Cinder Waking
Chapter One
"THIS IS SO EXCITING! Isn't this exciting?" Cinder poked her best friend, Ash, in his side.
He sighed dramatically. "If you say so."
"Oh, stop! We all know you just want to go there to check out all of the girls," she said, smirking.
"What? No! That's weird! And besides, you're the one with plans for a summer romance or whatever," Ash said.
Cinder nodded reluctantly. "True, true. But you're the one who wants to meet new people,"
"What's wrong with that?"
"THE FACT THAT – Wait, ohh..."
Ash smirked triumphantly. "You see?"
Cinder just growled in response. She hated to admit it, but Ash had a habit of catching her off guard like that in her scramble to find a comeback. She was not good with comebacks, that's for sure, and whenever she teased him, he took advantage of it.
"Is that Maroon?" she said, trying to change the subject, pointing to a dark red female dragon passing by them in the entrance cave of Jade Mountain Academy. The sunlight from the large mouth of the cave lit the room well, well enough that Cinder and Ash could see their fellow SkyWings. Cinder's eyes flickered to the flowery welcome banner hanging from huge stalactites one moment, and the large bronze gong against the far wall the next. Cinder felt like her brain might explode from all of the dragons and new surroundings all in one place. Here, in Jade Mountain, it was just plain wow.
"Yeah, I think it is. So weird," he said, glancing in Maroon's direction. If she was Maroon. Maroon was Ash's sister's friend, and Cinder and Ash had spent many nights listening in to their girly-girl conversations, learning things they probably shouldn't have. Ash was probably scarred for life, poor boy.
They watched the dragons pass by in the hubbub of the cave, until Cinder broke the silence. "Isn't there supposed to be the dragon that gives us our welcome scrolls or whatever?"
"Yes. Supposed to be. This is some poor service," he observed. Cinder didn't think it was really poor service, the teachers were just busy. Ash was even more oblivious than she thought if he didn't realize that.
They waited for a few more minutes, until finally a female SeaWing, a teacher probably, walked up to them. "Are you two..." She looked down at her scroll. "Cinder and Ash? SkyWings?"
"Yep, that's us!" Cinder said brightly. Her excitement to be here overrode her impatience. This was Jade Mountain Academy, after all! The place where dreams come true! ...That was their motto, right?
"Okay, good! My name is Aquamarine, I'm in charge of welcoming new students during registration, but when the school year kicks off, I'll be your principle! So, Cinder-" she said, nodding in Cinder's direction, "you're in the Gold Winglet. Ash-" Aquamarine nodded in Ash's direction, "you're in the Silver Winglet. It pains me to break up friends, but I'm afraid that's just the way things work. Here are your welcome and map scrolls," she said, handing them each two scrolls, a thin one, and a thicker one. "Don't worry, though. You'll get to see each other plenty during group classes and in free periods. Your welcome map holds your schedule and some general info about the Academy, and your map will show you where your cave is. Feel free to explore the school, or go to your caves to meet your clawmates! Now, as you can see, we're very busy, so I'm going to go greet some others!" Aquamarine hurried off to see a lost looking RainWing dragonet.
Cinder turned to Ash, who's eyes were glazed over. She had seen this look before, mostly when Ash was staring at Kite, a beautiful SkyWing in their class whom, to be honest, Cinder was jealous of. And she was aware jealousy was not a good color on her. Kite had perfectly polished scales, she was tall and curvy, and an expert flier. Meanwhile, Cinder's scales were dull, she was short, and she was the kind of SkyWing to crash into a face of a mountain. Not exactly girlfriend material.
"Ash, stop staring. It's rude, and frankly, she's out of your league by about a million wing flaps." Ha! For once, a smart sounding comeback that she knew Ash wouldn't say anything snarky to.
"I know..." he muttered.
She waved her talon dismissively. "Don't worry. There'll be plenty of other pretty girls for you to stare at. Now, what are we going to do? Stay here, or meet our clawmates?"
"Well, I guess meet our clawmates, because I don't really think we're making a very good impression by just sitting here like stalkers. And I'm not a stalker, and I don't want to be a stalker! So, yeah, let's go..."
"Okay, then!" Cinder stood up, stretching her muscles. She opened her map, scanning the scroll for directions to her cave. "Okay! My cave is fifth down that hall," she said, pointing to the large passage the entrance cave broke off to, "to the right. Let's go!" She grabbed Ash's talons, ignoring his "you really don't need to do that", and she zoomed down the hallway.
