"Swordfish?"
Swordfish picked his head up off the table. Everyone in the room was looking at him. Except for Frigid, who was still looking at the floor in awe. "I said 'We didn't get enough Rainwings, so your winglet didn't get one' and you just fainted." Webs said. "Then, what about Vine?" Swordfish asked. "Who?" Webs replied. The strange hole in the world was gone.
Swordfish pressed his talons to his head in confusion. "You just said Glory told you all about Vine. And then there was a hole or something." They all looked at him like he was crazy. "Nevermind." Swordfish said.
"Alrighty then. Let's begin with the start of the dragon world, The Scorching." Webs began his lesson. "There is lots of speculation as to what happened during The Scorching, and how scavengers lived before. Some say they lived like we dragons. Some have even said that they were much more advanced than us. A few dragons believe they have found evidence scavengers had small boxes that gave off light, and had the information of the world. They built enormous houses tall as mountains. Though, these are merely speculated, and are most likely fairy tales."
Webs was so boring. Swordfish spent a lot of time examining his fellow classmates. Good old Cedar was constantly making sure his papers and scrolls were perfectly neat. Darkseer was sleeping still. Blizzard was examining her scales and looking at Webs with a look of disgust. Vulture had attempted to take notes but was now scribbling pictures all over his scroll. Delta was eagerly taking notes and attempting to get Typhoon to do so too. Rainfall and Savanna were trading notes. Frigid was still frozen where he was, while Scorch tried to get him to notice her.
Swordfish mostly looked at Rattlesnake. Admiring her beauty while also trying to figure out how she teleported. Was she an animus? Did she enchant something on her to allow teleportation? Swordfish went over all possibilities until Webs dismissed the class. Swordfish decided he would just follow Cedar to the prey center. Both he and Cedar joked about how boring the class was. Cedar was a bit of a neat-freak, but he wasn't as hostile as many other dragonets. "Why did you pass out?" Cedar asked Swordfish. Swordfish hesitated, but told Cedar what happened.
"I asked Webs why we don't have a Rainwing. Webs said that we did and briefly talked about a dragonet named Vine. When he told Vine to introduce his or herself, there was nobody there but like this hole in the world." Cedar looked at Swordfish like he was crazy. "The hole, it like, swallowed me up, and then I guess I fainted." Cedar thought for a while and then said. "You were probably nervous about the day, and you just didn't know it. Like I have a mental crash when I worry about the neatness of the room." "Maybe." Swordfish didn't know. A voice stopped them. "Hey Swordfish."
Darkseer approached the two dragonets. "Vulture left and went to the library to check out a scroll he's gonna hate. Mind if I join you? There are many futures where we become friends." Swordfish stared at Darkseer. "How did you know all that stuff? Like about how Vulture will hate the scroll and about us and…" "Oh, I have seer powers. And mind reading. And animus. Don't tell dragons about that last one, but I know I can trust you in the long-run. I saw it." Swordfish backed away. "You- you're Dark-"
"The Next Darkstalker? Yeah. Lots have said that. But I'm not gonna kill princes and stuff. Too much work." "What can you see in my future?" Cedar asked. Darkseer's brow furrowed. "Uh… stuff." "What kind of stuff?" Cedar pressed. "Uhhhhh… a mostly neat and normal life. In most futures." Darkseer looked at Cedar with worry. "You'll be fine."
Swordfish left the others to pick up some of the fresh-caught fish Tsunami and some Seawing students brought in. He found Rainfall at the fish table. "Why are you here?" Another Seawing asked Rainfall. "I've always wanted to try fish. Despite it being the 'Rain' forest, you don't get much sea-life around there." A squeaking noise started coming from Rainfall's pouch. Rainfall opened it up to reveal a scavenger he had been hiding. "Cool! Scavenger meat!" Typhoon made a grab for the scavenger. Rainfall moved the scavenger out of the way. "His name is Sloth and he is a friend, not food." Swordfish admired the tiny scavenger. "I named him Sloth because the other Rainwings had sloths, but I didn't want one. I'm not as lazy as the rest of them. Probably because of my parents. One was captured by the Nightwings and the other lost his lazy streak trying to find her. Glory noticed my non-laziness and now Deathbringer is giving me training on combining Nightwing fighting tactics with Rainwing skills." "That makes what Scorch said to you even more offensive." Swordfish said. "Yeah." Rainfall replied.
