Chapter 7: The Tourmaline Winglet

Butterfly

(Saturday) January 21, 2086

Dear Diary,

This past week has been a blur. I’ve joined the school of Jade Mountain and I LOVE it! I’ve met a whole bunch of different dragons and all of my new friends and even vague acquaintances are super complex and bursting with personality. My classes this past week were just the basics; History, Art, Battle Training (maybe not really a basic, but I didn’t have to sign up for it, so…), Music, and Social Studies. Speaking of signing up for things…

Peacemaker helped me sign up for cooking classes today. The first time I go will be… oh! Right. Next week on Friday.

You’re probably wondering who Peacemaker is. (Even if you weren’t, I’m still going to explain.) He’s a NightWing RainWing hybrid who is hilarious. He has really dark purple eyes and the underside of his wings has a bunch of rainbow-specked scales. He can’t see the future or read minds—either that or he lied when I asked—but he does have the RainWing venom. Honestly, I think that that’s the much cooler power. Self defense or stuck up nonsense? When will reading minds actually come in handy? …okay, I guess it would, but still. RainWing venom is 100% better than anything NightWings could come up with.

Cactus, Auklet, Cosmo, Toucan, Mink, Bumblebee, Peacemaker, Cliff, Mantis and I—in other words the whole entire Quartz Winglet—are in the academy’s drama program! It’s super fun—we just had our first class today, actually, since it’s a weekend program. Cliff is SOOOO dramatic, and Cactus is pretty enthusiastic about it. Of course there are some dragons who seem to be doing it just because their friends are there, *cough* Auklet *cough* because of Cliff *cough* They’ve been doing it for a while, you know, and she’s not very enthusiastic at all. But oh well. Mantis is an incredible actor. He puts everyone else to shame! (Well, maybe not Cliff…) And our teacher is the best. Her name is Fatespeaker, and she’s so nice and funny. She’s always saying things that might suggest she’s a mind reader, but everybody—students and teachers alike—told me that she just pretends.

So. I have a mystery for us to solve. I met this NightWing on Monday. Her name was… ugh… I can’t remember. Oh! Starshine. Her name was Starshine, I believe. She seemed to be a student, but I haven’t seen her around the halls, in the Prey Center for any meals, and I haven’t heard her name mentioned at all. I know what you’re thinking—it’s a big school. It’s not that weird that I haven’t come across her—

But get this.

I asked all the teachers if there was a NightWing named Starshine attending the school. Nobody even recognized that name! Something fishy is going on, and I intend to find out what.

Okay. I gotta go. Cactus and Cosmo are super tired and they’re threatening me and saying quite horrible things about my flamesilk. Write to you soon.

Love, Butterfly

Butterfly closed her diary and hid it in the folds of her hammock. She then proceeded to leave her sleeping cave.

“Ugh, where are you going now?” Cactus whined, covering her eyes with her talons to shield them from the dim glow of the flamesilk.

“Shut up, SandWing,” Cosmo grumbled from her nest. “We both know she’s going to the underground lake. Now quiet; I’m trying to sleep.”

That was very true; Butterfly had trouble sleeping, and the lake in the academy soothed and calmed her. It stripped all her worries of the waking hours and prepared her for her dreamland.

In other, much less poetic words, Butterfly would often lie awake for multiple hours at a time before finally drifting off, and water helped her get drowsy.

Which made it very fortunate that she had a secret shortcut to the river.

Her route was most likely not ideal for non SeaWings, as she was required to hold her breath for two minutes to reach the lake with no pockets of air in between. But Butterfly could do it. She could hold her breath for longer, actually. Four minutes on average and six minutes if she really tried.

Butterfly took a deep breath, let it out, and repeated that process about six times before she felt ready to hold it. She dove into the small hole in the ground that was used as a drinking source and had her antennae completely unfurled to guide her around any turns and warn her of the rock formations. She arrived in a little under two minutes; she was getting better at it! But before she popped her head out of the water, she saw a light flickering above the surface.

She slowly eased her head up to the air, careful so as not to disturb the glass-like surface, and spied on the commotion.

