Tempest's Confession

Tree-Gliding and History

After about six swings from six different branches, Peacemaker decided that enough was enough. Latching onto a seventh branch, Peacemaker slowed his swing so he could remain on the branch he was on. The swing ended with Peacemaker hanging upside down from the branch, like a bat, if he might add.

Bellow him, Peacemaker saw Summer running to the tree he was hanging from, a confident grin on the RainWing's face, which Peacemaker returned with a smile.

Not only had he tree glided... Peacemaker actually enjoyed it.

He couldn't wait to tell his mother in his next letter to her! He could only imagine her excitement.

As Peacemaker and Summer flew back to the mountain entrance, the two talked about how Peacemaker did in his first, successful, tree gliding, while the RainWing offered him advice on how to improve and make his gliding smoother.

When they finally reached the cave entrance that they had left, the two grabbed their bags... But a scroll fell out of Summer's. Peacemaker helped her pick it up, and he noticed the title on the side.

The Rainforest's Shadow: The untold story of King Adder, beloved husband of Queen Anaconda

"Was this the scroll you told Ermine about?" Peacemaker asked as he handed it to Summer, who snatched it from him.

"Yeah," Summer grumbled, annoyed at the mention of the IceWing in their Winglet. "Any mention of a possibly awesome RainWing and Ermine shoots it down because it's not verified." This made the RainWing's eyes roll. "I think she just doesn't like the idea that we're studying a RainWing queen."

Peacemaker frowned. "What makes you say that?"

Summer looked at Peacemaker, raising a brow. "Even though Queen Glory has many of the tribes respecting us," This made Peacemaker feel honored, that Summer considered him one of the RainWings, but he listened more. "But do you really think, that seven years after the war, that the tribes respect the RainWing's completely?"

Peacemaker could not argue with Summer's statement completely, there was still the stereotype that RainWings were soft, but just had an awesome Queen leading them. Well, that was true, they had an awesome Queen leading them, no doubt about that.

But Ermine... She was distant but did not seem discriminatory.

"What makes you think Ermine is doing this maliciously?" Peacemaker asked.

Summer rolled her eyes. "Have you met her? Just look at how she keeps her distance from the rest of us in the common cave and during the study sessions? It's like we have a plague!"

"Because she's a hard worker," Came a familiar voice from the inside of the cave entrance, causing both Summer and Peacemaker to glance to the side and see Tempest walk forward, her body dripping wet, no doubt from just coming out of the underground lake below the Academy. "You're right, Ermine isn't really open with her feelings, but to say she is rude intentionally is far from the truth."

Summer glared at Tempest, irritably.

"Sure you are not just making excuses for her?" Summer retorted.

"I've known Ermine for five years, Summer, but once you know her outside of her study habits, you see a different dragon," Tempest answered. "Yes, she can get annoying when she puts one hundred percent of her attention into her studies, but right now: she does so because it's what she does best."

"Thank you, Peacemaker," Tempest spoke from beside him.

Looking at the SeaWing of his Winglet, Peacemaker smiled.

"Ermine may not be that social, but she isn't that bad," He replied. "Besides, I would like to honor my father's tribe as well."

The clicking of Webs' talons on the floor was the only noise that could be heard as he paced the classroom, occasionally making his way over to his students in order to politely observe their work on the quiz he had handed out and be present if anyone needed some pointers.

While the sound of Webs approaching may have been relief for some students in the class, for Peacemaker he could not say that he was feeling encouraged as the teacher made his way over to the NightWing/RainWing hybrid's general direction.

Beside him, Onyx and Auburn were diligently working on their scrolls, answering the questions Webs had prepared for everyone on the board in the front of the History Cave.

Meanwhile, Peacemaker had only answered two of the required ten questions that their teacher had provided. For half the class, he had been trying to answer the questions that were provided to him but every time he tried to formulate an answer, he second-guessed himself...Peacemaker blamed himself for this, as he had spent little time studying for this test and the time he did spend studying was filled with confusion and headaches.

I sighed and looked at Tempest and Nightwave with a soft smile. "Can you believe that it's Christmas already?" I asked, looking at my two friends with excitement. It was then that a familiar dragonet slowly entered the Common Cave. "Hi, Frostfire. it's nice to see you again." I said, giving a shy smile, and waving the hybrid dragonet over. The pale blue and crimson scaled dragonet then spoke up in a quiate voice. "It snowed! I-I can't Believe it. C'mon, let's go play in it!" Frostfire exclaimed excitedly. I laughed and we all made our way outside, and into the crisp morning air.