Swordfish returned to Cedar and Darkseer. Vulture had come back from the library and was complaining about his new scroll to Darkseer, who had an "I told you so" look on his face. Swordfish ate his fish and thought about Vine and Rattlesnake and Webs. Something weird was going on. Every time he thought about it, his mysterious scars hurt. Like they were related. Had someone named Vine given him these scars? What about his dream with the… With the… What happened in his dream again? He could hardly remember the dark room, the figure, and the hands. When the gong sounded, Swordfish snapped out of it. Time to go to the next class.
It was Discussion Class, where you talk with your winglet under supervision of one of The Dragonets of Destiny. Clay welcomed The Amber Winglet into the Art Room, which was not being used. "Alright, I'm going to try something different than the normal thing Tsunami does." Clay split the winglet into groups of two. "You are going to research The War of Sandwing Succession, and trace the many events to discover why Blaze won." "Wasn't it simply that Queen Glacier kidnapped Sunny and threatened to kill her unless you picked Blaze?" Cedar said. "No, it was that we Icewings threatened for a greater good and peace." Blizzard returned. "Yeah, peace under Blaze." Rattlesnake retorted. "So glad I'm an Outclaw." Clay still proceeded with his plan. He split up the Winglet. Cedar and Vulture, Darkseer and Blizzard (An Icewing and a Nightwing. Great pick, Clay.) "And Rattlesnake and Swordfish."
Swordfish's heart leapt. Rattlesnake moved over to Swordfish. As they talked, he learned things about her. She was just as nervous as he was about this place, but would not hold back from dragons like Blizzard. Same as Swordfish, her parents had been criminals hiding in the Scorpion Den. "I went to Thorn and became an Outclaw, to show dragons that I am not an illegal herb dealer like my parents." She said in her voice as perfect as a coral reef. Swordfish told her about his hero brother, his bum dad and his mother, who was the small warm current in his life, until she disappeared when he was young. When Swordfish told Rattlesnake about his mother, he felt as if these memories were fresh. As if he hadn't had them for his whole life.
Rattlesnake made telling his story not so bad.
The day whizzed past quickly. The new students were eager to make friends from other tribes and be like the older dragonets in the school. Well, except the Icewings. The Tragedy of Winter and Moon deepened the mistrust of other tribes for the Icewings. Prince Winter was an Icewing prince who had attended the school the previous year, but had ended up falling for a Nightwing named Moon. The Jade Winglet was what they were called. They had gone out one day to find and stop Queen Scarlet from killing The Dragonets of Destiny, but Winter left them after discovering his presumed dead brother Prince Hailstorm. Winter and Hailstorm went back to the Ice Kingdom, but after learning Winter would have to kill Hailstorm to regain his honor, he left the Ice Kingdom. Unknown to Winter, Moon was already infiltrating the Ice Kingdom to get him. They ran away together, leading many dragons on a chase and hunt for the two. The hunt went on for the rest of that year, but in the end… Nobody liked to talk about what happened. Both Winter and Moon were killed. All dragons involved that survived gained much respect. That is why Blizzard felt so above everyone else. The rest of the Jade Winglet was still around except for Qibli of the Sandwings, who ran away and was never seen again after the tragedy.
But the tragedy was over. Now, things were better. Swordfish knew that any sort of… romance he may become a part of, things would not end so bad. He hoped. Darkseer wouldn't be any sort of help. The day ended on a good note. Swordfish fell asleep thinking about Vine though. Who was Vine? How did Rattlesnake teleport? Swordfish fell into a deep sleep, with no figures and visitors.
You heard him, visitors. Let him sleep. Don't disturb him. Instead, let me show you the mind of a special someone…
The dragonet awoke from their bed. The itch was back. They opened the small trunk of belongings they brought with them to Jade Mountain Academy. They brought out the weapon. A dagger designed for precise and short kills. They touched the blade lightly, wondering which student would be freed first.
Yes, while some would call them "evil," this dragon had a very different view of things. One by one, they would free the students from the bonds of life. One by one, the students would ascend to the depths of the sea in the sky. They picked their targets slowly, researched them and their routines and behavior, until the target could be free.
This dragon was not a killer, they were a liberator.