from him – but he was confused and angry, and it was apparent he didn't have the courage to be anything but the aggressive Icewing prince that he'd made himself to be. "I will give you one chance, Nightwing. You have until midnight tomorrow to tell me the truth – or I'm going to tell everyone what you did." He took a step toward her and she flinched back, though nobody seemed to want to intervene. "I knew Nightwings couldn't be trusted, but I was starting to think you were different. Clearly I was wrong." A lie by omission is still a lie. She's hiding something… and I'm going to figure out what.

A lie by omission.

No matter what she did she'd be lying. She thought it was safe to just not say anything and let herself have some time – but in refusing to answer, she was lying by omission.

There was only one truthful way she could continue, if only she had the courage to muster it.

As Winter began to turn and stalk out of the cave, Moon somehow found the will to speak up again. "W-Wait, Winter." She said, causing Winter to turn his head around with a snarl and pause momentarily. "You… you won't have to wait until midnight. I'll tell you here. All of you."

Qibli arched an eyebrow, and his emotions mirrored Winters – they'd both be searching for lies in her answer. But neither of them were entirely expecting her to so much as mention the Nightwings' powers.

Moon shifted her talons slightly with a downcast look, and Winter turned around majestically. "Spit it out then, Nightwing."

"I…" Moon choked, mentally apologizing to her mother for saying this: "I can see the future… I can have visions."

The first, overwhelmingly strong emotion she felt from the others was shock, followed quickly by apprehension on Qibli's part. "You…" Winter stammered, "You can what?"

"I can have visions. I can't control them but–" Moon started, before Kinkajou quickly interrupted.

"You can SEE the FUTURE?!" She yelled, her high-pitched voice echoing throughout the halls.

Oh no. The small dragonet was loud enough that at least someone had definitely heard that.

Qibli, however, was quick to act on damage control. "NO I CAN'T! STOP SAYING THAT!" He roared, equally loudly, before turning quickly to Kinkajou. "Wait before you say something like that! We don't know whether it's true – let alone whether we should tell everyone."

"We should." Winter replied with a huff, composing himself with some difficulty. "Everyone deserves to know the truth about Nightwings and their 'nonexistant' powers."

Moon quickly shook her head. "I'm the only one who can do this, I promise!" She said quickly, "I haven't met any others who can do this – even the ones who say they can, I've seen it in thei–"

Everyone froze, Moon included. A long minute passed with barely a single noise – the spikes on the Icewing prince's back faintly rattled from a light breeze coming from the hall, but beyond that, nobody dared to say a word.

Don't tell me, Winter thought. It can't be.

Turtle stared at her with the same blankness as before, and Kinkajou's thoughts were stunningly jumbled for a dragon so externally still.

There's no way she's telling the truth, right? Qibli thought. I mean, how does that even work? Can she tune into random dragons' thoughts at will? Or is it more of a subconscious thing? Do thoughts look like words, or can she hear them like sand? Can she see images we think? Is she listening right now? Wait – I can hardly help what I'm thinking of – what if I accidentally thought of some –

"You didn't," Moon quickly reassured him, further shocking Qibli. His dazed expression told the others all they needed to know about that she was telling the truth.

There's no way! Kinkajou thought rapidly, That's so COOL! I mean, obviously it could be used for super evil stuff, but still! Imagine if I could read minds and see the future! Why wouldn't I tell people?!

Turtle, despite his utter impermeability to mind reading, asked a question she instantly found quite ironic for him specifically to ask; "Are you… reading all of our minds right now?"

"...Yes. I can't stop it, it's really overwhelming – not yours though. I can't read yours, for some reason." Moon answered.

Turtle tilted his head. "Well, I don't know whether to feel left out or relieved. I think I'll just go with confused."

Winter had been completely silent ever since her initial revelation. His thoughts had been reflecting off of each other quite confusingly, but now they were more understandable – though the first words she caught from his mind were two: She knows.

"How much do you know!" Winter roared furiously, Moon flinching despite Winter backing off defensively. "Tell me now or- or I'll slice your face off!"

"Not much." She winced, and relieve instantly filled Winter's mind, "Your thoughts were sort of… confusing. Icewings have interesting minds, yours is pretty hard to read."

"Giving all the weird complements today." Qibli noted, trying to lighten the mood in spite of his own confusion.

Winter took a few more steps back, though Kinkajou quickly spoke up. "Hold on! We still don't even know what to do, why are you leaving!"

"Because I do know what to do. I'm informing the school founders." Winter snorted, though Qibli shook his head.

"Bad idea, actually. If everyone knows what she's capable of, they can just pay her to tell them anyone's secrets." Qibli noted. He didn't believe she'd do that – not by any stretch of the imagination. He just knew it was the only way to practically guarantee Winter wouldn't go telling everyone about it.

Winter considered his statement, then sighed. "Alright, Sandwing. Then let's hear your suggestion."

"We find the killer." Qibli replied instantly, "We've got a future-seeing mind reader right here, finding them should be easy peasy. It'll only get harder if the killer knows they've got a mind reader after them."

A few seconds of silence passed, and finally, Winter agreed. "Fine then. But this can't just be swept under the rug forever. We will find out what to do about you, Nightwing." He growled, turning and exiting the room hallway coldly.

Moon stared after him for a long few seconds, not even bothering with paying attention to his thoughts – they were about what she had expected. Kinkajou bounded over to Moon and quickly put both talons on Moon's shoulders. "So! Where do we start?"

No doubt seeing Moon's bewilderment, Qibli cleared his throat. "We can start looking for the culprit when you like, Moon, but I'm sure this ain't been pleasant. Take as long as you need."

Though Kinkajou looked a little disappointed, she also looked understanding. "Well… I think I'll check in on Tamarin. I'll see you guys later." She said awkwardly, slinking out of the cave and leaving Moon with Turtle and Qibli.

The Sandwing passed by her with a brief "Rest easy", his mind spiraling but growing more distant as he left the general area. Moon gazed at the empty hallway for a long minute before she felt a wing gently brush her back.

Even when he was touching her, she couldn't sense anything but that quiet fuzz from Turtle. He looked down at her with his dark green eyes.

"Come with me."

AN: Not much to say. The story is pretty quickly diverging, she actually told Winter she was a mindreader this time. Hopefully I synthesized canon and fanfiction relatively smoothly.

As with last time, I'm still cohosting a Discord server for WoF fans and especially Winterwatcher fans alongside Firehawk1100.
Link: discord .gg/yJJ6j5jMsd

Chapter Text

Author's Note: In case you were wondering why each previous chapter started with "Moonwatcher"... uh. Yeah, she'll be the main protagonist throughout the fic, but on occasion we'll jump around when scenes can't really happen to her perspective. No use turning the fic into basically Turtle's book, where a lot of it is just eavesdropping. (Nothing against Talons of Power, but it's not what I'm going for.

Happy reading!

(Edit: Chapter felt extremely awkward and clunky, so I touched it up)

Chapter 2

Qibli

Why didn't Moon tell me sooner?

It was a simple question – one much simpler than Qibli usually had, and also one he sort of knew the answer to already. He was externally silent as he walked down a long, narrow corridor that was seldom taken anywhere (he had chosen this deliberately). Moon had never seemed like a very trusting dragon to him, or at least, not one that liked to spill all her secrets – even through his confusion, Qibli could see the pain she was going through explaining what she did. The fact that she didn't like to admit things led to another question, though, and not one he liked at all: What else is she hiding?

...Starting to sound like Winter, he cracked a slight smile in spite of himself.

Only a few seconds passed before he was torn from his thoughts, his eyes catching the movement of another dragon around a far-up corner. An Icewing, from the looks of them.

Changbai, his mind started instantly as soon as he recognized them, Silver Winglet. Don't know as much about him as I'd like to, I should look into him. He's well-composed like all the Icewings here, but his front talons are awkward, he's not as good with fighting as the others. Or maybe something happened to him? He doesn't look like the type to set up a bomb. He does look a little paranoid, but that makes sense considering the tension between our tribes – maybe I should ask him how much he knows about–

By the time Qibli started to open his mouth to call over, Changbai had already swept down another nearby hall.

...Camel farts.

Qibli eventually set foot back into the hall leading to his sleeping cave. Winter and Turtle were nowhere to be seen; it looked like he was the first one here – surprising, given his detour. He sighed and leaned on one of the walls of the cave, finally allowing his mind to ask yet another, possibly even more dreadful question: What has she heard from my mind?

He wanted to believe Moon when she said she hadn't heard much, but he had been entrusted with dozens of Sandwing secrets that couldn't possibly be allowed to fall into the hands of another tribe, especially one as secretive as the Nightwings. If Moon had heard something extremely confidential and then reported it to the other Nightwings… he didn't want to believe Moon was that kind of dragon. But, then again, he didn't want to believe she was a mind reader either, yet here they were.

