Upon entering the academy through the entrance cave, Robin couldn't help but take a quick look around. Everything seemed rather normal...and pretty, too!
He had to admit that the school didn't look quite as bad as he thought it would. Usually when he thought of mountains, he thought about depressing stone walls that closed in tightly around you. But, much to his gratitude, this school didn't seem like that at all.
The light inside the academy was dim compared to the sunny light of outside, but the lit torches set up along the walls provided enough light for him to see. And thank the moons, there was space. Despite all of the different kinds of dragons crowding around him, it didn't feel as if he was too closed in.
All in all, the school actually looked to be a decent place.
The other dragonets were a different story, unfortunately.
They were certainly diverse, from the strongest looking MudWings to the most cheerful looking SeaWings. He supposed that he could appreciate seeing something different from the SkyWings that he usually saw around his home, but at the same time a lot of the dragons around him looked big and scary, too.
And, much to his displeasure, they weren't much quieter than how they were outside. They were still so noisy and Robin just wanted to find a quiet place as soon as possible before his ears burst. He was surprised that they haven't already.
It didn't help that he could also spot some SkyWings that he recognized. He saw the deep orange scales of Canary and he could see Chaffinch around as well. Canary and Chaffinch didn't act like the friendliest dragons around. He still remembered that one time when they shoved him into a mud puddle.
Robin knew that the SkyWing princess was around here somewhere if he could spot her. Well...not that he'd ever met her before anyway.
Just try to avoid them, Robin told himself. I just need to stand up for myself if one of them decides that it's a good idea to bully me. Maybe a good scratch to the ear would help? Or maybe across the snout?
Or maybe just try not to get in a fight at all. That sounds like a better idea.
He let out a deep sigh and strode up to an adult SandWing. The SandWing's scales were a desert white color and he stared at Robin with obsidian black eyes. Robin shifted his talons slightly, eyeing the SandWing's curled-up barb, remembering that Commander Crimson could have been killed by one of those.
"Greetings," said the SandWing calmly to him. "I'm Roadrunner. And you are…?"
"Robin."
Roadrunner nodded and he began to rummage around for scrolls. Robin watched until the SandWing pulled out two scrolls and then handed both of them to him.
"Here's the map scroll and the welcome scroll," said Roadrunner as Robin unrolled one of them. Robin quickly closed the scroll back up. "Your cave is to the first tunnel to the right and the second cave to the left. You're in the Quartz Winglet."
The dark red dragonet nodded. "Um...thank you," he said. Roadrunner made a slight wave of his tail in response.
First tunnel to the right, then second cave to the left, Robin told himself as he swept into the tunnel to his right. He weaved through the sea of dragonets to get to his destination, saying "Sorry!" and "Excuse me!" along the way.
As he did so, he could see other dragons entering their caves. There was a crowd of dragonets headed the same way he was going and a jolt of alarm coursed through him as he realized that Princess Eis was headed in the same direction that he was going, accompanied by another IceWing with a deep blue hint to his white scales.
Robin quickened his pace and turned left, striding right into the second cave.
Did she follow me? Are we sharing the same cave? Robin wondered. He peered out of his cave to take a quick look at Eis and her escort.
"Are you sure that you'll be alright?" the IceWing asked her. "Perhaps it would be best if we wrote a letter back home to the queen and king. You never know who to trust in a school like this."
Robin blinked at the IceWing with Eis. His black eyes seemed to have an amused glint to them and he started to wonder if this IceWing was being serious with what he said.
"Of course I will," Eis huffed in response. She turned around to glare at the IceWing. "North, you may be my bodyguard, but I will not have some eggbrain following me around. And if you're just saying that because of my height, then I can report you for disrespect."
"Oh no," North said and his eyes rounded innocently. "Anything but that."
Eis narrowed her eyes at him. "You know what? I'm not even going to deal with you right now. Just head on to your cave," she said. She let out a hmph and turned back around, heading down the mountainous corridor and turning to the left cave at the very end of the tunnel while North went to the one that was at the opposite side.
