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Chapter Text

"Its a small world after all-"

"Kinkajou will you please stop making that infernal noise!" yelled Winter as Kinkajou had been singing the exact same song for the past 3 days, plus he was trying to concentrate on homework.

Winter still felt eyes on him so he whipped his head around.

"What?" he asked as Qibli stared at him funny.

"Who are you and what have you done with the real Winter?"

"What are you talking about?" hissed Winter now looking at Qibli funny. What was so odd with his sentence?

"You said please!" responded Qibli with a teasing smile.

"So? Did you think I didn't have manners incase you have forgotten i'm a Prince in the Ice Kingdom!" huffed Winter, of course Qibli took him simply stating facts as him being rude, it wasn't his fault that Qiblu seemed to like to stick his snout into everything that didn't involve him.

Qibli made a snort of disbelief, "You wouldn't ever let us forget,"

Before they could continue bickering though Kinkajou whined and jumped in between them, "I'm bored!"

"And I have homework to do so if everyone would shut up that would be great," said Winter turning back to his work trying to ignore a certain annoying Sandwing and Rainwing it was a wonder anyone got any sleep with those two around.

"Winter, come on, don't give us the cold shoulder!" joked Qibli as Kinkajou started laughing and Winter stormed to the other side of the cave mumbling about crazy dragons. Although if someone were to force him to tell the truth he was only vaguely annoyed, he had almost grown used to their teasing and obnoxiousness.

"Let's play Truth or Dare?" suggested Turtle fiddling with the strange stones on his armband.

"Great idea Turtle!" said Kinkajou, happily turning a bright shade of yellow with splashes of pink.

"Moon do you want to play?" asked Qibli glancing up at Moon who was huddled away on a ledge.

"I don't know if I should-"

"Come on, it'll will be fun!" urged Kinkajou, "We used to do it all the time in the Rainforest!"

Moon reluctantly nodded her head and went to sit with the others as they gathered in a circle.

"Are you sure you don't want to play?" asked Qibli for the third time to Winter as he was covering his ears.

"Yes! Yes I am very sure!" he yelled back.

"I'm going to go grab Umber," said Turtle leaving the room.

"We should get others!" grinned Kinkajou, "Grab as many as you can!"

"No, absolutely not!" yelled Winter again before sighing and realizing they were going to do it anyways so he decided to stomp out of the room.

Soon Turtle and Umber came back with Marsh, Sora, Anemone, and Pike who basically followed Anemone everywhere it was unclear whether or not he was going to play though.

Behind Kinkajou was Tamarin as she came bouncing back in.

Outside of them in the hallways of the school was an Icewing and a Sandwing.

"It would be undignified for me to play such a child's game!"

Qibli stopped pestering him for a second, quickly strategizing how to convince him, "Don't you have your Icewing reputation to keep up?"

"Yes, which is exactly why I'm not playing such a ridiculous game," replied Winter, raising an eyebrow wondering where Qiblu was going with this.

"And your sister is over there,"

"She is?"

"Mhm… Winter are you scared to be dared?" questioned Qibli.

"What no!"

"Sure sounds like it," he said before turning towards Icicle who was getting a snack from the Prey Center, "YOUR BROTHER IS TOO MUCH OF A COW-"

He was abruptly cut off right as Icicle turned her head as Winter pulled them away from Icicles questioning eyes and smacked his head, "Ok ok ok! I get it! Let's go play this stupied game!"

"Think of it this way, you can dare anyone you want! Even me!" said Qibli smugly knowing he had won.

"Now that would be a plus,"

As they walked back to their cave Qibli encouraged Ostrich to come along, by the time we got there the place was already bustling with dragons, today was an offday and everyone was bored, though some had just come to watch.

The only dragons missing were the Icewings, minus Winter and Changbai, and of course Flame, Carnelian, and Coconut who was taking a nap. Even most of the Nightwings showed up even if it was just to see what the commotion was about.

With the stage set things were about to get interesting.

Chapter Text

"Now that we are all here we can begin!" said Kinkajou in delight, clapping her talons together and turning towards Moon, "I start! Moon truth or dare?"

Moon looked around hesitantly, the tons of dragons staring at them to watch wasn't making her feel any more brave still she answered quietly with a, "Dare,"

"Ooh good one! I dare you to-" Kinkajou leaned in close while doing the mock fake whisper dragonets did, "Kiss Winter!"

