Rising Sun

== Chapter one ==
Seahorse didn’t imagine himself as a particularly good student. Definitely a mediocre one. He could write, but what use was that to him? The green SeaWing wasn't much of an athlete either. He flew slower than all of the other princes and even in swimming he could barely keep up. And he should be good at ocean things. But time and time again he found himself falling behind in classes. He was totally boring and bland. Just another nameless prince.
He knew he shouldn’t pity himself so much, and it would probably just look like he was looking for sympathy if he voiced his insecurities. So he would keep it inside of him and just not complain at all. Nobody liked whiners. 
When Seahorse and an entourage of his brothers finally landed at Jade Academy, he realised how hard it would actually be to keep up with his peers. The walls of the newly furnished mountain were smooth and cold as he pressed his body up against them, avoiding the bustle and mass crowd of dragons buzzing in the main area. He bit his cheek and looked around for the dormitory assignment sheets, slowly crawling away from the noise to a serene billboard. A muscular MudWing sat next to it with a dreamy and faraway look on his round face. 
The SeaWing shrunk back a little at the sight of him, but still walked up slowly anyways. 
“U-uh…” He started, unable to make any kind of eye contact whatsoever as his gaze shifted to the board. His sky-blue pupils shrunk into narrow slits as he focused intently on the writing.
“Huh? Oh, hi. Do you need your schedule?” The dragon spoke in a low and rumbly voice, kind and slow as he smiled at the shaking form next to him. Seahorse froze, stopping his violent trembles and tilting his head even farther away from the MudWing, cracking a wavy and craggly smile. 
“Y-yeah, that’d be awesome.” He croaked, his molars gritting as he forced the response.
“You’re…” The MudWing started.
“SEAHORSE. Seahorse, sorry, that was loud.” The SeaWing managed, knowing anyone within a large circle of the winding caves had heard his aggressive shout.
“You’re fine, don’t worry about it. I’m Clay, a founder, and this is your plan for the year.” Clay’s tone was warm and gentle, the way he spoke calming down the shaking dragon. Seahorse shifted on his talons and met Clay’s soft smile with his awkward, toothy one as he turned his head to make eye contact. He probably looked like a psycho trying to act normal, as was evident by the MudWing’s expression shifting to a confused stare. 
“Sorry, I’ll b-be going now.” And with that, the dragonet bounded off to the gold winglet’s dormitory.
His long, uncut claws scraped across the stone as he bounded away through the mountain’s twisting and seemingly never ending tunnel-maze. The scraping motion felt like it was wearing the weapons on his talons down, the repetition engraved in his head as he bumped into a dragon just outside of where he hoped his dormitory was. Searing heat shot through his body and he yelped a bit, realising he must’ve been blasted with somebody’s flames at full charge, or, worse yet…
“WAIT, HOW DID YOUR FACE NOT JUST MELT OFF?!” The opposing dragonet screeched, her talons clasped around her snout, her bright blue eyes stretched so far open he thought they might pop out of their sockets. 
“Uh– uh– uh–” Seahorse started, slinking backwards. The firescales looked more scared than anything else, but he assumed it was for her reputation rather than concern for him.
“ARE YOU OKAY THOUGH? DO YOU FEEL LIKE, SIZZLY OR ANYTHING?” 
Nevermind, she does care about me. Huh. He blinked and nodded hastily. He tried to open his mouth and speak but his tongue was too dry and he felt like he had been frozen in place by frostbreath.
“Yeah? I’m not… Not charred, right?” He smiled weakly at the SkyWing, standing up on his legs as they shook slightly under his weight. She looked at him, disbelief plastered all over her warm face. The curves running along her snout were placed in a friendly way, invoking yet another shy grin from the SeaWing. 
The SkyWing shot him a puzzled look, still waiting on an answer to the first thing she’d exclaimed when they had run into each other. He sighed and bowed his head in an overdramatic fashion.
“Well, it’s a long story. A boring and long story that you probably don’t want to hear.” He groaned, trying to get out of explaining it to her to the best of his ability. 
“Oh, boring? I don’t like boring things. You yourself actually kind of look boring, but I’ll decide if that’s true later. You're Seahorse, correct?” She tilted her head.
“Wait, how did you get my name? I didn’t say anything about it to you.” He grunted halfheartedly.
“Ummm, maybe because we’re clawmates and Seahorse kinda indicates to me that you’re a SeaWing?” She huffed back, mocking his expression.
“O-oh. Right.” Seahorse mumbled back to her. He looked at his talons shamefully, scrunching his face while he asked her a question. “Then you must be…” He scanned his scroll nervously, looking at the names on the yellowed papyrus.
