My Little Kirin: The Lost Tribes

by Soothing Stone

The First Spark

Most kids hated the sunrise on a weekday. Unless it was the summer, it meant that they had to get ready for school, for running errands, that kind of thing. Kunzite was a rare exception. Maybe it was because of her unique nature, but she looked forward to the morning. There were so many things she could do with a brand new day, such as learning about a spell or discover another part of the world. The potential waiting for her made it the best time of the day.

Not this time. She dreaded the sunrise as she waited by the front porch, and she could tell it was going to be an awful day. The kind that came around every now and then, and most people would approach it with “I can’t wait for it to be over”. It was even worse than usual, as she could hear Moonstone snoring on the bed. Another reminder of what she was in for.

Eventually, Moonstone opened his eyes from the traces of sunlight hitting them. He stretched out his arms and wings as he got out of bed. His muscles were a little sore, mostly around the joint he used for arm wrestling, but it wasn’t a bad night’s sleep at all. Granted, his mind was full of bad memories, but he reminded himself of the support all around him out here.

He noticed that the other bed was unoccupied. That left him curious if Kunzite was already out and about, and the front door laid wide open. Kunzite was sitting in a chair by it, and he could see how heavy minded she was right away. The way she was clutching at her cup of coffee didn’t help. Something was wrong, and he had to find out what it was.

The dragon headed outside and went to see her. “What happened? Did they do something to you?” He didn’t want to namedrop Cinder, but if anyone harmed his friend, she was on the top of the list of candidates.

She slowly turned to see him, and her arms were quaking around the cup. “Moonstone...I need to tell you something. I’m so sorry. I am so, so sorry.”

A chair was pulled up next to her, and he took a seat. “Hey, talk to me. You might be the biggest nerd I’ve ever met, but we don’t hide stuff from each other. Come on, spill the beans. I’m here.”

Kunzite sniffed and downed what was left of the coffee. “You’re going to hate me for the rest of your life.”

“I’ll be the judge of that. How bad could it be?”

The moment of truth had finally come. There was no more delaying this, and she knew it. She barely had the courage to face him as she made herself say it. “I...told C-Cinder everything. She knows who you really are, t-that your mother’s the Dragon Lord now. I didn’t hold anything back. It’s all out in the open.”

When the beans spilled in front of him, he stood silently for a while. He gazed over the village from his seat, and his face was completely blank. “You really told her everything? Why?”

“Y-Yes,” she cried. “I-I don’t know why, but they were talking like they still had to hide from Equestria because of Torch, and I tried to correct them. When Cinder found out, she ran away and said she needed a moment to herself...I’m so sorry.”

“Fine. Fine.” He stood up without making a sound, and that was the worst thing she could have seen. That was the quiet kind of anger she had seen from him before, the scariest type imaginable. The quiet before the storm. “Let me guess, she’s upset at me.”

“I t-think so. Please don’t be angry at--”

“Just. Stop,” he snapped with a growl that sent shivers down Kunzite’s back. “I’m angry at you. Actually, no. I’m upset at you.” His hands clenched up by the sides. “I trust you more than anyone else in the world, and I wanted to keep this quiet. And then you…” He kicked a molehill’s worth of dirt into the air.

Kunzite whimpered from the force of the kick, but something came over her. She stood up and got into his face. “It was a mistake, I admit it. But they were going to find out sooner or later. What’s the right thing to do, they find out the truth and hate you a little more, or live a lie they’ve been in for almost twenty years?”

“But I trusted you,” Moonstone snarled. Even though he was burning in rage, she swore his eyes started to water. “They should find out, yeah. But they already hate me. They can’t stand to look at me. And then, right when Cinder starts to warm up to us, I’m suddenly her number one enemy. If she hated Torch so much, how do you think she’s going to feel when she knows her grandson’s here?”

“I know, and I’m sorry!” She grabbed his shoulders and let it all out. “If we were going to tell them, we should have done it together, and I made a huge mistake. Just...please...don’t push me away…”

Moonstone had to do everything to avoid losing his cool. The anger boiling under the surface was so difficult to keep inside. “At least you know you screwed up. But our friendship’s the last thing you need to worry about. You and Autumn are the only people in this village I can trust. Other than that, I’m probably not welcome here anymore.” He backed away from her and got his wings ready for takeoff.

