A Dragon's Secret

A Dragon's Secret is a fan fiction following the adventures of a MudWing/SeaWing hybrid named Dragonfly and his friends Fatechasr the NightWing, Squid the SeaWing, Cerise the SkyWing, Sleet the IceWing, Mirage the SandWing, and Boa the RainWing. The story takes place one year after the events of Moon Rising. The Jade Mountain Prophecy has been fulfilled and Darkstalker is no longer a threat. Over the course of the school year and the summer, the Dragonets of Destiny have added many new teachers to the roster, as well as some new classes. To compensate for the extra classes and extra teachers, they also added a new winglet: the Ivory Winglet.
The story switches perspective between characters during each chapter. The characters that it switches between are Dragonfly, Fatechaser, Squid, and Cerise (may go out of order from time to time). Later on I might add a few solo chapters with the POVs of Sleet, Mirage, and Boa.
CHARACTER PAGES~
Dragonfly the MudWing
Fatechaser the NightWing
== Prologue ==
(The events of the Prologue take place five years before the end of the war.)
The rumbling of a hungry stomach echoed ominously against the mountaintops and the nearby trees. Heron shot a backward glance at her brother, the blundering oaf of a MudWing called Slug. He smiled sheepishly at her, blushing a little in embarrassment at his babbling tummy. As if on cue, it gave another thunder-like growl of complaint.
“Is there ever a time when you aren’t hungry?” Heron reprimanded crossly. Slug’s smile disappeared and he dipped his head in shame. Heron pricked her ears to catch his muttered apology, then nodded in satisfaction when it came. She turned her head sharply as she caught the soft purr of Catfish’s giggling. She narrowed her eyes at her little sister, then snapped. “I told you not to giggle like that! We’re on the border of IceWing territory. I don’t want you to give away our position!”
Heron swiveled her head towards the skies, slowly examining them to make sure that no IceWings were nearby. Her and her siblings had been sent on one of various border patrols to make sure that no IceWings dared cross the Sky Wing's border. The SkyWing soldier’s camp was located not far off, just over the next mountain. It was dry on the border. There wasn’t a drop of mud to be seen, and Heron was on edge because of it.
“As if your yelling won’t?” Muck grumbled stubbornly. Heron looked at her bulky little brother, who was anything but little. He was nearly twice her size, yet the two of them were born within seconds of one another. If he had been born first, he could have made quite the bigwings. Except for his head. He never thought before he acted, and he usually had to count on Heron to think for him, so this once in a brightest night of a logical thought surprised her.
“Shut it...” She flashed hotly at him. She knew that scolding her brothers so harshly was not something a normal bigwigs would do, but she was nervous, and scared. This war was starting to get to her.
“Guys...” A small, squeaky whisper sounded from the back of the group.
All of the anger and bitterness immediately flushed from Heron’s face, to be replaced with intense worry. Heron hurriedly jostled Muck, Slug, and Catfish out of her way. Lagging at the back of the group, a petite, tiny MudWing was having trouble catching up. “Cricket? Are you alright?” Heron pressed neurotically as she faced her smallest, youngest, and weakest sibling.
“I hear something.” Her ears swiveled around slowly as if she was trying to catch something nearby. Cricket had been blessed with an adept sense of hearing since birth. Even Slug’s stomach seemed to quiet down as Cricket closed her eyes to focus on whatever it was that she heard. Fear pricked at Heron’s wingtips. What if it’s an IceWing attack again? Heron looked back at her other siblings. A bad wound on Catfish’s lower jawline still oozed blood from a battle a few days ago. There was no mud to dress the wound, so they had to wait for it to heal naturally. Slug and Muck had both received similar injuries, and a long slash from an IceWing tail across Heron’s chest still stung whenever she moved.
“Wing beats... Tens... No, more than that...” Cricket observed, her face darkening. “Too slow for a SkyWing, too fast for a MudWing.” She opened her eyes. They were wide with fright. “IceWings. And SandWings. Hundreds of IceWings and SandWings, headed this way.”
“Cricket, fly back to the camp and sound the alarm!” Heron ordered determinedly. Without hesitation, Cricket hurled herself into the air and pumped her wings as hard as she could. Anxiety glittered in Heron’s eyes as she watched the skimpy little MudWing fly away. Despite her abnormally small size, she was flying rather fast. Backup would arrive soon.
But not soon enough.
“Catfish, scour the area for nearby patrols, be it MudWing, SkyWing, or SandWing. We need backup!” Catfish nodded at once and crashed away through the trees. If there were any patrols nearby, they could make it in time. By now, Heron could make out the beating of furious wings. A chill seemed to rise in the air as the wing beats grew louder. Heron pricked her ears and lifted her head towards the sky. White and blue shapes were growing larger and more distinguishable on the horizon. Cricket, please hurry! And Catfish too! Heron couldn’t take her eyes off of the terrifying sight.
“Heron...” Catfish rejoined them, panting wildly. She was followed by an uneasy patrol of young SkyWings. They were just dragonets, much like her brothers and sisters. We need more than dragonets! We need an army! As if Catfish could read the look on Heron’s face, she continued. “They’re all I could find!”
“Cricket will be back soon.” Slug smiled reassuringly at Heron. Something tugged at Heron’s heart when she saw that familiar, comforting smile aimed in her direction. Dread stabbed like a sliver of ice at Heron’s heart.
What if I never see that smile again? Slug’s smile had an unusual quality that could pick her and her siblings out of any slump. She turned her gaze to Muck. Even though his bull-headed attitude annoyed her, he was still her little brother, and she was his bigwings. She cared about him, and she had to admit that his stupidity was kind of cute. Heron then directed her attention to Catfish. She wasn’t too big, or too small. Neither was she too stupid or too clever. But she was brave. She was brave and loyal and an amazing sister. She really understood all of her siblings’ thoughts and feelings. It was almost as if she could read their minds. Next, Heron’s mind went to Cricket. Without Cricket’s exceptional hearing, they wouldn’t be able to get out of half the situations that the war had put them in. Without Cricket, they wouldn’t have heard the IceWings and SandWings and backup would not be on its way. Without any of them, Heron thought, I wouldn’t be able to breath. 
“Sound the battle call!” A cry from the sky suddenly caught Heron’s attention. She looked up sharply. A legion of SkyWing, SandWing, and MudWing soldiers were flying down the side of the mountain.
“Reinforcements!” Heron breathed a sigh of relief. “Led by General Rust, thank goodness!” She never thought she’d say such a thing about General Rust, the harshest, strictest, and grumpiest SkyWing she had ever met. In battle, he was extremely brutal and he turned all of his anger on enemy forces, which usually resulted in him being in a good mood for days or weeks on end, depending on the outcome of the battle. Behind him trailed the adviser of the MudWing forces, Murky, and his siblings, and the adviser of the SandWings, Quicksand. The legion of brown, red, and yellow dragons flying behind them were enough to match the IceWings and SandWings, who were close enough now for Heron to make out some details.
An icy claw gripped hold of Heron’s heart as the IceWing and SandWing forces drew nearer. At the head of the enemy forces, a pure white dragon with claws sharper than icicles shouted battle commands that Heron couldn’t hear over General Rust’s battle cries. The huge white dragon was easily larger and taller than any of the IceWing and SandWing soldiers flying behind her. Her horns were tipped with frost and a frozen chill seemed to befall the very earth she flew over.
“Is that...” Catfish started to say something, but she trailed off. Her observant amber eyes were glued to the IceWing at the head of the charge.
“Queen Glacier herself.” Heron finished. She fought down the queasy tongues of terror that were licking at her heart. The IceWing Queen is leading the charge herself... How can we possibly win? She shook her head to clear it. She had to be brave now, in the face of this terrible threat. She had to be brave for her sibs. She stole one more look at their faces. Muck seemed to be in awe, not in fear. Mud-brain... Slug was standing tall and proud, not a hint of anxiety or worry in his eyes. Just bravery. Catfish looked afraid, though. For a moment, their eyes locked. Heron nodded once, and all of Catfish’s fear seemed to vanish.
Heron spread her wings to lift into the sky, but Slug stopped her.
“Where’s Cricket? She didn’t come back with the reinforcements!” He pointed out, scanning the MudWing warriors who had been following Commander Murky.
“Maybe she’s back at the SkyWing camp.” Heron reasoned. She too could not locate her sister in the MudWing crowd. “She’ll be safe there. And that means we must be safe here. We need to survive. For Cricket.”
“For Cricket!” Catfish, Muck, and Slug cried in unison. Heron smiled and spread her wings. Her and her siblings lifted into the air, joining with the MudWing army as it surged forward. All around them, icy claws collided with thick-plated scales. SkyWings breathed fire at the ice-clad dragons, but the MudWings had no such means of defense. It was much too cold here for them to breath fire. Especially with these IceWings, who seemed to bring the northern chill with them wherever they went.
Heron joined in the fray, slashing at the nearest dragon, an IceWing. She aimed her claws for his face, but he ducked. Heron had to withdraw last second to avoid getting her talons caught on the bristled spines at the back of his head. The IceWing jabbed forward quickly. A burst of pain erupted from Heron’s shoulder, but she ignored it and thrust her head downwards. Her teeth latched onto the outer edge of one of the IceWings wings. He hissed and thrashed to break free, but she held on tightly, shaking her head from side to side in a frantic motion. A sick tearing sound reached Heron’s ears and the taste of blood filled her mouth. The IceWings wing membrane tore bit by bit.
Horror struck Heron. If she held on to the IceWing, his wing would be even more damaged. But if she let go, he would fall to the forest floor below, to the hard, rocky ground. If she let go, she could kill him! This is a war. Dragons are going to die! She rebuked herself angrily. But I don’t want to kill anyone! She protested.
It seemed she didn’t really have a choice. Icicle fangs latched viciously onto her front foot. She opened her mouth to howl in pain. The IceWing she was holding, who had latched onto her foot, plummeted toward the ground below, landing in a heap of white and red. Heron averted her gaze. As soon as she turned her head, she saw Slug deep in battle with a SandWing. So deep in battle, that he didn’t see the IceWing racing towards him...
“Slug!” Heron pumped her wings and surged forward with a speed she hadn’t known she was capable of. She jumped in front of Slug and spread out her wings to shield him, just at the moment that the IceWing had reached him. Serrated claws sliced across Heron’s muzzle. Blood splattered across her scales and she howled in agony. She heard Slug gasp with shock, but he was much too busy with the SandWing to help her.
There was blood in Heron’s eyes and she couldn’t see well at all.
She felt another burst of pain across her underbelly. She aimed for the direction that the claws had come from, feeling satisfaction when her claws parted the ice-cold scales of an IceWing. Warm blood trickled from the cold body. Heron shook her head and blinked frantically until the blood had cleared from her eyes. But by then, it was too late for her to dodge the IceWing that was lunging at her throat.
Frigid fangs embedded themselves within the scales on Heron’s neck. She cried out in pain and floundered against him. Finally, she found something solid and pushed off of it, trying to dislodge the IceWing that had taken fierce hold of her throat. He did not let go, so she shoved again. His sharp fangs ripped through her scales. For a moment, Heron stopped struggling. She heard a noise close to her ear, the sound of frost creeping and crawling. It was a sound all too familiar. A cloud of frost was rising in the back of the IceWing's mouth. He was about to let loose his frost breath. At this close a range, it would certainly kill her.
Heron jabbed out with her claws, hoping desperately that she would make some kind of mark. Suddenly, the grip on her throat loosened. She fell a few dragon lengths before she caught herself midair. Every time she moved her wings, pain rippled through her body. She lifted her talons to her throat. Thick, sticky blood was oozing from the deep gashes that the Ice Wing's fang had caused.
“Speak of the Blister...” Heron muttered as the IceWing she had just been fighting dove down from the brunt of the battle to face her. Now, away from the close quarters of other battling dragons, the IceWing looked so much bigger than he had before. And this time, he had four deep claw marks on the side of his narrow muzzle.
But something was definitely different about him.
Here, away from the watchful eye of the dragons fighting up above them, he didn’t seem so fierce. He looked almost... Sad. He tried to kill Slug by sneaking up behind, and he almost killed me just now! This lowly IceWing scum doesn’t deserve my pity!
“You don’t want to fight, do you?” The IceWing asked so quietly that Heron almost couldn’t hear him. But she did, and she was so shocked by what she heard that she couldn’t answer. “I can see the hesitation in your eyes.”
“But it’s not like we have a choice!” Heron snarled. “If you’re not going to attack me, then I have to get back to the battle.” Can Slug hold his own against a SandWing? Are Catfish and Muck okay? Forbid that they run into the IceWing Queen, oh, forbid it! Heron began to fly away, but the Ice Wing's teeth snagged onto her tail and yanked her backwards. “Ow!” Heron cried, glaring at the stubborn IceWing.
“You won’t survive.” The IceWing stated bluntly.
“What do you care?” This strange IceWing was really starting to infuriate Heron. He’s with the enemy, isn’t he?
“I want this war to be over just as much as you do.” He replied evenly.
“The only thing we can do to stop this war is wait for the Dragonets of Destiny. You know the prophecy?” Heron rarely let herself think, much less speak, of the dragonets that would save them all. As the prophecy stated, it was still five more years before the prophecy would be fulfilled. Can I really go on like this for five more years?
As if reading her mind, the IceWing asked, “Do you really think you’ll last for five more years?”
“I don’t have much of a choice.” Heron  hissed again, whirling around to return to the scuffle overhead. The body of a SkyWing plummeted to the ground. Heron looked down and scanned the damage of the battle so far. There seemed to be a lot more sand, mud, and fire-colored dragons laying down there than white. They were losing...
“Yes you do.” Heron rolled her eyes and turned her head to look back at this extremely annoying and confusing IceWing. What was it about him that made her want to bite his tail off and shove it down his throat? He was so aggravating. Yet so... So... What was the word? Persuasive? Perhaps the word she was looking for was ‘charming,’ but she would never admit it to herself.
“What are you talking about?” Heron hissed.
“Why don’t you join the Talons of Peace?” The IceWing suggested.
Something sparked inside of Heron. With the Talons... I could protect my siblings... “I want peace... I want that. But I have to protect my sibs!” Without another word, Heron dashed back into the heart of the battle. She searched frantically for the mud-colored bodies of her siblings. Muck and Slug were both darker browns than other MudWings, while Catfish and Cricket were a bit lighter. She had to find them.
“Heron! Help, please!” Heron whirled around to see Muck wrestling with an unusually large IceWing. Frost spread across Muck’s scales wherever the IceWing touched him. She had the look of an IceWing who spent days on end living in subzero temperatures. Her entire body radiated ice-cold chills. Queen Glacier. He would be no match for an IceWing queen, not by himself.
Heron started forward to help him, but another cry interrupted her.
“HELP!!!” She swiveled around and gasped to see a SandWing’s claws gripping Catfish’s shoulders. The SandWing lunged forward, snapping savagely at her neck. He was dangerously close, and if his fangs met the rights spot, even her thickly armored scales wouldn’t be enough to protect her.  Heron looked dumbfoundedly between Muck and Catfish. If I go to Muck’s aid first, Catfish will die. If I go to Catfish’s aid first, Muck will die. Panic pricked at every square inch of armored scale that covered her body. I can’t choose between them!
Before Heron had time to make a choice, two things seemed to happen almost at once.
A cloud of ice-colored smoke rose out of Queen Glacier’s throat and blasted Muck in the face. White and blue ice immediately crept along Muck’s scales. His eyes closed shut in pain and his fighting immediately became much weaker. Queen Glacier shook Muck off of her and his body plummeted towards the ground. Heron hovered there in shock, watching her brother’s body plunge to the ground far, far below. This terrible choking feeling at the back of her throat stopped her from shouting his name. Tears welled up in the corners of her eyes. MUCK!!!
A mangled cry of distress split the air. Heron swung her head to see a SandWing tail embedded in Catfish’s chest. The wound was blackened with the poison of a SandWing’s tail barb. A contorted look of terror was permanently plastered on Catfish’s face as she dropped towards the ground to join Muck.
“No…” Heron shook her head vigorously. The knot in her throat became tighter and tighter, until it was almost choking her. She looked frantically, but couldn’t see him anywhere… “SLUG!!!” She cried at the top of her lungs as she beat her wings frantically. She weaved in and out of the squabbling dragons, dodging barb-tipped tails, strings of fire, and icy claws, all the while frantically searching for her brother’s bulky form. “SLUG!!!” She called again. You can’t die, I’m your bigwings! I have to protect you!!! 
“Heron, watch out!” Relief flooded through Heron when she heard Slug’s voice. She turned around to see an IceWing flying toward her at full speed. Slug slammed forcefully into the IceWing, knocking her away from Heron.
