Wings of Fire; A Royal Ghost

Chapter 1; Page 3

"Thank you, Starflight!" Chirped Torrid. Torrid smiled at Boutu and Quietmind before walking over towards Halite and the seawing. He sat down in front of Halite and the half-asleep looking seawing, who he had forgotten the name of.

"Hello, again." Mumbled Halite, who stared down at her scroll. Torrid grinned.

"Hello!" she greeted, before turning to the seawing. "Hiya! I'm Torrid! This is Quietmind and Boutu!" he flicked his wing towards the seawing and nightwing. The seawing looked towards the small dragonet.

"Hello." The seawing nodded towards Torrid, before nodding to Quietmind and Boutu. "Hello, Quietmind. And hello, Your Majesty." She bowed her head low for the seawing, which seemed to make him uncomfortable. "Oops, sorry, Boutu. I forgot the royal status makes you uncomfortable at these times." She apologised, before turning to Quietmind and Torrid. "I'm Akoya. It's lovely to meet you both.". Torrid grinned at the grey-blue seawing.

"School's amazing!" Torrid chirped, clapping his talons together, making Akoya give an amused chuckle.

"Sure, it's alright. But it'd be better if an annoying INSECT WASN'T FOLLOWING YOU." Halite snarled, her voice directed past Torrid. Torrid turned around to see a sandwing laying near the entrance with a scroll. He certainly wasn't there before. The sandwing grinned at Halite before turning his gaze back to his scrolls.

Torrid didn't realise how much time had passed until he looked at the fading sky, the clouds painted with bright orange and pink. He rose to his feet, shaking his wings as he rolled up his scroll.

"Perhaps we should head off to bed." Boutu suggested, rubbing his snout. Torrid nodded.

"That would be best. Then we can meet our class tomorrow!" He chirped. He followed Quietmind back to their sleeping cave, with Boutu following close behind. The tunnels seemed quiet, although there was still some chatter. The small nightwing had been mumbling to himself in the library, although almost inaudible. But at this time, Torrid could hear a few things, such as "I miss Aurora." and "I want to go home.". The three reached their cave, and Quietmind's first instinct was to fly up into the hammock and sleep. Torrid pulled himself onto the lowest outcropping bed, seeing as he had a habit of falling out of bed back at home. Boutu scrambled up the stone and placed himself in the bed above Torrid, his tail hanging off the edge lazily. The two outcroppings seemed to be set out in a bunk bed style, which fascinated Torrid, while Quietmind's hammock hung high up in the centre of the room. Torrid curled his tail around his body, inspecting the pink splotches as his eyes grew heavy.

Today was a good day He thought, smiling at Boutu's tail as it spayed over the ledge. I can't wait to make more friends.

Torrid helped at the sound of three loud gongs, accidentally throwing himself out of bed. He squeaked awkwardly as he rolled over, rubbing his head and shaking his wings. Boutu was sitting next to the doorway, leaning on the scroll rack, staring at Torrid with an amused expression. Quietmind was standing in the centre of the room, adjusting his satchel in a bored manner.

"What was that horrid noise?" Torrid asked, turning to Boutu.

Boutu grinned. "The gong. It goes from One, to Two, to Three."

"What are 'The Gongs'?" Torrid flicked his tail, moving his own satchel to fit as comfortable as he could get it.

Boutu grinned again. "To signal when to get to class. Three gongs is the final warning."

"WHAT!? I slept through TWO other gongs!??" cried Torrid.

"Technically, Three." Quietmind added.

"Why didn't either of you wake me!?"

"You looked so peaceful." Boutu shrugged. Torrid gave an outraged expression towards the forest green seawing.

"Come on, I don't want to be any later than I already am." Torrid huffed a small cloud of smoke before scurrying out the door, Quietmind and Boutu following swiftly. The tunnels seemed odd, seeing as Torrid could hear dragons speaking, but no dragons were in sight, although they passed the occasional late dragon. As they reached their classroom, they stopped at the entrance while Torrid caught his breath. Boutu chuckled.

"We weren't even running that fast." He stated.

