Wings of Fire: Glorybringer

Chapter Sixteen

    Turtle's POV

    "Someone else?" Moon asked nervously. "But who?"

    "That's the big question here." I said.

    "So um . . . what do we do?" Qibli asked. I could tell his heart was thumping against his chest hard.

    "I don't know . . . " I replied.

    "At least she's still alive." Moon said, though it sounded more hopeful than certain.

    "I'm going to find this dragon." I said.

    "Turtle, since when have you volunteered for adventure?" Qibli asked.

    "Since now!" I said.

    "Yeah, I don't think that's how it works . . . "

    "What?"

    "You are Turtle. You do not volunteer for adventure. You hide from it."

    "Alright, fine. I just want to know who did this."

    "Did what?" Moon asked suddenly.

    "Did . . . that." I said, gesturing to Jerboa. How come she forgot? What's going on?

    "Oh no!" Moon said sarcastically.

    "Moon . . . ? Are . . . are you okay?" I asked.

    "No!" She burst out suddenly.

    "Whoa! Moon, what happened?!"

    "What do you mean, what happened?"

    "You - you weren't acting like yourself."

    "Are you joking? Because I clearly remember trying to find out who hurt Jerboa. If this is some kind of joke, ha ha, very fun guys. Now seriously. What's going on?"

    "Alright, Turtle, we need to talk." Qibli said. I nodded and followed him to a different part of the cave.

    "Something's not right, and I think I know what it is. But I can't be sure. We have to go to the library first."

    "Please, tell me what's going on. Because that is just NOT Moonwatcher."

    "Alright. Let's go to the library."

    "Okay. I'll tell Moon."

    "Tell Moon what?" Moon asked.

    "Tell you that we're going to the library for a little."

    "I'll come with you!"

    "No, you won't." Qibli said. "The healer said you had to stay here to recover from your prophecy."

    "Prophecy? What prophecy?"

    "The prophecy that you - never mind."

    I left Moon a note saying where we were going, because it seemed that she didn't remember how weird she acted. I wanted her to know where we were, so she wouldn't panic.

~A little while later~

    "Turtle? Qibli? Is that you?" Starflight asked, raising his talon.

    "It's us." We replied.

    "Just looking for something." Qibli added. Starflight nodded and continued his work of rearranging the checked out scrolls.

    "We need to look for the scrolls that have to do with memory." Qibli said. "Either that or animus magic."

    "Alright. You look for memory, I look for animus magic." I said. "I should have more experience." I added in an undertone.

    Qibli nodded and went to look for scrolls about memory, while I went to look for scrolls about animus magic. I found one titled: The Pros and Cons of Animus Magic with Spells Included.

    "Qibli I think I found something!" I said.

    "So did I!" He yelled. He held up a scroll titled: Memory Loss and How to Figure Out What's Causing It.

    "That's a straight-forward title." I said, laughing. Qibli chuckled and came over to a small pile of leaves where I was standing.

    "Nice scroll." He said.

    "Thanks. Your scroll is . . . "

    "Okay. Ish."

    "Yeah."

    We started flipping through the pages for about an hour until I shouted in joy.

    "What is it?" Qibli asked.

    "I found it! I found . . . something I think." I said, unsure of what we were supposed to look for.

    "Let me see." Qibli said.

    "Animus magic is a dangerous thing. You can cast any spell you want, but since The Great SeaWing Massacre, we have known that you lose your soul little by little with each spell you cast."

    "Well that's helpful." Qibli snorted.

    "Be quiet and finish reading!" I said.

    "However, there is one spell that can change a lot of things. It is called - "

    "Called what?" I asked. Qibli looked at me and shrugged.

    "Does it just . . . end? Because if so, this is the MOST USELESS SCROLL I HAVE EVER SEEN."

    "I don't know. Let's check in my scroll." Qibli said. "This time you read."

    "The Spell of Dominance - "

    "Hold on, I'm going to stop you right there. That scroll ends, but this scroll starts weirdly. What if . . ."

    He wants to see if they're connected!

    "I think they're connected." Qibli said.

    "That is AMAZING!" I yelled.

    "Shh!" Starflight said from his desk.

    "Sorry!"

    "Continue, Turtle." Qibli said with a slight tone of excitement.

     "Not many know about this spell, and it is rarely used, due to how dangerous it is. If all goes well, the animus is able to take control of a certain dragon, and once it leaves that dragon, the possessed dragon will not remember what happened when he/she was possessed. If something goes wrong, the dragon who cast the spell can either die, or be cursed for the rest of their lives, which isn't long after that."

    Qibli's eyes widened at the same time as mine.

    "This is exactly what happened with Moon. She's being possessed." Qibli said.

    "And it's probably by that other animus that we don't know!" I finished. "Wow, that animus is really hardcore if you think about it. I mean, who would want to be cursed for the rest of their lives? Not me!"

    "So it took you that long to figure it out? I would have thought better of you two. Then again, SeaWings and SandWings aren't the superior tribe."

    Qibli and I whipped around.

    The unknown animus.