If Moon turned into a liability for Thorn and the Sandwing kingdom, what would he do? What could he even do? He'd have to remove her from the equation in some way – those secrets were far too dangerous.

If she started giving them away to other Nightwings or the highest bidder, he couldn't just… kill her, could he?

The Sandwing just stood there restlessly for at least an hour, not even sitting down– he occasionally paced the floor but mostly just waited for the others to arrive so he could make sure the winglet wasn't totally fractured. Indeed, after an hour had passed, he heard the scraping of talons along the ground from up the corridor.

He saw that Moon was back, walking carefully past him and toward the cave while keeping her wings low and appearing non-threatening. For a few seconds, Qibli stared at her. Moon, what in all of Phyrria am I gonna do about you?

Quickly recognizing she must have heard his thoughts considering a shift in her expression, he internally slapped himself.

"...Sorry about everything, Moon," Qibli said eventually, half about his scrambled, hostile thoughts and half about Winter having so abruptly dragged her away. Moon paused, turning back toward him from just a few dozen yards down the hall.

"It's alright." She replied evenly, "I had to tell someone sooner or later, it was the right thing."

You don't totally believe that, do you? He thought. Moon looked away awkwardly.

Sensing the tension, Qibli attempted to change the subject. "Hey, at least your wing's stopped bleeding," he commented, approaching to be a little nearer to her.

Moon twisted her neck to look at where the source of the blood had previously seemed to be. "Turtle fixed it," she said simply, giving Qibli the impression she wasn't in a talkative mood right now. He adjusted his wings subtly.

"That's good... I think I'm gonna go see if I can find the culprit. You wanna come along? Could help get your mind off things," Qibli proposed, but Moon barely took half a second to reply.

"I'd like to, but the founders have ordered everyone to their sleeping caves except Carnelian," she said quietly.

"They did?" He asked, his mind quickly searching for why they would've made an exception for such an aggressive dragoness, "Where's everyone else then?"
He immediately got his answer by way of hearing someone clear their throat from just behind him. Qibli twisted his head again and noticed Turtle was standing behind him awkwardly, Kinkajou being a short distance behind the Seawing prince.

With a subtle "ah", Qibli began moving awkwardly back toward his own sleeping cave.

"Well… try and get some rest then, Moon." the Sandwing said warily, laying down on his sleeping cave bunk and sighing. "We're gonna need it."

By the time Qibli had woken up, it was just him in the sleeping cave again. Turtle sliding out of the cave with even less energy than usual was what had woken him up in the first place – Winter had probably left even earlier (if he'd ever even been here). Most likely, neither the Icewing nor the Seawing had gotten much sleep, if indeed any at all.

Qibli stood up and stretched his wings, taking notice of a sign written in chalk on the wall. In subdued letters, it read: GATHER IN THE GREAT HALL AT THE BELLS.

Assuming this was in every sleeping cave and wasn't exclusive to the Jade Winglet, this was a pretty good opportunity to catch the culprit of yesterday's crime – everyone would finally be in one place. The Sandwing walked over to the junction in-between the male and female sleeping caves, slowing down briefly to consider what he was about to say. On the one hand, he could get Moon to help him find the culprit from yesterday with her mindreading, but in retrospect on the offer he had made, he was admittedly hesitant to give her his trust back again – though maybe she would accept now simply to clear her name... if she was truthful about whomever she accused of having suspicious thoughts.

I can investigate her claims myself though, he reassured himself, if she can just give me a lead, that's good enough. I don't know how much she actually knows about the stuff in my head, but all that really means is that this is a good opportunity to see just how much I can trust her when she says she doesn't know anything. Besides, it's the best bet I've got – I'm not exactly swimming in alternatives. I'll just have to observe her a little more closely for now.

Around that moment, Qibli noticed Moon walking out of her own cave groggily, only barely seeming to take notice of him as she yawned. The Sandwing beckoned her awkwardly with a wing. "Morning, Moon, I was just waiting for you. It's late – the bells will be ringing soon, I imagine."

Moon– still only halfway awake– nodded vaguely. "We should probably get that over with," she conceded, walking to Qibli's side while rubbing her eyes. "The sooner we find whoever did that, the less dragons will get hurt."

Qibli grinned. "And the sooner we can convince Winter your powers aren't totally evil, of course."

Moon nodded glumly, and Qibli frowned. Apparently, she wasn't in the mood for such humor, even after a night to sleep on it. "Well, let's get moving."

Qibli began to walk down the semi-natural tunnel and turned to look at her passingly, speaking in a low voice. "So how do your powers work, if you don't mind me asking? What can or can't you see? Can you just dig around in a dragon's brain to find out anything you want?"

Moon glanced to the side as though not entirely wanting to answer, but eventually replied, "It's more like walking into a room and hearing a conversation; I think I pick up whatever is going through a dragon's brain when I'm near them. Sometimes it's clear, linear thoughts, and sometimes it's a jumble of words, and sometimes it's pictures – and I get a lot of emotions, too. Sometimes it's so strong that it's hard to tell what I'm feeling, myself. And it's always louder and stronger when I'm touching someone." Qibli noticed her claw reaching toward him. Probably just for demonstration, but nevertheless the jittery Sandwing moved to the side slightly to avoid it. Moon didn't look very surprised, but in a sort of way that gave Qibli the feeling she was berating herself internally in some way or another for even offering.

"Look, Moon…" Qibli started, slowing down his pace. "I know you feel like not telling us about your powers sooner was terrible of you, but… well, I don't actually blame you for it."

"…Why not?" Moon asked after a second.

"Because I'd do the exact same thing."

Moon stared at him for a few seconds. "…You think so?"

"Read my mind if you've gotta, it's true." Qibli nodded, "Besides the obvious advantages of having nobody know about your powers, they're still abilities a lotta people would be pretty offended by. I'd definitely fear for my life, my friends, my family… not sure I could bring myself to tell anyone about it. Except queen Thorn, of course. It's a good thing you told us, but I really can't blame you at all for holding off on it."

Moon stayed quiet for a little bit. Qibli knew Moon at least sort of held her chin up in some fashion, so he hoped that was meaningful – it wouldn't be good to have Moon be thoroughly demotivated and full of self-deprecating thoughts by the time they actually got to investigation.

"That reminds me… I'd wanted to ask you something, if it's alright," Moon said quietly, and Qibli inclined his head. "Do you know what the matter is with Winter?"

Two gongs sounded. Qibli decided to pick back up the pace to be the same as before he'd slowed down.

"He doesn't like to proclaim it to every dragon he meets, but he's actually the nephew of Queen Glacier." Qibli replied with a sarcastic grin, "I imagine that's at least three-quarters of it."

Moon, however, was shaking her head. "I don't mean like that. His thoughts are all… weird. There's this sort of feeling of self-loathing about him, like this constant anger he's feeling is mostly to himself, not me or anyone else around."

Qibli didn't immediately reply. Winter? Self-loathing? Externally, it'd certainly seemed like Winter absolutely loved to be who he was (the nephew of Queen Glacier!) – he was having trouble picturing Winter thinking very poorly of himself, let alone utterly hating himself.

"Probably he isn't living up to Icewing prince standards," he said eventually, "hates himself for failing the Icewing kingdom – in his own eyes, that is. Can't imagine what else it could be."

Moon frowned. "He feels… hurt."

"Being seen as a failure tends to do that. Something specific happened that made him feel like a failure, maybe." Qibli shrugged, making the final turn toward the main room. "I'm sorry, important as that is, we'll have to discuss it later – there's a lotta dragons gathered here."

The main hall was utterly packed with dragons, only a few more were trickling in occasionally. The other dragons of Jade Mountain were all gathered, with the five teachers and Fatespeaker on a raised ledge facing them. Qibli could clearly read their faces and all the emotions that laid beneath them, even from here without any sort of mindreading.

Sunny: devastated. Tsunami: furious. Clay: grieving. Starflight: anxious and trying desperately to puzzle out what had happened. Fatespeaker: Scared for Starflight, probably. And Webs, who mostly looked relieved he hadn't been at the site of the explosion at the time – from the murmurs Qibli was hearing, it sounded like he'd been late to class that day and had therefore survived.

The students, on the other talon, were a mess of jumbled emotions, by the looks of it – most of them just looked scared, worried, or occasionally angry. He picked out his clawmates among the crowd: Winter was standing with a group of other Icewings mostly surrounding him and Icicle; Turtle was in a densely-packed part of the crowd with a mostly neutral expression, Kinkajou right beside him and keeping her head high up to see properly; and Carnelian was near the front, looking thoroughly exhausted and sleep-deprived. He was getting the impression Carnelian had spent all night looking for the person who had set off the bombs, to no success.

