Part One- The Princess

The water of the oasis was not as cold as the ocean around the Kingdom of Ice, but it would do in comparison to the heat of the Sand Kingdom.

Victorious dipped her head under the cool water of the oasis waters. Her eyes closed under the water, water filtering through her gills and erupting back out. Serendipity had come out of her daze once they had reached the oasis, flying low to the ground and gliding over the cooler airs of the wind. Victorious had not taken any credit for the rescue, it was only luck that she had dropped into a current when she did.

Even now, as Victorious and Serendipity soaked their warm bodies in the water, she would not take credit for the rescue.

A talon dipped into the water in front of her, the vibrations sang out into the oasis waters, and Victorious forced herself to open her eyes. The white talons of General Frostfire swam in her face and she sighed, bubbles erupting from her jaws. The icewing hybrid lifted her head out of the water to face the general, her expression slightly annoyed and frustrated.

"If we take time to stop at each oasis for about fifteen minutes-" The general conceded ", We should make the Academy by nightfall."

"Every oasis?" Victorious asked.

"Every Oasis-" Frostfire confirmed as she slid out of the water, shaking it off her wings ", And I want to make sure that each icewing is well taken care of when we land. We'll have no more dragons falling out of the sky."

"Of course, Princess-" The older dragon commented ", We'll be moving forward soon, so best to prepare. Victorious nodded, flicking her tail as slithering onto the sand, it clung to her scales like seaweed. The dark-colored dragon spread her wings, fanning them against the cool oasis breeze before the group of Icewings leaped into the air once more.

The day of flying was rough on her wings and her body.

The group of ice dragons swooped down from the sky, the edges of the Jade Mountain territory in the distance. The heat beat them like a wave, Victorious felt like her wings ached and burned at the same time. Icewings were not built for such hot weather, but even as the sky started to turn purple with the setting sun, Victorious felt the burn of the sand against her claws.

Her heart beat fast in her chest, and she struggled to catch her breath in the intense heat. Her wings flared, sending up swirls of sand and dust, her blue scales glittered purple in the intense sunset and she could feel her strength draining away with each passing moment.

Victorious glared at Foxfire, her snout wrinkling at him in the air, "How much farther do we have to fly?"

"Not much farther, Princess-" The general hissed, sweat dripping down his snout as he flew ", The mountain is only a few wingbeats travel from here."

"I would hope so General-" She snorted ", You've cut the oasis breaks in half, and yet we are still late."

"Late because of breaks-" The General snorted.

"Perhaps we should rest for the night-" Victorious snapped ", as I suggested earlier."

"Princess-" Frostfire snapped back at her ", I have my orders."

Victorious dropped the conversation from there.

.     .     .

It was midnight by the time the group of Icewings made their landing on Jade Mountain, wings shaking from the flight and the heat of the desert. Victorious already felt like her body was going to give out, her wings shaking like leaves. She landed, stumbling slightly with her wing stretched out in pain, she hissed under her breath.

The dragons of her flight party landed next to her with pants and thuds against the stone outcroppings where they landed.

She rattled the spikes on her tail, fanning herself with her cool blue wings as a massive Nightwing stepped from the entrance to greet them. The nightwing was not like any she had seen before, of the few embassies she had seen, this nightwing was huge.

The large nightwing had deep green scales, so deep that he looked black at first. The scales running up and down his legs were tattooed with music notes, all the way up to his shoulders, wings, and face, with a satchel around his chest that covered some of his tattoos.

He carved them into his scales- Victorious wanted to smack herself with her wing, Nightwings are too dark to have tattoos so they carve them into their scales, duh-

"Welcome to Jade Mountain Academy, Icewings-" The dragon bellowed, and Victorious couldn't tell if he was speaking normally or making a point ", It's good to have you here, all of you. My name is Mastery, your Principal."

The group of icewings shuffled, Victorious tipped her head to the side, taking in the night dragon with a cocked brow.

"Our caves? Principal Mastery?" Victorious asked after a moment of silence ", We have had a long flight and we are tired. If there is a place for us to rest? We would prefer to take it before any true formalities."

"Of course, you must be Princess Victorious Rain-" Mastery smiled at her, tipping his head to the side "If you all will follow me, we will get you settled in your caves with your clawmates."

Victorious tipped her head to the side, clawmates, she had forgotten that she would have to room with another dragon. The icewings around her grumbled slightly, whispering to each other until Serendipity spoke up.

"We never got our list of clawmates-" The shimmering icewing spoke with a clear and crisp voice ", So are you giving that to us?"

Mastery glanced at her with a small smile, reaching into his satchel and removing a thick scroll and a set of glasses. He placed the glasses on the end of his snout and unraveled the scroll, his dark eyes scanning the paper.

"If you'll follow me- I'll get you all settled and introduce you to your clawmates. And then you can rest your wings. Classes don't start for three days so you all have time to get used to the mountain."

Mastery turned and the icewings followed. Icestorm was paired with two clawmates, a seawing, and a skywing. Penguin was set with a sandwing prince while Serendipity was paired with a sandwing and a rainwing. Amur was sent to a cave with a hybrid who looked like he was skywing and sandwing.

And Victorious was paired with the only other female in her group, a seawing.

By the time she got to her cave, Vaquita was already asleep. The icewing hybrid sighed as she stepped into the cave, sending a blast of frost breath into one corner of the room before tossing her bag near the corner. 

This school would be fine. It would be better than the aggressive Icewing tutors who yelled at her for the littlest mistakes. It would be better than being married off and forgotten by her family. It would be better than being alone. She sighed and when she glanced up, the dragon of the night stood in the mouth of her shared cave with Vaquita.

"Can I help you?" She asked, the ridges and fins along her back standing on edge.

"You're safe here-" Mastery said simply.

Victorious stiffened slightly, scanning the dragon until she noticed the teardrop-shaped scale next to each of his eyes. A mind reader, just what she needed. Victorious kept her gaze on the night dragon, cocking her head slightly.

"I know-" She finally responded.

"Alright-" Mastery smiled at her, softly, like he actually cared ", I'll leave you to rest. You'll meet the rest of your winglet tomorrow at the third bell, your winglet dorm in down the hall and tp the left."

"Thank you-" Victorious said as she curled herself into her small patch of ice and closed her eyes, drifting into sleep.