Wings of Evolution (WoF AU)

Chapter 53

Desert winds

Qibli watched for a long moment as the two dragons grew closer, watching Smolder from the side as he examined the strangers that were still far off. “We should probably move off anyway, right? We don’t know them and we’re trying to avoid attention.”

Smolder stayed silent as he watched them for a moment longer, eventually turning his back to the strangers and leading Qibli back inside, “the desert is hot, and they aren’t SandWings, they probably saw the oasis and want to know if we’ll share.” 

Smolder didn’t say what they were both thinking, can’t move the egg now, nothing we can do about that. 

If they were Burn's friends finally having found their hiding spot, or more likely Blisters allies here to make an alliance so she could stab them in the back later. One of them was a NightWing after all. And if it was about Burn, she would have brought her whole army to destroy them. 

Ah the joys of being related to royalty. 

It was just their luck that strange dragons had decided to appear today of all days, for months no one had shown snout or talon at their little oasis, and now the one day they could do nothing but fight was when the strangers decided to appear. 

Qibli was pretty sure he could take a NightWing in a fight, as long as this one didn’t have any weird powers. He wasn’t sure about the RainWing though, he’d never practiced avoiding venom that could be spat through the air. 

He watched them warrily and Smolder whacked him with his wing, “come inside, let’s see how it’s going.” 

Qibli sent one last distrusting glance out at the two strangers and followed Smolder into the shack. 

The only noise from then on was the soft tapping of the light brown egg buried halfway in the sand. Qibli went to stand beside his mother as they all watched anxiously, it was unlikely that it would be done by the time the strangers arrived. 

Thorn sighed and opened the tent flap to see how close they were, Qibli blinked when he noticed their progress, moving to stand guard as Thorn cast a troubled look at the egg, “you two can go on ahead, I’ll catch up in a few hours with whoever comes out…”

Smolder shook his head, “nope, no one is leaving, we’re staying right here and we’re all going to welcome the little one into the world, then we can figure out what our guests want. Probably just water.”

That didn’t help Thron’s anxiety, nor Qibli’s, but they all sat there, waiting anyway as each one of them tried to think of ways out. 

I’m faster than them both, we could do Mother’s plan but with me staying behind instead… no one would let me though, and I have no idea how dragonets work. If it is allies of Blister though, we would have time since she’s so plotting-

Qibli’s thoughts were interrupted by a loud crack. His eyes -which had closed in thought- flew open as he looked down at the egg with concern.

Thorn let out a gasp as she smiled down at the creature wriggling out of the shell below her, and Smolder set his large talon beside the small dragonet as she sneezed and blinked a few times. 

Awwww. Was the general thought here. 

Qibli crouched down and looked at his little sister, feeling overwhelmingly happy all of the sudden. But also concerned, if the strangers are from Blister or Burn, they will do their level best to eliminate this possible heir. 

His protective instincts that he’d only known of from his older sister rose up at the thought and he turned toward his mother, “What’s her name?” 

Thorn rested her talons on the ground as she looked adoringly at the tiny dragonet, “Beetle.” She smiled and Smolder seemed to agree. 

Qibli only nodded and glanced back toward the entrance, “I’m going to go see what the strangers want.” 

Smolder blinked and rose to his feet, “I’ll go with you. Thorn, if this gets ugly get Beetle to safety.” 

Normally Thorn would have disagreed, but her motherly instincts were on a roll as she watched the dragonet poke at her talons, “alright, just… be careful.” she picked up the dragonet, who made a delighted noise and started chewing on her own tail.

Qibli nodded and exited the tent with Smolder close behind. No one was going to harm his little sister. The strangers were just landing beside the oasis, black scales and a half camouflaged RainWing. 

The NightWing was male, with one of his front arms in a sling, which would make him fairly easy to beat in battle unless he had powers. He was slightly larger than the RainWing, who was examining the pool of water with a skeptical expression. Her scales didn’t shift much in the moments before she turned to regard them. 

The two groups watched each other for a long moment, the RainWing reading the slightly hostile mood as she glanced back at the NightWing. “Can you walk right now?” 

He let out an overly loud sigh and rolled his eyes, “that was one time, it’s not my fault that the cave you decided to make me crawl in was infested by lizards.” 

“I still fail to see how that’s related.”

The NightWing shook his head, glancing at Qibli with a ‘can you believe this?’ Look. 

The RainWing gave the NightWing an annoyed look and inclined her head in Smolder’s direction, “Prince Smolder, I presume?” 

Smolder lifted his tail to a better position for attack, “Who’s asking?” 

“I am General Glory of the RainWings. I have led them since the capture of our queen.” the NightWing elbowed her and she rolled her eyes, “and this is Deathbringer.” she elbowed the NightWing back and continued, “we were sent by princess Tsunami because she wants to know the status of the sand kingdom and stuff like that, she figured that interrogating some secret royals would help with that.”

Qibli blinked, as far as he knew, only Blaze and Sunny knew their whereabouts. Smolder had come to the same conclusion a few seconds later and he narrowed his eyes, “who told you?” 

Glory sighed, “Sunny went on a mission a few weeks back and in the process we stopped at Blaze’s place, and you know how Blaze is. It was less than five minutes before everyone in the room knew that Sunny was in line for the throne.” 

Qibli snorted to cover his laughter, and really, it did sound exactly like Blaze to do that. Smolder made a face, and Qibli suspected that he wished he’d never told Blaze anything. It couldn’t be helped though, especially since Blaze was the only reason that the family had survived as long as they had. 

Something else had caught Smolder’s ear though, “so Sunny’s alive then?” a slight tension eased from his figure and Qibli blinked, he’d wondered if she would be alright, but there hadn’t been much room to question whether Sunny was still around. 

Glory nodded, “Sunny is helping out with stabilizing a… slightly insane NightWing that we recovered a year back.” 

That surprised Qibli more than anything, Sunny hated NightWings. She didn’t hate a lot of things, but NightWings had a special place in her heart. Her usual happy self would always completely disappear at mere mention of the heinous tribe. 

Perhaps she’d grown in the last few years as well.