❄️Chapter 19: Unlocked❄️

  A shrill gasp jolted Winter awake, his foggy eyes barely registering the multicolored blob in front of him as Kinkajou. It wasn't for a few moments that he realized why she'd gasped, or how much of an imbecile he'd been letting Moon sleep on his ledge last night.

  The IceWing tried to sit up, but he was facing the outer edge of his bed, and being a little out of balance having just woken up, he toppled over onto the floor in a shameful heap.

  "Kinkajou, please don't-" he started, already knowing what was racing through the grinning RainWing's head. 

  The tiny dragon turned and scrambled out of the cave, calling for Sparrow, surely to tell her what she'd just seen.

  "Do that," he muttered with a heavy sigh. He felt a sickening feeling in his chest, knowing he'd already been enough of a moron to give away his and Moon's secret so early. Of course Kinkajou would've seen; she was always in everyone's business.

  Winter turned around and saw that very NightWing blinking her tired eyes open, sitting up with a yawn on his icy ledge.

  "Hey, Winter," she said. Then, she obviously noticed how worried he must've looked, then her face turned to a mask of disappointment and horror; she must've heard his thoughts. "Not already..." 

  "Yep. Already," he replied. "Any second now, the entirety of our winglet is going to come barging in here...you think we should just get all of these secrets out of the way? If Kinkajou found out about this, one of them is bound to discover your powers eventually, and you can't keep passing those pains in your head off as 'headaches'."

  Moon just sighed. "Might as well. The only reason I will, though, is because I know at least you won't hate me after I tell them...oh, moons...what's my mother going to say? She doesn't want me with an IceWing romantically, and she'll probably kill me if I give away my secret..."

  "Guess we both have parental units who will end us if they find out about any of this," he replied with a thin-lipped smile. "Mine actually will, though."

  "Yeah, one more thing...did you see that sort of...smokey stuff near the roof of our cave last night?"

  This alarmed him. He hadn't noticed anything, but if it was smoke...

  "What color was it?" he asked.

  "Blue," Moon said quietly.

  There was no need to express what Winter realized, as he knew she had realized it too. Whatever the prophecy was trying to convey, it was coming true. Quickly, at that. Even if they had wanted to talk about it, they wouldn't have been able to at the time, because exactly as he'd predicted, Kinkajou came back into their cave, followed by Sparrow, Karma, Qibli, Carnelian, and Turtle. All of them had looks on their faces demanding an explanation for what the RainWing had seen. 

  "So," Qibli said, wasting no time in prodding the said explanation, "spill it. What's going on with you two?"

  Winter took a quick glance at all of them, and the only one bearing a look besides curiosity was Karma, disappointment and sadness evident on her expression. This only added to the feeling of guilt multiplying like a cancerous growth inside of him.

  "All you guys need to know is last night, after the dance, things were said and done, and now me and Moon are together," Winter said, cutting straight to the point. "I'm not getting into the details, and if any of you tell this to someone outside of our little circle," he warned, fixing each of them with a cold glare, "I'll personally make sure you are equally paid back. In different ways each time."

  "Uh, how much, exactly, will be equal if that does happen?" Turtle asked.

  Winter grinned. "However much I want it to be. So don't."

  The SeaWing visibly paled.

  "And now, Moon has something she needs to tell all of you as well," he said. "Right?"

  The NightWing nodded, getting up from his ledge. She walked forward and he stepped back a little, letting her be the focus of attention.

  "So, there's something I've been hiding from you guys for the past couple of months," she said, looking at the floor for a moment. "Winter found out about it last night, and he's still not happy about it. I know you're probably going to hate and distrust me for awhile, but I should've just told you at the beginning, and it was a mistake for me not to. Know how the NightWings had those supposed powers a long time ago, but it turned out they were made up?"

  The six other dragons shared looks of confusion, but after a few moments, Qibli seemed to understand what she was getting at. He suddenly shut his dark black eyes tightly, shaking his head slightly, as if silently praying this wasn't true.

  "Well...they weren't exactly lying," Moon continued. "I have two powers: the ability to see futures, and the ability to...read minds. Neither of which are under my control."

  Qibli was the first to leave, whirling around and bolting from the cave like the devil was after him. Carnelian was second, turning to give moon a hatred-filled stare, before hurrying after the distressed SandWing. Turtle was about to follow them, but Moon stopped him.

  "Turtle, wait! For whatever reason...I've never been able to hear your thoughts," she told him, her face already broken in sadness from the departure of two of their friends. "Whatever secrets you have, they're safe. From me, at least."

