Qibli x reader: Chasing Stars

Chapter 2 and 3

I shivered. 'What was that?'

But I knew. And Moon knew as well. We'd known since we read the scrolls that said, "NightWing powers include mind reading and seeing visions of the future." That was where our nightmares came from - the future.

What I didn't know was whether the visions were inevitable, or how to interpret them, or what in Pyrrhia to do about them, since, as far as I could tell, we were the first NightWings in hundreds of years to have the legendary powers of the tribe.

Lucky us.

And if the other NightWings couldn't handle mind reading, I was pretty sure that visions of the future weren't going to go over well either. I hadn't even told our mother about these. One curse was bad enough.

Turtle hadn't looked sinister at all, despite the weird blankness of his mind. And we knew quite a lot about sinister vibes after living with the NightWings for the last few months. But perhaps any dragon could become dangerous as they got older (although... he hadn't looked much older or bigger in the vision). Or perhaps he was simply much better at hiding his true nature than any other dragon I'd ever met.

"Wow. A real queen." Secretkeeper said. "I've never seen one before."

"You see Queen Glory all the time." Moon pointed out, only half listening, according to her wandering thoughts.

"Queen Glory is barely older than you are." Secretkeeper answered. "I mean a real queen, someone who's ruled her tribe for years and years."

I studied mother sideways. Many of the NightWings harbored bitter thoughts about having a RainWing for their queen now, but I didn't think that Secretkeeper was one of the grumblers.

"All right." My mother said, suddenly and briskly. "That's enough hiding in shadows and 'observing'. Time for you to go find your cave."

'Already?" Moon thought, and I was seized with a horribly familiar feeling of terror. "Alone? Aren't you coming inside with us?" I asked.

"This will be good for you." Her mother said. I hope. Remember, Secretkeeper. Be strong. Just turn, and fly away. "I love you, and I will see you soon."

Secretkeeper took a step back, averting her face, and we both caught a glimpse of thoughts her mother had been carefully burying. Oh, I hope this is the right thing. What am I doing? How do I know this will be good for them? Especially Star... she's so small.

Moon's heart leaped, mine did too, except for the whole 'so small' thing. She doesn't want to leave us! I realized with a big feeling of hope. But mother was already hugging us and whispering hurried goodbyes in our ears.

"Wait!" Moon said desperately. "What if I came next year instead? What if-"

"Trust me, little moonbuds." Mother said, cupping our snouts in her talons. "You'll love it here. Just keep your curse hidden, and you'll be fine. Act normal, no matter what happens. And write to me soon! Good-bye!" 

A moment later, Secretkeeper was just a dark shape winging away through the threadbare clouds, taking my heart away with her.

We stayed under the tree for a while, not crying, and watched more students arrived. There weren't actually a thousand, I knew. There were only thirty-five, and it was a privilege to be one of the first few invited to attend. Which made why us? A more mysterious question. I just hoped we stayed together. I heard my sister thinking.

'Well then, I can't put this off any longer. Imagine this is the rainforest, and you're hungry, and your sister's hungry, and your mother's been gone for three days, and you can smell a bunch of bananas inside the cave. If I can be brave enough to feed myself when I had to, I can be brave enough to walk into a school and find the place I'm supposed to be.