Shadowhunter woke up early that morning, She had just had a strange dream... Or was it a vision? Shadowhunter wondered as she sat staring at the ceiling.

She wasn't sure how to wrap her mind around the thought of having her very first vision. Sure, she was also a mindreader and a sear, but this was that first time that Shadowhunter had ever had a prophecy in a vision.

Thinking back over the cryptic and confusing words of the prophecy, Shadowhunter turned to stare out at the stone wall of the sleeping cave,. Glancing at the window of the cave, Shadowhunter saw that the sky outside was dark... That meant morning was still a ways out.

Realizing she would not be going back to sleep anytime soon, the NightWing/IceWing hybrid stood up from her sleeping platform, brushed off her blanket, and walked quietly onto the floor of the sleeping cave.

Violet and Crimson were asleep on their respective platform, ignorant of the world outside of their dreams. Crimson slept quietly, while Violet would occasionally toss and turn.

As she walked out of the sleeping cave, she quietly muttered the words of the prophecy that she had heard in her dream. It still puzzled Shadowhunter, she didn't fully understand what it could mean for her future or for the future of her clawmates.

With soft steps, Shadowhunter left the sleeping cave and into the common area.

Grabbing some pieces of wood from a stack, she gently placed the wood inside the fire pit in the center of the common cave, and blew out a small burst of flame and successfully ignited them, starting a comfortable fire that ever so slightly brightened the cave.

Shadowhunter dragged a cushion closer to the fire pit, and sat on top of it while the fire warmed her scales.

The IceWing Prophecy

"When Darkness Falls Upon The Land,
When Dragons Fight For A Rightful Queen.
Three sisters, two will fall,
And one is left standing alone.

Wings of Night, Ice and Rain,
Wings Of Sea, Sky And Future Sight.
Find the dragons of full moons bright,

Fear the ones who seek to conquer.
These dragons will end this fight of blood and tears,
These Dragons will change the fate of this destroyed land,
They will be the peacemakers in this land of darkness and betrayal.

Together these dragons form the Wings of Fire.
And the time for peace will be right."

'That was a very strange vision. I wonder what it means?' Shadowhunter wondered to myself. She shrugged her wings and pushed it to the back of her mind.

It had only been a few hours ago when the Quartz Winglet had met each other in this cave, with the exception of Hyena and Burgundy, who had been busy with extra duties in the prey center after their attempted theft of some ancient chalice that Queen Thorn had gifted the academy.

While Shadowhunter was not sure of Ermine, who tried to avoid Shadowhunter's gaze if at all possible for some reason, she liked Crimson and Violet, despite their rough start when they first met in the sleeping cave. Tempest seemed nice though she mostly spent time with Ermine, and seemed to be the only one to successfully drag the IceWing's attention from her scrolls.

But today was going to be the start of the Winglet's lessons, so now was the best chance for the seven to get to know each other! Hopefully the strawberries Shadowhunter gave yesterday was a good welcome gift... Unfortunately Hyena and Burgundy never got theirs, so she hoped they would not mind.

"Early riser?"

Shadowhunter, startled, looked up to see Tempest walk out of the sleeping cave she and Ermine had chosen. The SeaWing made her way towards the center of the common cave, and sat on a cushion across from Shadowhunter.

The orange light of the flames reflected off of her aqua green scales, which Shadowhunter admitted were nice.

"Not really," Shadowhunter admitted after a long enough moment of silence. "Just excited." That was, technically, not a lie but neither was it the truth.

Though Tempest seemed to accept the answer as she nodded with an "Hmm."

"I assume you get up early a lot?" Shadowhunter asked her.

"Most of the time, yes." Tempest answered. "My mom and dad were always big on getting my siblings and I up early."

"Can't be worse than your mother trying to keep you up all night," Shadowhunter muttered, not holding back the sigh.

She loved her mother, but Shadowhunter did not appreciate how her mother encouraged her early in her life to adjust to her sleep schedule. While most of Hope's generation had grown up on the volcanic island the rest of the NightWings had lived on for centuries, she had lived on the Pyrrian mainland for most of her life and preferred to sleep during the day, rather than at night like a normal dragon.