The final thing Qibli noticed was Moon's face. She looked utterly terrified, her pupils shrinking as she stared at the enormous crowd and took a step back, her breathing becoming more labored.
It only took Qibli a second or so to figure out what was happening: She was feeling all of their emotions at once.

He took a step toward her and whispered reassuringly, "Remember you're feeling everyone else's fear. It's not all yours."

This seemed to at least lessen Moon's stress slightly, but not by much. "...I can't… approach a crowd that big. There's no way I could pick out one person to listen to," she managed.

Qibli glanced to both sides. He was banking on the idea that she'd developed some sort of way to counteract large groups of dragons by now – had she really been going through this much stress every time she was in a crowd? How in Phyrria had she not lost her mind yet? "You can stay back here then, I'll see what I can do. There'll be another time when there's less dragons, we can try then."

Moon nodded glumly. "I'm sorry, Qibli."

"It's alright. I'm perfectly used to finding things out without reading minds, I'm sure I'll do fine."

With that, Qibli walked toward the crowd as a third gong echoed throughout the school. Coincidentally, a loud burst of thunder occurred just afterward – rain was starting, and by the looks of those clouds, it was going to be a rather heavy storm.

"Sandwing." An iconically cold voice said from behind him just before he entered the crowd, and Qibli noticed Winter had broken off from the other Icewings. "I thought that Nightwing was going to use her… you know… her thing to catch whoever set off that fire bomb. Where is she?"

Qibli glanced back toward Moon in the back corner and swiftly came to the conclusion that Winter was better off knowing the whole problem. "I need to explain a few things about how it works. We've still got a minute 'til the inevitable speeches start, follow me." He said quickly, him and Winter moving past the crowd into an empty side cave.

As soon as they were inside, Qibli explained exactly how Moon's mind-reading worked. From there, he also explained the other problem – the one she was facing now, with her clearly having a headache from all the thoughts. He was being especially sure to go through it slowly but concisely, estimating he had about two minutes until the founders started speaking – just enough time to explain everything important.

Winter, for his part, seemed much more sympathetic than Qibli had expected – even if he was obviously apprehensive. Given Winter had just referred to Moon as "Nightwing" a minute ago, Qibli had guessed the Icewing prince would be prickly and uncaring, but he did actually seem to care. For sure, that didn't mean he was very sympathetic in general, or even that he entirely believed what Qibli was saying, but it was a massive step up from Qibli's expectations. Moon was definitely correct in her assessment that Winter had more going on in his head than the first few layers of his personality indicated.

"Remind me why I'm supposed to trust the same dragon who lied about not even having any powers in the first place," Winter growled lowly.

"If you're suspicious about it then look at her body language, not her words. Trust me, her face really gave away how much pain she was in when she entered that room." Qibli shrugged his wings, "We'd know if that pain was being faked, trust me. See for yourself if you don't believe me."

"So either we have to wait," Winter snorted, apparently either deciding that it wasn't worth pushing or (at least partially) believing Qibli, "or she figures out a way to just deal with it. There has to be some sort of way to get her to be fine with crowds…"

"Here's hoping. But I couldn't say how possible that is. I'm no mind reader, myself." Qibli replied fairly.

"You're frustratingly close sometimes," Winter growled, and Qibli held back a snort of amusement.

"Well, we're burning daylight – figuratively, considering the storm. I've gotta start seeing who's sad, who's apathetic, and who's happy about the situation." Qibli said quickly, turning toward the doorway while still facing his head toward Winter. "Also, it's probably better you refer to us by names, y'know? There's at least six Nightwings in this school I can name off the top of my head, the term "Nightwing" doesn't really cut it anymore – particularly with her being unique in her abilities."

Winter scoffed slightly, his body still. "Duly noted."

Shrugging, Qibli walked out to the main cave while leaving Winter to do whatever he was going to. Whether Winter wanted to help him or not, that was up to him – he needed to make that decision himself.

Right now, Qibli had a murderer to catch.

AN: Hopefully y'all don't mind the divergence in making the chapter from Qibli's perspective. If you're reading this for a second time after its release, you didn't go insane - the story flows much better now cause I went back and edited it.

Also, weekly reminder that the Discord server cohosted by myself and Firehawk1100 still exists.
Link: discord .gg/yJJ6j5jMsd

Chapter Text

AN: As you may have guessed, I'm trying to release one chapter every week, on Tuesdays (at random times).

I don't have too much to say in this case. The chapter speaks for itself. Thank you all for the support, it really helps with keeping me going!

In any case, do enjoy!

Chapter 3

Moonwatcher

Moon watched carefully as Qibli disappeared into the crowd. She was trying to focus solely on his thoughts as a sort of way to try and ignore everyone else, but it wasn't working very well – doubly so as Qibli was moving further and further away from her. She couldn't just ignore the other voices, it didn't work like that; she needed to muffle them, cut them out entirely, do something or another to just make them stop and shut UP–

Instinctively, Moon shook her head and inched away from the crowd of stressed dragons, backing into a corner. She jumped a little when the third gong sounded throughout the school, and jumped even more when it was followed by a crackling thunderclap from the cave entrance. She was at wits end.

One dragon passively glanced back at her, but she wasn't sure who. There's that Nightwing again, the dragon's thoughts shifted, much louder now that they were focused on her. She was there at the explosion, wasn't she? And now she's trying to hide behind out of sight… maybe she's hiding something. Was it YOU who set off the explosion, Nightwing? Is that why you're cowering?!

No! It wasn't! Moon thought desperately, but she knew the other dragon couldn't hear a thing. It was useless.

Thankfully though, the hostile dragon changed its attention to someone else at random, leaving Moon to continue being assailed by several dozen scared and angry dragons' thoughts once more. Moon lied down on the floor, pressing her talons against her head as though that would somehow help somehow. She wasn't sure whether this constant barrage was better or worse than a singular dragon's pointed, accusatory thoughts.

I… need… quiet!
In a move of desperation, Moon turned tail and sprinted toward the outside of the cave, keeping her wings close to herself as she ran.

A momentary surge of suspicion and surprise arose from the gathered dragons near enough to notice, but nothing worth worrying about – and nothing Moon was intent on letting herself listen to. She continued to run toward the entrance to the school, approaching the sound of the falling rain and the occasional boom of thunder. She could hear the noisy minds of the dragons in the grand hall beginning to fade, diminishing further and further until they were like vague mumbles in a nearby room.

At around this distance, Moon skidded to a halt at the very entrance of Jade Mountain. Rain was pouring down just in front of her talons, occasional drops of water falling onto her wings from the ceiling as she stared out into the seemingly endless storm.

The rain was… soothing, in a way. The constant falling of the rain, not yet too harsh but providing a thick enough curtain of water that it was difficult to see far away mountain ranges… she felt like her worries, her pain, and her troubles could all just be washed away like mud from her scales. Even the booming thunder was like a quiet whisper next to what she had just experienced. She let the sound of the rain slowly envelop everything around her, drowning out the rambunctious (albeit distant) thoughts from the horde of dragons in the cavern, bringing her a gradual wave of relief from the nonstop noises of the dragon-made world around her.

She didn't need to worry about anything else or anyone else right now, it was just her and the falling rain.

She had no idea how long she was there. Seconds? Minutes? Hours? Time became indistinct and uncertain, but she was fine with this. For once, in her life, the entire world was quiet, leaving her thoughts free to roam about–

"Moonwatcher?" A cool voice from just a tail's length behind her said in a mixed tone.

Moon didn't even know she was capable of jumping as high as she did as a reflex. She flapped her wings once and turned swiftly to face the other dragon (after correcting herself, of course; she'd overcompensated and swung at least 260 degrees), eyes wide open with shock.

Winter had also apparently been startled by this. The Icewing prince had taken a quick step backward, blinking while staring at her. The two looked at one another without moving for nearly thirty seconds before Moon's mind formulated a coherent thought before Winter's could: I didn't hear him approaching.

I couldn't hear his thoughts.

"Sorry," she said quickly, doing her best to not stumble over her words, "I wasn't expecting to see you here, Winter."

Composing himself, Winter adjusted his wings with a huff. "I'm here to…" Help you? Create ideas? See if you're alright? "To see whether or not you have a way to approach crowds without acting all pathetic."

Moon tilted her head. "I didn't, but…. I think I might now."

Seeing Winter tilt his head, she continued; "While you were approaching, I couldn't hear what you were thinking. It was like your thoughts were drowned out by the rain – like you weren't even there."

The Icewing prince arched an eye ridge suspiciously. "So you… 'hear' thoughts very literally."

