Rawr, everyone! It's Dragon Tuesday again. This week sees the last part of the dragon switch.

Today's dragon of the week is Ventuswill from Rune Factory 4. Jeez, this game ate my life when I first got it. Ventuswill, or Venti to the protagonist, is a Native Dragon and the protector of the land of Selphia. At the beginning of the game, she befriends the amnesiac protagonist and provides them with a home in her castle. She acts distant with the townsfolk, afraid that getting too close to the mortals will only result in pain later on when she inevitably loses them. She's a precious dragon who loves to bicker with the main character, and enjoys pancakes! Actually, I can see her being besties with Nora.

Enjoy!

When Ren opened the door to Tornado's stall, he was quick to slam it shut again as the wind dragon immediately barreled toward him, head fins fanned, mouth open to show some very, very sharp fangs. The pawsteps skidded to a halt, and the dragon headbutted the door from his side.

…I wonder if I can call in sick, Ren thought mournfully. "Tornado, settle!" he said.

On the other side of the stall door, Tornado roared angrily. Enemies! Kick in the side! Would hurt him! Take him away! Bad humans!

Ren tried opening the stall door, only for a clawed forepaw to barely miss his face. He quickly closed it again. Groaning, he took out his Scroll. After a few minutes of searching, he found the number for Doctor Oobleck's Scroll.

After one ring, the professor answered. "Yes, hello? Who is this? If this isn't a student or a fellow professor, I have a class in fifteen minutes!"

"Hello, sir," Ren said. "This is Ren. I need help. I'm partnered with Tornado today, and-"

"Ah, yes," Doctor Oobleck cut in. "I expected this. Tornado is incredibly…erratic. I think there might be a bit of an imbalance in his brain."

Ren breathed a sigh. Just my luck. "How do I get him out of his stall without getting bitten?"

"You will need to keep him distracted in some way. He likes shiny objects. Mister Lark often gives him a metal ball to play with during class. Take your time. I will excuse you if you're late."

"Thank you, sir," Ren replied. After he hung up, he tried to think of a good shiny object to use on Tornado. At the same time, he couldn't help but wonder what Sky's overall plan was with his wind dragon. A dragon with a brain imbalance severe enough to cause such aggression was a prime candidate for an early culling if the Council ever saw him.

He eventually decided on one of the glass prisms he had hanging in his window. He ran back as quickly as he could. Even though he would be excused, he didn't want to be too late to class. Cardin would be there with Storm, after all. He, as well as Neptune, would have to keep a close eye on things, just in case Cardin tried anything with Ruby's precious dragon.

Ren returned with a hanging prism. The stall was quiet. Deciding to test things a bit, he pushed open one of the windows and held the glass in the sunlight, casting rainbows on the interior.

Tornado jumped up, his eyes widening at the sight of several rainbows on the ground. His tail started to wag. Excitedly, he pounced on the nearest rainbow. It was on top of his paw! His paw was rainbow! His fins flapped and he let out an ecstatic bark. Then, the rainbows were gone. Why were the rainbows gone?!

Wait…his stall door was opening. He tensed, ready to attack. Then, the rainbows were there again. He put his paw on one, chirping happily when his scales turned rainbow yet again. He faintly noticed a human entering the stall, holding something. That thing was making the rainbows move. The thing was shiny!

"That's it," Ren muttered. "Look at the pretty rainbows." Quickly, he grabbed Tornado's halter and lead and put them on. As soon as the prism was out of sight, the green wind dragon turned and tried to bite his arm. "Hey!" He held up the prism again, and Tornado calmed down right away.

Holding the prism in front of him, Ren checked Tornado's litter area and food and water dishes. The litter area was clean, and it looked as if the dragon had already eaten, so Ren grabbed the lead and led him outside.

The two were ten minutes late to class. Doctor Oobleck didn't bother stopping his speech as they approached and hurried to stand by Neptune, who was hovering close to where Cardin and Dove were standing with Storm and Nimbus.

Freya, though drowsy, was also keeping a close eye on her fellow wind dragons, ready to attack if anything bad happened. When she saw Ren approaching with Tornado, her eyes opened fully and she snarled. She hadn't forgotten that day when Tornado had attacked Nora. If he dared hurt the man her partner loved, Freya would personally snap his wings off!

Nimbus was looking carefully at Dove. At least, he was trying to. Lately, he kept seeing two of everything. It was easier to focus when he tilted his head and closed one eye.

