First Class, New Friends, and a Bully
The sun was beginning to set on Pyrrhia, it was a beautiful site, or at least it would have been if Fatespeaker wasn't still waiting for one student to arrive. "Where is she?" Fatespeaker sighed as Sunny walked up behind her. "I don't know Fatespeaker, maybe they got caught up with something?" Sunny asked, "Oh wait, someone is coming!" Sunny said, noticing a dragon flying towards the mountain.
Spirit landed in front of the two dragonesses, panting heavily as she tried to regain her breath. "Sorry…… for being……. Late!" Spirit wheezed, taking a drink from her canteen. "Why are you so late?" Sunny asked her worried something had happened. "I had a vision so I needed to report to both Queen Glory and Queen Thorn," Spirit explained, having finally regained her breath
"Oh, I see, well head to your cave and meet your classmates." Sunny said, "First tunnel on the left, second cave on the left. You are in the Jade winglet." Sunny finished. "Alright, thanks! And again I'm so sorry for being late!" Spirit headed down the corridor as the two older dragons both turned to watch her. Once Spirits' tail disappeared, Queen Glory manifested seemingly from thin air beside them. "Why would she lie?" Glory asked, half to herself, and half to her two friends. Queen Glory had been at the School for the entire day passing out pieces of Skyfire to the students who wanted them. With more Nightwings being hatched underneath the moons more mind readers and future seers were being hatched so Turtle helped his mother gather more pieces from the giant rock that landed in the ocean.
"I'm not sure," Sunny said, feeling hurt that her adopted Niece would so casually lie to her. "Should you talk to her?" Sunny asked Glory. "I will. But I have to get back to the rainforest. Keep an eye on her and I have a feeling that vision was the Kernel of truth in that lie." Glory said before hugging them both goodbye and leaving for the rainforest.
Spirit walked into her designated cave to see a Nightwing, an icewing, and Clay. "Clay? What are you doing in here?" She asked him, confused as to why he was in her cave with her classmates. "Waiting for you." He said, moving aside so he could talk to the three dragonets at once. "Your classmates are Mindreader and Princess Avalanche." Claw said, pausing so Spirit could introduce herself.
"Nice to meet you, Mindreader, I'm Spirit," Spirit said, shaking her talon. "Nice to meet you too," Mindreader said with a shy but friendly smile. Spirit then turned to the Icewing Princess. "And it's nice to meet you Princess Avalanche." Spirit raised her talon again but the Icewing just stared at the hybrid dragoness. "Ok……." Spirit turned to Clay once she was done.
"Queen Snowfall, after Winter explained what happened to Prince Arctic, wanted her tribe to change for the better." Clay began to explain. "So Princess Avalanche was sent here to learn about the tribes and different ways to help her Kingdom grow. Other than the 24/7 training they do, that is." Clay said.
"Not that we NEED anything else, our kingdom works just fine without all the new research the other six tribes are doing." Princess Avalanche hissed. "Yeah see how well you do try to use spears to fight off a naturally occurring virus." Spirit huffed, only to get a glare from Clay. "What? It's true!"
"That is one of the aspects, yes," Clay said before the icewing princess could start a full-on argument. "So since I know you both and you are both kind-hearted dragons. I want you two to help her in this endeavor." Clay said simply. "I don't mind helping out," Mindreader said with a smile.
"Yeah, it would be nice to teach our tribes information to help a fellow tribe." Spirit agreed with a nod. "Good, thank you both for being willing to help the Icewings, I know the two tribes have had a lot of tension between them," Clay said, smiling. "Now you three get some sleep, you have your first class tomorrow."
"Oh and Avalanche?" Clay said, stopping at the entrance of the cave as Mindreader curled up onto the Moss bed and Spirit climbed into the hammock. "I'm supposed to remind you that you are to give it a try." He said, looking over at the Icewing as she lay on the stone slab. "Yeah, yeah I know. It all just seems like a pointless endeavor." Avalanche grumbled.
"That's good then," Spirit said from the hammock. "You will be surprised by how much different tribes can learn from one another." There was a huff of amusement from the icewing princess. "I'll be the judge of that." Avalanche grinned slightly, this hybrid seemed intriguing. Spirit had gone from friendly, to rude and then friendly again. Avalanche had a feeling that maybe this wasn't going to be a complete waste of time after all.
The Next Day
Spirit and her two friends, well, one friend and one acquaintance, headed to Tsunami's classroom the next morning. The trio sat down near the entrance with Spirit in between the two, Mindreader to her left, and Princess Avalanche to her right. Soon some of the others came in, a bigwings mudwing, a deep blue seawing, a pale-yellow colored sandwing with goggles, and finally a rainwing with gold-colored scales as he was excited to finally attend a proper school.
