One day after Peril received the letter

WARNING - MOONBLI (Qinter gang forever)

The soft swish of Qibli's tail followed Moon as she travelled around the caves. She wasn't going any particular direction - she just wanted to see how long it would take for Qibli to reveal himself.

"Hey, Moon!" He said finally, coming up beside her. Moon giggled.

"I know you've been following me, stupid."

"And I know that you know I've been following you, 'stupid'"

Moon laughed again as Qibli brought his snout to her cheek and gently kissed her. A warm, fuzzy feeling danced in her talons as she looked into his deep brown eyes. They seemed twinkle at her, a twinkle that was only meant for her.
"We have to get ready to go to Winter's place," said Moon, brushing Qibli off with one wing and covering her blush with the other, "we don't want to be late, and we certainly don't want to miss whatever thing-to-do-with-Scavengers he has to show us. And I'm just making sure - Turtle is coming, isn't he?"

It was weird in Jade Mountain. Clay and Tsunami weren't around as much. The DoD, as Moon liked to call them, had hired some new teachers - a bubbly IceWing that had the most annoying name to remember, a RainWing named Illusion who was the best painter Moon had ever seen, and a wingless SkyWing-SeaWing hybrid named Murre. They were all lovely dragons, but... Life at Jade Mountain just wasn't the same. Especially without Peril.

Peril had a family to look after now. In the few times Moon had visited her, she had been busy taking care of Bronze. She didn't have time to worry about other things other than him, but at least she was happy.

But during the last visit (which was only yesterday) she had seemed... pretty shaken. Said that she had received a strange letter...

Moon didn't worry about it much.

"So what are you bringing?" asked Moon, her eyes drifting to the bag slung over Qibli's shoulder.

Qibli shrugged. "Nothing much - just a gift for Winter. It's totally definitely not an engagement ring-"
Moon slapped him on the arm and giggled for what felt like the millionth time.

"Come on, let's not wait around - I bet Turtle's already at the meeting place!

...

Indeed he was. He made it very clear he did not like to be kept waiting, especially next to his crush.
"I could feel her staring at me the whole time, and it was the hardest thing in the world not to stare right back at her," he grumbled, his own leather bag flying out behind him as he lifted into the sky.

It was a very stormy day. They couldn't have picked a worse day to meet up with Winter. Rain, hail, and wind battered them, slashing at them from all angles. Huge rolling masses of black loomed above them as the soared, and lightning stabbed out of the dark only inches from their scales.
It took them twice as long to get to Sanctuary than usual.

But finally they made it. Winter had really done the place up - there were many more enclosures, and the place generally looked a lot more put together. Winter stood in the doorway, and as soon as he spotted them his face lit up.

"Winter!" Qibli cried, flinging himself on the IceWing. Winter groaned and rolled his eyes, looking away as his snout flushed blue.

"Get off of me, you cactus-head-"

"Who said you can order me around, princess-"

Finally, Winter managed to get Qibli off of him, and now it was Turtle and Moon's turn to rush at him. Moon had missed the sparkle of his icy blue scales, and has missed the coldness that also bit at her when she touched him. She could tell Turtle and Qibli felt the exact same way.

After the greetings were over, Winter lead them inside and sat them down at his table.
"I want to hear all about you first," he said.

And so they told him everything, about Peril and Clay and Crag. Of course, he knew about all this already, but he had only heard about it in letters.

"And that's basically how everything went down. Peril's left, Clay and Tsunami aren't around much now and we have some new teachers. We haven't heard from Crag since." Turtle finished, leaning back in his chair. Winter sat in thought for a while, drumming his ridged claws against the table.

He sighed.
"That seems like quite the tale," he said at last, meeting Moon's eyes, "I'm glad you guys are alright. And I'm glad that all of this is over."

"So are we." Qibli murmured ruefully. Silenced followed. The muffled sound of heavy rain filled the room.

"So are we," Moon echoed, her talons beginning to shake.

She knew who the letter had been from.

It was Crag.