“Slug!” Heron started flying in his direction. Before she could reach him, the IceWing that he had slammed aside launched herself at Heron. Her back claws tore into Heron’s underbelly and she sank her teeth into the open wounds on Heron’s throat. Pain flashed across Heron’s vision. More blood trickled and oozed from the terribly painful wound. Heron blinked her eyes frantically. Everything was starting to blur in and out. She tried to breath, but it was starting to get difficult.
NO. I have to survive. Slug needs me to protect him. And Cricket… She didn’t come to the battle; she has to still be alive! Heron thrashed, but that just made the wounds worse. The fangs sunk deeper, and just when Heron thought that she couldn’t hold on to life any longer, the IceWing that had been holding onto her neck suddenly let go. She took in a big gulp of breath and saw the blurry, but familiar figure of Slug hauling the IceWing away.
“Slug…” She called out to him, but it was much weaker than before. She found it difficult to merely flap her wings. “I… Have to… Protect you…”
“No! You’ve lost too much blood!” The brown blur whacked its tail into the white blur. “You saved me; Now it’s my turn to save you!”
Heron opened her mouth to argue, but she had no strength left to do so. Slug... I’m his bigwings... Heron watched Slug for a few moments. The IceWing he’d been wrangling with fled in fright after a nasty bite to the throat. Slug turned to face her. “You have to get out of here.” He didn’t wait for a response. He flew towards Heron and gently nudged her forwards, then pointed his talons towards a patch of forest a little ways away. “There’s a river down there. Hopefully with some mud.”
Heron nodded slowly, then swooped down low enough to avoid all of the fighting dragons. She then fled into the forest, until she came to the river that Slug had told her about. At the bottom was a thick layer of glorious mud. In Heron’s eyes, it seemed more valuable than treasure. She dove into the chilling river and allowed her body to sink deep into the mud. She rested her head on the shore and sighed in relief. The pain that had enveloped her entire body was slowly diminishing. It throbbed in her head a little, but Heron could tell that the wounds were no longer bleeding, even though they were still fresh in her mind.
She could hear the dying screams of pain and agony from the short distance. She could see the two armies clashing brutally with one another. Heron finally decided that she didn’t want to see or hear any more. She covered her head and closed her eyes, but how could she sleep?
How can I sleep when Muck and Catfish are dead? It felt like a dragon had forcefully pulled out her intestines, lit them on fire, then put them back into her body. I couldn’t save them? I’m their bigwings... Why couldn’t I save them?
But sleep eventually came.
Heron’s eyes shot open.
The battle... No dragons flew the skies and no screams rode the winds. It’s over. Heron pulled herself out of the mud. the injuries she had received in the battle were now much less severe. The claw marks on her muzzle and stomach were no more than scratches. The bite on her front foot was just a scar now. Her neck wound was another story. It was still bleeding, but it wasn’t near as severe. Above that, Heron felt rejuvenated and well-rested.
Slug and Cricket. She darted into the sky, in the direction of the battleground. Please, let them be alright...
 Heron almost choked on the smell of death in the air. She lighted down on the battlefield. Bodies littered the rocky, coarse-grassed ground. IceWings, Sky Wings, MudWings, and SandWings lay dead all around her. She continued to walk forward, examining every single MudWing she passed. Catfish... She looked away, only to find herself staring into the frozen face of Muck. They landed within feet of one another... She closed her eyes and continued onward. No... She passed the body of Commander Murky’s only brother, and the young SkyWings whom Catfish had found for backup. Quicksand, the SandWing commander, lay dead with an IceWing. Ice had covered her chest, and her tail was lodged in the Ice Wing's stomach. They both killed the other...
Then, Heron stopped.
“Slug!” She dashed over to him. “Slug!” She shook him multiple times. He lay in a pool of his own blood and Heron tried to wake him up, but he was already gone.
“Heron...” A small, shrimpy little voice squeaked. No... NO!!! She followed it to Cricket’s body, battered, bruised, and bloody from the brutal battle.
“Cricket.” She hugged her sister close. Cricket breathed out, but did not breath back in. “No... NO!!! CRICKET!!!” But she was gone.
No... No, no, no, no NO!!! Without thought, Heron lifted her head to the skies and screamed as loud as she possibly could. Tears streamed down her face. This is just a nightmare. This war is just a nightmare. It is. It has to be. I’ll wake up back at home in the Diamond Spray Delta. Heron took off as fast as she could, finally stopping at a stream barely big enough for her to fit in. She shoved her head under the surface and roared in pain and agony. The water muffled her cries, but it didn’t muffle her sorrow. She shook her head vigorously, as if trying to wake herself from a bad dream.
They can’t be gone. I’m their bigwings. I’m a MudWing. A MudWing without siblings... THAT ISN’T EVEN A MudWing AT ALL!!!
Finally, when Heron couldn’t hold her breath any longer, she withdrew from the stream’s caress. She gasped for breath, and was about to go under again when something in the water caught her eye. Something buried in the mud. Without even thinking, she scrapped at the mud to dig it out.
What in the...? No... No, it can’t be... She reached into the pocket of mud and pulled out the object inside. It was a dark brown MudWing egg. She frantically scrambled through the mud, but there were no other eggs at all. A MudWing without siblings isn’t a MudWing at all. She hugged the egg as close as she could. Don’t worry, little Dragonet. I’ll be your bigwings. 
Heron hugged the egg as close as she could. What’s a MudWing egg doing on the SkyWing-IceWing border?
“Whatcha got there?” A voice asked.
Heron wrapped the egg tightly and reassuringly with her tail, then whirled to face the speaker. It was the IceWing who had spoken to her about the Talons of Peace. His scales were white, but they were tinged with deep blue at the tips. His eyes were a blue so deep that they were almost black. Heron just stared at him.
“You gonna answer?” He pressed.
“What’s it to you?” Heron snapped.
He shrugged. “Just curious.”
“Well you can keep your nosy snout out of my business.”
The IceWing looked out at the battlefield for a moment. “I can take you to the Talons of Peace. You’ll be able to keep your egg safe there.”
“It’s NOT my egg!” Heron defended bitterly. “I found it here...”
“Either way, you want to protect it, right?” The IceWing pressed.
Heron didn’t answer right away. She hesitated. Should she really trust this dragon, who almost used his frost breath on her during their battle?
“The name’s Sleet. Yours?”
“Heron... What were you saying about the Talons of Peace?”
“I’m one of them. I can take you to them.” Sleet explained. Heron looked down at the little egg. I must protect him. I have to protect him like I couldn’t protect my sibs... “Only if you want, of course.”
“Yes. Take me to the Talons of Peace.”
== Chapter One ==
(The events of the story take place one year after Moon Rising. Dragonfly)
“Run!” A voice cried desperately from somewhere behind Dragonfly as he raced down the empty corridor at top speed. A tiny green blur dashed under the MudWing’s legs and careened away as fast as it could.
Dragonfly didn’t dare risk turning his head to look at who was chasing them this time. Not that he hadn’t already guessed who it was. There was only one dragon in all of Pyrrhia who hated him and his little SeaWing friend enough to put this much effort into hunting them down. Dragonfly pumped his wings harder to speed up his clumsy running, but it didn’t help much. It’s just too hard to run with webbed talons! He grumbled in his head as he continued his failed efforts to pick up speed.
Dragonfly didn’t know why, but for some reason, he had been born different than other MudWing dragonets. First off, his front talons were webbed, almost like a SeaWing, but Dragonfly knew for a fact that he definitely wasn’t a SeaWing. He was a MudWing. So why should he have webbed talons? Not only that, but he couldn’t breath fire at all. Most MudWings could breathe fire when they were warm enough, but he could be hotter than a SkyWing’s flame and not be able to produce even the tiniest flicker.
“Get back here, you unrelenting pests!” A vicious voice snarled furiously from behind. Dragonfly didn’t have to turn around to know that the ferocious hiss belonged to none other than Flame, the grumpy SkyWing who constantly bullied him and Squid. Dragonfly knew that if Flame caught up to him, he would have more than a few charred scales and countless teeth marks on his neck. So he lifted off of the ground and thrust his powerful wings. The cavern was hardly big enough for flight. His wing-tips brushed the walls of the tunnel as he maneuvered them and he had to keep up a half run so that his feet wouldn’t drag on the ground; but it was still faster than running. “When I catch you, you’re both dead!”
“It was just a silly prank!” Dragonfly shot back, turning his head to glimpse the hostile young SkyWing. Puffs of smoke were beginning to billow out of Flame’s nose. He opened his mouth and an orange glow shone from the back of his throat. Get out of the way, Dragonfly! He told himself as he stepped sideways into a corridor that he was just passing. A burst of red-hot fire streamed past, followed quickly by Flame, who continued running down the corridor. Dragonfly intently pricked his ears, listening closely as Flame’s talon steps and wingbeats faded away. He finally breathed out.
“What’s going on?” A voice that was both cold and warm questioned as Dragonfly attempted to catch his breath. He turned his head to look up at the sky blue SeaWing who had spoken. Though the SeaWing was only a few years older than Dragonfly, he radiated authority. He was holding his head high and looking down with eyes that were such a deep blue they were almost black. Dragonfly tilted his head to look into the dragon’s eyes. He was pretending to be upset, but amusement was flashing through the deep blue.
“Just a prank.” Dragonfly answered, giving the head of the Talons a toothy grin. “Flame didn’t take it to well. I’m sorry if I bothered you, Riptide, sir.”
“I thought I told you to stop calling everyone sir...” Riptide trailed off, letting his eyes flicker from side to side as if he was uncomfortable for some reason. “And to stop playing pranks on Flame. You know how he gets.”
“He doesn’t get that way, si-” Dragonfly cut himself off in the middle of that last word. Don’t call anyone ‘sir.’ Or ‘ma’am.’ At least not unless Heron is around. She’ll skin my hide if she hears me address someone without doing it properly! “He is that way.”
“Well you and Squid don’t need to make it worse.” Riptide sighed. “And especially not today.”
“Why not?” Dragonfly asked, tilting his head curiously up at the tense-looking SeaWing.
“I told you yesterday that the Dragonets of Destiny would be here to try to find new students for Jade Academy, since so many students disappeared last year.” Riptide flicked his tail as if in annoyance. “And what I don’t need is a bunch of dragonets tussling and arguing when they get here. Three moons, this is the Talons of Peace not the Talons of War. Understand?”
Dragonfly nodded, even though he hadn’t really been paying attention to anything Riptide had been saying. Dragonets of Destiny, Jade Academy, Talons of Peace, blah, blah, bl- DID HE SAY DRAGONETS OF DESTINY? “Wait, did you say the Dragonets of Destiny?”
Suddenly, he was at full attention. He shuffled from talon to talon excitedly and angled both of his ears in Riptide’s direction. Like from the stories in the library? Dragonfly’s heart gave a jolt of excitement. He had been raised  by the Talons, but he had never once caught a fleeting glimpse of any Dragonets of Destiny. Sure, there was Squid, but he was a false dragonet. Dragonfly wanted to meet a real Dragonet of Destiny. Squid had only ever met one of them; Starflight the NightWing. But now, Dragonfly had a chance to meet all of the dragonets, and see if all the stories were really true!
“Yes. So I need you to do me a favor and promise not to make any fights with Flame. Can you do that? Just for today?” There was a sort of pleading in Riptide’s eyes, but there was more than that. This was about more than just impressing the Dragonets of Destiny. Dragonfly decided not to pry any longer. He was a skilled eye-reader, and could learn a lot just from studying a dragon’s eyes.
Dragonfly nodded. “Yes, sir!” He answered without thinking, then covered his mouth with his talons. “I mean... Yes, Riptide!” He corrected himself. “But... What should I do if Flame tries to kill me again? Or what if Flame bullies Squid again? I have to stick up for my friends, don’t I?”
Riptide sighed again. His eyes were tired. “Just try your best to not fight, alright?”
“Yes, Riptide.” Dragonfly finally managed to refrain from calling him sir.
“That’s ‘yes, Riptide, sir’ to you.” A tail gently tapped Dragonfly’s shoulder and he whirled around to come nose to nose with a bulky MudWing who stood a few feet higher than him. Her scales were bright and vivid, and she was extremely muscular and strong, as if she spent enough time in the mud to heal hundreds of injured MudWings. A nasty four-claw scar parted through the thick plating of scales on her muzzle. She also had a series of scars all over her neck and throat, and many others on different parts of her body. She was about twelve years old, clearly an adult MudWing, but beyond her rugged looks, she had a heart of gold. Dragonfly could clearly see his sister’s love for him reflected in her eyes.
“Yes, ma’am, Heron!” He barked, giving her the warrior’s salute she had taught him. She nodded at him in satisfaction. Her eyes were the color of deep mud, the kind that was thick, but still slid around your scales like water. That was Dragonfly’s favorite kind of mud. He remembered the days him and Heron would spend just swimming in mud, playing together and throwing mud in one another’s faces. Those days had been so infrequent before the war had ended. Most of the time, he had been stuck in the Talon’s secret fortress, arguing with Flame, Viper, and Ogre, while he tried to protect Squid from their attacks. He also remember crazy Fatespeaker, who made his mouth water with tales of Walruses that would never come.
He had been really close to the false dragonets, or at least Squid and Fatespeaker, because they had been born around the same time. He had almost been chosen as a false dragonet instead of Ochre. But as Nautilus often told him, Heron had refused to let Dragonfly become part of something so dangerous. It was a good call, because a NightWing had taken the false dragonets away from the Talons about a year and a half ago and when Squid came back, he was petrified. He had an incurable stammering problem and was terrified of anything that moved. He had gotten a little bit better, but his stammering was still pretty bad and he had a lot of phobias.
Dragonfly tried to help him in any way he could. But there are only so many ways you can help a dragon. He thought sadly. Especially dragons with post-traumatic stress syndrome. Dragonfly shivered slightly. Pictures and memories flooded back to him. Memories of Heron thrashing in her sleep and screaming something about catfish and crickets. Memories of the terror that was constantly plastered onto her face. Memories of Nautilus holding her down as she tried to claw Sleet’s throat out. Heron had been the worst case Dragonfly had ever witnessed. Eventually, after years of therapeutic help from fellow members of the Talons, and days on end bathing in mud, Heron could be in a room with an IceWing without freaking out.
Don’t think about those memories. Dragonfly suddenly told himself. Heron is a good sister and the best bigwings I could ask for! He thought about how she had cared for his egg all by herself, and found the Talons of Peace just so she could keep him safe from the war. He thought about how she had raised him with little help from the others, and how she had always tried to remain calm whenever he was around. She had always kept the war away from him and shielded him from the the outside world. Heron is the best sister and the best bigwings!
“That’s better, my little Dragonfly.” Heron wrapped her wings around him in a protective hug. Dragonfly closed his eyes and focused in on the warmth of her scales against his. He wanted her to embrace him forever, and to always shield him the way she always tried to do. In fact, Dragonfly wished he could stay wrapped in her wings until the end of time. All too soon, his sister pulled away and faced Riptide. “Riptide, sir, Sleet reported that the Dragonets of Destiny have been seen approaching. Clay, Sunny, Tsunami, and Starflight, no Glory.”
“Thank you for the report, Heron.” Riptide fidgeted awkwardly as Heron dipped her head to him in a respectful gesture. “Could you go make sure Squid, Flame, and Ochre aren’t fighting? And have them report to the main hall along with Mudthorn.”
“Yes, Riptide, sir!” Heron saluted to him before turning and walking off.
“Sometimes, I wonder if she even knows that the war is over. She treats me more like a commanding officer than a fellow Talon.” Riptide sighed and shook his head slowly.
Dragonfly tilted his head up at Riptide. “Should I go to the main hall too? Can I meet the Dragonets of Destiny? I’ve been reading the scrolls from the library, and I just love their story! Is Tsunami really that bossy? Do you think she’ll be the one to challenge Coral, or will it be Anemone or Auklet? How big is Clay? Did he really survive the bite of a Dragonbite Viper? How does Starflight fly when he’s blind and can’t see? Can he really survive without reading scrolls, or does someone else read to him? Is Sunny really a mix between a NightWing and a SandWing? If NightWings really did have powers, do you think she would be able to have powers, or would the fact that she is part SandWing hinder that aspect of her?” Dragonfly could go on and on for hours, but he decided to cut it off there.
