A/N

As always If you happen to find any typos, please comment them in the sentence/ paragraph so I can fix them!

     The thought of what Aqua had done to smell of blood still lingered in my mind as my mother shoved me forward with her wing.
     "Alright," She said, her voice masking any emotion. "Enough hiding and 'observing' your peers. Go and find your cave."
     I felt a sudden rush of dread and I tried to scramble back into her grasp. "Alone? Aren't you going to come inside?"

     "This will be better than the horrible lessons your father taught you." My mom responded. "Remember to hide your secret, and you'll see me soon."
     She took a step back, not making eye contact with me. As she looked away, I could've sworn I saw tears in her eyes. My heart gave a hopeful leap. She does love me! She doesn't want to leave me here! I realized with new hope. But my mom was already turning around and getting ready to fly away.
     "Wait!" I cried out. "What if I just came next year, or tomorrow! What if—"
     "Trust me, Glaze," my mother said while making sure to not look back at me. "You're going to love school. Just keep your secret hidden, and you will see it's going to be okay. Act normal, no matter what happens. Good-bye..."

     I felt my own eyes being to glisten, either I heard wrong, or she actually seemed to not want me to leave. Despite my theories, in just a few moments, she was a pale shape winging away through the nonexistent clouds, taking whatever hopes of her loving me with her.
I crawled further into the shadows, not feeling rejected, and watched as more students came in and out of the entrance. There weren't actually a thousand, I know. There was just seventy. Well, okay that is a lot of students but still not a thousand. And after the school being opened for so many years, it wasn't a surprise I had to eventually attend.
Well.. I thought, when I couldn't wait around any longer, imagine that you just spent your entire first few years of your life alone, and you need to get some food. You would need to take that dangerous risk to survive... right? If a dragonet was brave enough to do that, I'm certainly brace enough to go to school and talk to adults by myself.

     I shook out my wings, turned my ruff invisible, and made the color-changing scales turn into their neutral state; Dark blue. I waited until there was complete quiet on the landing edge, and I darted into the cave's humongous entrance.
     "Greetings! And Salutations!" A booming voice greeted loudly. I had to blink a few times until my eyes adjusted to the darkness of the cave. "Welcome to the Great School of Everlasting Peace, Jade Mountain Academy! Judging by the fact the scanners caught no trace of a stamp on you, you must be new to our school! If you would please step forward, you will find a blank stamp in the tiny crevasse in front of you!" I finally looked up to see a large stone statue poised it the center of the welcoming cave. I looked around some more to see if any dragon was talking, until I realized it was the statue.
     I began to tremble as the statue's mouth began to close as it finished the beginning of it's "welcome-speech". Didn't the SeaWings have a bad run-in with enchanted statues? Why would Tsunami even want this in her school? Why would anyone want that in their school?! I thought anxiously as I grabbed a blank stamp from the statue's feet.

     As soon as I picked up the wooden stamp, ink flowed through the card, imprinting itself into the little grooves. I watched in awe as the ink formed into little words, and a picture. I soon realized, the stamps must of been enchanted, or I suddenly had magical powers.

      "Now that you've picked up your stamps, you will find a scroll rack on the wall to your right. Your names are all printed on the binding." The statue continued. I walked cautiously to the scroll rack. It was.. pretty big, and many of the scrolls had already been taken off the racks. I continued to search until I picked up the one that read, Glaze, on it. "In this scroll, you will find your schedule and clawmates."
     "Clawmates?" I echoed to no one in particular. "What, or, who are those?"
      Since the statue wasn't an actual dragon, and I'm pretty sure it looked ridiculous talking to myself out loud, I just opened my scroll and read the mini description of my "clawmates".

     All it simply said was,
"Star— NightWing. Age 5."
     So... very useful. And below that it said,
"Peach— RainWing. Age 5."
     Yep. Useful. I closed up the scroll and switched back to the little wooden stamp in my other claw.
     I reexamined the little description on the card to see where my cave was. All it said was, "TUNNEL C — SEVENTH CAVE ON THE RIGHT" so that was very helpful. I looked at the looming caves on my right, each one having a little wooden sign marking which cave was which. I eventually found out which one was C tunnel, and walked down the hallway.
     As soon as I stepped into the walkway, an icy chill ran through the entrance cave. I slowly turned my head to see six different mean-looking ice dragons pace inside, frowning at the talking statue. I felt my own scales go even colder and I hurried down the tunnel even faster. Other IceWings were a no-go. It meant bad news if one found me right now and realized I didn't arrive with them.
     "Seventh cave on the... right..." I muttered, finding it very hard to read the ink in the dim light. The tunnel twisted in a curving shape, almost like a huge tail. A few of the lanterns above me had flickering lights, some of them extinguished. Which is why it was hard to see.
      For some reason, I kept imagining that Jade Mountain would be damp and dark, or at least something resembling a cave. But it didn't; it more felt like I was back in the outskirts of the Sky Kingdom. Back home, with Dad.. and Mom.

