The Ancient Secret

Chapter 1
Silk Seer never really knew if she was special, or crazy. Magic doesn't work anymore, nobody can torture people or change their dreams or do anything like that, right? If that was true, why did she keep having these strange dreams every night? Silk Seer remembered all of these dreams vividly. Always. 
She would be in the talon of an unknown nightwing, shivering and afraid. The nightwing had blood red eyes, as well as blood on his talons and teeth. He would let out a long laugh, and effortlessly crush Silk Seer.
She woke up with a jolt.
Why is it always that dream? She thought. She stared at the map on her wall. It was a map of the path between Pyrrhia and Pantala, and all pantalan visitors were required to have one. 
Silk Seer gasped.
Outside of the window was Jade Mountain academy, with swarms of dragons flying towards it. She thought of why her mother sent her to Pyrrhia, of how she was supposed to go to Jade Mountain Academy. 
She probably won’t be happy to hear that I overslept on the first day! Silk Seer thought nervously. 
She headed down the path to the large mountain looming over her, beckoning her to come inside. She stared at her wingbuds, still closed and purple colored. Her wing buds and her eyes were probably the only colorful thing about her. 
She had gray scales, with silvery under scales. When she reached the top, there were dragons all around.
She bumped into a red skywing. 
“Oops! So sorry madame!” The skywing squeaked. 
“It’s okay…I wasn’t looking where I was going.” Silk seer replied. She noticed that the sky wing had yellow patterns all over him, as well as gills. Standing behind him was an angry human, and a pale orange skywing.
“Sky! Seagull! Let’s go!” The human barked in Dragon. Oh! The pale orange dragon is Sky! The First dragon to speak the human language! Silk Seer reminded herself. 
“Hey there!” Called a voice behind her. Silk Seer jumped. She turned around to see a nightwing with dark purple scales, almost black.
“Did I scare you? So sorry! I thought you heard me! The name’s Fatespeaker!” She said gleefully. Silk Seer watched as they flipped through a book and muttered, “silk wings…silk wings… silk wings…..Aha!” 
Fatespeaker looked at her and pointed at a spot in the book. It read the name Silk Seer and had a description of what she looked like and what winglet she was in.
“You’re in….Jade! Here, let me take you to your cave!” Fatespeker led Silk Seer into a large room with golden lanterns, a large gong in the corner, and a banner that read, Welcome to Jade Mountain, New Students!. 
Silk seer went down a long hallway, turned left, and then right. Forward, left, right, got it. Silk Seer repeated in her mind.
“And, we’re here!” Fatespeaker exclaimed, pointing to a cave with a green stone carved into the top and a sign that read, Jade. “Thanks.” Silk Seer called as Fatespeaker walked off. 
She saw a rainwing with obsidian black eyes and a tail barb, a mahogany colored mudwing with foggy white eyes, a light blue ice wing with a necklace adorned with 2 rings, and a brown hive wing with two, transparent leafy wings. But, she also saw another dragon sleeping in the hammock…was that…”Seagull?” Silk Seer asked.
“Dragon-I-don’t-know-the-name-of?” Seagull replied with a chuckle. 
“You know this dragon??” The rainwing asked, waving his sandy colored wings at Seagull. “Well, we met about about 5 minutes ago…” Seagull said.
The rainwing nodded, shaking his bright purple ruff. “Who is this new dragon?” Said the milky-eyed mudwing. 
“My name’s Silk Seer. I’m a silkwing, as might be obvious because of the name.” She answered. Seagull got out of the hammock and said, “The rain wing- sand wing hybrid over there is Snake, the mudwing is Coot, she’s blind, the ice wing is Frost, he’s grumpy if he doesn’t get his breakfast, and the hive wing leaf wing is Kudzu, a little cheeky at times..”
“I AM NOT GRUMPY!” Frost roared. Seagull just laughed. “You can be, you little snapping turtle.” Coot teased. Silk Seer just started eating some food left on the table. “
Who took my Azula ant?” Kudzu asked. Seagull and Snake shrugged. Silk Seer stopped. 
Oh no! Not one of these day-mares! She thought. She saw a small ant crawling under a door, and stinging a dragon with golden scales and green eyes. She could hear the screams of agony.
“
I-I….I think it went that way” Silk Seer pointed to the path leading to the principal’s office. Kudzu and the rest of the Jade Winglet ran through the tunnels, although now, Silk Seer could hear it very clearly, and her stomach dropped. She could hear the principal screaming.
 Chapter 2
The whole school gathered around the office as Silk Seer creaked open the door. What she saw shocked her. There was a bug crawling up the wall, and a shaking and screaming dragon. Kudzu immediately trapped the bug in one of her leaf pouches. “WHY IS IT SO PAINFUL! IT HURTS SO MUCH!” The principal was shrieking.
