The Deadliest Dragon

=== Prologue ===
It’s time!
Dolphin darted through the tunnels of their partially underground lab. Her tail swished nervously as she rounded the corners barely avoiding knocking over a few vials of stuff. 
She didn’t want to be late. She couldn’t be late.
I can’t wait! 
Dolphin burst through the doors of the main lab which housed their secret project. All three dragons inside ignored her.
Cocoon had his attention fixed on the RainWing egg he'd ‘borrowed’ from an ignorant mother. His antenna waved around, twitching in the air and sensing the little dragonet’s movements. 
Falcon was working with a few dragon scales. He carefully clamped a pair of iron tongs over a smoking copper scale — the scales of a firescales dragon. 
And Durian hung from a bar connected to the ceiling by his prehensile tail. He was scribbling on a piece of paper, although Dolphin was half certain he couldn’t read or write.
Cocoon leaped over and grabbed her tail before she could knock over a table of vials. He was blind but his antennae were so advanced it was almost as if he weren’t. “Careful! You almost imploded the lab!”
Dolphin felt her face burn with embarrassment. “Sorry.”
Cocoon rolled his eyes and stalked away, mumbling something. “Don’t you have something to do while we prepare—?”
There came a loud snort from the doorway. Dolphin whipped around to see Everest, her white-blue scales glinting in the dim light of the lab with Poison Ivy a few feet behind.
“So about the firescales—”
Dolphin groaned audibly. Not this again!
“I thought we made it clear—” Falcon began.
“We want her to be the deadliest dragon in all of Pyrrhia and Pantala,” Everest cut in. “We can’t achieve that without full body firescales.”
“But we also want her to intermarry,” Falcon argued. “How do we do that if she’s firescales all over?”
“Yeah, but what about Peril?” Dolphin insisted.
“Do you not understand? She liked a fire-immune dragon,” Falcon snarled. “And what about this project — do you think she’ll find a fire-immune dragon?”
“I agree with Falcon,” Poison Ivy interjected. “And besides we can’t let her have firescales on her entire body. How would she be able to read and write? Being powerful doesn’t matter if you’re illiterate and dumb.”
Hmph! Why is everyone against me?! Dolphin thought desperately.
“But—”
“Look! It’s about to hatch!” Durian warned and they all turned to the egg.
Falcon glanced at Dolphin and Everest. “We are not giving her full-body firescales. End of story. We don't have time to get more materials anyway.”
“Falcon!” Cocoon called, standing next to the machine.
“I’ll find Sahara,” Poison Ivy offered and immediately vanished. Dolphin heard her darting down the hall.
After a silent few moments, Cocoon finally spoke.
“So how does this thing work again?”
“Well,” Dolphin piped up. “From how I understand it, whatever you drop into that hatch will transfer to the egg and the dragonet inside will get that ability. At least I think so.”
“I don’t trust Dolphin’s advice,” Falcon muttered which earned him an indignant “Hey!”
“But I think she’s right. Only one way to find out though.”
Falcon slid the firescales into the hatch and pressed a button. Like magic, the egg immediately started smoking. The dark grey smog curled out of an air vent and into the open sky.
The dragons gathered and stared at the egg.
“Woah,” Dolphin whispered.
“Cover the smoke,” Everest snarled, but even she had an awestruck look in her eyes.
Falcon’s eyes were glowing. “It… worked.”
“Well, did you have any doubts?” A voice rang out from the doorway. The dragons gathered whipped around to see Poison Ivy enter the room with a SandWing at her tail.
“Sahara!” Dolphin yelped. “Where were you?”
“Waiting. Unlike you.” The SandWing glanced disdainfully at her.
“Hey!”
Why were her friends being so mean to her today?
No one answered her. 
Cocoon broke the silence. 
“Are we going to start already?”
“Right,” Falcon said, immediately sweeping over the rest of the materials. As he started to drop things into the hatch, Dolphin ran over to her machine.
Similar to everyone else’s, hers was made of solid metal with some buttons on the side that had been left unpressed for as long as Dolphin remembered. Hers also had a hatch but a bit… different. An enclosed section on her work surface held three curved glowing strings of something. Not rope. More like… parts that were existent because of magic.
Dolphin turned to see Sahara sitting in front of the egg, holding a scroll. Poison Ivy had a few piles of herbs around her, standing by in case of injury. The others were at their own machines.
“Dolphin,” Sahara said softly as the egg finally stopped sprouting weird colors.
Dolphin nodded and turned back to her workspace. The things on it were soul strands. They were apparently small parts extracted from a dragon’s personality and their magic amplified so that the dragon wouldn’t lose that trait but another dragon could also have it. It also worked on dead dragons.
“Careful with those, Dolphin,” Sahara warned as Dolphin carefully pried the lid open, filling the room with unstable energy. “I’m not that familiar with soul strands.”
Dolphin grabbed pliers from the small bin in her workspace and picked up the first one. As she slid it down a hatch, tiny words popped on the screen.
Personality traits: bold, confident, strong.
	From: Princess Burn.
	Makes them strong and good at fighting, confident in their abilities, a bit stubborn and too bold.
She slid in the second one, a strand that gave off such malicious energy that Dolphin nearly dropped it before she slid it in.
Personality traits: Smart, cunning, quick-witted, sly.
	From: Princess Blister.
	Makes them intelligent and smart, good at solving puzzles, and skilled at learning and comprehending problems. Doesn’t work well in tense situations and only cares for oneself most of the time.
Dolphin didn’t like the worse parts of the traits but there wasn’t anything she could do about it.
The dragonet’s going to be perfect anyway.
And then finally, she dropped the third one in.
Personality traits: charisma, love for jewelry, naive
	From: Princess Blaze
	Makes them beautiful, features well proportioned and clean. Will not change the colour of scales. Makes them love jewelry and have a good taste for other dragons' looks but may make them too obsessed, even drawn to jewelry.
As Dolphin slowly backed away from the hatch, her job done, they all stared at the egg, waiting for it to spontaneously combust. 
But surprisingly, it didn’t. 
Dolphin breathed out a sigh of relief, glad her part was successfully done trouble-free. But… whether the dragonet actually got the right traits was still to be determined.
Sahara rushed up and crouched next to the egg. She raised a talon and stroked it gently before raising her head to the moonlight spilling down through a skylight on the roof. The light of all three full moons shone down on the egg. Then she took a deep breath, opened her mouth and started to speak.
“I, Sahara, under the three moons, enchant this RainWing egg that we have wrongfully ‘stolen’ to hatch into a dragon with the powers of an animus, and under no circumstances will turn into a normal dragon no matter what the other spells cast by dragon.
“I also enchant this dragon to be immune to every spell that is cast by any animus that currently exists, existed and will come into existence. I make this spell prone to any spell-casting vessels such as Darkstalker’s scroll or any others anytime, anywhere.
“Finally, I enchant this dragon in the egg to be invulnerable to anything and everything that exists or will exist or has existed. It will be immortal and live to great ages but will stop growing once it reaches the size of an average young adult dragon. I make all the spells I have cast on it invulnerable and cannot be removed by any animus or vessel and I shatter any current spell on the egg that has not been cast by me.”
Everyone stared at the egg as Sahara backed away.
And then the egg cracked. A dragonet’s head poked out and it smashed through the eggshell with her talons and tail.
She was tiny, her scales grey and blended with black. She had tiny circles of orange all over her but they kept fading to red and then back to orange.
“Arrkkkk.” It squeaked, batting Dolphin’s nose.
“She’s perfect!” Dolphin cried happily as the dragonet ambled over to the machine and smacked it with her tail.
“She looks… dumb,” Falcon muttered watching the dragonet bump into the wall.
“Well I think she’s just adorable,” Dolphin cooed.
“What should we name her?” Poison Ivy wondered.
“I know!” Dolphin called. “She’s the most beautiful and deadly dragonet ever. So we need to give her a beautiful and deadly name.”
“Eh… Not so sure about the beautiful part,” Everest muttered scornfully.
“Yes, that’s true,” Sahara said thoughtfully.
“So… Any ideas?” Poison Ivy prompted.
“I have the perfect one,” Dolphin said with a smile. 
“Let’s call her Venom.”
=== Chapter 1 ===
An extremely dangerous dragon was curled up near the edges of the forest, her scales blending with the green and brown of the jungle around her. The dragon was trying to hide.
Venom watched carefully from her hiding spot as a group of pale yellow and red dragons — SandWings and SkyWings — landed on the island for a bit of rest. She knew they were trying to get from Pyrrhia to Pantala. The one in the lead was holding a yellowed piece of parchment.
“The next island should be here,” He said, pointing to a green spot on the piece of paper. “Or maybe it’s here… No! Wait! That’s where we came from. Not where we need to go.” It was a SandWing and Venom knew him. It was Qibli, Queen Thorn’s dragonet advisor. Venom knew him well, as he was rather famous. The talkative SandWing had been instrumental in defeating Darkstalker. And he was the one true love of Moonwatcher, a NightWing, possessing mind reading and prophecy powers. Qibli also was an ever-faithful student at Jade Mountain Academy. Sahara had taught her many things about him.
Speaking of Sahara, Venom knew she should get back to the hideout.
She slunk away quietly from the conversation of the traveling dragons, trying not to make any noise.
I need to be careful not to be seen, Venom thought, ducking as a branch blocked her way. Everest and Falcon would kill me if I got us exposed.
Dragons had been coming, passing through their island at a rapid speed as more and more copies of Clearsight’s map were being distributed across the two continents.
She had to be careful while traveling, her firescale wings pressed against her body, the heat spreading all over her body. She glared suspiciously at a sloth dangling lazily from a tree and realized it couldn’t see her. She killed it with her claws and promptly ate it.
As she made it into their hidden laboratory, Venom shifted out of camouflage, rounded a corner, and bumped into a dragon.
She leaped back, and her poisonous wrist stingers shot out of her wrists automatically. Her orange spots flashed red. Venom came seconds away from stabbing Dolphin, the sky blue SeaWing in the lab who had given Venom her killer personality.
Dolphin gave a satisfying yelp and backpedaled a few steps. “Venom! Hey! That was scary! You almost killed me, you silly fish.”
“I’m not a fish.” Venom’s eyes narrowed. She opened her mind carefully to Dolphin’s.
Venom! The SeaWing’s mind went. She’s so fun to tease! She always gets so adorably annoyed! It reminds me of when I first watched her come out of the egg.
Venom pulled away before Dolphin’s mind could show her the ridiculous memory, or any ridiculous memory.
