Compared to the quiet gloom outside, the entrance cave was warm, golden, and positively bursting with activity. Colored balls of spun glass were hung on wires criss-crossing the length of the cave, candles burning within so they cast cheery colors over the brown stone walls. Thousands of stalagmites and stalactites cascaded around the edges of the cavern, some of them rising to form columns and spires. A huge bronze gong engraved with the silhouettes of two flying dragons hung on the back wall, and a huge vine banner swayed from the rocks above it, reading "Welcome, students!" in pink and yellow flowers. A pair of gaping tunnels lay on opposite sides of the cavern.

Dragons of innumerable shapes and colors bustled through the cave, talons clicking on the floor- some chatting idly, others waving goodbye or greeting friends, many of them carrying prey or scrolls. The quiet buzz of chatter was prominent, but not overwhelming.

Gila splashed through the puddles around the exit, wiped his muddy talons on the floor, and looked curiously around as his parents came in.

"Well, this is certainly quite a happy atmosphere, considering we're in a cave," Coachwhip said, impressed. "Hey, you!" she called, waving toward a black dragonet with a bag of scrolls.

"Yes- oh! Sorry, just telling this student where her cave is-" The Nightwing answered, turning back toward a golden brown Sandwing adorned in copious amounts of jewelry. The Sandwing snatched her scrolls out of the Nightwing's talons and swept into the second cave on the right.

"Oh well, no need to deal with that one anymore," she muttered, stepping over to their group. Gila saw that she had silver scales in the corners of her eyes, and even more intriguingly, a band of silver spots around one wrist, as if she was wearing the night sky as a bracelet. She marched right over to Gila, grinning, and shuffling through her scrolls.

"Let me guess- you're... Gila, aren't you?"

"Yes, that's me," Gila mumbled, taking the scrolls she held out. "How'd you guess?"

"Oh, I'm just good at guessing," the Nightwing said. "Almost suspiciously good at it... Of course, it's not like I'm reading your mind, or anything. Definitely not. Anyway, my name is Fatespeaker. I'm not a teacher, just a school helper, but you can contact me if you have any questions."

"Okay, then," Gila said. "Where's my sleeping cave?"

"Oh, take the second tunnel on the left, last cave on the left. It should be labeled 'Quartz Winglet #3'." Fatespeaker turned to go talk to Garter, and Gila began repeating her directions in his head a few times so he wouldn't forget, staring around at all the strange scale colors.

When Garter had taken her scrolls, Chuckwalla and Coachwhip turned toward them again. "You two should go find your caves and meet your roommates," Chuckwalla said. "We'd go home now, but we'd rather wait out the storm first," he added.

Coachwhip brushed Chuckwalla's wings with hers. "Yes, we might as well go and speak to the teachers while we're here," she said. "We'll meet you back here later, okay?"

"Alright," Garter agreed, a twinge of nervousness in her voice.

Gila nodded. "Okay, then. I'll check back here in an hour, I'll see you then!" He said, and went into the second tunnel on the left, with Garter close behind him. This tunnel was an endless curve, like a slithery, skipping sidewinder snake, curving subtly downward. Garter went into a cave with a sign that marked it as the first cave of the Silver Winglet, leaving Gila to find his room alone.

After a few minutes, he found the cave that Fatespeaker had directed him to. It had a small crevice of a doorway, and Gila had to fold his wings to get in, but the cavern beyond was nice and spacious. It was a long, narrow space that could fit about four dragons standing talons to tail tip, and had an especially high concentration of stalagmites and stalactites at the end of it. They formed several pillars that were almost like cage bars, with a single gap large enough to walk through, providing a rather sheltered space.

Gila went over to the end of the cave to take a look, and to his surprise, saw a deep cobalt blue Seawing already curled up on the soft green cushion. "Oh! Sorry, didn't see you there," Gila said, startled. "I was just checking out the room."

The Seawing sat up, putting down the scrolls he'd been looking at. "No problem, I didn't hear you come in. So, you're my new roommate?" He spoke calmly, but his sky blue eyes flickered toward Gila's barbed tail for a split second. The dragonet quickly forced his gaze back to his scroll, as if worried he'd be seen as rude for staring.

"Yeah, I guess so. Since we'll be sharing a cave for the rest of the school year, hopefully we get along, right? I'm Gila." He extended a talon and smiled hopefully.

The Seawing shook it. "I'm Mako. It's, uh, a pleasure to meet you, I guess. I think your bed is over there." He pointed through the rocks, at a large round indentation in the wall. It was fringed by a few small, spiny stalactites, and a nice woven mat laynon the flat bottom. It looked like the beginning of a new tunnel, but it was only deep enough to be a comfortable resting spot for a large dragonet.

Gila backed away from Mako, and hopped onto his new bed. He seems a bit boring, he though to himself, but he'll probably warm up as we get more used to this.

He decided to study the scrolls Fatespeaker had given him. The top scroll was an enthusiastic welcome from the founders, which read as follows:

Welcome to Jade Mountain Academy!

At this school, you will be learning side by side with dragons from all the other tribes, so we wanted to give you some basic information that may be useful as you get to know one another.

You have been assigned to a winglet with six other dragons; the winglet groups are listed on the following page.

Thank you for being a part of this school. You are the hope of Pyrrhia's future. You are the dragons who can bring lasting peace to the world.

Gila shifted the scrolls around until he found the page with winglets.

Jade Winglet

Icewing: Sleet

Mudwing: Coot

Nightwing: Honor

Rainwing: Ferdelance

Sandwing: Cholla

Seawing: Cod

Skywing: Saffron

Gold Winglet

Icewing: Frigid

Mudwing: Skink

Nightwing: Quickclaws

Rainwing: Marmoset

Sandwing: Javelina

Seawing: Sunfish

Skywing: Smoke

Silver Winglet

Icewing: Bear

Mudwing: Sepia

Nightwing: Observer

Rainwing: Python

Sandwing: Garter

Seawing: Flounder

Skywing: Goshawk

Copper Winglet

Icewing: Vole

Mudwing: Mire

Nightwing: Reader

Rainwing: Lacewing

Sandwing: Plateau

Seawing: Pelican

Skywing: Crimson

Quartz Winglet

Icewing: Caribou

Mudwing: Osprey

Nightwing: Ferocity

Rainwing: Anole

Sandwing: Gila

Seawing: Mako

Skywing: Cinder

Among the scrolls, he also found a schedule and a map of the academy, which had labels for important features, like dead ends, bat roosts, underground lakes, patches of toxic gas, and unstable areas that could cave in. Yes, a cave system is definitely not the safest place to put a school, he thought to himself. Still, as cave systems go, this one is pretty great.