'Someone had been using a dreamvisitor to talk to one of the dragonets at school. And whoever it was, was planning murder.'

I woke up by Kinkajou yelling around. "IT'S THE FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL!!! I'M SO EXITED!" Shadow dug under my Wings. Suddenly something pounced on my back and I peaked one eye open, annoyed that someone woke me up. I swatted Kinkajou of my back with one huge Wing and tried to go back to sleep. "Come ON! Aren't you EXCITED?!" Something crashed and I cocked my head in the direction of the noise seeing Kinkajou frantically trying to push Moon out of bed. I just giggled by her attempts.

"Keep the volume down!" A very annoyed SkyWing named Carnelian grumbled from under her Wing. Then out of nowhere someone (I bet Kinkajou) screamed in to my ear;" GET UP! We have to get breakfast and get to class!". I groaned and lifted myself of the bed;" Fiiineee, I'm up, you see?" She nodded and smiled brightly her scales an eye piercing yellow. Moon joined us as we walked down the hallway (with Shadow on my back) to the prey center.

After we ate something we went to find our classroom. The gong echoed through the halls. "Where do we even have to go?" I said eying the classroom (caves). "Follow me!! We only have three minutes to get into class before it starts. Hurry!" Kinkajou said while bounding down the hallway. Moon and I followed her. She suddenly stops abruptly and I walked right inside her. "We're here!" She said while running inside the cave.

Tsunami sat at a desk at the front of the classroom smiling brightly. "Hello! Welcome to your first class! Nice work finding the right cave. Kinkajou, Moonwatcher, Shapeshifter and Carnelian right? Oh, be impressed, I have been working so hard to memorize all of you! Thirty-six new names! Easy as cows for Starflight but a whole lot trickier for me and Clay. It helps that I knew some of you before."

"Like ME" Kinkajou said. 'Tail kisser' Carnelian thought grumpily.

Someone moved in the tunnel behind me and I turned to see a smallish MudWing coming into the cave with a SeaWing behind. I didn't know the MudWing but the SeaWing seemed familiar.

"Turtle!" Tsunami shouted happily. "Oh, good! I asked to be given your Winglet first. Hey everyone, this is my brother! I can't believe I have a brother. More like a million brothers, apparently. I'm assuming this one's the best, since he's here right now." She put a Wing over his shoulders and gave him a wide grin. Turtle smiled at her. "It's true, I am."

I studied the green SeaWing. I remembered the vision of him attacking Anemone. Could he be the one from the dream last night? Was someone trying to convince him to kill his sister's? I shook it of. No the voice didn't sound like his. And he seems nice, even though it's kinda creepy that I can't read his mind.

He caught me staring at him and smiled at me. I smiled back at him. "This is my clawmate, Umber." Turtle introduced the small MudWing.

"Oh! Clay's brother!" Kinkajou said happily. "Ooh, the Jade Winglet is so cool! I wonder who we'll get for our IceWing and SandWing. Does Sunny have any sisters?" Chirped Kinkajou.

I sensed the last two dragonets and felt somehow relieved and happy it was them.

"Actually, after yesterday, we decided to switch around a couple of dragons, since you guys seemed like a good match." She flicked her tail at Qibli and Winter as they entered the cave. "You've already met, you're all interested in scavengers, we think you'll fit well together."

BONG! - Went the warning bell one final time.

I stared in Winters cold blue eyes and I felt curiosity build up inside me. Something about him is different from the other IceWings.

Unconsciously I started listening to Qibli's interesting thoughts. 'Its her. Now I can figure her out. She seems protectively over that other NightWing. I wonder if I could get her to like me. I could protect her. Would she want that? It's what I do best. It's what I've done for Thorn since I was three. She looks self confident and like she can protect herself just fine. Is she a threat? Or the kind of dragonet the Outclaws are sworn to protect? Why haven't I figured her out yet?'

And then, more softly, but chiming from somewhere inside both Winter and Qibli they thought: I wonder what she thinks of me.

From across the cave, Kinkajou was brimming with 'Eeee! The ominous handsome glittery brooding IceWing!'

Umber thought quietly, 'Wow he's gorgeous.'

And Carnelian sat down with her Wings folded and scowled at her talons: 'Bah. I hate everyone. All of these dragons would be useless in battle.'