There were three dragonets crowded around a small fire, and Butterfly was fairly certain that she recognized one of them. That NightWing looked extremely familiar.

“We have to be careful,” the SkyWing was saying. “Remember, we’re just spying, not setting anything off.”

“Yes, yes, we know.” Starshine rolled her eyes. “You’ve told us this far too many times. You can stop now, Firestorm.”

Spying? On who? Why? She paddled over closer to catch what was being said. Her body, however nimble, was not built for swimming, though. A splash sounded through the cave.

“Who’s there?” Starshine shouted, her voice echoing off the damp cavern walls.

“Um, it’s me, Butterfly? From the library,” the hybrid replied tentatively.

“Oooh, you,” the NightWing was struck with recognition. “Cool. Wanna stand by our fire?”

“Uh, okay,” she swam over to the ledge and pulled herself up, shaking the water off her scales. “So. Um. Hi.” Butterfly stood awkwardly, holding the gaze of three dragonets at a time. “Nice fire.”

“That’s what she would’ve said,” Firestorm narrowed her eyes.

“What are you doing here?” Starshine inquired, not unfriendly, but in a tone that made Butterfly’s defense mechanisms become wary.

“I have rights to this lake, NightWing. I actually go to school here.” She raised her eyebrow at the three dragons.

“I mean, she has a point,” the RainWing shrugged. “Even if she is only starting in the middle of the year.”

“You didn’t tell her anything, did you?” Firestorm asked Starshine.

Starshine’s eyes became unfocused, as if she were having a conver—oh, three moons. How completely stupid of her. The NightWing was a mind reader. She panicked and imagined slamming a mental door to shut away her thoughts, imagined a wall forming, sang the lyrics to the most annoying song she knew (she regretted that later, by the way) and shouted random words. The only type of reaction she received, however, was a questioning glance from Starshine.

Perhaps she wasn’t trying to read her mind, but instead communicating with her friends.

I probably have more interesting thoughts than her friends, Butterfly found herself thinking. Why? Ugh, she was absolutely ridiculous.

She found herself suddenly uncomfortable. She was in the middle of a clique that she didn’t belong in, and they clearly didn’t want her there. “I’m going to go.” She didn’t think anyone had even heard her, but Starshine looked at her and shook her head.

“Stay,” she insisted, patting the rock beside her. “Tell us… tell us about that NightWing that you’ve been hanging out with.”

Butterfly’s face tickled as she moved closer to the fire. Spies, she thought nervously. They really are spies. And why have they been spying on me? What do they want with a SilkWing? I mean, I am a flamesilk, but…. “Oh, you mean Peacemaker? Yeah, he’s my friend. He lives in the rain forest and I think we might actually be neighbors. Cool, huh?”

“Mm hm,” Starshine nodded thoughtfully. “Is he a mind reader, a seer, an animus…?”

“No,” Butterfly shook her head. “No cool NightWing powers. He’s part RainWing, though, and he’s got the venom to prove it. He—”

“How old is he?” Firestorm wondered.

“Uh….” That’s kind of a specific question. Why do they want to know?? “I think he’s a few months older than me, so, a little over four years old, I’d say.”

“So let it be written; so let it be done,” the SkyWing said thoughtfully.

Butterfly wrinkled her face in confusion.

“Don’t mind Firestorm—she’s weird,” the NightWing waved a wing dismissively. “Where was he born?”

“Well, I’d have to be a real creep to know that.”

“Or a great friend,” Starshine offered.

“Or a stalker,” the RainWing supplied.

“Well, unfortunately for you I am none of those things.”

“Hm, be that as it may, still may it be as it may be.” Firestorm raised her eyebrow.

Butterfly gave her a confused look.

“Well, here, have this,” the RainWing handed Butterfly a necklace with a little white stone at the end, “and if you’re ever in need of help, we’ll know. Never forget you’ve got friends in the Tourmaline Winglet.”

Hm, I wouldn’t exactly call us friends, Butterfly thought heatedly, looking down at the necklace. “Wait—there’s no such thing as the—” she looked up to find them gone—nothing but the dwindling fire to assure her she’d actually met them. “—Tourmaline Winglet…”