One thing about him was that he absolutely loved asking questions. It annoyed other dragons sometimes, but it was part of Dragonfly’s search for truth and knowledge. Dragonfly absolutely loved to learn new things. He loved reading and writing, and spending time with dragons of other species just so he could learn more about the different cultures and personalities. It was one of the reasons he loved the Dragonets of Destiny. They were all from different tribes, but they still all worked together in harmony with one another. They strive for peace between the tribes. And maybe-just maybe-if he met them, they might ask him to join Jade Academy!
“Slow, down, Dragonfly, not so many questions at once!” Riptide rubbed his head as if he was about to get a headache. “Yes, you can come to the main hall too. The Dragonets of Destiny want to meet as many dragonets as possible, so they know who to accept into the school.”
“Do you think I have a chance at being accepted?” Dragonfly pressed, excitement shining like stars in his eyes. Imagine a dragon school where I can make friends from all the different tribes and study them up-close and personal! That sounds so amazing!
“Only if we manage to make it to the main hall before you yap my ears off.” Riptide grumbled.
“Let’s go, then!” Dragonfly cheered, completely ignoring Riptide’s annoyed tone as he took off down the passageway that would lead to the main hall. He had to take a few twists and turns, then finally emerged onto the edge of a cliff that looked over an open ravine of bare rock. The ravine was teaming with members of the Talons of Peace. Dragonfly’s sea-green eyes scanned the crowd until he spotted the green-scaled body of Squid. He spread his wings and let the wind carry him down to join the little SeaWing.
“YIPE!” Squid cried and jumped as Dragonfly lighted down beside him with a loud THWUMP! Squid breathed in and out rapidly, then calmed down when he realized that it was only Dragonfly. “I th-thought I t-told you not to s-s-sneak up on m-me.” He stuttered nervously. Squid’s eyes scattered around inside of their sockets, looking at everything around him for only a few brief seconds before he looked back at Dragonfly. “I can never know when s-someone will at-ttack.”
“Oh, come on, Squid!” Dragonfly spread his wing over the tiny SeaWing dragonet and pulled him closer. Squid let out a startled squeak of fear. “I’m like your brother! I’ll protect you!” The little SeaWing relaxed a bit, but not completely. His eyes once again darted around the room nervously. “You seen Mudthorn? I heard Riptide say she was supposed to be here too.”
“N-no.” Squid shook his head and shivered apprehensively. “B-but I don’t think sh-she should-”
“Don’t think I should what, small fry?” Without warning, another dragon fell out of the sky to land in front of them. Squid shrieked in panic and scrambled backwards out from under Dragonfly’s wing. He started breathing heavily and repeatedly counting backwards from ten. “Ha! Gotcha! Again!” The strange dragon let out a hearty, heavy laugh. Her scales came in layers, much like a MudWing, except for the fact that they were all varying colors of sand or mixes of mud and sand. Her topscales were the color of a darker, wet sand while her midscales were golden-brown and her underscales were the pale colors of desert sand. For some odd reason, her midscales also had a black diamond pattern on them. She had the bulky physique of normal MudWings, but the poisonous tail barb of a normal SandWing.
“Mudthorn!” Dragonfly greeted, smiling. “Where are Fennec, Butterfly, Milkweed, Lizard, and Salamander?”
Mudthorn let out a snort and rolled her eyes. “I don’t have to go with my siblings everywhere, do I? I mean Clay, of the Dragonet Prophecy doesn’t have a bunch of MudWing-SandWing hybrids following him around all the time, does he? No, I don’t think so.”
“But you’re their bigwings, like Heron is to me!” Dragonfly reminded her, though he knew he didn’t have to.
“The problem with being a hybrid is that I don’t have those normal MudWing instincts, Dragonfly. I’ve never felt the same connections with my siblings that they feel with me. They see me as their bigwings, by I don’t see myself as one.” Mudthorn let out a powerful puff of smoke in extreme annoyance. “Maybe if I get accepted to this school, I won’t have to deal with their pestering anymore. Then again...” Mudthorn trailed off as Riptide, the leader of the Talons flew by. Her eyes followed him until he landed a few feet in front of them. The look in Mudthorn’s golden eyes suddenly went from annoyed to dreamy as she stared at Riptide. “There is one good side to living with the Talons.”
Dragonfly rolled his eyes at Mudthorn’s blatant show of affection. She didn’t even try to hide it and she didn’t have to, considering that every dragon in the Talons already knew about her major crush on Riptide.
“Where’s Ochre and Flame?” Riptide pressed, scanning them with his deep blue eyes.
“Right here, Riptide, sir.” Heron’s voice called out. Dragonfly turned his head and saw his older sister flying down towards them with Ochre and Flame following close behind her. Flame looked just as pi**ed off with the world as he always did, and Dragonfly caught Ochre’s stomach rumbling as it always was. Flying behind the three of them was an IceWing with pure white scales that were tinged with blue at the edges. His eyes were just like Riptide’s; a blue so deep they were almost black. Yet somehow, they also had a little twinge of sky blue in them somewhere. His eyes seemed to chill straight to the very core. Like Heron, he also was riddled with battle scars.
“Thanks. I see you brought Sleet, too.” Riptide observed.
“Apparently, he wants to go to school with the little dragonets.” Heron flashed Sleet a teasingly annoyed look. “If you ask me, he’s a little too old for that.”
“Okay, but you won’t be saying that when I come back with enough knowledge to knock your talons off.” Sleet retorted. He flew passed Heron and flicked his tail across her nose for a brief moment. Heron flinched, then narrowed her eyes at him. “Oh, come on! Aren’t you jealous of how much I’ll learn? Maybe I’ll learn how to win a MudWing’s heart.”
“Hmp.” Heron snorted in disbelief. “Good luck with that, walrus breath.”
Dragonfly rolled his eyes. They always go back and forth between each other like this. Can’t they just say they love each other and get it over with?
“Well I’m sure the dragonets would be happy to accept him no matter how old he is.” Riptide butted in. “Speaking of which, I think that’s them now.”
Dragonfly immediately turned his head towards the skies. Four silhouettes had just appeared in the bright blue sky. Dragonfly looked back at Mudthorn and Squid to see if they were just as excited as he was. Mudthorn was watching Riptide with that same dreamy expression while Squid was looking around as if he expected another dragon to drop down from the sky. But the Dragonets of Destiny are coming! How can they not be excited by this?
Dragonfly intently watched and waited as the four silhouettes. Grew bigger and bigger, until he could make out their features and species and he instantly knew who each and every one of them was. Clay and Starflight were flying in the middle with Sunny and Tsunami at the ends, but Tsunami was just the slightest bit ahead of them, with a bossy look on her face that said “I’m the leader, and you know it.” Clay and Sunny were flying next to Starflight with their wingtips brushing his so they could guide him along. Dragonfly couldn’t keep the shimmer of admiration out of his eyes. These were the Dragonets of Destiny, his heroes, and they were all just as he had imagined they’d be!
Clay was huge! He was very muscular and walked with the same limp that all the scrolls spoke of. He’s so heroic-looking! Clay held his head high and seemed as if he was a shield to protect the other dragonets, not a proud and controlling leader. Tsunami was proud and controlling, and she always tried to be the leader. Even now, when she wasn’t here to fight, Dragonfly could tell that she was not the dragon to tussle with. She wasn’t as bulky as clay but she looked just as powerful. Meanwhile, Starflight was unsure of where he was placing his talons and was being guided by the kind and bubbly Sunny.
“Wow...” Dragonfly breathed.
“Summer’s almost over!” Clay laughed. He limped up to Flame and elbowed the grumpy dragonet. “Ready to get back to school?”
“No.” Flame snarled bitterly. The scar on his face wrinkled up in disgust.
“That’s what I like to hear!” Clay cheered, slinging one leg over Flame’s shoulder. Flame looked as if he was seriously considering biting the MudWing’s leg off.
“Tsunami, I’m glad you’re here!” Riptide exclaimed, smiling. Tsunami narrowed her eyes at him. “Oh, I guess you’re not glad to sea me, are you? That’s sea as in s-e-a. It’s an ocean pun, but it was a bad one because I had to explain it.” Tsunami continued to glare at him unwaveringly.
“I thought it was a great pun, Riptide!” Mudthorn cried enthusiastically.
Almost at once, Tsunami’s eyes widened and she turned to look at Mudthorn. Her pupils narrowed to slits and she glared at Mudthorn as hard as she could.
Riptide rubbed the back of his head awkwardly with one talon. “Uh... Thanks, Mudthorn.”
“Mudthorn?” Starflight finally spoke up. “That’s a strange name for a MudWing.” He pointed out. Dragonfly looked at Starflight. Of course that nerdy black dragon would be the one to point that out! Starflight looks so smart... You can almost tell he’s a genius just by looking at him!
“I’m not really a MudWing.” Mudthorn pointed out calmly, knowing that she shouldn’t yell at Starflight for a mistake that wasn’t his fault. It’s not like he meant to be blind. “I’m a hybrid between a MudWing and a SandWing. My mother wanted to call me Mud, and my father wanted to call me Thorn, so they decided to combine them and they named me Mudthorn. Well, I never actually met them and they didn’t really name me, I named myself, but I assume that both of them wanted to name me something different so I included both Mud- and SandWing aspects in my name.”
“A hybrid?” Sunny gasped in shock and turned her head to look at Mudthorn. She had just been attempting at a conversation with Ochre, who wasn’t listening to anything she was saying, but as soon as she heard someone mention a hybrid, she turned her head. “I thought I was the only one!” Sunny stopped in front of Dragonfly and Mudthorn. “You must be a hybrid between a MudWing and a SandWing! And you!” She then turned towards Dragonfly, taking him by complete surprise. “You must be a MudWing and a SeaWing!”
Dragonfly blinked in shock, then shook his head. “No, I’m all MudWing.”
“That’s right.” Heron suddenly growled, stepping forward and putting one leg in front of Dragonfly. “He’s my little brother, and he is not a hybrid.”
“I-I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean any offense!” Sunny backed off almost immediately, looking injured. She didn’t mean anything by it!
“Wait, Heron, she didn’t know!” Dragonfly protested. “I’m not offended, really, I’m not! You don’t have to protect me from Sunny. She’s a Dragonet of Destiny! She would never try to hurt anyone, or their feelings!”
Heron kept glaring daggers at Sunny, who looked very guilty and uncomfortable. Then she gave one curt nod before slowly backing away from Dragonfly. As soon as she had turned away, he bounded up to Sunny. “I’m sorry about Heron, Sunny! She’s my bigwings, so she’s super overprotective of me. I know that way deep down she’s really grateful for you ending the war.”
“Thanks.” Sunny replied, perking up like a daisy at the end of a spring snowfall. “I know you already know my name, but I’m Sunny! Who are you?”
“I’m Dragonfly!” Dragonfly tried to contain his joy. I am actually talking face-to-face with the Sunny! “I read a bunch of scrolls about you and the other dragonets! You guys are my heroes!”
“Yeah, he never stops talking about the Dragonets of Destiny!” Mudthorn mocked, elbowing Dragonfly.
“We only did what had to be done to end the war.” Sunny pointed out modestly. “If anyone else was in our position, they would have don’t the same thing.”
“N-n-not me!” A small voice piped up from under Dragonfly’s wing, taking both Sunny and Dragonfly by surprise. Squid doesn’t usually but into conversations unless he has too. He must be feeling better today. Squid slowly poked his head out from his hiding spot. “I... I-I mean I w-would want the w-w-war to be over, b-but... I’d be t-too afraid t-to do anyth-thing about it...”
“And while you were cowering, I would have been the one storming right up to Burn’s stronghold and giving her a piece of my mind!” Mudthorn puffed out her chest and let her black, forked tongue flicker out of her mouth for a moment before it went back inside her mouth. “And after I finished Burn, I’d have gone to Blaze and shoved her own tail down her throat. Finally, to top it off, I would have... Well... Blister didn’t really do anything to deserve major punishment, so maybe I would have ‘confiscated’ a couple of her jewels or something.”
“This is Squid and Mudthorn!” Dragonfly introduced the little SeaWing since he was obviously too afraid to do it himself, and Mudthorn was too busy boasting. “They’re my best friend in the whole world, aren’t you guys?” Squid looked a little unsure, then nodded slowly.
“I guess you could say that.” Mudthorn shrugged, trying to play it casual, but Dragonfly knew that she was just doing what she always did; playing it cool.
“Squid was a false Dragonet of Destiny and Morrowseer sent him out into a storm and he almost died and that’s why he’s so shy. Right Squid?” Squid nodded again. “And Heron found Mudthorn’s egg abandoned in the swamp with her siblings’ eggs. Right Mudthorn?”
“You talk too much, but yes.” Mudthorn answered. The grin on her face told Dragonfly that she was only teasing him.
“Well it’s nice to meet the three of you!” Sunny replied. “We’re currently looking for new students for the Jade Academy, considering the... Um... Unfortunate events that occurred last year.” Sunny stopped smiling once she explained those circumstances, but her smile soon returned. “So are any of you interested in joining the academy?”
“I’m going to answer before him because I know that I won’t get a chance to do it later, so ye-” Mudthorn started her sentence, but was interjected by an overenthusiastic Dragonfly.
“Yes!” He blurted instantly, while Squid was shaking his head no from his spot under the MudWing’s wing. “What will we learn there? How many different tribes could I be friends with? When does the first day of school start? Is there mud at the school? How about food? Ooo, I bet you have thousands-no, no, millions of scrolls! I like reading about adventure and fantasy and but-kicking bad guys who get beaten my brave and noble heroes! Just like you guys!”
“Oh, wow, that’s a lot of questions at once. Well, you’ll learn history and art and how to read and write, but I guess you already know how to do that. You also can learn about the different tribes and befriend all kinds of different dragons. School starts as soon as Summer is over, yes there is a lot of mud and food. We have to make the place great for all dragons. And you’ll have to ask Starflight how many scrolls there are in the library.” When Sunny finally finished, she was a little out of breath from answering all those questions.
“It would be awesome to go to Jade Academy...” Dragonfly mused aloud. “Do you think I’ll be aloud to go?”
“They’ll probably hear you coming and shut the doors.” Mudthorn grumbled.
“I’ll definitely talk to Tsunami about it! You seem really-”
“Sunny!” Tsunami shouted suddenly. “We have to get going. We still have to find two moderately acceptable NightWings, although it’s my belief that there are still only four of those left.” She growled that last part under her breath, but Dragonfly heard it and he chuckled a little.
And just as soon as they had come, the Dragonets of Destiny whisked off into the sky, Dragonfly watching them go. He couldn’t help but think...
Would they really accept me into Jade Academy? 
== Chapter Two ==
(Fatechaser)
Pitter-patter
The sound of raindrops splashing against the thick canopy overhead seemed as if it would never cease.
Pitter-patter, pitter-patter
One drop leaked through the roof and splashed onto the head of a young black dragonet. At least he seemed black at first. But at a closer inspection, his scales were such a dark purple that it would be hard to tell the difference. His underbelly was a light gray, almost white color, and the horns that jutted out of his head matched that. His eyes were a light lavender, and he had two silver teardrop-shaped scales at the corners of his eyes. He also had a pattern of stars on the underside of his wings; stars that glittered and shone as if they had been plucked expertly from the night sky and spread across his wings.
Pitter-patter, pitter-patter, pitter-patter
The rain seemed to come down harder with every passing moment. The little dragon tried to lick the raindrop off of his snout, but it was far beyond the reach of his black forked tongue. He laid his ears back in annoyance at the rain. How was he supposed to sleep in a soggy bed? I bet the Rain Wings kept the best roofs for themselves, just so us NightWings would be soggy. The thought had drifted over from who knows where. It was probably from someone in one of the surrounding huts.
Ungrateful NightWings. Thought the little one, who suddenly scampered out of his nest and hopped onto a small table made out of bamboo that was set neatly beside an open window. They should be happy that the Rain Wings are giving them a place to sleep instead of punishing them as they should be punished. The little dragonet flicked his harmless tail as he gazed up at the immense thunderclouds. Some of the trees swayed slightly, but most of them were too strong to bow to the whim of the wind. But not mamma. He turned his head towards a huge, pitch-black dragon that was fast asleep in a nest on the opposite side of the hut. A pile of jewel chains lay beside her bed. There was another dragon curled beside her, a dark purple dragon with a light gray underbelly, just like the little one. Mamma never thinks bad thoughts about the Rain Wings. She’s grateful. That’s why her name is Greatness! Cause she’s the greatest mamma ever!
