"Hey, Ermine, can you believe it? Today's the big day!" The SeaWing dragonet exclaimed cheerfully as she flew in circles around her friend. Ermine just looked down at her talons nervously in response. "Hey, Ermine, relax. you'll do great! I know you will, now c'mon, let's go join the group of dragonets."

I wonder how long it will take to get there? Tempest silently wondered to herself as she and Ermine flew to the academy with the other dragons. Would I be in a winglet with Peacemaker and Ermine? I really hope so. I don't what Ermine would do without me, and I don't want her to have another panic attack. Tempest just let her thoughts wonder as kept on flying.

Once Tempest, Ermine, and Peacemaker had entered the large cave, a NightWing handed the dragonets each a scroll tied with a black band. "Hi, and welcome to Jade Mountain. My name's Fatespeaker, it's nice to meet you."

"My name's Ermine, and this is my best friend, Tempest, it's ia pleasure to meet you, Fatespeaker." Ermine replied with soft smile.

Ermine then walked with Tempest to the other side of the cave so they could read the scroll.

"WELCOME TO

THE JADE MOUNTAIN

ACADEMY!"

With that opening sentence, Tempest could not help but feel welcomed. After reading through the introductory paragraphs that told the reader what they would be learning at the academy, Tempest's eyes fell upon the desired contents of the scroll…

The Winglet placements.

Before reading, Twmpest took a deep breath…

Here we go, time to find out who my clawmates will be for the next four years.

Jade Winglet

IceWing: Sapphire

MudWing: Copper

NightWing: Nightwatcher

RainWing: Lemur

SandWing: Delta

SeaWing: Luminescence

SkyWing: Inferno

Hmm... maybe she or Ermine would be in the Gold Winglet? Tempest wondered to herself as she looked over at Ermine.

Gold Winglet

IceWing: Avalanche

MudWing: Hazelnut

NightWing: Eclipse

RainWing: Ainsley

SandWing: Rattlesnake

SeaWing: Shellfish

SkyWing: Griffen

Hmm... well, those dragonets sure do seem like the interest group. a nice group of dragonets. Ermine quietly mused to herself as she and Tempest then read into the Silver placements.

Silver Winglet

IceWing: Pelican

MudWing: Falcon

NightWing: Ebony

RainWing: Lavender

SandWing: Cactus

SeaWing: Mako

SkyWing: Ember

Interesting group of dragonets in that winglet. Ermine thought with an amused smile on her face and a twitch of her blue spiked tail.

Copper Winglet

IceWing: Clearfrost

MudWing: Swamp

NightWing: Nightwave

RainWing: Glorious

SandWing: Jackal

SeaWing: Dolphin

SkyWing: Cliff

Taking a gulp, both dragonets continued to read into the Quartz placement…

Quartz Winglet

IceWing: Ermine

MudWing: Reed

NightWing: Peacemaker

RainWing: Summer

SandWing: Hyena

SeaWing: Tempest

SkyWing: Auburn

Relief washed over Ermine, thank goodness! She was not in someone else's place. While she may not have been in the Jade Winglet, she was still in one. And, if she might add, quartz was a pretty stone. So surely it was not that bad.

Ermine turned to look over Tempest with a bright smile on her face. Thank goodness, I'm in a winglet with both Tempest and Peacemaker.

Auburn looked up in surprise to see two dragonets enter the cave. I didn't know their names so I just took a wild guess.

"You two must be... Glacier and Hurricane, right?" Auburn asked, the first to recover from the appearance of the new arrivals.

"Tempest," she corrected, though with a sincere smile and a nod of her head in greeting.

After a moment of silence, Tempest spoke up once more. "And the dragonet over there with her nose in a scroll is Ermine," Tempest said, pointing her tail at a white dragonet.

The dragonet in question was an IceWing. Though her scales were completely white, her tail spikes were a dark blue, which Auburn thought was odd since she had always heard IceWings were always white. A necklace with sapphires hung around her neck while a ring, also embedded with a sapphire, was on her horn.

As Auburn slowly approached the IceWing dragonet to introduce herself, she could hear the the clicking of talons approaching their cave, the sound made them all to look up in surprise.

"Peacemaker!" Tempest exclaimed happily. she raced up and embraced him tightly. "So, you three know each other then?" The RainWing asked, looking from Peacemaker, to Tempest, and back to Ermine, who was still reading her scroll.

"I'm Tempest, and this is Peacemaker," but before Tempest could introduce Ermine, the IceWing lifted her head from the scroll that she had been reading.

"The name's Ermine," she said after a short while before diving intently back into her scroll.

with a sigh, Tempest sat on a cushion beside Ermine, implying both dragonets knew one another, Auburn looked to both the NightWing and the RainWing clawmates. Peacemaker sat on a cushion next to Tempest, while Auburn took a seat next to the RainWing.

"So, what are your names?" Tempest asked, resting her gaze on both Auburn and the RainWing dragonet.

"My name is Violet," the RainWing student said, introducing herself to both Tempest and Ermine.

Auburn finished her strawberry, admitting it was good. "Princess Auburn," the SkyWing introduced herself. Turning her attention to Ermine's scroll, she asked, "What are you reading?"