“So you admit you’re silly,” Dolphin teased.
Venom growled softly. Dolphin was one of the ‘nicer’ dragons in the underground lab but was probably the most aggravating. She was always getting on Venom’s nerves.
“Anyway, Venom, I’m off to find some juicy prey! See you later!”
Laughing merrily, Dolphin carefully made her way around Venom and continued walking with a slight bounce to her step.
Venom slowly squirmed through the dark tunnel that led deeper into the underground lab, lighting up her fluorescent SeaWing scales to full brightness so that she could see clearly.
The underground tunnel continued, and more torches were placed on the walls, casting a dim, warm glow.
As Venom continued, the tunnel grew less drab and more fancy, now with caves and doorways carved here and there. Each door frame was labeled and decorated differently, according to who occupied them and what they were for.
Some caves were used for experiments and projects, and some were prey rooms and libraries. But most importantly, there were sleeping caves, one for each guardian.
And also one for Venom.
Venom’s door frame was decorated with jewels and glass she scavenged outside. Her name was also labeled, carved out on a large moonstone in the middle.
As Venom arrived at her dimly lit cave, she tapped a jewel on the doorframe, and the door automatically opened. (It was enchanted by Sahara so that only when you tapped the right jewel, you would be able to go inside.)
Inside her room were bookshelves of every shape, containing various books about everything you could imagine. Her bed was placed in a corner of the room, with the sheets slightly ruffled up. And beside her bed, was a small bedside table, with all kinds of plants and bones on it she was experimenting with.
Her room was lit up brightly with globes of light she took from the Ice Kingdom, and she gently tapped one of them, making a quiet tingling sound.
As Venom arrived at her dimly lit cave, she saw the shadow of a dragon waiting for her inside.
“Yes, Ghosthunter?”
Ghosthunter had midnight black scales and a silver teardrop-shaped scale near both his eyes. He had the most jagged spikes down his spine that Venom had ever seen on a dragon. Ghosthunter wore a leather pouch around one ankle.
Venom nodded with forced politeness at him. “So, what brings you here?” She thought about invading some privacy and letting go of the mental noise she put in her mind to drown out other crazy thoughts.
“Hey,” Ghosthunter said. “Sorry about the unexpected visit, but I just wanted to tell you that we’re going to have dinner together tonight at the stone table.”
Venom looked at him curiously; this was about as much as he ever talked. “The stone table. Why?”
The stone table was the only table big enough for all eleven dragons, and only used for special occasions.
“You’ll see,” Ghosthunter said with a small smile. He swished out the door before Venom could reach into his mind. Within a second, Venom was alone. She wondered what ‘the meeting’ was about.
What do I do now?
Deciding that she would keep herself busy since she had some free time, Venom strutted back into the tunnel and into the kitchen where Poison Ivy was working her plant magic.
Poison Ivy was a LeafWing the color of leaves. Her horns, tail, spine, and the spine of her wings were brown. Her body and snout were a light mint green, and she had splotches of forest green all over her. Her wings were lined with veins of gold.
“Yes?” She said, barely paying attention to Venom.
“I was just wondering,” Venom said a heartbeat too quickly. “Do you have any job required for me to do?”
“Of course,” she said. “You go hunting for me. I have completely misjudged the food supply we have. You can camouflage. Oh, and Durian’s sleeping again, so I think you better do it.”
“Okay…,” Venom said slowly then left the room thinking about the sloth she’d eaten before.
As she reached outside she went into full camouflage mode. Venom snuck around for a while, her thoughts whirling about what the stone table feast occasion could be about.
Venom was about to scout around when she realized that the group of dragons led by Qibli hadn’t left yet.
She glanced at the prey she had already caught. A few each of sloths, monkeys, snakes, and toucans. More than enough.
Then she turned to Qibli. Venom silently opened her thoughts to him and heard instead, an odd fuzzy sound like muffled static.
Oh, I’m stupid, she cursed herself silently. He has skyfire!
Moonwatcher had taken the black rocks that blocked mind readers from Turtle’s (One of her many many friends) armband and gave one each to her friends: Kinkajou, Winter, and, of course, Qibli.
Venom didn’t know he still had skyfire in his little pouch. Then of course she only knew what Sahara knew about Qibli, so it wasn’t her fault.
Instead, she reached out to a SkyWing soldier.
I’m so hungry. The SkyWing complained in his mind. I wish we could go hunting but it’s too dangerous. I hope that the sand dragon knows what he’s doing. I hope we’re almost there. Do I trust SandWings? I don’t think— He squashed his thoughts. Stop thinking like that. We’re not enemies anymore. Gotta stay calm. Hope we get a move on soon.
Interesting. Venom tilted her head as she studied the dragons gathered. So some dragons may have different thoughts about other dragons or tribes, and they may not always be good. A good way to start some rivalry if needed…
Venom noticed that Qibli had spotted some fish near the island. He unlatched the satchel with skyfire, exposing his thoughts.
It’s a fish! We’re all hungry. Wonder what type it is? Kinda grayish, maybe a salmon? Looks familiar. Don’t like fish but I’ll take what I have. How do SeaWings survive off of them? Slimy sea creatures. That SkyWing looks hopeful. Did she spot the fish too? Was that rustling? Maybe wind. It’s within reach. What do I know about swimming? Wonder what else is on the island. Hope there’s prey. Too dangerous, Qibli. Quicksand and deadly snakes and bugs. There’s the fish! That dragon looks hostile towards SandWings. Should be wary of her for the flight. They look like they're going to fight. Gotta stop them.
Venom blinked at all the thoughts in Qibli’s mind. Moon was right. His mind was confusing to read. And those were only his more conscious thoughts. Deep inside he was carefully assessing the other dragons, keeping an eye on the fish, reviewing rules and tips about swimming, and listing potential rainforest dangers. Venom unhooked herself from Qibli's mind and started searching for his potential futures.
There were two or three futures where he died peacefully, a few where he died horrible deaths just like every single dragon in the world. He also seemed to marry Moonwatcher in many of those. He had a lot of children who all looked remarkably interesting.
There was also one where he died very recently…
She suddenly realized how late it was and hurried back to the lab, dragging her prey on the ground.
***
It was time and Venom still wasn’t prepared for the feast. Her head was filled with ideas on what the moons it could be about.
Suddenly a knock came from the door and her head snapped up.
“Venom?” A frosty, irritated voice called. “Are you in there? Three moons, it’s time! We’re all waiting for you.”
Venom growled softly knowing who was behind the door: a dragon Venom particularly didn’t adore a lot.
Venom thrusts open the door into Everest’s face.
Everest was the IceWing in the hidden lab. She had pale blue scales at the tip of her tail that slowly faded to white. She had an alarmingly sharp frill of spikes around her head and on the point of her tail. Everest was an immaculate and arrogant dragon who acted like every IceWing in the world, always in the perfect position. Her voice was a different story — just like a dying blizzard.
Everest hissed and backed away a step. “It’s time for the feast,” she said sternly. “You don’t have time to goof off or waste any time.”
Venom shot her a dirty look and slunk off in the direction of the stone table.
The other nine dragons were already at the table, and all the food was spread out in front of them.
Everest curled into the surprisingly cold chair marked Everest and Venom took her seat at the head of the table.
Before Venom had hatched, the dragons sat on the longer sides of the rectangular table, five on each side. Now they had added a new chair at one head just for their new dragonet.
On Venom’s left were the five male dragons: Heron, Ghosthunter, Cocoon, Falcon, and Durian.
Heron was a MudWing with a broad snout, small squinty eyes, and a huge girth. His scales were the color of fresh mud after a thunderstorm. He was very clumsy and always bumped into stuff everywhere. And he also obviously had a huge appetite. Tonight he was eyeing a particularly plump sloth.
Meanwhile, Ghosthunter was staring blankly at his plate.
Cocoon was a very easily frustrated SilkWing, unlike most others of his colorful tribe. He had the scales the color of the sunset and sunrise, his scales fading from purple to pink to orange and then red. His antenna twitched constantly, sensing any approaching dragons. He was blind and couldn’t see anything. A blindfold was tied around his eyes.
Falcon was an extremely grumpy SkyWing. He reflected the temper of most of his tribe. His scales were the color of ripe strawberries baking in the afternoon sun. He had a horrible scar on his snout and claw marks on his belly. He glared at everyone with his golden yellow eyes.
Durian was the RainWing in the lab. His scales were usually green with splotches of purple and yellow lining his wings, spine, eyes, and talons. His eyes were a deep forest green. Durian was very odd, weirdly did many things, and had a weird accent. Durian had his prehensile tail curled to a branch on the ceiling and was eating upside down (If Venom were to do that, she’d probably throw up).
To Venom’s right were the five female dragons: Dolphin, Everest, Poison Ivy, Ant, and Sahara.
Dolphin was looking around at their prey with a delighted expression.
Everest glared daggers at Venom, her icy blue eyes glaring into her soul. Venom glared right back.
Poison Ivy studied the feast she’d prepared, obviously proud of herself.
Ant was the HiveWing in the lab. Almost half her scales were black. Only deep yellow-orange lined her body, belly, claws, wings, snout, and tail. She looked like an oversized bumblebee. She had a golden amulet embedded with something like the shape of a tadpole. She loved Venom and always told her a lot about her adventures on the continent of Pantala.
Sahara was a SandWing and an animus. She’d enchanted Venom’s egg in an impressively long speech making her an animus, invulnerable to other dragons’ animus magic, immortal, stop growing when she grew average-sized, invulnerable scales, and made all that unable to be altered or changed by any animus. In other words, Darkstalker had enchanted himself but with more depth and less mistakes. She had pale yellow scales the color of desert sand. Her horns curled around in an interesting not-at-all-SandWing way and one of them was decorated with a ring. Her black eyes sparkled with wisdom and mischief at the same time and a black scorch mark was visible on her neck.
“Let the feast begin,” Ghosthunter said quietly.
Half an hour later, Venom looked up from her plate, suddenly remembering something.
“What is this feast for?” Her question made all of the dragons snap up their heads.
Dolphin glanced at Ghosthunter uneasily. “Should we? It’s a really really important thing we need to tell though.”
“We will vote,” Ghosthunter said.
“Three moons! Again?” Falcon complained. “You say that literally every time.”
“Remember,” Venom warned. “I can just search your minds, so why don’t we make it easy and just tell me.”
“We should tell her,” Sahara agreed. “That’s why we called the feast, after all.”
Dolphin, Ant, Poison Ivy, Cocoon, and Heron all nodded.