"Oooh!" cried out one of the gathered dragons.

Winter stared at Moon horrified. By the end of this everyone was going to know about his totally NOT crush on Moon.

He didn't have a crush on Moon. Definitely not.

She was a Nightwing and he was an Icewing, in any other circumstances he would be required to kill her. After thinking that dark thought, he shuddered if only slightly, if the Dragonets of Destiny hadn't come it was possible he would one day have had to face off Moon ( or any other of his winglet ).

Another dragon in the back jumped up to view the Truth or Dare contest tilting their head curiously, "Kissing already? We just started!"

"What? Uh- ok…" Moon said and walked over to Winter giving him a small peck on the cheek before blushing and running back to her spot leaving Winter in a daze despite Qibli trying to shake him out of it.

"Winter and Moon sitting in a tree k.i.s.s…" whispered a voice too scared to be any louder, nobody wanted to mess with the royal icewing who talked about slashing others' faces off on a daily basis.

"Your turn Moon dare anyone you want!" chirped Kinkajou, happy that she had gotten Moon and Winter to kiss. Moon was the best, she was cool and interesting, but also really really sweet! And Winter was a prince and he was sparkly! So of course they should be together!

"Uh…" she said, not really knowing who to choose before realizing Sora was trying to slip away and decided to choose her, "Truth or Dare?"

"Oh um-" she squeaked, she didn't know how her brother got her dragged into this, "Truth."

Moon reading her thoughts realizing how nervous she was gave her an easy one, "Why do Mudwings love mud?"

She eased a little realizing it was just a simple question, "It just feels good, why do Seawings love water? Or Rainwings love the Rainforest?"

"Because it's the best place ever!" responded Kinkajou loudly, puffing up her chest in pride and turning a bright yellow.

Sora looked around wondering who to dare, ignoring Winter's sign which read, "PICK ME!" She didn't trust him anymore than she trusted his sister, afterall siblings were a reflection of each other, training together, living together, hunting together.

"Jee Winter, when did you become so enthusiastic about this game?" asked Umber teasingly, Winter was always so stern, it was nice to see him enjoying the game.

"Since I can make Qibli shut up," OOOORRR there was that reason.

"Hey!" protested Qibli, a mock hurt expression plastered on his face as he dramatically placed a talon over his heart, "Words hurt, I thought we were friends."

"Sure, when Darkstalker rises from the dead." said Winter rolling his eyes thinking of the most ridiculous tale he could come up with, "And kills the queen of the Icewings."

Meanwhile Moon spit out her drink.

"Er… Pike… I dare you to," she leaned in closer whispering now, "Do the chicken dance,"

"Seriously?" he groaned but got up and started bawking like a chicken. Everyone assembled started laughing.

Pike whirled around the second his turn was over, time to get the attention off of him, "Anemone your turn!"

"Bring it, dare," she said smoothly before he could even question her "Truth or Dare"

"I dare you to tie Moon's, Winter's, Turtles, Qibli's- basically everyone here from the Jade Winglets tails together and force them to fly in an orderly fashion!"

"We are going to be here for a long time." said Onyx drily.

"Ugh yep…" muttered Mindreader, really wishing they could actually read minds so they knew what the Jade Winglet was thinking.

It was pretty evident by their expressions of oh heck no though.

"This is going to be so funny!"

"Do you think they can actually do it?" asked Peregrine accidentally out loud.

Winter was furious at this idea. "You can't do this!" roared Winter as he batted away Anemone from typing his and Qibli's tails together.

Kinkajou, Moon, and Umber's tails were already tied together with Pike adding Turtle to the pile.

"Think of it like best friend bracelets because we are best friends," suggested Qibli though he wasn't too pleased about the situation either, how were they supposed to manage this?

Eventually Anemone got Winter's tail tied ( maybe using a bit of secret Anumis Magic ) then wishing them good luck.

Instantly the cave was filled with laughter as the Jade Winglet almost immeditanetly wacked wings with each other and fell down before trying again and slamming on the walls of the cave, their bickering only made it that much funnier.

"Stop touching me!" hissed Winter pushing Qibli away.

Qiblu pushed right back wacking Winter into Kinkajou "We are attached, genius!"

