Archive of Our Own

Winter couldn't sleep.

It had been a couple weeks since he'd finally returned to Jade Mountain Academy. Ostensibly, he hadn't returned initially because he figured any dragon who was banished from the Ice Kingdom shouldn't be able to take a spot from a dragon who was still considered a citizen. Naturally he was disappointed that he couldn't return to Jade Mountain Academy with his friends, but it was a good, principled reason not to.

So he should have been elated when he'd unexpectedly met his cousin and new queen of the IceWings — Snowfall — just outside Possibility and she'd officially un-banished him and gave him her blessing to return to the school.

He turned his gaze up to the moons in the sky. Two of them were thin crescents, but the largest was full tonight, pouring its pale light across the landscape. This was his favorite spot to get some fresh air when he had bouts of insomnia. A small outcropping above a little ravine only a short flight away from the entrance closest to his sleeping cave. The topology hid most of the trees and grass from his view while still allowing him to spot the distant peaks of the Claws of the Clouds mountain range, so in the silvery light of the moons it almost felt as though he was back in the Ice Kingdom. The small ravine also had a way of funneling a chilly wind through it most nights to help sell the experience.

Winter allowed himself a wry smile. Being honest with himself, some part of him had known from the beginning that he was just acting like he was upset about being barred from returning to school to convince himself he wasn't relieved instead. Did other dragons do that, acting to deceive themselves? Is that what Moon had meant when she'd said reading his mind was confusing?

Moonwatcher. The reason he'd wanted to avoid coming back to Jade Mountain was the same reason sleep now eluded him tonight. In a particularly cruel twist of fate, he found himself back in the same winglet as the beautiful NightWing he'd fallen in love with and her boyfriend, Qibli (who also happened to be his own best friend).

"Oh, they're going to be so excited to see that you're back, Winter!" Sunny had chirped from behind him while he was busy disentangling his emotions after seeing the winglets list. "It took a little bit of rearranging, but we weren't about to split you all up after all the adventures you had together!" Winter had turned and managed to give her a sincere "thank you" before making up an excuse to slink away while he still had his composure.

Sunny was right about his friends. They’d all been so happy to see him back at the school. Kinkajou, Qibli, Turtle, Moon, and even Peril had all greeted him effusively. There was a lot of tail twining (except from Peril, who instead stood a safe distance away and awkwardly explained how much she'd like to twine tails with him). Probably more tail twining than he'd experienced in the rest of his entire life combined.

It made his heart hurt, especially when Moon had touched him. There was a lot he didn't miss about the Ice Kingdom and especially his upbringing there, but he had to admit forcing himself to suppress all his emotions had been simpler than just... experiencing them. Now, back at Jade Mountain Academy, he got to experience his unrequited love for Moon every day, watching her go everywhere and do everything with Qibli.

Not that they made efforts to exclude him, of course. They were both still his friends and wanted to spend time with him. Yet he still found himself coming up with excuses to avoid them all too often, which then made him feel guilty on top of everything else. He wished he could just drop all of his burning-hot feelings into an icy pool.

But even if he found a way to steer clear of them for the whole day, eventually he would end up back in their shared sleeping cave. Each night he had to try and fall asleep listening to the sound of Moon's gentle breathing.

Approaching wingbeats suddenly pulled Winter out of his reverie. Quickly orienting his gaze towards it, he squinted his eyes, ready to spot a NightWing against the dark sky. Ever since returning to the continent, the NightWings had become more nocturnal again, so he was used to seeing a few flying during the night. Then his heart did a squirming, painful thing as he wondered if it could be Moon coming to check on him.

Instead he beheld a small RainWing, her bright yellow and pink scales still managing to look vibrant and bold even in the ghostly illumination of the moon.

"There you are!" Kinkajou called as she swooped down to land beside him. "What are you doing up here? Is the cave too warm for you? I read that royal IceWings sleep on beds made of ice, so I bet the rock shelves feel like lava to you! Am I right?" 

Winter scoffed lightly as he sidled slightly over to make room for her on the small ledge. "Well, you're right about the ice beds." He said, then he paused. "Wait, did they discuss the sleeping habits of royal IceWings in class?"

"Oh!" Kinkajou suddenly slid her gaze aside. "No, I just read about it myself in the library." Winter waited for her to elaborate, but that seemed to be the end of her anecdote.

