Chapter Text
It had been a couple months since Winter left Jade Mountain and his winglet. A couple months since he joined (Does hanging around and not doing much to help them count as joined? Doesn't matter to him) the Talons of Peace. Things weren't the best but they were getting slightly better so I guess that's something. Things were…. Alright, in sanctuary.
There were dragons from another continent - Pantala, and apparently scavengers - err, humans - could talk and think and were just as intelligent as any dragon, which Winter thought was sooo cool, but he didn't want to geek out too much.
Winter wasn't sure if he regrets leaving his winglet or not. On one talon, they're probably better off without him and are having fun with their new Icewing and Mudwing winglet members, not to mention that they no longer need to put up with his attitude and anger. But on the other talon…. He misses his friends a lot. I mean yeah they come to visit him when they can (which isn't as often as he'd hope sometimes), but he misses the adventure he had with them, the new perspectives they gave him on life, even if he would never vocally admit that. They do write to him a lot, which he supposes is nice, even if Kinkajou can hardly even spell her own name still (their handwriting is getting better though, thank the moons).
Throughout these past few months, Winter (With the help of the Talons of Peace) has been making great progress on Sanctuary. Many dragons have been moving in to live here, including his cousin Crystal and her Mudwing boyfriend Gharial. Winter was pleasantly surprised to see so many hybrids and inter-tribal relationships, mostly because he wasn't aware how many of either there really were. On top of the disabled and the hybrids, there were also an impressive amount of scav- humans, who have moved into sanctuary, mainly to have protection by dragons instead of the usual protection from dragons. It was a win-win situation, really. The humans have protection and a free home, and Winter gets to study them, as odd as it was.
Amongst all the humans and dragons in sanctuary, there were two that really stood out to Winter - Sky and Wren. Wren was a young human girl who could speak the dragon language, almost entirely fluently. Sky was a pale Skywing (Winter thought him being named Sky was funny, but hasn't exactly been rude enough to tell him that yet) and Wren's best friends. Apparently they grew up together in a way? It was both odd and fascinating. On top of Wren speaking dragon, Sky could speak human, maybe even better than he could speak dragon.
From what Winter has gathered, Sky is about 8 or so years old with pale blue eyes, which is odd considering Winter only knows one other Skywing with blue eyes, that being Peril. Sky was also considerably smaller than most Skywings Winter has met, only being a bit taller than Winter despite being several years older. Sky, oddly enough, had no fire, explaining his paleness, also being quite the opposite of Peril. Winter wonders if the two odd dragons were possibly related, considering why Firescales happen in the first place. Though he also wonders if Sky knows he has/had a sibling at all to begin with.
Winter was quickly pulled out of his train of thought by the very dragon on his mind. “Winter, Winter!! Your Rainwing friend is here!! What's her name… Ah! Kinkajou! And Turtle, I think. They're here to visit you and-” Sky was quickly cut off by Winter's constantly snappy attitude. “I get it, I get it! No need to repeat yourself.” Winter takes a deep breath and rubs the space between his eyes. “Sorry, Sky. I've just… I've had a lot on my mind and a lot on my plate. Been busy and it's stressing me out, sorry.” Sky nods, accepting his apology. “It's fine, really. I don't know how I'd handle running an entire town basically on my own, but I think you're doing fine. Anyways, I need to get back gardening with Gharial, see you around!!” Sky called out as he ran off to wherever he was working.
Just as Sky left, Winter saw a bright yellow and pink Ranwing running straight at him as he tries to brace himself for impact.
“WINTERRR!!!!” Kinkajou yelled as she pounced on him, knocking the both of them down onto the ground, her tail wagging vigorously. Winter gently pushes her off and dusts off his scales.
“Where's Turtle? I thought he was with you.” He said, looking around to double check and see if he was in the general area. “Oh, he went to go chat with Riptide real quick, fill him in on stuff about Tsunami, he should join us sooner or later.”
“Nice, good to know. Anyways, have things been well? How is Moon? A-And Qibli?” Winter asked nervously. Everytime one of his winglet mates comes to visit, he gets scared that they've all changed their minds and that the only reason they came to visit him was so they could tell Winter to fuck off and leave their lives forever.
“They're all doing well, very affectionate with each other. They miss you a lot, Winter. We all do. You can always come back to Jade Mountain, even if you won't be in our winglet.” “That's a nice offer, Joujou, but I've worked too hard just to abandon Sanctuary. This is my home now, and I'm not mad about it. I miss you guys too, but I feel like I belong here almost as much as I belong by your guys' sides.” Kinkajou lets out a sigh, but nods in understanding.
Just before Kinkajou could start talking again, Turtle makes his way over to the pair of dragons and joins them. “D-Did I miss anything important?” Turtle spoke, tracing his claw against the dirt on the ground. “You're fine, Turtle. Just chatting with Winter, nothing super important. Anyways, I'm starving. Do you have anything besides meat around here?” Winter gives it some thought before rummaging up an answer.
“Uhh, yeah, we've got vegan and vegetarian stuff. Flamingo is either working on a garden right now or tossing up some sort of meal for some of the vegetarians around here. Plus I know Gharial and Sky are working on a garden right now, digging up some vegetables. You can go help them for the meantime if you want, I'm sure they wouldn't mind the assistance.” Kinkajou hummed to herself and stared at the sky as if thinking.
“As much as I'd love to, I came here to visit you, not to dig up veggies. I mean, unless you were willing to help me help them, but I know you usually have your talons full.”
Winter fiddles with a silver ring on one of his claws before answering her. “Yeah… I usually try to help out with stuff around the village whenever I can, but honestly I don't think I have the patience to dig dirt out of my claws again. Yuck. Anyways, we can go see what Flamingo is up to and hope they're cooking something up, if not you might have to wait a bit, Joujou. Turtle can always get fish from the river though.”
“Off to find Flamingo!!... Who's is that what do they look like and where are they…?-”
“Here, just follow me.”
Winter said, leading his two friends off with him.