im back😹

———

Darkness Of Dragons, page 302:

""I can try," said Moon. She braced herself to fly.

"No, don't, please don't," Qibli said, catching her and wrapping a wing around her. "If you go up there, you'll be just another NightWing, and I'm afraid you won't make it to Darkstaker before an IceWing kills you."

Maybe even Winter, if he's fighting too hard to see what he's doing— and that would kill him, and me, along with you."

What if Qibli's worries were right?

I introduce to you: the bad ending.

cw: minor suicidal thoughts

————

The sunset glowed down orange on the writhing scales below. Frosty claws glinted oddly in the all-too calm lighting, teeth were bared, and a purple mix of blood coated the rocks of the once peaceful Jade Mountain.

Winter– just Winter, no title anymore– didn't see any of the faces of the NightWings he was striking. He was darting in every direction, defending his fellow IceWings and sending NightWings off. He had no time to think. 

He could hear the agonized screaming all around him, the roaring of rampant flames, the enraged growls, the pain. This was a near hopeless fight, but they had to try. Without trying, there would be no more IceWings. No more Ice Kingdom. No more. If the NightWings won, all would be lost.

Hailstorm was beside him, pinning down a struggling NightWing as he blared frostbreath down on the attacker. Snowfall barreled past in the air, slicing her serrated claws across the diamond-hard throats of a group of NightWings. A few had no reaction, while a few winced. But none of them fell dead as they should have done.

Winter felt worry and fear sitting hard as a rock in his gut. When would this end? Darkstalker was in the middle of it all– laughing maniacally like every IceWing had ever feared–and below him was a growing field of white scales, dripping blue with blood.

And then, the sky began to swarm with dark clouds. A rumble seized the air, sending tremors down to the broken earth. Rain spattered the fighting dragons, washing away most of the blood. Hissing smoke arose from some of the fires as the heavy raindrops extinguished the flames.

Winter blinked away the rain from his eyes and focused on the NightWings in front of him. He sent one wheeling with a whip of his spiked tail and seized another with his wicked claws. He sank his claws into the NightWing's skull as he raked the stomach with his hind talons. Then the attacker fell back, wailing out in pain.

Now alone, he stood watching the battlefield for a moment. Lightning flashed in the sky. His heart was pounding, blood was roaring in his ears.

Another NightWing was thrown onto him. Still in a daze, Winter barely had any time to react before the NightWing began to fight him. Winter thrashed around, frantically trying to defend himself as the dragon advanced. He was pinned to the ground.

"No!" cried a familiar voice. The NightWing was promptly bowled to the ground, taken down by a smaller NightWing, glowing an odd green in the raging storm. Moonwatcher.

Relief, determination, and hope flooded Winter as he saw her. She was holding Winter's attacker with brute force, teeth bared as she told her fellow NightWing to leave and never come back. But even as Moon told the dragon the truth about Darkstalker's tyranny, the NightWing turned on her and raked her with his claws. She sent a blast of flame at the dragon as Winter ran over to help her.

But the NightWing whipped around swiftly, and Winter had to act quick. He tumbled the dragon down, writhing and fighting all over the place as Moon defended herself from the dragon who kept calling her a traitor, over and over. Winter sliced his claws across the NightWing's throat and–

Winter's gut dropped.

The world closed in on him as Moon crumpled to the rumbling ground, jaw agape as she gargled up blood, bleeding from the wound Winter had given her.

⋆ ⋆ ⋆

A shriek tore through the air, louder than all the others. Qibli felt more worried than ever. What had happened?

He tried searching the warzone for Moon again, but it was hopeless. Even though he could recognize her anywhere, the storm was too much to distinguish all the black scales from one another. He couldn't even find Winter. 

As the mountain rumbled ominously, Qibli prayed that Anemone could get rid of the storm he had summoned. He had given her the weather bracelets back as soon as he realized what the thunder could bring. But the rain hadn't stopped, and it didn't look like it was going to any time soon. It was worse than he thought.

A whoosh of silvery-blue scales caught his attention. He snapped his head up to see Winter, rushing to Jade Mountain with something- no, someone- draped over his back.

Then his heart stopped. This was a NightWing. But no ordinary NightWing.