Kingkajou tried to steady herself, desperately flapping despite the tugging in all directions, "Ow! That's my leg!"

"What was that for?"

"Come on guys up!" encouraged Qibli trying to coordinate them, it didn't go so well, still he tried again, "Now left!"

Winter snapped, "Which left? Your left or my left?"

"We have the same left!"

"Well I don't have your same left!" pointed out Turtle who was facing a different direction than them.

"Well then its my right!"

"Guys concentrate!"

"Take it slow?" suggested a watching dragon.

"Slow is for Turtles- oh wait…" proclaimed Snail before realizing that was actually the name of the prince competing in this right now.

"I am not slow!"

"I hate you guys,"

"Really Winter? What a shocker!"

"Who are you? Glory?"

About two more minutes of this before they collapse on the floor yelling, "FINE WE GIVE UP!"

The other dragonets in the cave are still laughing and congratulating Pike for such a great idea.

"Ok ok we get it! Anemone just dare someone already!"

"Ostrich, Truth or Dare?"

"Dare," she responded flaring her wings open, a confident expressign gracing her small features.

"I dare you to spin around until you get dizzy and then shoot a dagger over everyone's heads,"

"What?!" came a few shrieked calls from the assembled dragons who were worried they may get sliced.

Still Ostrich obliged, spinning around and around till the ground was moving and threw the dagur straight up to the ceiling before falling over. Much to the relief of the gathered dragons.

"Ouch, dizzy." she said flippantly

Anemone made a disappointed noise. "I meant like right above someone's head but I guess that works."

Ostrich then turned to Qibli much to the disappointment and annoyance of Winter, "Qibli truth or dare?"

Winter was screwed.

Chapter Text

"Truth," Qibli answered who couldn't wait to give the best dare to Winter.

"Aw your no fun… fine what's your deepest darkest secret?" she asked as Qibli tried very hard not to tense up… where to start.

"I uh-"

"What about most hilarious secret actually?" she said realizing what she had done, she never knew exactly what happened to make Qibli join the Outclaws but she was pretty sure it involved being sold or something, "That would be funnier."

"I once replaced one of my siblings' oreos with toothpaste! Their faces were priceless!" he grinned remembering that prank, though deciding to leave out the part where they pummeled him to the ground afterwards, wasn't important.

"Oof! My friend did that to me once, it was awful the taste wouldn't wash out! Though I am pretty sure they added orange juice to it!" said a sandwing sympathetically shaking his head.

Wanting to get away from the touchy subject… "Winter, truth or dare?" challenged Qibli, turning his head towards Winter.

Winter decided to go with dare though he knew Qibli was plotting something terrible, probably because he knew Qibli would call him a coward afterwards.

Qibli leaned in and whispered in his ear what he had to do as he contemplated whether or not to freeze Qibli's face right then and there.

"Absolutely not! I will not do that!" he yelled as Qiblu reminded him he had to do the dare.

"Ok now Winter you turn," smirked Qibli, "Choose someone."

"What was his dare?" asked Marsh curiously.

"He didn't do his dare?"

"You'll see," said Qibli who had told Winter to wait three turns before doing it.

"Qibli, Truth or-"

"You can't dare the same dragon that dared you," said Kinkajou matter-a-factly, as Winter sulked, darn

"Ha!" gloated Qibli with a crooked smile, he was free… for now…

Icicle who had been witnessing this, and the one with the brains of the family decided to make her presence known, if her idiot brother was going to make idiot decisions and play a stupid game he was going to be the best idiot.

"That rule is so easy to get around! Dare another dragon to do whatever you dare you want to do!" called out Icicle hoping her brother could hear her.

Winter's ears perked up slightly, he stared at his sister incredulously who motioned for him to continue, what was her motive? "Fine… Kinkajou, I dare you to dare Qibli to shut up for the rest of the game."

"Is that even allowed?"

"How am I supposed to dare/truth dragons, if I can't speak?" protested Qibli, "This isn't fair!"

"... fine… Kinkajou dare Qibli to shut up whenever I tell him to for the rest of the game," rephrased Winter.

"He's so smart and sparkly!" said a random dragon with a crush on him. Probably after hearing Kinkajou's description of him. Icicle sent them their best death glare.

