Childhood.
A strange thing.
How was he not mentally insane?
Perhaps he was. It was most certainly a large possibility. He could already be sitting in a straight jacket muttering insane things in an asylum and he wouldn't know. How would he?
He chose to ignore these thoughts.
He was a physical health doctor, and his specialty didn't often look into the mind too deeply. He was a great philosopher though! He remembered thinking lots on deep things. That qualified. He took an IB in the subject, even!
He could only say that, as the impromptu child of cave men- er, dragons, at least the media wasn't trying to influence him anymore. Or political children's cartoons. For now, political child influence happened verbally and physically, not digitally.
He knew how to follow the rigid feudal monarch system, and he followed them well enough, even with his negative view on it.
Politics? He would face those eventually, yes... but not now, he thought.
Until he met Winter, that was.
He had just learned about scavengers, had his mother convinced to get him one, laid his eyes open it, and burst into tears and redeclared his brotherhood with the human species while his mother sat in confusion as her son talked about saving the tasty meat sticks that had started a war.
Occasionally he had interactions with nobles. It was a fixed part of his life. His family were minor nobles.
Coincidentally, Winter was near and noticed his brotherhood between the stressed meat stick.
What followed was the most scholarly debate to ever happen between 2 young dragonets. They would, from that moment, debate over the intelligence and sentience of scavengers nonstop. Unfortunately, the one his mother managed to nab suffered from a heart attack, and so after saving it from the maw of hungry dragons, he and Winter had had a tasteful burial to always remember that one.
The consequences of their shared interest would result in politics. Lots of them.
He used a special, original strategy to not get demoted called "be a good dragonet and exceed the watching upper level noble's standards with knowledge from your past life." It was super effective. He rose ranks. His mother became happier. Winter became happier. Anyone who was related to him in any way, shape or form became happier. His father smiled.
Then he used the power of modern medicine- oh, wait.
Icewing's had different biology than humans. All dragons did.
So then he, a tiny small dragonet, opened up cadavers he had managed to sneak his way towards to understand the internal workings of the species.
The grown ups frowned. Why cut open bodies when they are already dead? Why use "scalpel" when you could use claws? His disobedience and "improperness" might have cost him something.. but the cadavers provided him a get out of jail card.
He came up with revolutionary techniques for healing! There was no way this was a coincidence, he decided soon. Someone had planned for this to happen.
After getting a pat on the back and an allowance to cut open bodies as long as we cant see you doing it, he went on and became a great doctor. Despite being a dragonet at that time.
Quite seriously, dragons gained knowledge and maturity astonishingly quickly.
Anyway, he became a child prodigy while all the nobles forced him to go through arduous training exercises. He sometimes nearly died during those. But at least he learned how to kill a dragon with combat and claws.
He also had to deal with Icicle. And Snowfall, too, he guessed, but she wasn't that bad. He treated her with respect and all, end of the story.
He also gained a friend in Lynx who somehow managed to reach the upper circles without having to kiss the talons and excessively praise anybody. A miracle in politics. He had observed how she had done it and gained a deeper understanding in Icewing politics.
After getting 2 friends, he met Hailstorm, who, while he thought it silly for their scavenger obsession (Lynx wasn't very interested in scavengers and yet she still put up with he and Winter, rude) he was supportive and among the more respectable Icewings he could find.
Then he tried to spend more time with Winter.
That was a hard time. Winter pushed him and Lynx away, and Lynx got embroiled in getting her rankings up and studying.
He did more "doctoring."
He saved lives, taught people how to kill better and was taught how to kill.
It was life.
Until the whole damn dragonet fiasco. Then they had him shipped of under a mountain. He still wasn't sure why, even. He had been busy "doctoring" when he was informed he was going to become the experiment. Perhaps repayment for all the experiments he had done otherwise.
It had a respectable name, though. Icewing cities tended to have ridiculous names.
He tugged at the beige cloth bandanna, his makeshift surgical mask. He rarely took it off anymore. He tended to clean it after each operation, but sometimes he... forgot.
He was glad he was no longer a resident, else the surgeon would track him down and give him work.
Well, under the mountain he went.
It was cheerful, in the way that schools could only provoke. A Nightwing was waiting. His first view of the subspecies, really.
What did he know about them, anyway?
War, death, evil, very evil, Foeslayer, Darkstalker, abusers of diplomacy, enact genocide, commit to their extinction, killers of helpless prisoners, liars...
...How helpful his education was.
"Oh, hello!" Mysterious Nightwing yelped cheerfully, "You're.. Rime, right? Replacing Changbai in the silver winglet?"
"Yes."
She excitedly handed him a piece of paper, which at first glance seemed to have a basic guide to the area and who he'll meet. "Well, welcome to Jade Mountain Academy! I hope you have a gre-eeeat... um."
He pulled the bandanna down. Right. Blood bad in a school setting. This wasn't medical school, in which everyone tried to bloody themselves to "increase patient trust, trust me guys!" Thank God for the fact that med students didn't often get bloody. And residency crushed any desire to get soaked in the stuff. Along with a few hundred other things, like all their hopes and dreams, but nevermind that.
He escaped the awkward moment and hoped that no one had already developed laws on blood soaked bandannas.
His fellows were some other Icewings like Alba and Ermine, Icicle and Winter whom he hadn't talked with extensively since... Hailstorm.
He immediately began a search for his room, and subsequently located some of his roomates.
"Ah, hello."
"Hey." That was Boto, if the paper was correct. Who was resting on a hammock, but seemed to have that happy smile that indicated energy not yet unleashed.
The Mudwing gave him quick and formal nod, then left.
"...Hello?" Ah, Thrush, he guessed.
"It is a pleasure to meet all of you. I am Rime, currently the most well known doctor- er, healer in the Icewing kingdom. Nice to meet you."
"...You sound different than most Icewings I've met."
"Makes me unique, eh? Where are our other wing-members or whatever you call them?"
"Fearless is over there," Thrush inclined his head towards a Nightwing who seem to be hiding in shadow, giving him a venomous glare (Which, with the rumors of bacterial growths in their jaws, he was very interested in finding out), "Ostrich, I don't know... And Anemone hasn't arrived yet, I think."
"Well, till then, I suppose we might as well wait."
It was going to be quite the year, he guessed.