“What are you going to do?” she asked. It was making her paranoia go up the wall, seeing him fly away like this.

“I’m going to talk to Cinder. It’s the only way we’re going to fix this.” He took off right away, sending a small tornado’s worth of wind into her face. It wasn’t long until he was gone from her sight. Where he went, he was going too fast for her to see.

“Celestia and Luna, no!” She used her wings to get up into the clouds, but the blue dragon was already far way. Her heart pounded from the fear coursing through her veins, and she had to find Cinder before it was too late. No matter where she looked, though, he was nowhere to be found.

This was so, so bad.

Autumn was down on the ground around Kunzite’s guesthouse, and she shouted from down below. “Kunzite! What happened? I heard this sudden whoosh and it nearly blew the house down. Where’s Moonstone?”

Kunzite came down to the kirin’s level. “He left to confront Cinder. I don’t know where they are, but he knows I told them everything.”

“Oh no. I heard from some of the kirin that she’s really upset. I’ll keep an eye for them, and if I find out where they are, you’ll be the first to know.”

“Thank you. I hope I can stop it before it goes downhill, again…”

------

Deep into the forest, there was a little creek tucked inside its boundaries. Few people knew about it, as it was hidden so well. Whenever Cinder was troubled like she was now, she went there to cool down. The clear water on the surface, the fish that called this place their home, the leaves falling around it, it soothed her soul when she needed it the most.

It helped that there was enough of a clearing for an elder dragon to come in and guard the area. That day, she had one of her closest companions, a purple male dragon, come in and protect it in case things got worse. From her point of view, things had already gotten bad enough to last a lifetime.

Her arms were trembling as she brushed the algae off the surface. Her breaths were quivering and uneven, and her hair was all in her face. Not even a few cups of tea would be enough to calm her down. Her mind was racing with a million thoughts, all of them from terror and fear. She just needed a few more moments by herself, and maybe she’d be okay again. She had to be, for her village’s sake. They needed someone to look after them.

“Are you certain you don’t need anything?” the elder dragon asked. “It would not be an inconvenience to fetch you food or something to drink.”

“And that’s the kind of attitude that brought you to me,” Cinder replied. “I don’t need anything from you right now. All I need is a little bit of peace and quiet.” She took a deep breath and exhaled steam from her mouth, a result of the magic in her lungs. “I hope…”

The dragon’s ear twitched before she could get too comfortable. “Someone’s coming. Just one person, and it’s as big as you are. There’s wings to this creature. I think it’s one of our kind.”

Cinder’s eyes bulged in their sockets, and her horns glowed wildly. “Not now not now NOT NOW!” she begged.

Right on cue, they could see the blue dragon flying above them. His nostrils were constantly pouring out smoke, and she was certain he was growling at her. Her mind frantically tried to figure out which spell to use in case she had to defend herself.

It turned out to be a mistake. Moonstone could hear the magical aura on her horns, and his eyes locked onto her location. He couldn’t believe it took a short time to find the kirin, and she gasped when she saw that he found her. Rather than lunge in for the kill, he slowly lowered himself down to the ground to face them both. The snapping of grass blades was almost enough to send her over the edge.

The elder dragon got on all fours and reared up. “Do you need me to attack? I could wipe him out with one blow.”

“No, stand down and alert the rest of the village. I don’t think he’s here just to fight. Might be someone I can reason with. I hope,” she tried to convince herself.

He nodded and flew over to the village grounds. That left only the younger dragon and the Equestrian Kirin with each other. It was only a matter of time before it came down to this. They had to know this scene was going to happen, sooner or later.

A gentle breeze rustled the trees with a small push. The creek reflected the morning sun throughout the forest, and a few birds drifted among its borders. On most occasions, this would have been the picture of tranquility. Funny how a few small details, like two people ready to come to blows, could change that picture entirely.

“So Kunzite told you everything,” Cinder managed to get out. Seeing this dragon in front of her, smoke pouring out and fists clenched, had her prepared for anything and everything.

“She did, and I hate that she did,” Moonstone admitted. “You and your friends have given me nothing but trouble since I’ve gotten here.”

“Then why are you here? For all your power, you have one of the worst poker faces I’ve ever seen. And don’t tell me it’s your special destiny keeping you here.” The more she spoke, the more her arms shook erratically.

“I think you already know,” he huffed. He drew a leg back into a battle stance, in case this came to blows. More like when it came to blows.