Robin stared before he took a look around his own cave. He noticed that there were empty scroll racks next to the entrance along with some sleeping spots, one of which included a rock ledge. The space was wide and open enough to fit at least three adult dragons inside and there were blazing torches mounted on the wall.
He looked down at his two scrolls and slid the welcome scroll into one of the empty racks. Robin then took the map and leapt onto the rock ledge. He opened up the map and started to observe it.
His emerald green eyes soon landed on the location of the library. The library caught his interest immediately. He had been hoping that there would be one at this school, and he was also certainly hoping that they would have some scrolls in the adventure genre in there. He wished that reading anything on some heroic dragons would help alleviate his tension, even by just a little bit.
Then he looked over to where the prey center was. As he scanned the paths to take to get there, he made sure that he looked at it really closely in order to remember it. Robin cringed as he thought about himself stumbling around the hallways of the academy, asking for help all while his stomach was killing him.
"Hellooo? Is this the right cave?"
Robin closed the map and put it to the side. He snapped his head up to look at whoever just spoke. He saw a SandWing at the entrance of the cave and he quickly took in her appearance.
This stockily-built SandWing seemed to be about seven years old and her scales were a color of pale gold. Her eyes were pitch black but somehow there seemed to be a kind of warm light in them. Freckles dotted her snout and a bright orange bandana hung around her neck. There was also a scar going down her shoulder.
What really caught his interest, however, was that she seemed to have a unique black marking on both sides of her face. It looked like smoke curling inward and out, forming multiple curves and hooks before they stopped below her eyes. He wondered if that was a tattoo or if it was something that he was born with. He heard of dragons who were born with rather unusual physical traits.
"Uuuhh...that depends. W-Which cave were...uh...were you looking for?" asked Robin. Please don't mess up, he pleaded with himself. Don't say something stupid. Just don't embarrass yourself on the first day of school, even if it's just in front of one dragon.
"First tunnel at my right then the second cave at the left," she answered. "Right? I'm not crazy or anything, am I?"
Robin's mouth curled into a smile. "Yup! You're in the right cave!"
"Oh, thank the moons," the SandWing said. She took both of her scrolls and slid them into an empty space in the closest scroll rack. "I would be soooo embarrassed if I got the wrong cave! Name's Yerba, by the way."
"Hi, Yerba," Robin replied, and he gave her a small wave. The smile fell from his face. What should he do now? Did she also expect him to give his name to her? Well...he guessed that it would be kind of wrong if he didn't give her his name in response.
"I'm Robin," he said. He flicked his tail. "But not robbing robin'. I mean Robin. As in the bird, not the action. I promise that I'm not here to steal your jewerly! Nope! I'm all clean!"
Yerba chuckled. "Nice to meet you," she said, and she grinned widely at him. Robin felt oddly comforted by her smile.
"It's nice to meet you, too. Um...I guess," Robin responded. He moved his gaze down to his talons. "I mean, not that it's a bad thing. You actually seem really, er, nice so far."
Yerba snorted. "So what are you here for?" she queried.
"Huh?"
"What are you planning to accomplish here? Oh, and don't mind the random questions," Yerba said. "My mom told me that I might as well make new friends here, so I thought, 'Hey, why not start with asking all these questions?'"
"Oh," said Robin. He forced himself to meet her gaze again. "Well...um...my aunt told me that I should come here. And I was hoping that I'd get to make friends here. Maybe four, but eight would be really great." It felt odd to share things with a stranger like Yerba, but wouldn't it be rude if he didn't answer her questions?
Now that he thought about it, he was actually quite glad that Yerba was there to initiate the conversation instead of letting him try to come up with something to talk about.
"Well, you're in luck!" Yerba suddenly shouted with gleaming eyes. "I'm going to make one out of your new friends!"
Robin's eyes rounded. "Really?" he questioned. Was she joking?
"Yeah! I'm not lying. I'm a very trustworthy dragon," she promised.
Trustworthy was what my aunt used to call my mom. He shook that thought away. "Are you sure?" he asked. "Like, are you really, really sure?"