Pitter-patter, pitter-patter, pitter-patter, pitter-patter
The little NightWing dragonet stuck one of his front talons out of the window and felt the cold water, then withdrew quickly. Sure, it is a little rainy, but that’s why they’re called RainWings! Would some of those other NightWings want to live somewhere else? Perhaps the freezing Ice Kingdom, or maybe the Sea Kingdom! I bet they would last five seconds underwater before they get eaten by a shark, haha! The little dragonet smiled to himself and let his tail swish from side to side joyously. The RainWings are very gracious to let us stay in their forest, yup! And their sloths are so funny-looking! The fruit tastes great! He nodded to himself. It is good here, very-
CRACK!!! A white tongue of lightning lashed across the sky. The little NightWing let out a yelp of terror and tumbled off of the table. Greatness’ eyes shot open almost instantly. Fatechaser! Her mind screamed inside Fatechaser’s head. She dashed over to him and frantically started checking for wounds. Wings are fine, legs are strong, the tail- OH NO, WHERE’S HIS... Oh, wait, there it is. Horns intact.
“Are you alright, darling?” Greatness spoke with her real voice this time. Please, let him be... Oh! His eyes are flicking open, thank the moons!
“Mamma, you’re thinking too loud!” Fatechaser complained as he covered his head with his talons.
“Sh, sh, little one.” His mother hushed him. “Remember-”
“Dragons will use my powers for evil.” Fatechaser finished almost immediately. He had heard his mother both say and think it millions of times before in the past year and a half. “If they find out, they could use me to do bad things.”
“Good...” Greatness sighed in relief. Although I wonder why you constantly say it so loud when you know what will happen. “Your father and I only want to keep you safe.” Safe and sound, little one.
“Hrmph.” A low grunt sounded from Greatness’ nest. I feel like something important is going on. The dark purple dragon rose from the nest and turned his dark head to focus his dark eyes on Greatness and Fatechaser. “What happened?” Is it a little damp in here? Roof leaking again? Have to talk to Queen Glory about that.
“I just fell. I have a headache.” Fatechaser complained, rubbing his head. I swear if he tells me to eat some mangoes, I am going to-
“Just eat some mangoes.” Or maybe it wasn’t mangoes? Maybe it was Grapefruit... No, that doesn’t sound right either. Coconut? Oh, I give up... The purple dragon looked at the floor, downcast.
“That won’t help my headache! Can I go to the RainWing village and ask some RainWings for help?” Fatechaser begged impatiently.
His mother and father exchanged a glance. This again. He acts more like a RainWing than a NightWing... His mother’s mind echoed. He obviously wouldn’t be asking like that if he really did have a headache. He gets headaches often though... What if someone starts to get suspicious?
Fatechaser narrowed his eyes, then looked at his father. What was it? It wasn’t bananas, that’s for sure. I could use a RainWing’s help to figure this out, couldn’t? It’s just so hard to remember which fruits do what...
Well this is hopeless. Fatechaser finally decided. Why do they bother thinking if they know I can read them? He sighed. “Never mind... Maybe sleeping will help with my headache.” He tried not to stomp over to his nest, but it was difficult. He was only a little after one year old. How could he possibly hold as much power as his parents feared he did? Fatechaser listened to his parents’ thoughts until they drifted off into a deep, dreamless sleep. He turned a little. “Mamma? Papa?” He whispered. Neither of them said a word and their minds remained calm, undisturbed forest pools.
Fatechaser stood to his feet and slipped out of the hut into the chillingly cold rain. He shivered, but pushed down the feeling and he turned his head and angled his ears in a certain direction. Then, without a sound, he started his rigorous trek through the forest. Once he was a fair distance from the NightWing Village, Fatechaser spread his wings and took off into the thick canopy of trees above. The trees blocked out most of the wind, and the canopy overhead caught most of the rain. The only problem was how dark it was. I don’t need light. Fatechaser snorted. Starflight doesn’t need light. I’ve flown this path so many times, I could fly there in my sleep... In fact... Mother told me that I did do that once.
The strangest thing about Fatechaser was his frequent tendency to sleepwalk or sleep-fly. He constantly entered stages between awake and asleep. He was dreaming, but he wasn’t dreaming. He was awake, but he wasn’t awake. It was during these snippets of time that he would sleepwalk or sleep-fly, usually to extreme measures such as flying the whole way to the RainWing village while he was asleep.
Finally, after what seemed like a forever amount of time flying through wind and rain, Fatechaser arrived at the RainWing village. Most of the huts were dark and he could hear snoring coming from the open windows, echoing above the rain. But one hut had candlelight flickering inside; Queen Glory’s throne room.
Queen Glory! Fatechaser cheered inside his head. He crept across the bamboo flooring and almost walked in, but stopped when he heard voices.
“You mean to tell me that there are no NightWing dragonets that you could send to Jade Academy?” A voice demanded angrily. I swear, she is only saying that to make my life difficult.
Tsunami! Fatechaser thought excitedly. He pricked his ears. Where there was Tsunami, there was always...
“I think we all need to take a deep breath. And some mangoes.” Another voice tried to quell the situation through words and food. I could really go for some mangoes.
Clay. I couldn’t miss his thoughts anywhere. Fatechaser couldn’t stop listening now. He continued eavesdropping. Are all the dragonets here?
As if to answer him, another voice spoke up. “We hardly have time for food.” This time, it was Starflight. Classic Clay. Stomach before more pressing matters. “We need to find two NightWing dragonets for the academy.”
“I told you, the only dragonets in the NightWing village that come to mind are only about a year old. I don’t think their parents would agree.” Glory responded. Believe me, I want as many NightWings out of my forest as the next RainWing, so I would agree if I could.
I don’t blame her. Fatechaser thought glumly. NightWings are awful.
“I’m sure we could work something out!” Sunny exclaimed. “Maybe I can convince Thorn to let Fierceteeth and Strongwings out of prison!” I think they could change if they saw how awesome all of the dragons from other tribes were!
Optimistic Sunny. Fatechaser finally concluded. So all the dragonets are here. And apparently they need NightWing dragonets for Jade Academy! That’s perfect!
“I don’t think that’ll work, Sunny.” Glory mumbled irritably. Fatechaser could just imagine the orange color that crept into her scales when she was annoyed or agitated.
“What about Greatness’ dragonet?” A new voice suggested. Oh, man, Glory looks amazing today. I love what she does with her scales. Seriously did she spend a little extra time in the sun today? I think she did, because she looks a little bit more radiant than she did yesterday. By the three moons, the way her lips draw back in a snarl when she’s agitated is just so adorable. And her little fangs are so cute. They look like that could slice right through my throat. The way she holds her head shows the true confidence of a queen, despite how young she is... Absolutely stunning. “I’m sure Greatness and Skygazer would let him come. He may be only a year and a half, but he shows intellect above his age.”
Fatechaser wished he hadn’t just heard those thoughts. He knew exactly who it was. Deathbringer. He is always thinking really strange thoughts about Queen Glory. Such an odd dragon. Then, Fatechaser focused on what Deathbringer had just said aloud. Wait, is he talking about me?
“You mean Fatechaser?” Starflight questioned. Hm... He wouldn’t be such a bad decision. He’s oddly fond of RainWings, though. Shows up at the village no matter how many times Glory says that NightWings aren’t aloud.
“Okay, so that’s one dragonet to consider.” Clay announced. “Let’s eat some mangoes to celebrate!”
“Clay, how many times do we have to tell you? No mangoes until after we decide!” Tsunami snapped. Seriously. Mangoes aren’t even that good. I’d kill for some fish, though.
“Soulsearcher.” Starflight suddenly stated. “The five-year-old dragonet we found half-starved in the desert.”
What? Fatechaser’s eyes suddenly went wide. No. NO. NOT HER. ANYONE BUT HER. He almost wailed it to the skies, but stopped himself before it was too late. Maybe they’ll change their minds!
“Oh, she’s so nice!” Sunny cried. “She’s always trying to help anyone she can. I think she’d be great.” One time, she helped me get out of that log I was stuck in. That was so embarrassing.
“Okay, but what about the RainWing dragonet?” Starflight asked. There are a lot of those, but most of them are a little ditzy.
“Orchid and Mangrove came to me yesterday. They want their son Boa to spend some time at the school. So it’s settled, then.” Glory let out a sigh of relief. “Boa, Fatechaser and Soulsearcher.”
No!!! Not Soulsearcher! Okay, okay... Look at the bright side... At least we won’t be in the same Winglet! Fatechaser let out a sigh of relief. As soon as he did, he wished he hadn’t.
“What was that?” Sunny asked, pricking her ears. Was that my imagination, or did I actually hear that? “I think I heard something outside."
Hide! Fatechaser looked around frantically, but there was no place to hide. It was too late anyway, as a flash of dark blue shot out of the window and faced Fatechaser with his fangs bared and his claws at the ready. As soon as he saw who it was, he relaxed.
“It’s just that Fatechaser dragonet!” Deathbringer called out. Good, good, that’s good. At first, I thought it was an assassin attempt on Queen Glory. Better be glad it wasn’t. But if it was... OH, THEY WOULD BE SORRY FOR MESSING WITH M’LADY.
“Again? And in the middle of the night?” Glory questioned. She stepped out of the hut, her scales shining a luscious dark green color. I don’t have time to deal with this. Why does this dragonet keep showing up all the time? She fixed her eyes on Fatechaser. “Were you sleepwalking again, or did you come here on purpose?"
“What fruit cures headaches?” Was the first thing out of Dragonfly’s mouth before he had a chance to think of anything. Really? Well that’s pretty lame, Fatechaser.
“Papaya.” Glory answered instantly. “I can’t even count how many times I told your father that. He has a terrible memory. I’M SURPRISED HE CAN REMEMBER THAT YOU’RE HIS SON FOR SUNNY’S SAKE!” He came all the way here to get a papaya in the middle of the night. Just perfect.
“Hurr?” The sloth around her neck moved a little bit and looked at him with dull eyes. Glory absentmindedly started petting the sloth with one of her front talons.
“Woah! I’ve never seen Silver awake before!” Fatechaser suddenly exclaimed. “She’s so pretty!”
“Thanks. Now go back to the NightWing village where you belong.” Tail-kisser. Probably wants to stay here for the night. I won’t-
YAWN! Fatechaser hadn’t even known that he was tired until he parted his jaws and the yawn slipped out. “I also have to tell you about our leaky roofs.” He pointed out before yawning again.
“Maybe we should let him stay the night.” Sunny suggested. “He sounds tired.” He’s such an adorable little dragonet! Why won’t Glory let him in the village? He’s so young, after all.
“Are you sure we can trust him?” Tsunami growled heatedly. “What if this is some kind of ploy for Greatness to take the throne?” Send an ‘innocent’ dragonet to do your work for you? How dastardly!
“Greatness gave up the throne willingly.” Clay pointed out. “She’s said time and time again that she never wanted to be queen in the first place.” Huh. Papayas sound good too, but I still like mangoes better.
“Clay’s got a point.” Glory grumbled, flicking her long, prehensile tail as if in annoyance. “But I still don’t like how he always shows up in the middle of the RainWing village. The other day I found him snoozing in a hammock, and now he shows up in the middle of the night when its raining cows outside.” I know he’s a one-year-old dragonet but he should know better than to step foot in my village after being reminded almost every day.
“I’m sure he has a reason for always showing up all the time. Like now. He wanted some papayas for Skygazer’s headache.” Sunny smiled warmly at little Fatechaser, who had always enjoyed an encounter with the warmhearted SandWing-NightWing hybrid. “Isn’t that right, Fatechaser?”
“Actually I couldn’t sleep. And the roof was leaking. Also, I don’t really like it in the NightWing village because all the NightWings are so grumpy all the time but the RainWings are always happy.” And I can’t sleep with all those unhappy thoughts  crowding in on me. Fatechaser kicked the bamboo flooring of the RainWing village, unable to hide his grumpy face at the thought of other NightWings’ thoughts.
Well that’s very unusual. Starflight thought, tilting his head. “Maybe we should let him stay the night.” He suggested. “It’s raining.”
“It’s a RAIN FOREST.” Glory growled. Thunder crackled across the sky and she examined the thick clouds looming overhead. Just great. I am going to regret this. She let out a long, low groan, grumbling to herself as she did so. “Fine. But you leave first thing in the morning!”
Fatechaser was beside himself with joy. “Yay!” He cheered, giving Glory a great big hug before scampering off to go find an empty hammock. He nestled into the extremely comfortable basket of interwoven vines that was suspended in air by the branches above. He looked up at a gap in the trees towards the rumbling thunderclouds above. He knew that somewhere, in a different sky, there were no thunderclouds hanging overhead. He knew that somewhere, the stars were sparkling just as brightly as they always did and that perhaps another dragon was looking up at them.
A chorus of happy thoughts echoed from RainWing huts around him.
After all this time… I’m returning to Jade Mountain. I wonder if it’s changed. I wonder if Stonemover is still there. I wonder if this is what Travelseeker would want… The thoughts came from Boa, the RainWing dragonet who would be in Fatechaser’s Winglet. He wanted to delve deeper, wondering curiously who Travelseeker was, but before his could, another thought entered his head.
Hopefully it won’t turn out like it did last year... A worried thought drifted over from Tamarin, but Fatechaser sensed something beneath the anxiety. Tamarin was happy to go back, even though she still missed Kinkajou.
The end of another beautiful day...
Sun time was so peaceful this morning.
Mangoes... Papayas... Family... This place is perfect.
With happy thoughts and hopes swarming around his head, he smiled and closed his eyes, letting sleep fall gently over him. But to his surprise, when Fatechaser opened his eyes again, he did not find himself in a soothingly comfortably hammock in the rain forest.
Everything around him was black. Then, as Fatechaser turned his head to scan his surroundings, he saw a luminous orange light on the horizon. Confused, he tilted his head and took a tentative step in the direction of the odd glow. As he trekked forward hesitantly, Fatechaser tried to scan his surroundings, but everything was just as black as it would be if he were blind. Everything, that was, except for the orange glow. As Fatechaser came nearer, he was vaguely aware of heat coming off of the ground and surrounding him. He was aware that with each step he took closer to whatever it was that he was pursuing, he felt a little bit more feverish.
Suddenly, excitement flared up from somewhere nearby. Fatechaser peered around, looking for the source of the feeling, but he saw and found nothing. Nothing, that is, until he saw purple eyes shining brightly in the darkness. Slowly, Fatechaser’s eyes adjusted to the darkness and he made out shades of purple against the black. He noticed silver teardrop scales at the corners of the dragon’s eyes, along with a silver band around one of her front ankles and a few at the base of her tail. The waves of excitement and happiness flowing off of her unmistakably belonged to Fatespeaker.
Great... Fatechaser grumbled angrily. I’m dream walking again. I hadn’t  realized Fatespeaker was sleeping nearby, but I guess it makes sense. Her and Starflight are rarely separated. I’ve never walked in one of Fatespeaker’s dreams before.
“Fatechaser! What are you doing here? Oh!” She gasped and the excitement in her eyes almost tripled, something that Fatechaser would never have thought possible. “You must be part of my vision!”
“Wait... You... You can see me?” Fatechaser gasped, gawking at Fatespeaker with pure shock. He had found out long ago that whenever he walked in another dragon’s dream, they could never see him, not like he could see them. He had grown accustomed to having them never be able to answer his question so Fatespeaker had taken him by quite the surprise.
“Ooo, I never heard one of my visions talk back to me before!” Fatespeaker exclaimed. “This must be super important... Oh! Maybe you’re just coming to deliver a prophecy or something! Or maybe this is just a normal dream... But if this is a normal dream, then why am I on the volcano? All of my vision dreams happen back on the volcano...”
Fatechaser considered speaking to Fatespeaker, but he wasn’t so sure it was a good idea. What if he said something and she thought he was telling her a prophecy? That would definitely not be good. It didn’t matter anymore anyway, because Fatespeaker had suddenly leaped forward, spreading her wings and flapping them once to carry her over the orange flow, which Fatechaser now assumed was a pit of magma based on the heat and what Fatespeaker had said about the volcano. Fatechaser followed her lead and lifted himself to the other side. Smoke completely engulfed him though the air had seemed completely fine a moment before. Fatechaser squeezed his eyes shut and didn’t open them again until he felt the heat fading away.
When Fatechaser opened his eyes, a humongous dragon was towering in front of him. Fatechaser stared at the talons which were almost as big as he was. He was only a year old, so of course he wasn’t really all that big, but Fatespeaker only stood to the height of the dragon's leg. Fatechaser felt like a mouse compared to the immense creature, and he hadn’t even looked up yet. He was still staring at the immensely sharp, curved talons. Slowly, he looked up into eyes that were colder than ice.
“BEWARE.” The dragon bellowed, shaking the world around him with his impossibly loud voice. Fatechaser covered his head with his talons in fear that his ears would be destroyed by the voice of the strange dragon. The world continued to shake around him, then all went still.