“No, I don’t. Apparently, there’s a lot I don’t know about you. When did Torch step down? Why did your mother send you here? Don’t lie to me about one single detail.”

The accusations made him growl louder than he had in awhile. “Torch hasn’t been Dragon Lord for almost twenty years, and nobody forced me to come down here. Okay, Kunzite egged me on, but she didn’t force me to go. Don’t even think I was sent here by someone. I’m my own dragon.”

That wasn’t the response Cinder expected. She slowly stepped out of the creek to dry ground, and it said a lot that an Equestrian Kirin like her didn’t notice all the grass she was stepping on. Her expression was blank, yet her eyes expressed all the terror she was going through.

“You’re a very smart dragon for your age, I’ll give you that,” she conceded. “But it’s just...Torch. Everything about him. He was so fierce, so scary, that I knew I had to protect the kirin from the likes of him. From the likes of you.”

“Don’t you dare…” Moonstone grunted.

“I didn’t want to do it at first. I know I’m not always there, so to speak. But they were safe for the first time in forever. And when I heard you’re his grandson, I was...terrified. Like everything that happened so long ago was happening again.”

“It’s not happening again! I’m nothing like him!” He sprinted a little closer to her, and the distance was closing by the second. “If I was, we wouldn’t even be talking.”

“Perhaps, but I can’t risk it again,” she muttered. “Everything this village has ever built up, it has to be protected. From the worst kinds of dragons.” Her horns blazed with a light that rivaled that of the sun. “FROM YOU!”

A ball of magical force, intense and crackling from all the energy it contained, lunged at Moonstone. He saw it coming a mile away, and he jumped to the side to get away from it. It barely avoided his torso, but the tree behind him wasn’t so lucky. A sickening crack came out of the trunk, and it collapsed with a heavy thud to the side.

“YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT YOU’VE DONE!” he roared. He got back up and brought his claws out. They came for the kirin, but she vanished before he could get her. A teleportation spell, really? She appeared again just inches behind him, but he turned around and caught her forearm before it landed at the back of his head.

They came to a deadlock. Moonstone knew he was stronger than her, but her horns kept him in check. He wasn’t willing to make a move and risk opening himself to a spell. Whatever kind demeanor she had was gone, having given away to a creature twisted in rage and fear. She panted and struggled to gain any ground.

“I didn’t force you into this,” he snarled. “I just wanted to be there for Kunzite. You’re the one that pushed me into fighting!”

“No, this was inevitable,” she gasped. “I should have known there was something about you. Dragon or not, you were going to be our downfall. I’m stopping it before the war begins!” The horns started to glow again, with an electricity only rivaled by the strongest mages in Equestria.

Moonstone realized that, and he pushed her away at full strength. It forced her to back up a few feet, and she unleashed her fury at him. A bunch of thunderbolts launched around him, and he was dead meat if he stayed put. He used his wings to pick up the wind, and he leaped high into the air. The sun had risen above him, and she lost where he went in the sunlight.

However, she spotted him coming in with a spin kick, and she grabbed his leg before it could land. He grunted and tried to break loose from it, and he was left wide open for yet another spell. With no other options, he closed his wings and let himself drop to the ground. She gasped from the sudden thud, and he landed on his back in front of her. It left her wide open, and he used the moment to sweep the leg.

“Ahhhh!” Now they were both flat on their back, and he sprung up to the ground. It was so, so tempting to jump on her and land blow after blow against her, but he hesitated for a moment. That was the opening she was looking for, as she hit him right in the chest with a blast of water coming from her magic. It sent him back a good ten feet, causing him to roar. His chest burned from the pain she dealt.

As Cinder recovered, she quivered and panted as she tried to figure out the next step. “You...can’t just walk away now...you’re going to bring more of them, aren’t you? That’s what Torch did...and he’s rubbed off on you...way too much…”

“If there’s anything I picked up from him, it’s being able to defend myself!” He shook off the pain and swooped in, using his wings. She let out an oof as he picked her up into the air. Seeing the spot she was in, she brought her wings out to full span and dropped down below him. They got a good thirty feet above the forest, but they were too low to be spotted by the village. Only a dragon would be able to see them where they were, and there weren’t any within a few miles out here.