"Well… no…" Moon started, "I suppose it wasn't like your thoughts were being drowned out, more like they were… part of the rain, I guess. Like they were as present in my mind as any of these drops of rain. It's hard to describe."

The more she said, the more awkward she felt; and the less understanding Winter seemed to have. This was particularly worrying given Winter was already deeply suspicious of her: Many of his thoughts had to do with asking himself how much of this was just lies and nonsense made to throw him off. Eventually, however, Winter turned his head toward the inside of the cave. "If you can avoid being useless and can actually listen, then that's what's important," he stated at a length.

Before Moon could respond, herself, Winter began to walk down through the entrance, his thoughts jumbled but generally along the line of "don't stay longer than necessary or you'll say something you'll regret". The spines along his body made a faint clattering noise as he walked deeper into the cave.

On the one hand, Moon sort of wanted to ask some questions to him – something or another that might help to find the actual reason for his apparent self-loathing. But between her having no idea what to say and him not trusting her after she revealed her mind-reading, she decided not to bother.

...And then immediately felt stupid for not trying to practice drowning peoples' thoughts out before jumping straight to trying it on an entire crowd.

"Winter?" She called over, and the Icewing turned his head while pausing. "Could you come back? I want to practice drowning out your thoughts."

"Absolutely not." Winter scoffed while turning to face her, "You could have free roam of my mind while pretending to practice."

Moon opened her mouth but knew it would be no use to just say 'I wouldn't do that'. Besides, thoughts were clearer and louder when they were about her, so if Winter was thinking about her the whole time then practice would be nearly impossible anyway.

"Alright. Sorry." She said quietly. His thoughts began to fade, and Moon stayed for a minute to take in the sounds of the rain a little more.

If there was anything she'd found out specifically, it's that things weren't as bad as she had expected. Winter definitely trusted her much less than he used to – everyone in her winglet did – but at least she wasn't back at square one like she probably would be if she'd kept the secret for longer. It was possible this was going to turn out alright.

Yes, it was alright. Everything was going to be fine.

She hoped.

"Oh hey. You're back, Moon?" Qibli asked, a short distance outside of the crowd.

Moon nodded. She'd spent the past few minutes just figuring out what exactly it was about the rain that had so effortlessly drowned out Winter's thoughts, and it wasn't actually that hard when she figured it out – all she had to do was put each thought into a mental falling raindrop. From there, they were just one raindrop among hundreds; nothing of notice, nothing worth paying attention to. She could just ignore the thoughts.

…Mostly on a smaller scale. This amount of thoughts was harder to manage, but at least she could bear it now (for a while, anyway). "Did you find anything out?"

"A little." Qibli looked toward the crowd, "I've got a coupla suspects. Nothing concrete yet – I was hoping you'd be able to look into them later down the line, when this crowd is broken up. But if you feel comfortable…"

"It might be good for me to get some experience with crowds," Moon admitted.

"Do what you feel comfortable with. Don't push yourself," Qibli replied. "I'll go to the first suspect I've got – you can follow or not."

"Wait," Moon said quickly, and Qibli paused from having just begun to turn. "We need to be able to talk without… talking. I think it might be a little bit conspicuous to be talking about 'Let us see if this dragon is the killer' in the middle of a crowd."

The Sandwing tilted his head, pondering over it for a few seconds before thinking: What about this? Does this work-? Nod your head if this works.

Moon nodded.

It'll only be one-way, but it'll do. I tend to talk more anyway, Qibli mused in his mind, entering the mass of dragons.

Clay was speaking just now, and Moon followed Qibli into the crowd. It was much harder when she was inside of it and the noises were coming from all around – she did as best she could to just focus on Qibli's thoughts for the moment and let the others fall away like drops of rain.

Only half listening to Clay's speech, she sidled through the crowd until she was directly behind the dragon whom Qibli was apparently thinking of – a thin, aggressive Seawing named Pike. Carefully she disengaged from Qibli's mind and opened up to the swarm of thoughts around her so she could find Pike's thoughts.

Maybe I should go home. But is it any safer there?

It must have been someone in this cave. It could be the dragon right next to me. She does look kind of smug. That worm; I should bite her.

I heard the whole cave exploded and then collapsed. Maybe the whole mountain will collapse next. I knew it was stupid to live somewhere with rock over your head all the time.

What would Queen Glory do? She'd know how to protect us.

At least the Princess was nowhere near the fire.

There, that was Pike. She narrowed her focus onto him.

He had a confusing mind. His thoughts rampaged around like wild rhinoceroses; half of them began and then trailed off as he jumped to another. If Anemone had been hurt – maybe Queen Coral is right – can't protect her if I'm dead – dare to kill me, I'll rip of their – that poor little Rainwing – I miss the Deep Palace, nothing catches on fire there – wish I'd had a chance to fight that Nightwing – would've given him a tail whack he'd never forget – never even got to fill his bed with slugs – so pointless, having dead enemies, nobody to yell at – there's Anemone; that Icewing is standing too close to her, maybe I'll go bite him – wonder which one of these idiots set the fire – that'd give me someone to snarl at –

Moon pivoted to meet Qibli's eyes and shook her head, returning to his mind (which was disappointed at her answer). Pike was an odd, bad-tempered dragon – and might be secretly protecting Anemone for Queen Coral – but he wasn't their killer.

Frowning, Qibli beckoned her with a tilt of his head, walking through the crowd. She could hear his mind crossing people off of his list of suspects, even though he already had a well-defined list.

The next dragon on their list, as it turned out from Qibli's mind, made Moon pause and shudder when she heard his mind say it flatly and clearly: Icicle.

It sort of made sense, considering Icicle seemed more than willing to do something like that. She couldn't really think of what motive she could have, but she was still a legitimate suspect nonetheless.

Moon knew she wouldn't be able to get very close, but she edged toward the Icewings anyway. Winter stretched his wings and twisted his neck to search the crowd – for her, Moon realized. When he spotted her, he looked somewhat confused that she and Qibli were going toward him and the other Icewings, but eventually decided to ignore them. I hope she knows what she's doing, his mind admitted reluctantly.

All of the Icewings had sharp, glittery minds, and clumped together like they were, it was even harder to distinguish Icicle's thoughts and read them clearly. They seemed to bounce off the others and be reflected several times over. But after a minute of concentrating, Moon found herself balanced on the sword's edge that was Icicle's brain.

By the teeth of the Great Ice Dragon, this is boring as sand, Icicle grumbled internally. I shall certainly tell Mother and Father and Aunt Glacier what a waste of time this entire school is. What have I learned so far? Even dragons who have been to war can be pitiful emotional wrecks. Icewings are superior to every other tribe – of course we knew that already. And don't set any dragons on fire, or else a bunch of sentimental soft-talons will cry and moralize and lecture you about it endlessly afterward. YAWN.

Moon tipped her head. Was that an admission of guilt? It was hard to tell.

I should also tell her this place has done something frightful to Winter. Clearly he's too weak to associate with dragons from other tribes – he's talking like he might almost find them interesting. I wonder if I should tell him about Hailstorm. He wouldn't try to stop me, I don't think, but it would be too tiresome if he did.

Moon wished she could circle back and hear that again. Or bite Icicle on the tail for her nonstop insults. Who was Hailstorm?

Icicle made an impatient movement, and Winter shot her a warning glance. Her sister rolled her eyes. Why are they STILL GOING ON ABOUT THIS? Two dragons died, so what? I've killed nine times that in almost every battle I've been in. We don't need to HEAR about it ENDLESSLY. They should just find the dragon who did it and give them a slow, horrible death. Perhaps by making them listen to Starflight for the next hundred years. That would certainly stop them from interfering in my own affairs.

Up on the dais, Starflight was earnestly trying to explain something about psychological trauma. Moon slid quietly away from the group of Icewings and back to Qibli, then shook her head. It didn't sound as though Icicle had done it either, although she had a deeply cold, unpleasant mind. She would have to ask Winter about some of the things she'd heard later.

Qibli beckoned surreptitiously, flicking one of his wings at the far wall. Moon followed his gaze to Flame, who was brooding in a shadow by one of the torches.

He is a Skywing, Qibli thought, and looked at Moon. Perhaps?

She lifted her wings in a "maybe" gesture, and leaned over to whisper to Qibli. "I'm starting to get a headache… I think I can only handle one or two more," she said in as quiet a voice as she could muster. Qibli nodded faintly.

Moon started making her way over to the scarred Skywing. Tsunami was speaking now, explaining that they would catch the culprit and asking for anyone with information to come forward.

