Flame and Ire parted ways as the former joined Placoid and Ardor, who had instructed him to come to meet Buzzard's right talon, as well as the hospital's chief Scribe.

Ardor didn't talk about what had happened the previous night to the others, or at least not in front of him, and they briskly walked through the halls to the central square, where the statue of the two dragons towered over them.

Flame still hadn't asked what it was supposed to represent, and since that question was still floating in his head, he walked closer to Placoid. "What's that statue supposed to be?" He asked.

The SeaWing jumped at that question, clearly not having seen him approach. He had a scared expression in his eyes as he faced him, and he stuttered a few words before Ardor could chime in to help him. Flame couldn't understand why the SeaWing looked so terrified. What had he said wrong this time?

"It's a tragic story, actually. The golden dragon is supposed to be-." She started, but for once, she was the one to be interrupted.

"Listen up, dragons!"

A voice boomed in the small courtyard. A tall, lanky SkyWing stepped up, her scales pink as the dawn sky, with a dark underbelly and grayish horns. She was wearing a blue sash, with a golden star on it, and holding a folded scroll in one of her talons. Her talons were peculiar, as they had some black markings on them. Flame had no idea what they could be.

"This staff meeting will be to the point. The Transport staff isn't here, but they've been informed about their daily tasks. Healers, get to work. As you know we have some patients who arrived from last night's wildfire incident, and they require your utmost care. Free to go." As soon as she finished her announcement, all the dragons wearing a white sash left, except for Ardor. Flame guessed that Ire, Quag, and the dragons wearing the brown sash were supposed to be the Transport staff. Some things were beginning to make more sense.

The SkyWing went on with her announcement. "Analysts, remember to clean out your archives today. I don't want to see a scroll out of place by today's sunset. Free to go." Flame saw the dragons with the purple sash leave, and among them, she spotted Treen, who nodded at him before leaving. So that RainWing was a mind-poker. Flame growled. He knew something had been up with her.

The SkyWing went on with her announcements. Soon enough, every dragon was dismissed, except for Ardor, Placoid, and himself. The dragon looked up from her scroll in disappointment.

"Right. I'm supposed to be on dragonet duty today. Such a great use of my time. Ardor, please tell your father to reassign me to any other job next moon," she complained, rolling her scroll back up and storing it in her satchel which was resting on her back.

"Hurricane, I promisse you we won't cause any trouble thiss time," Placoid assured her, hissing his Ss as usual. Flame guessed he wasn't doing it on purpose, but he didn't feel like asking after seeing the fear in his eyes the last time he tried asking the SeaWing anything.

"Ok, let's see how many patients you won't accidentally redirect to the wrong room this time. Keep up," she said and sprinted away. Flame was astonished by her walking speed and had to run to keep up. He and the other "dragonets" huddled at her sides as she walked.

"Ardor, you have your medicinal herb assessment tomorrow. I hope you've been studying," Hurricane asked, giving her a look as she walked.

The SkyWing nodded, beaming. "Of course I have! Would you like to hear the poem I've created to remember the main side effects of clawspindle herbs?"

"No." Hurricane and Flame had said it in unison, but while the other two hadn't heard Flame's contribution, Hurricane gave him a smirk of understanding.

"Placoid, your stitching needs work. Do you think you can pass by the skills lab today? I heard that a few Healers would be doing a skill-sharpening session there. You should join them." She suggested, meeting his gaze. Placoid didn't have the same expression of fear that he'd had when Flame had looked at him, but he still looked defeated, even while he nodded. Ardor put her tail over his own, a worried look on her face.

Flame wondered what was going on with that.

At the next corridor intersection, Hurricane stopped, and Ardor and Placoid looked up at her. She huffed. "Well? You both have work to get to. Ardor, go study. And Placoid, head to the skills lab early. I'll see you two after lunch. Free to leave."

Neither of them argued, but their eyes said otherwise. They broke apart, and each went their own way.

Hurricane exhaled, then turned to look at Flame. "Who even are you?" she asked.

"Flame. The dragon from Jade Mountain Academy," he said, using more words than usual.

Hurricane snapped her claws. "Right! The convict dragon or whatever," her remark did make Flame narrow his eyes, but he appreciated the fact that Hurricane didn't twist the knife.

She flutters her wings, and then declared, "let's get to the meeting room. It's time for you to meet the dragon who will become your greatest ally."

Flame ran after her, and soon enough, they reached a room that the SkyWing remembered seeing on his way past the entrance.

The meeting room had a single glass window, extending through the whole back wall, showing all the dragons that entered the scenery of the mountains around Summit Central.

A SkyWing was hurriedly writing on some scrolls, stamping them with a wax seal when done. They had yellow scales and were extremely pale. Their eyes were two different colors - green and orange, but they had the sharpest claws that he'd ever seen any dragon have. They looked up as they walked in.

"Hey Hurri, we have a shortage of straw apparently? I didn't know what to do about that, but the healers have been insistent about it today," they said, handing her the scrolls as she walked past them.

"Right. Straw. I'll put that on my to-do list. I have some work to do in the dining hall today, but I'll do it before the end of today." She remarked, then looked at Flame.

"Flame, meet my apprentice, Rail. They'll help you with your... problems. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some angry cooks to placate. Free to go," she declared before realizing that she was the one that had to leave this time. She laughed under her breath and left.

Rail looked at Flame awkwardly. "Hi! I'm a scribe. You probably knew that already. Argh, ok," he shook his head and started again. "I'll get the blatant questions out of the way first. Yes, I'm a hybrid - I'm both RainWing and SkyWing. No, my eyes are fine and I'm not blind. And lastly, you can use any pronouns for me, but I usually go by 'they' or "he" and stuff." 

Flame nodded, a little taken aback by all the information. He hadn't guessed that Rail was a hybrid, but looking at them now, it definitely made sense. Their talons definitely looked like RainWing's. But he hadn't questioned their eyes - they looked perfectly good to him, like an emerald and pyrite shining in the sunlight.

"Anyways. My turn with the questions: where'd you get that scar?" They asked, looking at him with a curious look.

"Oh. It was battle." He said flatly, lashing his tail. He didn't like it when dragons asked about it.

"Ok ok. Is it true you were a prisoner in the NightWing's old island?" Flame had to concede that they were persistent. Rail clearly didn't read his cues about not wanting to talk about his past.

"No." He growled.

"What about the prophecy-."

"Look. I don't care who you are, but this is invasive. Can't you tell I don't want to talk about this, Hybrid?" He demanded. Flame recognized that he hadn't quite been as polite as others would have appreciated, but in his defense, Rail had kind of provoked him.

However, the hybrid didn't retaliate. "Ok. I'll hold my curiosity for now. But you do need to answer this question for me. Did you really try to assassinate the old dragon of Jade Mountain?"

Rail's demeanor hadn't changed, but something made Flame want to answer their question.

"No, I haven't. I... I would never."

Rail cocked their head and gave him a small smile. "Ok. We can work with that," and saying so, he got out some scrolls and ink from his satchel.

"Tell me everything you know."

Flame inhaled deeply, and let all the facts out.

▃ ▃ ▃  ▃ ▃ ▃

Note
Just so people know, Rail's pronouns are he/them. In this chapter, I've used they/them when referring to them from Flame's point of view, but other characters will refer to them using he/him instead. This is not an instance of misgendering, but rather dragons referring to Rail with his other set of preferred pronouns. If the pronouns change within the scene, I'll make sure to highlight them, so as to not get them confused with other dragons.
Cya in the next chapters.