"Uh, well," Winter finally broke the silence. "I'm accustomed to sleeping in warmer climates now, so the rock shelf doesn't exactly feel like lava. Just having some trouble sleeping, I suppose. I apologize if I woke you up when I left the cave."

Kinkajou turned back to face Winter and smiled at him. "No, you didn't wake me up. I just had a bad dream about forgetting to study for a test again! Then I noticed you were gone and went looking to see if I could find you, kind of like we were playing hide and seek in the middle of the night!"

Winter wrinkled his snout, remembering how passionate RainWings were about that game. "How did I do?"

"Not too good, sorry!" Kinkajou stuck her tongue out. "But don't feel too bad. I'm an expert at hide and seek, and that's against other RainWings who can camouflage themselves! Your sparkly scales stand out too much." Kinkajou reached one talon out and gently slapped Winter's shoulder. He tensed slightly at the unexpected touch. He still wasn't used to how touchy-feely the other tribes could be.

"Three moons, I always forget how cold IceWing scales are! How do you hug each other and cuddle?" Kinkajou barreled on. Winter nearly jumped at how close her remark hit to what he'd been thinking about.

"Uh," he floundered for a moment. "IceWings may feel cold to the other tribes, but not to each other. We can tolerate even immersion in freezing water, which for most other tribes is unthinkably dangerous, even deadly." The answer still felt incomplete to him. He paused for a moment, struggling to imagine the royal IceWings in the palace piling atop one another in cuddle piles like newborn mammals. It was absurd.

"Also," he said at length, "IceWings — at least the ones that live in the palace — are not prone to physical displays of affection."

Kinkajou's scales rippled. It was difficult to see exactly what color slipped through them in the cool, dim lighting. Grey? A shade of blue? It was gone before Winter could be sure — not that he knew much about the color-coded emotional displays of the RainWings anyway. Fortunately, Kinkajou was not one to keep others guessing.

"That's so sad!" she cried. "Is that why you used to be so grumpy all the time?"

"Hey, I wasn't grumpy all the time!" Winter growled at her, although he was so amused at the comically sorrowful tone of her voice that he was struggling to feel indignant at her blunt follow-up.

"Fine, just most of the time. And don't dodge the question!" She batted him with one of her wings.

"Yes Kinkajou, I have always secretly yearned to feel the touch of another to thaw out my icy heart." He made a melodramatic gesture of bringing his talon to his forehead as he threw his head back to gaze into the starry sky. "Alas, my station required that I never indulge such base desires. But now that I'm free, you can finally fix me with hugs."

Just as he'd hoped, Kinkajou dissolved into giggles. Caricaturing his past self always seemed to play well with his friends. As he turned to share a smile with her, he also noticed her scales changing color again — but this time including a shade he'd never seen her wear before: a pastel, delicate shade of pink that reminded him of the dawn sky in the Ice Kingdom.

That's pretty, he thought. I wonder what it means.

Come to think of it, why didn't he know that much about what RainWing scale colors meant? Kinkajou had only embarked on a daring adventure with him to save his brother, which had then taken a sudden turn to saving the world from a legendary 2,000-year-old villain, and she was quite the expressive RainWing. Surely he should be an expert by now.

Because I didn't take her seriously, he thought ruefully. I didn't even think she was worth knowing. 

It was painful to remember how little regard he'd given her while she was risking so much to help him. Still, he’d managed to catch on to some of the simpler colors. The bright yellow Kinkajou sported so often seemed to indicate happiness, it wasn't hard to guess that red meant anger, and he'd also deduced that yellow-green meant fear or anxiety.

Actually, he was able to spot a bit of that yellow-green right then as her laughter subsided. He hoped his joke hadn't made her uncomfortable somehow.

"I still think the IceWings could do with more hugging and cuddling." Kinkajou insisted, her usual bright yellow and pink coloration flowing back into her scales. "Buuuut I guess you did stop being so grumpy even without it, so maybe you're right." She nodded sagely. "It was surely the power of friendship instead!"

Winter snorted. "You might be worse than Qibli."

