Glory walked down the halls of Jade Mountain, a stern expression on her snout. She glanced back at the two dragonets following her. Tiger's head was lowered, and her orange and black wings raised up, ashamed. Toxin seemed to be less sorry. Mastermind trailed behind the two, excitedly looking around at the cave, a huge change in scenery from the rainforest.
"Do you know what you did wrong?" Glory asked, posing the question to all three of them.
"I'm sorry, your majesty," Tiger apologized glumly.
Glory snorted. "That's not an answer. I found out about your field trips to the NightWing island." Tiger winced. "You know that it's off-limits, especially to dragonets without permission."
"Your majesty, I was just collecting some scrolls."
"That's not an excuse," Glory reprimanded. "It's dangerous there, and you could've gotten hurt. Why didn't you ask for permission? I could have had an adult go collect them with you."
"I thought you wouldn't have wanted me speaking to Mastermind," Tiger explained.
"Well, you're right," Glory continued, "he's a war criminal, and should not be allowed to influence the minds of young dragonets like you."
Tiger looked slightly hurt. "I'm sorry," she apologized again.
"You don't need to apologize," Toxin suddenly snapped, talking back to her queen. "You were doing the right thing. It's just that Glory is an unfair queen."
Hints of black started to appear on Queen Glory's tail as she flicked it back and forth. "Oh, I'm an unfair queen," she growled, defending her pride. "Did you know that Queen Coral once ripped out one of her guard's teeth and tore out her heart, because she was eating on the job, with Queen Coral's brother's permission, I might add? Ask Tsunami about it. And thing is, Coral isn't even the worst queen! You should get to know Scarlet sometime, see what she'd do to you for this. I am not an unfair queen."
Toxin shrugged her wings, not offering up a response. Glory opened her mouth to say something again, but thought better of it. She couldn't go around yelling at disobedient dragonets. That definitely wasn't queen-like.
Glory sighed, the black in her scales fading. "But I'm not here to scold you, Tiger. I'll figure out a suitable punishment, eventually, but right now I need your help."
One of Tiger's ears perked up. "My help?" she asked, surprised that the Rainforest Queen was asking her for help. "Me?"
Glory nodded. "Yes, you. I need to figure out what's causing this drought, and stop it before it's too late. You're the one who brought the Black Scrolls here. I'm hoping you can help figure out what Toxin's vision has to do with the drought."
Tiger glanced over at Toxin. "You had another vision?"
The hybrid flicked her tail. "Yeah. Something's going to happen here, and the dragon who hurt Frog is going to be there. I'm going to make her pay."
Tiger frowned. "What happened to Frog?"
Glory gave Toxin a look of warning. "Toxin, please, for your sake, listen to me. Don't go after Aurora. You saw the aftermath of what she did. I don't want you to get hurt, or worse. If you want to be helpful, stay in Jade Mountain and help Tiger. Deathbringer can take care of her." If there was any dragon Glory trusted to bring down Aurora, it was Deathbringer. Aurora had been able to kill Gorilla and Tropic because they'd been mostly untrained. But Deathbringer was the greatest assassin on Pyrrhia. Nothing bad could happen to him. For Firefly's sake, Glory hoped not.
"C'mon," Glory said, leading the three into the library, not answering Tiger's question. "Let's go find those scrolls."
As Glory walked up to the desk in the center of the room, Starflight behind it, Tiger turned to Toxin. "What happened to Frog?" she asked again, her black stripes starting to shift into a green. "Is he alright?"
"He was attacked," Toxin hissed. "She killed Gorilla and Tropic. Frog was hurt. Real bad. I don't know if he's going to be alright."
Tiger nodded solemnly, staring aimlessly into the shelves of scrolls. She hadn't been best friends with Frog or anything, but she'd known him well enough.
"Hey, Starflight," Glory greeted him. He grinned at hearing her voice. That was one of the things that Glory didn't like about being queen. While the rest of the dragonets were running Jade Mountain Academy together, she had to tend to her duties in the rainforest, and was never able to spend as much time with them as she would've liked. Whenever she visited, it always felt like she'd missed out. Still, she supposed that was going to change from now on, with Sunny queen of the SandWings now. Maybe Glory could retire one day. Since the RainWings had their own way of choosing their queen, that was certainly an option, although she'd want to make sure her successor was worthy, and nothing like the queens before Glory.
