Sand and Stars: A Moonbli Story

Qibli

She was going to say something to me, I know she was, Qibli thought, But what?

When he got back to his cave, Shard rushed to meet him.

"I have a question," Shard hissed.

"What is is?" Qibli replied.

"Let's just say that, hypothetically, there was this dragon and she was kind and funny and clever and great and you liked her in a certain kind of like and you wanted to tell her that you liked her, but you didn't know how and you were always worried about embarrassing yourself in front of her and you wanted to know if she liked you back, but you were worried about finding out that she didn't. What would you do in that situation?" Shard said quickly.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, slow down," Qibli said.

"Well, there's this dragon and I sort of like her, and I mean like in a like way, not how you're probably assuming. She's nice and great and fun and you seem to know her pretty well. I was wondering if you knew what to say to her to tell her I want to get to know her better," Shard clarified.

"Who? Kinkajou?" Qibli asked, but his brain already knew the answer.

"No, not her," Shard replied.

"Oh sandstorms, you mean Moon," Qibli said.

"For some reason, you seem really distressed about that," Shard observed, his unusual diamond-shaped wings reflecting the light from the glass globes.

"It's just that I don't know anything about that sort of thing in the case of Moon," Qibli improvised, "Got to go." He hurried out of the cave.

Why would she pick me when she can have Shard? he thought as he hurried down the tunnels and practically collided with a NightWing.

Moon?

It wasn't Moon. It was the NightWing that had replaced Mightyclaws. He only knew her name, Ebony.

"Oh, sorry," she said. "I've, you know, got a, well, you know, a gift, for-uh-you." She shoved a small red bag into his claws and walked away, looking a tense as a lizard surrounded by dragons.

He picked at the rope holding it shut until it loosened and fell off. Reaching his talon in, he pulled out a crumpled piece of paper. On it was a very bad painting of a NightWing flying over the desert.

Confused, he shoved it behind one of the scroll racks.

Qibli decided to go to the prey center.

Will there be camels? He wondered, so far the prey center hadn't had camels, but he was holding out hope. The desert wasn't close, but it wasn't far and he thought the was a chance there'd be camels one day.

Clay was always trying new ways to regulate the craziness in the prey center. Today there were low walls separating it into several areas, some of which had live prey running around in, others that had fruit or sitting dragons snacking quietly, or not so quietly.

"And then I said 'Leave me alone!' but he didn't listen," one of the SkyWings roared. He was a new student who had replaced Flame. His name was Ridge and he was always loud.

"What did you do then?" asked a SeaWing named Baracudda.

"I grabbed the fish from his claws and whacked-," he began.

"Please be quiet," Clay interrupted.

"Aw," Ridge complained but he complied.

Qibli scanned the animals. No camels. Then he saw Shard. He was flying towards Moon.

Shard. Flying towards Moon. Shard. Flying towards the dragon he'd just admitted to Qibli that he had a crush on. Shard. Flying towards Moon.