Prince Drift could not say he was all that nervous about attending Jade Mountain Academy. Not in the slightest. This had been his dream, had it not? His mother helped run the school, both of his aunts attended, most to all of his uncles attended… he was practically destined to join at some point.

He was, however, nervous about meeting his clawmates. Or… clawmate. He wasn't sure if there was going to be one or two. Truly, he hoped it was two other dragonets. If he was stuck with one other and had to make small talk without any backup, he knew there was going to be an issue. He always had one of his cousins with him whenever he was with strangers that came to see the Princesses or Queen Auklet.

"Nervous?" Tsunami asked, sitting down beside her son. Drift blinked, looking up and shrugging. She smirked. "I know your nervous face. Don't worry. If you need me I won't be more than a few halls away from you at all times."
"Do you know my clawmates?" Drift asked. Frowning as Tsunami shook her head, he looked back at the entrance, his sky eyes watching the place silently. Suddenly, he felt a wing wrap around him and pull him close.

"You'll like them, I promise. I'm sure of it," Tsunami said. "And if not, well… I am the principal of the school."

She smiled wickedly, nudging her dragonet. Drift just frowned more. Would they judge him for that? His mother was both a Princess and ran the school. Some dragons would find that cool.

And from experience, he knew that some would think anything good that Drift got was because of that. That wasn't what he wanted. He wanted to make an impact, but not like that. He slowly stood up as Tsunami did, making his way toward the school. Jade Mountain towered over them. It was spectacular, even for a dragonet who didn't truly see that much of the world. He saw aunt Glory and uncle Clay and uncle Starflight, but otherwise, they were all coming to the ocean, he never left until now.

"Just remember, there's a lot more than just SeaWings here. There's three hybrids here I think for this year, and… mostly full-blooded tribes, but another hybrid could always join mid-year. If that happens-"

"If that happens be prepared to possibly have another clawmate. I remember," Drift replied, humming quietly as they walked toward the school. Several NightWings bounded through the entrance, with one of them definitely being familiar. However, if it had been someone he recognized, he didn't remember who. Though, since they were a NightWing, that did lower the possibilities. Drift frowned, quickly following his mother inside, making his way off of the crowded and loud landing ledge as he looked up. He had expected to see Starflight's mate, Fatespeaker… but oddly enough, she wasn't here.

At least, not for a few seconds.

"Constellation! You can't fly in the halls!" Fatespeaker scolded, rolling her eyes before perking up. She seemed to fumble with a few scrolls before darting toward Tsunami and Drift, smiling widely. The ebony black NightWing was just as energetic as always, whenever she was visiting with uncle Starflight. Drift thought for a moment, nodding as he finally remembered the NightWing he saw earlier. It was her daughter, Constellation. She was always with the other dragonets when they visited. Especially Fen. Those two stuck together like glue.

"Prince Drift! Wonderful to see you made it. Sorry… Constellation's been so excited about coming, it's hard to keep her from being so energetic," Fatespeaker said with a grin. Tsunami pulled her son close, hugging him tightly.

"I should be off now," she whispered, watching as Drift received his map and welcome scroll. A brand new 'Welcome Students!' banner was strung up, the sunlight illuminating the purple and orange flowers- Aunt Glory's choice. Apparently, they reminded her of the late RainWing Queen, Grandeur, who had passed away just a few months before. Drift blinked, looking back at his mother and nodding. "I have to prepare for the next few weeks. I'll see you later, kiddo."

Tsunami playfully bumped Drift with her wing, before standing up and making her way out. Drift turned back to Fatespeaker, not seeing where his mother was going.

Shoot… well, there goes finding her if there's an issue, he thought, cursing his shorter attention span. Fatespeaker was inspecting the contents of a scroll, and Drift looked expectantly at her.

"Aha! Prince Drift. First tunnel on the right, second cave on the right," she said, grinning. Drift nodded slowly, taking a moment to memorize her words before he stood up.

"Oh, and Drift? Be nice to your NightWing clawmate, Goldmaker."

Stopping, Drift looked back at her. "Goldmaker?"