"Glory!" Starflight said. "You're back so soon! Did something happen?" He frowned as he realized this was unusual, anxiety starting to set in.
"Er, yeah," Glory squirmed. "There's some stuff I need to talk to you about."
"Hi," Mastermind quietly murmured, averting his eyes from his son. Glory glanced back to him. Maybe bringing him to the library wasn't such a good idea after all.
Starflight stiffened up, hearing his father's voice. "Glory," he whispered, "is that who I think it is?"
Glory winced. "Yeah, I'm sorry for bringing him here. He's, um, involved in the stuff that's going on. I figured he might be helpful for some research."
Starflight scratched a talon against his desk. He'd told Glory he didn't want to have anything to do with his father. Just because this dragon had passed on his genes to Starflight didn't mean that the young NightWing had any other connection to him. "Well?" Starflight sighed, exasperated.
"Tiger here said that she brought a set of scrolls called the Black Scrolls here," Glory asked. "Do you know where they are?"
"Most of them are on the shelves over there," Starflight said, pointing a talon across the room. "They're a bit scattered, since we organized by subject, but the scrollpaper is black. You should be able to find them easily. What do you need them for?"
"We need to figure out a prophecy, and what it has to do with the drought," Glory explained. She could tell that Starflight was frustrated with her for bringing his father here, although he was trying not to show it. She hated that. When she had lived with the dragonets, she'd hadn't really cared if one of them was angry at her. But now it was different.
"Well, just ask if you need anything else," Starflight tersely replied.
"Thank you for the help," Glory responded. She headed towards the scrollshelf Starflight had pointed to, leaving Mastermind behind.
Starflight stood still for a moment, waiting to hear his father leave. When Mastermind didn't, he gave out a quiet sigh.
"Er, your library here is very nice," Mastermind complimented him.
Starflight snorted. "Yes. It is. Are you looking for a scroll, too?"
"No, no, nothing in particular."
"Then you can go," Starflight coldly responded. "I'm busy."
Mastermind stood there for a moment, unsure if he should respond or not. Not sure what the best thing to say was, he took a step back. "Alright, er, see you."
He stood there for a few more moments while Starflight waited for him to leave. Glory gave Mastermind a firm glare from across the room, and the NightWing finally gave up, walking over to the RainWing queen, who had joined Toxin and Tiger by the scrollshelf Starflight had pointed them to.
Glory carefully scanned the shelf, and pulled out a few scrolls. Starflight was right — even though the Black Scrolls had been scattered around the library, sorted by subject, they stood out clearly, the strange black paper they were written on contrasting with the rest of the scrolls. Glory pulled one out. The paper was old, but based on how long the scrolls were supposed to have been around, they were in surprisingly good shape. She wondered if they were enchanted, or maybe the strange paper just held together better than normal.
Glory rolled open the scroll, and read its title, written in golden ink, each of the letters written in the classic NightWing style, every stroke curved and connected, so a dragon could write without picking up their claws. Royal Lineages of the Queens. It rolled opened to a length list of dragon names, connected in a web of lines of varying widths. Small crowns were on some of the names, and notes were scattered throughout the scroll, directing the reader to various other sections, supplemental scrolls, or sometimes even scrolls by different authors that probably no longer existed, lost to the volcano or decayed to the depths of time. Glory started to realize why Mastermind and Starflight cared so much about preserving their scrolls. How much information about Pyrrhia's history had the Night Kingdom had in its libraries? How much had they hid from the rest of Pyrrhia?
"Hey, Glory," Toxin whispered, interrupting Glory's train of thought. The queen glanced over to the dragonet, who was pointing a claw across the library, beckoning Glory to look. She looked over to a small rocky ledge in the corner of the library. An IceWing maybe a year or two younger than Glory rested on the ledge, a scroll in his talons.
"Yes?" Glory asked, not quite sure why Toxin had pointed him out to her.
"Look," Toxin whispered to Glory. "Doesn't he remind you of someone?"
"Of Aurora?" Glory asked, skeptical. "Just because he's an IceWing doesn't mean he has anything to do with her. It's a library, he's allowed to read."
