Soon the next day, Moon rushed all through Jade Mountain for an hour until she found the familiar SandWing with an amber teardrop earring on his ear. He was stationed at the roots of the mountain. It looked like he had just finished reading a letter and then set it down, looking horrified as he scuffled around some dirt.
Moon landed in front of him in a cascade of black and silver scales; wearing a small skyfire bracelet made of string.
Qibli's face was red and he kept his eyes on the ground, as if pretending she wasn't there.
"Hi," Moon tried after a few awkward moments.
"Hi," he said, reddening even more. She opened her mouth to say something else, but he cut her off and said in a rushed voice, "Look, can this wait? I'm kind of busy."
"Sorting piles of dirt?" she said skeptically.
"I just — need to —" He stole another worried glance at his letter. Moon peered at it and saw something on the parchment.
"Is that blood?" she asked as Qibli quickly shuffled it away and folded it so she couldn't see.
"It's nothing," he said firmly, and added, "...and you probably already know, don't you?"
Moon, pleased that he mentioned it, said, "Nope. As long as I wear this on," she held up her arm with the skyfire, "I can't read your mind." Before Qibli could say anything else, she added, "Turtle gave it to me. I couldn't read his mind because he was wearing skyfire, and now I can't read your or anyone's. Just ask him." Moon felt her chest untense by the look of relief that flashed on Qibli's face.
"Well...in that case, Moon, I'm so —"
"No, stop." Moon said quickly. "You didn't do anything wrong —"
"Except for ditching you in a dark cave; almost ruining our friendship," he cut in.
"I can't argue there, but really, I should have told you," said Moon, taking a risk and cracking a friendly smile. To her relief, he grinned back.
"Can't argue there either," he said. They stood there for another odd minute, smiling at each other.
"So," Moon said, "are you going to tell me about that letter?"
"No," Qibli said quickly. "I mean, it's nothing. Really."
She stared at him. "Alright," she said dubiously. "But tell me if you need any help. Got it?"
"Got it," he said. He hesitated. "Where's Winter?"
"Lily's getting him."
"Turtle came up with that plan, didn't he?"
"...yeah," said Moon, realizing how awful that plan was. "Oh, wait, I forgot to tell you. Guess what, Turtle's an animus!"
"Turtle is a WHAT?!"
"Turtle is a WHAT?!" Winter roared.
"You heard me loud and clear the first time, frost-face," said Lily stoutly. Over the two weeks, Lily and Winter had grown an immense dislike for each other. Lily like to pull his strings sometimes, although she didn't go too far in case he did something to Starseeker again. But that was yet another reason Lily teased him so.
Vengeance.
Soon Winter would get the pain he deserved, along with Bromeliad! [A/N: Winter fans, do not take this personally, this is Lily's grudge speaking, not me. And I think we can all agree on the Bromeliad part.]
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Starcrossed
FanfictionStarseeker is a NightWing, but he doesn't feel like one at all. He and his mother had been hiding a terrible yet lovely secret. But now the NightWings found her. His sister has the lost powers of the NightWings, and now his tribe knows about her. No...