He turned his gaze away, knowing it'd be easier to say the next thing if he wasn't looking. He wondered if he'd ever be able to speak his feelings plainly without looking away, the way Qibli or Moon did. Or Kinkajou. "But, even I can admit that Jade Winglet has helped open my mind. So... thank you for being my friend, even though I'm sure I made it quite challenging at times."

"At times?" Kinkajou giggled again, and Winter felt pleased to see the last yellow-green notes of anxiety vanishing from her scales. "Now that's an understatement!"

After gossiping and chatting about less thought-provoking topics until they were both yawning, Winter and Kinkajou returned to their sleeping cave and turned in. Between classes the next day, Winter made his way to the library and asked Starflight for any scrolls about RainWing colors. There was only one, it turned out: a single, highly-informal letter from a RainWing named Jambu — who hadn’t even actually written it himself. Apparently Jambu had just orated his thoughts while the RainWing queen herself transcribed them to be sent to the library at Starflight's request! As Winter unrolled the scroll on a table in a far corner of the library, he shot a glance at the blind NightWing librarian. He looked modest but, in a way, he had the ear of every tribe's queen.

Winter pushed the idle thought aside and turned his eyes back to the scroll. He was tempted to skip over the meandering preamble and get straight to the colors, but he forced himself to read it all. While RainWings’ carefree attitudes might seem impertinent to his IceWing sensibilities, he knew better than to dismiss them for that anymore.

But really, they could stand to stay on topic a little better.

Still, he gleaned a bit of new knowledge from it. It hadn't occurred to Winter that young RainWings might struggle to suppress emotional color changes like adults could, even though it was obvious in hindsight. He wondered how long it took for RainWing dragonets to learn that. Did it take as long as mastering the icy, blank expression that his parents had drilled into him?

Did Kinkajou still need practice, or did she just not bother to control hers? Would Winter bother, if he was a RainWing that grew up surrounded by easy food and without worrying about Circles and royal decorum?

Winter blinked and gazed into space thoughtfully for a second. Could he actually relate to Kinkajou a bit? He started to consider the inverted position; what would Kinkajou be like if she'd grown up in an IceWing palace? Would she be able to get all her big emotions under control and maintain the poise expected of her station? What effect would that have on her? It was hard to imagine the bouncy RainWing staying still for more than a second even in a classroom, let alone in an IceWing palace meeting. Surely trying to force herself into the proper posture for every social occasion would be agonizing. It had certainly been agonizing for Winter, and he was an IceWing.

When Moon had said some dragons were hatched in the wrong tribe... did she mean me?

He turned his head unconsciously and nearly jumped out of his scales when he found himself face-to-face with Moonwatcher. She flicked her wings out slightly and took a step back.

"Oh, sorry!" She said earnestly. "I came over to say hi, but — you just looked so thoughtful — I kind of got stuck between not wanting to interrupt and, uh, feeling curious about what you were reading." She turned her gaze away and gave a sheepish smile. Winter endured a moment of his heart being ripped in half between feelings of adoration and irritation.

"Hi to you too." He said, internally congratulating himself on the quick recovery. "Am I to understand that looking thoughtful is unusual for me?"

Moon stuck her tongue out at him. "Oh be quiet, you!" 

Winter gave an easy smile. Maybe she hadn't chosen him in the end, but he still enjoyed being her friend, even if it did make his heart ache.

"But really, what are you reading about?" Moon insisted, her eyes sliding down to the scroll. For a brief moment, Winter had the bizarre urge to shove the scroll aside and try to hide it.

He realized his claws were scrunching the parchment a bit. Get a hold of yourself! He was used to feeling a little giddy and nervous around Moon, but this felt odd. Without time to analyze his feelings, he forced himself to clear his throat and smooth the parchment back out.

"I'm educating myself on what RainWing scale colors mean." He said. "I was speaking with Kinkajou last — uh, after last class and I suddenly realized I knew precious little about what all her eye-scorching colors even mean." 

Why am I hiding the fact that I talked to her last night? Winter felt like he was a tiny dragonet learning to fly again and had run into an unexpected gust of wind, sending him spiraling through space as he haplessly flapped his wings to right himself. Stop introspecting; you're going to act weird.

"Oh, that's funny!" Moon said. "Kinkajou has been reading a lot about IceWings because– er–." She suddenly stopped speaking with a guilty look, like she'd accidentally let slip a secret.

