Seven dragons.

A SeaWing who can't breathe underwater, a SkyWing who can't fly, a SandWing without a venomous barb, a RainWing who can't change his/her scales, a MudWing with no sibs, an IceWing without frostbreath, and NightWing-MudWing hybrid.

These will be the dragons in the Quartz Winglet. I'll accept OC's with these descriptions, minus the first three because I already used those. I won't necessarily accept all of these; I'll just accept ones I like. It's NOT first come, first serve, so don't freak out about that. Feel free to submit more than one OC.

Thanks! 😃

-fantasy

Prologue

Journey

~Ivory

"Bye, Mama."

I hugged my mother close, hearing the sound of her next to my ear. "I love you, Ivory," she said quietly, pulling away from the hug. She lifted my chin, and I saw my reflection in her deep blue eyes.

My scales were the color of the sky, my eyes emerald green. I normally would have been considered a very pretty dragonet, if not for my one deformity.

I had no gills.

They just weren't there. It was a birth defect, the doctors told my mother. They whispered things, unspeakable things, when they thought I couldn't hear. They talked about sending me to a home for disabled dragonets. I was an outcast in my own tribe.

But my mother, the one dragon in the world who loved me for who I was, she would never send me to a home. She said I was worth more than the moons to her. She was my best friend.

After I was born with no gills, my father left. I never saw him again. But it didn't matter to me that I clearly wasn't good enough for him. I had my mother, and she meant everything to me. She was the one dragon who loved me and cared for me despite my deformity.

So that was why she didn't want to send me to the Jade Mountain Academy.

"You can't leave me!" she protested. "You are my moons, Ivory. You can't leave. You just can't." The words whistled through my ears like a calm ocean current. You are my moons, Ivory. You can't leave. You just can't.

"But I can finally be normal," I said desperately. "Everything will be different. I can have friends!"

"I'm your friend, Ivory," said Mother. "Isn't that enough?"

But now, here I am, ready to travel to Jade Mountain Academy. And I have jellyfish in my stomach, and I'm starting to wonder if maybe I shouldn't go at all.

But the word friends is enough to make me want to go. Jade Mountain will be a new beginning. I can finally fit in. I won't be alone anymore.

"Goodbye," I said, blinking rapidly to keep the tears out of my eyes.

"Goodbye, Ivory."

~Condor

I trekked through the mountains, the grumpy red-gold SkyWing guard poking me in the back impatiently with his spear. He didn't seem happy about having to walk through the mountains. Suck it up! I thought angrily. I have to deal with this every day!

It wasn't my fault I was born with a wing deformity. It wasn't my fault that my father died in the Great War before I was hatched. It wasn't my fault my mother died soon after.

After a sharp poke that almost penetrated my scales, I whirled around and yelled, "STOP THAT!"

The guard lowered his spear and growled impatiently at me. I narrowed my eyes and walked quickly ahead of him. It was guards like these who made my life miserable, acting like I was slow on purpose. Acting like I was born with a broken wing on purpose.

Things would be different at the Academy. I knew they would.

I scanned through my list of dragon tribes and what I knew about them, mumbling it underneath my breath. It was a bit like a song.

Mysterious NightWings, IceWings crazy

Hungry MudWings, RainWings lazy

SeaWings are flappy, SandWings make a mess

SkyWings are better than all the rest

Didn't seem like a very promising group, but I'd only heard of these from SkyWings, and I knew from personal experience that they were prejudiced against anyone different. They threw most dragons who were imperfect off of a cliff when they hatched.

Maybe... maybe there was another way.

~Tumbleweed

As we flew through the sky, the wind whipping around our wings and faces, I noticed all the other dragonets curling their tails in a practiced manner behind them. I curled up my own tail. Maybe then it would be less noticeable. Maybe then I'd look more like the others.

The desert was rapidly disappearing, the landscape giving way to mountains. The land was odd, curving up and down and left and right. The desert never folded like that. Somehow it was weirdly beautiful.

"How in the moons are we going to hunt here?" whined Sandstorm, a pale sand-colored dragonet about a year older than me. "The land is all squiggly!"

"You can probably use your venomous tails," said the glossy purple-black NightWing who'd been sent to retrieve us from the Sand Kingdom. All at once, the SandWing dragonets turned around to stare at me. I felt my face getting hot and stared down at my talons.

"Let's land," said the NightWing, apparently unaware of my discomfort. "We're here!"

I flapped my wings, carefully slowing down and landing with a thump on the ground. I shook out my pale wings and stretched. There was a large opening at the cave entrance, and inside a large sign hung from the walls proclaiming, "WELCOME TO JADE MOUNTAIN ACADEMY!" Multicolored lanterns hung from the ceiling; flower garlands adorned the walls.

I felt my heart fill up with hope. Maybe things could be different here.