"I don't know about this," commented Marsh, "I don't think that's allowed in the rules…. Kinkajou?"

"Well the rules never declared it wasn't fair…" drawled out Kinkajou.

"Hmph, well you're the one making the rules just decide," huffed Anemone, getting rather bored since nothing exciting had happened.

"No, I have a rulebook," said Kinkajou, taking it out and flipping through the pages, "Yeah it's allowed…"

"Darn it," said Qibli, "Now I cant annoy Winter anymore-"

"Shut up," grinned Winter as Qibli dramatically pretended to lose his voice and started screaming silently, clutching his throat.

"Anemone, I dare you to go to Tsunami and dress and drag and do the hula!"

"Ha easy," she laughed, considering she watched plenty of palace performers do that dance.

Unfortunately it's alot easier to watch someone do the Hula than actually doing it never practiced before.

She managed to trip and fall head first on the ground as the other Dragonets of Destiny tried not to laugh at her. She was never going to be able to live this down.

"Ugh I did it… sort've," she said before quickly changing the subject, "Tamarain-"

"Marsh hasn't had a turn," pointed out Ostrich thinking she was being helpful, "Nor has Umber,"

"Oh no… its really fine go dare Tamarin… uh please," said one of the mudwing siblings who had hoped to go unnoticed.

It didn't do them any good as Anemone whirled around, "I dare you to interrogate everyone here as a detective and act like this for the rest of the game, give me a minute i'll get you some detective clothes,"

They looked at each other uneasily as the other dragonets started to snicker, Anemone came back with baggy detective clothes, a pipe, and a notebook.

"Put this on," she said with a small grin on her face.

"Which one of us?"

"I don't care which!"

"Uh… I guess I'll do it," said Marsh, fitting it on and getting into character, "Qibli, where were you on the Brightest Night?"

"Watching Blister be incinerated?" he responded before adding with a hint of pride, "And watching Queen Thorn become the new Queen of the Sandwing!"

"Very interesting…" he drawled in a quite good detective voice, "Winter, you look very suspicious where were you on the Brightest Night hmm?"

"None of your business!"

"Not wanting to talk about it is very suspicious...I have cleverly deducted that Winter is the one that ate everyone's cows!" he announced loudly as the others laughed at Winter's expression.

"Turtle, truth or dare?" asked U

"Truth, I don't plan to end up dressing and dragging and doing the hula," he said, getting an enraged glare from Anemone.

"Is it true you have 100 brothers?" he asked, truly wanting to know if the rumors were true.

"What? No! I have allot of brothers but not nearly That much!" he said defensively.

Before Turtle could dare someone else Winter stood up, "I have an announcement to make!"

"What?"

"Oh no…"

"Here we go again…"

Meanwhile Qibli was quietly snickering knowing what was going to come next.

Chapter Text

It was now time for Winter to complete his dare…

"Marsh I have hardly ever seen you before but you are the bestest friend a guy could have," Winter said though it sounded like he was choking out every word before hugging him leaving Marsh baffled.

"Did he just-"

"WUUUUUTTTT!?"

"And you Sora my other best friend! Give me a hug!" he said hugging her to before continuing down the line, "Anemone, your the greatest Seawing in the whole world!"

He then proceeded to hug her too though the gawking had died down as they figured out what the dare was.

"I love you so much Kinkajou! Give me a hug!" he said to Kinkajou with a "smile" which was more like a grimace, Kinkajou took full advantage of the hug.

"And you too Pike and Turtle! We should go fishing later because we are best friends right after I strangle someone,"

"Who would that be?" asked Qibli laughing his head off as he watched Winter hug everyone in the room with a speech about them being their best friend.

"I love you too uh- whats your name? It doesn't matter we are best friends…" said Winter giving the small sandwing who's name was Ostrich

"And Qibli I do love you-

"I feel so honored," snorted Qibli still laughing.

"Id love to strangle you,"

"Jee thanks…"

Winter sat back down as far away from Qibli as possible shooting daggers at everyone, "We will never speak of this again you hear me? Or I will personally slice your faces off!"

They all gulped and nodded.

"And the plot thickens," said Marsh mysteriously still in character.

There was a silence after that.

"Uh who's turn was it?"

"Wasn't it Marsh's?"

"No because he is a detective now… who did he dare?"

