Jade Mountain Academy

Chapter 5

(70 FRIGGIN VIEWS AHHHH)

(Note: In this, animus magic isn't broken)

Frost walked into the Animus Studies classroom with his clawmates. An emerald green SeaWing, Turtle, he thought, was standing at a desk.

There were about 14 other students in the class. Starfruit and Starcounter ran over to 2 RainWing-SeaWing hybrids (Whose names turned out to be Rainbow and Sunset)

Frost sat down as his clawmates greeted their friends. When everyone was seated, Turtle started speaking.

"Hey everyone. I'm Turtle, if you didn't know me already. I'll be your Animus Studies teacher this year. Also if you didn't know, I'm an animus myself. So every lesson I'll show off an enchanted item I have."

Rainbow raised her talon. "Dad, doesn't animus magic take away a piece of your soul whenever you use it? So you have to be super-careful with it?"

Turtle smiled. "That is a great question. Me and my sister, Anemone, think that animus magic doesnt chip away piece of your soul like it's a stone block. We think that its more you feel entitled to have whatever spell you want the more you use your magic. Or like Darkstalker. He convinced himself his spells were harmless, even for the best, but then your power slowly consumes you. We'll dive into the effects of animus magic next week. The known living animi each have two piece of enchanted jewelry."

Turtle point to his neck, where a necklace with a pink sapphire pendant hung. "This is enchanted to make sure I dont enchant any spells with malicous or selfish intent. It also makes sure you're not affecting a dragon's free will."

He pointed at a golden armband embedded with black stones. "This is enchanted so that I  only cast 3 spells a week, and it's enchanted to make sure I never lose my soul from using animus magic, just in case that theory is actually true. So those are the animus objects of the day. On with the lesson, today we'll be learning what dragons could have animus magic. The SeaWings have had animi for 2,000 years. The first known SeaWing animus was Albatross, Queen Lagoon's brother. He's known for the royal SeaWing massacre, which sparked the fear of animus magic and increased the belief that animus dragons go insane if they used their magic too much. The second known SeaWing animus was his grandson, Fathom, who was one of the few survivors of the massacre."

A SkyWing raised her talon. 

"Yes, Griffin?" Turtle said. 

"Isn't Albatross's story clear proof that animus magic drives you insane?"

"About that," Turtle said. "A diary from Fathom was found near the ruins of The Island Palace - which was abandoned after the massacre- it started the day of the animus test and ended after the massacre. There's little signs scattered throughout the diary that Albatross was already a bad dragon. Here, I have a copy for everyone so you can read it."

He passed out a scroll to the students and Frost started to read it:

Day 1

I'm an animus

I'm an animus

I'M AN ANIMUS

How did this happen?!?! I'm just an ordinary dragonet! (Well, I'm a prince but so are 15 other dragons) Now I'm an animus! The rarest of all dragons! One of two in the entire tribe!
I don't know when I'll start training with Albatross, but I hope it's soon! I want to enchant something.

Something weird happened today. At the animus test, when it was over, a vine wrapped itself around a seagull's neck and strangled it to death.

It's probably nothing, but I wanted to write it down anyway.

Frost skipped a few days ahead,

Day 6,

I was in geography class and then a messenger came and told me Albatross wanted to see me. My first animus lesson! He showed me a new palace he was working on. I came up with this awesome idea to hide it from other tribes with plants. He said I could enchant a few vines, but then we found Indigo hiding and he suddenly decided I can't. He was also acting weird. 

I made an enchanted pet octopus for Indigo. She named him Blob. He's adorable.

Frost read on, discovering that there was indeed small actions that showed Albatross was a bad dragon from the start. Once everyone was done, they handed their scrolls to Turtle and he continued his lesson,

"The NightWings got their animus magic from Prince Arctic of the IceWings, who fell in love with a NightWing named Foeslayer and brought animus magic to the tribe. The first NightWing animus was Darkstalker, who is very... infamous. Stonemover is the only known living NightWing animus. Next, the SandWings have only had 1 animus for a long time, Jerboa, who enchanted herself to never age. She was killed, however, by her daughter, Jerboa III. Who is also an animus. She is the only known SandWing animus living. However, animus magic can be brought back to the SandWings. Sunny, one of the founders here, is the daughter of Stonemover. And 5 years ago, she married Mirage of the SandWings. Now she has 2 dragonets, so the animus gene is in the SandWing tribe." His gaze slipped to a golden SandWing dragonet with black scales on her snout.

"With that note, the RainWings have never had an animus. But as you know, I'm an animus, and I've married Kinkajou of the RainWings, and I have 2 dragonets. So the RainWings could have an animus in the future.

"Next, IceWings. IceWings lost their animus magic with Prince Arctic. He was killed by Darkstalker, and he was their last animus."

Starfruit raised her talon. "Why did they lose animus magic? Wasn't his mother, Queen Diamond, an animus? Why couldn't she had more eggs? Or her niece, Snowfox. Wouldn't you have to kill off the entire royal family?"

Frost stiffened. He hated that question.

Turtle tilted his head. "Good question, Starfruit. I've never thought about that. It's possible, even likely, that animus magic in IceWings isn't completely gone, the gene just hasn't shown itself in forever. Next, SkyWings used to have animi, but the dragonets were killed off when they were discovered, and eventually the bloodline was killed off."

"That's so sad!" Sunset exclaimed. Turtle nodded. "It is. And lastly, Pantalan dragons have never been known to have animus magic. Your homework for this class is to name as many animi as you can with their corresponding tribe."