Little Small Horns

Jade Mountain

Stem's claws landed on the rocky flooring of the new Jade Mountain Academy, her mother only inches behind. The school had been open for about a year and a half now, but Stem had never thought about attending it, that was until today.
They took a few steps towards a sign that read "WELCOME STUDENTS" and then a dragon appeared behind it.
"May I help you?" She asked, Stem realized that it was only a dragonet, maybe two years older than her.
"Oh, yes please." Mother replied, "My husband came by earlier to sign up my dragonets, and this one..." she paused brushing Stem's wings with her own, "this one wanted to know if she could explore for a while, so she can get used to it here."
"Of course," said the dragonet looking her way. "All I need are your names." Then quickly added "OOPS! Where are my manners? My name is Fatespeaker! And you are?"
"My name is Acacia, and this curious little one is Stem."
"Ohh, what pretty names!" Fatespeaker said, scribbling something down on her clipboard. She handed it to mother and added "Have fun!"
"Why don't you go and look around, Stem? I'm going to meet the teachers, may I have a map of the school please?" Mother turned to Fatespeaker.
Stem left before getting one herself. Which path should I take? She thought to herself, coming to a stop at three split halls. She took the one on the right, it lead to the students' caves. But no one was there.
She found a basket of scrolls with a signs that said "take one". She did. They were maps of the school, she followed corridors marked on the map that sounded the spookiest. These led to a cave with several openings, she thought she heard something and quickly flew out of the cave.
Next, she tried the "prey center" it seemed as though everyone was in there. A bright pink RainWing spotted her leaving, and flew over.
"Hi!" The RainWing said, landing at the cave opening.
"Hello!" She said in return. "What's your name?" She seemed interesting, and for a moment Stem envied the bright colors of the RainWing.
"My name is Banana, but some people just call me 'Ana' for short! What's yours?"
"My name is Stem. So what do you think of the school?"
"Ohh... I'm not so sure yet! I don't go here, yet anyway! My mother just registered me, I'm only checking it out."
"Really!" Stem nearly jumped "That's exactly what I'm doing here!"
"Wow! I guess we have something in common already!" She said enthusiastically "Ohh, I hope we'll share a cave! And a winglet!" She said, bursting with yellow, pink, and purple.
"That would be lucky, wouldn't it?"
"Oh, I suppose so. But it's not impossible!" She yelled, "Maybe we can ask to be in the same cave!"
"Well my mother is here with me so... let's go!"
Banana was jumping and talking so fast the whole way there. The only full sentence that Stem understood was "Oh boy! I can't wait until school starts, this is too exciting!"
When they found their parents Stem was shocked at how energetic Banana was. In fact, so energetic that she had told everyone their plan. But she did it too quickly, so she had to repeat it again.
Once the adult dragons had understood her, they went to speak with Fatespeaker. After a while, Fatespeaker nodded and left. The dragonets walked over to their parents.
"What did she say?" Stem asked
"She said they are going to work it into the schedule for you two! But first she went to get approval from Clay and Tsunami."
"YIPEE!" Both dragonets screamed with glee.
"Stem, school begins in one and a half weeks, okay?"
"Of course!" She answered, she was now very anxious for school to begin.

When they got home, it was late afternoon. Hippo and Birch were taking mud baths, and Father was asleep in the cave. Mother went to the lagoon to catch dinner, and Stem lay down in the mud and watched the moons glow.
That night she rebuilt her nest of mud and leaves in the cave, and snuggled up close to her mother and father.
Her dream was happier than usual, Banana and her, gliding through the trees in the rainforest, sloths and butterflies everywhere they looked. Queen Glory playing hide and seek with them both, Stem losing. But then an earthquake shook the trees, and she woke up.
She realized it was only in the dream, if it had been real, her parents would be awake and packing to leave the cave. Stem calmed herself, then heard Hippo snoring like a giant bull frog, chuckled and lay back down.
In the morning she took Dirt outside so they could all eat breakfast. He didn't eat much, just some weird yellow stuff that mother found, she said it was called "corn". Mother and father ate three wild goats they'd found, Hippo ate six Bass from the lagoon, Birch ate kelp and berries, while Stem had four light green lizards.
The next few days came and went, visiting their aunts and uncles was the only fun thing they did each day. She got bored after five days of the normal routine. Five days She thought, that means I only have about five left!
Soon she would be going to school!
Soon she would be living with Banana!
Soon she would be happier than ever!