“That's the majority,” Venom noted happily. Her orange scales along her eyes and spine flashed yellow: the color of happiness or excitement. Even though she was pleased they trusted her enough to know this, she was a little suspicious about the nervous atmosphere, like something really important was going to be announced.
Ghosthunter sighed. “Alright. So Venom, you remember that your uhh, seventh hatching day is the day after tomorrow, right?”
Venom nodded carefully. She could never forget her hatching day!
“Well…” Cocoon said. “Dragons reach adulthood when they turn seven years.”
“And?” Venom prompted.
All the dragons hesitated for a moment.
Sahara finally opened her mouth. “We’re sending you off to the continent.” She said quietly. “It's time you met some more dragons.”
=== Chapter 2 ===
Venom’s first question was probably not the most important one: “Which continent?”
She wasn’t sure how to feel about this. She was mostly excited to finally meet other dragons, but she also suspected that they would be just as bad as her guardians in different ways.
The ten other dragons glanced at each other. “Pyrrhia first,” Ghosthunter replied after an awkward silence. “Sahara and Everest will take you there since you’ll either end up in the Ice or Sand Kingdom.”
Venom mentally drew up a map of Pyrrhia in her head. “Ok. Yes.”
“Then I’ll take you to Pantala,” Ant said proudly.
“We will,” interjected Poison Ivy, stabbing her food with one talon and also gesturing at Cocoon.
“It also would be best if you stayed camouflaged for the flight,” Cocoon added. “Then at least they won’t see a mysterious weird-looking creature flying through the air and scream and try to stab you.”
“I am not a weird-looking creature,” Venom huffed, her scales flashing red.
“Fine. A weird-looking dragon,” Cocoon snapped.
“You should also wear this.” Poison Ivy fished an odd-looking black stone and a ring from a pouch. It looked remarkably familiar. Then Venom realized it was—
“Skyfire,” Venom said. She clamped on the ring and stuck the chunk of black rock into the slot on the ring. Even though it was quite the advantage of reading minds, and she would miss doing it, using Skyfire was probably the safest option.
“You should be off for the continent tomorrow,” Heron said through a mouthful of food.
It’s time for my first new dragon. Venom thought. A dragon that I’ve never seen before and possibly one of those every second for the first few days.
This is going to be awesome.
***
Venom had a bunch of heavy satchels tied around her neck, claws, tail, and body. They carried all kinds of preserved food, a rock that would do anything she asked it to, and a bunch of other trinkets that a hysterical Dolphin had probably stuffed in. There was also a RainWing blowgun, a bottle full of fire ants, some plants, and a strand of poison ivy that twisted around her neck.
She was camouflaged, perfectly blended with her surroundings.
The guardians had come to see her off.
“We hope you have a great time! We’ll miss you!” Dolphin beamed and cried at the same time.
“Remember, keep a low profile until it’s time,” Ghosthunter warned.
For what though?
“Be careful,” Ant said earnestly.
Venom spread her wings very carefully. Sahara and Everest backed away from her firescales. She was rather nervous but also eager to fly.
“Are you ready?” Sahara asked, her voice sympathetic.
Venom nodded, then realized she couldn’t see her. “Yes,” she said, putting as much steel in her voice as she could and trying not to look terrified at the prospect of going into the dragon world.
Everest spread her wings wide, nearly clipping a nearby tree. “Then let’s go.”
“Goodbye, guardians, goodbye home,” Venom whispered.
And then the three dragons burst through the forest canopy and into the sunrise and the sea.
“Good-bye!” Venom heard Dolphin yell. She didn’t bother replying or looking back.
“We will miss you!”, Sahara called to the others, waving her last goodbye.
They flapped in silence for a while. The warm aura of Sahara’s scales contrasted weirdly with the icy chill of Everest’s scales on the other side of Venom.
“So, tell me about the plan,” Venom said. “I’m still not sure what we’re going to do.”
“First, we’ll talk to whichever queen in the kingdom we land in,” Everest explained.
“Then depending on which kingdom we’re in, one of us will leave while the other will take you on.” Sahara continued.
“Then we’ll convince either Queen Thorn or Queen Snowfall to go with us to Sanctuary and ‘reveal’ you there.”
“And then we’ll stay for the queen’s meeting and then you’re on your own.”
That sounded like a very vague plan to Venom, but she didn’t say anything else.
“Oh! I almost forgot. Here, take this,” Sahara said, handing Venom a gold armband. A glistening opal was embedded in it, and carved on it were several dragons who were ‘lifting’ the opal up.
Venom clasped it around her arm. “What does it do? Why didn’t I know about this before?”
Everest snorted. “It allows you to see camouflaged RainWings. Sahara enchanted it a while ago when she was in the Sand Kingdom.”
Venom studied her new treasure. “Thank you.” She didn’t say anything, but she wondered why she hadn't known about the enchanted bracelet already, but Everest clearly did. She hid her suspicions for later.
***
After a few hours or so of endless flying and landing on islands constantly, Sahara pointed out the coastline of a huge island in the fading sunset. “That’s the Kingdom of Sand.”
Everest sighed. “We’re way too far South.”
“Well, I think this is the perfect place,” Sahara argued.
They touched down on a sandy beach. Venom ruffled out her wings, exhausted from all that flying. Everest was as immaculate as ever, but she looked a bit uncomfortable since she preferred the cold. This place was the exact opposite. Meanwhile, Sahara hadn’t even broken a sweat and she looked perfectly fine.
“Sahara will take it from here,” Everest said frostily. She dipped her head in what seemed to be forced respect. “Good luck, Venom.”
  Then she launched into the air and turned into a white blur along the blue skies. Soon, she became a tiny white dot and got swallowed up by the clouds.
Sahara now looked like a miniature Dolphin. She padded around happily but cautiously, jumping over dunes in excitement.
“Let’s go,” she waved her barbed tail at the distance where a building stood out along the horizon. “That’s the stronghold of Queen Thorn. Stay in camouflage.”
And then they were off again, flying high into the sky.
***
On the entire flight, Sahara filled Venom in on SandWings in the stronghold.
“Smolder is Princess Burn’s brother,” she said importantly. “He has a pet scavenger — sorry human whose name has now been discovered to be Rose.”
“A human? Like those things that killed Oasis and started the war?”
Sahara nodded. “Yes. This human’s brother killed Oasis. Rose is really friendly, and she’s been learning how to speak dragon now that Smolder knows she’s very well capable.
“The SandWing princess who’s still alive, Blaze, also lives in the palace. She really likes jewelry and she’s umm… well let’s just say she loves herself. A lot. She’s about as smart as a concussed sheep, as everyone says.”
Queen Thorn’s stronghold looked more like a fortress. A huge sandstone wall studded with spikes surrounded it and a bunch of soldiers milled around. The castle itself was raised high into the air with a few lower levels and towers.
“Wow,” Venom heard herself whisper.
“I know right?” Sahara grinned. “It has been the same since the rule of Queen Oasis and possibly before that! When Burn was alive, she put decapitated dragon heads on those scary-looking spikes, and it always smelled like death, death, and more death.” She shivered as if remembering the bloodthirsty times Burn ran the stronghold.
They landed in front of a huge gate that two guards flanked. Both of the guards nearly jumped out of their scales as Sahara landed.
“Sahara! You! You came back!” The first guard said fiercely. “You killed Lieutenant Acacia! You have no right to come here!” The guard jumped at Sahara, pointing her tail right at Sahara’s heart.
Sahara inclined her head slightly, shoving the tail aside. “Hmm. Do you guards still have a problem with that? Anyway, I have urgent business here at the stronghold. I demand an audience with Queen Thorn.”
“And why should we give it to you?” The first guard challenged. “We should kill you right away.” In a flash of pale-yellow scales, she whipped her spear as hard as she could toward Sahara’s head. The animus barely dodged the attack, leaping swiftly aside so that the spear only clanked at the ground. Venom shivered at what would have happened if Sahara didn’t dodge in time.
Suddenly, the guard started to shout. “Intruders! It’s the animus! Intruders!” Venom realized that they would be in trouble. A lot of trouble.
“Wait, Tawny, we don’t need to fight! She’s an animus!” The second guard interrupted.
Tawny whipped around. “Parch! Seriously? What kind of guard are you? You would just let that animus in?”
“Look Tawny,” Parch said, backing up nervously. “Sahara never did anything else than accidentally kill our lieutenant. Yes, she did come back, but she’s not here to kill us, see?” He pointed at Sahara’s coiled tail and her mild expression. “Also, the queen doesn’t have any other things to do, and she’s been bored out of her mind these days.”
“But what if she’s here to kill us with her magic?” Tawny hissed. “Remember that incident with Cobra?”
“We let those dragons in,” Parch pointed out.
“That’s because it was Qibli!” Tawny protested. “This is the monster who killed Acacia! We should not let her in!”
“The palace guards will deal with them if they’re assassins.”
Tawny groaned. “Well, too late.”
A wing of guards dived at them, a flurry of gold, brown, and white, clashing with the blue sky, like paint splattered on a blue canvas. And in the middle of the dragons, was Queen Thorn of the SandWings.
=== Chapter 3 ===
Venom snorted as some of the guards scrambled away with terror at the sight of Sahara. But the thing that caught her attention the most was the SandWing queen. In Venom’s opinion, she looked extremely bland. No jewelry, accessories, or queenly expression. In fact, she didn’t even look remotely like a queen.
Queen Thorn looked Sahara up and down. “Hmm… Well, I’m not sure I recognize you.” She said, looking rather amused with herself. “I’m sure I don’t know every SandWing. This is a rather large kingdom, isn’t it? There’s a disproportionate amount of oases and little towns in our kingdom.” She looked at Sahara like she was expecting the animus to attack her.
But Sahara bowed perfectly instead of attacking the queen. (Venom made a note of the angle she inclined her head and body). “Greetings, your Majesty. I am Sahara and I have brought you a—” she hesitated for a moment. “A little gift.”
There was a moment of silence where the queen had a disbelieving face.
“Sahara? It’s you?” Thorn looked scared probably for the same reason as the other dragons.
“I was thinking of showing it at Sanctuary and required your permission to call for a queen meeting. This is something you would all be interested in.” The animus dragon completely ignored what the queen had just said.
“Really?”
“Yes, your Majesty. I believe this is rather important or I would not be requesting this. I am asking whether you would agree to fly to Sanctuary with me and call the other queens for a gathering. You are welcome to bring any guards.”
Venom raised the fog off Thorn’s mind.
Sahara! Her! Is she trying to trick me? Thorn wondered. She sounds suspicious just busting in here with news. But… she did let me bring guards.