"Oh yeah its Turtle's turn!"

"Umber, truth or dare?"

"Truth,"

"If you had to choose, who would you kill first in this room?"

"What? Nobody!" he protested thinking it was a strange question, Turtle ahd honestly just come up with the question randomly.

"Pick anyone you would like,"

"Who will it be? The grumpy Winter-" started Marsh dramatically.

"I am not grumpy!"

"Ha! In what world are you living in-"

"Qibli shut up,"

"The mysterious Moon? The peppy Kinkajou? The sluggish Turtle? The-"

"We get it!" yelled Anemone, "I said detective not annoying narrator,"

"Sorry…"

"Can I get a different question please?" he asked nervously.

"What about if you could have any superpower what would it be?"

"Oh I like that one! I would like to be able to see the future," he said without hesitation.

"Why?"

"Because then I could predict if anything bad was going to happen…" he said trailing off thinking of Crane.

"What is going on in here?" asked Tsunami storming into the cave finding 2/3 of the dragonets in her school huddled on the floor or on the rocky ledges.

"We are playing Truth or Dare," said one of them.

"Yeah its awesome!"

"Winter hugged all of us it was really awkward,"

"Yeah its because we are all best friends-"

"Qibli shut up,"

"Your really abusing you power-"

"I said shut up,"

"It was horrible I had to Dress and Drag and do the Hula…"

"Please you werent the one who had to fly with your tails stuck to a ton of other dragons! Arguing dragons at that!"

"Oh yeah that was hilarious!"

"You guys are so lucky," grumped Tsunami, "I tried to get my friends to play it but they never did! And if they did they were total wimps about it!"

Icicle then stormed in pratically livid, looking for Winter which wasn't too hard to spot.

"I think I have to go…" he said and ran off apologizing to his sister and trying to convince her he did not hug everyone in the room and say that he loved them.

"I have to go to actually," said Sora, "I promised Starflight I would help him in the library,"

"Anemone and me have a project we are working on, sorry," murmured Ostrich apologetically to Qibli.

Soon the other dragons started to disperse, though most of them left because it was lunchtime, the Truth or Dare game was over.

Or was it…

Well over as in long distance because the next morning there was already a Truth or Dare system being put up using notes and maybe one to many stops to the bathroom.

A day later the teachers were already baffled at the strange behavior of the students that involved from yelling "IM ON TOP OF THE WORLD AY!" to outright kissing their teachers, along with dancing, eating peppers, running around the room imitating a monkey, applying makeup without using a mirror, mimic the grumpiest dragon you know ( Qibli was lucky to not get caught when doing that ), date someone who has a crush on you for an hour before breaking up with them ( what can I say Anemone is brutal! ), moonwalking, and- you get the idea whatever their crazy dragon minds could think of.

Nobody told because rule zero of school games is nobody tells.

It was lunchtime by the time the dares had already looped around, everyone doing a dare/truth at least twice and now it was Qibli's turn.

Oh by the way, Winter was oblvious and nobody had dared him yet, maybe because he was to busy sketching a picture of a certain Nightwing sitting across from him chatting with Kinkajou.

"What is wrong with Qibli?" asked Winter as he sat down.

"What do you mean?"

"I dont notice anything wrong with Qibli," said Turtle.

"If I ask him to shut up he actually shuts up! Did he not get the memo the game was over? Seriously its kind of freaking me out…."

"Im insulted you don't think I can listen," laughed Qibli, techinallcay the game never ended its just a bonus that Winter was almost more annoyed with him not talking than talking, "I do have ears you know-"

"Shut up," he said and Qibli immediately shut up, "See!"

"Would you rather him talking?" questioend

"Psst Qibli…" said Anemone whispering sliding next to him.

"Yeah?" he asked also lowering his voice.

"I dare you to randomly break into song every five minutes… starting now!" she smirked before going over to sit next to Pike again.

"What did she tell you?" questioned Winter.

"Oh nothing... just being Anemone," shrugged Qibli before he goes back to talking with Turtle about things they wished they could do.

"Toast or lettuce?" asked Kinkajou randomly.

"Toast,"

"Lettuce,"

Qibli noticing his time was almost up, got up and sang at the top of his lungs, "OOO EEE OO AH AH! TING TANG WALLA WALLA BING BANG! OOO EEE OO AH AH! TING TANG WALLA WALLA BING BANG!"