The human had been a little nervous when he came to Nimbus's stall, but hadn't had any issue bringing him to the arena. He was quiet, unlike the other three humans he was usually with, which Nimbus liked.

What he didn't like was that Storm was standing next to the loudest, meanest, ugliest of all of them!

Storm's tail lashed back and forth as she glared at Cardin out of the corner of her eye. The human had come to her stall right before class. She had heard her partner and Mudslide outside, which didn't do much for her nerves. What if Mudslide hurt Ruby? Ruby was really small, after all!

Cardin hadn't even looked at Storm's litter box or food dishes. Thankfully, Ruby had anticipated that and cleaned and filled everything in advance. It was also a good thing that Storm had already eaten, because Cardin had started ushering her out the door immediately. For him, ushering meant shoving.

The entire walk to the arena had consisted of the human grumbling under his breath. Whenever Storm slowed down, he'd raise his hand as if to strike her, which caused her to hurry along, though not without a very sharp snarl in his direction each time.

Now, Cardin was elbowing Dove, muttering to him while Doctor Oobleck explained the day's exercise, which would involve running with the wind dragons. If the students felt comfortable, they could take them up some of the smaller ramps and watch them glide. It would be good practice for when the non-wind dragons started learning to fly later on.

"Looks like we got the most useless windbags here, huh?" Cardin muttered. "The hippy and the retard." He snorted as he looked at Nimbus. "Look at it! It'll just be sitting on the battlefield going 'duh' while its face is getting eaten off by an Ursa!"

Dove shuffled his foot. "He…"

"What's that?" Cardin raised an eyebrow.

"Nimbus is a he," Dove said in a voice that was barely a whisper.

Cardin snorted. "Who cares? Not like it's your dragon."

"Mister Winchester!" Doctor Oobleck snapped, his twitching eyebrow giving away his irritation. "You will be doing three more laps around the entire arena after class, under my supervision."

Cardin cursed under his breath. Once Doctor Oobleck turned away, he sharply elbowed Dove in the side, eliciting a muffled gasp of pain. "Thanks a lot," he growled as his teammate clutched at his abdomen.

Nimbus narrowed his one open eye and took a threatening step toward Cardin, letting out a soft hiss. He really didn't like this one! Why was he picking on his nicest teammate? He needed to leave now!

Cardin took a step back, almost bumping into Storm, who shoved him away with her head. "Why you little-!" he started to say, just as Doctor Oobleck gave the instruction to start jogging.

Neptune took his eyes off of Cardin and Dove, turning to grin at Ren. "Looks like we don't need to worry. The dragons can handle themselves."

"That's a relief," Ren said, still holding the prism piece at arm's length and carefully watching Tornado. "I wish I could say the same for myself…"

When they reached the track, he pocketed the glass, which caused his charge to immediately start snarling at him. "Come on, Tornado. Jog." Ren started running down the path, hoping desperately that Tornado would run alongside him rather than running him down like a rabbit.

Tornado looked at the track. This was familiar. He had to jog. But where was Sky? Where were the rainbows? He started running, since that was what he was supposed to do here. He didn't like this human. He ran too slow. He tried to move a little faster to urge the human to speed up.

Ren picked up his pace, glad that Tornado wasn't pouncing on him. As he ran alongside the dragon, he noticed something he had never seen before (probably due to being distracted by Tornado's claws or teeth): Tornado's head fins were malformed. The webbing was shriveled and the fins had an overall droop to them.

That's not good, he thought, resisting the urge to reach out and touch the fins. It looks as if Team CRDL has its own shortcomings, after all.

Neptune, meanwhile, started running with Freya. He was relieved to see that she had a nice, slow pace. Probably because she's so sleepy all the time. He looked at her serene face and half-lidded eyes. "You're like a drowsy version of Nymph," he noted.

For a moment, he wondered what it would have been like if things had been switched around, if he had ended up with Freya and Nora had gotten Nymph. The two had similar temperaments, and Neptune wouldn't have to be visiting that awful pool every other night.

Of course, he dismissed the thought as soon as it arose. First of all, if he had gotten Freya, he wouldn't have ended up on a team with Sun. Second of all, Nymph was his dragon. She was perfect in every way. She was patient, strong, smart, and gentle. Though Freya had a lot of good qualities, she was still a different dragon. She was Nora's dragon.