Winter was shouting something to the dragonets of destiny, voice cracking with overwhelming emotion as he gently, yet desperately heaved Moon off his back. Qibli couldn't hear anything the IceWing was saying. He couldn't hear anything, really, as the sounds of war faded into white noise.

"Help her, please! I- I can't-" Winter broke off, gasping as panic overtook him. Qibli shook away his daze, desperate to know what was going on. "I don't-"

The dragonets of destiny, including Fatespeaker, let out equal cries of horror. Moon was immediately hurried into the academy to be healed. Sunny hung back with Starflight, draping a golden wing over Winter's shaky frame. He seemed too petrified to move as Qibli ran over.

"What's happening? Is Moon okay?" Qibli rushed, shaking just as bad as Winter. He couldn't breathe. He tried to go in the academy after them, but Sunny gently held him back, compassion and worry in her eyes. 

"Stay here, Qibli," she said, clearly trying to stay calm so Qibli would be calm as well. But he could see the panic in her wide-eyed gaze. "They'll need space to treat Moon. Don't crowd them," she advised, then turned to Winter, but the ex-prince didn't seem to be listening. "You too, Winter." 

He didn't respond. If he had heard her, he gave no sign that he did. Winter stared blankly ahead, eyes glazed over with so much emotion that Qibli couldn't even distinguish the feelings. And in his own panicked state, Qibli couldn't process anything in the moment. He was in a state of shock.

"I'm sorry," Winter whispered, voice hoarse. Tears were coating his cheeks. "I didn't mean to."

Qibli turned to his friend, heart sinking lower. "What did you do?"

The IceWing didn't look at him. His eyes dropped to the ground. All around them, the rain had slowed to a steady drizzle. "I didn't mean to."

"Winter," Qibli pressed, growing more terrified by the second. He knew what Winter had done, but he just couldn't grasp the truth until Winter said it himself. He began to tremble further. "What did you do."

"I couldn't see what I was doing," began Winter, like he was procrastinating the truth because he was too scared to admit it to himself. "I really couldn't, I swear. It was a mess. The NightWing had us both and- and I-" his words were cut short with a choking sob.

Qibli could feel his world crumbling down. There was a weight on his chest, growing heavier and heavier until his lungs stopped working. Seeing Winter's distraught state, and Moon's limp form, made it seem like there was no hope left.

"You hurt Moon?!" Qibli cried, unable to stop himself as all the emotions came tumbling down on him like a waterfall. Winter finally looked up, looking more and more traumatized. "You hurt her?!"

"I- I didn't-" Winter started, then broke off as he began to sob.

Blood was rushing in his ears. Qibli couldn't take it anymore. "What is going to happen to her, Winter? What did you do?" he sobbed. "This is your fault!"

"I'm sorry!" Winter wailed, voice thick and wobbly, barely comprehensible. Qibli's words were definitely not helping. Now Winter was at his breaking point too. He was gasping for breath, shaking and overwhelmed with guilt. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry! I didn't want to hurt her! I didn't mean to! I'm sorry!"

Seeing how genuinely heartbroken Winter was, Qibli stared back at him, lost for words. He could feel the tears dripping down his cheeks and he could see the water blurring his vision. He crumpled to the ground, wrapping Winter into his wings, even if he was mad at him. Whatever the IceWing did, he would never mean to do it. Qibli could see how guilty he was.

He could hear Winter gasping for breath against him. Qibli felt numb. What was going on?

Despite all the terror and anguish they were feeling, the sky began to clear. The gray clouds drew back like curtains, revealing a now-dark sky dotted with stars. The rain puddles shimmered with moonlight.

And then the noise stopped.

Winter pulled away from him and looked towards the battlefield. Qibli followed his gaze and froze.

It was still.

Every dragon was frozen in place. Darkstalker's huge form was in the middle, his large head swiveling around ominously. His icy gaze raked the mountains. He was searching for something.

A shiver of fear made its way into Qibli's gut. His talons were shaking as Darkstalker cast his gaze onto them. Then he spread his wings and banked towards them.

The malevolent hybrid glared down at Winter with disgust as he descended. The IceWing shrank back. Qibli felt sick at the searing hate in Darkstalker's expression. It felt strange to see someone hate the IceWing ex-prince so much.

