The Emerald Winglet
Icewing: Hail (Male)
Nightwing: Stargazer (Male)
Rainwing: Snowstorm (Female)
Mudwing: Flora (Female)
Sandwing: Dune (Female)
Skywing: Pyre (Male)
Seawing: Mako (Male)
Chapter 1: Welcome to Jade Mountain
Snowstorm had grown up in the rainforest hearing so much about the Jade mountain academy. She had wanted to go there since she first heard about it, in the past though, attendance had been restricted to dragons from the tribes. Now however, queen Glory had allowed her of all dragons to attend as the Rainwing of a new winglet that was being formed as part of the expanded academy. Snow turned to the Nightwing flying beside her. Stargazer was one of her best friends, Snow had met him on one of his long visits to the Rainforest kingdom with her mother who sometimes travelled between there and Possibility. Stargazer was a slender Nightwing with dark purple scales mixed in with splotches of black and silver and two horns arrayed on his head, to Snow he did look fairly cute. When Snow had signed up for the academy, Stargazer had offered to go as the Nightwing student in order to keep her company. So now the two of them were flying out from the Rainforest and towards Jade mountain.
Slowly the mountain peaks rose up ahead of them like a giant wall of needles. The closer they got to jade mountain, the more nervous Snow became. There would be lots of other dragons there, how would they react to her? It hadn't been so bad in Possibility where hybrid dragons weren't such a rare sight or in the Rainforest where the Nightwings and Rainwings didn't really care and even admired her, but she had no idea how the dragons from the other tribes would react, especially the Icewings, which scared her to no end, her brief encounters with her Icewing family had been enough of a terrifying experience. In physical appearance Snow mostly resembled an Icewing, even having the spines going down his back and the sharp whip-like tail. The only things that gave her away as a Rainwing were her colour-changing scales. One half of her was eager to meet the other students at the academy, however, the other half was quick to remind her that most of the other tribes and Icewings in particular didn't exactly look upon hybrid dragons with a fondness.
The two dragonets alighted at the main arrival area where several other dragons were flying around. A Sandwing with gray-green eyes and bright golden scales who Snow remembered from her research prior to coming to the academy as princess Sunny, the daughter of queen Thorn of the Sandwing tribe came out to meet them. "Ah, you two must be..." Sunny started, peering at a scroll she held in her talons. "Oh yes, Snowstorm and Stargazer, our new Rainwing and Nightwing students. I am Sunny, the head of Jade mountain academy Here is your map and your welcome scroll, now if you'll just follow me, we'll get you settled in." Sunny continued, leading the two dragonetes into the cave.
Snow noted that her name was fitting as she certainly held a bright and sunny personality that kind of reminded her of queen Glory, she just hoped that most of the other students at least had some similar personality traits.
Snowstorm was amazed at the sheer size of the entrance cave, which looked like it could comfortably fit over four hundred dragons. Sunlight poured in through the mouth of the cave, glinting off a bronze gong with three flying dragons carved into it. A banner woven out of green vines had been hung between two of the massive stalactites that hung down from the roof of the cave. Flowers had been arranged into letters on the banner which read "Welcome new students." Whoever had done it had put a large amount of time and effort into this for seven dragonetes. Sunny lead them further into the cave. "carry on down the second tunnel on the left, 7th cave on the left for you Snow and fifth cave on the right for you Stargazer. You are going to love your new winglet, you'll meet the rest of the dragons later on." Sunny finished, wandering off to greet some other dragons.
Snow was surprised at how much the tunnels reminded her of the Rainforest. Glass globes of various colours were strung along the ceiling, casting swirling patterns along the walls and floor. Various different coloured lichen and fungi grew out from the walls, adding their colours to the mix. After a while, the tunnel straightened out, with small openings on either side. Snow tried to ignore the sniggering and curious glances she received from a few dragons who were out in the tunnel, at least he had gotten the hang of controlling his scales to some degree so that they wouldn't telegraph exactly what he was feeling to everyone on a constant basis and could even make herself look at least partially like a normal Icewing if she wanted, which right now seemed like a very good idea.
