Celeste and Eclipse stood outside the entrance to the cave system of Jade Mountain. Some dragons were flying towards the mountain, while others were already enrolling at a stone table in the entrance cave.

Walking into the cave, Eclipse twitched her wings nervously. A SnowWing stood at the table, signing dragonets in. When it was her turn, Eclipse stepped forward.

"Name?" the SnowWing asked. He was silver and had spines down his back that looked like icicles. Though she was still a few feet away from him, she could feel cold radiating off him. She shivered when she thought about how horrible it would feel to be blasted with his frozen breath.

Celeste nudged Eclipse. Startled, the dragonet answered the SnowWing's question. "Oh, um, Eclipse of the StarWings."

The SnowWing nodded and flicked his serrated talons through a pile of scrolls. "Ah, yes, Eclipse. Here you go. I'm Tundra, the tribe and culture teacher. You happen to have my class first tomorrow. All the information is in your scroll." He handed her a scroll and gestured to the dragonet behind her, a blue-green WaterWing.

Eclipse moved away and turned to her mother. "I can take it from here, Mother. Don't worry," she added when the emerald green dragon opened her mouth to protest.

"Fine. Don't forget that if you need to talk to another StarWing, Storm, Stella, Luna, Comet, and Night are here. And if you need to talk to me, just write. And if-" Eclipse cut her mother off.

"Mother. Stop, I will be fine. Please go now." Celeste hesitated, then hugged her dragonet and left. After seeing her mother fly away, Eclipse felt a pang and unrolled her scroll. It had her sleeping quarter location and her class schedule. It also had the names of her roommates.

Hmm, Eclipse thought. Macaw must be a JungleWing and Lily must be a DirtWing.

Eclipse noticed that there were three cave tunnels in the back walls of the entrance cave. Her scroll said that her sleeping cave was on the left tunnel, so she went down that tunnel. The tunnel was surprisingly light, Eclipse realized. There were holes in the ceiling of the tunnel, covered by large leaves from the rainforest.

Spaces opened in the side of the tunnel. Those were the sleeping caves, and there were dragonets in and around them. In the tunnel, a group of FireWings stood talking. Eclipse squeezed past them, feeling the heat coming off their scales. Her gaze flicked to the side, catching the fiery green eyes of a flame-colored dragonet. He narrowed his eyes at her and Eclipse looked away,

Finally, she found her cave and entered it. Inside, there were three beds. One was a woven reed nest, one was a vine hammock, and the last one was a grass bed. There was a brown dragonet in the reed nest and she was reading a scroll. Her warm amber eyes flicked up when Eclipse came in. She jumped up.

"Hi, I'm Lily. You're Eclipse, right?"

Eclipse was taken aback by this dragonet's candidness. Usually, StarWings did a whole greeting ritual before speaking. "Yes, I am. Have you met Macaw yet?"

Lily rolled up her scroll and set in on a rack near her nest. There was rack next to each bed. "No," she rolled her eyes humorously, "but I've heard that she's a real pain in the tail. Always wanting this or that. It makes sense, though; she's Queen Chameleon's daughter."

Eclipse gasped. "Macaw is a princess? She's that Macaw?" Lily nodded. Suddenly, a clamor erupted from the tunnel. Eclipse and Lily both stuck their heads out of the cave to see what was happening.

A sandy-yellow SunWing was facing the FireWing that Eclipse had encountered on her way to the cave. The SunWing had his barbed tail pointing threateningly at the FireWing, and the FireWing was making a hissing sound, warning that he would breathe fire at any moment.

"You should watch where you're going!" the FireWing hissed.

"You shouldn't stand right in the middle of the tunnel!" the SunWing countered.

Turning to Lily, Eclipse whispered urgently, "Shouldn't someone stop them?"

"Why? This is so cool!" Lily whispered back. Eclipse closed her eyes, trying to figure out what to do. She couldn't let the dragons fight, she knew. They could be kicked out of the Academy, or worse, they could hurt themselves and others! She had to do something.

Not pausing to let herself think it through, Eclipse hurled herself out of her cave, down the tunnel and in between the two male dragons. Alarm flashed in the SunWing's eyes and he drew his tail back. The FireWing stayed furious, though, and he pushed her roughly. Eclipse hissed at the heat of his scales, then realized something. Heat! StarWings could heat their scales to temperatures capable of melting diamonds.

Eclipse felt her purple-blue scales warm, then get hot. She wouldn't get hot enough to burn them, just enough to warn them. The SunWing stepped back, spreading his pale yellow wings.

"Sorry. I didn't mean any harm to anyone. He started getting mad when I accidentally bumped into him." He reached his right wing out to Eclipse in the beginning of the StarWing greeting ritual. Eclipse tapped her own wing to his, then touched her talons to his. For the last part of the ritual, they pressed their noses together.

"How'd you know the greeting ritual?" Eclipse asked after pulling away, confused.

"My mother had a StarWing friend," he answered. He turned back to the still-angry FireWing. "I'm sorry I ran into you."

Seeing the FireWing was about to argue, Eclipse gave him a glare that silenced him. "It's okay," he muttered. "I'm sorry for getting angry." The SunWing nodded, tilting his head in goodbye to Eclipse, and walked off to his cave.

Eclipse also headed back to her cave. When she glanced back down the tunnel, the FireWing was staring after her with his fiery green eyes. A shiver went through her wings, which were more blue than purple. When she got in the cave, Lily assaulted her with questions.

"Why'd you do that? How'd you do that? Was it scary? They were so much bigger than you! You were so brave!"

Eclipse sighed. "They were bigger than me, and I wasn't brave. They wouldn't have hurt me." She walked to the grass nest and laid down in it. She was exhausted from the flight to Jade Mountain, not to mention interrupting a fight between big male dragonets.

Finally, after listening to Lily chatter on and on about school, Eclipse fell asleep.