Moon could just imagine that conversation: "Hello, I have information about the bomb, which I gathered by listening in on my classmates' thoughts and dreams. That's OK, right? I didn't see 'no telepathic spying on your friends' in the student syllabus…"

Although she was trying to move subtly, one step every thirty seconds or so, Flame swung his head around to glare at her when she was still several paces away. She froze in place and kept her eyes on Tsunami, checking Flame's mind. Did he know she was deliberately getting closer to him?

If he did, she couldn't tell. It seemed as if he was just projecting hostility at everyone indiscriminately, and she'd wandered across his field of hatred.

Darkness filled his head like a torrent of inky bile. She found herself glancing down at her talons, half expecting to see black stains left there from even brushing the surface of Flame's thoughts.

But this will convince her to come get me no of course not she'd rather leave me with fools and killers than take care of me herself even after what the Nightwings did to me eve after what Viper did to me even after what the Talons of Peace did to me she's the one who's supposed to care about me but she doesn't no one does will she even worry about me when she hears probably not she hates my face as much as I hate my face I wish I could rip of every Sandwing's venom barb and use them to stab all the Nightwings in their smug snouts–

Moon's stomach hurt as though she'd eaten a tree full of rotting fruit. Flame's fury sucked her in and trapped her like a beetle in slime; she couldn't climb out, and she couldn't get clean, and she felt as if all the light was being slurped right out of her.

And then, wound into the tangled gloom in Flame's head, she heard: I wish I'd done it everyone would take me seriously then but I wouldn't hide it I'd roar it to the world–

So it wasn't him. And she needed to get out of his brain, before she drowned here.

She hadn't really had trouble dropping focus on one dragon's mind before (provided their thoughts weren't focused on her), but here, she felt completely and utterly trapped. She vaguely took a step back, but did so a little too quickly, earning a withering stare from Flame. Her pupils shrank as Flame's thoughts began to zero in on her.

That one there maybe she's the one I should kill first she looks weak no I need to kill the strongest of them make them pay and show their weakness besides she's already going to die and be killed by that idiot Icewing anyway–

As it turned out, "that idiot Icewing" was Winter, standing close enough behind her that she could feel the cold radiating from his scales. From what thoughts she could immediately hear, he was here because Qibli had left to investigate someone else and Winter had noticed her expression, which she only now realized was one of terror and some disgust. She shook her head quickly, trying to focus on Winter's thoughts instead, hoping his sharp thoughts were enough to cut her out of the mess that was Flame's head.

-'s going on. She saw something, she must have… or heard something, maybe. Who was it from? Why do I care? That Seawing doesn't even seem to notice her… ah, it must have been the Skywing. Sure enough, the dazzling brightness of Winter's mind – a trait shared by almost all Icewings, as far as she'd seen – had been enough to grant her a foothold to get out of Flame's mind. It also helped that Flame's thoughts were now focused on Winter, the two glaring at each other for a long moment before Winter huffed indignantly and turned around, disappearing back into the mass of dragons.

Moon quickly followed him, keeping herself focused on his thoughts as a sort of an anchor so she didn't get lost in the other thoughts in this vulnerable state (to varying degrees of success). Taking notice of this, Winter exited the crowd, walking a few dragons' lengths from them all and looking at Moon. Is something wrong? "What," he asked curtly with a growl.

"Just wanted to say thank you," Moon replied, keeping her head low. "You're very perceptive – the way that you noticed me and what was happening."

Winter blinked. "…Don't mention it."

After a few moments, he added, "No, seriously, don't mention that. To anyone."

Suppressing a giggle, Moon looked at the crowd. It was probably a good idea to get back to Qibli before he got confused about where she'd gone.

"Have you found who it is yet?" Winter asked, and Moon shook her head.

"We've ruled out a few dragons, but not yet," the Nightwing answered. Winter tapped a talon on the ground impatiently, glancing at the podium.

"Well you'd better find them soon. They're wrapping up." He hissed, moving back to the group of Icewings as though nothing had happened, leaving Moon to re-instate her thoughts of raindrops and selectively put peoples' thoughts into them.

Entering the crowd, and doing her best to touch as few dragons as possible (to little success), she nearly bumped into Qibli. Moon, there you– I thought you'd– where– After fumbling a few words, Qibli recovered fast and thought: Glad to see you. Was it Flame?

Moon shook her head.

Is the headache still a problem? He thought. Again, Moon shook her head; the coolness of Winter's thoughts and the few moments outside of the crowd had done her better than she'd expected.

Well, I might have one more idea then, if you're up to it, Qibli thought. Follow me – we've got no time to waste.

AN: One of my favorite things in book 6 was the stark contrast between Winter's thoughts and his words. I tried to really catch that in this chapter, here's top hoping I succeeded.

I'll be seeing you in the next chapter!

Once again, weekly reminder that the Discord server co-hosted by myself and Firehawk1100 is up, running, and pretty active!
Link: discord .gg/yJJ6j5jMsd

Chapter Text

AN: Gonna precede this by saying that if you have any worries at any point through any chapter, in the bottom-side Author's Note I try to address any controversial choices I make. Please do give me feedback, I want to know what I'm doing well and what I'm doing poorly!

Anyway, hope you enjoy this chapter! It was certainly an interesting one to write.

Chapter 4

Moonwatcher

Moon didn't even have to pay particular attention to Qibli to know who had caught his eye. Onyx… the Sandwing.

Moon wanted to ask him why he'd suspect someone from his own tribe, but the more she thought about it as she passed through the crowd, the more she started to understand why. He had the most experience with the Sandwings and probably knew just about all of them that were here, so of course he would know which ones would pull an attack like this.

Onyx was currently huddled with the other Sandwings. It looked like the speech was just about ending, but the Sandwings were going nowhere. No, they seemed more interested in talking about their next move.

At a certain distance away from them, Moon pretended to do nothing and sit around idly, internally letting her mind open to the draining number of thoughts around her.

Finally, thought this would never end–

So I'm not going home yet?–

If they don't catch the dragon who's responsible in the next TEN SECONDS–

Peregrine is going to the prey center, should I join her?–

Moon tilted her head. Usually, a dragon's thoughts reflected what they were saying, but Onyx was talking about the Sand kingdom. Moon couldn't seem to find the Sandwing's thoughts.

After about thirty seconds and after many other dragons had cleared out, Moon was beginning to feel more and more anxious. All of the Icewings except Winter had left, the Jade Mountain founders had dispersed, most dragons but the Sandwings were gone, and Qibli had even joined them in conversation – but she still couldn't find Onyx's voice.

By the time Onyx moved to a corner of the small huddle of dragons, Moon swiftly realized what was going on.

She couldn't hear Onyx's thoughts at all.

There was just a faint hum coming from the bejeweled Sandwing. Just like Turtle, Moon realized – had they figured out she was a mind reader? Did they know how to block her thoughts?

She vaguely motioned Qibli over with a wing. He tilted his head, said a brief 'I'll be right back' to the other Sandwings, and approached her. "Something wrong, Moon?"

Moon lowered her voice to a whisper. "I can't hear her."

Qibli blinked. "Pardon?"

"It's like that with Turtle, too. I can't hear anything Onyx is thinking, there's just this faint hum."

The Sandwing frowned. Why are they able to block her mind reading? Do they know about it? No, they don't seem to have any kind of adverse reaction to seeing her. Are they doing it unintentionally? Is Moon just lying to me? No, she ain't got the face of someone who's lying. "I guess we see if there's any similarities between them. Find common factors."

"We can try…" Moon replied, "but I think… I think I need a break. I'm sorry, I…" She put a talon on her head, and Qibli leaned over.

"Don't worry about it, Moon. I can figure it out from here." I'm pretty sure, anyway. "Take a break. Don't worry about me."

Moon nodded, walking slowly back toward her sleeping cave to lay down. The few times she'd opened her mind deep inside the crowd had been plenty tiring and headache-inducing, it was hard to even put the other dragons' thoughts into raindrops anymore.

Be she just needed some rest. Everything would be fine after that.

-
Winter

Winter watched as the other Icewings all trailed behind Icicle and left the great hall. He didn't need to be a mind reader to understand that none of them had been particularly invested in the speech, and frankly, he hadn't been very interested either. He had better things to do than listen to Webs drone on about the definite historic significance of this attack.

Such as… thinking about Moon.

Winter was tempted to bite his own tail for that. She'd betrayed his trust like any other Nightwing undoubtedly would, why should he care about her anymore? He had no reason to feel a single ounce of pity or remorse for how harshly he'd treated her, no reason to spare her a second more thought than the rest of his idiot winglet – besides the fact that she was a threat and potentially a liability. And that he should hate her. And that she was a Nightwing.

The Icewing prince glanced around momentarily and noticed Moon staggering off back toward her sleeping cave with one talon to her head. In spite of everything he'd just told himself mere seconds ago, he involuntarily took a step forward and wondered whether or not he should check on her.