The queen thought for a moment. “Really? A request so sudden? I don’t know if I should trust you. But nevertheless… Hmm… Let me think about it.”
* * *
It had taken an extremely long time to convince Thorn to go with them. But here, standing at the entrance of the castle gates, were an animus, a camouflaged decabrid, and most importantly, the queen of SandWings. And they were about to head off to Sanctuary.
“Six-claws!” Thorn called. A SandWing with six claws on each arm hurried in and bowed so deeply that his snout touched the ground. (He looked weird but of course less weird than Sahara.)
“Yes, your majesty?” Six—claws looked hesitant.
“I want you to bring ten of my guards here,” Thorn commanded. “We’re going to Sanctuary now. Yes. Now.” She glanced at Sahara. “And let’s see if this dragon is telling the truth… or if we’ll get a new prisoner to keep Cobra company.”
***
Venom was not enjoying the flight. She’d flown for hours to get to the continent but at least that wasn’t in the baking hot sunlight.
The IceWing part of her didn’t agree with the heat.
She also had to be careful not to brush anyone with her wings.
She knew Sanctuary had to be at the edge of SandWing-SkyWing territory. It was currently alive with endless happiness and humans. Another incredibly famous dragon — Prince Winter of the IceWings — lived there and so did the ‘boyfriend’ of a dragonet of destiny.
Venom smirked at the idea of Tsunami violently denying that Riptide and she had a relationship.
Soon, Sanctuary appeared in front of her.
It was packed with weird-looking structures. MudWings had made huge mounds of dirt near a stream where slimy mud was piled. SeaWings had made some half-above half-underwater structures. Venom spotted many hybrids rolling around. There were SeaWing-MudWings, SkyWing-SandWings, and even a SandWing-NightWing.
She shivered when she saw all of them. They all looked so weird. (But that just proved that she must look weirder. After all, Dolphin called her a Decabrid.)
She realized the SandWings around her were suddenly pulling into a dive. Venom tucked her wings in and followed them.
The wing of dragons landed in a patch of sandy land just at the borders of Sanctuary. The SandWings looked around at the odd structures constructed nearby.
“Queen Thorn!” A sky-blue SeaWing darted out of one of the structures as if expecting her. “Very good to see you, your Majesty.” He bowed. “May I ask you why you came to visit?”
Venom recognized him. It was—
“Riptide,” Thorn said. “This newcomer is Sahara.” She looked at Sahara. “She informed us that she has an ‘astonishing surprise’ for us and wishes to show it in front of all the queens. Yes. She has called for a meeting of the queens.”
“Queen meeting? I — sure… I mean — I umm… uhh yes, yes, of course we could have one,” Riptide spluttered. He looked startled by the idea of a queen gathering being mentioned so suddenly. “Y-yes of course. I-I will choose the messengers. Yes. Right away.” He bowed respectfully.
Then Riptide led the SandWings into Sanctuary.
As soon as they were alone Sahara whispered, “Venom, follow me.” Then she darted into the woods.
They reached a little cave — like the dent that they entered. It was dark and smelled musty but big enough for three full-grown dragons to huddle in.
“Here,” Sahara whispered. “Take this.” She pulled something out of a pouch around her neck.
“What is it?” Venom felt the object in her talons. I was round, smooth, and small. She was getting annoyed by Sahara. Why was she showing her so many animus-enchanted items? Couldn’t Venom just enchant them herself instead of receiving them from another animus?
“It’s a jewel that I found. There’s an empty pouch on your neck. If you imagine becoming any dragon from any tribe hard enough, like their color or features, you’ll become that type of dragon. Try doing a SandWing.”
Venom pictured at SandWing’s deserty pale yellow scales that radiated heat. She thought about the thin sail that ran down their backs, the glittering black eyes, the fire, and most importantly, the scorpion tail barb. And then, like magic, she transformed.
“We’ll keep calling you Venom,” Sahara said. “It’s still legit. SandWings do actually have venom. Unless you would like to be called Dragonbite or Dagger.”
“Venom is fine,” Venom snapped.
Venom flicked her new barbed tail nervously, trying hard to act like a new dragon. They bumped into an IceWing who Venom immediately recognized. The IceWing stared at Sahara and Venom for a moment.
“Who are you? ” He squinted at them. “I thought I knew everyone living here.”
“Oh,” Venom said. “We don't live here.”
“Ahhhh.” The IceWing said, nodding. “That would explain it. Let’s start over. Hello nice to meet you I’ve had to do this introduction a million times I’m—”
“Prince Winter,” Venom cut in. “You’re a member of the royal family and nephew to Queen Glacier, cousin to Queen Snowfall. Your parents are Narwhal and Tundra, and you have a brother, Hailstorm, and a sister, Icicle. You were a student at Jade Mountain Academy and then went off to save the world. You were believed to be dead and then kicked out of the tribe. You also… seem to like Moon but violently deny it every time someone mentions it. You also have a very weird obsession with humans.”
Winter’s eyes grew wide. “Have we met?” Winter stopped, just realizing something. “Are you reading my mind?”
“No,” Venom said. “But you’re more famous than you think. Also, SandWings cannot read minds. I’m Venom and I’m new to Sanctuary. I’ve been studying a lot and just came with Queen Thorn. Could you show us around? I would love to know more about this place.”
Winter looked like he couldn’t comprehend all that information at once.
Meanwhile, she flipped through his potential futures. Huh… he… had a few interesting ones. Ones that Venom had to stare at for a while before accepting it was real.
Venom could understand how Moon had had trouble deciding between Qibli and Winter. Qibli was funny and smart and generally better on the inside. His sense of humor had no end. But Winter was probably the most handsome dragon Venom had ever seen. That wasn’t saying much but he definitely looked better than most.
And of course, Venom could tell why Moon had chosen Qibli. Obviously, he had been more fitting for Moon. But as for Venom…
She was getting sidetracked. But she still couldn’t help glancing at him again.
“You remind me of this extremely annoying dragon named Qibli,” Winter told her. “I’ll let you come in. But just make sure you are not reading my mind.”
They walked around the town with Winter pointing out all the buildings and being incredibly vague.
“That’s a mound of mud,” He said with a flat voice, pointing at a mound of mud.
“Incredible,” Venom hissed.
“And now here’s the exciting part!” Winter announced loudly.
A weird piece of wood was in front of them. A human was climbing around on it. She had black hair, and it was tied up by a dirty piece of fabric. On the edge of the clearing sat a pale SkyWing and a human on his head who was clearly Wren.
Wren was yelling at Sky in human and Sky was chirping back at her. Venom could pick out many of the words from training with Heron who more or less understood human speech.
“You are so pathetic as a teacher!” Wren was shouting. “I told you to teach her the basics and the most important words, but you teach her stuff like ‘cute’, ‘snail’, ‘panda’, and ‘turtle’!”
“But… turtles!” Sky protested. “Have you even seen baby turtles? Even adult turtles! They have adorable little flippers and tiny heads and—”
“Stop that! We’ve been through this a million times!” Wren hollered. “If you start talking about turtles or snails or any animals we’ll be here for a WEEK!”
“We should give her a little hat,” Sky mused. “That always calms her down.”
“ENOUGH WITH THE HATS!”
Winter cleared his throat. “Excuse me.”
Wren and Sky stopped fighting and Daffodil scampered on the chair quickly.
Winter turned towards Venom and Sahara. “New dragons,” he told Wren and Sky. “This is Daffodil’s training session.” He explained as Venom shut down her rock. “Those two,” — he pointed at Sky and Wren— “We're supposed to help, but they just argue all the time and get extremely aggravating.”
Wren huffed. “Sky is being so annoying I can’t not yell at him!”
“And Wren keeps yelling at me so it’s impossible to not yell back!”, Sky said in a not at all ‘dragonish’ accent.
“Who’s that?” Daffodil asked suddenly in dragon, her accent a little weird. She was staring at Sahara and Venom like they just popped out of the ground as earthworms.
Winter waved impatiently at them. “This is Sahara and Venom. Newcomers. I’m giving them a tour of the place.”
“Awesome,” Wren groaned. “Dragons weirder than Sky. Now I’ve seen everything.”
“Could we leave now?” Venom asked, rather annoyed by being insulted by a tiny scavenger. Without waiting for permission, she turned tail and left.
***
“Here come the queens!” Sahara shouted as she watched a few different groups of dragons winging towards Sanctuary.
Queen Coral touched down first. She ran up to Thorn saying, “Queen Thorn. May I ask you why you called for this meeting?” She inclined her head the perfect amount.
Thorn did the same thing. “This dragon—” Her gaze flickered to Sahara. “—called it. She said she had something special to show us.”
Coral frowned but didn’t say anything.
The queens arrived after that one after another. The last to arrive was Queen Snowfall who was complaining openly about two queen meetings in a row.
After they were all gathered, Sahara and Venom approached the crowd.
“Open your mind to mine,” Sahara hissed.
Venom obeyed, trying to ignore Sahara’s endless droning sound she was hearing in her mind. She pulled out the skyfire and set it carefully next to her.
“All citizens of Sanctuary,” Snowfall said from the middle of a group of IceWings guards, probably because of her extremely paranoid nature. “I know you probably remember that meeting from just months ago and you must be thinking about why, by all the moons, are we having one again in the exact SAME PLACE?”
An IceWing next to her — Lynx — cleared her throat loudly.
“ANYWAY,” A pacing, fuming SeaWing said loudly. She must have been Tsunami since her scales were the bluest that Venom had ever seen. She didn’t seem to have an excellent temper. “We should let this moon-licking crocodile talk. She might have something useful to talk about.”
Half the queens nodded politely so Sahara stepped onto a tall boulder.
“Dragons of Pyrrhia,” Sahara announced. “I have called this meeting despite the great inconvenience. I am sorry for the rush of getting you here, but this is extremely vital. I am not from the Sand Kingdom but from a secret underground lab in one of the many islands that trail from Pyrrhia to Pantala.”
A murmur escaped from the crowd at these words.
“I am no harm to you all but am obliged to tell you a deadly secret. I am sure my fellow SandWings already know of my secret…” Some of the SandWings bared their teeth at Sahara when she said this. “But for everyone else..” She hesitated, then breathed it out anyway. “I am an Animus.”
An uproar surged through the crowd. (Mostly SandWings)Only Queen Snowfall managed to say the obvious: “But animus dragons don’t have powers anymore!”
“That is true,” Sahara said wistfully. “But long before that, I enchanted myself to be an animus forever.”