Winter narrowed his eyes. "Because?" He prompted as Moon cast her gaze helplessly to the wall of scrolls beside her as if she could find her next line there.

"Uh, just because she– you– something you said made her curious, is all. It's just sort of a funny coincidence, right?" 

Winter found himself unsure of what to say next. Why would that be something Moon would seem so uncomfortable sharing? Why would Kinkajou not want Winter to know that he was the reason she was reading about IceWings? It was pretty obvious that Moon was intentionally leaving something out. He briefly considered pressuring her.

"Yes, I suppose it is." Winter said instead. "Well, you can let her know she doesn't need to be shy. I'd be happy to fill her in on any questions about IceWing society she might have." Moon rewarded him with a relieved smile.

"Thanks, I'll do just that!" She said cheerfully. "Anyway, I promised Peril I'd grab a scroll for her, so I should probably get back to it. Enjoy your research!" Winter waved a wing at her as she trotted off. His gaze wistfully lingered on her as she turned the corner and vanished out of sight. And while he felt a squeeze on his heart, it seemed perhaps a little weaker than it had been in the past. Maybe being around her was actually helping him move on. Maybe he really could decide how he felt about things.

He turned his gaze back to the scroll and reoriented himself. Where was he? Right, he'd finally gotten through the rambling intro and he was about to start reading about what the specific scale colors actually meant.

--

PINK-ROSE SCALES: joyful, happy, or in love.

Unless a dragon is a really light pink — that might mean they're embarrassed! (and in love? I hear that sometimes those two go together!) -Jambu

--

Winter had come to realize that Moonwatcher had been his first crush. Thinking back to his upbringing in the Ice Kingdom, he'd never spent much time considering who he would want to marry. Perhaps he had been too focused on climbing in the Circles to think about his own prospects. However, while IceWings living in the palace weren't exactly eager to spill their hearts to one another, he'd managed to pick up on some secret crushes here and there. From time to time, he would spot a dragon watching another dragon wistfully.

Never once had Winter considered that there might be dragons watching him wistfully. After all, why would they? In the Ice Kingdom, he was constantly sliding down the rankings, hardly worthy of admiration. Then at Jade Mountain, well... Why would anyone other than an IceWing be attracted to an IceWing? Cold to the touch, living in frozen wastes that are uninhabitable to any other tribe. And surely, he'd thought, even an outsider would be able to see his weakness — all the failures that kept him from climbing up the Circles the way a dragon of his station ought to be able to.

So it was quite strange to observe Kinkajou’s behavior over the next few days after he'd read Jambu's silly scroll about RainWing colors that suggested she might be in love with him.

The way she would always end up sitting next to him in the prey center. The way she always seemed to arrive back at the sleeping cave at the same time as him. The way she'd always be looking at him when he glanced at her while a teacher was lecturing (and the way the eye contact would make her quickly avert her gaze while her frill turned that lovely shade of light pink).

How long had she been acting this way? Had it been since Winter came back to the academy? Or before that — could she have been acting like that since he first started attending? Winter had no idea; he'd been too busy watching Moon and dismissing all other non-IceWings as beneath his notice.

And why? Why would someone like Kinkajou, so bright and bouncy and excitable, ever, ever be interested in a brooding, mean IceWing? These questions bounced around in Winter's head with increasing intensity over the next few days until one morning, he woke very early and found himself gazing over at Kinkajou's sleeping form instead of Moon's.

For such a restless dragon while awake, Kinkajou was certainly a sound sleeper. Her expression was tranquil as her side gently rose and fell with each of her even breaths. Her scales gently rippled through different colors in a hypnotic pattern.

Seems like it would be safer to camouflage yourself while sleeping. Winter mused as he allowed himself to be drawn into the shifting hues. But maybe that means she feels comfortable? The scroll he’d read didn't have anything about colors while asleep. Looking at Kinkajou now, Winter felt that the RainWing form possessed a certain grace he hadn't paid attention to before. Their long prehensile tails for swinging on branches, slender bodies for navigating dense trees, and — of course — their dazzling, color-changing scales. The last reminded Winter of the aurora borealis in the skies above the Ice Kingdom. He remembered when he was very young, he had enjoyed going out alone to watch it. Silence and solitude freeing his mind to dream about what might lie beyond the skies of Pyrrhia.