"Prince Winter," a smooth, icy voice called from behind him. Winter turned and saw that Ermine was standing a short distance from him, at the edge of a hall that the other Icewings had gone through. "Are you coming?"

"…I'll come when I see fit, no earlier." Winter answered in a posh tone, regretfully turning around and sweeping majestically down the hall and past Ermine, who bowed and followed behind him.

It was a surprisingly short walk before he entered the small cave currently housing the other Icewings. Icicle, Changbai and Alba all momentarily turned their heads to look at him, the latter two bowing their heads subtly. Icicle, however, merely scoffed.

"Pray tell… what, dear brother, were you doing waiting so long?" Icicle asked coldly. Winter stopped next to Alba.

"Observing." He answered, "Nothing more."

Icicle definitely seemed suspicious, but nonetheless turned her attention to the four Icewings before her. "Whatever. We can all agree that this school is beyond worthless and frankly not worth the effort of saving from this… alleged terrorist. Yes?" She stated to a sharp vocalization of assent from the others.

"Then there is no need to waste time hunting down the attempted killer, is there? For the moment, we can focus on more important matters." She said smoothly.

"It could…" Winter started, and Icicle turned a dangerously bored glare toward him. "…give us something to do. You know how unappreciated Icewing skills are, especially in this pathetic excuse for a school, so why not we hunt for them? We're all much better hunters than anyone else in this cave."

"Not as though there is any real competition to speak of." Icicle sighed, "Must I remind you, brother, that catching this assailant would merely make this dreary place less likely to shut itself down forever?"

Winter flicked his tail, unphased. "Or it could give the teachers reason to incorporate fighting lessons, actual hunting lessons, and other things we have been saying is important this entire time."

"Oh? Are you suggesting we might merely stay here afterwards and wait to see if they make the school enjoyable?" Icicle hissed.

"Obviously, we wouldn't just wait," Winter retorted, "we would do other things here to demonstrate the superiority of Icewing education so that they bother to adopt it."

Alba blinked. "Pardon my intrusion, Prince Winter," she said slowly, "but wouldn't that be teaching the other tribes Icewing strategies and tactics? What would we gain of learning what we already know?"

Winter huffed after a long second and said nothing.

"Then it is settled. Unless you would like to help my brother in trying to keep us all here forever and teach the other tribes all of our secrets, you will not participate in any sort of help to capture this bumbling mess of a murderer." Icicle hissed curtly, turning and sweeping away down the hall.

Alba followed almost immediately, and Changbai did likewise a second later. It looked almost like Ermine was about to stay before he reluctantly ran off to catch up with the other Icewings.

For far from the first time, Winter was alone.

Only this time, it was because of this idiot school and his idiot "friends" making him sentimental about this worthless cave. Maybe Icicle was right – something weird was going on with his head, and he didn't like it at all.

After stewing for a while, he exited the cave through the opposite tunnel, flinching slightly when an exceptionally loud thunderclap tore through the cavern. There was no thunder or lightning in Queen Glacier's palace, or near enough to it to be audible from the place. Therefore, the sound of thunder was still mostly foreign to him, even if he'd read about it and occasionally heard it on voyages.

He moved silently but somewhat quickly back toward his cave while ignoring anyone else around (although there were surprisingly few dragons). He walked through the junction between the male and female sleeping caves for Jade Winglet and into the cave for male dragonets, scanning the room and seeing only Turtle, curled in a circle with his tail over his snout as he was reading some kind of Seawing fantasy novel.

At least Qibli wasn't here. He'd probably bug Winter about a million unrelated trifles for so long that neither of them would end up getting any sleep. Winter sat down on his own bed and sighed dramatically, his mind a complete and utter blank.

"…Hello." Turtle said awkwardly after a few seconds, and Winter turned to fix a glare on the Seawing prince.

"What," he asked sternly.

"Haven't really gotten a chance to talk to you, that's all." Turtle shrugged.

Winter blinked slowly and then turned his head away. Great. I suppose I share a room with the two most frustratingly talkative dragons in Phyrria now. "Then talk. Or don't. I don't care."

Turtle cleared his throat. "Y'know, just uh… I've noticed something's been bothering you. I think. Since you got here, I mean – before the whole… explosion thing."

"Perhaps it's the fact that I'm even in this school to begin with. What did I do to deserve this torture?" Winter growled, looking down. Besides failing at everything a Prince is supposed to succeed in.

Turtle perked up slightly. "That's all?"

"What else is there?" Winter snorted.

After a few seconds, Turtle rested his head on the ground again. "If you say so. 'Most everyone is off at the prey center right now, but I'm not hungry."

"Good for you." The Icewing prince grunted, and an uncomfortable silence fell between them. Winter settled down as Turtle seemed to lose interest, and he cautiously tried to actually get some rest.

At least an hour passed before Winter stretched his wings and slid off the bed. As he started to move toward the doorway, Turtle spoke up again.

"Going to the prey center, yourself?" He asked, and Winter glowered down his snout at Turtle.

"Where I'm going is my own business, not yours," he huffed. Turtle shifted his wings slightly but didn't push further as Winter swept out of the cave.

In point of fact, Winter was going to check on Moon. He couldn't help himself. Considering the condition Moon seemed to have been in the last time he saw her, he couldn't stand not knowing anything about it.

He walked down the unfamiliar sub-tunnel to where Moon probably was – assuming she hadn't gone back to the prey center, but he couldn't imagine she was in the mood to be around a hundred dragons clambering all over each others' thoughts.

As soon as he reached the sleeping cave, he was surprised to see that it looked nearly identical to his own. Besides natural cave formations and the like, it really did look about equal in quality and structuring. He had no idea why this was surprising to him – he'd probably expected it to be much lower-quality than his because his cave was housing a Prince, he internally recognized.

Kinkajou wasn't here, but Carnelian and Moon both were. They seemed to be asleep, in fact; probably because there was nothing to do since there were no classes. He wasn't expecting to see Carnelian of all dragons asleep here, but maybe the apparent lack of sleep she'd seemed to have gotten the previous night was a contributing factor.

Winter approached Moon and looked down his snout at the Nightwing. He was never very good at reading facial expressions besides his parents being angry. Was she having a good dream? Having a nightmare? Pretending to be asleep? It was hard to say, but from the furrow of her forehead, he was sure it wasn't the first option.

He glared intensely at Carnelian as though willing her to still be asleep and hesitantly put a wing over Moon's head. He'd read somewhere that other dragons felt hot in the head when they were stressed, and cold was the opposite of heat, so… this couldn't be making it worse, could it? No, surely this is better.

It was only a few seconds before Winter was considering retracting his wing, but apparently, that was enough time for the world to screw him over anyway in the worst way imaginable.

Moon woke up.

"…Winter?" Moon asked groggily, shaking her head.

The Icewing instantly slapped her with his wing, scrambling to regain control of his thoughts as he desperately tried to sound cold and collected again. "Finally. I was beginning to think Nightwings slept forever," he hissed quietly.

Moon groggily turned her head to look at him. Winter didn't even know what he was thinking right now, so hopefully, neither would Moon. "What are you doing in here, Winter?" Moon asked.

Winter, for his part, already had an answer prepared. "I was seeing whether or not you'd gotten any information about the explosion. Did you?"

"No…" Moon shook her head somberly, "But we might find someone soon. It's hard to tell."

"Hm. Then I shall take my leave." Winter grunted, turning to sweep out of the cave. He didn't want to stick around and let Moon ask him any more questions, or worse yet, let Carnelian –

"Icewing." A voice from the back of the room growled, and Winter inclined his head. It was indeed Carnelian, having been woken up by their generally quiet (but still audible) talking. "You should know this cave is for dragonesses only."

Winter blinked. The thought of such a restriction hadn't even occurred to him. Icewings never had any such thing for the sake of efficiency, and that had never been a problem. Nonetheless, he quickly recovered and snorted. "I go where I please. I am the nephew of Queen Glacier, some irrelevant school rules don't dictate where I can and can't be."

"Well, I can." The Skywing replied, rolling out of her bed and growling while approaching Winter. "Come here again and I'll personally tear your horns from your head and your spines from your back, Icewing. Do not make me tell you this again."

Winter's spines bristled while he spread his wings. "You would threaten an Icewing prince? Queen Glacier will have your head for this disrespect."

"Good. Let her try and take it. I've been aching for a good battle in this abysmal cave," Carnelian responded with a hiss.

"Can't you two solve this peacefully?" Moon said quickly, rolling out of her bed and looking at the two larger dragons. Her face gave away that she knew she was powerless to actually stop them, though.