I saw Moon edging a bit closer to Turtle. I could totally understand why; he was like a small Island of peace in the middle of the crosscurrents. Nine dragons in one cave all thinking at the same time.

"Let's go around and introduce ourselves," Tsunami said. "I mean maybe it's unnecessary, but that's what Sunny said to do. And then she said I probably wouldn't listen to her anyway, so I am proving her wrong, so there. I'm Tsunami, if anyone didn't know. I was going to give myself a title like Commander of Recruitment, but then for some reason everyone voted but I would be terrible at recruiting, whatever that is all about, so they made me Head of the School instead. So I'm pretty much for the boss. And I'm running your first small group discussion class, which was Glory's big idea, so I figure we'll figure it out together. Any questions?"

"Yeah," said Carnelian. "Are we stuck with this group?"  "That's not quite how I would put it," said Tsunami. "But yes."

"What if we would prefer to be in a group with other IceWings" Winter asked. "Such as my sister?"
"That's not how the Winglets are set up," Tsunami said. "But you'll be in a bigger group classes with her and plenty of time to make other friends as well."

"I love our Winglet," Kinkajou volunteered. "When do we eat?" Umber asked. "Just kidding. Pretending to be Clay." He grinned, then shot a look at Qibli. 'Did he think that was funny? I hope that was funny. Did I sound like an idiot?

Oh, its Qibli he noticed, Moon and I realized, not Winter. I shot Moon a look and we both giggled at our twin thought. It was impossible to ignore how handsome Winter was, especially with Kinkajou thinking about it all the time. But it was true that Qibli was really good looking too, just in a warmer way. And hot. Now that I looked. His thoughts were so distractingly fascinating that I didn't notice it before.

"Ha! Actually I brought food," Tsunami said. She cleared aside a tangle of vines and revealed a carved stone bowl full of fish, which she set in the middle of the floor. "Help yourselves."

"Awesome," said Turtle.
"Yyyyyyyuck," said Kinkajou. "I'll wait and have a banana later, thanks."

Moon took a step towards the fish, but so did Winter, and she jumped back to stay out of his way. He gave her a curious look. 'She's frightened of me. Mother would be so proud. I guess I did threaten to slice her off her face.

I growled menacingly as a warning to leave her alone, then I dodged the dragons and snapped two fish. I gave one to Moon and ate the other myself. She smiled and thanked me.

"Right, introductions," said Tsunami. "Carnelian? Want to go first?"
'No', muttered the SkyWings brain. She heaved a deep sigh. "I'm Carnelian."

There was a pause.

"Anything else?" Tsunami prompted. "What should we know about you? Family, favorite color, anything?"

Carnelian growled low in her throat. "I'm a loyal subject of Queen Ruby," she said finally. "I'm in the camp that believes Queen Scarlet is dead, and if she isn't I'd be happy to kill her myself to protect my queen's throne. I'm here because my queen told me to be, although I should be training with my battalion and guarding the palace, not eating slimy wet fish with a bunch of spineless dragons." She frowned at them all for a moment. "And my favorite color is red.

'Insecure', Qibli thought, studying Carnelian. 'Only comfortable when she's fighting. Worried we'll think she's dumb and that Queen Ruby will find out she's dumb and all her chances of advancing to general one day will be ruined. Is she as stupid as she thinks? Have to wait and see.'

I blinked at him. None of that was obvious, but it was all there in the less concious parts of Carnelian's mind. He was right. How could he know all that?
   He couldn't be a mindreader, surely, or I'd be able to tell. Had he all that out just . . . by noticing?

"All right," said Tsunami. "Good to know. Kinkajou?" Bright flares of yellow and purple shot across the RainWing's scales. "Oh, sure; I'm Kinkajou, I'm a RainWing, and I've never met any SeaWings or SandWings or IceWings before, I mean apart from the Dragonets of Destiny, of course, because I'm really good friends with them. I'm excited to learn how to read and I want to know everything about all your tribes and I think this school is the best idea in the world. And my favorite color is yellow!"

"Of course it is," Carnelian said.
'Should I tell them of being a NightWing prisoner? No, that's a little grim for first impressions.

"Your turn," Kinkajou said, bumping Moon's side. A flurry of happy thoughts leaped through her scales into Moon, pushing her past her nervousness. I smiled encouragingly at her and she smiled back.