Kinkajou promtely started laughing as the others gave him a look of confusion.

"It was a dare," he explained as they all made an o sound.

Anemone meanwhile was snickering as the other dragons started to sing that annoying song.

No sooner than 5 minutes later again did Qibli sing another song that came into his head, "Baby Shark doo doo doo doo doo doo!"

"Qibli shut up," said Winter not wanting to hear that song every again.

Umber walked up and sternly said, "I am investigating a murder. Private Umber here, and I need you to answer a few questions."

Winter had caught on by now and internally cried inside, that was why a classmate had showed up for history and looked like a clown.

Qibli smiled deviously looking towards Winter, oh no what was he planning… "Truth or Dare, Umber."

"Oh um…" Umber paused nervously, "Dare?"

"I dare you to help me set up a murder mystery game, it would be perfect for your charafcter afterall." said Qibli, "And Winter was the one murdered."

"What!?" squwaekd Winter indigantly, "I am Not playing that I'm dead, you can't make me-"

"Oh look at that its been 5 minutes." said Qibli glancing at the sundial, "WINTER AND MOON SITTING IN A TREE K-I-S-S-I-N-G! FIRST COMES LOVE! THEN COMES MARR-"

The last word was violently cut off by having Winter's cold talons clamped tightly across his snout he could only hum the last bits of the song.

Chapter Text

Qibli had set up the murder mystery game in the caves under the rest of the school, Anemone was not happy she didn't have them for just herself and her friends but it was probably okay to anger an anumis dragon.

She was invited to join after all, but she just stormed off.

So there was a swarm of dragonets not understanding why they were here. Qibli stepped onto a box right in the center of a beam of light shining in from above, because in his own words, "It would look cool."

In his best announcer voice Qibli gestured toward a "dead body" in front of him. "This poor dragon fellow was murdered. We must join together to find out who killed him."

Qibli was illuminated by the light behind him casting a dark silhouette. Around them the shadows seemed longer and his voice more like a snakes, "There are clues hidden around everywhere and a secret killer, find them before they find you.

"So basically there is an imposter among us?" asked Pike looking suspiciously around the eerily cave.

The response was, "Never gonna give you up! Never gonna let you down! Never gonna run around and desert you!"

Crickets chirping.

"It was a dare okay." said Qibli, he had to break into songs every 5 minutes exactly otherwise Anemone would track him down and strangle him. She was a very serious darer.

More silence.

The mood was completely ruined.

Then a dagger came flying in out of nowhere.

Qibli eeped falling off his stand, "Beware of the one who hides in darkness!" Then he vanished into the monotone colors of the cave leaving the rest in the dark.

Kinkajou on the other claw was still brightly colored, "Ah this is so cool! Come on Moon I know you'll be great for hunting for clues!" She tugged her friend along.

The others started splitting up as well, and soon a soft hum of their mumbling echoed around the cave. So Qibli reappeared to poke some fun at Winter. "Hey maybe you should just give up on being an Icewing prince and instead become an actor! You make a great dead body."

"If you keep talking you may actually become one."

Well on that cheerful note Kinkajou and Moon came back in with the first clue a triumphant shade of orange, then she noticed Winter. "Hey! You're supposed to be dead! The dead don't speak!"

Winter muttered something about how much he hated Qibli, normal Tuesday.

Kinkajou then spoke up again, "I have no idea what it means."

Inside was a vague picture, that depicted a stream of water. "I could figure this out in a heartbeat! But I don't want you to feel tooo bad that it was solved instantly by the amazing Kinkajou! So um, maybe a hint?"

Qibli shook his head.

Winter stared at the image, "Qibli, how is somebody supposed to know where this is?"

Qibli blinked, looking down at the image, was it really so hard to tell? It was the place where the dragon was murdered, evident as the color of the sand was the same color as the dust scattered upon Winter and the blood dripping down the stream. "Come on, really look at it, and look at Winter."

"Uh, are you trying to tell me that Winter is as dumb as a rock, because there is a big rock in the picture and Winter is beside a big rock now too." asked Kinkajou scratching her head and turning a shade of orangeish red.

"Is that what your trying to say, Qibli."

"Shut up. Your dead."

