Wings Of Fire: Strange Jade

39- Leaving the nest

Red felt happy, his dragonets were safe and today he was going to spend the whole day with them. Red was awoke by Kinkajou ramming her head into his chest, Red laughter slightly and quickly got up, Kinkajou nearly hit her head on a tree but Red quickly stopped her by grabbing her tail. Kinkajou was jumping with joy as she said, "Dad, Moon just told us that you're letting us go to Jade Mountain tomorrow and your gonna spend the entire day with us!" Red chuckled and nodded.

Kinkajou then said, "Well, why are you still here, we have a day of fun ahead of us!" Red smiled slightly as he got up, "Ok, do you or your siblings have any games planned?" Kinkajou nodded and said, "Yeah, Winter and Qibli wanna play Jewel hunt, Moon and I wanna play hide and seek, Peril wants to burn some dead roots and talk, and Sky and Turtle said they had a surprise to say goodbye, so they won't be able to play today." Red smirked and said, "Did Turtle or Sky say you could tell me?" Kinkajou flashed a pale pink of embarrassment.

Red chuckled slightly and said, "Don't worry, I won't tell that you ruined their surprise." Kinkajou nodded and said, "Thanks dad, now let's go! Qibli and Winter really wanted to play Jewel hunt!" Red quickly followed behind. As Red approach he saw Winter, Qibli, Moon and Peril talking, "Guys, dad's here, we can play now!" Kinkajou said cheerfully. They quickly began their game of jewel hunt, whoever found the smallest gemstone in the cave lost, Red purposefully 'lost' all his big gems to let them enjoy the game. As the game went on it was eventually just Moon and Peril searching. Peril found a gem the size of her talon while Moon was still searching, eventually Moon returned with a gemstone slightly bigger. As a reward for winning, Moon got first pick of any of the gemstones in the pile.

Eventually they started hide and seek, Red was the seeker. Peril was found quickly because of her burning talonsteps, then Winter was found because of how much he stood out in the rainforest. Qibli, Moon and Kinkajou were very difficult to find but Red was determined to find them, eventually he noticed a familiar looking tail barb in the trees. Red quickly flew up and was surprised to find out it was a decoy. Red smiled at how clever Qibli was but he had forgotten one thing, sap might be good for sticking things together but it's terrible for hiding.

Red quickly found Qibli stuck to the side of a tree, after helping him down Red went looking for Moon and Kinkajou, they were both extremely good at hide and seek. Red thought of every place they could be, he then saw a small dark hole in one of the trees, he flew up to it and found Moon sleeping with a bunch of owls. Red gently took her out and woke her up, "Wh- hu? Did I fall asleep again?" Moon asked sleepily, Red nodded and said, "Yeah, looks like Kinkajou won." Suddenly from out of Red's shadow, Kinkajou jumped out and yelled "Horay!"

Soon, Red was burning some dead roots, Peril had requested to talk alone, "Dad... I've been wondering, why did you take other tribes eggs?" Peril asked, Red never expected to have to answer this question so he hesitated before saying, "My guilt drove me to take you and Sky away, a similar thing happened with Winter and Qibli, I've killed many Icewings and Sandwings, I felt guilt for so long, so I wanted to make amends in some way..." Peril then said, "What about Turtle, Kinkajou and Moon?" Red quickly replied, "I took Turtle because I found something out about a threat greater than anything, and the thing that defeated it was a seawing..."

Peril looked at Red waiting for him to continue, "I took Kinkajou and Moon because they were abandoned, Rainwings don't raise their own kin but the entire tribe does." Red said, Peril nodded and said, "Well, clearly you did the right thing, Winter's parents were jerks, Qibli's are gone, Turtle's mom barely cares about him, Kinkajou is happy and Moon would honestly not fit in with the other nightwings." Red and Peril laughed slightly.

Soon, Red was dragged off to a secret spot in the forest by Peril, "Suprise!" Yelled a few dragons as they entered the clearing. Red saw his dragonets, Secretkeeper, Mastermind, Morrowseer, Queen Glory and Deathbringer. "A surprise party, never expected that!" Red said, Secretkeeper then said, "Consider it a farewell party for your dragons now that they're heading to Jade Mountain." Red then said, "Ok, if this party is for them then why wasn't I informed?" Turtle suddenly said, "Well, we actually wanted to celebrate your hatch day too, you never told us when it was and we never celebrated so we decided to celebrate today."

Red smiled and said, "Thanks, but I hope you didn't get me anything, spending the day with you all was the best gift a father could ever want." Kinkajou then said, "That's so cheesy!" Red nodded and said, "I know, but it's true." Morrowseer bellowed slightly with laughter and said, "You truly are a sight to behold Red, how can someone be so over expressive yet so skilled?" Red smirked and said, "Same way a dragon like you can get so big, good dieting and training." Morrowseer and Red chuckled a bit and the party began, Red couldn't be anymore happy.