Do not read any of the reviews if you want to read this spoiler free!
I really recommend you pay attention to the ratings. This is rated T. Do not read this unless you are 13 or older! I believe this is too much for young children to handle, especially as the story goes on.
Looking back on it now, these first few chapters are nowhere near as good as the rest of the story. Just keep in mind that I had totally different plans for this during the first 4 chapters, and my writing was poor.
Book I: Genesis
Swordfish struggled against his bonds. No use. They seemed to be the toughest thing in the world. He didn't know where he was. The walls seemed smooth and metallic. He locked eyes with the dragonet in the other chair. A young Rainwing. She looked terrified. The creature in the shadows began to speak. "The visitors will choose one of you. Every vote is represented by a stab." Suddenly, a hand with a knife shot out of the darkness, and stabbed the Rainwing.
Years, minutes, seconds later, another hand stabbed the Rainwing. She cried out with pain. Her breaths became more short and intense.
"Tick, tock. 16 more hours."
Swordfish felt a pain in his back as a hand stabbed him. The first vote against him.
"Let's speed this up"
The being raised its paw-like talon to the ceiling. Time sped up. Another blade sank into the Rainwing. Then another into Swordfish. Soon, another blade went into the Rainwing.
The dark figure raised its talon again. "Hmmm… 'End my suffering…' Ha ha. Your time will come, visitor 7722544." The figure looked upon the dying Rainwing. The last hand shot out of the darkness and the figure caught it. The figure ripped the blade out of the hand. "The final vote against you. Bad luck, Rainwing." The Rainwing screamed with pure terror. "I guess the visitors liked Swordfish more." The figure thrusted the blade into the Rainwing. She stopped moving.
"Hello, main character." The figure suddenly split into a grin of insane joy. Then, Swordfish tumbled out of his dream.
"Wake up, sleepy."
Swordfish groaned. It was his clawmate. A Mudwing named Cedar. Swordfish had just come to Jade Mountain for its second year. He remembered the notice hung up in the Town Center of his Seawing village. It was written on Coral's Waterproof Paper! ™ It had read.
We will be accepting a new roster of students into Jade Mountain Academy this year. If you were not accepted last year, please consider trying again this year. We have more space ever since that bomb went off. Please ignore that last sentence about a bomb. Deaths and assassination attempts behind, we are looking forward to more students at Jade Mountain Academy! "Where you're safe almost all the time!"
-Princess Tsunami,
Headmaster.
Swordfish had only gone to get away from his dumb family. His father, Urchin, was a guard at Queen Coral's palace. He had become addicted to seaweed and never properly did his job. Instead of helping the other guards fight off Princess Anemone when she lost it, he was out back "doing important stuff."
Swordfish's mother had disappeared when he was young. He had no memory of her. When he tried to think of her all he could see was inky blackness.
His older brother, Starfish, was one of Coral's best soldiers. He was strong, handsome and daring. He had been the one to stop Anemone during the Second Massacre. Swordfish's dad was always pressuring him to be more like Starfish. But Swordfish wasn't like his brother. He had always suspected he was more like his mom, but he never knew her.
Swordfish was never good at fighting. Perhaps it was the two unexplainable scars he had. They looked like battle wounds. Like someone had stabbed him twice. But he had never truly fought anyone…
Or had he?
When Swordfish saw the notice, hung up by one of the last two Princesses, Tsunami, he packed his stuff and left. His father didn't care. He was too focused on his seaweed.
Cedar was Swordfish's clawmate. He was energetic for a Mudwing. Swordfish groggily sat up from his bed of sea vegetation and shells. While Cedar rushed around, getting everything he needed for class, Swordfish thought about his nightmare. It seemed so vivid at the time, but now it seemed fragmented and unreal. Like just a scroll story. What in Pyrrhia were "visitors?" He knew about Dreamvisitors ever since Starflight, Jade Mountain's Librarian, collected all three. The news of such once-thought lost animus objects being found all within a few weeks was very popular.
But these weren't Dreamvisitors. The "visitors" were alive.
Swordfish grabbed a few scrolls from his rack and set out of his cave, with Cedar following him. "What do you think the first class will have will Webs test us on what I don't know…" Cedar's constant blabbing made Swordfish calmer. Somehow. He avoided eye contact with other dragonets as he made his way through the halls. Swordfish left Cedar when they got to the new History Cave. He went to sit at the back of the room. He looked around at the other dragonets in his winglet. There was Cedar. There was a Nightwing half-asleep on the table. There was an Icewing glaring at the snoring Nightwing with her bright blue eyes. There was a Skywing secretly drawing something. No Rainwings or Sandwings.
Webs came into the class and began to introduce himself. Swordfish reached to get one of his scrolls. When he got back up, he saw that a female Sandwing had appeared in one of the empty seats.
She didn't just come in quickly. She literally appeared. No one else seemed to sense something strange. Swordfish stared at her.
How did she teleport?