"Hey, you're here to make friends, and I'm here to make friends, so why not?" Yerba said. She raised a brow at him. "Might as well start with each other, don't you think?"
"Yeah...start with each other. That's a good idea," he replied. He didn't see any reason why he shouldn't be Yerba's friend. She seemed really nice, especially compared to Eis.
Speaking of Eis, he had to wonder which winglet she was in. He felt a wave of guilt as he realized that he had been hoping that she wouldn't be in his winglet since he barely knew her.
"Anyway, do you want to go check out the prey center?" Yerba asked, and he was snapped out of his thoughts. "I want to see it. Maybe go get something to eat, too. But y'know, if you want to go check out somewhere else, then I wouldn't mind it. We have today as an exploring day, after all."
"Oh, er, sure, let's go to the prey center," Robin answered.
"Great!" Yerba cheered. "Then let's go!" And before Robin knew it, she zoomed right out of the cave.
"W-Wait for meeeeee!" Robin called after her. He jumped onto his feet and chased after her. He felt his tail knock over the map as he ran after her, but that was the least of his worries for now.
Robin's first instinct upon entering the prey center was to run.
Every part of his brain was screaming Run away! There's too many dragons! They'll crush you! while every muscle in his body said No! Remember what Aunt Falcon wants! She wants you to socialize and make friends and that is exactly what you'll do!
No, she wants you to be safe! That's a completely different thing! his brain seemed to yell back.
The prey center was huge and was open to the sky on one side. He saw a river lining the wall across from the opening that disappeared from sight as it turned through an archway, and there was a pile of freshly-killed prey in the center of the room, though he could barely see it through the constantly moving wall of scales.
Robin hesitated and he stared at the mass of dragons ahead of him. Since his ears weren't destroyed by the noise earlier, he would be surprised if this wasn't the moment where they finally burst. Dragons shouted and called to one another and their talons pounded across the floor.
In the next split second he made up his mind and he started to turn away from the prey center.
"Oh, no you don't!" Yerba said and she grabbed him. "You're coming with me!"
And before he could protest, the SandWing started to drag him into the crowd. Robin's claws scrabbled at the ground before he let out a groan and let her take him.
"Aaaaand get up!" Yerba said. Her grip loosened on him and he rose onto his feet.
Alright, you'll be okay, he told himself. Nothing's going to hurt you. He forced himself to stare ahead at the large crowd of dragons. Maybe they're all too busy with each other to notice you. And besides, you're brave. He slightly lifted his head.
Yeah, that's right! You don't feel fear.
You have the greatest aunt in the world who will protect you if you tell her that someone wanted to hurt you!
You have dreams!
You have the courage! You have…
Robin gulped as he saw just how many dragons there were in the crowd.
...no idea what to do.
He followed close behind Yerba as she walked through the crowd. "Oh, hello!" Yerba said cheerfully to a dark pink RainWing, who nodded back in acknowledgement. "Hey, good to see you!" she said to a passing IceWing.
Robin shrunk a little bit lower, but tried not to sink so low that he's basically just crawling across the ground. What would that look like?
He watched as Yerba cheerfully greeted other dragonets as if it was no problem. How was she able to do that? She made it look so easy.
"Hold on!" Yerba said and she came to an abrupt stop. Robin bumped into her and stumbled back. He craned his neck to look up at Yerba and noticed that she was looking somewhere. He lowered his neck and followed her gaze to a NightWing who was sitting by himself. He looked rather skinny and he wore a black ribbon around his upper forearm. His midnight black scales had a dark blue tinge to them, too. Right now he had a goat in his talons.
"He's all by himself," Yerba pointed out. "We should try talking to him. Who knows? He might be kinda friendly."
Robin observed the NightWing's face and he detected a quiet, reserved kind of air radiating from this dragon. "I don't think he wants to talk to anyone," he commented.
"I know!" Yerba said. "It's going to be a good challenge, isn't it?" she asked.