Waves of the gentle pink color that had first caught Winter's eye began to shift across Kinkajou's scales. Kinkajou seems to prefer bright colors, he thought. If only she knew how beautiful she looks in this shade. 

Maybe she doesn't care, though. 

She just wants to wear the colors she likes, unconcerned with impressing anyone. 

Winter thought again about the Gift of Order and how much of his life he'd spent wholly devoted to trying to push his name up to the top. All his time and energy directed towards nothing more than trying to imitate and impress other dragons who presumed themselves superior to their peers for no other reason than dogmatic adherence to tired traditions and rituals.

I admire her, Winter admitted to himself. Kinkajou represented the opposite of his slavish obsession with trying to climb up the Circles. Everything she did, she did because she wanted to or believed it was right. There was no pretense or posturing. 

But under the admiration, Winter could faintly feel something else stirring. As the gentle pink began to overtake the other colors and push them away, sweeping across Kinkajou's form, something squeezed Winter's heart. What could she be dreaming about?

"Uh, did I say something silly in my sleep?" 

Winter barely managed to keep himself from jumping at the sound of her whispering as he suddenly noticed her eyes were open, watching him in return.

How long did she see me staring? He wondered with alarm and embarrassment. He slammed his long-practiced regal IceWing poise back onto his body to cover himself. Tail still, don't break eye contact. Don't look guilty.  "I was wondering why RainWings don't automatically camouflage themselves while sleeping. Wouldn't that be safer?" He asked quietly, his tone managing to stay even thanks to his words being technically true, but then he had a sinking feeling. Idiot. You just admitted you were watching her sleep.

The delicate pink across Kinkajou's body was shot through with a few stripes of bright yellow and pale green. Embarrassed, excited, but also a bit nervous. Winter remembered the colors.

Kinkajou cast a glance at the rest of their still-sleeping clawmates, then flicked a wing toward the opening of their sleeping cave. "Let's go outside so we don't bother the others."

Winter was so busy thinking about how he was going to explain why he was watching Kinkajou sleep that he didn't even notice where she was leading him until they arrived at his sleepless night spot. He touched down beside her on the small ridge and glanced around. This seemed rather further away than strictly necessary to avoid waking their friends, but he brushed the thought aside and turned to face Kinkajou, who was now sporting her usual colors.

"So, RainWings have to concentrate to camouflage, so most of us can't sleep like that," she began. Winter felt a wave of relief — maybe he wouldn't have to explain himself after all. "I mean, you can camouflage yourself and fall asleep like that, but as you're sleeping you might start changing colors because of your dreams, or you'll just sort of slip back into your normal colors! Queen Glory says her scouts can stay camouflaged the whole time they sleep, but apparently some of them snore, which gives it away."

"Can you stay camouflaged while sleeping?" Winter asked.

"I don't know, I've never had a reason to try it. Hmm." She looked thoughtful. "Maybe I should try it sometime. It would be pretty cool to be able to do that."

"How would you know if you managed it or not?"

Kinkajou gave him a cheeky grin. "I could just have you watch me sleep and let me know when I wake up!" Winter felt hot embarrassment shoot through his body. A defensive urge welled up in response; snap at her for saying something so ridiculous! But he turned his gaze away and forced it back down.

"I must apologize." He said tightly, forcing the words out as his throat felt like it was closing up. "That was highly improper of me. I promise you that I don't normally do — that. And I won't let it happen again." He nodded, composing himself. That was a pretty good apology, right? But his stomach dropped as he turned back to Kinkajou and saw the sly smile on her face.

"Aha!” She said triumphantly. “You admit it!” Before Winter could object, she hastily went on, "but don't worry, I don't mind at all, Winter. You can watch me sleep any time you want." Her frill started rapidly shifting through colors. "I mean, you can watch me. I'm not, like, into having other dragons watch me sleep or anything. That would be creepy. But it's not creepy if you do it, is what I'm saying."

Winter found himself utterly disarmed. What? Perhaps this was another RainWing thing. That would make sense. During suntime, surely not all dragons in the tribe sleep at the same time. Maybe they take turns, so there's always a few awake to watch younger dragons and make sure they don't fall out of trees or something. Yes, that makes perfect sense. Nothing weird about this. She's just saying she trusts me.

