Wings of Fire as Humans: Jade Preparatory Academy

Chapter Twenty-Three: Qibli Roadrunner

A/N: I have a new story! Life, Death, and Fire, the third book in my Life, Death, and Chaos series was released last week. Please check it out; I worked really hard on it!

Qibli didn't quite know what to say after Winter ran off. He knew his friend was sorry - or he mostly knew anyway. But . . . Winter hadn't apologized. And that hurt more than Qibli wanted to admit. It almost seemed like Winter cared enough to be sorry, but not enough to tell them that he was sorry.

"I'm sure it'll be fine," Kinkajou said, following him and the other boys into Turtle's, Umber's, and Blue's room.

"You always think that," Umber said grumpily.

"It will be fine," Qibli told him, telling himself that he wasn't being overly hopeful. "Winter will apologize once he gets ahold of himself."

"He's probably just embarrassed," Blue added. "Maybe he had a bad day."

I'm sure he did, Qibli thought, remembering what he knew about Winter's family and reminding himself how lucky he was that Thorn - and technically Smolder - had adopted him when he was five.

"We need Lynx," Turtle said. "Tell her what happened."

Qibli's eyes lit up. "Yes! Lynx can talk to him!"

Kinkajou nodded. "I'll get her. There's this new girl in our Winglet - her name's Moonwatcher. Apparently, she's Fatespeaker's and Deathbringer's cousin. She's been avoiding us so far, but I think she'll turn out to be nice. Lynx and the others are trying to find her."

"That's good," Qibli said. He hadn't realized that there would be anyone he didn't know in their Winglet.

Kinkajou bounded out of the room, and a minute later was back with Lynx.

Qibli, Kinkajou, Turtle, Blue, and sort of Umber explained the situation with a lot of talking over each other and interruptions. By the end of it, Lynx looked like her head was going to explode.

"I'll talk to him," Lynx agreed when they were done. "But don't expect him to listen. He's really stubborn."

"Oh, we know," Qibli said sourly. He leaned back further in his chair with a groan.

Lynx sighed. "I'm sure he really is sorry, Qibli. Winter wouldn't hurt you guys intentionally." She slipped out of the room, and the conversation died as she left.

"Well, I'm going to go talk to Glory," Kinkajou said, getting up. "I need to ask her something."

Qibli, who had pulled out his phone, looked up in surprise. "You literally just saw her! You also have a phone. What is so important that you have to run up there and talk to her?"

Kinkajou grinned in a way that made Qibli a bit uneasy. "You'll see," she said smugly. "Or . . . you'll probably hear, really."

He sighed as Kinkajou bounced out of the room, her enthusiasm radiating off her, like she was a glowing beacon of sunlight. "What kind of disaster is she going to cause this time?"

Turtle shrugged. "Nothing we can't handle."

Qibli sincerely hoped that was the case.