Freya yawned, trying to slow her pace down a little more. When Neptune didn't notice, she flicked a fin happily. This was going to be the easiest class ever! Maybe she could slow things down to a walk by the end…

By the end of class, only a few people had tried using the ramps. Neptune had attempted it with Freya, though they had been going so slow by then, she didn't even glide. Dove, at Doctor Oobleck's insistence, led Nimbus up one of the ramps and was surprised at just how far the wind dragon glided before stumbling back to the ground.

"Class dismissed," Doctor Oobleck called. "Except for you, Mister Winchester," he added when he saw Cardin trying to sneak away. "Three more laps."

Cardin glared at the professor, but didn't say anything as he continued jogging on the track. "Hurry up, you dumb lizard," he growled over his shoulder at Storm. "I'm not missing lunch for this."

Storm growled and suddenly shot ahead, forcing Cardin to sprint to catch up. With a self-satisfied huff, she slowed down to a semi-regular pace, though she did go a little quicker than usual. She honestly couldn't wait to go back to her stall.

Once they finished their laps and left the arena, Cardin picked up his pace, clearly eager to get rid of the wind dragon.

Storm was lagging behind a little, panting a bit with exertion after the fast jog.

"Can't you go any faster?!" Cardin spun around, reaching for Storm's head fin.

Storm pulled her head away just as he made a grab for her sensitive fin, growling sharply. She lunged toward him, snapping her jaws just short of his hand, remembering at the last minute to not actually hurt him.

Cardin jumped back, his eyes widening, an expression of fear coming to his face for the first time. "Fucking crazy lizard!" he snarled, turning abruptly and walking off at a brisk pace, not bothering to see if his charge was following.

Storm waited a minute before walking again. Her fins were pressed against her head, just in case he tried anything again. Just the same, she wanted to be as far away from him as possible. When she got back to her stall, she saw that he wasn't there. He had just opened the door and left. Precious heat had already seeped out into the surrounding winter air.

Grumbling softly, vowing to tell Ruby everything the next time she got to wear Penny, Storm entered her stall and pulled the door shut behind her. Thankfully, Ruby came by just a few minutes later to check on her. Seeing those silver eyes again made everything okay.

….

In the cafeteria, Neptune was talking animatedly with Sun. "There are definitely a lot of similarities between wind and water dragons," he was saying. "Besides the fins, I mean. Leg strength is really important. It's kinda like how I need to have Nymph swim extra laps in the pool for homework."

The teams, of course, discussed their individual elemental lessons on a regular basis, but not in great detail, as they were usually tired by the end of the day. As a result, they hadn't fully known what to expect before their morning classes.

"Cool," Sun replied. "There's a bit more obstacle course-type stuff with the earth dragons than I expected." He perked up when he saw Blake approaching. "Yo, Blake! I saved you a seat. Pit was the model dragon today."

Blake smiled. "I'm not surprised. Hey, Neptune!" She sat down and started immediately comparing notes with Sun.

"Hey, Blake." Neptune suppressed a sigh, realizing that he probably wouldn't get Sun's attention for the rest of lunch. Sage was quick to start chatting with him, which he was grateful for.

After lunch and their evening lectures, Neptune decided to take Freya for another walk around the grounds before dinner. The wind dragon blearily opened her green eyes, standing up slowly and letting out a yawn. "Come on, girl," Neptune urged. "The exercise is good for you. No jogging, I promise."

Freya stretched luxuriously and took her time joining Neptune outside. She shivered a little at the cold. She honestly preferred her nice, warm stall.

Neptune led her around the grassy area near the stables. He noticed two familiar forms nearby and hurried to catch up with them. "Hey, Sun. Hey, Pit."

Sun turned, grinning brightly at his best friend. "Hey, Nep. Just thought I'd take the big guy for another walk before dinner."

"Same." Neptune patted Freya's shoulder. "I gotta say: This was a fun exercise, minus having to deal with Team CRDL."

"Yeah." Sun shook his head. "I still can't believe Cardin tried to grab Storm's fin."

"I can," Neptune snorted. "He's the worst! You know, he bullies Dove."

"Wait, what?" Sun's brows went up. "I mean, Dove said during lunch that he joined that group to avoid getting bullied."

"I saw him hurting Dove during class," Neptune said. "It was enough to cause Nimbus to step in."

"Nimbus stepped up to protect Dove?" Sun let out a whistle. "I guess he's an okay guy, after all, unless our dragons are shitty judges of character."

