Chapter 24: Together

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Did they forget I was here? 

Peril wondered to herself, looking at her two friends who were kissing each other. Peril smiled, seeing the two dragons finally getting together, but it felt awkward. But she had to be there. Snowslide could pop up and kill them both.

She sighed and looked around, trying to notice anything strange. There was nothing. She whipped her head around and looked down the only hallway, but there wasn't anything there. She looked back at Winter and Moon and they pulled away, both looking at each other with love filling their gaze.

They rested their foreheads against each other's and smiled "I love you Moon." "I love you too Winter." Peril smiled "this is all sunshine and rainbows but uh, we have a killer enchanted Icewing in the Academy that has it in for you both." Winter nodded and Moon pulled back, looking at Winter.

"Hang on, in your memories, Australis enchanted her brother so he could kill the Icewings in the First Circle right?" "Yes, well, kind of." "What do you mean?" Peril asked, looking at Winter, then back at the hallways. "Snowslide is enchanted to kill the strongest dragon, that usually means the Icewings in the First Circle, so after a while we just started calling that the enchantment. But the actual enchantment was this:

'Enchant my brother, Snowslide so he kills the strongest dragons. And doesn't stop until he has done so. But he only kills once he's alone. This goes on until the end of time.'  "

Winter finished, reciting it as if he'd memorized it and repeated it over and over again. Peril turned her head "so why is he after Moon? No offense but wouldn't I be the stronger dragon? And what about Darkstalker when he came back? Wouldn't he have gone after him?" Winter shook his head.  "He's coming for Moon because she's a Twice-Born Moon Dragonet. He didn't come for Darkstalker because we're terrified of him. And pretty angry."

Peril growled "it's my fault Darkstalker was released." "Peril it's my fault. If I hadn't argued with Qibli, none of that would have happened. Don't blame yourself. But what is my mess is Snowslide. I let him escape. I failed to kill him. It won't happen again." They began walking back "wait, if the enchantment goes on until the end of time then Snowslide is practically immortal. How are we supposed to kill him?"

"With this." Winter said, reaching out to his tail. He grabbed a scale and lifted it up, before reaching back with his tail and taking out a small dagger. Peril's eyes widened "you were carrying a knife around IN YOUR SCALES THIS WHOLE TIME?!" 

Winter rolled his eyes at the Skywing "this isn't any ordinary knife Peril. It's the Gift of Anti-Animus. It's a special dagger that permanently destroys anything an Animus created." He stated before tucking it back to where it was before. "THEN WHY DIDN'T YOU USE IT FOR THE SCROLL YOU CLOUD FOR BRAINS?!"

She yelled out at Winter "because I WAS GOING TO USE IT FOR THE BENEFIT OF MY TRIBE! SOMETHING EVERYONE COULD USE! THAT'S THE ONLY WAY TO KEEP SAFE!!!" 

"CAN WE STOP SHOUTING?!" They both looked at Moon and blinked in confusion "sorry. I don't like raising my voice. But we need to focus on the task at our talons. Snowslide is in the Academy and he wants Winter and I dead. So, we need a plan on how to take care of him. For some reason I can't read his mind so he's leveled the field on that sense."

Peril thought for a moment "I might be able to convince Snowslide to go on a fly with me and you know" she made a slashing motion across her neck. "Thanks for the offer but no, Snowslide without a doubt knows that you know and he's most likely prepared for this kind of scenario. We need to find a way to catch him off guard." 

They both looked at Moon. "Don't look at me! I got nothing!" Peril sighed "Qibli is really strategic and good at thinking things through. We should ask him for a plan." Winter nodded "I agree, come on, we'd better head back." Peril began to walk away, but out of the corner of her eye, she saw Moon and Winter holding talons as they walked together, their wings touching.

 They arrived at the end of the hallway where they saw Turtle Kinkajou and Qibli waiting for them. "Where have you both been?" Turtle asked, clearly worried as he ran and hugged the trio. "We're okay." Winter looked at Qibli, and the Sandwing's face became shocked, as he looked at their intertwined talons, but his frown turned into a small smile. "It's about time." He said, walking to them and giving them a hug.

"I was waiting for this to happen." He pulled back and pat their heads "take care of each other, alright?"

Winter nodded "I promise I won't let anything happen to her."

Qibli nodded "alright, so Snowslide. We need an explanation and by the looks on your snouts, a plan." "And a good one." Peril said "if what Winter said is true then it's going to be hard to catch Snowslide by surprise. We'll need to be 2 wingbeats ahead of him at all times."

Winter nodded "he's also very stealthy so we need to watch what we say at all times." "Why not use a Dream Visor?" Turtle asked, to which Winter shook his head "there is still one out there. One in Queen Thorn's Stronghold, one here. The other is still out there. It could be possible he got his talons on it so that is out of the question."

Moon looked up at Winter "what about the Gift of Secrecy?" Winter shook his head "even if it's private, we have no idea if he has other ways around it. But we need to assume that Snowslide already knows that I told you all. So you all are in grave danger."

He lowered his head to them "I'm sorry I dragged you all into my mess. Please forgive me."

Peril rolled her eyes "don't get all sentimental on us now Winter. We need to kill an Animus-Touched killer Icewing that's stealthy, a good liar, six centuries old, and has experience with this sort of stuff. Thankfully for us, the Jade Winglet also has an experienced killer." Peril said, flexing her talons "if you all can get me close to him, I could melt his face off."

Winter nodded "yeah, he'll have countermeasures to you though, we need to be unpredictable and thorough. Well thought out." "What about Deathbringer?" Kinkajou asked, shifting her scales to look like the Nightwing. "Maybe, but he has his talons full with the Rainwings and Nightwings."

Qibli smiled "I got it. The perfect plan." Qibli smirked "and it all starts and ends, with you."

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