"Yes. He seemed a bit upset, though I don't know why. He seemed tired," Fatespeaker replied, finally waving as another line of dragonets came in- MudWing siblings. Drift quickly made his way to one of the right tunnels, walking through and folding his wings tightly against his body. The lights hung from the ceiling were a nice touch- reminded him of the sunlight at the Archipelago Palace- at least on the middle island, with the SeaWing's main building where the beach was, and the small forest. It was warm and comforting. Drift hoped he'd be able to go back home sometimes. Maybe bring some dragons he met, show them the grandeur of it all. The IceWing Palace was so inaccessible to the other tribes, the Rainforest didn't even have a palace, the MudWings… well, he wasn't entirely sure, though Queen Tamarack was said to have been working on one. And the SandWing palace was in the desert, where nothing else really complimented anything. Just tan and blue and white.

"Second cave on the right," Drift whispered, stopping in front of the proper cave. He looked up, curling his tail around one of his back legs as he waited for a second. He listened in quietly.

"You're going to blow up the entire school," a gruffer voice murmured, with sounds of shuffling following. There was a snort, and a small ting of glass.

"Who's the scientist here? Me or you?" This voice was lighter, but held an unusual amount of authority to it. If Drift heard it coming from anyone but a student, he would've been willing to bet they were in some sort of high standing with royalty. When no answer came from the gruff voiced dragon, the lighter voice laughed. "There's my point. I know what I'm doing."
More glass clinking, more quiet mumbles and groans from the louder dragon. Drift stood up, about to walk in, until he heard the gruff voiced dragonet speak once more.

"Is it s'pose to bubble like that?"

And with a sudden cry of, "no, no, no, get your head down!" a loud bang erupted in the cave.

Drift backed away suddenly, covering his head with his talons as two dragons stumbled out- a MudWing, and a NightWing. The MudWing seemed relatively okay, but the NightWing seemed beyond annoyed, wiping something off of his arm quickly and inspecting a minor burn on it. Nothing severe- he wasn't screaming, so Drift had to assume it was very minor. The NightWIng looked back at the cave, taking a deep breath as he snarled quietly.

"Fourth moon and fireballs, that was unpleasant," he mumbled, watching as a small amount of smoke trickled from the cave. "Nothing flammable, but… considering it was in a glass container… Snipe, you better stay out of there for a little bit while I clean it up. I can't get in trouble on the first day for this."

"That's your problem, not mine. I told you it was gonna explode," the MudWing teased, shoving him with his wing.

"Shut it, you mud muncher." That single insult made the MudWing back off a bit, and finally seem to notice Drift as he turned his attention away from the NightWing. Drift smiled awkwardly.

That NightWing must've been Goldmaker.

Upset is an understatement, he thought.

"Oi, I think we have a third clawmate," Snipe said, poking Goldmaker. He flinched away, snarling before turning his head. The first thing that caught Drift off guard were those piercing blue eyes. NightWings didn't have them. They had dark eyes, and maybe some could be dark blue, but these were so bright they were almost silver. Drift had never seen a NightWing with such piercing eyes.

The NightWing's deep, deep grey scales were nearly black in the shadows. And Drift was positive he caused the explosion due to the fact he had what appeared to be some sort of safety equipment covering his eyes. A partially bent bit of glass cylinder. Whatever it was, Drift had never seen it before… however, Starflight had told him stories about his father, Mastermind, and the venom resistant armor, stalled due to a lack of an eyepiece.

Whatever it was, it was meant to protect his eyes.

"What are you looking at?" Goldmaker snapped, his tone a mix of annoyed and rather worried. He inspected his front talons, brushing off small glass particles. "Ugh, this is going to take forever to clean!"

"I could always help ya," Snipe chimed in, smiling happily as he sat down. "I do have the thicker scales-"

"It's… fine. I'll get it myself." Goldmaker looked up, inspecting Drift. His eyes landed on his wings and he paused.

"Ah… we have SeaWing royalty with us. Well, isn't that swell," Goldmaker groaned, standing up and making his way back inside. He brushed some shattered glass away with the end of his tail carefully as he hunted down some cloth to wrap it up in.

"How long has he been working on that?" Drift asked Snipe, watching as a sizzling liquid made its way down the desk he was working on. It wasn't ruining it, so it must've been only some mild acid. Yawning, the MudWing rubbed the back of his neck and looked at the stuff thoughtfully.