"No," Toxin growled, "look at his bracelet."
Glory squinted a bit closer, and frowned. There was a silver bracelet around the IceWing's left forearm, with a dark purple stone embedded in the center. That was right, Aurora had been wearing something similar, a silver chain with the same type of gemstone hanging from it. That didn't mean anything, of course. It might just be a common type of IceWing jewelry. But it did raise Glory's suspicions.
"I don't think I've seen him here before," Glory commented. "Is he a student here?" Her eyes moved to the singular ring hanging from his neck. That meant he was an adult, in the First Circle, so not a student.
"He's not," Tiger quickly responded, glancing over the scroll that Glory had opened. "His name is Polar, I think. He arrived here last night with a hybrid, Ink. Oh yeah, Toxin, I wanted to introduce you to him. He's interesting. He gave me some plans for a desalination machine that could be used in the rainforest, but he has no idea how they work."
"Hmm." Glory pondered for a moment. Polar wasn't a student, had arrived here at the same time Aurora was in the rainforest, and had similar jewelry. That was suspicious. It might be good to ask him a few question. "I'll be back. I want to see what he's doing."
Glory stood up from her scroll, and walked over to Polar, Toxin following behind her. Glory gave Toxin a small glance of warning, but the hybrid didn't listen. Glory sighed. Hopefully, Toxin would get a bit more obedient as she got older, but it probably couldn't hurt too much if she tagged along. She was the one who'd pointed out Polar to begin with.
As he saw the two coming over, Polar raised his head, and carefully rolled up his scroll to look at the intruders. He flicked his tongue in and out. A RainWing, and a hybrid dragonet. Probably students here. "Yes?" Polar asked as soon as he was sure they were coming over to talk to him. "Do you want something?"
"Yeah," Glory replied, putting on a smile. "You're not a student here, are you? What are you doing here?"
Polar snorted. He didn't owe some random RainWing an explanation. "None of your business. Can I get back to my scroll now? It's a library, and I'm trying to read."
Glory flicked her tail back and forth, and grinned, her fangs showing. Clearly, he didn't recognize her, although there was no reason that he should. She might as well have a little fun with it. "No, you may not," she ordered him. "I asked you a question, and unless you want Queen Glacier to hear about this, you should answer me."
Polar growled, flexing the spikes on the back of his tail. "Why would Queen Glacier care what a random RainWing has to say?" he snapped.
The rainforest queen tapped a talon on the ledge Polar rested on. "It's Glory," she answered. "And she wouldn't be happy if she found out a First Circle IceWing caused a diplomatic incident. That wouldn't do so good for your ranking, would it?" Threatening Polar's ranking might not make him her friend, but it might make him talk. Anyways, it was his own fault for being so rude.
Polar blinked for a few moments, staring at Glory as he realized who she was. This was the queen of the RainWing and NightWings? He'd expected her to be a bit more . . . impressive. He'd known she was young, but he'd always thought that she'd look more menacing, or something like that. She didn't have the same air of haughtiness, grandeur, and authority that Queen Glacier had.
"Er, um, sorry, your majesty," he responded, still slightly shocked that he'd been talking to a queen. "Queen Glacier sent me here. To check on the IceWing students." Even if Queen Glory did report his rudeness to Queen Glacier, Polar wasn't particularly worried about his ranking. As long as he succeeded in his mission, Glacier would forgive him.
Glory frowned. That hadn't really gone as she'd expected. The high-ranked IceWing students always seemed to be obsessed with their circle rankings, and Tsunami claimed that threatening to send back a poor report to Queen Glacier usually kept them in line. She'd thought he'd be grovelling for forgiveness at her paws, not just a quick 'sorry.'
"Hey, IceWing," Toxin growled, poking her head up defiantly at Polar. "Do you know a dragon named Aurora? She's a hybrid, IceWing-SeaWing, and her neckl—"
Glory quickly put her tail over Toxin's mouth, silencing her. She gave the young hybrid a glare. If Polar was in cahoots with Aurora, she didn't want to tip him off that they knew. Although it might be a bit too late for that now.