Spirit noticed that a scroll, from one of the two shelves in the room, had fallen to the floor. So she went over to place it back on the shelf, Tsunami not having noticed as she was talking to the rainwing in a vain attempt to calm him down. Just as Spirit placed the scroll onto the shelf, the skywing of their winglet arrived. "Get out of my way hybrid filth." He growled, grabbing her by the horn and tossing her aside. He was a big dragon, rivaling the mudwing bigwings in size.
"HEY! OW!!" Spirit shouted as she was tossed aside and collided with a small box of scrolls; The wooden crate broke apart with a loud snapping sound. The mudwing growled and got to his Talons, only to stop as Tsunami grabbed his shoulder. "I'll handle it." The mudwing huffed again and went to see if Spirit was ok, Mindreader having beaten him to the Hybrid.
"Are you ok?" He asked as Mindreader helped Spirit to her talons. "Yeah I'll be fine, thanks for wanting to stand up for me, and thank you for helping me up," Spirit added to Mindreader before they headed back to their spots.
While the mudwing had gone to Spirit, Tsunami had grabbed the skywing by the ear. "Alright you, it's the first day of school so don't start any trouble!! If you do that again you will have detention and a note is going to be sent to Ruby. Am I clear??" Tsunami growled at the Skywing.
"Nnngh, Crystal." The arguably Annoyed Skywing hissed. "Good, now why don't you apologize to her and get to your seat?" Tsunami said, releasing the red-orange dragon's ear.
The skywing, however, simply went to his spot the furthest away from the black and gold dragoness. The mudwing glared at the skywing for a moment but didn't cause any further issues due to Tsunami already having said to not cause trouble.
"Alright." Tsunami sighed, giving the mudwing a slight nod as a silent statement of approval for him not continuing the conflict. "Let's get started with names and something about yourself, I am Tsunami and I prefer to hunt in the ocean rather than the land of Pyrrhia." The sea-blue seawing said, turning to Mindreader.
"My name is Mindreader and despite my name, I don't have any powers," Mindreader said with a slight giggle.
"My name is Spirit and I like to Sketch!" Spirit said with a wide, beaming smile as if nothing had happened.
"My name is Avalanche and I enjoy experimenting with my frostbreath." Princess Avalanche said with a nod
"My name is Alligator and I'm the Bigwings of my sibling group." Alligator said in a deep bass voice. He was still upset with the Skywing but didn't even look in his direction.
"My name is Cactus and I am an adventurer!!" Cactus said with a laugh
"My name is Treefrog and I am a prankster!" Treefrog laughed. "Don't worry though my philosophy is if they don't make everyone laugh I don't do them!"
"My name is Archerfish and I'm rather shy," Archerfish said, his bioluminescent scales flickering slightly.
"My name is Falcon." The red skywing paused to look directly at Spirit. "And I HATE Hybrids." He finished with an angry hiss.
Spirit couldn't help but take a small step back as if trying to hide from his piercing gaze. Before anything could happen Tsunami began explaining the purpose of the school and what they will learn there.
"Excuse me," Falcon said, raising his talon. "Yes, Falcon?" Tsunami said through a roll of her eyes, this one would be trouble for sure. "Why do we have a hybrid?" Falcon asked.
"Each winglet has a hybrid because A they can still learn from and about the other tribes and B we can also learn from how each hybrid is unique as well as how their biologies can mix," Tsunami said, glancing at spirit to see how she was holding up.
She was watching Tsunami, seemingly unperturbed by Falcon's jesting. But Tsunami could see her wings droop slightly. "And in any case." Tsunami continued. "It doesn't matter if there are one or a hundred hybrids at the school she is still a dragon and you will treat her as you would if she was a purebred."
"HA! I would treat her like a normal dragon if she WAS a normal dragon!" Falcon snarked, Chuckling wickedly. "THAT IS IT!!" Tsunami shouted at him. "I tried to give you a chance but you clearly don't care!! Go to my office NOW!!!" Tsunami snapped.
Spirit slowly lowered her eyes to the ground at Falcon's last barb, what was wrong with being a hybrid?? She had always thought it made her unique! Something to be PROUD of! But Spirit wasn't so sure anymore. She knew she shouldn't listen to Falcon but she couldn't exactly turn off her ears. And to make it worse Falcon had refused the Skyfire so it was difficult to ignore his constant hateful thoughts toward her even with the technique she knows.
Falcon walked in front of the other students, smirking at the upset Hybrid as he passed her. "Pathetic," He smirked. "Can't even defend yourself." Falcon chuckled.
"Why didn't you DO anything?!" Princess Avalanche asked Spirit once Falcon had left. "Like what?" Spirit asked, "I……." Spirit sighed heavily. "I don't know how to fight." She admitted, lifting her head and looking at the icewing princess.
"And if she had fought back," Tsunami said. "She wouldn't have done anything but make it worse as starting a brawl just for being bullied only makes the situation worse."
"Are you kidding?!" Alligator snapped. "By NOT doing anything she is letting him do even more to encourage him!"