Cinder had always been more playful and energetic than most of her SkyWing classmates. She had never known why, she just...was. When most of her classmates where interested in racing each other and discussing famous battles, her head had been in the clouds, daydreaming about doing awesome aerial flips and turns, boys, the latest scrollzine, and things SkyWing probably wouldn't think about in general. She didn't care about racing, and battles? What was in the past was in the past, why waste time thinking about it in the present? So when she met the sarcastic dragonet who always seemed to smile at her and actually talk to her, she made an immediate effort to befriend him.
She skidded to a stop in front of the cave, almost knocking Ash into a wall. She mumbled a sorry, then poked her head through the vine covering over the cave entrance. "Aaaand there's nobody in there..." They were probably exploring the school, or not here yet. Oh well. She'd meet them later.
"Oh...well, can we go now? I was hoping to check out my cave..." Ash shifted, his talons clanging against the stone floor.
"One sec. I just want to look inside. You can come too," she said, moving fully into the cave, the vines brushing against her back.
"Kay." He followed. Once upon a time, it would've felt weird to be alone in a cave with Ash, but it felt natural now, as the years they'd spent together cleared up any lingering awkwardness.
Cinder looked around the cave. It was small, like her room back home. There were polished mahogany scrollracks scattered around the cave, stuffed with scrolls. She fingered one, picking it up. It was a scrollzine, the one chock-full of gossip, her favorite kind. "Ooh..." she said, a smile spreading across her face.
"Three moons, not another one of those again!" Ash said, banging his head against the cave wall. "Isn't your head filled with ENOUGH stalkerish information about the queens and princesses and who they like or WHATEVER?"
"No."
The head banging resumed. Cinder put the scrollzine back in the scrollrack, as much as she wanted to read it, she wanted to find her clawmates. She could read it later.
She walked around the cave some more. She stopped at a rock ledge with a fluffy, worn pillow on it, like her bed back home. There was a pool of water, about knee high, which Cinder assumed was a bed for a SeaWing. SeaWings were known back in the Sky Kingdom as traitorous pond scum. The scars from the SandWing Succession War weren't healed quite yet. She wasn't really sure who to judge, but everything she knew about SeaWings were bad things, so SeaWings probably were bad. There was also a pile of various furry animal skins, a bed for an IceWing, probably. Ugh, IceWings. They thought they were all superior and better than everyone else. Cinder had met one once, a visitor to Queen Ruby's palace. She didn't like him at all.
Well, this was just great. Stuck with two tribes she hated. Ugh. Wasn't Jade Mountain Academy supposed to help you make friends? Guess not. Her lip curled briefly in disgust, before turning to face Ash, who's eyebrows were raised. "I feel bad for you, Cin...I just hope my clawmates aren't a SeaWing or IceWing. Gah." He shook his head.
"Let's visit your cave," she suggested. Ash nodded, and they went into the hallway, lit by the IceWing moon globes that Queen Glory was somehow able to get for the Academy. Ash unrolled his map. "My cave should be four caves down from yours," he said.
"Kay. Let's go." They found the said cave, or the cave Cinder hoped was Ash's. Ignoring the little voice that said don't go in there without knocking she barreled in, looking around. Ash followed her, sighing.
"Cin, what did I tell you about knocking first?" Ash stopped talking when he saw the NightWing reading a scroll, curled up on a bed of pine needles and ferns. "OH...umm...hi there..." he said weakly, and Cinder recognized the glazed over stare. Here we go again, she thought.
"Oh, um, hi..." she said softly. "My name is Opalscales. I go by Opal, though. Are you my clawmate?" she asked.
"Yes," Ash said airily. "I mean, I think I am, because the welcome scroll didn't really say, it just said what winglet we were in, and not our clawmates or anything, and-" Cinder jabbed him in the side to shut him up. "And yeah," he finished.
Opal smiled, a small smile. Cinder could tell the poor thing didn't get out much. She'd heard most NightWings were like that, all scrollworm and introverted. Ash was still staring, staring at Opal's iridescent black scales, her namesake.
"Yeah. I get it. Though I didn't think we had clawmates of the opposite gender, though...are you in the Jade Winglet?"
Ash's stare turned to an expression of confusion and fear. "Wait, what? I'm-" He was cut off by a large female MudWing charging in the cave, almost knocking him over.