"I'm Moonwatcher," she said softly, "but please call me Moon." 'Or nothing, that would be alright, too. I guess I can't say, "Please don't talk to me at all," can I? I giggled slightly. "Um. I grew up in the rainforest." 'And I'm a mindreader. And I can see the future, and I'm afraid Turtle might kill his sister, and I'm pretty sure someone is spying on our dreams, and that the whole mountain might fall on us one day. Also I miss my mother. "I like scrolls," she finished nervously.

"Me too," said Turtle. "At least, I like scrolls that weren't written by my mother. I've read way to many of those." He rolled his eyes. "I'm Turtle by the way."

'Used to being invisible, Qibli thought, tilting his head at Turtle. 'Almost prefers it, but not always. Easygoing. Doesn't want to try hard enough to be noticed. I wonder how much that armband is worth. Don't recognize the kind of stones. He looks like he wants to go back to bed.'

I listened intently; I haven't been able to figure out anything about Turtle at all. Qibli seemed to think the SeaWing was harmless. I wondered what he'd think if I told him about the vision.

Now it was my turn. "I'm Shapeshifter. I grew up alone in the Rainforest." Something under my Wing protested and everyone's eyes were glued on it. I lifted my Wing and saw Shadow still protesting. "Pardon. I mean alone with my friend Shadow. Oh and I can speak to animals." 'And morth into different dragon tribes. And shoot venom and get invisible and I can mindread AND I can see every possible future there is. But I can't say that. Well not now. But I will. "I don't have any family so Glory adopted me when she found me in the forest. AND if anyone tries to eat ore even worse eats Shadow. I swear I will rip your heads of. And one last thing: DON'T. MESS. WITH. ME. That's all." They all looked surprised after I finished.

"I'm Qibli," said the SandWing. "I was one of Thorn's Outclaws before she became Queen. My plan is to learn everything as fast as possible and then get back to help her run the Kingdom of Sand."

"I'm sure she's lost without you," Winter said scathingly. I shot him a glare.
"And I'm sure you're perfectly essential to the operation of your Kingdom," Qibli shot back. Winter frowned, and Qibli thought, 'Ah that hit him home. I was right; he doesn't think he's worth much to his family, although he would like us all to think differently.'

"And I'm Umber," said Clay's brother. "I think - I think we might have been in battle together once," he said to Carnelian. "I mean you look familiar."

"Oh she said squinting at him. Her frown softened. "I didn't realize you fought in war, too."  'Where SkyWings and MudWings fought on the same side, she thought quietly. 'Maybe I do have allies here.'

"Yeah, with my brothers and sisters - my brother Reed is the leader," he said. "But Sora and Marsh and I could come to school now that War is over, since there's so much we wanted to learn. I miss him and Pheasant though." Memories flashed through his head, of flying surrounded by other brown dragons, whisking through clouds and turning and diving all together.

"They can visit anytime," Tsunami promised. "They can even camp out and live here if they want. The more the merrier."

"They're working for Queen Moorhen right now," Umber explained. "But maybe one day." His Wings drooped a fraction of an inch, and then he pulled them back up.

"Well I am Winter," said Winter.
"Queen Glacier's nephew," Qibli said at the same time as he did. Winter straightened up and glittered dangerously at him.

"Don't you mock me," he said.
"I wouldn't dream of it," Qibli said innocently. I laughed and Winter shot me a glare.

"If you're Head School," Winter said to Tsunami, "does that mean you're the dragon to talk to about getting a private cave?"

"Why, yes I am," Tsunami said. "The answer is no."

"See, I am your destiny," Qibli said to Winter with a cheerful shrug. 'Wish he were my destiny,' Umber and Kinkajou thought nearly simultaneously. I giggled and got a pleased look from Qibli.

"Can we get on with the discussion?" Winter asked. "What exactly is the point of this?"
"The point is to talk about anything you want to talk about," Tsunami said. "To find out what dragons from other tribes think, and see things from a new point of view. I'm sure it'll be different when you have class with Starflight or Clay or Sunny, but I, for one, think you guys should pick the topic."

"All right," Winter said. "I want to talk about NightWing powers."

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I hope you enjoyed because my thumbs are dead. See you in the next chapter.

2492 Words