"No. But there'll be no fight. This Skywing is delusional if she thinks she's capable of fighting at anywhere near Icewing levels," Winter snarled.

Carnelian huffed. "How many battles has his majesty been in?"

Winter's eyes narrowed. "Enough to know when an opponent is merely making empty threats."

"Perhaps you need me to prove the legitimacy of my–" Carnelian started. Before she could finish, Moon threw herself between them, spreading her wings.

"Stop! Nobody is fighting anyone!" She cried desperately, and slightly more firmly.

Though Carnelian shrugged her shoulders and didn't reply, possibly respecting Moon's wish, Winter started to reply anyway. Moon had done nothing worthy of his respect, he wasn't about to listen to her on this.

"If the Skywing peasant backs down and apologizes, perhaps I'll consider forgiving–"

Then it hit him… literally.

Moon slapped Winter across the face, not hard enough for her talons to do any damage but hard enough to startle him and send him recoiling significantly. Carnelian also seemed taken aback by her boldness, and both the Skywing and Icewing stared for a few seconds at Moon, neither daring to say anything.

The surprising part wasn't necessarily the fact that someone had slapped someone else. In a cave with two warrior dragons, that was bound to happen eventually. But Moon of all dragons? Slapping an Icewing prince of all dragons? This didn't even feel real for Winter.

Finally, Moon once again stated in a more confident tone, "Nobody is fighting anyone. Go back to your cave please, Winter, and call me over if you need to talk to me."

Winter blinked a few times. He didn't know what to do, so he sort of just backed away up the hall and left Moon's presence.

What in all of Phyrria was that? He asked himself internally, half at her slapping him and half at himself actually backing down. He hadn't taken Moon for the sort at all. She always seemed so… shy. Unassuming. Pathetic. That couldn't have all been a disguise.

Could it?

He collected himself and furled his wings, strutting down the hall and back into his cave while his thoughts droned on. Turtle opened his mouth, no doubt to ask why he was back so soon, but a glare from Winter shut him up instantly. The Icewing walked in a short circle and finally slumped onto his bed, putting his wings over his face with a sigh.

Did I seriously just let myself, an Icewing PRINCE, get bossed around by a NIGHTWING?

But no matter what he did, he couldn't bring himself to walk back and yell at her for it.

…He'd definitely have to rethink his pathetic mental image of Moon now.

AN: If you think about this whole new scene, it was still entirely due to the main two changes of this fanfic: Darkstalker sleeping in and Qibli being actually smart. Things will continue to diverge as we continue, but time will tell - I have a motto to stick as close to canon as possible, but something is bound to break eventually. Hard to say when.

Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed and see you next week!

Chapter Text

AN: So at this point updates are likely going to slow down a lot. I've got stuff happening in real life, and my schedule has shifted such that the time I would usually be writing is gone... I can see why people struggle with consistent upload schedules, lol.

Anyway, this chapter is certainly interesting. As per usual there's explanations for any controversial decisions on my part at the bottom, and feel free to critique the story nonetheless.

Enjoy!

Chapter 5

Qibli

It felt to Qibli as though every dragon in the entire academy must have come to the prey center, but he knew that wasn't true. He counted at least seven dragons missing, not including the founders (although Clay was making his way through the crowd of dragonets and socializing).

Many of the missing dragons were Icewings, which he suspected were probably huddling together in a shady hallway like they often were. Other missing members were some of his clawmates – Turtle, Moon, and Carnelian specifically – who were probably exhausted by the recent turn of events, meaning Qibli would have to leave them alone for the time being. He had a few hours to get to the bottom of who was actually behind the attempted assassinations.

He turned his head toward the cave entrance, recognizing Icicle walking through the cave mouth trailed by Changbai and Ermine. Well, there are the Icewings. The princess's head was held high and she looked dreadfully disgusted by the amount of dragons in the room, but Qibli wasn't worried she would do anything about it with so few Icewings to back her up. He slowly began to make his way toward them to pick up on what they were talking about.

In any case, all of the obvious suspects for the previous crimes (including Icicle) had been outed by Moon as non-options, and none of the Sandwings in the school were stupid enough to do something like this. If it was an Icewing, Icicle would've known and been discovered by Moon… Seawings wouldn't use the explosive cacti after the attack on their home, and Rainwings lacked even concepts of a motivation. The Skywings were the most likely culprits, followed quickly by the Nightwings…

… A ren't I forgetting something?

The Mudwings, so disturbed and anxious in their little corner of the dining cave, had never been a subject of much scrupulosity from Qibli. The way they loafed about and did little but have big appetites seemed harmless – too harmless, maybe. Their anxiety was certainly one of being in danger, he could see, Marsh and Umber looked infinitely concerned for their safety… but they didn't look as worried as Sora.

No, Sora was staring dead at Icicle, her eyes shyly darting from the glistening Icewing to the ceiling and then back again. The other Mudwings didn't seem to notice her or how differently she was acting, but Qibli certainly did. And her behavior didn't sit right with him at all.

But he had no reason to believe she was scared for anything more than her safety. She was Icicle's clawmate, after all. He'd have to put her on a list of suspects and check in on her once he'd finished that list.

"Has this idiot place truly not cleared out by now? It has been HOURS," Icicle complained, wrinkling her snout. "They should have a private hunting area for Icewing royalty… or for all Icewings, for that matter, since I'm feeling generous."

Changbai huffed in agreement. "I shall add it to the list of things this place needs, my princess."

Despite that he was only about two dragons' lengths from the unpleasant Icewings, Qibli phased out of their conversation. It was clear they'd come in here for the same reason as any other dragon – they wanted a bite to eat and wanted to be as unpleasant as possible while doing it. There was no need to pay further attention to them.

…But he was forced to snap his attention back to them when he noticed Sora's head perking up abruptly, looking at Icicle with an intense sort of hatred and in-the-moment interest. Qibli's neck twisted quickly as one of Icicle's wings, outstretched dramatically, brushed against a sharp stalactite on the ceiling… which cracked silently and fell straight down toward Icicle's head.

Time practically froze as Qibli realized he had only a split second to respond. Changbai and Ermine were distracted with giving sneers to other dragonets, and Icicle was being melodramatic about having to eat among such 'lowlifes'. Shoving aside the natural urge to do Phyrria a favor and let Icicle be gone forever, Qibli lunged forward with a swift flap of his wings, launching himself at her and just barely tackling her out of the way of the falling piece of stone, which tore through a section of his wing membrane and shattered on the ground with an ear-piercing crash.

At that very moment, the whole cave erupted in chaos.

"Icicle!" Changbai shouted. He spread his wings and sprang toward her, barreling into Qibli and knocking the Sandwing clean off of her (the princess herself seemed completely stunned by the suddenness of Qibli's 'attack').

"Changbai– wait! I wasn't–" Qibli started, but the Icewing was already swinging a claw at his snout. Qibli quickly raised both of his claws defensively in front of his face, letting out a yelp of pain when Changbai's serrated claws slashed across them.

"I know what I saw." Changbai snarled, raising his other claw without striking. "Assaulting Icewing royalty is grounds for–"

He didn't get any farther than that before a massive Mudwing slammed into his side, knocking him off and sending him tumbling into a defensive posture. Clay, furling his wings and straightening up, looked the Icewing student up and down with a stern glower.

"Changbai, stand down." He grunted calmly, "This was a misunderstanding. Qibli didn't try to end your princess's life, he saved it. Calm down and we'll talk this one out."

Not questioning how Clay knew both of them by name, Qibli scrambled to his feet and pointed a claw at the spot where Icicle had been standing mere seconds ago, ignoring the searing pain from his forelegs. Most of the dragons here had cleared out, making the half-broken stalactite more apparent than ever. "A second or two more and she'd have been more former than formal."

Icicle scoffed and looked down her snout at the surprisingly large piece of rock, before glaring at Qibli in a disgusted manner. "I saw it and was going to move, obviously. Your pathetic attempt at heroism earns you no favors, Sandwing."

Suppressing the urge to roll his eyes, Qibli was at least relieved to see that Changbai seemed to be calming down. Ermine had been entirely focused on guarding Icicle, fixing a steely glare on Qibli but not making another move.

A tense minute passed in near silence before Icicle huffed impatiently. "I almost feel sorry for you. Not even educated enough to know that you should be apologizing right now, no wonder they sent you to this dreadful school."

"Right. Sorry for saving your neck, your highness." Qibli shrugged, interrupting Clay's imminent protest. He straightened up and traced a claw along the base of where the stalactite had fallen from – claw marks were evident along every angle of it. "I think we've got something a bit more pressing though. This was no accident, so I figure we aughtta find out who was responsible."

Icicle scoffed. "Obviously it was someone with a deep jealousy and hatred for Icewings."

