The Letters You Send Me

Chapter 28: Realization

Turtle woke up in the middle of the night. He felt like he knew what to do.

He's always been against the idea of murder, even with Darkstalker. 

He turned to his side to where Kinkajou was supposed to be, but he realized that she was keeping guard over Moon and Winter. He sighed and got up and stretched, activating his night vision and walking out of his dorm and down the hall to where Qibli was.

He slowly crept into the room and nudged Qibli awake. "Qibli..." He whispered quietly. "Qibli...!" Qibli huffed and turned to the side, "Qibli!" Turtle whispered yelled. Qibli yawed and Turtle sighed "I did not want to resort to this."

Turtle leaned over next to the Sandwing's face and plugged his nose, and after a few seconds, he bolted awake and leaned back.

"Whose there?" Qibli whispered with a hiss. Turtle made the bioluminescent scales on his face light up a bit "it's me. Turtle! I think I know how to help Snowslide without killing him."

Qibli yawned and stretched and shook his head. "Alright I'm fully awake. Tell me how." "Well, I've been thinking, Snowslide is enchanted to kill the strongest dragon right?" "Right." "So all we need to do is take away the enchantment or overpower the original with a more peaceful one." "And how do we do that?" "Well," Turtle started "I'm thinking that I just use my magic to take away the original enchantment, making Snowslide a regular, mortal Icewing with no desire to kill."

"So instead of killing Snowslide we just... Let him go? I doubt the Icewings would like that." "Yes, but the majority of the Icewings still think that Snowslide is still in their dungeon. Only the royal guards and the royal family knows he's escaped. So if we tell them he's still alive, they'll need to tell their citizens. But then it would cause a mass panic." 

"But Snowslide has killed hundreds of dragons!" "And Darkstalker killed even more! Lasting multiple generations after he passed! And he's still here!" 

"But that was because we couldn't kill him!" Qibli retorted, and Turtle shook his head. 

"But we still gave him a second chance! We could have put him to sleep permanently but we didn't. Shouldn't we show the same courtesy to Snowslide? He was enchanted by his sister, he had no choice but to follow the enchantments that were put on him. He's not Snowslide anymore. He is just a puppet for his sister. Shouldn't we free him from his burden? Allow him a chance to live a normal life? Wouldn't that be better than killing him?" 

Qibli sighed and Turtle finished. "Snowslide deserves to be freed from his curse. Then he can decide what to do out of his own free will. Not the will that was imposed on him."

Qibli thought for a moment, looking at Turtle's determined expression. "Alright, we'll need to make some modifications to the plan, but I'm sure that we can save Snowslide."

Turtle smiled, "alright, I'll go tell the others, can you get Peril?" "Sure. But... Lemme guess, you just want to go check on Kinkaj-" 

"Yes." Turtle replied without hesitation. "She is my mate after all."

----

Turtle walked down the halls, to the infirmary where she saw some dragons sleeping, but he quietly walked past them to see Winter and Moon cuddling on the big leafy bed. He looked around "Kinkajou?" He whispered. "Kinkajou?"

He felt someone jump on his back and giggle, hugging him. He smiled "Turtleeee... What are you doing up in the middle of the night?" He smiled and slid her off his back, giving her a kiss when she made herself visible "I wanted to see you and besides, I think I know how we can save Snowslide."

"Save Snowslide?" 

Kinkajou whispered, making Turtle nod. "From what Winter told us, he was enchanted by his sister, which means he has no control over his actions. He was given orders and is forced to follow them."

"I sure know what that feels like." Kinkajou whispered to herself.

Turtle nodded "yeah, I know." Kinkajou leaned against Turtle and smiled "I've always loved how you look to save people. Very heroic." Turtle smiled and kissed her cheek "you're heroic too Kinkajou." "Awww. Turtle!" Kinkajou smiled. 

"Since we're alone I walked to talk to you about our dragonet..." They both sat down and looked at each other intensely. "I'm a Rainwing and you're a Seawing so obviously our dragonet is going to be a hybrid. But... Where are we going to live? Since they're going to be part of the royal family your mother would want you and our kid to live there. But... I won't be able to go with you."

Turtle nodded "I always knew this conversation would come up. That's the bad thing about hybrids. Where are they going to live?" Turtle sighed "maybe the new Summer Palace? Or in the rainforest?" 

Turtle sighed "I knew we'd talk about this. But... I don't know. We don't know if some of our dragonets are going to even have gills. So.. Maybe the rainforest? With occasional visits to the ocean?"

Kinkajou nodded and hugged him "but, we do what's best for the dragonets." "Right. For our dragonets." Turtle corrected, hugging her. 

Just then, they heard more talon steps coming towards them. They turned around and saw the warm glow of Peril's scales, illuminating her contour and half of Qibli. When they approached, Winter and Moon woke up.

"What- What are you all doing here?" 

Winter asked, yawning. "I think I know how we can save Snowslide." "Save Snowslide?" Moon asked "yes. Since he's been enchanted this isn't the real Snowslide. Just some enchantment forcing him to do things. Don't you think he deserves a chance to live, free from the enchantment?"

Winter thought for a moment. He let out a long sigh. "I guess you're right. That's what we did for Darkstalker."