"He said it was 'halfway done' when I met 'im. We got here an hour before you. He's trying to make something or other, I don't know." Snipe removed his talon from his neck and looked at the smaller SeaWing. "Snipe."

"So I heard… Prince Drift of the SeaWings," Drift said, lifting his head in a way that aunt Anemone told him to. He didn't like her that much. Apparently she was rather troublesome during her Jade Mountain Academy days. Aunt Auklet did much better with keeping out of trouble. "Nice to meet you, Snipe."

Snipe grinned again- that was seeming to become a common thing, which assured Drift a bit- and beckoned toward their cave. "He'll be in there for a while. How about we go look around for a bit?"

Drift nodded, thinking for a moment as he looked back into their cave. Goldmaker was carefully brushing the glass onto the cloth, wearing what looked almost like cow skin on his hand. The glass would sometimes pierce it, but he simply removed it. No flinching, even though it was his soft underbelly skin. Drift took note of that as well. He seemed to be prepared for these accidents, with the eye gear and the cow skin gloves.

Snipe waited, snapping Drift back to the present with a loud yawn. "Sorry, I spent most of the night flying. Haven't gotten a chance to sleep for a while, probably going to end up sleeping early tonight."

Drift nodded, finally turning his attention away from Goldmaker. As the NightWIng cleaned up the glass on the rock floor, he couldn't help but start to wonder… what was he trying to accomplish?

It was odd, but Goldmaker held both a sense of wonder and danger to the little SeaWing.

"I know this is the prey center. I heard Clay mention it was 'chaotic' when I first arrived," Snipe explained, poking his head into the cave. He frowned. "It's empty now for the most part. Wanna take a look?" Snipe asked, looking over at Drift. The SeaWing nodded, following Snipe inside. He flicked his ears at the screech of a chicken as something caught it, hearing it suddenly cut off. The young SeaWing sat down by one of the walls, watching as Snipe inspected the remaining prey.

"Do they have fish?" Drift asked, smiling as Snipe nodded. He had always had fish back at the Sea Kingdom, obviously, and he didn't really have a taste for other meats. Drift inspected the room, looking around at the cave with curiosity.

"Wouldn't have SeaWings without it, I'd assume." The MudWing came back, messing with some fruits. "Will these work for now, though? I think they have to get more prey, as SOMEONE just snatched the last chicken. We have… pineapple, berries, bananas… take your pick, I don't mind." Snipe took one of the fruits, an exotic one that he seemed rather curious about from the way his eyes were inspecting it. Drift nodded, looking around and watching some of the other dragons in the cave. Of serious note were two, seemingly glued side-by-side. One was absolutely an IceWing, though… amber eyes weren't normal. Drift assumed it was a defect, though he was wearing a first circle necklace regardless. However, the dragon beside him was something else entirely.

"Drift?" Snipe asked. "Three moons, you lose focus quickly."

Drift lowered his head once he realized what he had done, and watched as Snipe inspected the two. "Ah, those are some other members of our winglet- Gold, by the way. Algid's the IceWing. He isn't as haughty as them, though he doesn't… okay, I don't mean to be rude, but he doesn't act like an IceWing. He doesn't even speak like 'em. More SandWing, gruffer. Like me!" Snipe exclaimed, puffing his chest out. Drift nodded. "And the other one is Igneous. She's something odd, actually. SkyWing-SandWing hybrid if she isn't lying. Maybe there's a third, though that's rare. Like, I've never seen three tribes in one dragon, though it's probably possible."

Drift looked back at Igneous, watching the dragoness as she spoke quietly with Algid. "Are they clawmates?"

"Them? No. Igneous is with Firefly and Ember, while Algid… he's alone. Some 'special' requirements were put in place for him. I think they said he tends to be aggressive when bothered too much. Safety precautions or something like that."

Drift nodded, eating his berries as he turned back to Snipe. "Our winglet is something, huh?"
"Yeah!" Snipe said with a laugh. "Ember's pretty normal, and so is Firefly. But we're one of the odder winglets, I'd say."

Drift nodded, smiling a bit as Snipe laughed. It was infectious, and Drift couldn't help but to chuckle along with him.

Hopefully it'd work for the entire time he was in the Gold Winglet.