"Hm? Oh, just a scroll about IceWing history." Ermine responded, her tone changing ever so slightly. "In particular, how the Circles came to be." Continued Ermine, frowning slightly at the mention of the circles. "And how they developed over the years, and the effect it had on the non-aristocratic IceWings." She explained.

Auburn, Peacemaker and Summer glanced at one another. Auburn found this... interesting to say the least. She had always learned at school that it was rare for an IceWing to actually think outside of the circles.

"That is kind of weird," Auburn answered bluntly, voicing the threes thoughts out loud. "I mean you clearly look to be in the aristocracy..."

"Ermine is from the circles, though she's much more... open in her opinions about it." Tempest explained, answering for Ermine. "At the quarterly summits the queens attend at Sanctuary... let's just say she's caused some IceWing spikes to rattle." Tempest added, clearly poking fun at her friend good-naturedly.

Ermine rolled her eyes at Tempest. "Haha, IceWing puns. Hilarious and original! What's next, coming up with the cool and cold jokes?" Asked the IceWing, clearly sarcastic, but Auburn noticed there was no mean spite in her tone to Tempest.

"So you're like, what, against the circles?" Asked Summer, frowning.

"Not necessarily." Ermine added. "A hierarchy or chain of command is certainly needed. I'm not an anarchist or anything... but in practice, the system of the circles are flawed and dated. It doesn't have to go away, but it does need to change." She explained.

"Willing to change traditions, but keep somethings in place." Auburn thought aloud. "I think you'd like my mother."

And, if Auburn were honest, she liked Ermine to. She had heard bad things about the aristocracy from Moon and Qibli over the years. Apparently they had a friend from their winglet, an IceWing Prince, who was once part of the circles… but even after doing so much to prove himself, he was still in exile from the IceWing tribe.

But Ermine was from the aristocracy, yet she did not like how it operated. Auburn wondered what kind of system she would include if she were in control of it?

Ermine nodded in agreement at Auburn's statement.

"I've read scrolls about Queen Ruby and how she reformed the Sky Kingdom... Ruby is one of the good queens that have recently ascended to the throne. Moorhen has always been decent, but real change came in the form of Glory and Thorn. They're much better then Coral and Snowfall." She said, turning to Tempest. "No offense about Coral, of course."

The SeaWing shrugged her wings. "I live in the Kingdom of the Sea, but I cannot say I have much emotional connection there."

"What do you mean?" Auburn asked, confused. How can you live somewhere but not love it?

"I have done a lot of traveling for most of my life," Tempest explained. "While I am loyal to the tribe, I wouldn't say I bleed for the Queen."

Now that was a thought Auburn had a hard time understanding, being ruled by a Queen who you didn't like. Auburn had heard somethings about Queen Coral, but at the same time Auburn's mother told her that complaints about Coral by SeaWings were rare…

Though if rumors were true, Coral may not have been Queen for much longer.

A silence fell on the group yet again and this time, it was Tempest that tried to break the silence.

"Has anyone seen the SandWing and MudWing who are supposed to be in our Winglet?" She asked.

Summer was about to answer Tempest, when sounds of screams and shoving came just outside of their cave. The five, startled, looked out their cave entrance. Sure enough, a large MudWing and a female SeaWing came in sight, the former dragging a SandWing around our age. With them, a large and lean MudWing timidly followed them, his eyes on the ground, trying his hardest not to get noticed.

"THIS IS SCAVENGER DUNG, TSUNAMI! I'VE BEEN FRAMED! I SWEAR! I DIDN'T DO IT!" Screamed the SandWing, struggling against the teachers, who Auburn just now realized were two of the five Dragonets of Destiny.

Despite the SandWing's resistance, Clay's grip remained firm, calm and very unbreakable as he guided the SandWing through the tunnels, no doubt to Tsunami's office.

"Hyena, please." Clay said calmly, trying to convince her to cease her struggles.

"Hyena, please calm down, and could you please stop picking fights with other dragons? It's disrupting the other students," Tsunami said, earitation was written on both her face an in her tone.

"I did no such thing! You must've scene wrong, Tsunami!" Hyena snapped, her tail lashing and her eyes glaring at the two teachers.

"Come on you two, in my office, right now!" the SeaWing snapped, gliaring at the two students as she guided them down the hallway, Hyena struggling and shouting the whole time.

When they were gone, Auburn looked at her clawmates, Peacemaker and Summer looked rather amused at the sight that had unfolded. Tempest shook her head, though she was struggling to hide an amused smile as well.

Ermine, on the other hand, had her talons over her eyes, exasperated at what had unfolded.

"Umm... were those... our clawmates?" Peacemaker asked.

Not holding back her amused grin, Auburn said, "I think they were."

"...I like the SandWing!" said Summer, smirking. "I like her style. Not sure what to make of the MudWing though... seems like a bit of a wuss." She said with a shrug.

Ermine, meanwhile, removed her talons from her eyes to stare at the leaving dragons… Only to then quickly dive into her scroll again. "Nope, nope, nope. Not going to get involved…"

Me and Tempest glanced at each other, both chuckling at their clawmates reactions.

Something deep down told me that this was going to be an interesting four years.