"HI! You must be Opalscales, my CLAWMATE! But I don't know who you two are..." The MudWing tilted her enormous head at them. Cinder had always felt dwarfed standing next to Ash, but this was like standing next to a mountain.
"Umm...we were just, er, visiting... We thought this was his cave," she said, pointing at Ash. "We must have gotten the wrong cave..." She slowly began to back away.
"AW, that's a SHAME! You guys seem nice! Well, BYE! This is going to be so much FUN, isn't it, bestie?" The MudWing turned to Opal, who paled.
Ash fled the room, and Cinder followed. That MudWing could probably break her bones by just poking her. And that's not a pleasant thought. "That...was...a close...one," she said, breathing heavily.
"Yeah," Ash agreed, his eyes wide. "I seriously thought I would be trampled back there."
"So maybe we should try to find your ACTUAL cave?"
"Yeah."
They looked in the one next to Opal's cave, peeking through the vines cautiously. Cinder would remember to knock next time she would go into a cave, that's for sure. There were already two dragons in there, and she smiled sheepishly, backing away. The cave on the other side was empty, too, but it had a SkyWing sleeping spot, and a leafy hammock. "A RainWing," Ash muttered. "Great."
"Well, at least you aren't with a SeaWing AND an IceWing," she said. "It could always be worse. Just look at me."
Ash snorted. "You're right. Feel free to hang out in here if your clawmates are driving you insane."
"I will hold you to that offer."
"Good. I always want to spend more time with you," he said, smiling. Cinder smiled back. Ash was a pretty good best friend, all things considered.
Their friendly banter was broken by the sound of a dragon screaming. "SHE'S DEAD!"
Huehuehue, cliffhanger... I won't say anything more.
So this is a SYOC story, and the SeaWing, IceWing, and RainWing mentioned here will be main characters, as well as the others of the Gold Winglet.
So I'll give you the overview here:
Winglets:
Gold Winglet (Main Characters) :
(open spot, NightWing, clawmate group one)
(open spot, RainWing, clawmate group one)
(open spot, SandWing, clawmate group two)
(open spot, MudWing, clawmate group two)
(open spot, SeaWing, clawmate group three)
Cinder, a female 7 year-old SkyWing, clawmate group three – main
(open spot, IceWing, clawmate group three)
The clawmates are subject to change.
Silver Winglet (Main/Secondary Characters)
Ash, a male 7 year-old SkyWing, clawmate group four – main, sort of
(open spot, RainWing, clawmate group four)
(open spot, IceWing, clawmate group five)
(open spot, MudWing, clawmate group five)
(open spot, SeaWing, clawmate group six)
(open spot, NightWing, clawmate group six)
(open spot, SandWing, clawmate group six)
The clawmates are subject to change.
Jade Winglet (Secondary/Side characters)
(open spot, SkyWing, clawmate group four)
(open spot, IceWing
, clawmate group four)
Opalscales, a female 7 year-old NightWing, clawmate group five
(open spot, MudWing, clawmate group five, can someone make this MudWing?)
(open spot, SeaWing, clawmate group six)
(open spot, NightWing, clawmate group six)
(open spot, SandWing, clawmate group six)
We also have the teachers, whom I'll list here:
Aquamarine, 20 year old SeaWing, principle
(open spot, librarian)
(open spot, hall monitor)
(open spot, counseler, Gold Winglet)
(open spot, battle teacher)
(open spot, history teacher)
I just have some rules for your OCs, though.
There are hybrids allowed, but only hybrids of two species. Just make sure they aren't too overpowered.
There is no first come first serve. I will use whatever OCs I like best.
I'd prefer if your dragon has a romantic interest, but if you really don't want one, that's okay.
You can submit as many OCs as you want, but there's no guarantee they'll all be in the story.
No Mary-Sues (Perfect characters) If I deem your OC to be a Mary Sue, then I won't use them.
Please use the OC form below.
Wow! I know that's a lot of rules, and I'm sorry for that...I don't particularly like rules. Please submit a character, be it student or teacher! PLEASE! It will make my day!
OC FORM:
Name:
Age:
Gender:
Species:
Appearance:
Personality:
History:
Crush (Optional):
Friends (Optional):
Other:
I hope you like Cinder and Ash! You'll be seeing more of them! Of course, you're going to be seeing more of YOUR characters, if you submit one. Please submit OCs! I need them for the story! Also, can someone make the MudWing mentioned in the story?