  That clearly calmed the SeaWing down, but left Winter puzzled. There weren't really any differences between him and everyone else he knew...Turtle was a relatively boring guy, seemed super mopey all the time too. The only visible difference was...

  "Your arm band!" Winter exclaimed. "That might be why Moon can't read your mind! Take it off for a second, Turtle, and set it on the floor a few feet away."

  The green dragon seemed frazzled, but did this anyway, taking it off and sliding it out of the cave into the short hallway connecting it to the main one.

  Winter looked at Moonwatcher, and saw that he must've been correct to think this. Her jade eyes were wide with disbelief.

  "He's right; it is your arm band!" she said. "It must be the stones in it, because I don't think anything else about it is especially remarkable - no offense. Can you try and take one out to see if it is that?"

  Turtle just nodded, scrambling to go get the arm band. Meanwhile, Kinkajou, Karma, and Sparrow still stood, stunned and confused about all of this, but not leaving just yet. He came back in and popped one of the jet black rocks out of the band, held it in a palm, and once again moved the accessory several feet away.

  Moon's frown faded into a slight smile for a moment. "It is those rocks! Winter, would you go try and find Qibli and Carnelian?"

  He nodded, but he knew they wouldn't be in their cave. 

  If I was a nerdy SandWing, where would I go when I was upset? he thought as he left his and Moon's own cave. SandWings like heat, and it's probably hotter outside than it is inside...but to get the most heat, you go somewhere where either the sunlight is focused to one specific point, or somewhere like the desert, where it's hot everywhere. He obviously wouldn't have time to go there if he only left a couple minutes ago...maybe he'll be at the underground lake.

  Winter hurried to the body of water, barely running into any obstacles along the way. At one point though, he did trip over some dimwit's homework - dim witted because they were stupid enough to leave it in the hallway - and it got tangled up in his serrated claws. 

  "Hey, that was my homework!" a bulky MudWing with a scar on his lip said, emerging from a cave to the left. 

  "And this was a perfectly sharpened talon," Winter shot back, holding up a claw that had had the end broken off after tripping. "Next time, don't leave it in the middle of the hall, genius. I've got places to be."

  He freed himself from the tangled mess of paper, then resumed his walk to the lake.

  When he arrived, his theory about where Qibli would be turned out to be right; the SandWing was ranting to Carnelian in the middle of the water, where the sunlight poured in through a hole in the roof. 

  "...how could she not tell us sooner?" he asked, half-shouting. "I thought we were friends...we're all supposed to be friends, right? You know, our little group here is all we've got. We all have to stick together, and if we can't trust each other..."

  Winter watched with mild interest as the red SkyWing swam closer to Qibli. She hugged him, quietly telling him something as she nuzzled against his neck. The pale blue dragon cringed; it was a lot harder to watch dragons do that sort of thing than it was to do it himself. He made a mental note to keep things like that between him and Moon private.

  "Hate to break up whatever's going on here," he called to them, "actually, I don't. I quite enjoy it, really, but you'd better come back to our cave."

  The pair pulled apart, visible blushes on their faces even from this far away. 

  "Why would we do that after Moon lied to all of us?" Qibli shouted.

  Winter beckoned them to come closer, as he didn't want to shout this next part; enough dragons had already found out the NightWing's secret.

  Once they were close, he spoke. "Look you guys, she only did that to protect herself. I'm not happy about it either, but you've got to get over it. Things happen, life moves on. It's no different now. Can you imagine having some devastating secret weighing you down all the time that you could never tell anyone, for fear of being hated and mistrusted for the rest of your life?"

  Both Qibli and Carnelian shared a look of guilt after his words.

  "I'm not saying you have to forgive her, but at least understand why she did it. Now come on; we've just discovered something important."

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  After the situation involving Moon's powers transpired, the Jade Winglet had been left with a predicament: there were only five of the protective stones, and eight of them. Moon obviously didn't need one, and Winter had volunteered to not take one, as it would probably not be good for their relationship if he was hiding all his thoughts. Then again, her knowing all his thoughts wouldn't be so good either, but there wasn't much of a choice. Sparrow also didn't take one, probably because all her thoughts were just about how to get two dragons together.

  The rest of them took one of the rocks - named skyfire stones by Turtle - and had continued on with business, however they all still avoided Moon like she and Winter had predicted. 

  But now, he had bigger things to worry about.

  He and the remaining Midnight Marauders had gathered in the Great Hall with Argo. This was unusual, as it was a Saturday, but they never disobeyed him. He'd called another emergency meeting that morning.

