"Welcome to our school!" Kinkajou said proudly. "Jade Mountain Academy."

Amy nodded dumbfounded, she thought dragons lived in caves and breathed fire. But she never expected them to be so creative and intelligent. Everywhere she looked, she saw different dragons in all sizes and shapes.

"Our school is a place where dragons from different tribes gathered together in this mountain," Silky explained, "Dragons from all ages are welcomed here to learn about each other."

"You can meet Mudwings, Seawings, Skywings, Sandwings, and Icewings," Kinkajou said. She preened herself, "And us, the awesome Rainwings." Her scales turned from pink to blue and orange.

"Whoa," Amy said in awe, "Can I change my scales too?" Both of the dragons looked at her in a funny way, and their scales turned pink and yellow. "No." Kinkajou said.

Amy blinked, "Why? Am I a dragon too?"

"Yes," Kinkajou said, "But you are a Skywing and all they can do is breath fire like most dragons." She leaned over to Silky and whispered, "I think she hit her head too hard from the fall."

"So? Isn't natural for all dragons to breath fire? Don't you guys also breath fire too?"

Silky nudged Kinkajou and whispered back, "I think it made her very confused." Then out loud she said, "I have a better idea. Why don't we go to the library?"

Scrolls were everywhere, simply everywhere, in cubbyholes along all the walls and more racks and cylinders around the cave. Every corner had a spot to curl up and read in: sometimes a rock ledge, sometimes a pile of moss or an arrangement of carpets.

Sunbeams filtered down through skylights in the roof and windows along one wall. Each of the holes was covered with something thin enough to let the light through but strong enough to keep the wind and weather out. Amy studied the closest one: emerald green, with traces of veins branching through it. "What is this?" She asked.

"Leaves!" Kinkajou said proudly. "We use them sometimes as roofs for Rainwing houses. Aren't they perfect for library windows?"

Amy heard movement and saw a circular wooden desk in the center that was labeled librarian. A dark head popped up from behind the desk. "Hi Starflight!" Kinkajou called to the black dragon.

"Hey Kinkajou and Silky," he smiled. "Who is that Skywing? A new friend?"

"This is Chrystal," she answered, "Our winglet found her outside of our school."

Starflight nodded sagely, "Ah our mysterious visitor."

"This is Starflight," Silky whispered, "He is one of the Dragonets of Destiny who founded this school. He lost his sight during the Nightwing Exodus."

Amy was feeling her lost in her explanation. "What?"

"Do you have scrolls that explains about dragons in Pyrria?" Kinkajou asked.

Starflight blinked, "I do." He pulled out a scroll from under his desk, "We keep extra copies of A Guide to the Dragons of Pyrria for the younger dragonets. You can keep one."

Kinkajou took the scroll, "Thanks."

"Any time, just come to me if you need anything."

Kinkajou passed the scroll to her. "Here you go, this scroll will explain everything to you about dragons."

Amy opened the scroll and looked at it, "But I can't read. All of this is new to me."

Silky's scales flashed yellow, then they turned blue. She looked at Kinkajou, "Oh dear," she sighed.

Amy knew that look. When she was a freshman, she was transferred into a new school, her class joined in a relay race. One of the challenges was the wall. The goal was to help all the team to climb over the wall in order to get to the other side. Due to her acrophobia, she refused to climb the wall and as a result her class lost. As a result she couldn't face her classmates. She hung her head in shame.

Kinkajou nuzzled her shoulder, "Don't worry about it most of us don't know how to read." She assured her, "That is why we come to school."

Amy smiled at her sadly, she wished that all humans in her world are friendly, caring and outreaching like Kinkajou. She looked at the scroll she was holding. It have detailed pictures of different dragons and under each dragon was a script she couldn't read or understand. Then she remembered that dragons possessed magic. Is it possible? She wondered, Could I use magic now I am a dragon? She stared at the scroll, Scroll, I command you to translate dragon script into a language that I could understand.

At first nothing happened. Suddenly, the letters begun to blur. The lines slithered and moved like worms and re-arranged themselves into English. "Whoa!" Amy felt creeped out from what she have witnessed. She wondered why it was the exact opposite feeling of joy. Before she could asked them about it. She felt her stomach gurgled.