Kinkajou was looking up at him with an odd expression, like she wanted to say something else but was also waiting for him to speak. Winter resettled his wings and flicked his tail nervously. He had the distinct impression he was missing something.

"Er, I feel the same way, Kinkajou." He tried. And it was true, he trusted Kinkajou… Perhaps more than any other dragon, actually. He felt his heart pounding but wasn’t sure why.

Kinkajou gave him an amused look. "Wow, you didn't really strike me as the dense type."

"I am not dense." Winter glared at her, allowing himself the reprieve of his usual bristly defensiveness as he tried to get his thoughts in order. "I understand what you're saying, even if you're doing it in a strange, roundabout way." But then Kinkajou's usual colors melted away as she allowed the pale pink sunrise colors to break through and sweep over her again. Here and there, the acid green and bright yellow tried to break through in little stripes, but Kinkajou got a faraway look in her eyes for a moment and they too slipped back under the pink.

"Do you like this color, Winter?" She asked quietly. His breath hitched. Something about the sound of her voice sent a pleasant shiver down his spine. He nodded, not trusting his voice if he spoke. She smiled gently at him. "You know what it means, don't you?"

Once more, Winter found himself unable to continue meeting her gaze. He looked down at his talons, which scraped against the rock beneath him as they clenched.

"Why me?" He blurted, not wanting to let the silence speak for him but unable to come up with anything else to say. "I just... I don't understand. I was awful to you! And you — because of me, you almost..." An image of Kinkajou, completely white and crumpled on the ground after Shapeshifter had assaulted her, rose up in Winter's mind. I treated her with such contempt and she still tried to help me, and it nearly got her killed. He watched Kinkajou place a talon on top of one of his, her scales feeling warm and soft.

"It wasn't your fault. More importantly, of course I was going to help you find your brother." She said, squeezing his talon. "You know when I was kidnapped by the NightWings during the war, I was missing for weeks without anyone looking for me? And I wasn't the only one. The only dragons who noticed or cared that we were missing were Mangrove and Queen Glory. That's actually why she challenged the queen for the throne in the first place, so she could organize the RainWings to rescue us and make sure no one else would go missing again.

"It made me start thinking differently about my tribe. If it weren't for Queen Glory being a RainWing herself, I think I would have decided I didn't belong with them anymore. So, when I saw how determined you were to find your brother, how you weren't giving up even after so long, I knew I wanted to help you. And, okay, maybe you were a little bit too grumpy but, I guess I understood that too. You seemed like you had something to prove. I thought, ‘here's a dragon who's a real hero.’"

A real hero. What a silly thing to say. Winter blinked several times. He felt his old habits like a physical force, spreading out from his chest into his limbs, trying to turn him into a statue.

But the old habits were brittle and thin, like a stubborn sheet of ice after a few days of consistent sunshine. He clenched his jaw, his muscles rippling as he struggled against... what? To tamp down and resist his old ways of thinking that rushed up to snatch him away from the bright, sharp feeling stabbing into his heart?

It was partially that, but it was also something else. His shoulders began to shake weakly. His jaw quivered. He closed his eyes — everything was too blurry to see anyway. 

What am I, a hatchling? Don't cry. 

Kinkajou leaned up against him, wrapping a wing over his back.

"It's okay." She said gently.

That was all it took. The brittle facade shattered and Winter was swept away. He crumpled and felt the hot tears flowing freely from his eyes and down his snout. They stayed like that as the sun rose. Birdsong filled Winter's ears as he pulled himself back together. He sat up and looked around, wondering how much longer they had before someone flew by. Kinkajou was looking up at him expectantly.

"You know, I was worried about confessing my feelings to you, but I didn't think your reaction would be this bad." She joked, although her frills were acid green with worry. She gave a nervous little laugh and continued hurriedly, "it's okay though, I'd still be happy to be your friend, Winter! I mean, if it's not too awkward for you..." Winter placed his other talon on top of hers, sandwiching it between his own. He could feel her tense up as her scales frantically flashed several colors between his talons.

"Kinkajou, wait, listen." He said, marshalling his courage as he forced himself to meet her eyes. "I... I do feel the same way. I love you too."

Kinkajou flared her wings out while her eyes went wide with surprise. "Oh! Oh, wow, I thought for sure you'd — I didn't think — are you sure?"

