The Prince and the Handsome Outclaw

The curse

  Winter and Turtle slowly made their way back to their rooms when Turtle broke the silence once more. "You still didn't tell me what they said Winter" Turtle said. Winter let out a heavy sigh, making sure Turtle understood that he was very annoyed with him at the current moment. 

"They think that some scavengers are responsible" Winter said in a low voice, clearly not proud of saying such a thing. After all he did, trying to convince other dragons that scavengers were more than just snacks only for it to possibly backfire. Turtle put on a confused expression on his face. "Are you sure they weren't high or something?" Turtle said being completely genuine and not trying to make a joke. 

"I have no idea, Clay said that a small Rainwing dragonet saw a pair of scavengers wearing blue robes and gold masks with red circles in the center of their forehead and black eyes" Winter responded to Turtles question. "Thats certainly odd" Turtle replied to Winter. Winter nodded to turtles reply. "If Clay is correct, then that means that scavengers are intelligent creatures.... we've been eating intelligent creatures" Turtle realized as his tone of voice got quieter and softer. 

Winter decided not to speak slowly realized the implications of what dragon-kind has been doing these past few centuries, only treating them as food and maybe pets if they were lucky. The walk on the way back was silent for the rest of the way, both dragons being lost in their never-ending thoughts.

After what felt like centuries, they finally made it back to their rooms. When Winter went in after opening the door, he noticed that Moon was also asleep with Kinkajou by her side, presumably taking a page out of Qibli's book. Winter also noticed that Turtle was looking down at the floor, eyes full of defeat.

Winter put a talon on Turtle's back knowing exactly what he was feeling. 'Either he loved Kinkajou or Moon, poor bastard' Winter thought to himself with a tone of pity. Turtle put his head onto Winter's chest "thank you Winter" Turtle said silently, making Winter blush. 'Who am I loyal too now? Qibli or Turtle?' Winter thought to himself. Turtle and Winter went up to their respective cliffs and when Winter made it up to his he noticed that Turtle gave small silent cry's when he curled up, facing his back towards Winter. Winter curled around Qibli and fell asleep. 

Winter was hoping he would just get no dreams and instead just get deep sleep, but allas he could not always get what he wanted. Although this time this dream was, not really a dream and more of a dream visit of some sort. Winter was met with blue mist that resembled a anthropomorphic bird with 2 heads and feathery wings, the only clear thing that he could see on it was it's hateful blue eyes. Winter had a sick feeling in his gut, like falling at 100,000 MPH the feeling was overwhelming causing him to lose the ability to speak, he also had a painful headache almost as if his skull was broken. The being spoke in an ethereal voice it only said, "Travel to the capital of the Kingdom of Sand and await for my sorcerer". As soon as the voice was done it did a sick cackle, one that Winter would not forget. It went on and on before he was awoken 

When he woke up, he was met by the concerned looks of Qibli, Moon, Turtle, and Kinkajou creating an awkward situation for Winter. "Winter are you alright you were shaking violently and mumbling to yourself" Qibli asked with concern in his voice. "Come with me Qibli" Moon said to him and he nodded, following her to the outside of their room. 

"You sure you alright there Winter?" "Yeah, you should totally tell us we're your best friends after all" both Moon and Kinkajou said to Winter. "Yeah, I'm fine... just a bad dream" "Are you sure it was just a bad dream? you were trembling as if you were absolutely terrified" Turtle said concerningly to Winter. "I've never seen any dragon tremble like that before you are DEFINITELY NOT OK" Kinkajou added to Turtles statement.  

Moon and Qibli finally came back with Qibli now having put on a worried look on his face. "Come with me Winter" Moon said to Winter with a nervous tone. She led him to the outside of the room. "What is it?" Winter asked why purposefully being defensive in tone. "I have been meaning to tell you this for some time but uh" Moon sayed before briefly stopping, possibly considering if what she is about to say is a good idea or not. 

"I am a mind reader I'm sorry for not telling you earlier, I saw what your dream was and that's very concerning because well... that goes in line with the current prophecy that I can foretell" "You're going to have to try harder than that to fool me Nightwing" Winter said with the most antagonistic tone he could muster. 'If this fool can read minds than what am I thinking right now?' Winter thought to himself trying to disprove Moons statement. "You're thinking about how you're trying to disprove me and asking me what you're currently thinking" 

Winter was taken aback by this. "SO, YOU'RE SAYING THAT YOU LISTEN TO MY MIND WITHOUT MY KNOWLEDGE THIS ENTIRE TIME I'VE KNOWN YOU!? "I'm so-" Moon tried to say before being cutoff. "DON'T TALK NIGHTWING THESE ARE THE REASONS WHY I DESPISE DRAGONS LIKE YOU" Winter yelled at Moon, drawing the attention of a couple other dragons before Winter threatened them with their eyes being clawed out. 

Winter slammed open the door that led to their room and practically punted Kinkajou across the room because she presumably had her ear pressed against the door trying to hear what they were saying. Qibli tried calming down Winter along with Turtle, but Winter was having none of it he wanted to just go up to his cliff and ignore everybody and stay put, wanting to not go to the Sand kingdom. But as soon as he thought this that same blistering headache that he had from the dream came back which caused him to clutch his head in pain and fall unconscious because of it. 

When Winter awoke about 4-5 minutes later, he was surrounded he was surrounded by his concerned group of friends. "Oh, good you're awake now, are you feeling, ok?" Qibli asked. "I feel like I got bashed in the head with a 1,000-pound boulder" Winter replied, "It was after I thought of not going to the Sand kingdom like that thing that in my dreams told me to" Winter added. "He's right" Moon sayed to Qibli "It seems that if he doesn't comply the thing will kill him or seriously hurt him if this time was anything to go off of". 

Winter sighed; he really did not want to go there it was practically the opposite of what he was meant for but it's not like he had a choice anyways. "Fine then but I'm going on my own" Winter said while trying to get up. "Oh no no no" Qibli rebutted to Winter. "we're going with you and that's final" "You really can't stand not being annoying can you Qibli?" Winter replied to Qibli. "Fine then but we go at night to not draw any attention".