Wings of Fire - Qibli

Jade Mountain

Qibli was not meant to be here. He did not want to be here. If he could have had it his way, he would have stayed, served, protected and advised Queen Thorn in the beautiful, warm, and sunny Sandwing Palace until he grew old and died because Queen Thorn was the most amazing queen to have ever lived if you had asked him, so who wouldn't want to be with her all the time? But instead, he was being thrown about in the cold gusts and heavy rain in front of a pretty massive mountain getting further and further away from Queen Thorn and Sandwing Kingdom with each wingbeat. 

It won't be forever. I'll make sure I keep on top of my classes and as soon as I show Queen Thorn that I can get along with dragons from other tribes, I'll go straight back to her. He thought to himself. 

Behind him, the struggling, yet determined, wingbeats assured him that Ostrich was still flying with him. He had promised Sixclaws and Kindle that she would be safe with him in Jade Mountain Academy and Ostrich had squealed in delight after the conversation, as she told Qibli that they agreed to finally let her attend. 

"I can see Jade Mountain, we're nearly there. Just hang on a bit more Ostrich." Qibli shouted above the roars of the storm. 

Did she even hear me? Why is this storm SO LOUD. I remember hearing from Queen Thorn that the winds coming up from the South of Pyrrhia would be strong but not THIS strong-

"Qibli I think any dragon WHO ISN'T BLIND would be able to see Jade Mountain from here." Ostrich shouted as she flapped harder to thwack him with her tail which almost caused both of them to fall down into the trees below after a sudden surge of wind from above.

Qibli was glad that he had Ostrich by his side all the way to Jade Mountain. The other Sandwings - Arid, Onyx, and Pronghorn - if he remembered correctly, seemed to have no interest in conversation, or socialising to the point where he would have likely ended up insane by the end of the long flight to Jade Mountain if it wasn't for the intelligent, funny, loveable Sandwing next to him. 

Okay let's be honest, Arid and Pronghorn weren't that bad, Pronghorn was very likeable and he had a lot of energy... it was Onyx who was the grouchy one. 

Qibli snorted. He'd offered Onyx a lizard he'd caught to try and get her to like him a bit more but she'd glared down her snout at him like he was a big, ugly bug that needed to be squashed. Never doing that again. 

As he glanced left, he could see from Ostrich's face that she was really struggling with this long flight, it was easy to forget since she was his friend that Ostrich was quite a bit younger than him, her Sandwing tail hadn't even fully developed yet, but she hadn't complained even once through this entire flight which he had to say, was quite impressive. 

Hang in there a bit more Ostrich, I know you can do it. 

Qibli checked behind him to see the rest of the Sandwings flapping like yellow, wet, floppy blobs not that far away. From the way that the one in the middle was at least twice as big as the other two he recognised that one as Onyx, next to her there was a dragon that flapped harder than the rest to try and get to Jade Mountain, almost spilling with enthusiasm, he knew it had to be Pronghorn. Queen Thorn had told Qibli that Pronghorn had sent eight letters to her personally, each containing an essay on why he wanted to attend. 

At least we haven't lost anyone on the way here. They all look quite tired, especially Arid, maybe Onyx was right that we should have taken a rest before we hit the storm but I'm quite sure that would have meant the storm would have gotten stronger and I'm not sure Ostrich would have been able to fly through that safely. 

Qibli flew for a few more minutes before they left the storm but it was still windy. 

After that storm I think flying even in this windy weather is a major improvement.