“Aw, Cactus—we were having a conversation,” Peacemaker complained as Butterfly was taken by the talon away from the table. By Cactus, of course.

“Peacemaker, she’s starting school in the middle of the year,” Toucan explained from the other side of the table, “we need to catch her up to speed on some things.” She hopped up and bounced to stand beside her friends.

“Why can’t you just do it here?” he wondered.

“Mixed company,” Cosmo used a tone that seemed to explain that it was so obvious that he shouldn’t have needed to ask. “Duh.”

Butterfly let herself be taken away by the girls to the edge of the Prey Center.

Peacemaker frowned after them but otherwise seemed like he didn’t mind all that much.

“So.” The five girls sat down in a circle.

“There are a few things you need to know, Butterfly,” Auklet began, “since you’re new here.”

“The most important is that Auklet has a crush on Cliff,” Toucan nodded seriously.

The SeaWing’s face reddened but she didn’t deny it. “It is sometimes better to accept and walk away with dignity than to fight a losing battle,” she explained—although it seemed to be a reassurance to herself more than it was to benefit Butterfly.

“Psh, what’s left of your dignity,” Cosmo retorted.

“Be quiet, Cosmo, I’m trying not to turn into a piece of fire coral!” Auklet hit her with her wing.

Cactus smirked. “Another thing is that the boys are annoying but they mean well,” she paused and wrinkled her snout. “Most of the time.”

“Peacemaker is not a peacemaker—he’s a troublemaker,” Toucan offered. “But he’s funny.”

Butterfly laughed. “Yeah, that much I’ve gathered,” she looked over her shoulder to see him standing on the table and waving his wings passionately at Mantis and Cliff. She looked back at the four girls around her. “Anything else I should know??”

“Yup,” they chorused. “Don’t get on Eagle’s bad side!”

“Aannd, who’s she?”

Auklet snorted. “You’ll find out soon enough.”

~*~

“Finally!” Tsunami exclaimed happily once all the dragonets were gathered outside of the school. “What kept you, Auklet?”

They were five minutes late to the meet up outside of Jade Mountain because a certain NightWing had insisted that they take the scenic route for Butterfly’s benefit. They had all agreed and set out ten minutes before lunch ended so they’d have time to get there. Somehow the winglet had gotten lost.

What?? Butterfly didn’t entirely believe that. She was pretty sure that they’d been trying to see if Butterfly could use her map and get them all out. It didn’t exactly happen very quickly. She’d led them to a talonful of dead-ends and into a classroom and she had a feeling that they wouldn’t let her live that moment down.

Honestly, though, it was pretty hilarious.

“That guy,” Auklet then pointed at Peacemaker in both an extremely honest and horrifyingly traitorous motion.

“Oh. Should’ve known,” Tsunami dismissed the piece of dastardly information with a flick of her tail. “To the beach!”

Butterfly took off into the air and Peacemaker followed close behind her. “You look pretty when the sun hits your scales from that angle,” the NightWing noted aloud.

“Um, thanks, I guess,” she said awkwardly, burying the information in her head. She looked him up and down, searching for something nice to say about him in return. Her eyes finally settled on his colorful wings, ruff, and scales along his neck. “Hey—you’re part RainWing, right?”

“Yeah,” he shifted in the air so that the underside of his wings didn’t show. Instead of the classic silver star-specked scales, he had a colorful spray of rainbow scales. They were very pretty.

When he didn’t elaborate, Butterfly thought that for a moment she’d offended him.

“Peace, are you lost for words?” Cliff swooped down from above and grinned at his friend. “Has Butterfly rendered you speechless?”

“Such blasphemy plagues my senses!” He cried, back to his talkative self. “Nobody has ever silenced me, SkyWing! Away! You infect my eyes.”

“Oh, you and your ludicrous mind,” Cliff shoved him playfully, causing Peacemaker to dip wildly in the sky.

“Battle training starts on the ground, boys,” Tsunami shouted from the front.

The two looked balefully at the other and seemed to silently promise that the other would suffer once the training began.