The sudden descent surprised Moonstone, but given he did the same trick not long ago, he knew to go off to the side before she could get him. It was just fast enough to avoid an uppercut to the chin. She stopped right in front of him to avoid opening herself up to a counterattack, but he brought a fist down to her shoulder. It got blocked with a magical force field she deployed for a brief second, and he tried to get her again with another punch. Another force field blocked that blow, and he got the hint. Then the field grew wider and more intense, and she tried to push it to his direction. It was too big to dodge, so he tried to blow it away with his fire breath. The intensity was enough to stop it into place for a while, but it was too powerful to keep in place forever.

He screeched like an animal as he saw stars in his eyes. The force field sent him spiraling for a good while, and he shook his head around to regain his bearings. Right when that happened, he would see her coming at him with a kick right into the chest. With the amount of pain that was already there, another shot in the chest was going to do some serious damage if he let it happen.

What felt like minutes happened in seconds, as he managed to get out of the way just in time. It left her vulnerable, and a fist smacked her in the shoulder. She yelled in agony as the blow was enough to make her clutch at the joint, but not enough to stop her. Her eyes glowed with the intensity of the sun as she thought up the most powerful spell she knew. A cloud started to form around her head, quickly turning grey as the skies suddenly seemed less friendly.

This spell wasn’t a new one to the dragon; he heard the stories where Celestia and Luna harnessed the power of nature to strike down anyone who stood against them. There was no way he was going to let this kirin do the same thing to him. He huffed and gathered all the air around him, as he prepared himself to shoot out fire that could rival the heat and power of an active volcano.

No matter how this standoff ended, someone was going to come out seriously injured. Neither one was willing to back down, even after seeing how it would end for one of them. It was the unstoppable force against the the immovable object, as some scholars would say.

Right before the impact, they noticed someone was coming their way. It was a winged person, not very big in size. As soon as the horns on its head lit up, it didn’t take long to figure out who it was. And they might never see a person so upset as the figure was.

“STOOOOOOOP!” Kunzite shouted. Her magic shot out and dissipated the cloud above Cinder’s head. “What’s gotten into you? This...this wasn’t supposed to happen. It’s my fault you didn’t see eye to eye, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be fighting like this!”

Cinder gasped from the younger kirin shouting at her. “But you don’t understand. He was going to--”

“I don’t want to hear it! Cinder, he’s my best friend. He wouldn’t do anything bad in his life. And Moonstone…” She turned to him with a solemn face. “I’m really disappointed in you...I let you down, but you’re the one fighting her. Just...why?”

Moonstone stayed there quietly, not daring to answer back right away. He shot a glare at Cinder, but he shut his eyes and grunted. “She laid the first blow against me, but…” The way Kunzite looked at him put him back in his place. “...I let my anger get the best out of me. But you’d do the same thing if it happened to you, too.”

Kunzite froze from hearing that, and she just shook her head. “I expected you to be better than this. You...had every right to be angry, but you never threw a punch until now. And you, Cinder?” She struggled to find the right words, that was how emotional she had gotten. “What you did...it was terrible. Just...things changed. Moonstone’s not like what you expected. Please realize that.”

Before either one of them could respond, she left the forest then and there. She left them with a lot to think about. She looked back at them before she vanished, tearful from the mess she created.

Moonstone sighed and couldn’t find it in himself to look at Cinder or Kunzite. “She’s not wrong. We’re both full of it. But you didn’t help one bit. I’m going to do everything I can to make it right. You should do the same.” He left the forest as well, leaving the kirin alone by herself.

That ended up being the one thing she did or didn’t need, depending on an observer’s point of view. She started to realize what she had done, and it drove her deeper into her sorrow. Her limbs couldn’t stay still anymore, and to say she felt awful was an understatement.

But it wasn’t for the reasons Kunzite was hoping for.

“I’ve done so much to protect this village over the years,” she said to herself. “And I’m a good person in the end. Fighting Moonstone, it was to make sure we didn’t have our generation’s version of Torch. Yes? I’m just…” She put both hands over her face. “I probably took it too far. He just needed to see how strong I was, and we couldn’t have come to blows. That’s what happened last time I fought someone in his family.”

Out here above the forest, there was nothing to block the flow of wind. It rustled against her fur, and she felt how strong it was on her frame. Usually, that would be the best way to calm herself down. But this wasn’t a normal situation at all. Not even close to it.