  Glancing over at his twin sister, he saw her face stricken with worry. Bigtail hadn't been seen in days, and while it seemed the staff were trying to keep this quiet to prevent widespread panic, Icicle was clearly worried. Winter could tell she liked him, having experienced the struggles of forbidden love already. It must've been practically killing her for him to just disappear like that; the NightWing hadn't missed a single meeting before.

  "Winter!" Argo barked. "Quit starin' off into space; don't you realize how important this is?"

  Winter nodded. "My apologies."

  "That's what I thought. Anyhow, I've looked into that scroll Pronghorn found, and am pretty excited to tell you all that it will be possible for you to unlock some...interesting powers that the early dragons had long ago. However, it's probably going to be very difficult, and I don't expect all of you to be able to do this. I'm just telling you that it is possible. I'm going to start in alphabetical order for the powers of each tribe, starting with the IceWings."

  Winter had to admit, he'd been thinking about this lately. It definitely wasn't the biggest thing on his mind, but whatever this new power could be, he could hardly wait to find out if he could use it himself.

  If I am able to unlock some sort of power, Icicle will probably be able to do the same, since we're twins. Not exactly sure how I feel about that, but maybe it'll cheer her up a little.

  "It said in the scroll that many, many, many, and like ten more many years ago," Argo began, "IceWings could use their frostbreath to literally create weapons out of thin air. These weapons were made of solid ice, and while they weren't the most effective in warm environments, they at least gave them an edge in combat when they needed it. Winter and Icicle, step forward please."

  They both did just that, and Winter found himself more excited than he'd been in awhile now that he knew what sort of power he could possibly use.

  "The first step to unlocking this cool power," the SkyWing said with a grin, "is to close your eyes."

  Logical.

  Winter did so, his world becoming a sea of darkness, the light in this cavern not very strong today.

  "Good. Now, imagine you're holding a perfect ball of solid ice. It's completely malleable, so you can turn it into whatever you want."

  The pale blue IceWing guessed he and the rest of the group had stepped away, as his voice sounded a lot farther off than before, as well as the faint whispers behind him. He once again did as Argo instructed. Being an IceWing, he'd experienced a snowball fight once or twice before. One time, when he was much younger, he'd had only pure ice to fight with, so in a desperate attempt, he'd formed one into a sphere. When he'd thrown it at Icicle, it missed her, but hit a passerby in the head, knocking them out cold. He'd gotten grounded for a week after that incident.

  He not only pictured this ice sphere in his head, but curled his claws as if he was actually holding it as well.

  "Okay, now this is the tricky part: you have to simultaneously imagine what you want to make out of that ice and use your frostbreath to create it. This might take a few tries, but I think if anyone can do it, it's you two."

  Okay, what do I make? A dagger? A...spiked club? No, that's what my tail is for...maybe a sword. But what kind of sword? A katana? Yeah, let's try that...

  Winter imagined a four to five-foot-long sword, as that was the traditional length of a katana. The blade was very thin, as with most, and only a few inches wide. Once he had the blade narrowed down, he pictured a handle for it.

  Seems good enough for a first try. Alright, frostbreath, don't let me down.

  Winter exhaled ice like he'd done for years now, but nothing special seemed to happen. He still continued to use his frostbreath until it seemed like it would be enough ice to make a sword with. His eyes snapped open when he heard a sharp clang on the floor in front of him, and he was impressed with himself when he saw he'd been mostly successful. The sword wasn't as clean as he'd hoped, chunks of ice sticking out here and there, but that wasn't a big deal; what was was that he was quite possibly the first of his kind to do this sort of thing in thousands of years. 

  There were a few 'Wow!'s from dragon's behind them, and Winter saw that, just like he'd theorized, his sister had been able to use this power as well. She'd forged a dagger, and unlike his, her weapon was much more smooth and mirror-like.

  Argo congratulated them, then moved on to the next power. Meanwhile, Winter and his sister moved farther away from the group to experiment with their newfound skill.

  "This is pretty awesome, don't you think?" he asked her. "We're the first IceWings to do this in...pretty much forever."

  Icicle just shrugged. "Yeah, I guess so."

  Winter sighed. "You are worried about him, aren't you?"

  She threw a glare at him. "I don't know what you're talking about," she hissed, although a blush had made its way onto her face.

  He knew she wouldn't tell him anything if she didn't want to, so he just dropped it and continued on improving his katana.

  There is one teeny, tiny problem with this, though, he suddenly realized. I'm in Moon's situation now. I have a power that's been lost for so long that nobody even knows it exists anymore apart from a select few...and I can't tell anyone.