— Chapter 11 —
Peril
Peril had assumed her sudden appearance would cause some sort of reaction in the academy, not like she quite cared a whole lot about that, as long as Clay is happy to see her in the mountain then she'll be happy too.
Buuut she probably should've expected even more of a reaction than she originally anticipated, there were a couple of dragons that were passing through the entrance hall, all eyes had gone to the sudden newcomer, and then chaos began to ensue.
Several of these dragons there began to run in panic and scream in fear, shouting stuff like "We're all gonna die!" "The Skywing is here to kill us all!"
Peril did not feel like that was fair, she'd just arrived and was standing still where she landed while looking at everyone with wide eyes, if she wanted to kill them all, she already would have started! She'd be running around and tapping everyone with a claw for a second before moving to the next dragon, she won't kill someone just by standing there!
Weirdly enough though, there was a trio of dragonets that weren't running around, two Nightwings and a Seawing, well the taller Nightwing looked like she wanted to walk away right now, but a comically small one had held one of her legs and gave her an assuring nod then he looked at the Seawing whose eyes looked nervous too, then these two stepped closer to her!
Among all the chaos that ensued, with dragons running around and alerting others of the dangerous Skywing here, Peril didn't expect two random daring dragonets to just approach her; if dragonets were to approach she expected the ones of Destiny, and more specifically, Clay.
The Seawing looks to be a bit on the chubby side, probably wouldn't be able to be that fast or fight that well, not like Seawings are the most threatening when they're out of their element with their complete lack of range, she thought first, scanning at these two.
And that Nightwing… now admittedly I never got to fight a Nightwing, as curious as I felt about that when Scarlet first captured Clay, I never got to and that's unfair, but he looks like he'd be a very fast fight, if it's true they got no powers.
After they began to talk, Peril started to feel slightly bit about thinking of the ways to easily kill a couple of dragonets that were starting up a chat, and besides the Nightwing looks like he's 3 or 4 years old, Clay wouldn't like her killing someone that young.
"Hello! You're Peril, right? It's nice to meet you, are you going to be joining us here at the academy?" The little Nightwing said with a smile, waving at her, and Peril after a moment of confusion waved too.
Oh moons, don't be just like Sunny, too positive, I know you've only said like 2 lines so far but still, things are not THAT PRETTY to just be smiling and acting all nice to whoever you just met!
I never acted bad towards Clay during our first meeting though, I fetched as much as he wanted!
That's different, it's Clay who has always been the greatest, this little dragon has no reason to be like that to me. Would Clay disagree with me here? Ah shut up brain, they're still talking!
"My friend here has shown interest in you, I've heard him talking about you a few times here," the Seawing commented, making the Nightwing look a bit flustered.
"H-Hm, well, of course I'd be interested, why wouldn't I be? I-I mean…" He muttered at that now.
While talking to this duo, Peril was able to feel gazes upon them, many other students were still running, but some were watching while behind cover, looking absolutely baffled by what they were seeing and hearing, and she was rather surprised too, she could count the times someone willingly approached her first with just one talon.
"So, what part of me interested you exactly?" Peril asked as she thought, The exact amount of dragons I've killed? That's like asking someone to count what they've eaten through the last year. Maybe you're interested in my plans to clearly burn down the entire world as some seem to believe?
"You are just cool, and I've heard of your heroic deeds, to be like that even after everything is just commendable!" the Nightwing said with what sounded like an honest tone.
My heroic deeds? Well thank you, finally someone else that can see it too! I could literally be one of the greatest heroes of Pyrrhia if I felt like it and others realized I AM NOT SOME PYROMANIAC! Hear that Ruby? Even a Nightwing I've never met thinks highly of me!
"I know! I've tried to tell that to others!" Peril huffed now.
The two dragonets just nodded quickly, and Peril could notice a small smirk on the Nightwing's face.
"Oh also, I think we forgot an important step when meeting new people," he told the Seawing then looked at Peril, "Turtle."
Peril puzzles over this for a moment, and the Seawing had looked at the other dragonet in some confusion, turtle… that's an aquatic animal, right? Did that Seawing begin some sort of coded language? Is someone saying Turtle a good sign or some sort of prompt to attack? Or did she just get called a turtle? She isn't slow!
"Moose," she replied, seeing if that works for their coded language too.
"Goose!" The Nightwing replied immediately without missing a beat and chuckled, and this told Peril she had cracked the code.
"Mongoose," she replied after two seconds with a nod, as if she knew exactly what they were talking about.
"Hm, Oracle?" The Seawing questioned.
"I don't think there's an animal species called Oracle though?" Peril asked in honest confusion.
"Oh, no, that's his name and Turtle is my name, and I am asking him what is he doing," the Seawing, now revealed to be named Turtle said.
He DOES look a bit like a turtle I think, Peril thought.
"Hm, just having some nice fun, that's fine, no?" Oracle said with a sheepish smile after being called out.
And then her thoughts and attention onto the two dragonets stopped, coming through another cavern she saw him, Clay!
And of course he had seen her too, shouting "Peril!" with a voice that she loved, one that showed the care and affection he must hold for her, once more she felt loved as he approached fast despite his limp, lovingly holding one of her talons between his "You came!" his voice said now.
Peril spotted a rather familiar blue shape behind Clay and mentally scowled, Why can't it just be us two right now? No other dragonets and crowd watching, just us.
"Thought you wouldn't appear, given we didn't hear anything about you," Tsunami said, Peril could feel the dislike on her voice.
"I tried to find her," Peril spoke, reluctantly looking away from Clay and to Tsunami. "But she's nowhere to be found. I don't know where else to look, I'm sorry."
"Don't be," Clay said wholeheartedly. "We're glad you're here."