Or just for you, Qibli thought grimly, which really means it could've been anybody. "I'll check around. There were a lotta dragons in this room, so there's a lotta suspects."

Clay looked like he was contemplating objecting, but a reassuring nod from Qibli told him the Sandwing was capable of taking care of himself. Instead, Clay began to clean up what had been damaged in the panicked frenzy that had occurred when the stalactite had dropped.

Qibli carefully exited the room while ignoring Changbai's piercing glare. It was better that they think he was clueless as to who it could be – if they knew he knew who it was, they would probably kill the perpetrator before anyone could stop them. It was lucky for him she'd been too focused on him to be considering who the would-be murderer was, but given Icicle was starting to ramble about how it was likely linked to the fireball, she was well on her way to figuring out the mystery herself. He needed to act fast.

This was fine for him. It was almost laughably obvious who it was. The rush of badly-masked emotions on Sora's face right before the incident clearly showed she knew about it beforehand, so even if she didn't commit the crime herself, she was certainly in on it. And her, being in Icicle's winglet, would certainly have some kind of reason to attack. Maybe the other Mudwings were in on it, too – he would have to look into that – but whether she did or didn't do this, she was the best lead he had.

W here would Sora have gone …? And better still, will she even listen to me if I try and help her out? I pretty clearly saved Icicle; she can't be too happy about that. Maybe I should ask someone else to talk to her for me – someone who wasn't involved, and who could see past any lies she might put up – maybe I should talk to–

He nearly bumped into Moon around a corner, narrowly pulling back at the last second as she paused and looked at him. "Moon! Just the dragoness I was hoping to see!"

Moon tilted her head. "Did you find something?"

"Sorta. I'm sure you caught wind of what happened at the prey center. Couple of scared dragons must've run past you by now, all thinking about what happened, right?" Qibli said hopefully, and Moon gave a slow nod. "Stalactite almost dropped on Icicle, I heroically saved her, and am now dully self-charged with solving the mystery of who did it."

"Sora?" The Nightwing said, and Qibli's jaw hung open loosely in astonishment for a second before he realized she must have picked the name from his mind.

"Y-yeah. The working theory is, since I saved Icicle, Sora wouldn't be too happy to see me, so I'd appreciate it if you could…"

Qibli paused. If you could what? Arrest her? "What needs to happen is that Sora needs to be safe. The Icewings are gonna kill her if they get their hands on her, and I don't think that'll be very healthy for anyone involved."

Moonwatcher looked down nervously, scraping one of her talons on the floor. Nobody else was nearby, they'd probably mostly returned to their dorms. "Why don't we just tell the founders?"

"One of us probably should, but leaving Sora unattended is a bad idea, in case the Icewings actually do know it was her." Qibli conceded, "I'll tell the founders. You see if you can locate Sora."

Qibli rushed off down the hall that he remembered would take him in the general direction of the founders' offices. There wasn't a second to lose, he'd spent enough time just plotting out his next moves – as much as he'd have normally liked to chat a while longer.

If he was right and it was Sora, he didn't have much time until Icicle began doing her own interrogation of the rest of her winglet.

And if he was wrong… well, he didn't want to think about what would happen next.

-
Moonwatcher

Moon stood blankly in the hallway, watching Qibli run off toward the caves that probably housed the founders. She felt an odd sort of wrenching feeling in her gut – a similar feeling to what she'd felt right before she had the vision of the cactus explosion, but this time, no vision immediately followed it.

Hastily, she turned around and jogged down the passageway to where she heard thoughts, hoping to look inconspicuous as she tried to get somewhere where there were other dragons so someone could direct her to wherever Sora was; or better still, if she could find Sora herself. The thoughts were a little indistinct – strange, since she didn't remember thoughts being distorted through walls–

Moon quickly froze as Icicle herself strolled majestically past a corner, pausing only briefly to give Moon an icy glare. Moonwatcher shrunk down a little, and the Icewing princess passed with little more than a scoff, two other Icewings following her with similar looks of disdain toward Moon. The only thought she could make out without some painstaking work was 'Nightwing,' and – a little less clearly – 'Sora,' among other names.

She knew. Qibli was right, Icicle had figured it out.

"Changbai. Search the kitchen and library. And you, Ermine, the music cave and infirmary." Icicle ordered with evident frustration, and the two other Icewings gave a brief, sweeping bow while taking off down two separate tunnels. Icicle herself took a third direction, in the same direction as the founders' offices.

Their thoughts reflected off of each other, creating a sort of echoing effect and making it hard to read any one of their personal thoughts – but at least they didn't seem to know where Sora was yet.

She would have to find the gold winglet's residence herself. The sleeping caves were all relatively close together, so going to her own cave was probably a good start.

It took only five minutes for the Nightwing to make her way to the sleeping cave she was starting to get used to, looking at the engraved "Jade Winglet" in a wall next to the entry tunnel. She continued past it and over to the "Gold Winglet" marker, before pausing and staring down the narrow path.

She didn't know what exactly she was going to do, but she had seen the certainty in Qibli's mind and the hatred in the Icewings' minds when they thought about Sora– Icicle was going to kill her, and Moon couldn't let that happen.

Even though Sora tried to kill Icicle . Even though she could have killed any of us. She might've been the same person who killed Bigtail, even . Didn't she care? What about Umber? She must have delayed him… she would never hurt him.

Moon began to hurry down the sleeping cave's corridor, taking the route branching off to the right for dragonesses. Surely Sora would be here. Surely Moon would be able to… hear her thoughts…

…

Silence from up ahead. As Moon peeked into the cave itself, she found it was ominously empty, except for a slowly-melting glazing of ice atop one of the sleeping beds. None of the dragons were in here.

Sora, where are you?

Moon raced back up the tunnel, reaching out with her mind to find Sora's thoughts. The music cave? The underground lake? The art cave? What was Sora thinking about?

After a meager minute of indistinct and faint thoughts, an image of Tamarin came through. Sora had gone back to the infirmary.

Moon whirled and dashed toward that corridor. This had been too time-consuming of a sidetrack, she was out of time. At the mouth of the tunnel leading toward the infirmary, she collided with a small brown dragon, and for a confused moment she thought she'd found Sora already.

"You're not safe–" she started to gasp, and then realized it wasn't Sora. It was Umber.

"I'm not? What?" The Mudwing said, confused.

"What are you talking about." A cool voice asked behind Umber, and Moon recognized Winter standing just next to Umber. She instantly felt the conflict of emotions he experienced at seeing her, but he didn't seem to think about Sora at all – Icicle had kept it from him for reasons unknown.

"Sorry, not you, I have to–" She stepped around Umber.

"Wait," Umber said. "What's wrong?"

Moon hesitated. If I tell Umber what his sister did, it'll destroy him, she thought. If he even believes me… and if Winter doesn't join in attacking Sora.

Besides, she was starting to hear terrified thoughts inside the infirmary. Thoughts of Icicle – from Sora; she knew that Icicle was after her – and thoughts about…

About Sora herself, from a group of furious Icewings.

"I'm sorry," was all she could muster before she took off toward the medical cave. The Icewings were already here. She had still heard a thought from Sora, so there was still time – but not nearly enough time to talk any more with Umber or Winter.

"Wait!" Umber cried, but Moon ignored him. She ran up the winding stone tunnel, her claws scraping against the rock, her wings pulled in, her tail hitting the walls as she ran.

She could hear a quick thought from Winter as both he and Umber were clearly following her. Three Moons, first Icicle storms past with a demand for me to stay put, and now Moon is following in her footsteps of I-won't-tell-you-what's-happening? What in Phyrria is going on?

Finally, she burst into the healing cave, the other two dragons barely ten seconds behind her. Moon skidded to a halt, her breath hitching as she stared at the three Icewings standing in front of her, Icicle in the lead leering over a hunched-down, motionless Sora. The medical staff were missing, maybe fled – and a single red gash was visible across the base of Sora's throat.

Umber gasped as he arrived, his eyes widening with shock, but Moon didn't say anything. She didn't know what she could say – there wasn't anything thing she could do anymore.

She was too late.

Sora was dead.

AN: I realized that Moon has very little experience using her powers pragmatically without Darkstalker around. And furthermore, with her hearing about it second-hand (which is because she got tired the last time), she wasn't as quick to jump to actively searching for thoughts and instead took the more Qibli-like approach of searching wherever made sense.

So yes, I believe this outcome is highly plausible. The thing about the lack of Drakstalker in Moon's mind is that it snowballs.
Hope you enjoyed the chapter, it may be a while until the next one but I'll see you then!

(If you enjoy Wings of Fire or particularly Winterwatcher, feel free to join the Winterwatcher Discord server at https://discord.gg/yJJ6j5jMsd)