"It is perfectly normal for a NightWing to sleep during the day, our ancestors have always been nocturnal," She had told her more than once. "Besides, we are calledNightWings for a reason."

Shadowhunter, even to this day, couldn't argue with that logic... But her brain told her otherwise. Every time she had breakfast when it was dark, she would be found sleeping in front of her food and had to be stirred awake by her mother.

By the time Shadowhunter had turned two, her mother had stopped trying to convince her to change her sleep schedule due to all of her classes at school being during the day rather than in the evening, despite Hope's attempts to convince Queen Glory to include night classes for her daughter.

When the Queen disagreed with her suggestion, Hope reluctantly agreed it was best for Shadowhunter, as she wanted her to be closer to her friends.

"You are a NightWing, after all," Chimed in Tempest, dragging Shadowhunter out of her thoughts as she looked back at the SeaWing, chuckling at her own comment.

"Yeah, well I'm also half IceWing," Shadowhunter said, chuckling at the timing of Tempest's comment with her thought, and raising her wings and showing off the ice blue stars on her wing membranes.

Tempest looked at them, clearly admiring them in the low lit cave.

"They are beautiful," Tempest said, thoughtfully. Shadowhunter could not help but blush at Tempest's words. Yeah, her friends back home said they looked cool and her mom had said her stars looked beautiful. But to hear it from someone else, let alone someone she just met? It was... Weird to hear.

But also nice.

"Thanks, Tempest." Shadowhunter replied, trying to make sure he wasn't sounding cocky at the comment. Because being cocky can be rude... And Shadowhunter did not want to seem rude to her new clawmate.

Tempest nodded at her, her smile ever present.

Silence fell over the two Clawmates, but Shadowhunter would not say it was uncomfortable. There just did not feel like there was much needed to be said. If anything, the silence between them seemed comfortable.

"Hay, Tempest? Guess what? I had a very strange dream... Well actually... I think it was a vision." Shadowhunter said, and her friend looked surprised, and after a few moments of silence, she spoke up, "Really? That's so cool? Have you ever had visions before?" Tempest asked, and Shadowhunter shook her head and replied, "It was my first vision. I don't know what to think of it though," Shadowhunter said, giving a confused look to Tempest, who just shrugged her wings.

"Why are you asking me? I'm not a NightWing. Maybe ask you sister? Or Peacemaker?" She asked, and Shadowhunter shook her head. "My sister can only read minds, and Peace doesn't have any NightWing powers... At least, not that I know of." Shadowhunter replied, and Tempest frowned. "Well, I'm not going to worry about it now. It's probably not really that important." Shadowhunter said, and Tempest just nodded in response, while smiling warmly at Shadowhunter.

Eventually, however, the silence would be broken as the sun rose, and with it heralded the start of a new day... And the sound of a bronze gong being rung throughout the Academy.

The noise was met with some very reluctant risers, one of whom made her dislike of the noise well known as she stepped into the common cave.

"Okay, okay! I'm up!" Came Violet's voice from within the sleeping cave Shadowhunter, Crimson and she shared. "No need to ring our brains out."

The half-awake/half-asleep RainWing was the first to come out, with Crimson following close behind, both yawning.

"Morning," Crimson muttered, the SkyWing sitting on a cushion around the fire, rubbing a talon over her eyelids. "Urgh, Peril was right, they do like to get us up early."

"There is lots of stuff to do," Came the cool voice of Ermine, walking out of her and Tempest's sleeping cave, with a bag of scrolls around her neck.

Shadowhunter wondered if those were recreational scrolls? Or were they all historical, about the IceWing tribe, like the one she had been reading yesterday?

Instead of coming to join the rest of the Winglet, Ermine appeared to go towards the walls of the common cave, examining a shelf of scrolls, all of which owned by the school itself.

Crimson sighed. "But couldn't they not wake us up right as the sun rises?"

"They could do that," Ermine answered, not taking her eyes away from the shelves, pulling a scroll out of a pile. "But then we would not be able to get a head start on the lessons, nor get the chance to meet with the other Winglets."