“Probably with some super long speech too,” Venom said drily.
“Anyway, I am here to showcase a special being we have created in the lab,” Sahara continued. “This being is known as a Decabrid. It is a dragon that was made from all ten tribes added together. And that is the dragon I want to show you.”
At the same time Sahara’s mind let out a single instruction: Think this: ‘Release me into what I was before’ with all your might.
Venom obeyed and her desert pale scales shifted immediately back to her usual colors.
=== Chapter 4 ===
The dragons in the crowd all roared at once, the sound blurring into a tremor loud enough to shake the earth.
“WHAT KIND OF DRAGON IS THAT?” Venom heard a dragon yell.
Venom smirked as she slid the skyfire back into her satchel. She enjoyed it when dragons were taken aback by her ‘terrifying’ appearance. She didn’t know she enjoyed it before, but she apparently did.
Sahara turned and grinned at her. Venom grinned back, an exceedingly rare thing for her to do.
Sahara waved for silence. “This… is Venom,” she said dramatically. “She was created from the DNA of ten different dragons, some of whom could possibly be in this crowd.” She glared at the crowd, looking very dramatic.
“Some who have been included in my ‘project’ are already dead,” Venom said cheerfully. “I hope you all watched them die horrible deaths.”
An extremely loud gasp issued from the sea of dragons.
Tsunami flared her wings. “This dragon is worse than that monster of yours,” she yelled at Queen Ruby. “She’s absolutely bloodthirsty!”
Venom’s grin widened. “I’m glad you noticed. Let me guess, you’re Tsunami?
“You are a dragonet of destiny: find the SeaWing egg of deepest blue. Right? Very ferocious. You once traveled on a quest to stop the SandWing war and then became the head of Jade Mountain Academy. You are the daughter of Queen Coral, and your sisters are Orca who is dead, Anemone, and Auklet. Your father is Gill who you sadly killed in Queen Scarlet’s arena prison thingy. You went on a mission to get rid of The Othermind/Cottonmouth/Breath of Evil. You swam to Pantala to discover the other continent. And did I mention you’re in a relationship that you deny?”
Tsunami looked furious and embarrassed but mostly furious. Some dragons including the IceWing Snowfall had brought with her, Lynx, were trying hard not to laugh.
Sahara grinned. “Good talk, guys. I’ll give you a parting gift: a list of all Venom’s powers." She handed a rolled-up piece of parchment to Venom and drifted away, looking pleased with herself.
Venom glanced at the list and grinned, also pleased with herself.
But when she studied the list she was a bit less pleased.
List of Venom the Decabrid’s deadly and dangerous powers
MudWings
* Fire immune scales(fire is no use against her)
* Hold breath for 1 hour
SandWings
* Heat resistance
* Long distance flying(are we sure this is a SANDWING skill?)
* Barbed tail(can also shoot the venom in a form of boiling hot acid instead of only injecting it)
SkyWings
* Extra hot fire(you can't burn her, but SHE CAN BURN YOU)
* Huge Wings
* Firescales on wings(there was a mistake... BUT STILL BEWARE)
SeaWings
* Webs(to swim)
* Gills(to breathe underwater)
* Some luminescent scales(to speak Aquatic)
* Nightvision(to not swim)
RainWings
* Color changing scales(also known as camouflage scales)
* Venom(her beautiful namesake)
IceWings
* Frostbreath(strange that she can have this AND fire AND venom)
* Spiked tail(to make the tail dangerous as if it weren’t dangerous already)
* Extra horns(just for show)
* Serrated claws
* Cold resistance(strange that she can have this AND heat resistance)
NightWings
* Mind reading(YOU CAN NOT HIDE(present))
* Prophecy(YOU WILL NOT HIDE(past & future))
HiveWings
* Poison in teeth and claws(not immediately deadly)
* Paralyzing wrist stingers
SilkWings
* Flamesilk(even though she has fire already)
* Antennae(VERY USEFUL)
* Internal clock(NOT VERY USEFUL)
LeafWings
* Leafspeak
And a bonus…
* Animus magic
I hope you now understand how deadly this dragon is. Pro tip: DON'T BE HER ENEMY!!!!!! (P.S. Stay away from her unless you’re her friend.)
—Venom's guardians
Venom could tell immediately Dolphin must have played a part in writing this piece of trash.
Interesting. As if Dolphin’s even close to being my friend.
She handed it to a very suitable garbage can: Tsunami. The SeaWing read it over with a disgusted expression and quickly handed it to Queen Coral as if it were a slimy sea slug.
Venom lashed her tail impatiently. “Do any of you Queens have a spot in your kingdom for me?”
The queens all glanced at each other.
“Would the Ice Kingdom be too cold for your non-cold-resistant dragons?” Queen Snowfall asked. “Specifically—”
“I have cold resistance,” Venom said sharply.
“Ahem. I meant your dragons,” Snowfall retorted, pointing one talon to Thorn.
“I don’t believe that’s relevant,” Queen Thorn snapped. “My dragons have nothing to do with whether or not Venom should be in your kingdom or not.”
“Wait!” called a single dragon from the crowd. Venom recognized Lynx from the crowd by the color of her shiny white scales. Everyone turned their heads to look at the IceWing. “What if we let Venom herself decide?”
Finally. A smart idea.
I swear these dragons are so dumb, how do they keep their kingdoms running?
“Yes, good idea!” The crowd agreed along with a few protests. (Obviously, Tsunami was one among the dragons who disagreed.)
Venom flicked her tail and almost ripped the scales off a nosy SkyWing who was standing way too close to her. Where should she stay? The Ice Kingdom didn’t sound so friendly.
Pfft. As if I need friendliness to live.
The Mud Kingdom was way too unsanitary, not for dragons who are worthy of respect (how does Queen Moorhen live there?). The Sand Kingdom was too dry and too hot and not enough water or food. And if the Sky Kingdom’s dragons were anything like Falcon (which they probably were) that place was also a NO. The Kingdom of the Sea was too wet.
That left the Rainforest Kingdom, the Night Kingdom, Possibility, Sanctuary, and Jade Mountain Academy.
Also Pantala but that wasn’t a valid choice.
Right now the academy sounded promising.
But could she live there?
“I don’t think any of the kingdoms would be fit for me,” Venom said slowly. “But maybe I could be given a very private room in Jade Mountain Aca—”
“ABSOLUTELY NOT!” Tsunami roared.
Venom glared at her. “And how are you going to stop me?” Just for a show, she flared out her wings and the dragons in the crowd scrambled back. Her orange scales flashed red, and her wrist stingers shot out of her wrists. Her tail whipped around, its deadly barb pointing at Tsunami.
“I’m the Head of the school thank you very much,” Tsunami yelled. "And I decide whether you go to this school or not!"
Venom ignored her. “See you at the academy. Oh, and Winter,” She grinned at the IceWing who took a step back. “Follow me.”
=== Chapter 5 ===
Jade Mountain was the tallest mountain in Pyrrhia. It towered over the half-destroyed Agate Mountain which once held ‘the Darkstalker’ and was the tallest about two thousand years ago.
The academy was in a cave system in the mountain. It was run by the Dragonets of Not-Destiny. Well, minus Glory.
Venom, Winter, Tsunami, Glory, and Deathbringer landed one by one near the entrance and were immediately greeted by Fatespeaker.
“Wow!” Fatespeaker cried. “Hello! I didn’t know you all were coming. Tsunami, we didn’t expect you to come back so soon.”
Tsunami still looked furious. “The meeting was a total waste of time. All we did was see this stupid dragon.”
“I can hear you,” Venom said scathingly.
“Oh wow!” Fatespeaker said. “There’s a weird dragon? Why didn’t my visions warn me of this?” She huffed but still managed to sound cheerful. “This seems very vision worthy. Hello, scary-looking dragon! I’m Fatespeaker.”
“You’re a NightWing,” Venom said immediately. “You were an alternate ‘dragonet of destiny’. You have no idea who your parents are or if you have any siblings. Quite a complicated relationship with Starflight. You like him. Sunny also likes Starflight, yet you and Sunny have a lot in common so it’s almost impossible for you to hate her. You also don’t like her because Starflight also likes her. Your ‘friends’, Flame, Viper, Ochre, and Squid, used to bully you.”
“WOW,” Fatespeaker bounced up and down. “I can totally see the future but it’s like YOU can see the past!”
Winter snorted. “No, this is just how she acts when she meets someone.”
“WINTER!”
A ball of pink and yellow shot out of the entrance and slammed into Winter. Two dragons followed, one with black scales, the other with green.
Excellent.
Winter wrestled Kinkajou off him. “Nice to meet you too,” he muttered.
“Isn’t it great?” Kinkajou jumped up and down. “We’re back! Now we can save the world all over again! All of our heroic deeds were SO AMAZING. Well except the part where PERIL’S FATHER threw me into a TREE and put me into a COMA. Like WHAT. But Peril’s better than her father but still like totally tough everywhere with FIRESCALES and all that. AND THEN DARKSTALKER WITH HIS EVIL ANIMUS POWERS ALMOST DESTROYED THE WORLD. And he was the STRONGEST DRAGON IN THE WORLD. But then I learned how to READ and WRITE, and we had so much FUN, and we were just welcomed EVERYWHERE and we’re the second coming of the DRAGONETS OF DESTINY who by the way are my BEST FRIENDS other than Moon and Qibli and Winter and Turtle of course. AND THEN QIBLI AND MOON and technically Turtle SAVED BOTH CONTINENTS AGAIN!!”
“Speaking of that,” Turtle said. “Where’s Qibli?”
“Going to Pantala,” Venom replied coolly.
Moon, Turtle, and Kinkajou finally noticed Venom and they all stared at her.
“What kind of dragon is that?” Turtle asked.
“She has skyfire,” Moon gasped.
Venom smirked at them. “My name is Venom. I’m what you would call a Decabrid. And I have the powers of all ten dragon tribes and animus magic.” Venom turned towards Kinkajou. “You must be Kinkajou the RainWing. You are always overly excited, and you are Queen Glory’s best friend. You have once been a NightWing prisoner and recently saved the world by enchanting a strawberry and turning Darkstalker into a RainWing-NightWing hybrid named Peacemaker. You have been injured badly by a RainWing named Chameleon who had been wearing the disguise of a NightWing named Shapeshifter.
“Moonwatcher-NightWing. Raised in the rainforest and hatched under two full moons. Seems to have both mind-reading and prophecy powers. Hmmm… predicted the rise of Darkstalker and a dragonflame cactus explosion. You were always an outcast to your tribe but have recently saved them from Darkstalker and possibly Queen Wasp. Your mother is Secretkeeper, and your father was Morrowseer who died in the volcanic eruption.