Then Darkstalker finally dragged his focus from Winter to Qibli. When he spoke, his voice was a demanding, low rumble. "Where is Moon."

Qibli swallowed. "She's– she's in Jade Mountain. Seeking medical care."

"Who hurt her?" Darkstalker asked, growing more and more dangerous by the second. When the two didn't reply, he repeated the question. "I said, 'Who hurt her?''

"We don't know," Qibli blurted, trying his best to remain calm. He had never been so scared in his whole life. This was worse than the Scorpion Den. This was worse than Vulture. This was its own terrifying thing. Any hope he had once had was gone. He was scared of what would happen to Moon and Winter. Qibli had to lie for Winter's sake. He couldn't have anything else happen to another friend.

Darkstalker growled and whipped around, clearly unsatisfied. He flew back to the battle and dove straight for the IceWings. Obsidian black wings fluttered with horrid excitement as the NightWings joined their king, tearing apart the IceWings. "Kill them!" Darkstalker was roaring. "Kill them all!"

Qibli turned to Winter, who was petrified. Then he turned around to see Turtle and Anemone standing there with worry on their faces. Anemone seemed deep in thought as she scraped a claw thoughtfully through the dirt. The weather bracelets gleamed on her wrists.

"I have to help them," said Winter abruptly, making Qibli's attention snap to him. He opened his jaw to reply to the ex-prince, to convince him to stay, but Winter was already flying away. Qibli watched his blue-silver scales disappear into the sea of writhing bodies with a hollow heart.

Pebbles crunched as Turtle stepped beside him, staring forlornly at the war. "I wish I could do something," he said. "But I'm not sure. I have no idea how to stop this."

Qibli didn't know either. This was an unfair, hopeless battle. The NightWings were more than advantaged. The IceWings were losing. Where was Winter? What would happen to the Ice Kingdom? Would this be the end for them?

They couldn't let this happen. But what choice did they have? There was no way out of it.

Anemone had appeared next to her brother. She looked determined. "I can stop this," she declared. "I know I can. Just tell me what to do, and I'll do it. My soul is nearly gone anyway. You can risk me, not Turtle."

"Are you sure?" Qibli asked, staring into her eyes. She stared back at him, as sure as ever. The princess nodded fervently.

Turtle shifted on his webbed talons, scales flashing nervously. "But what do we do?" he asked. "Darkstalker has thought of every way to outsmart us. His army is strong. He's strong."

Qibli's mind was dashing to make a plan. But whenever he thought he had an idea, it came crumbling down once he realized it was impossible. There was nothing.

He watched an IceWing fall from the sky. They landed on a pile of fellow IceWings, all lifeless.

I can't watch this anymore, Qibli thought. I have to check on Moon.

He got up and marched into the academy, slinking down stone passageways until he met the healers cave. Inside, Moon was sprawled on a stretcher, her sides rising and falling with shallow breaths. Her eyes were closed.

Qibli hung around by the entranceway, staring blankly at her. His heart was broken. A lump formed in his throat as the healers shooed him away. 

Sunny was there, murmuring comforting things to him, guiding him away, but Qibli couldn't hear her. His eyes began to fog with tears. What was going to happen to Moon? What was going to happen? Was she okay? Was she—

"She'll be fine, Qibli," Sunny urged, bringing him momentarily out of his worry for a moment. He must have spoken aloud. "Please calm down and go back outside. You need some fresh air."

"Air from a warzone?" Qibli questioned, his voice hoarse and hollow. But he followed Sunny anyway, back outside in the air that reeked of blood.

Hot tears streamed down his cheeks as Qibli crumpled to the ground, a low wail rising from his throat. His sobs grew louder and louder until they were all he could hear. His whole body shook and his nose dripped. He couldn't breathe over the lump in his throat.

⋆ ⋆ ⋆

Queen Snowfall was dead. Winter had watched her hit the ground. Tundra was laying in a pool of blood, her eyes glassy as they stared up at Winter. He paused over his mother for a moment, closed her eyes with his palm, then returned to the fight.