"Sorry, little dragonet, we don't allow hybrids in our palace," Polar replied. "Your majesty, is there anything else you wanted to ask me?" If there was one dragon that Polar couldn't talk about Project Darkstone with, it was a rival queen. Was that why Queen Glory had come over? Did she somehow know about it? Polar certainly hoped not. If she did, then he might not be so safe at Jade Mountain. He shouldn't underestimate her just because she was a RainWing, no matter what Glacier had said about them.
"Your majesty! I found something interesting!" a voice suddenly called out from across the library. Polar and Glory turned to look at Mastermind, who seemed excited about something. Polar shivered. There were far too many NightWings at Jade Mountain for his comfort, and now that they were allied with the RainWings, that was double the danger. Maybe sending the Darkstone with him to Jade Mountain had been a bad idea. But how could anyone else know about it? So far as Queen Glacier knew, Crystal hadn't told anyone about it.
Glory quickly glanced back to Polar. "Well, it was nice to meet you, but I have something to attend to." She would definitely want to keep an eye on the IceWing. Glory walked back to Mastermind and Tiger, Toxin following behind her. "What is it?" Glory asked the NightWing, surprised he'd found something interesting so quickly.
Mastermind moved a scroll towards Glory. It was another one of the Black Scrolls, this one titled Historical NightWing Prophecies and Visions in the same golden ink. He pointed a talon to a paragraph. "Look at this," he suggested.
Glory read the title of the subsection. "Nightreader's Prophecy," she repeated quietly. A chill ran along her spine. This was a real prophecy, unlike the Dragonet Prophecy that Morrowseer had created. She read the prophecy out loud as Tiger and Toxin peered beneath her wings.
"When the stones of old awaken, the fires of death must burn.
When the lives of many have been taken, the ground of Pyrrhia will be turned.
From the deepest black, to the eternal flames.
Join the tablet forgotten, and the fumes untamed.
With the frozen claws, let darkness be tamed.
And an ancient evil, shall death be thy name.
The land that is all but lost, will be the refuge of the dark.
Across the bridge of light and frost, must the waters of life be sparked.
When darkness lights the frozen earth, and lost souls wander the forsaken land.
Three will come to devour the sun, and the queens will make their final stand.
A deadly message will be told, forgotten from the days of old.
Chilled to death with freezing cold, and they will be crowned with the cursed gold.
The night will last a thousand years, 'till the rays of light can glow once more.
Unless the chosens can unite the tribes, to lead them in a peaceful war."
Glory paused for a moment. Reading the prophecy was almost intimidating. How long ago had it been written down? What it had referred to? Starflight had always been the one interested in history, but uniting the tribes sounded like it had to do with dragons winning the Scorching. Although that certainly hadn't been a peaceful war. Could the prophecy be that old?
"Alright," Glory said, turning to Mastermind, "it's just a prophecy. What's so interesting about it, and what does it have to do with our drought?"
Mastermind coughed. "We used to have a Nightreader in the Night Kingdom. She was the sister of Stonemover, our most recent animus. She disappeared around the time her brother did. We never found out where she got to."
Stonemover's sister. That meant she was Sunny's aunt. "Cool, but so what?" Glory snorted. "This prophecy is ancient, so she clearly didn't write it. And if Nightreader was born on the island, she couldn't have gotten prophecy powers anyways. Chances are, the name was just repeated."
Mastermind shook his head. "That's doubtful. Most of our names have two parts, so NightWings only rarely repeat names. It's a lot more useful when studying history. With the other tribes, you see a hundred 'Bogs,' 'Diamonds,' and 'Lagoons.' You might find a Moonseer, Moonwatcher, Skyseer, and a Skywatcher, but rarely two of the same name." He seemed slightly proud of this, as if it was just one more way the NightWings were superior to the rest of the tribes.
Glory rolled her eyes. "I suppose you have another explanation? Nightreader is a time-traveler? Anyways, even if you're right and it's not just a coincidence, I don't see why it matters. We're looking for stuff on droughts, strange visions, and dragons turning to stone."
Glory suddenly heard the small clatter of a scroll from behind her. She quickly turned around to see Polar on his ledge. The IceWing had dropped his scroll in surprise, and was staring at Glory.
