Chapter 4

Mink followed her winglet to the RainWing venom range, her mind preoccupied with other things. She wandered along at the back of the group, examining the halls and watching other dragons as they passed. Cliff, who was walking beside her, noticed her glances.

"Did you lose something?" he asked.

"What? No, I haven't lost anything…" Mink jumped.

"Sorry, didn't mean to scare you, you just seemed like you were looking for something," he explained.

"Thanks, but no, I'm fine," Mink reassured.

She breathed a sigh of relief as Cliff shrugged and ran to catch up with the others. She definitely did not want to tell anyone what she was actually doing. She couldn't let anyone know or Snowfall might end up hearing about it. The truth was, she was in fact looking for someone. When Snowfall had returned to the tundra during the events that unfolded on Pantala, she had mentioned to Mink that she had met an "absolutely ridiculous SkyWing". Snowfall proceeded to mention him every few days after that, which convinced Mink and Lynx that she was in love. Mink had made it her mission to find him, but she had no idea where to start. She thought Jade Mountain was a good place to start, so Lynx had helped her get in without the queen knowing. Now that she was here, though, she had no idea what to do. She hadn't expected to be put into a winglet full of royals and important dragonets. Now people will have their eyes on all of them, and Mink didn't want anyone to find out.

Finally, the group arrived at the RainWing venom range and Tsunami directed everyone but Bumblebee and Firefly to the stands at the back of the cave. Mink distractedly sat down next to the others, glad to be able to sit down again. Tsunami directed Firefly to demonstrate how the facility works.

"Alright, fine, but I'm not doing it for her," she sniffed at Bumblebee.

She walked over to one of the lanes. There was a target at the end of it and measurement lines cut into a piece of metal lying on the floor.

"Alright, so basically, you aim for the target. The metal won't be harmed if you miss, but the target is made of dried grasses and animal pelts, that way it'll melt. It's just meant for practicing, nothing special," Firefly explained, "Watch."

With a hiss, she curled herself up and opened her mouth. Her scales shifted from purple to a dark red and orange mixed with black. Then all of a sudden, a jet of black liquid shot out of her fangs and it landed dead center on the target. The colored pelt began hissing and melting. The other dragonets applauded Firefly's skills. SHe gave Bumblebee a smirk.

"Your turn," she teased.

Bumblebee bounced up to the firing line and imitated Firefly, curling up and opening her jaw as wide as it would go, but nothing happened. No black liquid, no detachable teeth, nothing. Bumblebee grunted in annoyance.

"Okay, what abouuuuuut, THIS!" she flicked her tail at the target, but still nothing.

Firefly hid a smirk as Bumblebee tried several different times to spray something or fire some projectile, but nothing happened.

"Maybe you have some kind of stinger instead?" Cliff offered from beside Mink.

Mink doubted that anything would happen, but Bumblebee walked over to the target anyway and tried to stab it several times with imaginary stingers. As expected, the target remained intact as Firefly's target sizzled beside it. Bumblebee huffed, clearly upset that nothing happened. Mink wasn't sure why. From what she had heard, it wasn't uncommon for HiveWings to not have any abilities. Not to mention, the world was at peace, no one needed to hurt anyone anymore. Mink wondered why Bumblebee was so upset. The HiveWing stomped back to where Firefly was laughing hysterically next to Tsunami.

"Nothing! No cool HiveWing powers at all!" she huffed, "I'm so jealous of you Firefly!"

Firefly was taken aback by Bumblebee's words.

"Y-You're what?" she stammered.

"Jealous! Can all RainWings spit venom like that?" Bumblebee gave Firefly a googly-eyed look.

"I- yeah?" Firefly shrugged.

"So cool!" Bumblebee exclaimed.

Mink watched them quietly, she didn't understand their enthusiasm about being able to hurt people. She didn't really like her own abilities to freeze dragons. She rarely used her frostbreath and when she did, it was in small amounts. The rest of the class was spent discussing the different abilities of the different Pyrrhian tribes. Bumblebee listened to everyone with wide eyes, taking in all she could. Meanwhile, Mink was looking around at passing dragons, trying to find a clue to find the SkyWing that Snowfall mentioned. In the end, not much happened. Mink found herself heading back to her cave with Cliff and Plankton, who were her clawmates. Mink examined Cliff closely, wondering if he might know something about the SkyWing she was looking for. He eventually noticed her staring.

"Uh, is something wrong?" he asked, curiously.

"I was just wondering about something…" Mink said, "You wouldn't happen to know a dragon who is obsessed with cute small animals and is friends with a human, would you?"

Cliff gave her a confused look.

"Uh…doesn't ring a bell," he shrugged.

"Oh, ok, nevermind," Mink sped up a bit to avoid any more conversation with him.

Cliff stared after her with confusion as she rushed to their cave. Mink had to find a way to find that SkyWing, no matter what it took.