Note: I do not own Wings of Fire or any of the characters or locations mentioned. The series is created by Tui T Sutherland and published by Scholastic. This work is fanfiction meant for entertainment purposes only. No profit is being made from this story.

Tsunami stood in the outside field of the still-being-constructed Prey Center, near the river where trees could be seen from inside the cave. No prey was put into the center yet, so the area's only sounds were the sounds of the flowing river, and the occasional chirps of passing birds and the wind in the pyrrhian air. Tsunami was to be the headmistress of the academy, so she took the time to practice what to say in certain situations, using some of the trees as stand-ins for dragonet students. To her, this role felt as close to being a queen as it could get. She said things that she felt would be right, but sometimes she would stop and think if she was too hard or even threatening-something she did not want to do. The students need a headmistress they can trust, not a scary dragoness to dominate them all.

"You!" The blue Seawing shouted aggressively at a nearby tree, watching as it bristled innocently in the soft breeze, "Give that student back her fish, or else I'll pin you to the floor and...and..." Tsunami trailed off, averting her eyes as she bit her lip carefully. The dragon's false expression of anger faded into a short smirk followed by an exasperated sigh as she leaned back onto her hind legs, scratching the back of her head. "...Pin you to the floor, really?" she muttered with a humorous yet critical slight.

"YOU!" She shouted at another tree. "DID YOU PLAY A PART IN THIS SCANDAL?! DID YOU?! " The tree doesn't respond, and the blue SeaWing's aggressive sneer melted as she sighed and slightly drooped her wings in defeat. Tsunami sat back on her hind legs and squeezed her eyebrows with two of her claws. "Son of a Sea Slug, this is harder than I thought." Tsunami quietly said to herself.

"Training going well, I suppose," A deep, yet warm voice asked curiously.

Startled by the voice, Tsunami instinctively turned around, her gills flaring and her wings fully opened in a threatening manner as she bared her razor-sharp teeth, giving off a low snarl at the potential threat. However, she immediately softened at what she was being defensive at. It was Clay, her dear MudWing friend. She got out of her threatening posture within seconds of seeing him.

"Clay! Don't sneak up on me like that!" Tsunami shouted, her gills still flaring. "You were so close to getting your thick neck sliced open!"

"Sorry, Tsunami! Didn't mean to scare you" Clay responded meekly with an embarrassed smile.

"You're so lucky your family to me." Tsunami sighed at Clay, her body fully relaxing before she looked back at the trees to continue her "etiquette" training. "Now what is it, I have a lot to do for the new semester." She asked Clay firmly, her eyes still locked on the trees.

"Well, You know about Starflight and his new life being blind, right?" Clay asked with curiosity in his voice.

"Yeah, and Fatespeaker's helping him out." She asked dismissingly. "What about him?"

"Well, he told me something I never knew before. He was in love." Clay admitted.

"In Love? Well, there's a big surprise." Tsunami replied sarcastically. "And who's the lucky dragon, if I should ask?"

"He was in love with Sunny. For as long as he lived" Clay explained further.

"He was in love with Sunny of all dragons, huh?" Tsunami responded in an uninterested voice. "And what did she say to him? Is she head over heels for him?"

"Well..she rejected him," Clay told her, his voice growing a somber tone. "And I think he's feeling heartbroken over it"

Tsunami looked back at Clay, a bored heaviness present on her eyelids."Really? That's what you wanted to tell me?" The SeaWing asked a hint of annoyance in her brash voice.

"That's all. I just feel we should help him with this. He's really sad over what Sunny told him" Clay responded with determination in his tone of voice.

Tsunami rolled her eyes over Clay's answer, annoyed that it was Starflight Clay is worried about. "Oh for moon's sake. She doesn't love him that way, she doesn't love him that way. End of Story." Tsunami dismissively told Clay with a light stomp of her talon on the grassy floor. "He needs to get over it and move on. It's not my fault Sunny doesn't want to be his mate."

"Yes, but that doesn't mean we should leave him be on this. He's not just our friend, he's pretty much our brother also." Clay insisted as he walked closer to Tsunami. "We're like a family and should be there for him as such."

Tsunami looked back at Clay, her growing annoyance and even irritation painted onto her snout. "Why would I give a hoot about that know-it-all NightWing anyway?" Tsunami argued to which Clay shared no response. "In any case, I've got bigger fish to wolf down, so why don't you take your brotherly concern to someone else," Tsunami ordered Clay, giving him a dismissive wave of her talon as she looked back at the trees.

But Clay remained resolute, standing in a stance that oozed determination. He knew that despite her hard exterior, she loved Starflight just as much as he did. It was just hard to make it leak out of her. "You may have been annoyed by his lectures. I was too. But annoying or not, he's still family, and his knowledge played a part in ending the war. If it wasn't for him, none of us would be where we are now." Clay said with an undeterred, confident voice. "You may be all tough and aggressive outside, but I know, deep down, you care about and feel sorry for him just as much as I do." Clay finished, with a resolute look on his square-muzzled face.

Tsunami looked back at Clay with a slightly fierce look in her eyes. Despite this, Tsunami knew deep down she felt admittingly sorry for Starflight. Clay had a point in his words, but she was reluctant to acknowledge it. After a few moments of staring at Clay, Tsunami let out a slow, reluctant sigh, her fierce attitude surrendering to Clay's persistence and trust. "Clay, You are so lucky both of you are like family to me." Tsunami relented. "Fine, I'll help with whatever thing you want to do for Starflight. But I'm warning you right now. I will not go easy on him. We aren't there to coddle over his self-pity. He needs a wake-up call, not a wing to bawl on." Tsunami warned, pointing at clay with a single claw.

Clay's determined look shifted into a warm, compassionate look, happy with Tsunami's decision to help Starflight. "I knew you still had a soft side for him," Clay told Tsunami as he approached the SeaWing closer and gave her a gentle nuzzle, which Tsunami accepted with no hesitation. Clay and Tsunami began to walk out of the Prey Center. "Let's go find Sunny. I'm sure she'll agree to helping us out" Clay told Tsunami, his wing dropping over the SeaWing's back.

"I hope your muddy self knows what you're doing," Tsunami told him, an expecting tone in her voice…