Gazing into her green eyes, Winter experienced a sudden clarity of mind. He thought of Kinkajou’s dauntless spirit and her love and loyalty for her friends. The way she’d risked herself to do what was right without a second thought.

She’s beautiful, inside and out. It was Winter’s turn to place a wing around Kinkajou, eliciting an adorable squeak of surprise from her as he pulled her into his embrace.

"It would be impossible not to fall in love with such a brave and true dragoness as yourself." He tried to sound as princely as possible despite having fallen to pieces a few minutes ago.

It seemed to work. Kinkajou swooned in his embrace, her scales swirling through the colors of her joy, light pink and gold like the sunrise surrounding them. She tilted her head back to meet his gaze again, and Winter leaned down to kiss her.

Peril soared over the ravines, scanning alertly for her missing clawmates. They had all woken to find Winter and Kinkajou mysteriously absent from their sleeping cave, and class was going to start soon. As a nearly full-grown SkyWing, Peril was naturally the fastest flier, so she'd volunteered to look around outside for them while the others spread out to search the caves.

Qibli had also volunteered, pointing out that they could cover more ground and also that her firescales might be a liability if either of them were in a copse of trees. She could see him wheeling around off in the distance, peering intently down into the dense woods below.

A hint of competitiveness surfaced in Peril's mind. Qibli might be annoyingly clever and perceptive, but — on my pride as a SkyWing — there's no way he's going to beat ME at hunting in the mountains! Peril swung her gaze back to the ravines below her and put on a little burst of speed, redoubling her focus. It didn't take long for her to spot a distinctive glint of sunlight reflecting off Winter's dazzling scales.

Hah, one down! Peril tucked her wings in with a small smile, diving quickly. If she was lucky, Winter could lead her right to Kinkajou. Take that, Qibli!

Another part of her quietly noted that Qibli was cooperating with her, not competing with her, but it did little to quell the excitement she felt at the prospect of somehow beating Qibli at something. Distracted with her brief introspection, she didn't notice that Kinkajou was also there until she’d gotten quite close. For some reason, she was almost entirely cloaked by Winter's wings and body. Peril squinted. Was Kinkajou hurt? It kind of looked like Winter was...

Peril flared out her wings to slow down with a jolt of surprise. He was. Winter was deeply kissing Kinkajou.

Oh! Oh, I see, they snuck off to canoodle a bit. What? How long have they been canoodling? Winter and Kinkajou, REALLY? Uh oh, I bet they won't be too happy to be seen... but class is about to start. What should I do?

But she wouldn't have time to decide. She was already close enough that the sound of her wings snapping out suddenly to slow her down alerted the two dragons to her presence. Both of them looked up at Peril, surprise and embarrassment plainly evident on their faces. They hastily disentangled from one another as she gently touched down several paces away.

"Peril!" Kinkajou cried, her scales flashing red and orange in dizzying spirals. "Why would you interrupt like that?! Couldn't you see Winter and I were busy?!" Peril shifted her gaze over to Winter, who looked fascinatingly outraged and sheepish at the same time. For once, he seemed entirely at a loss.

"Uh, so, I'm sorry for interrupting your... stuff. And stuff." Peril floundered as she tried not to laugh. "Um. You know, congratulations! I think this is great. You two being together like this. I didn't expect it at all, really, since Winter is kind of a snob and—"

"Thank you, Peril." Winter suddenly said politely but sternly, silencing her. His usual composure was back and he was meeting her gaze with an inscrutably blank expression. "May I ask to what we owe the pleasure of your visit?"

"Right! Um, class is going to start and you're going to be late if you don't stop kissing each other right now."

"Three moons, Peril!" Kinkajou roared as she flared her wings out and buried her face in her talons, her scales flashing light pink and red. Winter just sighed and pinched the bridge of his snout.

"Thanks, Peril, for letting us know," Winter said, extending a wing out to pat the RainWing on the back, settling her down somewhat. "Let's all head straight there." Peril nodded and spread her wings to take off, spotting Qibli gliding down towards them. She shot a look back at the other two.

"Uh, so... is this... a secret?" Peril asked them. Winter looked up and frowned at the approaching SandWing.

"Not for long, it seems."