"Oh!" Moon said, "I think I know what we have to do, come on Kinkajou!"

They took off bounding down another corridor. Winter looks forlongingly after them, it was so very obvious that Winter liked Moon.

"Hey Winter."

"What?"

The five minutes were up. "WINTER AND MOON SITTING IN A TREE K-I-S-S-I-N-G!"

In another part of the cave where violence wasn't just about to unfold, another dragon had already figured out the first clue, it was Anemone, and because she spent so much time down here her and Pike already had memorized the caves. She was going to win this and prove that she was the best crime solver without anumis magic.

They appeared on the scene but with Moon also magically finding this place it felt like a small victory. Anemone was trying to ignore the annoying dragonet when she spotted tufts of brown fur clumped together with blood, or she sniffed, fruit juice.

Unfortunately her new rivals had also discovered some of the fur too and took off. Fur? Juice? Aha! It must be in the Prey Center, by the moons Qibli was making them run miles for this.

She of course got there first with Pike at her side as always. It really only made sense, now where was the stupid moon licking clue.

Chapter Text

"I need to take you in for questioning." said Umber, adjusting a straw in his mouth, "This is my city. That's my partner, he's smart, don't even think about lying, and that's our victim. I hear big names, big talk all the time. But never any big doing. So why don't you start doing? Tell me, who killed Winter?"

He was interrogating a pineapple.

Umber laughed, "So you're playing it cool huh? I see how it is. We will make you talk, one way or another."

"Qibli, why do you do this?" asked Winter gesturing towards Umber screaming at the pineapple now.

Qibli had popcorn and two other dragons were standing in line awkwardly because they were the next to be questioned.

That's when the dreaded Turtle rushed in, "Truth or Dare, Winter?"

"I quit."

"You can't quit I fire you." protested Qibli.

"... It's practically the same thing, I'm free."

"I rehire you."

"You can't do that."

"Shush!" hushed Umber placing a talon over his mouth, "Your friendly neighborhood detective is trying to find out the killer!"

All of a sudden Anemone busted in with a smirk and a sing song voice, "Guess who is the darer right now!"

"Oh no." said Qibli and Winter in unison knowing what was going to happen.

"Qibli, I dare you to only call Winter, Icicle, and Icicle, Winter!" she said, "This is what you get for making us do this stupid game."

"Hey I didn't even know you were competing! You did this by choice!" protested Qibli.

Winter slowly started backing out of the room. Unfortunately Qiblu spotted him almost immediately, bright white dragon, black cave, no duh, "Win- Icicle! Get back here! You haven't even heard my dare for you yet!"

Winter screamed in his mind, one cave over Moon got a splitting headache. "Get it over with."

Qibli made a great show over thinking about it, tapping his chin, and really agonizing and dragging it out until the very reaches of Winter's patience not to strangle him, "Aha! I know, you have to propose to the third dragon you see and if they say yes ."

Winter glanced at both Qibli and Anemone. "So the next dragon I see?"

Qibli nodded, "Yep! Should I call her in?"

Winter's eyes went wide, "No! No! Absolutely not! Do not call Moon in here!"

Qibli made a deceptively innocent face, "What? Moon? I wouldn't do you like that!"

Winter glared at Qibli, "Then who?"

"Kinkajou! Come in here!"

Winter closed his eyes. This could not be happening. If he simply never opened his eyes again he'd be fine.

Kinkajou ran in gleefully asking, "Yes Qibli? Did you see what I did to Anemone!"

Everyone gave her a puzzled expression looking at Anemone who reluctantly opened her mouth for them to see that it was dyed in rainbow colors. Nobody could stop giggling after that. Anemone weighed the benefits and disadvantages of enchanting everyone to forget this ever happened.

"Winter would like a hug from you by the way Kinkajou!" said Qibli cheerfully changing the topic, and pointing to Winter who had his talons over his face, "If you can get him to open his eyes he'll marry you!"

"N-No I won't!" protested Winter, backing up.

Kinkajou leaped at him, successfully hugging him to death.

"R.I.P Winter!" shouted Qibli hysterically rolling on the ground. "I mean, Icicle!"

"Okay okay!" shouted Winter's muffled voice through a rainwing clinging onto his head trying to stretch his eyes open, "I concede, just get off me!"

Winter opened his eyes.

