Chapter 2

Firefly lay curled up in her hammock for a long time, but she couldn't fall asleep. She was too emotional to sleep. First leaving her mother and the rainforest, then having to share a room with a crazy HiveWing. When would this nightmare end? She tossed and turned for a while, but no matter how hard she tried she couldn't get comfortable. She sighed and sat up. The HiveWing was snoozing away in her hammock, not at all concerned about anything. Firefly was a princess, how dare anyone treat her like any old student! She decided to go for a night walk. She hopped out of bed and began wandering the halls. She passed by many other caves, all with sleeping dragonets inside. Firefly wondered if any of them would be part of their winglet. She would actually die if all of them ended up being boring. Eventually she found her way out of the residential part of the school. She passed by classrooms and the prey center, but not a whole lot of interesting things were around. Suddenly, Firefly began to feel a throbbing headache at the base of her neck.

Oh, great, not again! She inwardly sighed.

Then suddenly she wasn't in the Academy anymore. Slowly a picture began to form in front of her. It was another vision of the future. Although, it didn't make any sense. She was in some kind of throne room, but she didn't recognize it. Sitting on the throne was a scavenger, or human. As she had been told they were called now. Before the human were four others. Two boys and two girls. The strangest part was that Firefly was just as big as them. She was too busy puzzling over why she was so small to realize she could actually understand the humans as they talked.

"...this world will fall, and it's all thanks to you," said the human on the throne.

Suddenly, Firefly was back in the halls of Jade Mountain. Her headache slowly receded. She rubbed her temples, trying to make it go away.

What was that? she wondered.

She had had visions of the future before, but none were that ominous. She wondered what a couple humans had to do with her and she also wondered why she was so small. After that vision, she finally felt sleepy and decided to return to her cave. As soon as she crawled back into it, she had fallen asleep, but apparently the future wasn't done with her yet. As she slept, she began having more visions. She saw visions of a group of other dragonets around her age. One of them was the HiveWing, and the others were vaguely familiar, but she couldn't put her talon on it. Suddenly words began to parade through her head.

The continents united now,

But soon the darkness falls.

Beneath the flight of wings above,

Among the rats they crawl.

The walk of legs in pairs will roar,

And they will scream invincible.

The sparks will fly but not of fire.

Their scales crack, from steel.

Beware, the dragonslayer's law,

And find the Sharpest Blade.

You have to make amends or else,

The world will fall again.

Firefly woke up to the sound of three loud crashes against a gong. Bumblebee fell out of her hammock in surprise.

"Wha-, an explosion?" she shouted, "Run!"

"Calm down!" Firefly hissed at her, "It's the bell for class."

"The bell?" the HiveWing repeated.

Firefly got out of her hammock and shook the sleepiness from her eyes. She went over the schedule for today and started walking to Tribal Studies. Bumblebee attached herself to Firefly's tail without asking permission and bounced along behind her. Firefly didn't understand how a dragon could be so rude and so unbothered at the same time. She tried her best to ignore her. She wound through the halls until she reached a very green tunnel with lights strung along the ceiling. The two of them arrived in a very open cave with a small bubbly waterfall to the side of the room. Tsunami was waiting beside it. As soon as they arrived, two more gongs sounded from the hallway.

"Wow, you two are early! That's what I like," the SeaWing greeted.

Firefly shrugged. She knew that she and Tsunami were around the same rank and authority, both of them being the eldest princess of their kingdoms, so Firefly gave her the politeness that she expected in return. However, Tsunami barely registered it and turned her attention to Bumblebee.

"I'm glad you found someone to show you around, Bumblebee."

"She did nothing of the sort," Firefly said, indignantly, "She stalked me all the way here."

Firefly tossed her head in annoyance. The other two glanced at each other uncomfortably.

"Urk, yeah, sorry," Tsunami apologized, "I just meant that I'm glad you both made it."

Firefly didn't think she was as glad as she should be to be in her presence, so she decided to ignore the both of them. They began talking to each other as Firefly turned away and looked out of the nearby window of the cave. Far below, the mountains stretched into the distance. The sight made her miss the rainforest even more. The hard rock surfaces were nothing like the tall trunks of the tropics. She sat like that for a while until she heard voices approaching. The three dragons in the room turned to the entrance as a trio of dragons entered. Firefly felt her last shred of hope die as she realized she knew two of them. The first to come through was an extremely jittery NightWing who had bright excited eyes. She was chatting with a relaxed looking SandWing and the third dragon arriving was snacking on some goat jerky. The third dragon was a russet color with big wings and thick scales and claws. She knew the NightWing and the third dragon on account of all of their parents being the Dragonets of Destiny. Soulstar and Crane also recognized her.

"No way!" Soulstar gasped, "Firefly!"

She leaped at her and hugged her tight. Firefly could barely breath as she was squeezed.

"Ack! Stop!" she pushed Soulstar away, "Is that any way to treat your princess?"

Soulstar giggled before bowing dramatically.

"Of course, I'm so sorry, Your Majesty," she mocked.

Firefly growled at the sarcasm, but she couldn't say anything to her before Crane wrapped her in her wings as well.

"It's good to see you, Firefly! Do you remember me?" she asked.

"How could I forget…" Firefly growled.

"Still the same old Firefly, huh?" Crane giggled.

"Alright, stop teasing each other!" Tsunami ordered.

"Okay, Auntie Tsunami!" Soulstar sat right up front, directly in front of her.

At that moment, the last few dragonets arrived as the last bell went off. Firefly recognized Cliff, the SkyWing prince, and Mink, an older dragonet who was also the sister of Queen Snowfall. She also recognized the SeaWIng as Tsunami's son, Plankton.

"Well, now that we're all here," Tsunami said, "Let's get started!"