“And you are Turtle, obviously a SeaWing. One of Coral’s thirty-two or so sons. Used to be an animus and was responsible for turning Anemone into one as well. You saved the world from Darkstalker and your family from Anemone. You swam to Pantala after meeting Luna in hopes that you could help the Pantalan dragons. You have a huge family that I am not even going to try to list.”
“Wow.” Moon whispered.
“How did she do that?” Kinkajou asked in a loud whisper that wasn’t really a whisper.
Turtle shuffled his feet awkwardly. They were all thinking about Qibli like Winter had when he guided Venom and Sahara into Sanctuary.
WAIT. She had skyfire. How had she read their minds?
SAHARA.
“ANYWAY,” Tsunami shouted. “Let’s go in before I lose my patience.” She marched into the cave.
“Did she ever have any patience to begin with though?” Queen Glory teased.
“Probably not,” Moon remarked.
“NOPE,” Kinkajou agreed.
“Knowing my sister, no,” Turtle sighed.
“Hmmph,” Winter huffed.
“I will talk to Sunny. She’ll be more agreeable than you guys.” Venom decided.
“You should avoid the library,” Moon suggested. “Starflight will go crazy when he smells the smoke coming off your scales. He’ll think you’re Peril.”
Venom nodded, slowly disappearing into the shadows.
“She has CAMOUFLAGE SCALES?” She heard Kinkajou shout as she stalked away.
The passages were surprisingly lit up quite well. Sunny had done an excellent job with the lights. Venom saw a bunch of entrances to whatever was around her. She couldn’t remember if this were a new improvement or if the door had been there all along. Some rooms had their entrances spilling out the wonders of an empty cave. Most were blocked and clearly housed dragonets.
Venom finally spotted Sunny and Clay. Well, not spotted but more heard their thoughts.
Clay was thinking I’m so hungry. I wish we had a cow. Would it be embarrassing if I just went to get a cow now? It would be embarrassing as one of the founders. Moons, I really want a cow. Or a pig. Or—
I’m doing the right thing, Sunny’s mind told itself. I think. The start of school was such a disaster between the mess with Darkstalker and the cactus explosion but now it’s.. more peaceful.
Venom considered bursting through the door and scaring them out of their minds.
Nah. That would be a bad first impression. But maybe she could do that a different way.
She turned into an IceWing via Sahara’s enchanted opal. She gave herself a mental name: Aurora.
“Sunny!” Venom shouted, making a show of bursting through the doors.
Both Clay and Sunny jumped.
“Is there a feast?” Clay asked. “Am I invited?”
“Is something bad happening?” Sunny asked at the same time. “Is the mountain gonna collapse? Are the students ok? Wait. Who are you?”
“I’m Aurora,” Venom said. “Tsunami and Glory are here with news. I just wanted to tell you first.”
“They’re back?” Sunny yelped. She sprang up. “And Glory’s here?”
“Well, Tsunami is very angry right now,” Venom said. “She went to find Starflight. Perhaps for a lecture.”
“A lecture?” Clay asked, confused. “That doesn’t sound like Tsunami.
“An odd dragon showed up,” Venom stated. “I think she wanted to figure out more about her.”
“Who?” Sunny asked. “Peril? A Pantalan dragon? Did they hurt anybody?”
Venom shrugged. “I wouldn’t call it ‘hurt’. I would most likely call it ‘infuriate’.”
“Where is this weird-looking dragon?” Clay demanded immediately.
“Right in this room.” Then her scales shifted back to their regular color. “In fact, I am that dragon. My real name is Venom.”
=== Chapter 6 ===
Sunny screamed and scrambled back.
Clay roared and threw Sunny behind him. He breathed out a massive spurt of fire that doused Venom.
The flames rolled off Venom leaving her unsinged.
Clay opened and closed his mouth, confused.
Venom smiled at him. “I’m invulnerable to fire. Just like you are. But don’t worry, I’m not Darkstalker. It's not as charming. Or evil. If I were anything like him you’d all be doomed.”
“Oh yeah?” Venom whipped around to find Tsunami. Starflight and Glory were only a bit behind her. Venom could tell Glory was camouflaged.
“Oh yeah,” Venom replied. “My ahhh… Guardian was very specific about mentioning me.”
“May I ask who’s your guardian?” Starflight asked. His face was scrunched up like he was trying to make sense of it all.
“You—” She flicked her tail at Tsunami “—and you—” She waved a claw at the camouflaged Glory “—have met her very recently. Remember Sahara?”
“YOU CAN SEE GLORY?” Tsunami roared.
“That SandWing who brought you?” Glory eyed Venom weirdly.
Sunny gasped. “Like that SandWing from those stories? I heard once that she killed someone important and was going to be executed but escaped somehow. Who knows? Did she kill a general?”
“Lieutenant,” Venom corrected. “Yes. All the SandWings are freaking out about her. I simply don’t get it. How do dragons from the Scorpion Den know about her existence? I recall not that many dragons knew about Darkstalker until he came bursting out of the mountain.”
“Well Jerboa was pretty famous,” Starflight said nervously.
“True, NightWing,” Venom said.
“But why are you here?” Sunny stepped out from behind Clay.
“I have something big to request. I ask you to let me stay here. I have just traveled to the main continent. I came from one of the islands near Pantala. Jade Mountain Academy is rather an exceptional spot to stop. That is unless you make it unpleasant. Which I’m certain you already have.” Venom flashed her poisonous teeth at Tsunami. “I will decide whether I’m interested in becoming a student or being a visitor. Either is fine—”
“NO!” Tsunami roared. A SkyWing passing by froze and stared at her. “This dragon is a monster! It’s bad enough that we have Peril, but this is not acceptable!”
“Peril’s not bad or dangerous! She —” Clay protested.
Sunny was eyeing Venom out of her peculiar appearance. “I’m not sure I trust you. If you hurt even one of my students—” Sunny took a deep breath. “I— You can stay. This school is all about second chances and kindness, right?”
“Ha. As if I’ve gotten my first chance already,” Venom hissed. “It would be beneficial for your reputation if you give me my chance.”
“But you’re extremely weird! And dangerous!” Tsunami said.
“Tsunami, you accepted me even though I’m weird,” Sunny pointed out.
“That — that was because I grew up with you! And you don’t kill for fun! And you’re the most innocent dragon—”
“I don’t kill for fun,” Venom growled. “In fact, SeaWing, I’ve never killed before — that is except if you count prey.”
“That’s because no one forced you to,” Tsunami hissed.
“Ok, everyone, stop. Most of us have decided that you can be accepted. You can stay,” Glory cut in. She shifted back to her regular colors. “Oh, and if you can annoy Tsunami like this, I think this place is perfect for you.”
“HEY!” Tsunami yelled.
“As long as you keep a distance from my scrolls,” Starflight said nervously, sniffing Venom’s wings.
“I only have firescales on my wings,” Venom said. “But sure.”
“You would also need a private cave,” Clay added. “Maybe you could be roommates with Peril? She would like that.”
“Maybe,” Starflight muttered.
“I agree. I can’t be touched by her scales,” Venom agreed. “Or… I could just use my enchantments to protect Peril from my firescales. I should also shield her from my deadliness… I could make a shield around her that only stops me from being able to touch her."
“I’m not sure I trust you,” Sunny said.
“I’m not sure I trust you,” Sunny said.
“YOU’RE AN ANIMUS?” Tsunami shouted at the same time.
“Yes, you read the list right?” Venom said, annoyed.
“I’ll figure it out,” Sunny promised. “For now,  why don’t we let Moon and Winter, and their friends warn whoever they can before they spot Venom?”
Clay nodded. “I’ll tell them.”
“I’ll tell the dragons who come in the library,” Starflight said quickly, then bolted, nearly crashing into a wall.
“I’ll get Fatespeaker to prepare an assembly,” Sunny added.
Venom swished away, her scales fading to the grey color of the caves. She heard Glory and Tsunami arguing and Clay’s heavy footsteps moving for the main entrance.
She burst out of the caves from a little entrance and half-tumbled into the sun. She could see Clay, Winter, Moon, Turtle, and Kinkajou all talking. She saw Moon nod and walk through the doorway. Moments later Winter, Turtle, and Kinkajou all vanished.
Venom spread her smoking firescale wings and sailed to the top of the mountain where she could gaze at what was around Jade Mountain.
To the north of the mountain was a huge castle glittering on the mountain peaks. That was the castle of Queen Ruby. A stream of smoke drifted off it and evaporated in the breeze.
Closer than that, Venom could see the peaks of the Claws of the Clouds mountain range, and in there was the hatching place of the Dragonets of Not-Destiny.
To the west Venom could see the blurred outline of Queen Thorn’s stronghold. It was surrounded by glazed yellow dunes and little green specks that seemed to be cacti.
Opposite to that, Venom could just make out the boiling swamps of the Mud Kingdom Queen Moorhen’s palace.
To the south-east of Jade Mountain there was a giant patch of leafy green trees. That was the Rainforest Kingdom and in it, the Night Kingdom.
The old Night Kingdom was on the other side behind the mountains that Venom could spot in the distance.
Venom lay down and spread her wings across the cool patch of rock she’d found. The tips of her wings brushed the grass and it burst into flame.
Oops.
The sunlight warmed her back, and she felt the weird feeling of her SandWing scales loving the heat and the IceWing scales hating it. She sometimes liked that feeling and tried to do that often.
“Venom!” She heard a voice yell. It was remarkably familiar.
Kinkajou came barreling onto the side of the mountain and nearly crashed into Venom. With a yelp, Venom wove her wings out of Kinkajou’s way and leaped up to glare at the bouncy dragonet.
Venom sighed, copying Everest’s frosty tone. “Could you do something more dignified next time Kinkajou? You are friends with a Queen.”
“Maaaybe,” Kinkajou giggled. “C’mon, time for the assembly. She bounded down the mountain in a very Dolphin-like way.
Venom sighed and flapped down the mountain.
***
She certainly made an entrance. Venom burst out of the ceiling as soon as Sunny said: “We are not sure when our guest will arrive…”
To prove that she was very much dignified, she made it rain little ice chunks on the Founders of the School
Most of the dragons gathered made a very satisfying scream. Some of them even started to turn tail and run away.
Venom swooped down and landed next to Webs, her wings spread and her tail lashing. Webs scrambled away from her.
“This piece of garbage is our guest,” Tsunami growled loudly through the commotion.
