When the SandWing entered the library, her head was brimming with worries and secrets.

Instinctively, Sahara poured a mental bucket of sand over her thoughts and thwacked her barbed tail against the library floor.

I know you're in my head.

Moonreader hissed, alerting her sister of something.

The SandWing walked towards the NightWing twins. The black scales by her eyes shimmered.

"Um, hey." Sahara said, clacking her talons on the wooden desk nervously, "Do you have any scrolls on prophecies?"

Moonreader tilted her head curiously.

"Row 8, shelf 3. But what could you need a scroll on prophecies for?"

Sahara looked around nervously. She didn't need anyone overhearing her and going absolutely bonkers. She then ruffled her wings, talons clicking on wood.

"You've had it, right?" She hissed in a soft voice. "You and your sister, and probably your mother? You've gotten the vision as well, right?"

Images ran through the Sahara's head. Starmind speaking in an odd voice, Sahara panicking, Starmind crumpling to the ground.

"Mind of stars and desert rose. When the seashell sings-"

"Then shall it's foes. Greatwatcher, get over here." Moonreader finished.

Her twin scrambled over. What could be so urgent as to warrant a vocal command?

"What is it?"

"Was Blindsight acting strange yesterday?" Moonreader asked.

"Blindsight? What does he have to do with any of this?" Sahara cut in.

"He can see the future. But not just a few of them, all of them." Greatwatcher explained. "And yes, he was. Why?"

"Sahara, you said that Starmind had a prophecy yesterday, right?" Moonreader hissed.

"Yes. It...it came out of nowhere. I don't even know what it means."

"Can you repeat it for us?"

"Um, I'll try..." Sahara whispered. She gulped and started speaking.

"Mind of stars and desert rose,

When the seashell sings then shall its foes.

Breath of fire and breath of frost.

Come to find what once was lost.

Eddying the futures and stirring the past

Impostor comes to justice at last."

Choking on words, Sahara came to a stop at the end.

"What could it mean?" Moonreader said, after a moment of silence.

"Oh no," Greatwatcher finally said, "This is what Blindsight's been talking about. "

"What?"

"He mutters things sometimes."

"But what could it-"

Sahara jumped as the gong rang out. She turned to rush to her sleeping cave, tail lashing.

As she settled into her sand pit, she heard Conch slither with a  sploosh into her pool.

Sahara shifted the strands of pearls around her and closed her heavy eyelids.

-------------------------------------------

The day of the performance. The air was filled with excitement, nervousness, and tension.

Sahara joined her SandWing group and filed into the large cave. Seven different groups of six dragons clustered together, each and every one staring at the platform area.

The SeaWing from earlier climbed onto the stage, tailed by Kangaroo and a MudWing. He clapped his talons together.

"Okay, everyone, settle down!"

The dragonets in the cave all swung their heads towards the SeaWing and stopped speaking, eager and awaiting the news.

"Thank you. So, everyone has had a week to perfect their performances! Tonight, in the outside courtyard, we will be holding them on our outside stage. Afterwards, we will be celebrating with a party! Each of our amazing dragons working here has created a stand outside, representing their tribe. You have until the gong rings for perfecting it. Now go!"

----------------

Sahara wound a strand of blue gems around her neck and draped her wings. 

Conch shook her head.

"No, no! Everyone knows the most flattering is the double loop." Conch untied the gems and draped them in a different fashion. She then perched a pearl-and-silver tiara o Sahara's head, resting it between her horns.

"Mmm, that looks awkward with your spiney-thing." Conch wrinkled her snout. She then produced her trunk of sparkles and found a different thing.

Two horn-bands, studded with sapphires, were placed on Sahara's horns and a little strand of silver pearls wrapped in front of her horns and down her neck. 

Conch clapped her talons together. Pink pearls were wrapped around her wings already, glowing against her aquamarine scales. Her light-up scales flashed in patterns all over her body subconsciously. 

Starmind looked disapprovingly at the two bejeweled dragons.

"Honestly, you don't need that much jewelry."

