Peppermint took a deep breath and entered the cave. It was lined with tables and the smell of flowers was in the air. Peppermint slowly walked over to one of the tables where a NightWing was sitting. "Hi, is this where I come to Receive a scroll?" Peppermint asked. The NightWing nodded and handed her a scroll tied with a black leather band.
"It's a pleasure to meet you. The name's Peppermint." Peppermint said smiling brightly at the NightWing. "It's nice to meet you, Peppermint. My name's Fatespeaker. I hope that you will enjoy your four years here at the academy." Fatespeaker told her. Peppermint nodded and walked to a corner of the cave and she slowly unrolled her scroll.
Hmmm... It looks like I'm in the Jade Winglet. That's cool. My clawmates seam interesting. Peppermint thought to herself with a small smile forming on her face. She then rolled up her scroll and put it into her pouch.
Then Peppermint decided to walk around and explore the place a bit. As she was walking, she bumped into a NightWing with purple and ebony-colored scales.
"I'm very sorry. Please forgive me, it was my fault." Peppermint replied while she bowed in apology to the NightWing dragonet. She just laughed and smiled cheekily at Peppermint. "No need to apologize silly IceWing. It's nice to meet you. The name's Shadowbinder. What's your name?" She asked Peppermint. The IceWing/SkyWing dragonet smiled warmly at Shadowbinder.
"The name's Peppermint. It's nice to meet you, Shadow." Peppermint said as she smiled brightly at NightWing. The two dragonets then made small talk with each other while they waited for our other clawmates to arrive.
"Are you two in the Jade Winglet?" Came a voice from the entrance of the cave.
The two dragonets looked to see a SeaWing about there age walk in. With her scales a light blue, aqua green wing membranes and eyes. Peppermint couldn't deny she looked pretty. Her calm gaze and demeanor also relieved Peppermint. And maybe she would be safe and protected.
"You must be... Hurricane, right?" Shadowbinder asked, the first to recover from the appearance of the new arrival.
"Tempest," she corrected, though with a sincere smile and a nod of her head in greeting.
"I'm the NightWing Shadowbinder, and this is the IceWing, Peppermint. It's nice to meet you, Tempest." Shadow said, as she introduced both herself and me. Tempest smiled warmly and after a short while, the SeaWing spoke up.
"It's nice to meet you as well. Now all we need are the MudWing, SkyWing, SandWing, and RainWing clawmates." Tempest added, looking up from her scroll. "It says that there's a SkyWing named Ruby and a RainWing named Hummingbird in our Winglet." Tempest continued as she looked down at her scroll again. Peppermint looked to see a group of three SkyWing dragonets. Maybe one of them is Ruby?
"Are any of you named Ruby?" Peppermint called out. And a SkyWing with blood-red scales and auburn-colored wings nodded in answer to her question. She then motioned her over with one of her pale blue and crimson wings.
"You must be my clawmates then." Ruby said with a tilt of her head and a flap of her auburn-colored wings. Peppermint nodded and pointed a wing at Shadowbinder and Tempest. "The NightWing is Shadowbinder, the SeaWing is Tempest, and I'm the IceWing/SkyWing hybrid Peppermint." Peppermint said introducing the three of them. After a short while, Shadowbinder spoke up to break the ice.
"Do you by chance know where the RainWing Hummingbird might be?" She asked. The SkyWing dragonet nodded her head in confirmation. "Yeah, I met her this morning." Ruby said with a bright smile on her face. The SkyWing then walked over to a RainWing with light blue and pink scales. She said something to the RainWing and she nodded and walked over to the rest of the group.
"Hi! I'm Hummingbird. Nice to meet you." Peppermint laughed quietly at the very energetic and bubbly RainWing clawmate.
A lot of these dragonets are a lot like me. Peppermint thought to herself with an amused smile on her face. Peppermint was suddenly brought out of her thoughts by a loud voice and someone crashing into her. They both landed in the sand and the MudWing dragonet landed on top of her with an "oof." Peppermint blinked and shook her head.
"Watch out!" Came a sudden voice from somewhere nearby, and Peppermint found herself staring up at a MudWing with dark brown scales. "Sorry about that, I didn't hurt you did I?" He asked. They both stood to there talons and Peppermint shook out her wings. She then turned to the MudWing with a soft smile on her face.
"Ohh... Right, sorry. I should introduce myself shouldn't I? My name's Alligator. It's nice to meet ya." The MudWing exclaimed with a cheerful smile on his face. Peppermint then looked down at her scroll and read the dragonets that were in the Jade Winglet. "Has anyone seen the SandWing clawmate? I think his name's Jackal." Peppermint said looking up from her scroll and looking around for the SandWing clawmate.
"Hi there, new friends!" Came a cheerful voice from behind them. Peppermint jumped and let out a surprised yelp. She don't like loud noises, she has had bad experiences with SandWings. When Peppermint was about four years old, she was attacked by a SandWing that was three years older then her. So she backed away and hid behind Shadowstalker.