“Be nice, Tsunami!” Sunny scolded. “Anyway, this is Venom—”
“A decabrid,” Venom cut in. Every dragon fell silent. “A lab experiment, produced by mixing the DNA of all ten known dragon tribes. Made by ten different dragons from the ten different tribes. They raised me into what I am now. And today on my seventh hatching day, I stand before you all for it is time, after seven years, I showed myself to the public…”
“Exactly,” Sunny said. “We have called this assembly to warn you of the deadly dangers of Venom the decabrid, our new visitor.”
“I could also be a teacher if that is what you call them here at this school” Venom pointed out. “I could easily teach the students about the tribes.”
“Good point,” Sunny said, nodding.
“We could use more teachers,” Starflight agreed.
“OK,” Tsunami said loudly. “Now a list of Venom’s deadly and dangerous powers.”
She snatched a scroll from the pedestal and glared at it. “Let’s see… Fire immune scales, firescales, gills….” Tsunami started rambling all of Venom's powers from the piece of parchment. “And… Animus magic”, Tsunami finished after an extraordinarily long silence of the dragonets gathered.
An outburst then suddenly came from the students assembled.
“WHAT?”
“Isn’t animus magic—?”
“But I thought it was gone!”
“Another Darkstalker!”
“She’ll kill us all!”
Tsunami raised a talon for silence.
The whole room fell silent.
“Now I think you get why you should never make her mad,” Tsunami said loudly,
A small SandWing with dusty yellow scales in the crowd raised a talon.
“Yes, Pronghorn?” Tsunami called.
“My name is Arid, Miss Head of School,” the SandWing said. “That is Pronghorn.” They waved a claw at another SandWing sitting nearby. “Doesn’t animus magic not exist anymore? Isn’t it broken?” A bunch of dragons nodded in agreement.
“I was born after Jerboa made that spell,” Venom explained. “The animus who created me... well she has her ways.”
“She isn’t dangerous,” Sunny said.
“Unless you annoy me,” Venom added.
“But please be wary around her and note that her wings are covered with firescales.” Sunny continued. “I, with the help of my friends, will decide what position Venom is best fit for and I thank you for coming to this assembly. Assembly dismissed.”
The students filed out of the cave; the atmosphere muted.
Moon, Winter, Kinkajou, Turtle, and a copper SkyWing who seemed to be Peril approached the Dragonets of Destiny.
“So what should we do?” Moon asked. “She could be a teacher like the dragonets of destiny or students like us or just a dragon living here like Stonemover.”
“You decide,” Winter said. “After all, I am no longer a student.” He twisted away and stormed out of the cave.
“Maybe she could be a TEACHER,” Kinkajou cried. “Wouldn’t that be GREAT? Then she could teach us about TRIBES and POWERS and EVERYTHING. That would be SO MUCH FUN to learn about. OR MAYBE SHE COULD BE A STUDENT. We could have classes TOGETHER. AND WE COULD SIT TOGETHER AND BE CLAWMATES AND EAT TOGETHER AND ALL THAT.”
“You are not helping,” Turtle pointed out.
“You were saying she could be my clawmate?” Peril eyed Venom.
Sunny nodded. “If that’s okay with you,” She said. “We believe in sharing sleeping caves, but we believe more in shaping our universe into something more accustomed to our students.”
“WE DO?” Tsunami demanded. “Then what about Winter and Icicle when they came barging into our sleeping caves demanding we give them private rooms or rooms with each other as Clawmates? Why didn’t you just give it to them? Then they would’ve left me alone.”
Everyone ignored her.
“So we can give you some time to think,” Sunny offered. “Then you could make a final decision.”
“No, wait!” Peril cried quickly. “She can’t be burned, right?”
“Nope,” Venom verified, flicking her tail across Peril’s back without leaving a single blemish.
“Then I’ll share a cave with her!” Peril said desperately.
“Perfect!” Sunny looked delighted. “We’ll figure it out. You can all return to what you were originally doing.”
Kinkajou bounded out of the cave talking about suntime and mangos. Moon glanced at Venom for a bit and left. Turtle disappeared immediately into the corridors.
Venom spread her wings and launched out of the hole she’d made earlier.
Now that everything is working, Venom thought. I might just be able to make this work. Maybe I will get to live in the academy.
Maybe.
=== Chapter 7 ===
Venom sat on the wreckage of Agave Mountain. Her talons brushed against the very rocks that had kept Darkstalker captive for nearly two thousand years. This was a noticeably clear reminder for her to never stoop down to his level.
Or else your ‘friends’ will bury you alive.
She also knew that Sahara had done everything in her power to make sure Venom was absolutely invincible to everything.
But anyone could make mistakes.
After all, Venom didn’t know the exact words Sahara had used.
And… she was getting off-topic.
Venom could definitely see her guardians, at least some of them, trying to kill her, namely Falcon and Everest. But she knew they wouldn’t do it.
She was their project. What kind of scientist kills their own project?
Moon-licking crocodile spawn who want to and deserve to be crushed.
Also, she didn’t exactly have friends, but anyone could do the betrayal part. Like, anyone. Except for enemies since then that wouldn’t be a betrayal.
Venom trailed her tail through the rubble, brushing most of it away with one sweep.
She closed her eyes, her scales soaking up the sun.
There she is! A nearby thought went.
Sunny.
Venom looked up and opened her eyes to see the golden hybrid flapping steadily toward her. Venom knew exactly what she wanted. She spread her wings and zoomed up to meet her.
***
“This,” Sunny pulled open a fireproof door. “Is the cave you’ll be sharing.”
In the cave, there were only two slabs of rock opposite each other. Peril was curled on one of them with her nose in her tail. That one was covered with black scorch marks as were many of the cave walls and some of the floor. Thick gray smoke engulfed the cave, rising from Peril’s scales. A tiny pool of water lay in the center of the cave surrounded by pebbles.
A tiny piece of rock lay next to Peril which seemed to be her welcome to Jade Mountain Academy.
“Hello,” Peril said nervously, rising from her bed. “I think you know I’m Peril—”
“Yes, obviously. You were born with a twin named Sky. You sucked all the fire from him — that is why you’re a firescale. You were told by Queen Scarlet your mother attempted to kill you — a lie. Your real mother, Kestrel, tried to save you. You were Queen Scarlet’s champion and killed many dragons until you met Clay, the only dragon who could touch you. You helped him escape the arena and have been somewhat discreetly in love with him. Your father is Chameleon the RainWing who turned into a SkyWing to marry Kestrel. He once possessed the scroll of Darkstalker which you destroyed, and you played a part in defeating Queen Scarlet and Chameleon for the first time. And—I think I’ve said too much.”
“Yes you have,” Peril said, staring at her. “Which is also normal, since I’m famous, I’ve always been. Right? I’m right, am I?”
Venom ignored her.
“Have fun!” Sunny chirped. Then she left them alone.
“So you only have firescales on your Wings?” Peril asked nervously.
“Yes,” Venom raised her smoking wings. Then she lifted her non-smoking claw.
“How?” Peril asked quietly.
Venom thought about it. “I… actually don’t know. Maybe my guardians made a mistake.”
“Hmmm,” Peril said. “Do you think maybe a firescales dragon can touch another firescales dragon? Like, you and me? Like maybe, BOOM, we both get burned and charred? Or do we both survive?”
“What do you think?” Venom asked, curious.
“Obviously, I can walk right through fire, and it only tickles a little,” Peril pointed out. “I think we might be able to!”
“Firescales are hotter than a normal fire,” Venom reminded her. “Clay figured that out when you burned through fireproof wires. Just because you can walk through fire doesn’t mean you can touch another dragon’s firescales. I think it’s too risky.”
“But we should test it out, right? Just for safety measures? Just, like brushing your wings with me? For one tiny second?” Peril raised one talon toward Venom’s wings.
Venom jerked back. Safety measures. This is the exact opposite of safe. “Not today. If we even have to.”
“I’ve been dying trying to figure it out!” Peril cried cheerfully. “Well, not dying but I’ve waited forever for another firescales dragon! And here! There is finally a fellow firescale I can test it out with!”
“I am not a firescale dragon,” Venom argued.
“Well, you are sort of,” Peril reached one talon out for Venom’s Wings again.
“Not today,” Venom growled. “Maybe sometime later with a bunch of burn ointment and maybe one or two healers. Just in case.”
“Fine, what’s your name again?” Peril flopped back onto her slab of rock, disappointed.
Peril could be right. Maybe firescales can touch firescales.
Perhaps we can touch without getting burned.
But how would we find out without risking each other’s lives?
=== Chapter 8 ===
“Did you sleep at all?” Peril asked Venom gloomily the next day.
“I slept just fine, thank you very much,” Venom lied.
In fact, she hadn’t slept at all.
“It’s time for your first class” Sunny poked her head through the cave door.
Venom jumped slightly. “What are YOU doing here?”
“Since you’re a new dragon, I came personally to ummm — escort you to your very first class, Venom! I’m sure you will love it here! You’ll make lots of friends — or haha students and have lots of fun and catch lots of prey for your…”
“She was like this for me too,” Peril muttered over Sunny’s over-enthusiastic voice. (Venom knew that Peril hated Sunny)
“Am I a student or a teacher?” Venom asked. “The way you worded that statement, I could be either.
“What statement?” Sunny asked.
“The first one.”
“Oh? Well, you are going to try teaching the Jade Winglet first to see how it feels.”
“The Jade Winglet?” Venom echoed. That was Moonwatcher’s Winglet, right? So it means meeting many famous dragons but… was also rather unpleasant because of Kinkajou.
“The teachers are supposed to be at their classes a bit earlier,” Sunny explained.
Then she carefully grabbed Venom’s front talons and dragged her through the corridors.
“I can walk just fine, thank you,” Venom snapped, wrenching her talons free.
They walked in silence (Well — almost, with Sunny humming in an extremely irritating way that made Venom want to suffocate the cheerful SandWing to death) for the rest of the trip to Venom’s teaching cave.
“Here it is!” Sunny pushed open a door and took Venom inside the cave.
It contained one of the underground lakes, for demonstrating underwater skills. If Venom was right this was what she was teaching.
Fighting and battle tactics.
A line of small pots and packs of seeds on a shelf were to demonstrate leafspeak. There were several logs in a corner that seemed to be for practicing fire (who needs to practice using their fire?) and maybe even flamesilk.
Sunny had just left when Venom heard a gong vibrate through the halls once.
BONG!
The warning bell.