Fatechaser’s eyes shot open.
He was finally back in the waking world.
But something was definitely wrong. He had been in another dragon’s dream. He shouldn’t have had a futuristic vision while he was in another dragon’s head. So why had he? Unless... Unless the vision hadn’t been his... But that would mean...
Fatespeaker.
Fatespeaker can see the future.
== Chapter Three ==
(Squid)
The sun was an immense golden light in the sky, illuminating everything in its path. Birds chirped peacefully in nearby treetops and the sound of running water nearby was extremely soothing. The sky was the brightest blue that had ever been seen and there wasn’t a cloud in sight. However, the sky was teaming with dragonets. IceWings, MudWings, NightWings, RainWings, SandWings, SeaWings, and SkyWings alike were swarming through the sky, flying in circles around a humongous brown beast of a mountain that towered into the sky. The dragonets flapped down to small cave openings in the rock, disappearing one by one until only a few colorful dots remained in the soft blue sky.
“This... This is for your own good, Squid.” A green-scaled SeaWing with black spiral patterns over his body tried to convince his young son not to be afraid, but to no avail. The jittery younger SeaWing was shaking like a leaf in the wind and he absolutely refused to leave his father’s side. Squid didn’t know why he had to come to this strange place filled with strange dragons and strange strangers. Sure, he knew that some of his friends would be here with them, but what if he got lost? What if Flame saw him and tried to bully him again? What if the other dragonets made fun of his stammering? What if there was an explosion like that incident last year? What if he never saw Nautilus or his mother or sister ever again?
“M-My own g-good? I’m about to h-have a p-panic a-attack... How is th-that good?” As usually, Squid was shaking so badly that it was hard for him to get his words out. He looked down at his emerald green talons. He didn’t know why they wouldn’t stop shivering. He knew he wasn’t cold, the sun was beating down on him and the heat made him feel terribly uncomfortable. There was nothing Squid wouldn’t give to go with his father back to the Talons of Peace where he knew that no other dragonets would try to burn him, freeze him, or poison him. Here, he was surrounded by strangers that could be hostile, like Flame, or insane, like Fatespeaker.
“This school could help you.” Nautilus told his son. He wrapped Squid reassuringly in his wing. Squid stopped shivering for a moment and looked up at his father, his sky blue eyes fillings with fear. For once they stopped darting around nervously and stared straight up at Nautilus. “You could make new friends, Squid. And being around this many dragons is good for you. You can learn a lot about other dragons, and I’m sure not all of them will be unfriendly.”
“But... I’m scared.” Squid confessed, lowering his gaze to the ground shamefully. His wings drooped and his tail flopped onto the ground behind him as he took on a look of utter defeat. Nautilus sighed a deep and exasperated sigh as he wrapped his wing tighter around Squid’s puny body. Squid moved closer to his father, nuzzling into the older dragon’s side. Squid wished that he was far, far away from the immense mountain of terror looming in front of him, but at least his father’s presence seemed to ease some of his nerves. But soon his father would be gone and he would be bitterly alone.
“I know, Squid.” Nautilus replied, his voice smooth and comforting. It was filled with the protective love of a father and for a second, Squid thought that Nautilus was going to change his mind. It would be a short flight back to the Talons. Squid could go back to his everyday life back in that cramped cave, spending the days hanging out with Dragonfly who was always extremely kind to him and treated him like a brother.
That’s when Squid remembered that Dragonfly wouldn’t be back at the Talons of Peace base. Dragonfly, along with Mudthorn and Sleet, would all be going to Jade Mountain Academy. At least Dragonfly and Sleet were in his Winglet. There was a slight problem, though. Squid had no idea who the NightWing or SkyWing were, and from the NightWings and SkyWings he had met so far, he didn’t know if he wanted to meet them. Peculiarly, there was no SandWing in their Winglet. Thank goodness. Squid thought with immense relief as he remembered Viper viciously threatening him with her tail barb. The less SandWings he encountered, the better. The less dragonets he encountered period, the better.
“But I can’t take you back to the Talons.” Nautilus told Squid firmly. He withdrew his wing from around Squid, but remained at his side. Squid quivered slightly. Worry shone in Nautilus’ eyes as he studied his son. The small green SeaWing could only assume what his father was thinking. He could tell that Nautilus didn’t want to leave him here, but that was the extent of it. If you don’t want to leave me here, then why are you sending me anyway? Squid thought grumpily. “Besides, your friends are here, aren’t they?”
Squid looked down at the ground. Yes, his friends were here. There was no doubt in Squid’s mind that Dragonfly would watch over him just like a bigwings would watch over a younger sibling. Dragonfly had always been their for Squid. He had bravely fended off Flame, Ochre, and Viper whenever they were bullying the puny SeaWing. He was a better friend than Squid could ever ask for. But then the NightWing came. He was monstrously huge with smoke billowing out of his black snout and black eyes always narrowed into slits. Morrowseer. He took the False Dragonets away from the Talons, away from their home, to a black volcano clouded with ash and smoke.
Squid shivered as he remembered the dreaded place. The entire time he was there he had never seen a glimpse of the sun. Just black clouds looming overhead. It smelled absolutely wretched, like the entire island had been soaked in decaying, bloodied bodies. They stayed in a cramped cave with little to no contact with any other dragons and were forced to eat things that had been dead for days. Most of the time, Squid couldn’t even tell what it was they were feeding him. And most of the time he refused to eat any of it. Within a matter of a few days he had lost so much weight that he had to eat something. So he forced himself to eat the terrible food that the NightWings gave him. As if that wasn’t bad enough, Morrowseer forced him to fly countless miles over a seemingly endless ocean. Even Squid, a SeaWing, feared that he would drown from all the rainwater that was pelting down on him.
They finally reached the shore, where Morrowseer continued to prove just how terrible of a dragon he was by forcing Squid into a building full of SkyWings. It was like being surrounded by Flames. Sure, Squid hadn’t been afraid at the time, but just looking back and thinking about it now made him want to run and hide beneath one of his father’s wings. Of course that wasn’t even the entire story. After utterly failing to convince the SkyWings that they were the Dragonets of Destiny, Morrowseer lit the entire building on fire, burning all of the dragons inside to death. Even now Squid couldn’t block out the sounds of their dying screams, echoing through the rainy night. After that incident, Squid just had to open his mouth and declare that he didn’t want to be a Dragonet of Destiny anymore.
Squid trembled when he remembered Morrowseer’s accusing lips drawn back in a snarl as he ordered Squid to fly back to the Talons on his own if that were the case. The rain was still pelting down hard and Squid knew that he would never make it through the storm, but Morrowseer didn’t care. With the rain viciously beating him and the constant fear that he would get discovered by a hostile patrol of SkyWings, Squid flew into the night thinking for sure that he was going to die. When a SkyWing finally did find him, Squid had been overcome with exhaustion. He tried desperately to get away, pumping his wings as fast as they would go. They didn’t take him far and Squid was no match for the SkyWing’s speed. He had collapsed to the ground weakly and watched the SkyWing approach before his eyes blinked shut and everything had gone black.
Even now Squid couldn’t believe that he had made it out of there alive. The SkyWing, as it turns out, was a spy for the Talons of Peace and carried him back to the base, back to his father. It was truly the only SkyWing that Squid ever really liked, even though Squid had no idea who the SkyWing had been and he didn’t really bother to ask. That was all over now and Squid never wanted to think about it again. Of course he did think about it. Every day in fact. And because of it, Squid would never let himself trust another dragon ever again.
Except for Dragonfly or Nautilus.
“Yes...” Squid eventually answered, turning his gaze towards the ground. “But what if they don’t come?”
“I’m sure they will.” Nautilus smiled, chuckling ever so slightly as he shook his head. “You already know that Dragonfly came here early. He’ll be here. In fact, I think that’s him looking for you right now.”
Squid followed his father’s gaze into the sky. A small copper-mahogany blur was flying around the peak of Jade Mountain in wide circles. He descended ever so slowly, until he finally reached the black hole of the entrance. The blur disappeared inside only to reappear a few moments later, taking into the sky again. Squid knew that it would definitely be difficult for Dragonfly to locate him and Nautilus. The two of them were huddling in a small clearing a little ways off from the huge brown mass so they had a view of all the dragonets going into Jade Mountain. Both of them were green so they would be difficult to spot against the grass which would look like a similar shade from the distance. Of course, there were Nautilus’ black spiral marks to think about.
As soon as Squid thought about Nautilus’ spirals, Dragonfly seemed to notice them too because the copper-mahogany blur had just started flying towards them, moving into a steady decrease until he was now circling above Nautilus and Squid. Squid could now tell for a fact that this was definitely Dragonfly. His large goofy smile was somehow different from any other MudWing that Squid had ever seen. There was also the obvious difference that Dragonfly had webbed talons almost like a SeaWing. Everyone in the Talons pretty much knew that Dragonfly was a hybrid between a SeaWing and a MudWing and that Heron had adopted him as a sibling. Everyone, that is, except for Dragonfly himself.
Squid didn’t know how Dragonfly didn’t know. It was kind of obvious, and Dragonfly was one of the smartest dragons that Squid knew. In fact, Dragonfly, along with Sleet, had left the Talons three days earlier in order to memorize Jade Academy’s layout and get a good word in with the teachers. And the Dragonets of Destiny.
“Squid!” Dragonfly called out at the top of his lungs. Squid lowered his head and stared at the sky passed Dragonfly. There didn’t seem to be any other dragonets lingering about, but Squid didn’t want Dragonfly to call any more attention to him than need be. “Are you coming, or are you just going to stand there all day?”
Squid looked at Dragonfly, then flashed his father a nervous glance.
“Go on.” Nautilus urged. “Don’t forget to write.”
Squid nodded ever so slowly. He stepped away from his father and his usual quaking instantly returned. Squid hesitantly began to flap his wings until he was hovering weakly in the air. Ever since the incident, he hadn’t been very strong of a flier at all. He wasn’t confident or strong enough to keep himself in the air for prolonged amounts of time or over great distances. He could probably make the flight to Jade mountain though.
“Come on, Squid, there’s nothing to be afraid of.” Dragonfly encouraged as he slowed his pace to fly at the same speed as Squid. “We’ll be late for the introductory speech by the Dragonets of Destiny.” He smiled brightly. “And it starts at sundown, so don’t take all day!”
“I d-don’t kn-know why we have to c-c-come here.” Squid confessed, looking at the ground as he continued to fly forward. He lowered his head so that Dragonfly couldn’t see the look of despair on his face. Squid couldn’t imagine what it would be like in there once they walked into the gaping black opening. The only thing he did know was that they would be encased on all sides by cold brown stone. He’d been raised in the Talon’s stronghold, spending most of the time training in a cave. He had been trapped by hot rock and smoky air on the NightWing’s island. The idea of entering another world of confinement didn’t exactly appeal to Squid.
What appealed to him less was the idea of strange dragons encasing him from all sides. Looming over him, watching his every move, glaring at him with judgemental eyes, and whispering about him behind his back. Bullying him, making fun of him, and tormenting him just like Flame and Ochre always did. Even if Dragonfly was there, someone was bound to catch him when he was alone.
“You say that as if it’s a bad thing!” Dragonfly exclaimed in cheerful disbelief as he flashed Squid another friendly smile. “It won’t be all that bad. If anyone makes fun of you I’ll throw a coconut at them. I’ve never seen a coconut, but I heard that they’re hard.” The MudWing’s joking did little to nothing to improve Squid’s mental state, or his opinion of Jade Academy. “Oh, come on Squid...” Dragonfly gazed at him with an uncharacteristically somber look in his eyes. “I’m sure it’ll be just fine. If it makes you feel any better, I will promise not to leave your side all day. Okay?”
Squid liked that idea. If Dragonfly was with him, most dragons would think twice about making fun of him. Sure, Mudthorn would probably still get away with her crude short jokes and unintentionally insulting humor, but Squid was okay with that. Mudthorn, though she was loud and rowdy, never meant anything by it. She was just trying to get a laugh in her unusually torturous ways. Plus, Squid knew that was just her way of showing affection towards her close friends and others: insulting them.
“Y-yeah...” Squid answered hesitantly. With each flap they drew closer and closer to the yawning cavern that would lead them into the vast underground network of tunnels known as Jade Academy. The nearer they drew, the more and more nervous Squid became. By the time they finally reached the entrance, Squid thought that the mountain would crumble beneath his body’s jitterish vibrations. He took a few deep breaths to calm himself before shakily stepping into the cave entrance.
Squid hadn’t known what to expect when he first walked into the entrance, but he did know that he hadn’t expected it to be so spacious. The ceiling of the entrance cave towered high above Squid’s head and the cave was so large that Squid could imagine it easily fitting four or five hundred fully grown dragons, a thought that terrified him. Now, however, the cave was nearly empty, much to his relief. Long, twisted stalactites stretched down, some almost to the floor. Squid couldn’t help but think that the strange formations were almost like a prison, a gruesome comparison that fit in well with his feelings about being here.
A bronze gong almost as large as he was could be seen hanging from the back wall of the cavern. It had a symbol of three flying dragons carved neatly into the metal. Flowers and paint decorated the walls and stalactites of the chamber. Many of the paintings showed dragons of different tribes smiling and playing games with one another. The flowers spelled out messages and hung from banners that said things like ‘Helping someone else can help yourself!’ and ‘Smiling makes for a better day!’
On opposite sides of the cavern there were four tunnel openings, two on the right and two on the left. Each one had a highly detailed map hanging above the doorway, showing where the tunnel led to.
“SQUID!” A familiar voice cried excitedly from somewhere to the side, scaring the scales off of Squid. He jumped, started shaking even more than he had been before, and whirled to face the direction of the voice. As if she had come out of nowhere, Fatespeaker was now standing right next to him. “I KNEW YOU WEREN’T DEAD!!!” Fatespeaker happily hugged Squid with all her might, nearly squeezing the daylights out of him. When she let go, Squid coughed and sputtered, trying to catch his breath after Fatespeaker had almost crushed him. “I saw it in a vision!” She said enigmatically. Squid didn’t respond. He was still trying to find his bearings.
“Hi.” He finally wheezed, although he wasn’t near as glad to see Fatespeaker as she was to see him. In fact, Squid could have done without the bone-crushing encounter with the mentally damaged NightWing.
“AND DRAGONFLY!” She turned to him next and gave him the same treatment she gave Squid. He took it a lot better, being a MudWing. “It’s been so long! I haven’t seen you since before the volcano! That was so long ago! I mean, I heard that you were coming early and all, but I haven’t seen you anywhere! Were you hiding from me?”
“Missed you too, Fate.” Dragonfly replied honestly, his smile stretching even wider with every minute that passed by. “And this place is so big, I’m not surprised that we haven’t seen each other until now. I wasn’t hiding or anything, I promise.
“When I had a vision that you two were coming, I nearly died with excitement!” Fatespeaker exclaimed.
“And we wouldn’t want that to happen...” Squid muttered under his breath as he gave Fatespeaker the evil eye. Just as insane as I remember. He instantly felt guilty. When Morrowseer sent him into the storm alone, Fatespeaker had been the only one of them to speak on his behalf. No matter how rude he had been to her, she had always been kind to him. Maybe he had taken that for granted back then. Maybe he needed to make as many friends as he could so that nothing like that would ever happen to him again.
Dragonfly must have overheard the small green SeaWing, because as soon as he spoke those sarcastic words, the MudWing elbowed him. Squid knew he had said the wrong thing. Dragonfly rarely ever jostled or reprimanded him so sternly. Fatespeaker didn’t seem to have noticed at all and Squid briefly felt jealous of her blissful ignorance. How could she not constantly check her surroundings to monitor the dragons around her? How could she not even be the slightest bit suspicious of anyone who came into contact with her? How could she be so friendly, so unafraid, so loose and free of worry? Squid wished that he was as fearless as Fatespeaker.
“Squid, you and Dragonfly are both in the Jade Winglet with your clawmates Sleet, Fatechaser, Boa, and Cerise. There’s no SandWing in your group yet... But Sunny said that you’ll have another student by the end of our first field trip to the Kingdom of Sand!” Fatespeaker finished the explanation with a happy swish of her tail. “The Jade Winglet rooms are located in the second tunnel to the left, fifth cave on the right, but since Dragonfly came here early he probably already knew all that.”
“Thanks Fatespeaker.” Dragonfly responded respectfully before he started walking towards the tunnel opening that Fatespeaker had indicated. As soon as they were far enough away that Fatespeaker couldn’t hear, Dragonfly started talking to Squid. “That was uncalled for.” He lectured, turning his head ever so slightly to look back at Squid and fix him with a stern glare. It was an unusual look for Dragonfly. Squid thought that the MudWing was almost unrecognizable when he wasn’t wearing a smile on his face. “You know how kind Fatespeaker is to everyone.”