"Please guys just stop, I appreciate you wanting to help," Spirit said. "But Tsunami is right you can't out-bully a bully you have to out-think them!" Spirit explained. "And that works?" Avalanche asked in Surprise. "It worked with the Nightwing who bullied me when I was younger." Spirit nodded with a smile
"Fine, but if you ever need help with him." Alligator offered. "We will help you ok?" Spirit nodded. "I'll ask for help when/if I need it." She promised, receiving a nod from Alligator in response.
"Perfect," Tsunami said. "I think that should cover it for the day you all have a free day for the rest of the day so go-"
Spirit suddenly let out a scream of pain, clutching her head as a vision flooded her mind, the headache was even more painful than she thought it would be. But her vision didn't make any sense. When the vision faded away she noticed that Alligator and Mindreader had laid her down while she had her episode. "What did you see?" Alligator asked, half hoping it was Falcon getting what was coming to him in the future.
"I… I didn't see anything." Spirit groaned as she sat up, rubbing her head. "It was pitch black as if I was in a cave closed off from the rest of the world." She looked at Alligator. "It was really weird. Normally any visions I have show events happening or a dragon doing something but it was too dark to see anything."
"Mmmm…. That's odd." Tsunami said, but couldn't help speculate she was hiding something. Especially after Sunny and Fatespeaker told the other staff members about the lie Spirit told them. "Well just to be sure go get checked out by the healers," Tsunami said.
Spirit nodded and stood up, slowly walking out of the cave. "See you guys later!" She called as the others headed in the other direction. "Hey," Alligator asked, catching up to walk beside her. "Are you sure you didn't see anything?"
"Why would I lie?" Spirit asked. "I understand why you are asking and I'm not upset that you are asking," Spirit added quickly to reassure him. Alligator gave an awkward chuckle, scratching the back of his neck. "I was honestly hoping it was Falcon being picked on after what he did to you."
Spirit couldn't help but smile. "I wouldn't mind seeing that myself but no it was too dark to see anything. Although that makes me wonder if I would have been able to see anything if I was a night/sea hybrid." She speculated.
"I don't know." Alligator said. "Unless a night/sea hybrid prophet hatches and has that same vision I don't think we will ever know. But hey," He took her arm gently as they stopped in front of the healers. "I'm serious, anything you need to deal with Falcon let me know." He said gently.
Spirit smiled. "I will and I might want to take a few self-defense lessons soon." She said, thanking him and heading inside as Alligator walked off
"Do you think she was lying?" Starflight asked after Tsunami informed the other Teachers about Spirit's vision in her class later that night. "I don't think so, we have heard of other visions being dark when it was night or in tunnels," Tsunami said. "But now we don't know if we can believe her."
"SHUT UP!" Sunny shouted, covering her ears. "Spirit is NOT a LIAR!!" The Sandwing princess screeched. This wasn't like her niece at all! Do not know how to fight? "Qibli knows how to fight and would've taught Spirit to defend herself!" Sunny yelled, tears threatening to fall down her cheeks. Clay pulled her into a hug. "Sunny I know this must be hard but we can't ignore the fact that Spirit lied about seeing Glory and lied about knowing how to fight in front of Tsunami."
Sunny shook her head against Clay's chest, not wanting to believe them when suddenly a knock was heard on the door. When Fatespeaker opened the door Alligator was standing there, an exhausted look on his face.
"What are you doing up?" Fatespeaker asked. "I was heading to the Prey cave for a snack and got turned around." Alligator said. "Then I heard Sunny yelling. If Spirit is lying, wouldn't she have a good reason? Sunny seems to be certain about how Spirit wouldn't do this, something must be wrong." Alligator said.
"Why do you think that?" Sunny asked, motioning for him to come in. Alligator walked in and sat down before answering Sunny. "I and my sibling group have worked with other sibling groups for certain training exercises that are designed to push our limits and face our fears. At first, when Falcon started to bully Spirit I thought she was scared of him. But after he left and Avalanche asked why Spirit didn't fight back she still looked terrified. There must be something wrong that her parents don't even know about. That is what is causing her to be scared of fighting back." Alligator explained.
Sunny frowned. "I don't know how Moon and Qibli wouldn't have noticed." "Moon and Qibli?" Starflight said, puzzlement creasing his forehead. "Didn't their egg get destroyed?" Starflight asked, causing Sunny to go silent. "But……. Then….. WHO IN THE CLAWS OF CLOUD MOUNTAINS ARE SPIRITS PARENTS??!!" Sunny grabbed her head, her mind racing as she attempted to make sense of all this. "And why does she look like Moon and Qibli? Ooohhh my head hurts. But I'm going to get to the bottom of this!"
"Tomorrow," Tsunami said, even though she was getting confused at this point. "Thank you, Alligator, This will help us find out what's going on, but maybe next time don't be out past when everyone should be in their caves."
Alligator nodded. "Glad I could help, I hope you get to the bottom of it soon." He said before heading to his cave for the night, hoping Spirit would be ok and that Sunny could find out what was going on.