Kinkajou grinned, "I guess this is time to go to our next favorite place for lunch."

"And here is the Prey Center!" Kinkajou spread her wings out. "Plenty of food to pick from."

"And noisy as ever," Silky added dryly.

Amy stared at the cave, it was different from the quiet and well organized library. The prey center was chaotic and a mess. It was a mammoth cave open to the air on one side, looking out over a mossy, boulder-strewn slope, towering cliffs, and faraway peaks. There was a low wall of rocks built across the bottom of the opening — useless against dragons, of course, but perfect for keeping prey trapped inside. A fast-flowing river swept along the wall opposite the opening, disappearing through an archway into the next cave.

There were dragons shouting gleefully as they chased after the animals. Some of the animals were fighting or fleeing for their lives. While the other dragons were sitting around a huge pile of fruit and vegetables. But the floor was littered with dead animals and half eaten fruit and the cave was beginning to smell from the rot and decay. Amy was terrified and fascinated by the chaos that she have witnessed. It was different than what she had expected from the school cafeteria. So dragons do maintain their wild instincts. "And I thought Clay managed to bring some changes here." Kinkajou said ruefully. She brushed away some bones, apple cores and banana peels with her tail in disgust.

Silky rolled her eyes, "He would if it weren't for the Darkstalker incident."

Amy blinked, "Huh?"

"Which have been already solved." Kinkajou said airly, waving her talon. "Let's go over there." She nudged Amy towards the pile of fruit.

Amy sat next to the Rainwings. Silky pushed some mangos towards her. Amy watched her cut them into three slices with her talons. Amy cut hers in three slices with her talons. Wow! These claws are sharp like knives. "So what is a Darkstalker?"

"Darkstalker, was an ancient evil animus dragon who was revived about three months ago. After his awakening, he started using his animus magic on the dragons that created chaos and almost started another war. He created a curse on the Icewings that made them sick and killed their Queen Glacier. Made a ghost in the Kingdom of the Sea and became king over the Nightwings before iinitiating a war between the Nightwings and Icewings at our school." Kinkajou explained.

"Animus?" Amy echoed. "Is that a type of magic? If I have special powers I don't want to use them for evil."

"That is true," Kinkajou said, peeling a banana. "I heard some animus dragons made really cool stuff like the dreamvisitors that allowed you to visit or see someone in your dreams no matter where and how far you are. Sunny has one of those and we have two animus dragons with us who helped us beat Darkstalker."

Silky's scaled turned white before turning blue. "You don't understand," she said shaking her head, "From what I have heard from the other tribes. They said that using too much animus magic comes with a terrible price of losing your soul, in other words turning you insane. Darkstalker used his enchantment to brainwash everyone to like him. He claimed he was using his powers for the sake of good and become king of the Nightwings."

Amy felt her mind was spinning. "Wait, you said Darkstaler used his magic for evil, but he sound like a good guy."

"For the good for the Nightwings," Silky corrected her, "But he tried to use the Nightwings to wage war against the other tribes which is bad for everyone."

Goodness, I better be careful with my magic. Amy thought. She turned her head to look around. All the dragons were talking and laughing together as they ate. As she looked at them closely, she noticed that some of them have scars or missing a limb. "But everything seemed peaceful."

"That is because Darkstalker disappeared. After he vanished, his magic over everyone disappeared with him and the Icewings and Nightwings stopped fighting each other."

"What do you think happen to Darkstalker?"

The Rainwing shrugged their shoulders. "Nobody knows," Silky admitted, "Some say he was assassinated by his close confident, some said that another animus dragon or a heroic dragonet defeated him, while most said they saw him flew back to the mountain where he came from to sleep for good."

"Or maybe he lost all his animus powers," Kinkajou cheerfully said. "And turned into a normal dragon."

"Yeah right," Silky scoffed at her, "As if it was possible for a dragon to lose all of their power to become ordinary. It sounds like one of those stories your boyfriend would made up."

Kinkajou shrugged and popped the banana in her mouth.

Silky turned to Amy, "After we are done eating, let's finish the rest of the tour of our school."

This sounds like an opportunity to explore the rest of the strange mountain and learn more about dragons. Amy nodded thoughtfully, "OK."