Squid looked at the ground, guilt slowly starting to creep into his mind as Dragonfly chastised him. “I know...” Squid mumbled. “I’m sorry.” Dragonfly’s gaze immediately softened.
“You don’t need to be so serious all the time, Squid.” He gently batted Squid with one of his wings in a playful manner, causing Squid to lose his footing and stumble. Squid quickly regained his footing. “Just a little bit nicer and a little bit looser. Let your guard down. Joke around a little. I think you wouldn’t be so scared if you did.”
Squid shuffled his talons uncomfortably. There was nothing he hated more than being reminded about his fears. He never told anyone how much it bothered him, but when someone mentioned how afraid he always was, it reminded him of his flaws. He was weak. He was shy. He was a terrible friend. Squid could go on and on, but for his self esteem’s sake, he decided to stop there. “I’ll try...” He answered, but he didn’t really mean it.
“I think you’re going to have trouble memorizing the hallways if you’re just looking at the ground.” Dragonfly chuckled when he looked back to see if Squid was keeping up. Squid lifted his head apprehensively. Somehow, him and Dragonfly had gotten all the way from the entrance cave to another set of corridors and caverns. He looked back to see two caverns behind him and Dragonfly, but Squid didn’t know which one they had come out of. In fact, he hadn’t even realized that they had left the cavern that they had been in. Now that he looked, he saw that each cavern had small colorful glass globes strung along ceiling, a flame flickering on the inside to illuminate each corridor with colorful light.
“Um...” Squid looked between the two caverns, but was hesitant to ask which one they had come out of.
“The right one.” Dragonfly answered before Squid could work up the courage to ask the question. Squid fought the urge to look down. Instead, he turned to take in his surroundings. The cavern they were in now was smaller than the first, but no less decorative. Paintings still covered the walls. Squid wondered who had painted them. “The paintings were drawn by students who volunteered to help here over the summer.” Once again, Dragonfly answered the question before Squid asked it. Or perhaps he was just flaunting his knowledge, as he often did unintentionally.
Squid looked left, then right. On each side of the room they were currently in were six caverns. “Which one did Fate-”
“The fifth tunnel to the right!” Dragonfly was way ahead of Squid. He had already turned right and was headed toward the fifth tunnel along that side of the cavern.
Before Squid reached it, he paused to examine some of the paintings on the wall. Most of them were happy portraits of dragons spending time with their friends or having fun with their family. One in particular just featured abstract blobs and shapes. The different colors clashed and their was nothing appealing about the piece at all, but for some reason, Squid liked it. It kind of reminded him of himself. All of his feelings were mixed up and jumbled on the inside and no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t be himself. Maybe that was because he didn’t even know himself anymore. “Who painted that one?” Squid wondered.
Dragonfly stopped and followed Squid’s gaze. “Tamarin. She’s a blind RainWing in the Gold Winglet.”
A RainWing. At least that’s one dragon I don’t have to worry about. Squid thought gratefully. He knew that RainWings had a very gentle nature, aside from Glory. However, he still worried greatly about the SkyWing and the NightWing.
“You coming or not?” Dragonfly’s voice jolted Squid out of his thoughts. He nodded, then followed Dragonfly into cavern, which eventually opened up into what looked like a sleeping chamber. The large chamber was lit with the same kind of colorful globes that had lit the caverns, splashing the entire chamber with rainbows.
Three nests lined two sides of the chamber, with each nest seeming to represent a dragon of a different tribe. In the first of the three nests to the right there was a pile of leaves that looked to have come from the rain forest. That nest was currently empty. The second nest was a neat bed of seaweed, and the third a layer of cattail. Squid assumed that those were for him and Dragonfly. On the other side were three more nests. One nest had snow in it, while the next was placed on a rocky ledge jutting out of the cave wall a little ways up. It contained a bed of coarse mountain grass. The third was empty and had no kind of bedding whatsoever. There was also a hammock of tightly woven vines attached expertly to the stalactites on the roof of the chamber.
Squid noticed that mahogany racks were positioned neatly next to each one of the sleeping slots. Matching racks were located on each side of the door, but those were full of scrolls and were marked with a sign that said ‘Free reading!’ He couldn’t help but think that Dragonfly had probably already gone through and confiscated half of the scrolls for his own use. To confirm this, Squid looked at Dragonfly’s nest to see that his scroll rack was almost overflowing with neatly stacked scrolls.
Squid noted that only two of the seven sleeping slots were currently occupied. Sleet was playing with the snow in his nest. Squid didn’t know how anyone expected the snow not to melt, though. The nest layered with coarse grass also had an occupant, a reddish purple SkyWing who looked to be several years younger than Squid, even though she was many heads taller than him, but still shorter than Dragonfly. Thankfully, she looked to be asleep and didn’t stir when they entered.
“Hey, Squid made it!” Sleet exclaimed, finally looking up from the miniature snow dragon he’d been trying to build, with little success. “It was just starting to get so boring in here.”
“You could have read one of the scrolls.” Dragonfly pointed out.
“Blegh.” Sleet grumbled. “There isn’t a single scroll in this pile about female MudWings or how to win them over.”
Dragonfly rolled his eyes. Squid looked away, thinking. Sleet has been trying to get with Heron for years. Why hasn’t he given up already?
 “Maybe you should ask Starflight in the library. I’m sure he wouldn’t laugh at you at all.” Dragonfly snickered as Sleet narrowed his eyes at him.
“Hey, this is serious!” But even as he was saying it, Sleet burst out laughing for absolutely no reason at all. Sometimes, Squid didn’t understand how his mind worked. What was he laughing at? No one had said anything funny.
“Could you quiet down?” A voice rumbled from the SkyWing’s nest as the lump of reddish purple stirred. Squid fidgeted nervously and stepped backwards, trying to hide behind Dragonfly as the SkyWing leaped down from her resting place. Squid grimaced as he noticed a huge scar going across the SkyWing’s chest. Her powerful wings beat once and she landed on the floor across from them. She eyed each of them with gleaming, ferocious yellow eyes before letting out a smokey snort. “Nevermind. What’s today’s schedule?” She questioned.
“Today’s basically a free day while the students explore.” Dragonfly told her. “But at sun down, they have an introductory speech welcoming us to the school.”
“And there’s a rudimentary reading lesson in the library at noon.” Sleet pointed out. “But other than that-”
“What makes you think I can’t read?” The SkyWing suddenly snapped, bristling at Sleet’s last statement. Squid’s eyes widened and he stared at the SkyWing in shock. At this moment, she looked even more ferocious than Flame. He shrunk further into hiding. “And what are you staring at, fish-face?”
Her anger suddenly turned to him, giving Squid the fright of a lifetime.
This was the scariest SkyWing he had ever encountered and he hadn’t known her for more than a few seconds.
And she already wanted to rip his throat out.
== Chapter Four ==
(Cerise)
Cerise’s talons scraped furiously against the solid brown floor, drilling repetitively into the solid rock. She glared at the trio of idiots who dare insult her with their presence. She scoffed at the MudWing, who had a stupid grin on his face and was blabbering on about how they should all get along or some other kind of garbage. Cerise sneered at him. There was no way she would stand for some social butterfly MudWing chastising her about being friendly all the time, even if he was older and bigger than she was. Lame. She thought ferociously, turning her yellow gaze to the sniveling little SeaWing. He was the size of a three-year-old dragonet, but the torture in his eyes were much too great for him to be that young. He was probably somewhere around eight, twice Cerise’s age. Cerise continued to fix her gaze on the SeaWing, then shook her reddish purple body threateningly, shifting all her weight to her front two talons and lifting her head higher to make herself look even larger. The SeaWing whimpered and took a step back in fear. Pathetic.
And then there was the IceWing. His smile was spread wide in a toothy grin and he had his ice spines laid back against his head to make himself look less threatening. His deep blue eyes radiated friendliness and happiness, despite the many severe battle scars all over his body. Cerise could tell he’d fought in the war, and he was no dragonet. In fact, he seemed to be around fourteen or fifteen, much older than most of the other dragons there. Cerise studied him. He looked like a moron. He acted like a moron, laughing for no reason at all and constantly going on about some female MudWing that he seemed to fancy. He was stupid for falling in love with a dragon from a tribe other than his own. Most of all, he was a fool to act as if the war was over. He was acting as if every other dragon were his friend. MudWings and SkyWings would have been his enemies in the war. Why was he being so friendly with them now, even friendly enough to consider having a MudWing mate?
What angered Cerise most of all was that he had already guessed her secret, a secret that she hadn’t wanted to tell any other dragon in her entire life. The secret that she was a five-year-old dragonet and she still didn’t know how to read. And when the IceWing had suggested that she take rudimentary reading classes, it had sparked immediate suspicion. Why had he suggested the rudimentary reading classes? Was he just making a joke, or did he know her secret? Was he making fun of her? Cerise examined that genuinely goofy smile. He wasn’t  making fun of her and he didn’t know her secret. He had been making a joke. A really stupid joke that Cerise hadn’t thought funny in the slightest.
“-And there’s no reason for you to be so hostile. Sleet was only telling you about today’s classes, weren’t you, Sleet?” The MudWing’s words finally broke through the SkyWing’s thoughts as she redirected her attention to his blabbering. She rolled her eyes and snorted, smoke puffing out of her nostrils as she did so. Cerise saw the IceWing nod, and decided that she had indeed overreacted.
There’s no way he could have known. She tried to convince herself. As long as no one finds out, I’ll be fine here. But I have to get to the library before noon and pretend to read so I can eavesdrop on that rudimentary reading class...
“Whatever. I’m going to go look around.” She grumbled, shouldering the MudWing aside as she headed towards an opening that she hoped might lead to the library. Cerise snapped her jaws slightly as she walked passed the SeaWing. He let out a wail of fright and leaped backwards, scrambling into the wall. She smiled smugly to herself as she began to walk off, but before she could reach the opening, the MudWing’s voice stopped her.
“Wait! We’re in the same Winglet, right?” The MudWing didn’t wait for an answer before he continued. “So we need to all get along! I’m Dragonfly! That’s Sleet, and this is Squid. What’s your name?”
“None of your business.” Cerise snapped, letting her hostility show once more. Her tail swished agitatedly across the ground behind her and her red forked tongue slipped in and out of her mouth. “And if you think that I would ever want to get along with an IceWing or a SeaWing, then you are sadly mistaken, MudWing.”
“The war is over now.” The MudWing declared, puffing out his chest and placing his right talon over his heart as if this was the greatest declaration he could ever have made. Cerise’s yellow eyes finally fell upon the MudWing’s talons. They were clearly webbed like a SeaWing, and the toes and claws were much thinner than the talons of a normal MudWing. Cerise hadn’t noticed it before, but now that she looked closer, she also saw very faint green spots on his forelegs and hind legs. It was easy to tell that he didn’t have near as many glowing spots as a SeaWing, though. Dragby, or whatever he said his name was, wasn’t a normal MudWing. He was a hybrid between a MudWing and a SeaWing.
Cerise drew her lips back in disgust. She couldn’t believe that she would have to be schooling with a bunch of half-tribe creatures who dared call themselves dragons. The tribes weren’t supposed to mix. It wasn’t safe, and it definitely wasn’t natural. Explains why he wants peace. Cerise thought angrily. And why he’d bother making friends with a SeaWing. But it doesn’t explain the IceWing.
“Everything that the Talons of Peace fought for during the war is finally coming true.” The IceWing added. That explained it. That definitely explained it. Of course these three incompetent nitwits would be associated with the Talons of Peace. Cowards, hiding from the war under their rocks. If I’d been old enough to fight in the war, oh, if only I’d been old enough! I would have ruined any IceWing or SeaWing that dared step foot in my kingdom. “The Dragonets of Destiny have done everything that my uncle Hvitur told me they would do, and more. They brought an end to the war, and they’re making things better for all of us. I only wish my uncle were around to see it...” The IceWing gazed at the ground with a pained expression of loss. Cerise rolled her eyes.
“The war might be over now,” Cerise hissed, “but how long before another war breaks out?”
“That’s why the school is here.” The MudWing proclaimed proudly, still smiling that same stupidly goofy grin.
Cerise huffed in exasperation. These fools are just plain annoying. I’m going to go find the library before I miss my class... “Yeah. Because this stupid school is going to be able to stop a war. Just wait and see...” She turned and stomped down the passageway, ignoring the whispers traveling through the tunnel behind her. She needed to find the library, and she had no idea where it was. Worst of all, she couldn’t read any of the maps because she needed to learn to read in the library first. How ironic. Whatever. I’ll just follow different tunnels and hope to end up in the library.
 Cerise continued to stomp along the passageway she was currently traveling. I don’t know why I had to come here... But... I have to learn to read somewhere. Ugh... If mother saw me now, she would be so disappointed. She took a sudden right turn and the corridor curved sharply upwards. But it’s not my fault that I can’t read. Mother was the one who refused to teach me. And then, to prove how much she hated me, she gave me this scar. Cerise’s gaze flickered down to the long pink scar going across her chest, the wound that had almost killed her and taken her an entire six months to recover from completely. If Aunt Ruby hadn’t stepped in… I wouldn't be here right now. Cerise sneered at that last thought, shaking her head viciously to clear it from her mind. I’m supposed to be mad at her, remember? She’s the one who decided to send me to this stupid school in the first place! Besides… If I want to be queen some day--and I definitely do--I’m going to have to get rid of her.
Is that why she sent me to this forsaken school?
To postpone my challenge to the throne?
Well… Joke's on her. I’m only five. If she’s scared of me now… Cerise snickered at the thought. If her Aunt Ruby was mouse enough to be scared of five-year-old dragonet… How scared would she be of a fully grown, fire-spitting challenger? Terrified. Cerise answered in her head with a wry smile. Her smile turned into a hiss of fury as she found herself face to face with another dead end.
In her jumble of ferocious thoughts, she had gotten completely twisted around. She calculated that this was around the third or fourth time that she had come face to face with a rock wall instead of finding an opening into another cavern, preferably the library. Exasperated beyond belief, Cerise cursed herself harshly under her breath. She paced from side to side as she wondered whether or not she should just give up on this entire endeavor or try again. If she tried again she could end up getting even more hopelessly lost. It was at that moment that Cerise didn’t even know where she’d been. She had been so busy thinking about how much she hated her cousin that she had completely lost her way in the twisted catacombs of Jade Mountain.
Just great... She thumped her tail aggressively against the ground. I can’t find the library or get back to the sleeping chambers. How in Pyrrhia am I ever supposed to find anything in this labyrinth of inter-crossing caves? I love mountains. When I’m above them. Here, I can’t fly up into the air to see where I went wrong, now can I? NO. I hate school. I hate caves. I hate Ruby. But most of all, I hate the fool’s idea that being friends with other tribes is supposed to stop a war. Also, I pretty much hate my life too.
Cerise slumped to the floor of the cave and grunted, letting out puffs of smoke into the air around her. She was so frustrated that she almost felt the urge to rip her scales out. At the same time she was so helplessly confused that she wanted to curl up into a ball and bury her face into her talons and just cry. But Cerise could never admit that last thought to herself. She wasn’t weak. If she had been weak, she never would have survived her mother’s attacks. If she had been weak, she would have died a long time ago. And as if to prove that she was not the weak dragon that her mother had thought her to be, Cerise pushed herself to her feet and started back down the way she had come.
The only problem with going back the way she had come was that Cerise didn’t exactly know which way she had come from. This rendered her stuck once again when she arrived at a point where the passageway she was currently walking on converged with another pathway. She could keep going straight forward, or she she could swerve to the left. Cerise stood there contemplating it for a short while. Finally, she took a decisive step forward, right into the pathway of a gold-yellow dragon who had been careening down the adjacent corridor. The two of them collided in a twisted heap of sunglow yellow and purple-red, tumbling until both of them crashed brutally into the wall of one of the tunnels.
Cerise’s vision was completely covered with shining, shifting shades of bright golden scales, tinged ever so slightly with a hint of emerald green. She clenched her eyes shut to fend off the sharp sting of the painstakingly bright scales, which viciously attacked her eyes. Cerise shoved her front talons forward to separate the dragon from her, clawing and scrambling with her back talons as she did so.
“Woah...” The other dragon spoke calmly, with a voice as slow and sweet as honey. “Settle down. I didn’t mean to startle you.”