"Well, I'm. . short. ." Torrid gasped, frowning at Boutu. Quietmind entered the classroom, Torrid and Boutu following. Torrid's eyes scanned the classroom, inspecting his fellow clawmates as the three sat down. An unusually golden-yellow dragon stood on a small platform at the front of the class, her face brightening up as she laid eyes on Quietmind, Torrid and Boutu.

"Ah! You're here!" the dragon cheered. Boutu nodded.

"Sorry, Torrid slept in." Boutu chuckled quietly, turning to Torrid's outraged expression.

"You always had the option to WAKE ME UP." Torrid cried, swatting at Boutu. The golden dragon smiled kindly.

"Well, no matter! We were just about to start introductions anyway! I'll start!" the golden dragon chirped. "My name is Sunny! I'm the main founder of Jade Mountain Academy, and the teacher of your winglet! This here is Storyteller, my half-sister! Who I'm still surprised exists." Sunny wrapped a wing around a dragon who was exactly like sunny on their left side of their body, but was a nightwing on their right side. Storyteller's scales were exceptionally odd, considering the half-and-half circumstances. She waved at the group, looking as if she hadn't been paying attention for the past hour. Sunny flicked her other wing to point towards a twitchy icewing who had light grey scales with a lighter grey underbelly. The icewing wore a small stone circular pendants around her neck, which had six lines carved around the edges.

"Hm, me?" asked the icewing, turning her gaze towards Sunny. She frowned once Sunny nodded. "Fine. my name's Pika. I belong in the sixth circle with my family, and I miss my brother." spoke the icewing, in a gentle and quiet voice. She lowered her head, raising her wings above her horns slightly. She turned to the dragon beside her, who was Dust.

"Hiya! My name's Dust, and I'm really looking forward to this school!" she chirped, smiling happily. Dust wore a golden chain which had to loop around her neck twice. On the chain was a small ruby pendant, which glimmered tauntingly. There was quite the gap between Dust and the other dragonets either side of her, which Torrid assumed was because of the incident from yesterday morning. Dust turned to the dragon to her left with a joyful smile. The dragon Dust smiled at was an odd pink-red mudwing, who had webbed claws and a seawing frill along her back. She grinned.

"Hello! I'm Frog! It's lovely to meet you all!" Frog smiled, flaring her wings. A shiny, deep emerald green dragon next to Frog began to speak.

"Hello! I'm Princess Tsavorite! But you can just call me Princess. Just kidding!" she giggled to herself. "The nervous blob over there is my cousin." She gave a teasing smile across the room to Boutu, who crossed his arms.

"I'm Boutu. And I'm NOT a nervous blob, thank you very much." He huffed, flashing his scales in some sort of pattern. Tsavorite narrowed her eyes as if she were trying to read something. Frog giggled as she watched Tsavorite unpack something in her head. Something clicked in her mind.

"HEY! Take that back!" she cried.

"Make me!" Boutu declared. Tsavorite leapt at Boutu, making him fall backwards. Torrid squeaked as he leapt backwards, stumbling into Quietmind, who shoved him away. Sunny flapped her wings as the two seawings wrestled each other.

"Stop it! Stop fighting!" she cried. Storyteller adjusted her glasses before leaping off the platform, walking towards the seawings and pulling Tsavorite away.

"Please sit down." Frowned Storyteller. Now that Torrid was closer to Storyteller, he could see how scarily thin she was, her ribcage quite knowledgeable. Tsavorite huffed and sat down in her original spot. Storyteller flicked her wing to Quietmind. "Go ahead, kid."

Quiet mind shuffled his talons. "I'm Quietmind and I want to go home." He turned to Torrid, waiting for him to speak.

"O-oh, um. I'm Torrid! I love to make friends and I'm really excited to be in this winglet!" He chirped, flaring his wings. Sunny clasped her talons together and grinned.

"That's wonderful to hear. And I can't wait to know you guys better. Feel free to chat amongst yourselves, and tomorrow we'll be merging with Quartz Winglet for a day!" Sunny smiled.