Glory sighed. "Do you have something to say?" she asked. "It's rude to stare at a queen."
Polar thought for a moment, the IceWing debating whether or not to ask his question and risk telling the NightWing queen something he shouldn't. He made his decision. "You said something about dragons turning to stone. Was this something that happened recently? Or nearby?" He knew that part of the reason why the Empty Circle had sent him out to Jade Mountain was in hopes that they could draw out Crystal, and retrieve the second Darkstone. If they had succeeded, he might be in far more danger than he'd originally thought.
"Yeah," Glory answered. So the IceWing might be connected to this after all. This was interesting. Very interesting. "Queen Thorn was assassinated, and found turned to stone. What do you know about it?" She decided not to mention how she knew about that and give away Toxin's visions.
Polar frowned, and swished his tail back and forth. Queen Thorn, dead. He hadn't heard about that yet. It wasn't that nearby, at least. But it couldn't just be coincidence that Crystal decided to make her appearance right after the second Darkstone left the Ice Kingdom. Did she want it, for some reason? Or did she just want to make sure that Queen Glacier and the Ice Kingdom couldn't have it?
"Not much," Polar replied, fibbing a little, "but nine years ago, there were a bunch of high-ranked IceWings working for Queen Glacier that were killed in the same way. We never caught the culprit." That was public knowledge, at least in the Ice Kingdom. All of the IceWings were affiliated with Project Darkstone, but Queen Glacier had kept that secret.
"Huh," Glory replied, frowning. Three completely different magical killing sprees, all in the same way. A RainWing dragonet over a decade ago, some higher-up IceWings nine years ago, and now Queen Thorn and Blaze. An IceWing assassin with a pet parrot. A hybrid on the old NightWing island who could form metal from her claws. A sudden drought. This made even less sense than before, but at least they were getting somewhere.
The common thread through all this was that IceWings and magic were involved. Glory knew that the IceWings used to have animus magic, back before the Darkstalker, and there were still remnants of that Silver Age around. Glory even had some IceWing magic herself; the cutting of the Moon Globe Tree that Queen Glacier had given her in exchange for Icicle had been growing well. What if the IceWings had gotten a new animus? Doubtful. But what if the assassin had stolen some of their magic, or had found an ancient animus-touched artifact in the Ice Kingdom, like what happened with Silverhorn? "Is that it? Do you know anything else?"
Polar shook his head. "Sorry. We don't know what happened to the assassin." He definitely did know more about Crystal. More than he wanted to know about his aunt. But he couldn't share it without risking knowledge of Project Darkstone getting out. Not with Queen Glory. Still, if Crystal was back, and these dragons were trying to figure out where she was, he had to make sure that he found her before they did. He couldn't let Queen Glory get her claws on the first Darkstone.
Polar rolled up A Guide to Animus Magic; he could read more later, when it was time to put it into practice. He climbed down from the ledge, and walked over to Glory, glancing down at the scroll in front of her. He gave the queen a smile. "I'll tell you if I remember anything helpful."
Glory flicked her tongue out, and grinned back. The IceWing was definitely hiding something, but she didn't know what. He'd been rude to her earlier, even after finding out that she was queen, and now he wanted to help her out? Dragons didn't just change their demeanor like that. "Thank you, Polar."
Polar quickly read what the scroll was open to. A NightWing prophecy? She was in charge of the NightWings now, didn't Queen Glory know they'd been faked and made up? They certainly weren't to be trusted. "Starweaver," Polar commented, seeing the name at the bottom of the scroll, hidden by a fold of paper. He didn't recognize the name.
"Who?" Glory asked, confused. She still didn't see how the prophecy was connected, but if Polar knew something that she didn't about it, it might be a lead.
Polar rolled down the bottom of the scroll, revealing a short paragraph of gold ink, this one written more finely. "I'm not sure. Just some random NightWing claiming to be a prophet. It says here that he's the one who foretold the prophecy."
Glory quickly glanced at the paragraph. Polar was right. Apparently, this prophecy wasn't foretold by a dragon named Nightreader, it was by a NightWing named Starweaver. "Nightreader's Prophecy was written down by the great prophet Starweaver in the year 2 Post-Scorching. At the time of this scroll's writing, it is still unknown what events it refers to, or will eventually refer to, and was the subject of intense scholarly discussion in the years after his death," she read out loud. "It then gives a couple references to scrolls that discuss this scholarly debate on Starweaver. Which is completely useless, since these are ancient scrolls that are probably long-gone. Great."