The fresh memory of hurting Moon flashed vividly in his mind as he raked NightWings with his claws. It was almost too bad to stop fighting entirely. The idea seemed appealing, but the IceWings needed everyone they could get.

As his hope died with each passing second, he became weaker. His limbs were shaking and he just wanted to crawl into a hole and wail. This was torture.

He paused for a moment to take in his surroundings. The NightWings were everywhere. There were no flashes of white scales to break up the dark sea. Where were all the IceWings?

Winter tried to find anybody he knew. But it was.. empty. The NightWings had stopped now.

Did that mean Hailstorm was dead? His whole family?

With tears stinging in his eyes, Winter walked shakily over to all the IceWings that littered the ground. Uncle Permafrost. Lynx. Mother. Father. Hailstorm.

He buried his snout into the crook of Hailstorm's neck, letting the grief overtake him. Winter cried into his cold scales. He couldn't believe it. For years, Winter had believed that his brother was dead. But now, he really was. Actually seeing his corpse had a devastating effect. It was worse than all the grief he had felt for years over Hailstorm. 

Stones crunched behind him. His head snapped up and whipped around to face the newcomer. A familiar golden face was heading towards him. Qibli.

The SandWing draped a wing over his back comfortingly, looking as numb as Winter felt. His own eyes were filled with tears.

"Is she okay?" Winter dared to ask, barely a breath.

"I don't know."

Qibli's tone broke his heart. He sounded so hopeless and miserable. Winter could have never imagined the determined SandWing to be so devoid of hope. Was this the end for them?

Winter let himself lean against Qibli, trying to provide his friend any kind of comfort. He knew it was useless, but it was all he could do in this situation. Does Qibli blame me?

Oh, Moon, I'm so sorry.

⋆ ⋆ ⋆

It didn't take long for Darkstalker to lose the last bit of reasoning he had left. Moonwatcher was dead. Darkstalker murdered Winter just out of pure hatred for the IceWings. He didn't even know that Winter was behind Moon's death.

Qibli didn't want to live anymore. He considered just waiting for himself to rot away, sitting there in the caves where Moon died like Stonemover did. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad.

The ground trembled as a dark shape covered the cave-entrance. Qibli glanced up, his expression miserable, eyebags shadowing his gaze. With a sniffle, he noticed Darkstalker's head poking into the cave, his beady eyes boring into him. "Come here, Qibli."

Qibli took a glance at the empty stretcher where Moon once lay. He could still see the little dent her lifeless body had put into it.

An impatient huff made Qibli turn back to the massive dragon. Without another word, he followed the hybrid out into the open, where Darkstalker simply lifted him up in his talons like he was nothing but a mere doll.

The wind roared in his ears. The grip of Darkstalker's talons was squeezing his ribs. Qibli wheezed, hoping Darkstalker would hear his struggle for breath and loosen his grip a little, but the force did not ebb. They eventually were engulfed in darkness as Darkstalker brought him into some kind of cave.

Now free, Qibli drank in the air and took in his surroundings. He ran a talon over the scratched etchings on the stony wall. Numbers. This was where Darkstalker had spent his days for two thousand years, and began counting on the walls when he was awoken. A little mouse skeleton was littered on the rocky dirt beneath.

Darkstalker let out a spurt of flame to light the tiny space. There was an ominous glint in his eyes as he inspected Qibli. Is he going to kill me?

But the NightWing-IceWing smiled in an awfully smooth way and began to talk casually. "One thing I like about you is that I don't have to waste a lot of time on tedious explanations. I drop you somewhere and your brain goes clickity-click and a moment later, you know where we are and we can get on with the interesting bits."

"This is the cave Clearsight left you in," Qibli said. It felt nice to have his brain working again, thinking a million things a minute so he could be distracted by his misery. "Where you were buried for thousands of years. That's the broken bracelet." He nudged a fragment of wires on the ground. Qibli lifted a claw to touch one of the scratches. "And these are the number of days you were awake down here before Peril set you free."

Darkstalker flicked his tail at the mouse skull by Qibli's talons. "And that leftover from my only dinner was also my only friend in the world, until I heard Moon's thoughts overhead and realized another mind reader was finally nearby."

