WoF one-shots [DISCONTIUNED]

Moonbli|AU

It was late afternoon. The sun was shining brightly in the sky. Moon was sitting at the seashore. As waves rolled back and forth gently, splashing the sand around her, she remembered when she met Darkstalker, how he told her to imagine the sound of ocean waves, and she'd explained that she'd never heard ocean waves. She missed him. Not as much as when she'd gone with Winter to help find Hailstorm, but she wished she could hear him, listen to his words as he helped her with her powers. She still visited Hope and Peacemaker, and whenever she did, Hope would answer her questions and give tips and tricks, but that wasn't the same. There had always been a connection between her and Darkstalker as though they truly understood each other.

Well, that was until Qibli told her about the magic IceWing plague. It had been devastating news to her. It was hard to believe at first; her first friend was trying to wipe out a tribe, but she realized that she hadn't fully trusted him ever since the day Peril had set him free. An image of the giant, black dragon emerging from the mountain entered her mind, sending shivers down her spine. She shook her head and looked up. She thought about all the dragons she'd helped, how Luna would talk about making a tapestry of the beach, and all the dragons that had helped her. She remembered Cricket's constant questions and the way her mind raced from one thing to the next the same way Qibli's did, and the little HiveWing, Bumblebee. She still wasn't sure what she had meant when Cricket said the dragonet was an experiment, but she hadn't pressed the matter. She stared at the ocean, lost in thought, oblivious to the SandWing walking up to her from behind.

"Hey, Moon," Qibli said. Spooked, she turned around to see Qibli holding two meerkats. Her expression softened at the sight of him.

"Oh... Qibli!" She looked down, blushing.

"I didn't hear you coming," She said as he sat down next to her, offering her a meerkat. When she took it, he grinned and said, "Isn't that the point," and showed her the arm with the Skyfire pouch. She looked at it and smiled for a second then started tearing apart her meerkat and staring off into the distance, thinking. She hadn't told anyone about missing Darkstalker; they'd probably react uniquely similar in some way. Winter would yell at her and say he was a monster, Hope would probably agree with her but say this is for the better, Kinkajou would ask me if I ate a hallucinogenic berry, Turtle would disagree which is understandable, Peril would threaten him a gruesome death if she ever saw him again, Qibli... hmm, he would comfort me but still disagree, and Mother would-

"Do you ever miss Luna?" Qibli asked, putting a wing around her.

"Yeah, sometimes. I wonder if she made that tapestry yet." Moon shifted her wings, letting them brush against his, feeling the heat warm her up a little.

"Um...do you um...I some-...I miss..." She stopped, trying to think of a way to phrase her question.

"Wow, I haven't seen you this nervous since you saved Bandit," he grinned, "and the face of whoever would have eaten him," he added, fiddling with one of the meerkat's bones. Moon wrapped her tail around her hands, looking down.

"Oh no, is it something bad? Did something happen to Secretkeeper?" She shook her head.

"Or is it something...else?" She didn't need to read his mind to know what he was thinking, and it sent a shiver along her shoulders. Qibli started moving his wing closer, pausing only for a second before continuing. She glanced up at him and smiled. She expected him to smile back, but to her surprise, his face fell, and he started gripping the bone tightly in his hands; his knuckles were turning white. She grabbed his hand (the one without Skyfire) and held it.