"I remember reading the name Starweaver before," Tiger said. "It was in some legends on the Scorching. I think he was a big player in setting up the Night Kingdom, and was one of their first prophets. I could look for more scrolls on him."
"Fine, but I still don't see how this helps us," Glory grumbled. She gave Mastermind a glare, and he shrugged his wings. Still, from what she'd read, the prophecy had never been completed. What if it did refer to the modern-day Nightreader, and had something to do with the events that were happening now? But what could it mean? Could 'the fires of death' mean a drought?
The five dragons continued their research for a few hours, without much luck. Eventually, Polar decided that they probably weren't going to find anything out about where Crystal was in some ancient scrolls. The drought wasn't really his concern, and he had more important things to do.
As the four continued discussing, Polar slowly backed away, grabbing his Animus Guide scroll. If he was going to try testing the Darkstone again, he might need it. He started towards the entryway of the library, raising his tail to make sure it didn't loudly scratch against the ground. As he exited, he saw that Toxin was giving him a glance, watching him as he left. He didn't bother to give the hybrid dragonet a look back, and walked out of the library, heading down the halls of Jade Mountain Academy.
Toxin turned back to Glory as she saw Polar leaving, but she was too engaged in a discussion with Mastermind to care. The hybrid looked back to see the spikes on Polar's tail swishing around the corner. A few colors brushed across her scales as Toxin changed them. What was he up to? She might be able to follow him, but she wasn't so good at changing her camouflage quickly, and she'd probably be caught. Still, what if he was secretly communicating with Aurora? Toxin got up to follow him, but when she had gotten to the exit of the cave, the IceWing was already gone. She frowned. Hopefully, she wouldn't later regret being too slow to follow him.
Polar quickly walked down the tunnels of the academy. He couldn't practice using the Darkstone in the guest room. There was too much of a risk of being seen, and he especially didn't want Seahorse to find out about it. That left a couple options: he could leave Jade Mountain, and find some solitude on a nearby mountain peak, or he could go deeper into the caves, where the dragonets didn't go. If he left out the main entrance, there might be dragons, Ermine, in particular, asking too many questions about where he was going, so he decided on the latter.
Just heading along the tunnels of the academy, it wasn't long before the caves started to get more craggly, more wild, and Polar could tell he was descending deeper into Jade Mountain. As the tunnels became unlit, Polar pulled out one of his three moon globes, the gentle glow of it lighting his way. Rubble crowded his path, and small crevasses split off from the caves, too cramped for a dragon to enter. It seemed dangerous down here, like a dragon could easily get stuck. He wondered why the dragons in charge here hadn't tried to block it off. Had they had any accidents? He knew that there had been a couple incidents the first year of the academy's operation; everyone in the Ice Kingdom knew what Princess Icicle had done. And there was the whole debacle with Prince Hailstorm and the Diamond Trial. After Queen Glacier had realized that Prince Winter was not only still alive, but had freed Foeslayer, she'd dropped Hailstorm in the rankings. Not all the way to Seventh Circle, but far enough to kick Narwhal and Tundra out of the palace. No one knew where Foeslayer had gotten to.
Eventually, Polar found a cave that suited him well. It was small and cozy, but it was flat, and had a nice place for him to sit down. There was a trickle of running water somewhere in the distance, but Polar couldn't see it. If someone came down here, he would be able to hear them climbing through the nearby tunnels.
Polar took the healing diamond out from his pouch, and placed it onto the stone, making sure it wouldn't accidentally roll away from him. He felt a small tingle as it touched his claws, the dull ache in his left foreleg starting to subside. Polar wasn't quite sure what he'd do if he lost the diamond. Would the Darkstone eventually kill him?