Upon reaching the 7th sleeping cave, Snow bid goodbye to Stargazer and squeezed in. The sleeping cave looked more comfortable than Snow had imagined. The cave was lit by several different coloured glass globes. Directly ahead of her was a triangular shaped hammock of interwoven vines that was suspended from the ceiling and was covered in a couple of fur rugs. To the left was a bed of mosses and leaves, whilst to the right was a pit of sand. Beside each of the sleeping spots was a scroll rack with another two by the entrance.
Snow placed the map scroll and the welcome scroll into one of the empty scroll racks, before going and investigating the ones by the door which she realised with joy were full of different scrolls. The first scroll she pulled out and skimmed through contained detailed information and history about the various tribes. Amongst the scrolls were a couple of early learning scrolls which combined with the pit of sand Snow assumed meant that she would be sharing their room with a young Sandwing.
Suddenly there was a commotion outside. "Why do I have to share a room with seaweed for brains?". "Hey! I have feelings you know!". "It was either that or put you in with an Icewing which would probably result in the two of you trying to kill eachother at some point.". Snow poked her head out into the tunnel and found Sunny desperately trying to pull apart a Skywing and a Seawing. The Skywing backed down and stormed past their cave. Sunny then came over to their cave, a young Sandwing with mostly white scales and patches of sandstone colour as if someone had sprinkled sand over her scales following behind her.
"Ah, hello Snow, how are you settling in? This here is Dune, she's a little nervous, but I'm sure you'll get along fine. Don't worry, she won't bite, go and get used to your cave, your other clawmate should be arriving soon." And with that Sunny left, leaving Snow alone with the younger dragonett who at best she guessed was about three or four hatch days old.
"Hello, I'm Snowstorm, but everyone calls me Snow, I'm...Well as you can see I'm a Icewing-Rainwing hybrid." She introduced herself nervously, unsure how the Sandwing would react. "Oh, that's so cool!" Dune shouted. "Can you change your scales?! Can you breathe frost or shoot poison? Wow, your scales look so shiny and pretty!" Snow was a little taken aback by the excitedness of the young Sandwing, she was used to seeing it from the Rainwings and Nightwings, but not from the other tribes.
She settled down to read one of the scrolls, occasionally talking with Dune and answering the young dragonet's questions. Not long after settling down, a Mudwing with brown and amber scales and with a pouch slung across her chest popped her head in nervously. "Is this the right cave?" She asked, peering around. Snow had often heard that Mudwings were slow and not as smart as others, but she could tell this one at least was different, although she wasn't sure how,but she knew the way the Mudwing's eyes sparkled as soon as she saw her made her feel a little uncomfortable, as if she was an interesting animal being studied. "Hello, I'm Flora, wow, are you really a hybrid? I had heard there was one attending this school! I can't believe I get to meet a real life Icewing hybrid! Where's my journal, I have to write this down, do you mind if I take some notes?"
By the end of the day, Snow was very tired when they returned to the sleeping cave. After the three had gotten to to know eachother, her, Dune and Flora had headed out to explore the school and in particular the library, there they met Starflight who Snow thought seemed very kind and they also received their Library stamps and spent the rest of the day traipsing around exploring all the different areas with other dragonetes staring at her with a mixture of expressions that she suspected ranged from looking at an interesting to new species of insect or animal to finding a particularly horrible piece of garbage infront of them. At least her two new friends were nice enough, even if they did't stop talking or asking her questions, it only seemed to be because they wanted to make some sort of friendly conversation and seemed generally interested about her.
As she curled up in her hammock, she wondered what Stargazer had been up to and where he had been all day. She missed her friends back in the Rainforest and was still worried about what everyone thought of her, she could maybe try and masquerade as an Icewing, but then her scales and the frills behind her neck would giver her away, also, the Icewings scared her, the way they always seemed to scowl and never laugh or smile. Neither could she just pretend to be a normal Rainwing, she was just too different too be seen as anything but a hybrid. As she feel asleep, she recalled what her parents used to say to her. "Be brave, your differences make you stronger, don't let anyone make you feel worthless, you will grow up to be a great dragon some day." They often told her when she confessed she was afraid of being so different from her friends.
