Wings of Honor: Bad Moon Rising

Chapter 24: The End Of The Begining

We were up with the sun. Breakfast, then a quick flight to Jade Mountain. Marvin looked over at the dark clouds in the distance, sniffing the air.
I'm feeling strong. It's the cold, humid air. "I'm calling for rain." He said.
"How can you tell?"
He just shrugged. "Experience."
"Really? You can just... look at the sky and guess that the rain will come?"
"It's not really guessing. More like... seeing the dark rain clouds in the distance, feeling the wind blowing our direction, and then be like 'HmMm. It'S GoNnA RaIn SoOn.'"
Marvin purpousefully cracked his voice, mocking himself. I laughed, rocking my wings. Marvin laughed too.
As we came upon Jade Mountain, I spotted Sunny and Moon also flying in. Kinkajou and Qibli were waiting at the entrance. Kinkajou ran over and threw her wings around Moon. Her frantic, relieved thoughts seemed to bounce wildly along Moon's scales.
Alive! Friends! Heroes! Averting tragedy and saving the day!
I couldn't stop my scales from changing colors, while I waited as patiently as I could untill Moon parted the embrace. Then I scooped up the rainbow RainWing.
"Woah! Put me down!"
"Oh my God Kinkajou! I was so worried."
"I know! Put me down now!"
I did, hanging my head and shrinking away when she gave an angry glare. But she instantly returned to her bubbly self, making me smile.
"Qibli told me what happened," she said. "I can't believe I missed it all! I can't believe I wasn't there to protect you! You're totally heroes, saving us all from bad guys! Although I'm kind of confused about who's the bad guy and who I should be mad at, because SORA WHAT but also Icicle was totally scary but then SAVING HER BROTHER ACK so I get it but still, attacking my winglet! My best friend! Not OK!"
"Best friend. After everything?" I found myself echoing Moon's thoughts.
"I thought you were mad at me," Moon said. Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted Sunny slipping away with a wave.
"I was, but that was yesterday," Kinkajou said. She was gleaming gold and pink with blue all along her spine. "I mean, I realized it's not that big a deal; I kind of say everything I'm thinking anyway, right?" She grinned. "Or if you hear something you shouldn't, that's kind of worse for you than for me, I figure. And I was thinking if you promise to tell me all your secrets from now on, then it won't matter if you know all of mine. Right?"
I smiled at Kinkajou and at the uncloaked human on my back. Moon smiled back, but thought uncomfortably of Darkstalker.
Stop, stop. He said. I see all the bad decisions you're about to make. Don't do it, Moon.
"Where's Turtle?" Moon asked, ignoring him.
"Here," he said, stepping out of the shadows. None of us noticed the quiet fuzz of his mind beyond the clamor of Kinkajou's thoughts. Although, Marvin acknowledged a presence.
"Can I see your armband?" she asked.
"It's kind of important." I followed her up. Already knowing what she wanted to do.
Inside her head, Darkstalker sighed. I literally can't see any future where I can talk you out of this.
Oh, good. Moon thought. Then take a break and don't try.
Turtle slid the golden band down and over his talons and handed it to her. Moon vanished from my mind, and she shivered in front of me. I shivered at her expression, I could still feel what she was feeling standing close to her, even without mindreading.
She studied the black rocks studded around the band. There were six of them. They were smaller than Onyx's stone, but they were all the same scorched-looking black with flecks of silver and otherworldly metals.
"Where did these stones come from?" she asked Turtle.
"Oh, it's kind of a cool story," he started. "I was out swimming at night with a few of my brothers a while ago — it's great, the sea at night with all the stars — and we were watching the comet that was so bright, remember? And then I saw something like a trail of fire fall from the sky into the ocean. No one else wanted to come search for it with me, so I figured I could keep what I found, which was this big chunk of black rock that had fallen all the way to the sea floor. It wasn't hard to find, actually; it turned the water all around it a whole lot hotter. Anyway I took a few bits that had broken off and had them made into that armband."
"Skyfire," I said.
Moon passed it back to him. She had a brief, intensely curious impulse to give the armband to Qibli for a minute, so she could hear what Turtle was thinking and maybe find out his secret. But, then again, that was exactly the kind of thing she needed them to trust her not to do.
