Wings of Fire: Knowledge Unfurling

Chapter 4

As they arrived at Jade Mountain Academy, Kinkajou could see the dragonets around her staring, nudging each other and whispering. There was only one thing it could be: the 'weird' (as Anemone so sensitively put) students, newly arrived from Pantala, the continent across the sea. 

She'd helped Moon and Starflight assign them to their winglets and set up their sleeping caves last month, but she hadn't seen any drawings of them. All she knew was that the SilkWings were vegetarians, just like RainWings, and that LeafWings liked to sleep in nest-things made of plants. She peeked around the masses of dragons crowding the entrance and caught a glance of the Pantalan students.

They were beautiful. Strange, yes, strange enough for Kinkajou to understand why everyone was staring. But they were elegant, colourful, and admittedly, the yellow-and-black ones (HiveWings?) slightly scary. They were also standing, awkwardly, while dragonets goggled at them like those little monkeys with huge eyeballs that sometimes wandered into the village during the night. 

She shook off her awe. These were dragons, just like the rest of them. They deserved to be welcomed into their school, not ogled at. She was being ridiculous. Kinkajou pushed her way through the crowds and said cheerfully, "Hi! I'm Kinkajou. Welcome to Jade Mountain Academy! You're so pretty!"

One of the (she assumed they were HiveWings - they looked so much like bees, and the green ones had to be LeafWings) sighed in relief. "Oh, hello Kinkajou! Are you the same type of dragon as Pineapple and Queen Glory? You know, it's so high on this mountain, it's like standing on top of a Hive! Do dragons here live in Hives? I didn't see any on the way here but that doesn't mean there aren't any. 

Oh, and I always meant to get around to asking Pineapple - how do your scales change colour? Theres a bunch of Pyrrhian dragons on Pantala so I have been studying them but I still have so many questions, and usually we're busy doing other- MOON!" She abruptly stemmed the avalanche of questions and barrelled past Kinkajou towards Moonwatcher. 

"Cricket!" Moon cried, and they bundled into a hug. "How has the reforestation been going? I would have flown over to see for myself but-" "but this is a school and dawdling around the entrance is not the first impression we want to give the new students?" Tsunami interrupted, clapping her talons loudly. "Come on, everyone. You know the drill!"

All the dragonets started milling into the school, checking where their sleeping cave was and chatting to their friends. Well, all the dragonets minus the Pantalans students. They  were still standing awkwardly at the entrance as Fatespeaker enthusiastically overloaded them with information. "So, you would be... Cricket, Blue, Sundew, Luna, Swordtail, Glowworm, Hazel, Dewdrop, Willow, Jewelwing, Honey, Spruce, Walnut, Moth, and Lavender, am I correct?" She read off of memory, and each one of the Pantalan dragons nodded in turn. 

Swordtail gasped. "Did you just read our minds?" He turned to the rest of them. "Some of the black dragons here can read minds." This prompted gasps from Glowworm and Dewdrop, and a laugh from Fatespeaker. "No, don't worry, I can't read your minds. The only NightWing alive today that can read minds is Moon, and you seem to have already met her. 

Head right inside and grab a map of the school from the left side of the great hall. You can say hi to Sunny while you're there, too. I'm going to stay here and welcome any late-comers." she smiled at them, and they headed into the main cave, where Kinkajou was hovering around, waiting for them to come in so she could properly meet them all.

"Grab a map of the school if you want. On the main notice board there are the winglets and sleeping caves pinned up. The first day is an exploring day, so feel free to get to know your clawmates and fellow students." Sunny was saying to them.

Kinkajou bounced up to the group of dragonets. "I can show them around, if you want, Sunny!" She said.

"Thanks Kinkajou, that would be great. I'm going to check on Peril, so you know where to find me."

Kinkajou led the way out of the great hall. "This is the notice board, where you'll find your winglets, sleeping caves, a big map of the school, and our timetables. Ooh, it looks like Blue, Cricket and Sundew are in my winglet! We're in the Jade Winglet. And Luna, Glowworm and Willow are in the Gold Winglet , with my friend Tamarin. Swordtail, Dewdrop and Hazel are in the Silver Winglet, and in the Copper Winglet are Jewelwing, Honey, and Spruce. That leaves Walnut, Moth and Lavender in Quartz Winglet.

And your sleeping caves are... there, there, there, there and there." She pointed caves on the map with their names marked. "You can probably see them on your maps too. It's this way to the prey centre." She led the way towards the prey centre, hoping that it wasn't as crowded as this time last year. 

It wasn't. The cave opened up to a few students chatting, catching fish from the river, or picking apart prey or fruit from the piles at the sides. Clay was gazing around, looking slightly bored. He brightened up when their group came in. "Hi Kinkajou, and new students. I'm Clay, one of the teachers here at Jade Mountain." She whispered to Blue and Cricket, "He's also one of the Dragonets of Destiny." At Crickets curious expression, she added, "I'll tell you all about them later." Cricket nodded enthusiastically. 

"Take your pick of any of the prey or fruit here. On the wall to the right of the door, you'll find a roster. Every couple of hours, a few dragons go hunting to restock the piles. This excludes RainWings and SilkWings, of course." This prompted many of them to sigh in relief. "Instead, you guys will fly back to the rainforest to pick up some fruit and, yes, honey. We've stocked that just for you, SilkWings, although I don't think any of the RainWings will complain."

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Later that day, after discovering that Cricket would be replacing Carnelian in their sleeping cave, Moon and Kinkajou were chatting to her in the library.

"This school is amazing!" Cricket said. "This is exactly what all the tribes need. Oh, and Kinkajou, you promised to explain what the Dragonets of Destiny are." She awkwardly reminded her. 

"Oh yeah! Hey Starflight, I know you don't like to stock scrolls about yourself, but do you have some purely factual ones that we could use to explain to Cricket?" Kinkajou called to the bind librarian. He cringed a little, before admitting, "Yes, I do have some scrolls about the Dragonets of Destiny. Although you do know that we don't really Ike being called that, Kinkajou."

"Yes, yes, I know." She took the two scrolls from him. "Thanks!"

"Okay, so basically, there was this HUGE war between these three SandWing princesses - not that us RainWings were part of it - and there was this prophecy, that - "

Moon put her claw on Kinkajou's shoulder, stopping her explanation. "Why don't you let me explain." She sighed huffily, but agreed. Moon started explaining, pointing to the scrolls at some bits, with wide-eyed Cricket listening interestedly, asking questions occasionally.

Yes. Kinkajou thought. I think we'll get along amazingly. This is going to be a perfect year.

A/N: tarsiers are the name of those monkeys i mentioned in paragraph 3. They are small, nocturnal, rainforest animals, with enormous eyes, for whoever was wondering. Also, longer chapter! I hope everyone liked the addition of Cricket & co! Sorry there's not as much of a cliffhanger as usual, but I know that's not a bad thing :D see you next chapter!