Tempest Unleashed

Chapter 20: The Library at Midnight

When we got back to Jade Mountain, it was midnight, and Winter slumped to the ground in exhaustion, relieved to finally stop flying. I rolled my eyes, dragged him to his sleeping cave, and dragged myself to mine. Within seconds of laying down in my bed, I felt the weight of sleep pushing down on my eyelids, wanting me to fall asleep as soon as possible, and I almost complied, but then I remembered that I hadn't said 'thank you' to Moon for sending Winter to rescue me. I sat up, turned my head to Moon's bed, and what I saw made me gasp slightly. Moon's bed is empty. I heard a loud snort, and I almost jumped straight through the ceiling, but I soon realized that Kinkajou was still in her bed, snoring. I decided to investigate where Moon had gone, so I quietly got out of my bed and went out of the cave to think. If I were Moon, where would I be? What would I do? Who would I be with? Then, I realized the answer to all three questions. I would go to the library to read with Qibli or Kinkajou, but since Kinkajou's sleeping, she'd be with Qibli. I was proud of myself for noticing so much about her in such a small timeframe, but I could congratulate myself and pat myself on the back later, because I needed to find Moon. I trotted to the library, careful not to wake anyone up on the way. When I reached the entrance to the moonlit library, I saw a black dragon standing inside, as if waiting for someone. Moon. What is she doing? Is she waiting for someone? Who is she waiting - Moon whispered, "Qibli? Qibli, are you there?" As if on cue, another dragon whisked into the room through another entrance, and I ducked into the shadows so that they wouldn't see me, but I moved into a place where they wouldn't see me but I could see them. Suddenly, a cold talon landed on my shoulder, and I almost jumped straight through the ceiling again, but I quickly realized that it was Winter, who had apparently woken up pretty quickly. I hissed quietly at him, "What are you doing here? How did you wake up so quickly?" He rolled his eyes at me (which I didn't appreciate), and explained crossly, "I'm doing the same thing as you, which I guess is spying on them, and you do know what acting is, correct?" "Of course I know what - " "Shh, they're talking to each other now." Qibli replied in a whisper, "I'm here, Moon, don't worry, I remembered to come." "Thank goodness, I'd thought that you'd forgotten to come to the meeting that you yourself had arranged." Moon said drily in her normal voice, but a bit quieter than usual. Qibli laughed softly, then replied, "Okay, you have a point, and that's not easy to admit for me." He drew closer to her so that their snouts were almost touching. He softly said to Moon, "Moon, the truth is, I really like you, and I don't mean as a friend. I don't mean like-like, I mean love-like. From the first moment I saw you, I immediately started to love you as much as a certain IceWing prince loves the current most dangerous dragon in the world." Moon's eyes widened, and her snout wrinkled as if she were trying to refrain from breaking out in laughter. "Qibli, what have you been doing these past nights?" She asked in a mischievous tone. Qibli smiled, and answered, "A few nights ago, I noticed that Winter was missing, and he'd mentioned finding a secret underground lake in a cave, so I went there and saw that Tempest was laying down next to Winter and leaning into him, so I decided to spy on them a little bit more." Moon chuckled, "You mischievous SandWing! I should keep a closer eye on you." Qibli replied softly, "Maybe you should." After a moment of them smiling and staring into each other's eyes, they closed their eyes, leaned forward and kissed each other. I almost gave up my position by yelling, "Wait, what?!" Luckily, Winter groaned softly, and I got distracted from the current situation, and asked quietly, "What's wrong?" Winter replied nervously, "I might have told Qibli that you'd just fainted for no reason whatsoever and that I wanted to be with you and he helped me with the speech that I gave you." I thought back to the hospital cave scene, and remembered how stutter-y Winter was with his speech. At first I'd thought that he was just nervous and nothing else, but now I realized that Qibli's speech to Moon and Winter's speech to me were remarkably similar. I turned back to Winter with a sympathetic look in my eyes, and reassured him, "Winter, you don't have to be creative or funny for me to love you. You just need to be yourself." I grasped his talon, and he grasped mine, smiling softly. We continued watching Qibli and Moon. Qibli pulled away, and took Moon by the claw to lead her back to her sleeping cave. Unfortunately, they were walking straight towards us. Winter and I scampered farther into the shadows, and they passed right by us without a second glance. When they were far enough down the hallway not to hear us exhale in relief, we did. We galloped down the hallway, but immediately skidded to a halt when we could hear them again and see them again. We kept as still as possible so they wouldn't see us. Qibli, still holding Moon's talon, whispered softly, "Good night, Moon, I'll see you in the morning." He let go of her talon and she went into our sleeping cave. He waited for a moment to go, and whispered giddily, "I kissed her!" He gleefully skipped to his sleeping cave. "Bye, Tempest, I'll see you in the morning, as well." Winter wistfully whispered (hey, that's an alliteration!). I whispered sadly, "You as well." We went into our sleeping caves, and were immediately met by happy whispers of, "Hello! How are you?" I replied, "I'm really tired and my wings are sore, but other than that, I'm okay." From the next cave over, I could hear Winter reply snottily, "I'm fine." Qibli laughed, "I see you haven't changed a bit." I slightly laughed at that, and thought, No, he hasn't changed a bit, he's changed a lot. Moon noticed the statement from Qibli and was reading my thoughts at that moment, and her giddy smile turned into a sly smile, and I bopped her on the snout. She giggled. I went over to my bed and flopped down on it. She smiled, and whispered, "Hey, Tempest, are you and Winter in love?" I got startled, and whispered frantically, "What?! No, no, no, no, what would give you that idea?! Nope, not at all, no, we're not! Okay, conversation over!" I knew that she could clearly see it in my thoughts, so I thought, NO WE'RE NOT QIBLI WAS WRONG SO DON'T EVEN ASK ANYMORE. I knew she already knew the truth, so I groaned, "Alright, fine, you caught us. Good job." She crowed, "Wait, what?! I was right! I was right, I was right, I was right!" I smiled in an okay-fine-you-were-right-now-stop-running-around-screaming-that-you-were-right kind of way while I waited for her to stop saying 'I was right'. It took a while, and when she finally stopped screaming that she was right, I asked her, "Okay, you caught Winter and me, but are you and Qibli in love?" She responded with a groan, "Yes, you caught us. It looks like we're both in an inter-tribal relationship with someone." Instead of me running around screaming that I was right, I smiled and said, "Knew it. Can I ask you something?" "Of course, Tempest, you can ask me anything!" I gulped, and asked, "Do you know who sold me to the dragons who kidnapped me yet?" She cocked her head, and responded, "No, I don't yet. Do you?" I swallowed, and replied, "The one who sold me to the kidnapper dragons was Winter, actually. When he rescued me, he told me, 'It's true, they offered me a lot of gold, but now, I see that it was wrong to sell you to them. In a choice between you and gold, I would always choose you, because there's not enough gold in the world to describe your value to me.'" "Awww, he looooves yoooooou!" Moon crooned. I bopped her on the snout again before we both fell asleep from exhaustion.