"I don't think they are." Neptune smiled at Freya, who was yawning again. "Come on, lazy girl. You'll have all night to sleep, and tomorrow's the weekend. You can walk around just a bit more."

Freya sighed, trotting to catch up with them.

Pit warbled encouragingly at her. The cold air felt nice on his face and in his nose. It was just the thing to wake a dragon up.

Freya snorted. She hated when others were peppy while she was sleepy.

"So, I saw you talking with Blake after Oobleck's lecture," Neptune continued. "Is she worried about Pit?"

"Yeah," Sun sighed. "I am too. The more I learn about how the Council works, the less I like our situation. I mean, most of our dragons are flawed in some way. We got Ao Guang's gills, Twiggy's size, Nimbus's sight…"

"And who knows what the Council would do about certain mental issues, like Zircon's skittishness or Tornado's aggressiveness?" Neptune added.

"That too," Sun agreed. "It just seems like a crap deal. I mean, who can look at a dragon and just give an order to throw its life away?"

"The same kinds of people who can look at a Faunus and think they aren't worth anything," Neptune muttered.

Sun nodded, grimacing as he remembered that fight several weeks ago. "True that." The two walked for a little while longer before he spoke up again. "Hey, Nep?"

"Yeah?" Neptune looked over at Sun. He couldn't help but notice the way the setting sun cast a red-gold light over everything, making Sun's gray eyes shimmer and turning Pit's silver freckles into a spattering of fiery sparks.

"Do you think I'm shallow?"

"Huh?" Neptune gaped at his best friend. That was the last question he'd been expecting. "Of course not. Why would you think that?"

Sun shrugged. "I dunno. Like, I think I'm really starting to like Blake, but I can't stop thinking about something Sage said."

"What Sage said?" Neptune asked, his confusion briefly masking the painful pang in his chest.

"He thinks my crush on her is mostly because she's a Faunus, and…he might be right." Sun folded his arms. "I mean, I started thinking this way because I was so hyped to have another Faunus in the group. I was also really excited that one of us has a cool, mysterious past. Is it a bad thing that that's what started this?"

"I mean…" Neptune rubbed at the back of his head, trying to think of the right thing to say without giving himself away. "I think we all can be a little shallow sometimes. I mean, people notice things like how other people look or how cool they are. As long as you also like the person for who they are, there's nothing wrong with liking the other stuff."

He knew that was enough, but he kept going. "So, I don't think you're a shallow person. You're honestly the kindest person I've ever met. I think…I think Blake would be really lucky to have you."

Sun's tail flicked and his chest warmed a little at Neptune's praise. "Thanks, dude. That means a lot." His voice came out softer than he had intended, sounding a little shy and embarrassed, though he wasn't sure why. He turned to smile at Neptune, and noticed something a little sad about his expression. "Hey, what's that face for?"

"Huh?" Neptune stiffened, his cheeks turning red. He desperately hoped that the sunset would hide that. "What face?"

"That mopey face just now." Sun looked at him for a moment, then realized what the problem was. "Aw, dude. You know you're my best friend no matter what, right? Girlfriend or no girlfriend." He punched Neptune's shoulder. "I won't forget about you."

Neptune felt himself smiling in spite of the continuing pain in his chest. "Same."

"Bros come first," Sun asserted. "So, what about you? Any girls you're interested in?"

"Not really," Neptune replied, his voice coming out a little hollow.

As the two continued to talk, Pit glanced over at Freya, giving her a very clear "Are they serious?" look.

Freya shook her head. First Ren and Nora, now this. Were all humans and Faunus this dumb?

Pit sighed. He was less than a year old, but he could easily see things that these much older, smaller beings were totally oblivious to. Maybe, things would move along more if the dragons intervened.

Freya bobbed her head, thinking of Nora's obvious pining. Fixing their horribly-stupid partners was definitely something worth staying awake for. She was in!

Pit flicked his ear. It was decided. They'd spread the word amongst the other RWBY, JNPR, and SSSN dragons. They would all help their partners find the love that was sitting right in front of them (or keep their eyes open for potential mates and take appropriate action then), and make them happy. They deserved nothing less, after all.

The dragons have decided to start actively shipping. Be afraid. Be very afraid.

If you like what you see and want to show extra support in exchange for rewards, my P/atreon is Solora Goldsun.

For writing tips, prompts, top 10 lists, and fandom rants from yours truly, check out my blog at soloragoldsun dot wordpress dot com.

Peace out!