"What are you so scared of, peppermint?" Shadow asked her. Peppermint couldn't answer or even speak. Her eyes were darting back and forth and her IceWing spikes rattled. Everything was getting blurry and it sounded as if Peppermint was in a cave and everyones voices were echoing. The last thing she saw was the panicked faces of her clawmates and an older SeaWing with deep blue scales, and another NightWing with silver scales underneath her eyes, then everything went black.
Peppermint awoke to the worried faces of her clawmates and two older dragons were on either side of her. She stood shakily to her talons and she almost stumbled but Shadow caught her before her face could become best friends with the floor.
"Three Moons! Are you okay, Mint?" Shadow asked looking at Peppermint with worried amethyst eyes. Peppermint took a shaky breath and slowly nodded her head. Tempest was the next one to speak up after a short while. "What happened back there, Peppermint? You seamed to be scared of Coyote. But why?" The SeaWing asked with a curious but concerned tone of voice. Peppermint looked down at her talons not answering Tempest.
"I don't think that's a good idea to be asking her those types of questions right now, Tempest. You should give her some time before you ask Peppermint such personal questions." Moon admonished with a frown and a comforting smile. "We'll give you all a few days to recover from this experience, don't worry you guys won't have any work to do. I just want to play it safe and make sure that Peppermint's ready to come to class." Tsunami explained to the members of the Jade Winglet.
"That was pretty scarry." Hummingbird quiatly admitted as she looked over at Peppermint with worried eyes. The RainWings scales had become a pale blue. "I'm sorry for scaring you guys." Peppermint told them. "It's fine Peppermint." Tempest replied with a warm smile on her face.
Peppermint awoke with a startled scream and her whole body was shaking. She looked around fearfully as her eyes darted around the room. Peppermint whimpered and curled up into a tight ball, she felt two pairs of wings wrap around her and she looked up to see the worried and concerned faces of Shadow and Tempest.
"Hay, hay, hay. Peppermint, calm down. What's wrong?" Tempest whispered in concern. Her aqua green eyes looked like they were glowing in the dark as she stared at Peppermint. "Y-yeah, I-I'll be f-fine." Peppermint quietly replied clenching and unclenches my talons. Shadow frowned looking unconvinced. Her dark amethyst eyes stared right into Peppermint's dark blue eyes.
By this point, Ruby had woken up and she quietly patted over to Peppermint's sleeping platform where both Shadow and Tempest were sitting.
"What's wrong?" The SkyWing quietly whispered and Shadow just sighed. Peppermint looked up at Ruby, who stared at her with concerned yellow-gold eyes. She sighed and took another shaky breath. "You okay, Peppermint?" Ruby asked her with concern shining in her eyes. Peppermint looked down at her talons. She was to embarrassed to tell them that she had had a nightmare. I mean, what would they say if I tell them?Peppermint wondered to herself with a bit of trepidation and nervousness.
Peppermint sighed softly and raised her gaze to meet Tempest's. After a few moments of silence, she finally regained the ability to speak. "T-to be honist with you, the reason that I'm scared of Coyote is because I had a bad experience with a SandWing when I was little." Peppermint told them. She then lifted her wings where two deep gashes went from the top of her membranes to the bottom of her wing-tips.
Peppermint folded her wings back at her sides and she looked back up at her friends, who were all silent. Peppermint fiddled nervously with the sapphire necklace that hung around her neck. She thought of telling them that she was an orphan... But judging by there silence... That might not be the best idea.
It felt like hours but it was only a few minutes before Shadow was the first to speak. "Oh my gosh! That's horrible! I understand now." The NightWing said quietly, as she looked at Peppermint with horrified amethyst eyes. Peppermint just nodded numbly in response.
Peppermint was really squeamish around blood because of her traumatizing past, and she hates small spaces and she's afraid to be alone. Peppermint has had panic attacks a lot over the years. The only ones who know her dark and traumatizing past were: the Queen, Snowdrift, the healer, and her two best friends, an IceWing/RainWing hybrid named Flurry, and an IceWing/NightWing hybrid named Duskwing.
Peppermint was still shaken up by the nightmare that she had just had. She lowered her head at the vivid memories of how her parents and younger sister had been killed. Now she's six years old. It as been two years since Hail had found her starved and close to death near the borders of the IceWing Kingdom. She had rushed Peppermint to the healer, she was a kind IceWing named Tundra. She still has Peppermint come in monthly to check on her scars. Her back right talon has a scar from where the SkyWings knife had slashed her, and the end of her tail had a scar from it getting slashed by a NightWing.
Peppermint took a while to calm herself dawn. She wrapped bandages around her tail and back right talon, she did it so that no one could see the scars. Peppermint was really squeamish around blood because of her traumatizing past, and she hated small spaces and she's afraid to be alone. Peppermint has been had panic attacks a lot over the years. The only ones who know her dark and traumatizing past were: the Queen, Hail, the healer, and her best friend, an IceWing/RainWing hybrid named Flurry.