Cerise finally decided to open her eyes a little bit. She gasped to see that the golden dragon had suddenly become a deep, dark blue color. RainWing. She realized, pure hatred creeping through her as she remembered what one of them had done to Queen Scarlet. She had never particularly liked Queen Scarlet, but that venom could do the same to Queen Ruby… Or to her.
But for some reason, as she looked up into the deep, forest green eyes of this strangely calm dragon, she couldn’t stay mad at him. That’s when she finally noticed how weak she must look to him.
She was currently lying on the ground and he was towering over her, with his head tilted towards her so he could look directly into her eyes. The ruffs on the sides of his head were laid back and smoothed down in a nonthreatening manner to give him a more friendly and approachable demeanor. His scales remained the color of a dark blue night sky, the kind of night sky that Cerise used to watch with her father when they snuck away from her mother during her more vicious outbreaks. It was a calm, relaxing color that was enough to make all of Cerise’s anger ebb away. But as soon as she realized how calm she was, she fought the feeling, allowing her anger to return and engulf her like an eternal fire.
“Get off me!” She shouted heatedly, shoving the blue RainWing. She watched in astonishment as red and orange flashed across the tips of his ears, tail, and wings. She had never seen such a violent color on any RainWing before. It disappeared quickly and Cerise almost thought she had imagined it.
“Sorry.” He replied with deep sincerity.
Cerise glared at him. “You better be! I am the niece of Queen Ruby.”
“My parents are personal friends with Queen Glory.” The RainWing replied, shrugging. “But that doesn’t make me any more important, just like you being part of the SkyWing royal family doesn’t make you any more important.”
“Who do you think you are to talk to me like that?” Fire hissed at the back of Cerise’s throat, but she held it back as she studied this peculiar RainWing. Whoever he was, he was different from the happy go lucky RainWings that she had heard about. She had never personally met one, but from what she did know, they were usually carefree and lazy. This one seemed so serious and headstrong, almost determined. She wondered why he was so different from all the stories she had heard.
“The name’s Boa.” He responded nonchalantly. “You must be Cerise.”
A chill went up the SkyWing’s spine. “How did you know my name?”
“Niece of Queen Ruby.” Boa answered. “I’ve been getting Starflight to teach me about the other tribes, including the lineage of the royal families. You also have uncles named Vermilion and Hawk and are related to Queen Ruby through your father, Prince Crimson, who was her brother. Your mother Ibex was head of the royal guard, but-”
“Stop that!” Cerise ordered, hatred blazing in her eyes. She hated when other dragons knew stuff about her. Especially things she didn’t want them to know. She hoped beyond hope that this annoying, know-it-all RainWing wouldn’t be in her Winglet. She would rip her tail off from this crazy dragon driving her completely mad. “Stop pretending that you know everything and stop yammering about nonsense like the rest of your stupid species!”
“Hm... So it’s your opinion that RainWings are stupid?”
“It’s not an opinion, it’s a fact. And every dragon in every other tribe knows it!” Cerise insulted, feeling truly powerful and in control for the first time that day. Perhaps bullying this RainWing would make her feel better after she had been having such a terrible day. Why did she always have to have such rotten luck? First, she found out that three annoying block-heads from the Talons of Peace were in her Winglet, then she had gotten lost, and now she had collided with this disgrace.
Much to Cerise’s surprise, Boa smiled. “Charming, aren’t you? You have the same kindness and honor of every other SkyWing.” He told her sarcastically. He smiled down at her with a look that Cerise hated. It was a calm, collected smile, the complete opposite of what she had expected.
Cerise sneered. “Whatever... I need to be somewhere and I’m going to be late if I don’t get going.” She tried to step around Boa, but he stepped into her way.
“Where are you headed?” He questioned curiously. Cerise tried once again to walk past him, but he stepped in her way again. “Maybe we’re going in the same direction. We could walk there together.”
“I doubt it.” Cerise snarled. “Now get out of my way.”
“I’m heading to the library.” He told her as she attempted to shoulder him aside. She stopped.
“The library?” Cerise asked hopefully, unable to block the desperate look that had crossed her face. She quickly forced her face back into a frown. “I can get there by myself.”
“Nonsense.” The RainWing shook his head slowly. “I don’t particularly enjoy walking alone and even though you’re a SkyWing, I don’t think you like it either.”
“Thanks, but no thanks. I walk alone.” Cerise told him firmly, stomping down the hallway to the right. She hadn’t taken a few steps when the RainWing called out to her.
“You’re going the wrong way.” He announced. “Now I must insist that we walk to the library together. It would be most awful, losing a fellow classmate to the interweaving catacombs of Jade Mountain on our first day of school.”
“Would you shut it already?” Cerise hissed. “I’ll agree to walk with you to the library, but only because of how incredibly annoying you are!”
Boa flashed her another charming smile, as if he had taken that as a compliment. “Thank you.”
“I. HATE. RAINWINGS.” She announced as she regrettingly followed Boa down a long corridor. They made a few turns, both left and right, and before Cerise knew it, her and Boa were standing in a large room that was swarming with scrolls. There were scrolls suspended in baskets, scrolls stacked in cubbies, scrolls stashed in cylindrical containers. Every corner of the library seemed to have pillows or carpets or other types of places for dragons to relax as they read.
“Who’s there?” A NightWing called out from behind a desk. There were white bandages around his eyes. Cerise recognized him as Starflight, one of the oh-so-glorious Dragonets of Destiny that had ruined her future as Queen of the SkyWings, and all of her chances at being raised by someone who might actually be a good parent to her. For once, she decided it best to say nothing.
“Boa.” The RainWing announced.
“Ah! Glad you found it!” Starflight smiled, then listened for a moment. Cerise realized she had been furiously thumping her tail against the cave floor again. “Who’s that with you?”
“Cerise. We bumped into each other on the way here.” Boa explained.
Starflight seemed immensely surprised by this revelation, but also slightly unnerved. “I hadn’t expected you to come here, Cerise.” He eventually said, a worried and skeptical look momentarily crossing his face. Cerise ignored it, knowing that Starflight probably wouldn’t trust her after the attacks last year. As if I would try to fulfill Queen Scarlet’s wishes. Especially since she can’t threaten me anymore. Starflight had no reason to be afraid of her.
Although, Cerise couldn’t stop herself from thinking, it might be fun to play a little prank on him… I’ll keep it in mind.
 “Cerise? Are you paying attention?” Boa interrupted Cerise’s thoughts, bringing her back to the library.
“Sorry.” She grumbled. “I was thinking.” The slightest trace of fear entered Starflight’s sightless face at that point in time, and Cerise smiled. He’s afraid. That’s good.
 “Well,” Starflight continued as he regained his composure, “I was explaining the library system. You see...” Cerise listened to Starflight’s explanation as she let her eyes wander the room again. The library wasn’t as crowded as she thought it was going to be. There were a few dragons of different species reading here or there, but it didn’t seem like anyone else was there for the rudimentary reading lessons. What if there were no other dragonets who didn’t know how to read? There would be no rudimentary reading class for her to eavesdrop on!
“Do you think it will be difficult?” Boa suddenly asked.
“What?” Cerise replied, giving him a curious look.
“Learning to read. Do you think it will be difficult?” He repeated.
“What makes you think I don’t know how to read?” Cerise snarled under her breath, not wanting any other dragon to hear. “I can read just fine!”
“Then how come you got lost on your way to the library? The map clearly says where it is. If you could read, finding the library would have been easy for you.” Boa told her as he sat on a pillow and wrapped his prehensile tail around his talons. “Plus, most SkyWings are terrible liars.”
“Shut up. I don’t want any dragon to know that I can’t read.” She told him bitterly. “I’m just going to eavesdrop on the reading class when it begins.”
“Yeah. That’ll work.” Boa retorted sarcastically, rolling his eyes. “You better hide quickly so no one gets suspicious.”
“Shut your snout.” Cerise barked as she grabbed a scroll off the shelf and made herself comfortable behind a large scroll rack, where she could eavesdrop without anyone disturbing her. She slowly unrolled the scroll and let her eyes pass blankly over the rows and rows of meaningless symbols.
Might as well be blank. She thought heatedly as she crammed it into a cubby hole that it was too big to fit in. Some of the paper tore, but she didn’t care. She looked through the scrolls until she found one that actually had pictures. It seemed to be a very old scroll that had sustained a lot of damage. She noticed that some of the letters were faded or missing and that the outside of the scroll was charred black, as if it had been through a fire. There were also various tears in the parchment. Cerise examined the picture that was under the words. The picture showed a vicious battle between IceWings and NightWings.
Must be about the Great IceWing-NightWing war. Cerise was about to shove the scroll back into it’s cubby hole, but stopped and looked at it again. Wait a minute... My dad always told me that all of the scrolls about the IceWing-NightWing war were burned! So... How did this end up here?
== Chapter Five ==
(Fatechaser)
Fatechaser shuffled awkwardly from side to side as he tried to pay attention to the NightWing standing in the center of the room. Scrollreader was a tall, slender NightWing with a raspy voice that was currently droning on and on about the alphabet. The small crowd of young dragonets gathered around him were diverse in both age and species. Some of them were sleeping. Some were daydreaming. Some were paying fierce attention, as if their lives depended on it. A SkyWing behind one of the bookshelves was pretending not to care, but truthfully she was soaking up every word. And Fatechaser was caught in the middle of it, unable to fight off the onslaught of minds that besieged his own.
Fatechaser closed his eyes and shook his head. Focus, focus, focus, focus… He repeated sternly inside his own mind, trying to drive the other thoughts away. This pitiful technique failed miserably.
What am I doing with my life? Scrollreader wondered woefully as he continued his futile attempts to teach the young dragons. Half of them aren’t even listening… Woe is me.
This is boring. The MudWing sitting next to Fatechaser huffed.
A RainWing sitting on Fatechaser’s other side let his tail move rhythmically back and forth, brushing against Fatechaser’s for a few brief seconds. His thoughts became clearer as their tails made contact. This NightWing’s teaching is much worse  than Travelseeker’s.
Boa. Fatechaser thought, moving slightly closer to the RainWing, hoping to be able to see more of his thoughts. Maybe if he could focus a little harder, move a little closer, he could use Boa’s thoughts to block out the others. The RainWing’s thoughts were unusually calm. Perhaps his mind could be used as an anchor. Fatechaser hesitated, then stepped even closer to Boa. Boa’s thoughts were amplified, and the others seemed to grow faint.
That’s uncomfortably close. Boa turned his head to look down at the young NightWing dragonet. “What are you doing?”
“Um…” Fatechaser looked down at his talons, averting his eyes from the RainWing’s gaze. “It’s cold in here.” He lied, unable to think of anything else to say. He couldn’t very well tell Boa that he was trying to block out the other thoughts by using Boa’s as an anchor, could he? Bad idea. Fatechaser looked up at Boa again. The RainWing smiled warmly at him, then put his wing around Fatechaser’s wiry form. Much to his relief, the thoughts of the other dragons in the room seemed almost nonexistent. They were distant whispers now.
“Feel better?” He questioned. Fatechaser nodded, turning his attention solely towards Boa. Is this the young NightWing dragonet Glory always complains about? He can’t be more than a year old.
I’m a year and a half! Fatechaser wanted to correct him, but he bit his tongue. No. Keep it a secret. Dragons will use me.
I wonder if Cerise is lost yet? A smug smirk crossed Boa’s face as the thought flashed across his mind. She’ll never learn how to read from behind the bookshelf. She needs a proper teacher. I was lucky that I had one. A strong pang of sorrow shot through Fatechaser’s mind, as well as an image of a kind, motherly NightWing. Travelseeker. I miss her.
Boa was raised by a NightWing? Fatechaser stared up at him in amazement. No wonder he’s so different. The NightWing pondered the thought for a moment. I wonder how and why he was raised by a NightWing. And why is he here if he already knows how to read? Fatechaser wished he could find out more about the RainWing. But just then, his thoughts were distracted by a sudden burst of wonder from the SkyWing behind the bookshelf. He saw flashes of images of an old scroll about the ancient war between the IceWings and the NightWings. She’s right. All of those scrolls were burned. And even if the NightWings did have some, they would have been destroyed in the volcano.
 Fatechaser made a mental note to try to look at the scroll when the SkyWing wasn’t paying attention. However, there were a few problems with that plan. Anger radiated off of the SkyWing in waves, and almost every other thought he heard from her was another violent proclamation against any dragon who dared get in her way. And, Fatechaser thought to himself grumpily, I don’t know how to read either. I should be paying attention to Scrollreader.
“So the alphabet consists of twenty-six letters, each associated with a different sound. And these letters can be strung together to form words.” Scrollreader pointed to a paper on which he had written twenty-six different symbols. I guess being here is better than living in the rain forest… But they could have at least let me teach a more captive audience. If all of my students are like this, my life will be infinitely more useless than it already is. I guess it’s time to see how many of these blank-faced dragonets were actually paying attention. “Can any one of you recite the entire alphabet from a to z?”
The MudWing on the other side of Fatechaser suddenly sat up, looking about the room in bewilderment. “Wazzat?”
“Ah, Bracken! My first willing volunteer! Go on, then.” Scrollreader motioned for Bracken to come forward. The MudWing stood sluggishly to his feet and stumbled to the front of the room.
“Uh… A. And… Uh…” Bracken squinted hard at the next symbol on the page. “Uh… I fell asleep.” He eventually grumbled, letting out a loud yawn. Some of the watching dragonets giggled. Fatechaser rolled his eyes, then lifted his head to see Boa’s reaction. The RainWing seemed slightly annoyed. You came here to learn didn’t you? Well it starts with paying attention to the teacher. Let’s see the next big failure.
Fatechaser examined the minds of the dragons who had been paying attention. He picked up letters in their thoughts, and strung them together, matching them to the symbols on the paper. Since there were no other volunteers at the moment, he might as well try. Perhaps it would help him learn. After mustering a little courage, he took a step forwards, away from Boa’s side. Mistake… Big mistake!
As soon as he did so, the thoughts surged full force into his head from all sides. The MudWing called Bracken was the closest to him. Why did Stork send me here? She knows I don’t want to be here. I’d rather be with her.
That NightWing is so weird. An IceWing thought sharply, glaring at Fatechaser with her beady black eyes. Her spikes stood on end as he walked passed her, and he could sense an ice-cold hatred for him buried deep within her. If I wouldn’t get in trouble with mother back home, I’d totally sink my claws into his scrawny hide. There is only one place where NightWings belong: in a volcano.
 Fatechaser shivered when he reached the front. He looked up into Scrollreader’s dark blue eyes. Princess Greatness’ son. Ex-Princess Greatness. He reminded himself with a frown and an unsatisfied flick of his tail. He’s been an odd one since the day of his hatching, or so I’ve heard… Maybe he was paying attention. He seems bright. But was he too busy warming up to the RainWing to listen? “Fateracer, was it?”
“Fatechaser.” He corrected, wincing as the thoughts floating around in his head grew even worse. One particularly aggressive thought drifted over from behind the bookshelf.
Fatechaser? Cerise grumbled indignantly in her head. What’s that supposed to mean? Is he chasing his death? If he ever talks to me, he will be. Stupid NightWings. They think they’re better than everyone else. But they’re not. And as soon as I find out which NightWing is in my Winglet, I’ll be sure to teach him that lesson.
“Hm… Well then, Fatechaser, go on.”
Fatechaser nodded, taking a deep breath to calm himself. Find the anchor. He pushed all thoughts away, except for the calm reflections of the odd RainWing.
Wasn’t Fatechaser the name of the NightWing in the Ivory Winglet with Cerise and I? I believe it was. Well, that is rather pleasing. He seems more amiable than most NightWings. He is rather young, so he would not have conformed to the social norms of his Tribe yet. Fatechaser found Boa’s calm stream of thought very reassuring. Perhaps if Boa thought well of him, other dragons would as well. Once he was properly anchored, he prepared to recite the alphabet.
“A, b, c, d, e, f…” Fatechaser kept going through the alphabet, picking up letters and pronunciations from the minds of the students who had been paying attention, all while maintaining focus on his anchor. Finally, he reached the end. “And z.”
Scrollreader smiled with satisfaction. “Well it seems that someone was paying attention to my lecture.” Perhaps my talents will not be wasted here after all. I will keep an eye on Fateracer’s progress. Perhaps I will become his favorite teacher!
Not likely. Fatechaser thought as he slunk back to his seat. You can’t even remember my name.