That last part, about meeting other Winglets, did not seem to excite Ermine. But she did seem to look forward to the lesson. Shadowhunter, on the other talon, still felt nervous about the first official day of classes, but she also felt excited about getting to work.

Three Moons, she wished she either felt nervous or excited...

"So what's our first class?" Tempest asked, for the first time since the others joined. She stood up to join Ermine at the shelves, as the latter appeared to be looking for a specific scroll.

"Tribal Cultures!" Answered a new voice from the sleeping cave that had previously been empty when Shadowhunter and the others had gone to bed last night.

The two occupants of said sleeping cave? The SandWing and the MudWing of the Winglet, Hyena and Burgundy.

Hyena walked ahead of Burgundy, who looked as though she had only had a few moments of sleep last night, Shadowhunter was silently impressed Hyena could be well awake and, for the most part, upbeat after being tasked Tsunami with cleaning up the prey center after dinner.

"Ah," Tempest says, pulling out the scroll Ermine had been looking for, as she looked over at the two new arrivals with an amused smile. "Looks like the two renegades have joined us."

Seriously? A history project that lasts an entire term?" Shadowhunter groaned as she rested her chin on her talons, all the while sitting with her winglet during their lunch break in between their History and Self Defense courses.

Day three into the term and Shadowhunter already was not looking forward to the History course with Webs after going to his class for the day and, to Shadowhunter's distaste, already the history teacher was giving the class a 'Do or Fail' assignment.

Topic? Anything in Pyrrhian and Panatalan history about the various dragon tribes within the last two thousand years.

It did not sound so difficult when it was first announced, and Shadowhunter was actually looking forward to it.

At first...

The moment she began to think of potential topics for the project... She realized had no idea on what she wanted to contribute to the winglet.

It didn't help that the rest of the Quartz Winglet was having trouble coming up with a history project.

Well, everyone except Hyena, that is.

"How about the NightWing and IceWing War?" Asked Hyena, twitching her tail back and forth as she look at the rest od the winglet for an answer.

Shadowhunter, Crimson, Violet, Burgundy and Tempest glanced at one another at the idea, nodding in approval, though Shadowhunter nodded simply because she thought if anything her clawmates could come up with, then it had to be good... She knew some history, but ancient history? It was always hard to remember names and dates.

It looked like her Winglet had reached an agreement, at least until Ermine spoke up.

"Umm, I'm not sure, that might not be the best idea. That might cause some unnecessary fighting amongst the IceWing and NightWing students. And I wouldn't want that to happen, especially not in the middle of the classroom," Ermine quietly observed. Shadowhunter thought for a moment before replying, "Yeah, let's play it safe and choose something else." Shadowhunter said, and the others all nodded in agreement and so... The process started from the bottom of the haystack.

"We'll think of something. I know we will." Shadowhunter said, trying to stay positive. Shadowhunter was never good at history or science. "Yeah, Shadowhunter's right. We'll think of something. I knw we will, and plus, we have a lot of time to think of something," Ermine said, finishing her last math problem. Shadowhunter smiled warmly at the IceWing dragonet, who smiled right back at her.

Ermine awoke slowly to the sun shining into her eyes. She groaned and after a few more minutes of trying and failing to get back to sleep, Ermine eventually decided to just get up. She sighed and shook her wings, grabbing her bag of across, she slung the bag of her shoulder as she excided the sleeping cave that she and Tempest had chosen.

Ermine walked out into the common cave to see that Tempest was already awake. She smiled, and bounded over to the SeaWing. "Good morning, Tempest." Ermine spoke up happily. The SeaWing gave the IceWing dragonet a bright smile in greeting. "Hay, I have a random idea. Let's go swimming in the underground river." Ermine said happily. And the two dragonets headed to the river to swim and make small talk while they waited for their classes to start.

As the two dragonets were swimming, Ermine was quietly made small talk with Tempest. "I still have no idea what we're going to do for our project." Ermine said, frowning down at her reflection in the water. "Don't stress about it so much. We still have a lot of time to think about it." The SeaWing said reassuringly, Ermine smiled warmly at her oldest friend and they kept on swimming.