     Soon enough, the tail tunnel straightened out, and I could see cave openings on each side of the corridor. This must be the sleeping corridors, or, at least where dragons hung out with each other. Nope. Definitely the sleeping corridors. I could feel the presence of a few dragons already in their caves.
     As I stuck to the shadows, sticking out like a sore claw, I passed a burly MudWing and a scrawny Sandwing, both of which had very unpleasant expressions and obviously didn't want anyone to mess with them. They both glanced at me, and who wouldn't blame them.
Normally when you see an IceWing in the shadows, you honestly question their sanity. I didn't even try meet their judgemental eyes. I continued to walk down the hallway. I could practically feel the pressure and stares as I walked. I eventually walked past my cave, and I had to backpedal and pay attention to where I was going. Embarrassing.

     I felt the stares increase as I walked back to the seventh cave. I could feel they eyes following my every step. It was as if I made one false move, everything would come crumbling down. I passed a chipper NightWing, who was chatting excitedly to an older SandWing who seemed to be about six, while the NightWing was at least two. Even though they weren't looking at me, I could feel myself becoming weaker and weaker as I tried to find my cave.
"Oh Three Moons!" An exasperated voice called from the side of me. "Your brain is going to drive me nuts!"
I looked over in confusion, but didn't see anything. A dark arm lunged out from one of the caves and seized my wrist. I began to try to escape it's grasp, but I was eventually pulled into the cave. I was about to scream for help, but someone clamped their claws around my snout, silencing me.

"Shh!" She, or at least I'm sure it was a she, hissed. You can't really tell by just a dragon's voice. She hissed at me again. "Three moons hush up!" Definitely a girl. I gave her a "you have your claws on my snout I can't talk" face and she simply pointed at my head. "I meant in there snail-brain. Your thoughts are going to drive me crazy!" She unclamped her talons from my snout and backed away a bit. I shook my head a few times to see what she looked like, but I still couldn't see her that well. "Oh.. right sorry. I extinguished the normal lamps just because they were getting too annoying."
I watched as she quickly went around the cave, lighting the new lamps with... blue..fire? She eventually came back to me and held out her claw.
"My name is Star, welcome to the seventh cave in C tunnel. And yes, I'm your new clawmate newbie."
"O-oh.. I-I'm—"
"Glaze. First year of Jade Mountain Academy. I know, I read my welcoming scroll and your mind."
"Well that's a relief— Wait. What?"

Star sheepishly grinned before going into "super serious mode again". "I'm a mind reader, although I don't normally listen in on people's thoughts. Don't worry. It's just because you're new and— Oh I should probably give you one of these."
She walked over to a hammock on the far side of the room. She pulled out a small pouch from underneath the leaf blanket and quickly tossed it over to me.
"Take our one of those rocks and put it in a place to where it's always near you. Like a pouch or necklace."

I pulled out one of the tiny rocks but gave her a questioning look. "What are these? Are they going to kill me? Will it—"
"Shhh." Star said while making a "shut up right now" look. "It's called skyfire, and it basically shields your thoughts from me. So when that thing is near you or touching you. I can't hear a single thing."
"Um, no offense but I just met you so how could I trust you?"
"Simple, don't want me finding out your deepest darkest secrets just my looking into your insecurities? Wear that rock. If you do want me to find out everything about you and possibly use everything against you so you'll do everything I want... don't wear the rock. Capiche?"

      I nodded slowly and placed the rock in my pouch. I could still feel the cold, smooth surface through the fabric, which was a little weird. Star gave out a heavy sigh and sat down. "Sweet relief. I haven't said it enough but, your brain and thoughts are insane. I almost had my own panic attack after just hearing about what you were feeling."
I shuffled and said nervously. "You didn't happen to actually read anything umm... private thoughts... did you? Like, any secrets?"
Star thought for a moment. "Nope. Not really anyways. I couldn't really hear anything else over the screams and cries of anxiety."
"That's... very morbid..."
"I know." Star responded with a sly grin.

     I looked over at the sleeping parts of the room. There was one hammock, which Star had already claimed, a ledge in the stone covered with moss, that was apparently already taken because someone's welcoming scroll was there, and finally a polar bear rug...
      This is kinda strange to me just because I'd never been on a polar bear rug, or any rug for that matter, and I could already tell I won't really like it because of its warmth.
      Nonetheless, I walked over to it and placed my welcoming scroll into a little cubby next to the foot of the rug. I continued to examine the room as I sat down. Star had left for an unknown reason. Saying something about a Speckle and a Peach...