"That's what Onyx calls it. She has a piece of it, too." Moon said.
Qibli went still, looking at her. He was already figuring out what she was going to say. She turned to include Kinkajou as well.
"It turns out that skyfire can block mind reading. I discovered that yesterday, while we were talking to Onyx. That's why I can't read her, or Turtle — if you're wearing this rock, I can't hear your thoughts at all." She faced Turtle again. "I was hoping — if it's all right with you, Turtle, I wondered if Kinkajou and Qibli and Winter could each have one of these rocks. You're all my friends — my winglet — and I want you to have a way to keep your thoughts private."
I nodded. "Yeah. We love you all so much, we figure there should be a way to protect the secrets you'd rather us not know."
Kinkajou leaped up and hugged Moon again.
"Very cool," Qibli said, giving her a smile.
"That explains a lot," Turtle said. He started picking at the stones in the band. "Of course they can have them."
"I'll take Winter his and explain everything," Moon said with a deep breath.
"Actually," Qibli said, "I have bad news."
Moon saw it in his mind; she couldn't believe she hadn't picked it out of the torrent of his thoughts before.
"Oh crud. Really?" "Oh, no, really?" Me and Moon said at the same time.
"What?" Kinkajou asked. Looking between the three of us. "What? What? WHAT?"
"It's Winter," Qibli said. "I checked our cave for him an hour ago. He's gone."
Crap.
"Gone?" Kinkajou cried with dismay. "Why? Where'd he go?"
"I don't know, but Bandit's cage is missing, too," Qibli said. "So I don't think he's coming back."
"Oh," Turtle said softly. "I saw him leaving, but I thought he was just going hunting. I should have stopped him."
He managed to pry two rocks free and handed one to Qibli, then another to Kinkajou. Their thoughts fuzzed out into that quiet hum as they slipped the rocks into the library card pouches around their necks. Moon and I could still hear dragons elsewhere in the school, but we both knew we'd miss listening to Qibli and Kinkajou.
I'll just have to listen better to what they actually say, Moon promised herself. I nodded alongside her, sending a confident smile.
"Which way was he going?" Moon asked Turtle.
"Northwest, toward the forest that's between the mountains and the desert," he said. "Uh. Where are you going?"
Moon was heading for the mouth of the cave, where they could see sheets of rain pouring down.
Told you.
Yeah thanks.
"I'm going to find him," she said.
"Are you kidding?" Marvin gasped.
"In this weather?" Turtle protested.
"Oh yay!" Kinkajou cried. "Me too!"
"Are you sure?" I said to her, waving one wing at the storm outside. "I understand if you don't —"
She cut me off. "I'm a RainWing," Kinkajou said. "It rains all the time in the rainforest. Trust me, I can handle it."
I hung my head, she was right. I've handled it too.
"I'm not sure I can," Qibli said, rubbing the back of his head. "But I'm coming with you anyway."
Kinkajou looked expectantly at Turtle.
He shuffled his feet, flickering his glow-in-the-dark scales nervously. "In this weather?" he said again.
"Come on, Turtle!" she said. "We're a winglet! We're all that's left of the Jade Winglet! We should stick together! Also, how can you be bothered by a little water? You live in it. You can actually breathe it. You'll be fine." She bumped his hip hard enough to overbalance him and he took a staggering step sideways.
"It's different," he objected. "Swimming is not the same as trying to fly while getting blown about and whacked in the face with little balls of water and also lightning — have we talked about the lightning?"
"He's coming, too," Kinkajou said to Moon. Turtle sighed in defeat.
"None of you have to do this," Moon said. "I just — I feel like I owe it to him."
"I'm with you Moon. We're with you." I looked to Marvin. He shrugged.
I have my jacket and helmet, I'll be fine.
"He's my clawmate," Qibli pointed out. "Also, I am a total expert on evil brothers and sisters."
I looked at him and gave him a "really?" look.
"And I am coming to keep you safe," Kinkajou said. "Don't argue with me, I'm very menacing." She turned her wings black and bared her teeth, but the pink scales that remained rather undercut the effect. That drew a chuckle from me.
Moon smiled at us. "All right," she said. "Let's go."