 “Now I will show you some simple words that you may practice on. For this exercise, I will read the words, then you will repeat after me. I will also have some volunteers come up and try to write some of the words.” Scrollreader explained unenthusiastically. Will they be able to follow along? I have no doubt on Fateracer’s part. But what about that lazy MudWing? What’s the point of teaching to an audience that won’t even listen? Oh, what a pathetic life I lead…
Fatechaser had little difficulty keeping up. The problem he was dealing with was how to keep the other minds out of his own. Using Boa as an anchor had worked for a little while, but now the thoughts around him seemed to be increasing in number and intensity. Fatechaser wanted to cover his head and bury himself in a hammock. It would be nice to sleep in a hammock, where the soft green walls would at least partially block out the clamor of crowded heads.
“Scrollreader, it’s nearly time for the staff meeting.” A nervous voice interrupted just as the NightWing was about to start picking out volunteers. Fatechaser peered at the dragon. It was Starflight, the librarian. I wonder why Tsunami organized a staff meeting. Probably to yell at everyone. But there are some important points I’d like to bring up, if she doesn’t mind. Like how to avoid the events of last year.
Scrollreader sighed a long, deep sigh. “Alright, then, you young dragonets are dismissed. But don’t forget about the mandatory assembly in the Great Hall at sundown.” Interrupting a lecture is very rude. But It’s not like they were paying attention anyway… Who would want to pay attention to such a pitiful NightWing? He let out yet another sigh as he led Starflight out of the library, through the winding tunnels of Jade Mountain Academy.
At this, the students gratefully began to disperse, either leaving the library, or lingering to converse with others of their tribe. This eased some of the pressure on Fatechaser’s mind, allowing him to focus on some of his own reflections for once. What am I going to do now? I don’t want to explore. I don’t want to get caught in a large crowd. I don’t want to stay in the library. Maybe I’ll just… Just…
“Hey.” Fatechaser jumped as a wingtip brushed against his. He looked up to see that Boa was still standing next to him. “Are you in the Ivory Winglet?” I’m quite sure that he is, but I might as well ask.
“Uh-huh.” Fatechaser responded, nodding.
Boa smiled. “I thought so. That means we’re clawmates.” Quite an agreeable discovery. I’d rather have this one than any of the other, more unfriendly NightWings. Although, I must admit I do not know much about him. “So, you’re--”
“A NightWing.” A voice dripping with malice interrupted Boa as the SkyWing finally slunk out from behind the bookshelf. He’s young, but I can guarantee he’ll be just as self-righteous and snobbish as every other NightWing. “It’ll be hard for you to make friends here, Deathchaser. With everything I’ve heard about NightWings, I’m not surprised that every other tribe hates you.”
“I suppose now I have the pleasure of introducing you two.” Boa replied with a calm, unwavering smile in her direction. Fatechaser wanted to see Boa’s internal response to Cerise’s insults, but the passionate rage of the SkyWing’s tumultuous mind was blocking out all of his other senses. This RainWing is full of nonsense! Can’t he mind his own business? “Fatechaser, this is Cerise, the niece of Queen Ruby. Cerise, this is Fatechaser. You’re both royalty, so you should get along.” His smile split into a devious smirk, almost as if he were taunting her.
“Shut up! Of course you would pick his side. You’re a RainWing.” Cerise snarled, slamming her tail aggressively against the floor. Three moons this is a waste of time. What’s the point of insulting a RainWing, anyway? They can’t take a hint. Cerise turned towards the entrance to the library and started walking away. “Just stay out of my way.”
“I will… As long as you don’t get lost again.” Boa snickered as Cerise froze to the spot. She slowly turned her head and glared at him, her eyes burning with the intensity of the sun. I hate him. I hate him so much. “Don’t worry. I can show you back to the sleeping caves.” Cerise said nothing, but Fatechaser could tell she had bruised her pride more than once today.
So much for an anchor… Fatechaser thought hopelessly as he watched Boa and Cerise walk away. However, before they disappeared from view around the turn of a corridor, Boa halted and looked back towards the young NightWing. Boa’s tail flashed bright yellow as he flicked it towards himself, motioning for Fatechaser to follow. Fatechaser smiled brightly and scampered after them as fast as he could.
“Thanks!” He cheered, happy that someone was willing to include him. He could only hope that there were other dragons in the academy like Boa: dragons who wouldn’t judge others because of their tribe the way that Cerise did.
“Why are you letting him come with?” Cerise complained loudly, baring her fangs at Fatechaser, who shied away from her, moving closer to Boa’s side. Pathetic dragonet. How old is he anyway? “I can’t believe you’re dumb enough to trust a NightWing. They’re all a bunch of liars.”
“Have you ever met a NightWing?” Boa questioned. Fatechaser was surprised to see a flash of red across some of Boa’s scales, but even more shocking was the brief stab of anger that he felt. As far as he could tell, Boa preferred to remain as calm as possible under any and all circumstances. But, after judging Boa’s behavior thus far, Fatechaser realized there was one thing that Boa would not tolerate: judging other dragons solely because of their tribe. Boa’s different from any other dragon I’ve met. He doesn’t stereotype.
 “No.” Cerise muttered, looking at her talons, or perhaps the ground beneath them. Her thoughts roared in indignation. But I don’t need to. I’ve heard enough about them to know that they’re rotten. “But I know about the things they’ve done. Everyone knows that they lied about having powers just to make the other tribes fear them. And they act like they’re the best tribe in Pyrrhia.”
“You can’t judge an entire tribe based on the actions of some of its members.” Boa retorted, fighting to keep the frustration out of his voice. Every dragon has the potential for great good and great evil, no matter what tribe they come from. The Dragonets of Destiny proved that fact. “I know NightWings who are honest.”
“I’ll believe it when I see it.” Cerise snorted in disbelief, rolling her eyes. An honest NightWing… There is no such thing as an honest NightWing. It doesn’t matter how young or how old they are. They’re all the same.
Fatechaser flattened his ears as he looked up at them. Boa and Cerise were both seething with fury, and he was caught in the middle. He found himself once again falling victim to an overwhelming assault of conflicting thoughts. Being caught between them, he had no means of escape as their internal monologues escalated to a peak. Fatechaser caught bits and pieces of both, unable to sort them out in his head as they seemed to be happening simultaneously.
Nightwings areㅡseeker was always honestㅡCan’t believe she wouldㅡWhat do RainWings know?ㅡunreasonable SkyWingㅡdumb RainWingㅡHow dare she judge?ㅡsticking up for another tribeㅡWhy would heㅡI can’t understand whyㅡFits every SkyWing stereotypeㅡever wasㅡI don’tㅡshe needs toㅡhe needs toㅡstupid schoolㅡpoint ofㅡAcademyㅡin the sky kingdomㅡin the rain forestㅡdifferentㅡnothing’s the sameㅡin a winglet with a bunch ofㅡmaybe my other clawmates will beㅡhate all my clawmatesㅡhope they haven’tㅡdon’t need to meetㅡAunt Ruby told meㅡTravelseeker told meㅡfend for myselfㅡlook out for othersㅡWhy can’t he see it?ㅡWhy can’t she see it?
Fatechaser’s head throbbed painfully and his heart pounded as panic came over him. He felt like his head was splitting in two, and he just wanted out. I need… Be alone. With own thoughts. Too much… My head… Fatechaser stumbled a bit. Boa and Cerise walked ahead of him, to busy in their own heated reflections to notice that he had fallen behind. As they got farther and farther away, the pain slowly ebbed. Fatechaser closed his eyes and took in a deep breath, calming himself. Finally, his head felt almost normal. He opened his eyes. Now that his head was clear, he could finally take in his surroundings.
The cavern Fatechaser was standing in had six tunnel openings on each side, and one larger tunnel opening on a third side. The walls were covered in paintings and flower collages. I know where I am. This is the cavern that leads to the sleeping arrangements. Fatechaser looked down the path that Boa and Cerise had taken. That leads to where the Ivory Winglet sleeps. The five other tunnels along the same wall each led to a different Winglet; although Fatechaser wasn’t sure which ones were for which winglets.
I could join the rest of my Winglet… He thought begrudgingly, staring down the path that would take him to the Ivory Winglet sleeping quarters. I could claim the hammock. But… I don’t want to get caught between Boa and Cerise again. And who knows how many dragons are in there right now… The last thing I want is a crowd. The last thing I want right now is to encounter another dragonet. But just as he thought it, Fatechaser heard voices coming from the tunnel next to the one that led to the Ivory Winglet sleeping quarters.
“I can’t believe all the new stuff they’ve added over the summer! There are new decorations, new teachers… There’s even an entirely new Winglet! I’m so excited to meet them!” An excited, boisterous voice cheered as a hot pink dragon with bright yellow spots bounded out of the tunnel. Fatechaser sunk back into the rock wall, trying to avoid hearing her thoughts. And much to his surprise, he didn’t. Instead, he only heard a low humming noise. “Hurry up! You are such a turtle, Turtle!”
“I’m coming, Kinkajou.” A chubby dark green SeaWing with hints of brighter green underscales came out of the tunnel after her. He was wearing a silver armband with a black rock set in the middle. Fatechaser noted that the SeaWing’s head was also filled with a low humming noise. He couldn’t hear either of their thoughts. “Can you please slow down?”
“Can you speed up? I’m excited to welcome the Ivory Winglet to Jade Mountain Academy! What do you think they’ll be like? I asked Glory about it, but she said they hadn’t decided yet. That was a while ago, though, and Fatespeaker said there was definitely an Ivory Winglet, and that all of them already arrived!” Kinkajou jumped excitedly around the room as she waited for Turtle to hurry up. Not wanting to be seen, Fatechaser slowly inched towards the nearest cavern, trying to stick to the shadows. However, as soon as he started to move, Kinkajou’s head turned in his direction. Fresh waves of gold and pink rippled through her scales as she bounded over to him. “You’re a NightWing! Hi!”
“Hello.” Fatechaser whispered, not wanting her to pick up on his displeasure at being spotted. He stepped out of the shadows, looking intensely at Turtle and Kinkajou. Why can’t I read them? What’s so special about them?
“My name is Kinkajou, and this is my friend Turtle!” Kinkajou jostled the SeaWing playfully, and he gave an easygoing smile. “What’s your name?”
“My name is Fatechaser.” He responded, still not sure what to think about this overenthusiastic RainWing. Perhaps he would know what to think if he could see her mind. He had met dragons with thought-resistent minds before, but this was different. It was as if her thoughts were completely replaced by a steady hum. It doesn’t make any sense…
 “Ooo, Fatechaser? That sounds so cool!” Kinkajou cried enthusiastically. “What do you think of the name, Turtle? Is it cool?”
“Sure.” Turtle replied, nodding absentmindedly. He looked at the young NightWing with a friendly glint in his eyes. “It’s cool.”
“You’re small.” Kinkajou suddenly realized, tilting her head at him. “How old are you?”
“I’m a year and a half.” Fatechaser proclaimed loudly, puffing up his chest. Not a year. I’m older than a year. In the moment, he seemed to forget about the odd humming noise. When talking to dragons, I’ve always just focused on their thoughts. But these dragons… They are a mystery!
“Isn’t that a little young? When the school started last year, Auklet wasn’t allowed to come yet.” Turtle pointed out, looking thoughtfully at Fatechaser.
Fatechaser frowned. “No! I am old enough to be here! I just learned the alphabet this morning. And I know the whole thing! A, b, um, c, urr… d! E… Uh… Um...” He racked his brain, trying to remember the following string of letters. But this time, there were no minds he could call on for aid, and the physical symbols were not available to him. He begrudgingly admitted it, “I can’t remember. But it ends with z.”
“Don’t worry, I couldn’t read either when I got here!” Kinkajou cheered, patting Fatechaser’s shoulder comfortingly. “And it was so hard to learn. But I did it! And you can too!” Turtle nodded slowly in agreement, though he seemed not to have been paying attention.
“Where are they? We were supposed to meet up in the Great Hall.” An irritable voice grumbled from the corridor behind Fatechaser. He turned just in time to see a lithe, pale blue figure emerge from the shadows. It was an IceWing, much larger than the one Fatechaser had encountered in the library earlier. He looked around the room with dark blue eyes, which stopped and fell on Kinkajou and Turtle. “Where have you been?”
“I told you they were going to wait for us in the sleeping quarters.” A SandWing walked out of the corridor behind the IceWing. Like most SandWings, he had sand-colored scales. However, he also had brown freckles on his snout, a scar across his muzzle, and an earring in one ear. “Winter always gets confused about these sorts of things.”
“Shut your snout sand-face.” The IceWing snarled. Fatechaser braced himself for some aggressive thought, but it never came. Instead, he only heard a dull hum from both the SandWing and the IceWing. More of them? They’re all unreadable. The hum is the same. There has to be something similar about each of them. “Where’s Moon?”
“We haven’t seen her.” Turtle replied calmly, shrugging as if it were no big deal. The IceWing frowned at him.
“Well she better get here soon.” The IceWing huffed angrily, looking off to the side. As he did so, his gaze fell on Fatechaser. “You’re a NightWing. Where’s Moonwatcher?” He demanded, his spines flaring.
“I-I don’t know.” Fatechaser backed away from the IceWing, intimidated by the chilling cold radiating off of him in waves. Moonwatcher? I… I don’t think I’ve ever met her. “I don’t know who Moonwatcher is. Mother doesn’t let me talk to many other dragons.” The IceWing bared his fangs at Fatechaser, and the young NightWing knew he didn’t need to hear the IceWing’s thoughts to know that he wasn’t friendly. If this is how he treats me with his words, how would he treat me with his thoughts?
“Winter, don’t be so hard on him.” A soft whisper sounded from the tunnel that branched off towards the library. Much to Fatechaser’s surprise, the IceWing’s demeanor seemed to change entirely as he turned to face the NightWing that had just stepped into the cavern. I hope I arrived in time. The poor dragonet looks scared to death.
I can read her mind. Fatechaser realized, somewhat relieved, yet somewhat annoyed. He liked not hearing dragon’s thoughts for a change. And, if this NightWing’s thoughts were like most NightWing thoughts, he didn’t want to hear them. But the IceWing is friendly towards her. Surely that means something?
The NightWing stopped dead in her tracks, staring at Fatechaser with a look of surprise plastered on her face. Her thoughts suddenly started racing so fast it was difficult for him to follow them. He can--? I knew there would be others like me soon, but already? How old is he? How advanced are his abilities? Why haven’t I seen him in the NightWing village or heard his thoughts before now? Who is he?
“Moon!” Kinkajou leaped on top of the unsuspecting NightWing, seeming not to notice her response. Fatechaser took the moment of distraction to flee into the nearest corridor, his heart pounding faster than it ever had in his life. He ran as fast as he could, trying to get away from the NightWing known as Moon. She knows. She knows about my powers! But how? It was only after this question came to mind that Fatechaser slowed down, allowing himself time to analyze the situation. She thought something about… About others like her… Does that mean she can…? That… That I’m not the only one who…? He couldn’t bring himself to finish the thoughts.
Maybe I should go back. Fatechaser turned around to do just that, then saw that he didn’t have to. The NightWing called Moonwatcher was flying down the wide corridor in his direction. He tried not to think, but such an endeavor was impossible. She can read minds. Are there other NightWings who can do that? Mother always told me I was the only one, but she obviously didn’t know about Moonwatcher. Does she keep her powers a secret too?
“I know how you feel.” Moonwatcher stated softly as she lighted down next to him. “It’s overwhelming, having so many thoughts in your head at once.” With a pang of sadness, Moon added, I wouldn’t have made it without Darkstalker… “What’s your name?”
“I’m Fatechaser.” Fatechaser wrapped his tail around his front talons, trying to make himself look smaller. She won’t use me for my powers. She knows how I feel. We’re the same. Why am I so nervous?
“I’m not going to hurt you.” Moon replied sympathetically to his unspoken dialogue. He’s so small. He must be young. “How old are you? When did you hatch?” It had to be after the volcano incident, otherwise he wouldn’t even have his powers.
“I hatched a year and a half ago. Mother told me that a comet lit up the night sky when I was born.” Fatechaser smiled as he recalled his mother’s retelling of his hatching day. She said that the comet looked like it was chasing the stars… And she named me Fatechaser because my fate is written in the stars, and I have to chase it just like the comet. “But what does the volcano have to do with me not having powers?”
“I’ll tell you everything that I know about our powers: how we got them, how we can control them… But before I do, I have one more question: are there any other NightWings you know of that have these powers?”
Fatechaser shook his head. “As far as I know, I’m the only one.” Then again, mother rarely lets me out of the house. And when she does, I usually go to the RainWing village. And… I didn’t know about Moon until now. As Fatechaser thought about it, he was filled with amazement. There could be other NightWings like us!
Category:Fanfictions
Category:Fanfictions (Fanon)
Category:Fanfictions (Incomplete)