Amy followed the dragons through the tunnels. They showed her different caves for their classes. Amy thought it was a little similar to her classes in the human world such as music, art, and history and healing, except they did not offer math, reading and writing. Except for one of the caves was undergoing through repairs because of a fire. ("Which holds my least favorite subject," Kinkajou said.) She was introduced to an old stone dragon with sad eyes named Stonemover in his cave.

"This is the Great Hall," Silky said. "Woah!" Amy craned her head back to look. The Great Hall was the largest cave she have ever seen. There was sunlight pouring into the cave and huge twisting stalactites coming down from the celling making twisting colons. On the back wall was a huge gong with three dragons carved on it. There were two tunnels on the left side of the entrance and two on it's right. On each entrance was a map, displaying tunnel routes to help students find their way around the huge caves. It was so tall and spacious, Amy began to feel dizzy again. "And there is more to see!" Kinkajou said.

They took her to an underground lake deep inside the mountain. There was a cavern studded with stalactites. Far above them was a hole in the roof, big enough for a dragon to fly enough with their wings outstretched. Inside the lake there were dragons swimming and splashing each other playfully.

Amy saw a blue green dragon in the water. The way it was moving seemed different from the other dragons as it's scales changed in different shades of yellow as if it was struggling to claw it's way out, but the rocks were wet and slippery with algae and slime. "Help!" She shouted, "Somebody quick, there's a dragon drowning over there!" She quickly ran towards the dragon, she heard a splash and saw a green and yellow Seawing swimming towards the dragon in the corner of her eye.

She heard other dragons shouting and yelling at once. "Is that Tamarin?" "What is she doing in the water?" "Quick get one of the teachers!"

Amy managed to reach the dragon and turned around and offered her tail, "Quick grab on!"

The Seawing swam under the water and pushed the Rainwing up to the surface close to Amy. The Rainwiing grabbed her tail and together, they helped her climbed on the rocky shelf. Amy noticed her eyes were oddly light blue. She tried not to stare at the scars on her body and wings as she shivered from the wet and the cold, her skin turned blue, white and seaweed green. "Oh dear," Amy said, she wrapped her wings around her and concentrated on warming her with her body. "I don't know if this helps."

The Rainwing smiled at her, "Thank you, for helping me. I thought I know a lot of dragons around here but you two must be new, I'm Tamarin, what is your name?"

"I'm Chrystal." Amy said, remembering her alias.

"And I'm Br-Vent," The Seawing added, then he changed the subject. "Tamarin what happened? How did you get in the water."

The Rainwing shook her head, "I don't know. A new student asked me to show him here because he was new to the school and suddenly he pushed me in the water."

"Do you know who did this to you?" Amy asked.

He nudged her with his head, "Pst, she is blind," he whispered, "She can't tell you."

Tamarin heard him and she was indigent, "I may be blind, but my other senses are sharp." She huffed, "He had a rough voice and smelled like seawater. His movements are like a Seawing because when he walks, I could hear his webbed talons making slapping noises on the floor." She tilted her head at him as if she was challenging him.

Amy saw some patterns and stripes glowed on different parts on his body. Vent grinned at her, "Fair enough."

A group of dragonets came up to them. They were followed by a brown and red dragon who was limping on his hind leg.

They heard everyone whispering excitedly and crowed around them. "It's Clay!"

Clay came up to them, "Tamarin, are you alright?" "I'm fine Clay, no injuries on me. But I do feel like I needed some Suntime." The brown dragon grinned, "Sounds good, We will take it from here." He nodded at Amy and Vent, "Thank you."

Some of Vent's stripes light up from his stripes like Christmas lights and then turned off, "Your welcome." So pretty, Amy thought, I didn't know dragons could do that too. He looked at Amy, and some of his scales light up into different patterns again, "What?"

Amy blinked, "Oh nothing." She turned her head away feeling embarrassed for being caught staring. Oops! I made eye contact. Ollie said most animals don't like making eye contact. He said he was butted by a ram once from staring at it's eyes.

In the corner of her eye, she saw something. She turned around and saw Vent staring at her. He grinned at her and winked.

Amy felt her cheeks grew hot and quickly turned away. Flicking her tail at him.