“I just need...a moment to think…”

------

Kunzite had at least thirty seconds of a headstart on Moonstone, and it was going to take a lot of strength to catch up to her. This wasn’t good. Guess it was the kind of occasion where everyone messed up, so everyone needed to work together to fix things. Maybe this was the kind of thing he had to do to see to that.

It wasn’t long until he found himself back at the village. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary out here: All the kirin were attending to their own business, the dragons were seeing to their normal routines, so on and so forth. From the looks of it, the purple dragon didn’t share the news with them just yet. If he did, Moonstone was getting out of town the first chance he got. If their trust in him was just now starting to bloom, it was going to go away the moment they found out he fought Cinder.

He went to the first place he figured Kunzite would be, their guesthouse. He opened the door and stepped inside, only to get two pairs of eyes giving him the stare of a lifetime. Neither one was too thrilled with him, and he had to face the music. “Autumn. I guess she told you everything already.”

“She did,” Autumn sighed. She was sitting down on a sofa, while Kunzite sat down next to her. Both were down and trying to get through this. “I can’t say I’m surprised, but it’s not good that this happened at all.”

“I know. I’m sorry. I might have had a good reason for what I did, but that doesn’t make it right.” He pulled up one of the front porch chairs inside and sat down with them. “Can you forgive me?”

Kunzite wasn’t sure what to say. She observed the weather outside through the open front door. There were a few clouds scattered here and there, but otherwise, it was a beautiful morning. Not exactly the kind of day that fit the mood.

“You’re my best friend, Moonstone, and I trusted you,” she spoke quietly. “I want to forgive you. But...I’m scared. What you did there…” Autumn hugged her on the side, while she found it hard to describe her feelings. “I don’t want to see that from you again. It was scary.”

He took a deep breath and let it happen. He deserved it. “I don’t want to be a monster. But it felt like I had to fight back. She tried to hit me first. I wanted to run away. And yet, I stayed there and locked horns with her and...yeah.”

“Why did you do that? Please, don’t hold anything back.”

“Because I felt like she was going to hurt you,” he admitted. “It’s just, everything about her, it felt like if I stayed there, she was going to do something bad. And I didn’t want her to lay one finger on you.” For the first time that Kunzite could remember, his eyes started to water up. “I couldn’t live with myself if that happened.”

“Moonstone…” Kunzite got up from her chair and hugged him tightly. Autumn did the same, trying to comfort them both. “You don’t have to do that. I would have been fine.”

The dragon shut his eyes and didn’t hug back. He didn’t know what to do in that moment. A part of him thought he didn’t deserve any act of kindness like this, but another part really wanted to hug her back. Just for a moment. Or something. He lightly pushed them back and stood up. “She’s going to be back. I’m only going to make it worse if I stay here. We all need to leave.”

“What?” Kunzite choked up. “No, we have to stay here. The kirin are really getting behind you, and Ivory and Sea? They weren’t that upset over Torch stepping down. Maybe we could talk it out and--”

“No. I need to leave. I’m only going to make a bigger mess if I’m around for that.” A single tear rolled down his cheek. “It’s the right thing to do. I’m sorry. For everything.” He started to walk out the door, and Kunzite reached for his hand. Before she could grab it, he had already taken off into the air. Within the blink of an eye, he was gone.

The dam broke within Kunzite, and the tears burst out of her eyes like waterfalls. She fell down to her knees and wept. “I lost him…”

Autumn brought the poor girl in her arms. “You didn’t lose him. He thinks this is for the best, and he’s wrong. You’ll see him again.”

Despite the words of advice, Kunzite couldn’t stop crying. It was going to be a difficult road to fix all of this and make it right for everyone. If there was a road at all.

Author's Note:

Yeah...pretty safe to say everyone had a turn to screw up in the last two chapters. Except Autumn. She's still her old self in the best possible way.

Don't worry, there's still quite a bit of story left to go. Things will change yet. Just three chapters to go.

Comments

[DDDDDDDDD23]

Kunzite is being s bitch.
This fight is her fault.

[tx-300]

[Soothing Stone]

9641107
I wouldn't go as far as to say she's that, but she knows this is her fault to a degree. It's why she keeps saying she has to make it right or fix it. But by this stage, all three can't say they're not guilty.

[DDDDDDDDD23]

9641853
She is being a bitch because she is acting upset at moonstone for defending himself.
Cindeer was going for the kill.