He wasn't sure what she had on her mind, but regardless of that, it seemed as if she was going to go talk to the NightWing anyway. He trailed behind Yerba as she started to approach the NightWing.
"Helloo!" the SandWing cheerfully greeted the NightWing. He looked up at her from the goat he was eating and Robin felt nervous when he looked at his eyes.
"Yes?" the NightWing asked. He tilted his head to the side as he regarded them with interest. "Was there something that you wanted from me?"
"Oh, no," Yerba responded. She smiled at him. "I've just noticed that you were all by yourself and I decided that I might come and join you since you're so lonely."
"I'm...fine by myself," the NightWing said. The NightWing's eyes slightly narrowed and Robin felt a familiar twist in his stomach. He was beginning to grow even more nervous. He sincerely didn't want to embarrass himself in front of him, and if he did that, then there's a chance that the entirety of the prey center might notice too and they would laugh at him.
"W-Well," Robin started, "surely no one has to be alone on their own! Oh...that rhymed! Heh...I think. I hope! Um...I'm Robin! And my friend here is Yerba!"
"So, what's your name?" Yerba asked the NightWing.
He frowned. "Stormseeker," he introduced himself.
"Oh, Stormseeker! What a neat name!" Yerba said.
"Yeah…," said Stormseeker awkwardly. He looked away from them and put his attention back onto his goat. "Yours too." He took another bite out of his meal.
"Er, thanks," Robin said. Now he wanted to get out of the conversation as soon as he could. "My parents chose it for me."
"So did mine," Stormseeker pointed out.
"Um...well, it's a very nice name," Robin said. He looked at Yerba to watch for a reaction and he saw the smile drop from her face. Not that he could blame her. He was also starting to feel as if they couldn't hold a conversation with this NightWing.
"Sure, thanks," Stormseeker replied. He didn't even look at them.
Yerba sighed and leaned in close to Robin's ear. "We'll get him next time," she whispered to him. Robin doubted that, but he had to admit to himself that he did want to believe her. There was something that was quite intriguing about Stormseeker that made Robin want to get to know him more.
Then the female SandWing looked back to Stormseeker and smiled again. "It was nice talking to you! See you later!" she said, then she turned away and headed off. Robin quickly followed behind her.
"Well, I don't think that it turned out that bad," Yerba said. Her barbed tail flicked once. "He's kind of hard to figure out except that he likes to stick to himself more." She looked down at her talons with a thoughtful look on her face and Robin watched her.
"Whoops! 'Scuse me—AH!"
"WHOA!"
Robin suddenly stumbled forward and fell flat on his face as he felt someone step on the back of his cape. He raised his head and turned around to look at who did that.
Next to Yerba was a dark green SeaWing with blue eyes clumsily scrambling onto his feet. "I'm sorry!" the SeaWing said as Yerba headed over to Robin's side and helped him up. "I'm really, really, really sorry!"
"I'm just—I'm just a very, very clumsy dragon," the SeaWing went on. "T-This usually happens, but I'm trying to, y'know, tone it down a bit. I really didn't mean to step on your cape and trip you, I mean—"
"Hey, hey, it's fine!" Yerba interjected. She looked at Robin. "Um...is it?"
"Oh, yeah, it is!" Robin quickly replied. After all, it wasn't the first time that he tripped due to his cape. True, he should probably stop wearing it, but he was determined to keep it on no matter what happened.
The SeaWing let out a sigh of relief. "Thank you," he said. "I promise that I'm just trying to make my way around."
"No, no, it's fine," Robin said. He felt a bit of sympathy for the SeaWing since he understood what he was going through right now. At least now he knew that he wasn't the only dragon having trouble trying to get around the school.
Robin and Yerba stepped to opposite sides to let the dark green dragonet through. The SeaWing passed through them and then disappeared as he stepped out of the prey center.
"So, do you want to go check out the library now?" Yerba asked as she stared toward the exit.
"Sure!" Robin answered. A wide smile spread across his face and his talons began to tingle. "I love libraries!"
"Alright!" Yerba said. "Let's go, then!"