Seconds later, Moonwatcher, Kinkajou, and Peril came through the doors at the same time and sat down on the cold rock floor. Kinkajou was contemplating what Venom was going to do in her mind and out loud. Moon was trying to look as small as possible. Peril was putting on a weird expression that she might have thought was suspicion, but she looked like she was trying to sneeze but failing tragically.
BONG! BONG!
After that, an IceWing with pearly gray scales and a SandWing the palest shade of yellow sauntered in and took seats a bit away from the other three.
“Venom! You're our new teacher, I knew it! I’m so excited! Are you teaching us your totally scary powers? Oh! Are you going to teach us how to fight!? I really need to learn how to do that! I’ll give those NightWings a scar or two for trapping me under a literal rock! Maybe you can be our history teacher! Webs is SOOO boring, like what even is The Scratching? Or was it The Scorning? What does even furthermore mean? More? And further? I HAVE LITERALLY NO IDEA.” Kinkajou half shouted and half said.
Finally, Turtle, a small MudWing, a SilkWing, and HiveWing walked into the room and sat next to Moon and Kinkajou.
“Everyone, please calm down.” Venom began, trying to sound as calm and non-threatening as possible. “We have some new students here. IceWing, what's your name?” She pointed at the IceWing and SandWing.
“Irbis,” The IceWing growled. He seemed to be very grumpy like Carnelian and Falcon.
“Didn’t Sunny tell you?” The SandWing asked.
“She was supposed to tell me?” Venom felt like killing the little SandWing-NightWing.
“I think so,” The SandWing said. “Anyway, I’m Mirage—”, before she could say anything else, Irbis interrupted.
“I wish you were a real mirage so that you could disappear,” Irbis said huffily.
“You think you’re so elegant, fathead,” Mirage retorted.
Venom ignored them. Nothing more than an argument.
“And you, MudWing?” Venom asked.
“My name is Auburn,” She said quietly. “Are you our new teacher? Sunny usually teaches us, she’s our homeroom teacher now.” Venom didn’t know how to respond. Am I the new teacher? Sunny didn’t even mention that. Do I even know enough to be one?
“I don’t actually know,” Venom said, eager to kill Sunny after the class was done for giving her so little information. “But I do know that the entire Winglet is here, and we are done wasting time.”
The dragonets fell silent.
“You, Silkwing, what’s your name? And you, HiveWing?”
“It’s Vestal.” said the pinkish SilkWing.
“Mine is Khapra,” said the HiveWing. “There’s supposed to be a LeafWing, but there weren’t any that were young enough to come to this winglet.”
“Ok. Now let’s start. This class is about - I believe - the powers and abilities of the ten known tribes,” Venom started. “Although-”
Auburn raised a talon.
“What could you possibly want to ask?” Venom growled. “I have barely started.”
“Well, you said the ten known tribes,” Auburn said, ignoring Venom. “So does that mean there are more tribes out there?”
Venom lashed her tail impatiently. “Yes. There may be other tribes out there but that is not our focus right now. Right now we are focusing on the class subject. So as I was saying…
“Although some moons begotten dragon has made it incredibly unclear on what I should teach or provided any details whatsoever I will teach what I think I should teach. So today we will start with MudWings. Who knows what makes MudWings different from other dragons?”
Auburn, Mirage, and Kinkajou all raised one talon.
“THEY’RE BROWN,” Kinkajou cried.
“That is obvious,” Mirage said coolly. “MudWings can breathe fire but only when they’re hot enough.”
“We can hold our breaths for one hour,” Auburn muttered.
Venom nodded. “Yes, many tribes can breathe fire. Can anybody name all the tribes that can breathe fire—?”
“MudWings, SandWings, SkyWings, NightWings,” Mirage said immediately. “SkyWings have the hottest fire and they can breathe it the furthest. MudWings have the weakest.”
“Correct,” Venom agreed. “I have SkyWing fire, the hottest fire. Watch.”
She curled her tail on a log  to hold it in place and roared fire all over it. The log slowly disintegrated into ashes.
“In battle, holding your fire until the maximum heat is a better way to attack than breathing spurts of small fire from time to time at your opponent. This applies to SkyWings, SandWings, and NightWings. Now, does anyone know what IceWings have other than fire?”
“Frostbreath,” Irbis replied. “Obviously.” Then muttered, “Stop acting like we’re three-year-old dragonets. Everyone already has learned this type of basic dragon anatomy.”
Venom ignored the haughty IceWing.
She paced towards the underground lake and breathed a thin spurt of frostbreath all over it. The lake surface solidified.
“Can everyone see?”
Auburn bent over to examine the ice.
Venom stomped on the ice, breaking it. “Who knows what RainWings have instead of fire?”
“OH OH OH!” Kinkajou yelped. “Venom! Well, not you but like literal venom. I once had to spit venom in a bowl and it was, like yuck, what are you going to do with it? You wouldn’t believe it; I got VENOM ON ME once and it HURT SO MUCH but it was totally an accident and Queen Glory who is by the way my BEST FRIEND MELTED the FACE off of this BAD DRAGON and it was GROSS and—”
“Shush,” Venom growled softly. Kinkajou was clearly a pink and yellow Dolphin in dragonet form. “However overly enthusiastic and completely unnecessary that answer was, it is correct.” She turned and unhinged her jaw. Black venom shot out of her fangs and splattered the rock floor.
“It’s black?” Auburn studied it curiously.
“Don’t touch it!” Venom snapped, spreading her wings then folded them. “That will eat through your scales if you’re not careful. And since that is my venom there would be no cure. What is the cure for RainWing venom?”
“The venom of the RainWing’s family member!” Kinkajou shouted.
“Right. Now I want you to split up and practice battle training with what I just taught you. Vestal and Khapra, you study the Pyrrhian dragons. As for Turtle, I want him to practice typical fighting moves in the water. Go!”
As the dragonets slunk off, Venom faced Turtle. “SeaWing, I want to start with you. Let’s see how well you fight.”
“B-but I-”, Turtle stammered.
Venom pushed him into the lake with a huge splash sending droplets of water all over her other students. It got a few complaints out of the dragonets.
Turning her attention to the SeaWing prince, she gestured for him to follow her. Turtle flailed around a bit. He maneuvered incredibly sluggishly for a SeaWing in the cold water. “Now, SeaWing, we’re going to practice dodging first since that extremely annoying hybrid never told me what to teach.” She demonstrated the dodging move carefully, asking Turtle to copy it.
The SeaWing prince flailed his wings helplessly, trying to avoid Venom’s claws. Turtle attempted to flee to the other side of Venom, but accidentally bonked his head on a rock. He froze, his claws reaching for his head. Venom took the time to hit him hard with her tail.
Venom knew Turtle was a pathetic fighter underwater without his magic. Obviously, he never really got any battle training, well, according to Turtle’s mind.
Stop! Stop! Turtle flashed in Aquatic to Venom as she sliced one of his wings making sure it hurt but didn't draw blood.
Venom ignored Turtle, pinning him with her piercing claws to the bottom of the lake. Try harder, SeaWing, Venom flashed.
Turtle covered his eyes to shield them from the blinding light.
That’s not how you do it. Angle your wings towards me instead of flailing them backward, causing yourself to fall over and giving your opponents a chance to corner you. She demonstrated the dodging move again, whipping her wings towards Turtle, creating a stream of bubbles, and blocking Turtle’s vision for a second.
Turtle tried mimicking the move, only to fall backward again and hit his head on the ground. The SeaWing rubbed his horns.
Why are we learning this anyway? Turtle flashed a protest. We all know that we only have to dodge.
Venom would have sighed had she been above water. Use your brains, SeaWing. The dragon will be aiming for your wings as disabling them will prevent you from swimming. But the move I showed you will allow you to efficiently dodge, confuse, and attack at the same time. Venom glanced at the claw at the edge of her wings.
Turtle looked at Venom blankly. Venom took the opportunity to shoot at his wing. He flailed backward and flipped through the water. Venom shot him a disapproving glare.
Disappointing, SeaWing. Never underestimate your enemy. In real battles, your opponents will be quicker and sneakier than that. You should know more than that, considering you’re a royal. Try harder next time. She clipped her wing tip across his snout hard enough so it would hurt but wouldn’t draw blood.
Was this how her students were going to act?
If so, what was the point of teaching?
She stepped out of the small pool and stalked towards Irbis and Mirage leaving Turtle shivering on the edge.
***
Once the Jade Winglet was gone, Venom stalked off to find Sunny, not caring whether a new class was coming or not. She wandered into the prey center by accident, which was total chaos with Clay sitting in the middle, his voice ringing across the room.
She rounded a corner and thought she saw the tip of a golden tail whisk around a corner. She sprinted in pursuit and spotted Sunny walking ahead. Venom camouflaged herself and snuck up beside her.
Sunny was talking to Fatespeaker who was bouncing around and acting a lot like Kinkajou.
Not wanting to mess with that, Venom carefully stalked away.
As she reached the peak of Jade Mountain, Venom felt an odd buzzing in one of her larger pouches. She pulled out a rolled-up scroll. She almost jumped out of her scales when she saw Ant’s handwriting.
Another animus touched an object? How many had Sahara made?
Probably all of them with a super long speech.
Then she read the actual message.
Dolphin making a dash (swim) for the continent. Urgent business. Dolphin will explain. Where are you?
=== Chapter 9 ===
Venom hastily scrawled Jade Mountain Academy back to Ant. She turned and stared out at the western horizon where she could just make out a thin line of sea.
Dolphin was in there. 
Venom wasn’t worried about Dolphin. If she made it, then great! If she didn’t, then better than great! But she was worried about her fate if all ten of her guardians just died out of nowhere.
Well first, how?
What threat could single out one of the probably ten thousand islands between Pyrrhia and Pantala and then manage to find the secret entrance to the lab assuming they knew the secret lab was there and then be able to fight off all ten of the full-grown dragons in the lab especially when they had Falcon and Everest?
So basically that strategy would work if they could find the correct island. If they would find the super secret entrance, if they could fight off ten full-grown dragons, if they wouldn’t kill themselves in doing so, if none of the ten dragons escaped which was basically impossible seeing how many secret entrances there are, if Cocoon didn’t sense them first which was also impossible considering Cocoon’s super sensitive antennae, and if Sahara didn’t use her magic in which case they would be done for. 
That was a lot of impossible ifs.
Besides, Dolphin would explain when she arrived. Maybe.
Hmmmm.
Category:Fanfictions
Category:Fanfictions (Incomplete)
Category:Genre (Adventure)
Category:Content (Nightshade28173)