Wings of Fire: A Twisted Future - Broken Visions

Chapter 7

The journey was long. Dragons flew over the mountains for hours, and it was past sunset by the time they got to the destination. If one glanced East, on the horizon they'd see the banks of the Five-Tail River, and the golden hue of the horizon
Dragonets were exhausted — the strongest, the ones with the most endurance stayed at the front with Cardinal, which was basically only SkyWings.
Even Permafrost, who was usually so strong and bold, was almost at the back, panting, her dark blue tongue sticking out of the side of her mouth lazily. She snapped at dragons from the back who'd gained their stamina and flew past, eyeing her warily and with confusion. Quietkeep was one of the ones at the front, though not at the very very front like the SkyWings. He glanced away from her — well, she was rude to him, he'd wouldn't help her.
Instead his gaze was locked on the RainWing from before. She seemed interesting, grunting as the drizzle splashed onto her scales. It was probably annoying her; did she grow up in the rainforest? Hadn't she gotten used to it by now? Well, to be fair, it would've been more of a drip, drip, drip than a constant splat, splat, trickle down your spine, splat, big drop in your eye, you can't see, splat.
Due to his mostly friendly, and introverted and quiet, personality, Quietkeep decided to tilt his wings and fell back toward her.
He flapped his wings gently to a stop beside her, glancing at her.
-is so hard—
Well, great! Now this mindreader's here, whatcha doin', huh? Reading my mind? Damn right you are! Don't lie! I can see those eyes staring at me you piece of sh-
Quietkeep blinked rapidly, focusing back on reality. To his horror, he found her staring at him with wide eyes, her eyelids lightly covering her teal eyes i the corners, brows searched and pupils slits of black.
"Oh, you're BACK," she hissed, squinting at him, somewhat at his eyes but mostly at his silver teardrop scales.
Quietkeep swallowed, nodding.
"So you figured it out already?" he sighed, glancing down below. Hills, turning to plains and a little bit of marshland, and to the North a bit of forest. Further up North more mountains, but they weren't heading there, there were stopping at the southernmost part of the treeline.
The dragonet raised a brow, her snout curling up like a mountain peak in, what, disgust?
"Uh," he stammered, glancing forward at the red and orange tails in front of him. Maybe he shoudn't've have approached her... or not approached her instantly by reading her mind. Although it was screaming insults at him right before he fled. It was like a flashing light that he couldn't merge with the raindrops around, splashing on scales, leaves, hills, grass...
Especially that she was right beside him and shouting those thoughts.
"So, you going or what? Go join those other NightWings. I hear Shadehunter is an interesting dragonet. Doesn't his name sound compelling?"
Quietkeep rumbled deep in his throat, twitching his claws. This RainWing was a tough one, wasn't she?
Mango, keep yourself together! she thought fiercely.
Quietkeep opened and closed his mouth a few times, clenching his teeth together. What could he say?
Nothing. That sounded like the best thing for a little NightWing with only a quarter of his stamina left. Judging by the excited loops in the air and playful barging up ahead from the sky dragons, Quietkeep could safely assume that they had much left.
An hour past, and the dragonets had moved a lot among their cloud.
Permafrost was now in the middle, fighting her way to the front, Mango had fallen back a little, the dragonets who glanced at Permafrost before were now in the furthest quarter of the crowd, the teachers were spread out, Cardinal at the front, Pondweed and Eel flanking the group, whilst Heron, Fennec and the NightWing teacher, Sorrowsoarer, stayed at the back, convincing dragonets to go a little quicker.
Finally, Cardinal swung her head into the air, let out a roar, and dived down, spreading her wings wide and flat, slicing through the air and giving every dragonet a flash of her rain-slicker, crimson scales. Everyone swooped low after her, almost in unison, seeming as though they'd been trained to all dive perfectly for years, when really they'd never trained and only followed their teacher.
Only minutes later they landed back on ground, the SkyWings already patting down grass with their tails and pointing talons to spread their hammocks on and gathering stones to build a ring which would contain a campfire.
Quietkeep was one of the first dragonets to thud down, glancing around intently. Instantly, he searched for the safest place to stretch his hammock on, where there'd be a small chance of being noticed.
Wait.
Drizzle. Sleeping in a tree. What if a storm started? Hit his tree and set him on fire? It would definitely be his tree, knowing his luck!
The teachers clapped their talons together to gather everyone's attention, and the dragonets assembled in a clearing a minute into the forest.
"Hello, everyone!" Eel announced again, giving a little bow. "We've arrived at our destination. We hope you'll enjoy your time on our first fieldtrip, and it can be a good introduction for our academy year!"
She clapped, gaining the attention of all dragonets who'd already strayed. The SeaWing's emerald eyelid twitched.
"Now, to begin, we want all of you to split into your Winglets, and we'll send you off to gather the needed resources for our camp. Why, of course, we had our hammocks and a little bit of food, we're dragons, we hunt and use natural material in the least simplified way possible to create shelter. So!"
Eel smacked her tail into a boulder right beside the toadstool she was perched on. She must've been here and remembered that it was hollow, for it gave off this odd, empty echo, snatching every dragonet's attention again.
"Assemble!"
The dragonets stalked back to their Winglets, shooting reproachful glares at some, and slowly everyone settled down. Quietkeep noticed that everybody kept a distance from their Winglet, and were pretty close to another dragon from their tribe. Eel sighed, smacked her own cheek, but let that stay.
"Finally, lets split you all into groups!"
Most dragonets arched their brows, confused.
We... just were?
Is serious?
You're telling me she's out art and music teacher?
But everyone was dawned with understanding when she spread her claws to show the forest.
"Jade Winglet, collect branches for the tents if need be, Gold Winglet, leaves and mud for the roofs, Silver Winglet, stones from the stream for the campfire, Copper Winglet, hunt for food, Quartz Winglet, go find us a patch of sand or something and plan out where the fire, nests etc. will be placed. Go!"
And everyone set off.