I buried myself deeper into the fluff on the rug. I could feel the depths of my anxiety picking up again. What if Star actually left just to leave because she actually hated me and she wanted to just leave the entire time? What if both my clawmates hate me and are just acting nice just to act nice? Then as soon as I trust them, they'll just stab me in the back. I tightened my grasp on the faux fur. I could hear my heart beating faster and faster as my brain spun possibilities that had a small chance of even existing.
A few minutes after my mental hurricane breakdown I heard a loud, extroverted voice shouting down the hallway. I looked up right as the owner of the booming voice leapt into the cave. I nearly jumped out of my scales as the stranger ran over to me and clasped my claws with theirs. I met the eyes of the excited stranger and I almost got a seizure. Her scales were splashed with hot pink and bright banana yellow. I became very dizzy as her scales started to explode with more bright colors.
     "Hi there!" The stranger greeted, "My name is Peach!" I froze up as she continued to go on with her introduction. I was too distracted by her seizure-inducing scales to think clearly. All I could think of was, Panic, PANIC, PANIC! A STRANGER IS NEAR YOU, ALMOST TOUCHING YOU, AND TALKING TO YOU! PANIC, DANGER, PANIC!!
"Peach! Calm down you're giving her a heart-attack!" A familiar voice called out from behind Peach. I managed to snap out of my thoughts and peeked my head around Peach's shoulder. Star was holding what appeared to be a little bird cage, and inside it were a few scraps of fabric. Peach pouted and turned her scales into a duller version of the pink and yellow.
"I'm just trying to introduce myself in the most amazingest way possible! You probably appeared from the dark and said 'boo'. That probably freaked her out even more!"
"Amazingest isn't a word, Peach." Star responded as she set the birdcage down over by Peach's things. "And I don't always greet everyone like that, you and Willow were just receiving the unlucky side of my 'emo phase' last year."
     I watched in utter confusion as the duo kept bickering back and forth, only it wasn't like the bickering I was used to hearing. This type of bickering seemed... friendly?
      "Um, she uh-" I started, then clammed up as they both turned to look at me.
     "So you can speak! I was afraid I might have to actually learn that one language Starflight was going on about!"
     "Sign Language. Peach. It's called Sign Language." Star muttered while rubbing her temples.

      "Right. That." Peach said while rolling her eyes. "ANYWAY, were you saying something?"
      "Only that um, uh-" I was at a loss for words. It should've been so easy to just say "oh Star kinda introduced herself like that, only she didn't say 'boo'" but nope. I picked at the pouch that held the "skyfire" and looked up at Star nervously. She had a blank expression on her face, but I could tell she was holding back a lot of questions. For my sake, thank moons.
     "Star kinda introduced herself like that, only she didn't say 'boo' she more said like 'THREE MOONS YOUR MIND IS DRIVING ME CRAZY' and stuff like that, oh I'm probably saying something offensive now. I'm just going to shut up. Sorry..." I finished while trying to keep the anxiety out of my voice.

     Peach just grinned even wider. "Yep! That sounds like Star! But honestly, when she wants to scare you, you get scared. Trust me." I simply nodded in return. I couldn't even will myself to speak after muttering like a crazy-dragon. I swallowed thickly. Suddenly, Peach's eyes lit up, "I forgot to show you my adorable and amazing scavenger!" She exclaimed and ran to the bird cage Star had put down earlier.
So that's what that was for...
Peach opened up the cage door and brought out the lump of fabric gingerly. She then pulled off the top fabric, exposing the pathetic-looking creature underneath. She then brought it over to me with a smile on her face. The tiny creature squeaked loudly then preceded to cover itself with the fabric beneath it too.

     Peach then began whispering little words of encouragement to the creature. Soon enough, tiny hairless paws poked out from underneath the fabric. Then soon enough, a head as well. It blinked slowly and turned towards me, it's dragon-like eyes wide with fear. I leaned towards it a little bit, then it shrieked again and tried to hide under the fabric. Peach eventually put her scavenger back into it's cage, grumbling mini protests. After putting her scavenger away Peach turned back to Star and I with a grin on her face.
     "So, Roomie who's name I have yet to remember. What made you come one year later than everyone else?"
     "Oh um..." My eyes traveled across the room before once again looking at Peach. ".. I don't know. My parents never really told me about Jade Mountain. And, my name is—"

     "LET'S GO EXPLORING!" Peach hollered suddenly. "If you have NEVER been here, and you NEVER eaten crispy pineapple-cabbage with a little bit of sliced bananas then you haven't lived yet!"
     "Crispy pineapple- what?" I questioned.
     "Just roll with it." Star said while getting up from the ledge. "Peach has weird food cravings and will probably make you puke just by looking at it. I caught her trying to get someone to roast her pear once and then add sesame seeds onto sliced dragonfruit. It's disgusting."
     I shivered as Peach pokes Star with her wing. "Oh shut up! It's not like I forced you to try it or anything like that!"
     "Actually you did. You convinced me that the sliced grapefruit was an albatross."
     "How did she do that?" I inquired while trying not to laugh.
     "It was late at night and I was extremely tired."
     "Oh,"

     I straightened my shoulders as I followed the others out of our cave. As long as I didn't run into any IceWings or cause myself to be in the spotlight, this should be fine. It would be fun.
     "Glaze! A camel stick in quicksand is faster than you right now. C'mon! Hustle, Hustle!"
     I grinned and quickly caught up to Peach and Star. This is a new beginning. A fresh start. Just keep to myself and no one will find out about the hybrid thing.

Everything's going to be okay...