Sahara milled around the courtyard with her friends. She stopped by Desert and Kangaroo's culture stand. Little sticks of roasted lizard and dried herbs were spread out on a wooden platter.

Starmind crunched on one, an expression of mild interest on her face. Conch made a face when she stuck one of the herbs in her mouth.

Sahara laughed.

"I wasn't raised in a SandWing environment and even I know that you make this as a tea." she said.

Desert chuckled and slid a clay bowl filled with warm water across the counter. Sahara saw a bit of the green-brown herb floating in it.

Conch cautiously poked it, then picked it up and suspiciously sipped it. Immediately, she spit it out.

The surrounding SandWings and Starmind laughed as Conch hissed evilly. She stalked away from the dragons to join her SeaWing subjects. 

Sahara picked up the bowl and drank the remains.

"You know, this wasn't really my favorite, either." Sahara said. Starmind laughed.

The duo meandered through the crowd, sampling bits of meat, fruit, and drinks here and there. 

After the moon sunk deep into the horizon, the tired and stuffed dragonets were ushered back to their sleeping caves.

---------------------

Sahara awoke early that morning, feeling a need for an early breakfast.

No one was at the prey center. Well, no one but a pale gray dragon with a red tint to her ear ruff and wings. Her eyes were an odd bright orange. The air around her was very weirdly tinted black. She was sitting on a wilted nest of grass.

Sahara chased around a weird-looking small animal for a while until she gave up and went to get a piece of fruit.

The weird looking dragon came over to her. 

"Hey, I'm Peppermint."

Peppermint... Sahara recognized her name from the acceptance scroll. She was listed as an IceWing, but...

"So you're realizing that I'm not exactly an IceWing." Peppermint said bluntly.

"Um.. what are you then?" Sahara asked.

"Probably the most shameful hybrid int the world. An IceWing-RainWing. My mother never lets me forget. She's always shoving me out of the house while she drinks fermented grape juice. Always a barrel full of it stocked beneath our hut." Peppermint said glumly.

"Oh. Uh, my name's Sahara." So much for initiating small talk. 

"You think I'm weird, right? I can see it in your eyes." Peppermint stated.

"No! Well-no, I-" 

"No, no, I understand. No one thinks that I'm not weird. It comes with the hybrid-ness."

Sahara laughed. Peppermint smiled in a dazzling way. 

They talked for a while, recurring subjects including the oddness of how they were raised and how they were different.

The gong rang and Sahara joined her old winglet. Desert was in the middle, with the rainbow semicircle of dragon spread around her. Once everyone arrived, she clapped her talons. 

"It's been so long since I've seen you all! Today we will be taking a tiny field trip-to the battle caves! We will be fighting with the Quartz winglet. Line up!"

The drowsy dragonets formed a slipshod row behind Desert.

They walked through the school, twisting and turning.

Entering a large cave with dragonets already in it, Sahara saw her clawmates run to join their friends-and in some cases, the other way around.

Starmind dashed over to Seafoam, Citrine swept towards Raptor (the latter rolling his eyes) and Peppermint waved at Sahara. She grinned back.

"Alright everyone, listen up!" bellowed the MudWing leading the Quartz winglet. 

The fourteen dragonets in the room immediately hushed and swung their heads eagerly towards the brown dragon. Desert hissed pleasantly, flicking her tail.

"Alright, that's enough. What Mosquito is trying to say is, welcome to the battling cave! We practice fight moves here, but there are rules! Rule one! No ranged attacks! That means the three F's-no fire, frostbreath, or freaky spit venom. Rule two! No maiming or mauling or tail-stabbing-I'm looking at you, SandWings! All you are allowed to use are your claws and your teeth. And  rule three! No deep wounds! Mosquito and I will give you an example."

Desert shortly ended her monologue and spun around to face Mosquito. The MudWing snarled and Desert hissed a thin tongue of flame. Suddenly, she lunged at Mosquito. Mosquito dodged, raking his claws on Desert's underbelly. Desert roared and reared onto her legs. 

Desert then clawed at Mosquito's arms, and pinned him down.  Mosquito wriggled, though, and slipped through Desert's claws. He bit down on Desert's tail. 

Roaring in a reaction, she flipped her tail into Mosquito's face, knocking it backwards. He yelled and clawed at Desert's side. She flipped him onto his back and pinned him down. She dipped her poisonous tail in front of his face and stood still.

After a few seconds, the dragonets realized that this was the end of the example. Struck with awe, they clapped. Desert released Mosquito and took a dramatic bow.

"And now that you've seen how it's done....Let's have, who, Sahara and Citrine! Come on up!"

Sahara glanced around panicked. The SkyWing was already making her way into the middle of the cave, where a circle had formed.  A wreath of smoke encircled her orange head. 

Sahara was suddenly pushed forward. She felt like a victim in the ancient Queen Scarlet's arena. Citrine clearly would not hesitate to kill her.

Desert hissed.

"Alright! Claws up, teeth ready! Fight!"

Citrine, without warning, lunged at Sahara, claws outstretched.