“Sunny! Are you okay?” Coot asked nervously. “DOES IT LOOK LIKE I’M OKAY??” Sunny screamed. Two dragons came and carried Sunny away. “We were too late…” Seagull sighed. “KUDZU!” An angry leafwing rammed through the crowd. Kudzu shrank back.
“What did I say about bringing dangerous bugs into the school?!?” the leafwing roared. Kudzu looked at her claws. “Not to…”
That night, Kudzu didn’t sleep in the Jade cave.
Silk Seer had a new dream. It was a dream that first started with Seagull, surrounded by humans, then went to Snake embracing an orange-yellow sandwing, and then Kudzu surrounded by angry leaf wings and silk wings. She was poked awake by Snake. “Hey. Silk Watcher, or..whatever your name is.” She got up. “It’s Silk SEER…” she yawned.
“Oh. Sorry. I forgot to ask you but…Do you, by any chance, know a sand wing named Sun?” Snake asked. Silk Seer thought of the orange-yellow sandwing from her dream. He’ll think I’m crazy.. She thought as she shook her head. Snake sighed. He was about to go back to his hammock when she said, “Wait.” Snake turned around.
“Who is he?” Silk Seer asked.
“Someone very important to me…” Snake muttered.
“Is he….your brother?” She asked.
“No! No…he's much older than me.” He replied.
The answer came to Silk Seer’s mind as a whisper as she thought of her strange dream, as if a small voice was lightly tapping her into the right way saying, This is it, just say it…
“Is he…Your father?” she asked.
Snake stopped. Tears had started to come out of his sparkling black eyes. “Yes…I miss him! He’s been gone for years and I don’t know why or where! He was such a great dragon and taught me pretty much everything I know! Now that he’s gone, my mother is depressed and won't talk to anyone, I'm spending every minute of my life looking for him, and the whole kingdom is worried!”
He’s so worried about him…Silk Seer just wanted to run up and hug him and tell him not to be sad, but she was drifting off to sleep.
Breakfast was different in many ways. First of all, the prey wasn’t roasted and served on a plate, the animals were just let loose all around the prey center. Second of all, the dragons didn’t just stalk up on the animals and hunt them, they were all running into each other and bashing into walls. “Now, now, dragonets! Calm down! Stop running before someone gets hurt!” said a mudwing as he stopped collisions. 
Seagull walked up next to Silk Seer and laughed. “Clay always tries to prevent problems, but he can’t multitask very well..” Silk Seer scanned the area and saw Snake hanging on a high ledge, lashing his tail. There were no stairs up to the ledge. “Hey Seagull?” 
“Yeah?” “I know this is a weird request, but can you lift me up to that platform?” “No problem!”
Seagull spread his yellow wings and lifted Silk Seer up to the rocky ledge. Now she could see that Snake was sitting with another dragon, one with large, round eyes and colorful dots speckled on his wings.
“Hey. You seem gloomy today.” Silk Seer said in a quiet voice. Snake didn’t answer, his beady black eyes staring off into space.
“You know Snake? Wow! I do too! He lives in a treehouse right next to mine and we eat strawberries together and did I mention that I LOVE strawberries and Snake is really funny when he’s not like this and also my name is Peacema-” The dragonet babbled on.
“Please. Just..Stop. You’re giving me a headache…” Silk Seer said, clutching her forehead. She opened her eyes and saw Peacemaker wrapping his wings around himself and a large, black dragon looming over him.
“Hello? Silkwing? Hellooooooo?” Peacemaker waved his talon over her eyes. Why does this keep happening? What does it all mean? Silk Seer rammed her talon into a very loud chicken and started tearing it apart.
Snake looked up. “Don’t Silkwings usually eat fruit?”
“Yeah….I’m just weird like that. Although I do like drizzling fruit juice on my food.” Silk Seer answered.
“I do too! It’s hard being a hybrid of a carnivore and a herbivore…..” 
“I know! Everyone always asks, ‘Hey, what would you eat? Meat or fruits?’” Peacemaker mumbled.
Snake bumped into Peacemaker and said, “Hey, what winglet are you in??” 
“My winglet? Oh! I’m in Silver. I have THE GREATEST WINGLET EVER!” Peacemaker bounced on his claws.
“Really? Whose in it?” Silk Seer asked.
“Only the greatest dragons EVER! There’s Auklet, she's a PRINCESS! And also Cliff, he’s a PRINCE! And Mink, Bumblebee, Gulch, and Parasite! I have 3 royal dragons in my winglet, isn’t that AMAZING?!?!”
“Sorry, couldn’t help but overhear…” a black hivewing with yellow stripes swooped down.
CHAPTER 3
“Bumblebee!” Peacemaker said gleefully.
“Peacemaker!” Bumblebee replied.
“What are you doing?” She asked. “Only telling my new friends about the GREATEST WINGLET EVER!” Peacemaker nibbled on a papaya.
