Wings of Fire: Peace (Completed)

Chapter 1- Mandarin

Mandarin the MudWing was hiding. Mandarin the MudWing was spying.

"Gotcha!" "Ouch!"

His little sister named Podzol leaped on top of him, making them roll down the hill he was on, and into the giant mud puddle that lie at the bottom that smelled really bad, and he meant REALLY bad.

"Ack! Podzol! Why?! Why me!? Mom was talking about me and I almost figured out what it was!"

"Mandarin! Look what you did! You'll take hours to clean up!"

"Sorry, Mom," Mandarin hung his head and stared at his feet, shooting Podzol a look of shame. The little MudWing giggled and ran off. Terra sighed and thrashed her tail.

"Go and have your brother help. Podzol come here, now!" Mandarin's mother chased her daughter until she managed to grab her, then she flew toward the pond of water a few minutes away to give her a good bath.

"Peat? Where are you?" Mandarin walked around, looking for his bigwings brother.

There he was, sleeping in their family's hut, snoring so loud he supposed everyone in the village could hear him.

"Peat, wake up!!" the MudWing whispered.

"Huh? What? Where am I? And why are you covered in that stuff? AND WHY DOES IT SMELL LIKE THAT?"

"Mom wants you to help me clean up," Mandarin said, frowning. "Podzol did it."

"Fine," Peat rolled his eyes and stood up. "Follow me."

The two mud dragons flew to a lake and Mandarin went in first. His brother picked up a lilypad and rubbed it against a rock to make it rough, then scraped it on Mandarin to clean him off, it didn't feel good, but it would get the job done.

"I wonder what Mom was going to do with you," the bigger brown dragon grumbled, more to himself than his brother.

"She said something about a school," Mandarin pulled up a lilypad and started scraping as well. The young MudWing was starting to smell better since he fell in the peat.

The brown dragons got out of the lake after a few hours and dried themselves off with a cloth that they had brought along.

"Ooo, a swan!" Mandarin dove down and bit the swan's neck and got a mouthful of feathers.

"Dinner!" cried Mire, his youngest sister, flapping over and latching on to the MudWing's neck until he dropped the swan on the table.

Terra and Beaver smiled at each of their dragonets. It was uncommon for MudWings to care for their kin at all, but a single smile was enough.

Usually MudWings had a specific time for dragonets but Terra and Beaver were an exception. They met each other young and left the Diamond Delta to be together.

All the MudWings got a bite of swan, it wasn't very filling, but they would last until morning. Morning, when Terra would finally tell her what 'Jade Mountain' meant.

Mandarin yawned and rolled over, he felt like he should wake up. The only dragonet still sleeping was Podzol. She had pushed her brother into the peat yesterday. He would get his revenge.

The MudWing snuck outside and his sister grumbled in protest. Mandarin picked up a big clay water jug, filled it up with freezing water from the lake, went back inside, his mother giving him a weird look, and then going back to doing something. The young mud dragon went into their bedroom and tipped the water jug upside-down.

"AHHHHH!!!! COLD COLD COLD!!" Podzol leaped up, soaking wet. She tried to breathe fire, but she was too cold to do that, either.

Mandarin heard his mother laugh and walk into the room. "MOOMMY LOOK WHAT MANDARIN DID!!! I'M REALLY COLD!!" Terra burst out laughing again and gave her son a high-talon.

"You kind of deserved it, honey," she said, picking up her dripping daughter and walking outside.

"Mom, can I come with?"

"Sure, I guess, if you help us."

Terra sat down and picked up a stick, then she shot fire at it, setting it ablaze, and she hovered it around where Podzol need warmth most, like her chest and talons. Mandarin copied her, also breathing fire at a stick.

"So, about yesterday, what is Jade Mountain? Are you sending me or my siblings there?"

"Yes, actually. Jade Mountain is a school for dragonets your age to bring peace and learn about history and other dragon tribes. I'm going to send you. You're leaving later today."

Later, when Podzol was dried off, Mandarin packed his things in a leather bag and Terra gave him a map to get to Jade Mountain Academy.

Soon, he was there and he saw a NightWing at the entrance with a scroll on her talons and small silver scales by her eyes.

"Hi! I'm Fatespeaker! Welcome to Jade Mountain Academy! What's your name?"

"My name is Mandarin."

"The orange? I'm just kidding," Fatespeaker unrolled the scroll in her talons and looked at it closely.

"Ah! There you are! You're in the Sapphire Winglet, third tunnel on the left, fourth cave on the right, have fun!"

Mandarin walked into the giant mountain and looked around. There was a big bronze gong and a big sign with purple and white flowers that read Welcome, students! There was also a river running somewhere nearby and a bunch of red and yellow and green globes hanging from the ceiling emitting a soft glow of each color.

There were a few more that weren't glowing on a small rock ledge and he picked one up, it was a bright violet. He breathed a plume of flame inside where the candle was. He kept walking until he saw the cave Fatespeaker told him was his. And then a big pebble was hurled through the air. The MudWing dropped his lantern and it cracked. He ducked and the pebble hit the wall and was reduced to a pile of rubble.

Mandarin was cowering on the ground, his wings shielding his face from view.

"Copper!!" The brown dragon lifted his wings to see a dark red SkyWing on a stone shelf in a corner scowling with a pile of rocks next to him. Apparently this was Copper. Great. His clawmate. A SandWing with a snake tattoo was on a mossy rock reading a scroll.

"Hello. My name is Palo-Verde, but you can call me Palo, this is Copper. I hope he doesn't try to kill you again," the SandWing shot Copper a glare, who bared his teeth. The SkyWing's face was now hidden by the smoke that was billowing out of his nostrils. Palo flicked his tongue and gestured to the pile of leaves by the doorway, farthest away from Copper's ledge.

Mandarin's bracelet suddenly started to feel tight. This would be hard.