The IceWing then took out A Guide to Animus Magic, rolling open the old scroll. At first, he'd been surprised that it wasn't written by an IceWing. But he supposed it made sense, it wasn't like the ancient IceWings could instruct their animuses in how to use magic, since every animus was only allowed to use their power once. No one would've had actual experience. Polar would have to be careful about that, especially if he ended up trying to use the Darkstone more than once. He wasn't quite sure if it had any effect on a dragon's soul, like natural animus magic, but if Crystal was any example, it probably did. Anyways, the scroll looked like it was written long after the IceWings had their magic stolen. The author's name was Vine, which sounded a bit like a RainWing name.
It's best for the beginning animus to start with enchanting small objects for limited periods of time. Since there are so few of us, there's not really a consensus on what type of enchantments are more draining or not, but it's pretty well-documented that animuses who haven't used their powers much before can feel exhausted after creating a complicated enchantment for days, or even months. I personally experienced this when starting out, and it's not fun to be hammock-ridden for a week. I still feel tired after some enchantments, but it seems like it depends quite a bit on how complex the enchantment is, and how long I took to make it. Like, a simple enchantment such as asking something to move is pretty easy, but if there's any unclearness or interpretation needed, you might end up feeling it.
My personal recommendation for a first enchantment is to try and get a pebble to levitate for a short period of time. I took a bit of inspiration from the SeaWings for this; they've got this ceremony where they test all their dragonets to see if they've got animus magic by asking them to move a coconut off the ground. In my opinion, a coconut is a bit large, and it's always better to explicitly say that you're enchanting something, since what words you use can matter. For a first exercise, I'd say exactly "I enchant this rock to float one talonlength off of the ground for the next minute," replacing rock with whatever small object you want to levitate. As with any enchantment, remember not to try and use too much magic. I don't know how much I believe in the 'losing your soul' stuff myself, but it's pretty well-documented, so it's better to err on the safe side.
Polar put down the scroll, and grabbed a small pebble from a pile of rubble on the floor of the cave, possibly from a fallen stalactite. Maybe that's why he'd failed so far, he'd been trying to enchant things that were too big, or too complicated. He pulled the pebble closer to him, moving his snout down to the pebble to examine it. With his left forepaw, he grabbed the Diamond Healer, clenching it tightly around him. He knew the pain that came with using the Darkstone, but he was prepared.
Polar took a deep breath in, his tail shaking. "For Queen Glacier," he whispered. "For the Ice Kingdom." He locked his black, beady eyes on the pebble, and repeating the scroll word-for-word, said "I enchant this rock to float one talonlength off of the ground for the next minute."
For a moment, Polar wasn't quite sure that anything had happened. But abruptly the pebble started to shake, as if it was trying to lift up into the air. Polar wasn't quite certain, but it seemed like it started to rise, just barely above the surface of the cavern floor. Was it working?
Suddenly, a sharp pain started to spread through Polar's left foreleg, emanating from where the Darkstone touched his scales. The IceWing clenched onto the diamond tighter, its sharp corners cutting through his paw, staining it with his blue blood. A wave of nausea and fatigue promptly hit Polar. He put out his right forepaw to stabilize him, but it wasn't enough. The IceWing spilled his stomach on the ground in front of him as he fell to the ground, the pungent smell of the fish he'd had for breakfast in his snout.
Polar tried to put his paw under him to lift himself up, but it slipped in his lack of coordination. He tried to look up, but the cave was spinning around him. The IceWing remained like this for a few minutes, resting his head in his own bile, pain coursing along his arm.
Eventually, he was able to get up, and shook himself off. He glanced around for the pebble he had tried to levitate, but it was nowhere to be seen. He'd probably knocked it away in his stupor. He glanced over to the scroll he'd borrowed from the library. Fortunately, it hadn't gotten dirty. Polar would need to find somewhere wash himself off; he didn't particularly want to be seen by the IceWing students in this state. Maybe the running water he'd heard nearby.
Polar's tail brushed against a few colorful crystals in the cave wall as he poked his head outside the cave, a sense of pride welling up in him, extinguishing any disgust. Blue blood dripped from his forepaw, but it barely stung. Maybe things weren't progressing as quickly as he'd have liked, but Polar could be patient. The IceWing was absolutely certain he'd seen that pebble move. That was far more than he'd been able to do back in the Ice Kingdom.
Project Darkstone was a success. He had finally proved his worth to Queen Glacier.