“Dawn.” She finished for him, smiling proudly as though her name was the best thing about her. I can think of other attributes, he thought. Dawn was a fitting name, he supposed, looking more carefully at all of her features. She had firescales radiating a scorching heat all throughout her body, the pale red of her main colour and desaturated cream of her underbelly mixed in a pretty way. Little embers flew from her body, and her horns were curled in a way that made them look like pristine, carved wood. They had a sheen to the dark red colour, and her legs were nicked with speckles of crimson along her talons. Her muscles were defined prominently around her triceps, and she was fairly lean. She towered over the SeaWing to a degree, her piercing gaze pinning him where he stood. 
“N-nice name,” He managed, blinking quickly and tilting his head down. “So we’re clawmates for the… The whole year?” He tried to add some false disappointment to his tone and failed horribly; it sounded more scared than let down. She mocked his sigh and nodded, smirking. “Won’t you set stuff on fire, though?” He asked, trying to get her to stop making fun of him. 
“Ughhhh. Lighting things up, am I right?” She groaned and stepped into the cave, almost smacking him with her tail. After dodging narrowly, he touched his earring, gently checking to make sure it was still there. He squeezed past her and wormed into the dormitory, observing a small pool with a seaweed decorated bed beside it. A hammock was strung from the ceiling, the vines woven cleanly into crossing patterns to strengthen the weaving. 
He stepped forward, turning to let the SkyWing take up some room, and he noticed a bare rocky area that totally lacked any extra decoration besides a stone scroll holder, empty and lacking anything in it. Seahorse craned his neck to see what he thought was meant to be his area, observing the wooden rack with a few papers organised neatly by author’s name. 
Dawn made another frustrated noise as she caught sight of her quarters. 
“Could they at least, like, put a cool looking gem by it?” She complained weakly, examining his area. “And you get scrolls?” She huffed and glared at the wall behind him.
“Well, I mean… I could r-read something to you, I guess,” he offered. To his surprise, she tilted her head up and showed him her glimmering blue eyes again. They reflected the weak torchlight in the room, lit up happily. 
“Really? Nobody ever does stuff for me!” Dawn exclaimed excitedly. He winced pitifully at her statement. It was probably because of her unfortunately inherited scales. As far as mutations in dragons went, those with ones that could kill to the touch didn’t earn the most loving parents. She was likely only taught how to fight, narrowly escaping being thrown off a cliff like most would have been due to her usefulness in war or something.
“O-oh. Well, let’s change that.” He showed his teeth in a smile that awkwardly twisted to a slight grimace. He reached for the parchment, instantly recognising the texture to be waterproof. Nice, he thought gratefully. I can read at night, underwater. Seahorse pulled himself from his imagination and met the energetic dragonet’s stare again. “I’ll look at our options.” He didn’t really like reading out loud, but it would be nice to do something for poor, scroll deprived Dawn. 
He was still somewhat surprised she had so easily let go of the accidental run-in, where he should’ve been burned to a crisp; maybe she just forgot stuff quickly. He ran his claws along the scrolls, settling on a history piece centred around the SandWing Succession war. He unfurled it, the corners of the parchment peeling a little. 
“I assume you know most things about that terrible battle,” He winced, reminded of the attack on the palace. Having to hide in the deep was awful; he loved sunlight, being able to lay on his back by the beach and eat fish his brothers brought to share while discussing pretty girls they’d seen around by their school.  
“Oh, of course! Plenty of history things, yep, that’s me. I know it all.” She smiled, trying to cover up the twinge of boredom he sensed.
“Righty then,” He looked for the start of the words, and began reading at a steady pace. He stopped at the second paragraph, looking over the paper at the firescales. She was fake sleeping, rolled onto her side in her rocky cove, snoring obnoxiously. Seahorse chuckled a little, and the SkyWing looked up and grinned proudly. 
“Too boring? I thought you wanted me to read to you.” He mused, sighing dramatically. “Woe is I, nobody wants to listen to my boring history scroll. Sob!” He added, flopping halfway into the pool before resurfacing to a giggling Dawn.
“Maybe we should read later. I’m kinda hungry now, dontcha think?” He nodded agreeably. The green SeaWing was always hungry and was happy to be given an excuse to go eat.
“I think the… Prey Centre, was it? Is probably too crowded. You should go hunting with me.” He smiled, shaking some of the fresh water off of his scales and sliding the dreadfully bland scroll back into place. 
“Sure! I can burn it for you.” She shut her eyes smugly and put a talon to her chest, smiling as though being able to light stuff on fire was the most impressive thing ever. Seahorse rolled his eyes playfully and started walking out. 
“Well, let’s head to sea,” He suggested. “I bet I can impress you with my mad fishing skills.” Dawn shot him a curious look and stood up to trail behind him.
Category:Fanfictions (Incomplete)
Category:Fanfictions
Category:Fanfictions (Semi-Canon)