Butterfly giggled and pumped her wings to gain altitude so she could join the conversation above. There was an IceWing chattering gaily with Toucan.

“Oh, Butterfly!” The RainWing gestured at her companion. “This is Mink! She’s the IceWing princess, actually.”

“Hi! I’m in the Jade Winglet,” she spoke with an accent. Her w’s sounded like v’s and she spoke slowly and seemed to be trying her best to enunciate.

“Sunny has a princess problem,” Cosmo complained good naturedly.

“What are you talking about?” Auklet rolled her eyes.

“The fact that there are multiple princesses and princes in the school at one time.”

“She can’t exactly deny us, can she? And anyway, I don’t see the problem.”

“Of course you don’t,” Cosmo objected. “You’re one of them! Princesses are so annoying. Wouldn’t you agree, Butterfly?”

“My lips are sealed,” she replied smartly, “seeing as there are three angry-looking ones above us and one of them looks about ready to shove a fish up your snout.”

“All I need is the ammunition,” Auklet agreed.

~*~

Once everyone touched down on the sandy shores of the Jade Sea, Tsunami began the class.

“First things first,” she said loudly, “we’re all going to introduce ourselves. We have a new student with us today.” Tsunami gestured for Butterfly to come and stand beside her.

As she walked toward the SeaWing, eyes turned to her as they saw her for the first time.

“Hi,” she shifted uncomfortably under the weight of everyone’s stares. “My name is Butterfly. I’m four years old, I was born in Pantala, and I can shoot burning silk out of my wrists.” She lifted her talons and demonstrated, letting it fall onto the sand and melt it into glass.

“Ooo,” the teacher’s eyes widened along with the rest of the crowd. “That’s fascinating! Alright, everybody else, we’re starting from the left and moving to the right. Introductions may now begin.”

A SkyWing SeaWing hybrid took two large steps to be closer to Butterfly. “My name is Eagle,” she said importantly, with an air of, You-Should-Totally-Be-Bowing-To-Me-Right-Now, “the daughter of Turtle and Peril. I’m royalty, since my dad—”

“She doesn’t need to learn all about your family tree!” Peacemaker shouted helpfully at her.

Smoke began to pour out of her ears and nose. “And in case you think about crossing me, just know that I have firescales.”

Butterfly cocked her head at her, eyebrows furrowed.

“That’s important, just so you know,” Cliff announced. “She can LITERALLY burn off your scales!”

Eagle smiled happily at him. “Clearly only SkyWings know the importance of such dire matters. But anyway, since my dad is an animus, and stuff—”

“Oh, come on, family history again?”

“—I can REDUCE THE HEAT OF MY SCALES so I don’t SERIOUSLY INJURE YOU.” Eagle shouted moodily.

Ah, so that’s why I shouldn’t get on her bad side, Butterfly observed.

Eagle stalked back to her place in the line, and when she passed him, Peacemaker touched her shoulder with a claw.

“Mm, no sizzle,” he frowned as she continued walking. “You aren’t as hot as you thought!”

“Peacemaker,” Tsunami began, “please stop making enemies.”

“I have literally no idea what you’re talking about.” He said innocently. “I’m a perfect angel. And anyway, we’re already enemies. This isn’t my first time in the rodeo, you know!”

The rest of the introductions went—if it was possible—even worse than Eagle’s. One of the highlights—in Peacemaker’s honest and audible opinion—was when he made a girl named Bumblebee step in an aggressive crab hole, and she shouted colorful obscenities at him. He’d argued that he couldn’t possibly MAKE anybody DO anything, but he was winking the whole time and that made it hard to believe.

Battle training wasn’t the worst subject, but it definitely wasn’t Butterfly’s favorite. She wasn’t a dragon built for fighting and she didn’t have the drive that Tsunami did. But she still had fun; she was paired with the most infuriating HiveWing on the continent, AKA Mantis, and she was actually quite enjoying their rivalry. WOW was he annoying. (Had she mentioned it already?)

But he was tolerable.

Barely.