D O V E
***

Dove hissed and lowered her head.  Of course  the teacher would be Himalaya, the IceWing with a probably grudge against her.

She glanced around the cave. A slim MudWing with light, almost bleached-brown scales curled up in himself.

The SandWing and overly rainbow dragonet from her cave also were there, along with a puny IceWing, pink SeaWing and a weird abomination of navy blue and white scales.

"Welcome, classss," hissed Himalaya, "I sssuppose we must learn everyone's names if we are to do anything of usssse."

Dove snorted, a shot of fire singeing the air. Himalaya turned her black-eyed gaze on the SkyWing.

"What issss so funny?" She asked. Dove chuckled and swept her tail out from under her wings.

"I already know everyone's name. Here," Dove started, angling her tail towards the IceWing, "Puny, Fish, Taboo, Cheery, Sand-snorter, and Fly." Dove pointed to everyone as she said their corresponding word. 

The SandWing narrowed her eyes. "Don't forget yourself, Washout." 

Dove glared at her and Himalaya hissed. "Yes, very amusing coming from a SkyWing. Anyway, let's get a move on here. You, IceWing, introduce yourself." Himalaya suddenly snapped. Dove saw her black eyes stare with disgust at the five-circled necklace on the silver dragonet.

The IceWing shifted uncomfortably. "Well, um, greetings, I am Enderby...and my favorite color is lavender." The end of his sentence went high, as if asking a question.

Then the pink SeaWing. "I'm Salmon and I guess my favorite color is gray."

Then the clear hybrid. His name was Nightfall. Then Lush the RainWing, and Incandesce the SandWing.

"My name's Princess Dove of the SkyWings," Dove announced in an imperious voice when it was her turn, "and my favorite color is ruby-red." 

Incandesce snorted and Dove heard her mutter something like ironic. She glared the entire time the MudWing spoke. She didn't catch the name.

Himalaya stretched her wings when they were done, letting the sun filter through her silver wings. Dove's keen eyes saw lilac scales dappled underneath.

"Well, that is an all fair and well introduction. Who wants to introduce a topic for our discussion?" Himalaya asked.

Lush flapped her wings delightedly. Her carefully orchestrated lavender and gold exploded with yellow starbursts. "Ooooh!! Ooh, choose me! Me, me, me, me, me!" she sang.

Himalaya shook her tail, spikes rattling. "You, then."

Lush bounced around, a streak of indigo winding its way around her wings. "Okay, so this is for everyone royal-ish here. What's it like being royal? Because we don't really do royal in the rainforest, so..."

Dove shifted her wings and opened her mouth but was cut off by, strange enough, the MudWing next to her.

"Er- it's not super special for where I'm from. The palace is quite nice- my sibs get a private suite and it's kind of big. And we sometimes get jewels. But that's mostly it." he said sheepishly. Dove scrutinized him closely and saw he had an animal bone-and-tiger-eye necklace around his thick neck. 

"Achrm," Dove achrmed importantly, "Quite different where I'm from. For one, I get anything I want."

Once again, the SandWing snorted. Dove shot her daggers with her eyes. "Is there a puh-roblem?" she snarked. 

The SandWing-Incandesce-rolled her eyes. "Can we talk about anything else?"  she asked. Dove breathed a plume of smoke. Himalaya drew up her wings. "Knock it off, both of you."

"Miss Himalaya?" the SeaWing said in a whine, "Can we go hunt?" He looked eagerly at the opening out into the air behind them. 

Himalaya lashed her tail. "I suppose so. Anyway, this is our first day, so I don't expect everyone to be friendly. Just don't be as bristly tomorrow. Now go, hunt outside or something."

The dragonets all looked around at each other, then shuffled out into the open air. Dove snapped her wings open and launched into the air. She rose up twenty feet and looked down at the other dragons.

There was a flash of color, whooshing air in Dove's face. A blur of pink streaked past her snout and wind buffeted her wings.

There was a soft gasp from everyone below. Dove swooped down to join the slowly ascending dragonets. She searched everyone's faces and saw a glimmer of adoration and admiration in the oldest dragon's piercing blue eyes -the SandWing, Incandesce. Dove hadn't noticed how unnaturally blue they were. Shouldn't all SandWing eyes be black?

She looked back up at the sky. Circling overhead was the SeaWing, Salmon. Although he was small, his wings were big and powerful. Dove frowned and winged her way up to his level. 

"How're you so fast?" She asked him. Salmon shrugged.

"Dunno. I just fly a lot, and my wings are kinda big." He said. Dove snorted a burst of fire, and Salmon flapped frantically backwards. 

A wave of heat beat Dove's scales. The warmth from Incandesce traveled through the air uncomfortably. There was a low hiss from the SandWing as she angled her barbed tail at Dove.

Dove rolled her eyes and dove towards the mountain peaks. She spotted a cow lowing confusedly and swooped towards it. The cow saw her shadow and took off, running into a leafy forest.

Dove sighed and landed on the ground. She watched her peers chatter softly and fly. Breathing a ring of smoke, she put her light pink wings over her head. When will this year ever end?