Qibli glanced at his line of sight. "So you going to ask her?"

Winter mumbled something.

Nobody understood it.

He spoke again, lying, being married to her would be the worst thing in the world, "I didn't see Kinkajou first."

"So who did you see first?" asked Qibli, the only dragons in range were Qibli himself, Moon, Kinkajou, Anemone, and an icewing looking around down the hall.

All terrible terrible options. Maybe he should have just stuck with Kinkajou, maybe Anemone would play along?

"Don't even think about it, I have a game to win!" said Anemone bolting off.

"Kinkajou-"

"I thought you already said you didn't see Kinkajou, come on don't by shy!" said Qibli gesturing towards Moon also trying to avoid eye contact.

Winter felt like he was between a rock and a hard place. He could always just but then Qibli would probably come up with a much more devious trap later, besides it was all in a game, they wouldn't really be getting married, because no way in the three moons was he going to be able to date a nightwing, another tribe was bad enough, but a nightwing? So yeah it was all fun and games. Not something he wanted at all, by the spirits under the ice he was so so relieved that nightwings didn't have mind reading abilities, "Moon, will you marry me?"

Chapter Text

Moon just stared, slightly stunned, before just smiling, “Your a really great guy Winter, but I’m assuming this is just for a dare.”

Winter smiled sheepishly, Qibli gasped, Winter could actually smile? At least that’s what he told himself to do, to ignore the slight pang of loneliness and jealousy, they really were meant for each other, black and white, day and night… “Uhm… yes, blame Qibli, he’s going to be the death of me.”

“Kiss! Kiss! Kiss! Kiss!” chanted Anemone and Kinkajou in unison. They both loved a good mushy romance story afterall, “Say yes!” 

“Can I be the maid of honor?”

“If she’s the maid of honor I’ll be the officiator!” announced Anemone, “I’m practically an expert, my Mom loves writing fairytale endings.”

“Who’s going to be your best man?” asked Qibli nudging Winter.

“Not you.”

“Perfect that means I can take the best position of them all.”

• 5 hours later -

“We are all here to celebrate the joyous union between Winter and Moon.” announced Anemone, “Because someone didn’t allow us to invite more dragons it will be a small affair, but here we are. Thank you all for coming.”

“Yeah sure my entire winglet and then some… small,” muttered Winter.

Under the mountain Darkstalker banged his head against the walls in despair. What the heck are dragons doing nowadays?! What happened to the sending children off into war aganist Icewings, now they are marrying them?! This generation by the moons.

“I am going to kill you after this and then I’ll bring you back to life just to slice your face off again,” growled Winter to Qibli who had volunteered as the flower boy, and started throwing petals at his face. 

“This went so well, maybe I should try to get more couples together,” said Anemone with a sly look in her eyes. “I bet my Mother could make an awesome story about me.”

Turtle gave a light laugh, “What about the time you tried to set Pike up with someone?” 

Anemone groaned, “Will you stop reminding me of that? I didn’t know she was unhinged… You’re single too aren’t you? I’m sure that someone would want to- Hey! Don’t fly away I’m going to help!”

Then Icicle stormed in holding one of the flyers Qibli had hung around the school detatiling the murder mystery of her brother, looking as if she was about to say something before taking in the scene before her. “... Winter, what are you doing with that Nightwing? Why is everyone gathered around?”

Nobody had the guts to respond as Winter stuttered, “I um well… you see… It’s just that… er… Qibli will explain!”

Qibli was shoved through the crowd by Winter, tossed in front of Icicle, “This is a misunderstanding… Actually uh, this is all my fault, Winter. I challenged the superiority of the Icewings and he wanted to prove that Icewings were the best, we decided to host a tournament!”

“... Did you just call me Winter?”

“I would never do that to you, Winter.”

Icicle growled, “I’d like to compete in this tournament then. Against you, who do you think you are? Mocking a Princess of the Ice Kingdom.”

“Unfortunately, Icicle and Moon are already in the finals.”

“... I am so glad Winter is the one who has to put up with you and not me,” sneered Icicle.

After she left not interested in their tournament Qibli whispered to Winter, “I can’t believe it. She’s even worse than you, you at least waited 20 seconds to announce how much of a royal pain you were :)”

Nobody heard from Qibli ever again.