There was a pause as Qibli's mind wandered to Moonwatcher. Darkstalker, too, seemed to be thinking of her, because a shadow crossed his face. Qibli tried to stay on the topic of what he was down here for, not the topic of Moon's death.

"Did you bring me down here to make me feel sorry for you?" Qibli asked incredulously.

Darkstalker's mouth quirked into a small half smile.  "I figured it couldn't hurt for you and I to understand each other a little better."

Qibli didn't reply. He busied himself by tracing the tiny eyeholes of the skull.

"Let's be serious," Darkstalker summoned a floating sun from his claws and nudged it towards him. "You have the brains to be a great animus dragon, but you lack the magic. Turtle and Anemone have the power instead. That must be frustrating for you."

Qibli squinted at the ground, avoiding his face. "Why are you telling me this?"

"I've noticed something," Darkstalker went on, a little more quietly. "You're just like me, Qibli. Maybe even as smart as me; certainly smarter than everyone else. You have big ideas and lots of them, not just one or two in a lifetime like some dragons. You want to change things— all the things that are wrong with the world. You know you could do it, if you had the chance."

"I'm not like you," Qibli interrupted. "I'm not a murderer."

"Oh, but you would be, under the right conditions," Darkstalker said, waving this off. "To protect your queen, to save your tribe, or to bring Moon back."

Qibli felt a chill. "You can't bring dragons back from the dead."

"Sure you can." Darkstalker looked amused. "Just think about it. There's ways to work around magic. Surely you already know that. Just because you can't reanimate a corpse, doesn't mean she can't be brought back."

"No, no, stop–"

"Fine. I'll stop," Darkstalker interrupted. "But you can imagine it, can't you? You would be a murderer too, if you had your good reasons. You also know what you would do with unlimited power— you've thought about it enough. Your big secret dream: to be an animus." He scratched a talonful of pebbles into his claws and they started to bounce and bubble like boiling water. One by one they turned into gemstones: tiny opals and emeralds, amethysts, and tiger eyes leaping and dancing together. Qibli couldn't pull his eyes away from them.

"So, what if you could be?" Darkstalker asked in a low rumble. "What if I made you an animus, too?"

Qibli's talons felt as if they were drifting away from him, suddenly as unreal as the rest of the situation. "You would never do that," he said. Even Turtle, my actual friend, refused to do that for me.

"I would, actually." Darkstalker plucked a ruby from the spinning galaxy of gemstones and scrutinized it. "Because I can see that if I do, it leads to the best future— for you, for me, for all of Pyrrhia."

For you? Qibli wondered. Wouldn't I use my magic against you, in these hypothetical futures?

"No, this is a trick," he said out loud. "You're trying to trick me into taking off my protective spell, and then you'll enchant me."

"That would be a reasonable worry," said Darkstalker, "except that I am ten times as strong as you and right now I could literally rip that earring off your ear anytime I wanted to."

That was quite true, Qibli realized uncomfortably. He felt smaller than the dead mouse.

"So I don't need to orchestrate an elaborate trick." Darkstalker twitched his wings, set the ruby in its own constellation, and nudged an agate over to orbit it. "But you're right, there is a condition to this offer. I'll give you unlimited animus magic, in exchange for a tiny spell that says you can never do me any harm. That seems quite fair to me, though. My hope, of course, is that you won't want to do me any harm once we are allies."

Never do him any harm, Qibli thought. There would be ways around that. This might be a trick, but I can turn it back on him once I have that magic. I could outsmart him if I was an animus.

If I say yes... I could stop Darkstalker and get all the magic I've ever wanted. 

I could get Moon and Winter back.

———

woahhgggg. conclusion: qibli agrees and loses his mind🤑🤑

ok story time: one day i was drawing qinter and my mother asked "are they a made up couple or a couple in the book?" ('made up' meaning ocs) and for a second, i considered telling her that they were canon characters, but not a canon couple, but then i decided to say "they're in the book". now my mother believes that qinter is canon and i think that's beautiful.

i will not tell her the truth because i firmly believe that qibli & winter do canonically have romantic feelings for eachother, but just haven't realized it yet. because they're literally written that way i swear. (also my mom isn't homophobic or anything)

im also thinking abt posting art on pinterest...🤨🤨 perhaps. link will be in comments if i do it