Clay, I don't really care about that "we", I only need to hear you say "I'm glad you're here", no matter what your friends think or care,Peril thought deeply, pressing his talons lovingly.
Some more arguments had ensued for the following minutes, there was a very annoying pair of Icewings that had argued a lot against her staying here in the mountain.
Like if you two could ever do anything, you'd just burn even more easily than anyone else if you attempted something, these Icewings should just mind their own business if they know what's good for them!
Finally, she got to get away from this Great Hall as Clay began to guide her over towards a cave where Tsunami had left, though as Peril followed, for a moment she turned back and saw the two dragonets from earlier looking as she left, the Nightwing waving as she walked away.
Interesting duo, I don't know what's with them, but at least they aren't as bad as these other dragons running around and screaming every sort of nonsense, hm… would Clay like it if I was able to make a whole two new friends the first day I stay here? I can imagine it already! "Oh Peril, you're such an amazing friend, others already are warming up to you, and I am loving you even more than ever."
Peril did not care at all how much of that sounded like wishful thinking, but instead she was going to take the "wish" out of wishful and make it come true!
She was led to a rather big cave, Tsunami was already there, then a bit after Peril and Clay stepped inside Sunny had appeared.
"Peril! It's great to see you again!" Sunny said in her usual incredibly ANNOYING ever-happy tone, three moons does she ever at least frown?
"Hm huh yeah, you too, great that you aren't dead, just like everyone else, I mean that the others here not being dead either is also great," Peril nodded, and based on Clay's slightly confused expression, she knew that wasn't quite the best way to greet.
A minute later, Starflight was here too, accompanied by that female Nightwing that Peril had seen earlier near the dragonets that talked to her, who was guiding him along.
"Peril… you're here, that sudden arrival startled me, I could only hear everyone screaming about the Skywing, and I thought Scarlet had just decided to invade us," Starflight said, to which Peril huffed.
"Well I clearly couldn't have been Scarlet, or there would've been screaming about dragonets ACTUALLY being killed right there, no?" she talked back, and she could see how Sunny flinched upon that comment.
"Peril…" Clay said in a disapproving tone.
Oh, right, he has to take care of these dragonets too, he wouldn't like to hear that some of them were murdered… Hm. so he would like it if they were alive probably, I think I got an idea if I need it!
"Just as thoughtful and caring as I always remembered her to be," Tsunami said with some deep sarcasm that Peril did not appreciate.
"Okay, sorry…" She muttered, seemingly messing up and apologizing for that, would a bad dragon do that? No!
"And either way, you cannot join any Winglets as I said before, the Skywing spots are all filled up," Tsunami reminded her.
"Well, I'm sure we could find some alternative, right? There has to be something for Peril, we can't just leave her, she has helped us a lot, and if it weren't for her, then Clay…" Sunny trailed off and didn't finish, but Peril saw everyone visibly wince at the reminder, and she meanwhile thought she couldn't imagine a world where Clay went through everything just to be killed by a snake.
Tsunami sighed "Then what do we do? It's not like she could help us deal with any other venomous situations, that only applied to Clay due to his scales."
"Maybe she could cook stuff for the dragons to prefer eating that way? Just holding the stuff for a second might get it just right," Starflight proposed.
"I am not some dragon fit for the kitchen," Peril argued.
"Okay, then what do you propose to stay here worth our students feeling scared for their lives?" Tsunami rolled her eyes.
"Why does she have to do something? Why can't we let her stay in one of the empty caves so she can be able to relax?" Clay stepped up for her and she appreciated it.
"Tsunami's got a point, you know," Starflight replied "You saw the chaos today, it would be better for everyone, Peril included if the students can feel safer by believing she won't harm them but be helpful."
"But Peril wouldn't harm them anyway, they'll probably trust her naturally when they see she's nice!" Sunny also spoke in Peril's favor.
"So you and Clay are on Peril's side, while Starflight and I are in favor of her doing something, this is one of these cases where I wish Glory was here, she'd probably agree with us and we wouldn't be split," Tsunami grumbled.
Peril didn't think the debate would be so split, and she felt for a moment something tugging on her chest when both Clay and Sunny argued in her favor.
But begrudgingly she could KINDA see the point of the other two, she thought of Oracle and Turtle, they talked normally to her and were willing to give her a chance, and only them out of seemingly everyone that was in the hall, and now that she got to see something like that, she wished a bit that it could happen more.
"Okay then, how about keeping me around for security measures? Tell everyone that I am here to make sure nothing bad can truly happen, use the fear that I SO clearly bring around in my favor, spread the word, because then I might scare off any threats by just being here," Peril said with a shrug.
"That… might be one of the most intelligent things that you have said," Tsunami muttered.
"She makes a good point, she still remains one of the most powerful dragons in Pyrrhia and is almost unkillable, we never know what might happen with Scarlet still out there," Starflight said thoughtfully.
"I like the idea, and then everyone would see that you're trying to protect them and they'll be happy and thankful instead of scared and unsure," Sunny agreed with a smile directed at her.
"That is a great idea, I'm sure you can protect us," Clay said, twining his tail with hers.
I'd do anything to protect you, literally anything you could ask of me, she thought passionately.
"Well fine, I guess it's settled, we'll find you some cave where there aren't others nearby, and then you can stay here," Tsunami concluded.
Some time later, Clay was guiding her to the cave they've decided for Peril to keep, the Skywing was able to see the scared looks of the few dragonets they passed by.
You all just wait, everything will be much safer now, and you all that are currently scared will turn back on what they think of me, maybe even Tsunami, Peril thought proudly, brushing one of Clay's wings with one of her own.
Author's note: This fic is the first time I ever write with any of these characters' perspectives, and I just felt interested about having some training with Peril's for something more funny. Besides, the next chapter is going to be big, from that point things will start to step up further.