Drama (a Qinter fanfiction)

Worries and Plans

Flame PoV:

*note that this chapter begins the morning before the previous chapter*

Flame fluffed his wings excitedly, heading along the halls to the prey center. Today Qibli and Winter should be back! Flame thought. He hadn't told Sunny yet - he wasn't sure how or when, and... technically she hadn't asked...

"Flame!" a small NightWing, one of the ones he had seen Winter and Qibli hanging out with, jumped out in front of him. Just behind her were two green SeaWings, a RainWing who was gray-blue instead of her usual vibrant colors, the firescales SkyWing - sitting carefully a step away - and the bouncy NightWing from Flame's own winglet was sitting calmly, more still than Flame had ever seen her.

"What?" he snapped, glaring down at the NightWing, who was looking desperately up at him. He always got the impression that she could see straight through his grumpy exterior, but then he remembered what the 'real' Dragonets of Destiny had said. The NightWings don't have their powers anymore.

"W-where - have you seen - I-I mean -" she stammered, interrupting Flame's train of thought.

"Have you seen Qibli or Winter?" the little RainWing asked desperately. Little clouds of jade green clouded on the edges of her wings.

"Why would you ask me?" Flame asked suspiciously, hoping he sounded offended.

"Because you share a cave with them," she pointed out.

"No, I haven't seen them," Flame admitted. He noticed that the little NightWing was staring intently at him, and he arched an eyebrow at her. "But it's not the first time they've left the cave before morning."

"Yeah, but we already checked outside," the NightWing told him. "We were hoping you might, um, know something." She gave him a quick glance, a deeper meaning underlying her words.

"I'll keep an eye out for them," Flame said, "and I recommend that you do as well, if you want to find them."

~timeskip brought to you by Azure the SandWing/NightWing hybrid (Citroèn)~

That evening when Flame walked back into the prey center, he saw the little RainWing, who was back to her usual eyeball-scorching colors, beckoning vigorously at him from the other side of the cave. Rolling his eyes, Flame walked over to her and her friends.

"Have you seen them?" She asked, sounding more bubbly than that morning.

"No, have you?" Flame replied. They all shook their heads. He said they'd be back yesterday. Flame thought, confused and concerned. Why aren't they back already?

"Back from - I mean, um, back when Darkstalker was still around they left the school together to get Ostrich, I'm sure they'll be fine..." the little NightWing said, her voice getting quieter and quieter as if she wanted to just disappear. Odd. Flame thought, but he moved on quickly. Maybe I should go after them. Qibli did say that if they weren't back when he said they'd be back to expect that something had happened.

"I've got to go," Flame said briskly, turning around and heading to the entrance cave. Halfway there he heard talonsteps behind him, and he turned around to see the SeaWing from the Jade Winglet running after him.

"Flame, wait!" he called.

"What do you want, SeaWing?" Flame snapped, trying to cover his worry with anger.

"Turtle," the green dragon panted. "I'm Turtle. And I have something that you might need if you're going to find Qibli and Winter. C'mon, it's in my cave." Turtle turned into one of the halls leading deeper into the mountain, and continued along the winding hallways. After what felt like a few days of winding along the halls, Turtle abruptly turned into a cave. Flame followed him in and watched as Turtle reached under his sleeping mat and pulled out a small slate.

"These are messaging slates," Turtle explained. "I gave one to each of my friends so we could talk together even from different caves, especially since Winter and Qibli are in a different Winglet this time. You write a message on your slate and it appears on all the other slates. Then I can write back to you, and the same thing will happen. Uhm, hang on, let me find the one for you." He turned away from Flame, rummaging around with his tail flicking uncharacteristically. Flame almost thought he heard Turtle say something, but before he could ask the SeaWing dropped his slate with a loud clatter.

"Oops," Turtle said. "Oh well, it's fine. And, hey, I found yours." He held up an identical slate and passed it to Flame, who tucked it in the pouch around his neck.

"You seem like a dragon who knows how to keep his mouth shut," Flame observed. "Don't tell anyone, but Winter and Qibli went to the Scorpion Den to visit Qibli's grandfather. That's where I'm going. Well, okay, you can tell Sunny if she asks, and your NightWing friend if she asks, but tell her not to tell either."

"You mean Moon?" Turtle asked. "Okay. I won't say a thing. Well, about where you're going, anyway. I'm going to talk still, just to be clear." Flame rolled his eyes.

"Well, I have to go," Flame said, backing toward the cave entrance. "Remember, don't tell anyone if you don't have to. I only told you so that if we need help you'll know where to go."

"Or send someone else," Turtle hedged, shifting his weight nervously.

"Yes, whatever," Flame agreed impatiently. "Um, bye." He turned brusquely and headed to where he thought the entrance hall was, but ended up right back at Turtle's cave.

"This way," Turtle said, smiling understandingly. A few minutes later they were at the entrance cave. Flame hesitated before he took off, feeling like there was something he should say before he left.

"Let me know when you find them," Turtle requested.

"I will," Flame agreed, nodding confidently. Then he turned and launched himself into the sky, flying in the same direction he'd seen his friends go a couple days before.

And for a strange reason he had a feeling that he wouldn't be coming back for a while.

Hey y'all! A bit shorter of a chapter this time, but it was kind of a flashback chapter. And you can probably imagine what happens next. Well, uhm, I think that's about it. Sorry for the shorter chapter; I hope that it'll get exciting soon! Thanks for reading, please comment (especially any errors), and have a great day/night!

- Star