The Adventures of Jade Mountain Academy
Hello hello! This is a fanfiction I wrote… wow, was it three years ago already? 😦 I was eleven when I wrote this… 👀 That’s just wild. Anyway—I wrote this fanfiction after I finished/while I was reading the third arc that we do not speak of, and it’s actually really funny, minus the romance that I attempted between the main characters. Like I’ve said in my self interview, I am an offense to romance novels. So I’m currently working on cutting out the romance and burning it to the ground, that way the rest of the story can be properly appreciated. :D Other than that though, this story has been very minimally edited, so bear with me. 🫠
Enjoy!
Chapter 1: It’s Caterpillar!
Butterfly stood beside her parents, breath taken by the enormity of Jade Mountain. She’d never seen it before—and it was, in fact, the largest mountain in the world!
She’d been begging to go to the school since she was first birthday. For three years she’s begged her parents. Three years. And, as a gift for her fourth hatching day, they’d said yes.
She was going to start at the beginning of the year, like everybody else, but her aunt and uncle had a baby dragonet! So, her and her parents flew across the ocean to Pantala to spend time with them, and when they were about to come back a massive storm hit the seas, trapping them on the other side of the world.
Which was fine. Butterfly hadn’t visited Pantala in a year and a half, and she had a lot of friends she hadn’t spoken to in a while. So, while it wasn’t the end of the world, she was starting in the middle of the school year.
Her mom and dad hugged Butterfly tightly.
“We love you, Caterpillar,” Dad nuzzled her forehead affectionately.
“Dad,” Butterfly laughed, “I’ve got all my wings now! I’m not a dragonet anymore.”
Mom’s scales turned yellow all over. “You’ll always be our dragonet, Caterpillar.”
Caterpillar, as much as Butterfly hated to admit, was a lasting nickname from when she was wingless.
~*~
“Daddy? What’s a… me-mor…phor-sis?” Butterfly spoke carefully.
“A metamorphosis,” Dad corrected, “is when you spin yourself a chrysalis. You’ll stay in there for a few days, and when you come out—”
“You’ll have two fabulous wings!” Mom exclaimed, scooping her up in her strong arms. “You’ll be able to fly everywhere, and then you can see Pyrrhia where Mommy grew up.” Mom booped Butterfly’s nose with her talon.
She poked one of her wing buds and then looked at her dad’s wings. “Can I see a chrysalist?”
Mom smiled at her dragonet and then flew her down to the ground, motioning for Dad to follow. She lifted the leaf of a milkweed plant to reveal the shape hiding beneath. “You see that? That’s a chrysalis.”
Butterfly saw it. It looked like a jade carving and she needed to touch it. But when she reached out her claw, Dad stopped her.
“No, no, no,” he said sternly, “the caterpillar inside wouldn’t be very happy if you crushed its chrysalis. We look with our eyes,” he tapped his scales beside his own. “Remember?”
Butterfly was nodding when she noticed another—what did her parents call it?—THING under another leaf. But this one was HATCHING! “Daddy! Mommy! Look!”
An orange and black winged insect crawled out the hollow jade carving. She looked at it in disbelief. “Mommy! Daddy! That’s a butterfly!”
“I know,” Mom was cheerful. “Isn’t it—”
“But, Daddy said that there was a callerpillar in there,” Butterfly scratched her head, befuddled.
“Yes,” Dad explained, “there was, but then it got wings and turned into a butterfly.”
Butterfly was appalled. “But I’m Butterfly! I don’t want to be a callerpillar!”
~*~
Now, even after Butterfly grew her blue wings, her parents still called her Caterpillar. And they sometimes even gave her nickname a nickname, so occasionally she was Cat.
“Have a good time at school,” Mom said once she let go. Her talons rested on her shoulders. “We’ll come to see you in three moons,” she said quietly, tracing Butterfly’s cheek with her claw.
“Make lots of friends!” Dad added. “And write to us!
“I will!” Butterfly promised them. She turned to leave but decided to get in one more squeeze before she left. “I love you guys,” she whispered.
“We love you too,” Butterfly felt a tear roll down from her dad’s chin onto her blue scales. “Now go have fun,” her parents pulled away and Dad wiped a tear from his face.
“I will!” Butterfly laughed. She waved at her parents. Knowing that she could stall no longer, she turned and faced the school.
It was big but not daunting, gray but not lifeless. It seemed… friendly. Which probably was a weird thing to think about a rock formation eroding on the sides, but… it kind of felt like home…? Yeah, yeah, weird coming from a rain forest dwelling hybrid—who was STALLING.
“Come on, Butterfly,” she chided herself, “you promised Mom and Dad you’d be prepared for anything. How can you do that if you don’t even go inside?” She then turned around to look at her parents, who urged her on. She gave them a smile and a claws up before taking a deep breath. “You can do this,” she told herself. “This is just like any other school that you’ve started in the middle of the year.” She frowned at herself. She’d never actually started school in the middle of the year.
Whatever. There’s a first time for everything, right? And with that thought, she walked through the doorway and took her first step into the academy.
P.S. There is still a romance in this book, but since it’s not the main focus, it’s not so bad and I decided to keep it. (Hopefully it doesn’t bother anyone, because I’m not removing it. :D)
