"Hello, mother." Serene said, as she flew into the cave. She knew that Glimmer would take this as an offense.

"I'm not your mother," she snapped. "I'm not even related to you."

"Hi, mom!" Gemstone chirped from her perch. She jumped down, spreading her wings to glide. She landed next to Glimmer.

"Hello, baby. How are you? By the way," she added to Serene, "Bush is coming to get you today."

"I know," Serene responded. Bush was really nice. Glimmer didn't like him, for some reason- she guessed that Bush was Gemstone's father, and they had had a falling out when Glimmer told him she was with egg. Serene didn't know whether this was true, however it was a good explanation for Glimmer's hostility and Bush's apologetic glances at her.

There was a knock at the entrance to the cave. "Who is it?" Glimmer shouted grumpily. She knew who it was, Serene could tell, but Glimmer was just asking so Bush had to answer.

"It's Bush. I'm here to take Serene," he yelled back. He let himself in.

"Aww! But you've only been here for a few days!" Gemstone grumbled. She was old enough to understand time, but she still felt like it had only been a little while, not a full month.

"It's okay, I'll be here again next year. And then, maybe you'll be old enough to come with me!" Gemstone beamed and squirmed past her mother to hug Serene. Serene scooped her up and closed her wings around Gemstone.

"Don't touch her!" Glimmer roared, snatching her dragonet out of Serene's talons. "You could have hurt her!"

"Why would I hurt Gemstone?" Serene shouted.

"Of course you wouldn't, not on purpose! But you know what happens when you have too much emotion. You need to be more responsible!" she growled.

"It's not my fault that I can't control my 'gifts'!" Serene replied angrily, but quickly returned her tone to cool and indifferent. "You're never going to listen to me anyway. Goodbye!" she shouted and stalked over to Bush.

"Wait! I forgot to tell you," Glimmer said reluctantly, "At the Guardians' meeting, we took a vote on whether or not we should send you to Jade Mountain Academy." Serene held her breath. "They voted yes."

"YES! YES, YES, YES!" Serene shouted, doing a flip in the air. "FINALLY!" After she did this, she grabbed her talons, a horrified look on her face, which she then squashed and turned back to normal. After a few moments of her squeezing her eyes shut, she let out a breathy sigh of relief, and calmly rested her talons back on the ground.

"But, you have to fly to each of the Guardians' houses so they can fly with you first. They want to be with you when you get there."

"That's going to take almost until the beginning of the semester, though!" Serene complained.

"Well, that's what they decided. You'll be there when it's time," Glimmer said. She frowned. "So, we're coming with you. Gemstone, come here!"

"Yeah?" Gemstone replied.

"You're coming with us," she said.

"Yes! Can I ride on your back, mommy? Can I pleeeeeease?" Gemstone wheedled.

"Yes, yes, fine. I know you can't fly yet, so we'll take turns."

"Okay. Before we go, I'm just going to say: Whatever happened between you and Bush, you need to work it out, or this trip will be unbearable. Wait," Serene added, "Is Gemstone going to stay at the academy?" Serene asked.

"Well..."

"Pleeease! I'll be good, mommy, I promise! Serene will protect me!" Gemstone pleaded.

"...Alright, fine. But only if Jackal and Krill are going, too." Glimmer agreed.

"Yay! This is going to be so fun!"