“Did you check out the pond they have here?” Seagull called from the ground.
“Sorry, can’t hear you! Maybe you should come up here!” Snake called.
Seagull flew up to the ledge, gripping a rock with his talons. “What's going on up here?” he asked. “We’re talking about our winglets.” Bumblebee answered.
“I have decent dragons in my winglet. Except Frost….are icewings always grumpy?” Seagull looked around the Prey Center. “Not Mink. She’s sweet as a honey drop!” Bumblebee said in a you-can’t-judge-tribes-like-that way.
“People used to think that hivewings were all mean and scary a long time ago on Pantala.” Silk Seer jutted in.
Bong!
The gong’s sound echoed across the cave walls.
“Time for class!” said a purple rainwing. “Why do I have to be tortured like this?” moaned a blood-red skywing.
Silk Seer stared off the edge of the ledge. She would never survive the jump. “Hey gu-” Seagull and Snake grabbed her by the arms and carried her to the ground. Clay came over.
“Great teamwork, dragonets! This is what we wanted to happen when me and my friends opened up this school.” Silk Seer smiled. Seagull gave a chuckle. But Snake just said, “Sorry Clay, but we need to get to class.”
Bong!
The gong rang a second time, even louder than the last.
The History cave looked nice, but Silk Seer thought she could see slight scorch marks on some of the banners. What once read, “History is a key to the past…” now read “Hsory i ke pa..”
“Hello there, dragonets! My name is Riptide. Let’s see if I can remember all of your names..” Said a blue seawing as he squinted at the dragonets.
“Silk Searcher, Seagal, Snipe, Cot, and Frenze?” asked Riptide. Silk Seer shook her head.
“Oh? Well then let's say all of our names while I pass out these scrolls!” Riptide grabbed a few scrolls and started gently placing them on the tables.
“Silk Seer.” She said quietly.
“Snake.” said Snake with a sigh.
“Seagull.” said Seagull as he rolled open his scroll.
“Coot.” said Coot nervously.
“Frost. Who is NOT a grumpy dragon.” Frost growled.
Silk Seer grabbed her scroll. It showed a dragon with swirls erupting from their talons, and a shattered candlestick. 
“Excuse me, Riptide? Why is there a candlestick on this scroll? What does that have to do with animus magic?” Silk Seer hadn’t seen a scroll many times in her life, because on Pantala, they had books.
“Well, Silk Seer. That is exactly what we’re going to find out!” Riptide sat down and unrolled his scroll.
“The History of Animus magic. Not too long ago, some dragons would be born with Animus magic. They could enchant anyone or anything to do whatever they wanted.But it came with a price. Every time they casted spells, they would slowly lose their souls. 
“Then, Jerboa, a sandwing animus, enchanted a candlestick and shattered it. 
“Old spells still worked, but no new spells could be enchanted. Some animus dragons are still alive today! Like Turtle, Anemone, and Jerboa. 
“There is an animus dragon that turned himself to stone here at Jade Mountain! His name is Stonemover, and he’s the father of our principal. Alright, dragonets! Based on what we just read, what can we deduce about animus magic?”
Coot silently raised her talon.
“Yes?”
“That it’s dangerous.” Coot said calmly.
“Very good, Coot!” Riptide clapped his talons.
Silk Seer raised her talon.
“Hmm?”
“That it’s gone forever.” Silk Seer announced.
She stopped as she saw her, Seagull, and Snake clutching strange shards. They put them together with an oddly familiar candle, and dragons cheered for them. What was that? Silk Seer was puzzled. 
“Well guess what?” Riptide’s eyes were glowing. “The candle for that candlestick is here at Jade mountain! In the library by Starflight’s desk.”
That’s why it was familiar! Silk Seer had passed by the library and saw a strange candle! Is that really the one? Silk Seer listened extra carefully to Riptide.
When history was over, Silk Seer rushed to the library. Coot was there talking with a nightwing that had a blindfold over his eyes. “Hi. I just came here to see the amazing animus candle..” Silk Seer walked up to the desk.
“Oh? And why’s that?” The blind nightwing asked.
“Oh, it’s just…I’m so interested in animus magic! It sounds so powerful!” Silk Seer gave a nervous smile. The nightwing nodded and she rushed over to the golden candle.
Its flames were warm and comforting. She slowly grabbed the candle and silently carried it through the hall. Why am I doing this? Stealing a precious artifact? Silk Seer felt awful. It’s for my destiny, Silk Seer reminded herself.
Should I tell Seagull and Snake? Would they think I’m crazy and turn me in? Silk Seer was worrying all over the place. She passed by caves with names above them. Copper, Silver, Gold, Quartz, Jade. 
She went into the Jade cave, where Frost was lashing his tail.  Silk Seer’s stomach lurched as FRost looked at her and growled, “Now what in the three moons are you doing?”