"I have to disagree with you there. One always needs jewelry at formal events. Plus, it's part of Sahara's costume. Isn't that right?" Conch said matter-of-factly.

Sahara nodded, slipping on a twisted-wire-and-onyx bracelet.

The gong rang out and Sahara shook off what remaining sand that was on her. She then slipped off her library pouch, tucked her pendant inside of it, and buried it in her trunk. Closing the lid, she followed her friends to the entrance of the school 

Flapping into the air, she pushed her muscles to keep her afloat as the jewelry weighed her down.

The sun was sinking over the mountain range, the sky tinted pink and red. The grass swarmed with different dragons, all wearing different things. 

Sahara landed with a thud by her group. They all were mingling about themselves, so Sahara kept quiet until the MudWing on the platform yelled for attention. That hushed the crowd pretty quickly. 

The SeaWing from earlier stood up and lashed his tail. 

"Thank you all for coming! I sincerely look forward to seeing your performances. Up first....the MudWings of Jade Academy!"

The crowd clapped quietly. Six MudWings quietly shuffled onto the stage.

Sahara tuned out the plays for a while until her group was called. Startled, she made her way up to the platform, tailing her winglet. 

She lowered her head, feeling all the eyes baring into her skull. When she sat on the stage, she swept her tail around her talons. She looked into the crowd and saw Starmind, Conch, and Raptor all staring at her. Red tinged her face and she waited for her group to start. A hush came over the crowd.

"100 years ago, a small event changed the course of history." Glass said quietly.

Desert had her tail wrapped around a tiny pile of SeaWing treasure. Ostrich then sneaked up behind her and grabbed the treasure. As Desert 'chased' him around the stage, Glass pounced on Desert's tail and she fell over. Glass then took Desert's 'limp' tail and 'stabbed' her with it. 

Desert and Ostrich slunk back into the shadows, leaving Sahara, Prickle, Glass, and the other SandWing. 

"This event left three unsuitable princesses." Glass said.

Prickle stepped up. "Burn."

Then Scar. "Blister."

Sahara shyly swept forward. "And Blaze."

"They split the world of Pyrrhia into threes."

"I take the MudWings and SkyWings." Prickle said.

"I take the SeaWings and NightWings."  The other SandWing said. 

"And I take the SandWings and IceWings." Said Sahara.

"For twenty years the war raged, causing innumerable deaths among all the tribes." Glass said.

Prickle and the other SandWing started play-fighting while Sahara sat in the corner and preened. She then waved her talon and Ostrich, wearing a spiky headdress made to look like IceWing spikes sprang forward to join the fight. 

"After the war raged for twenty years, the dragonets of destiny finally stood up and spoke out. They gathered the three princesses and chose an unlikely candidate, leader of the Outclaws, Queen Thorn."

The three 'princesses' stood in a line, and parted for Desert, wearing a simple necklace.

"The End." Spoke all the SandWings at the same time.

A moment of silence passed, and then the crowd applauded. Embarrassed, Sahara looked down as she trailed off stage.

Finally, it was the last performance.

The RainWings in the crowd vanished. Sahara felt herself be pushed aside for an invisible dragon sweeping through. 

As the moon was starting to rise, a dragon appeared in the middle of the stage. Sahara recognized him as Hibiscus. He was a light yellow color. 

"One hundred years ago, five dragonets were born under a cave. " 

Hibiscus's words echoed through the courtyard. He held up his claw.

A burst of reddish-orange color appeared in the space. Sahara gasped along with the crowd as the color formed a red dragon. That said dragon then was surrounded by five dragons of different colors.

Sahara realized that the four other dragons were invisible, and changing one scale at a time to shape a painting. 

"After they saved the world, they wanted to start an academy to educate future dragonets."

There was a perfectly orchestrated image of three sand dragons fighting each other on invisible wings. Suddenly, dragons materialized, each a different color.

Sahara realized that each dragon represented a different dragonet. One was an amber-mud color, one was gold, one was a deep blue with lighter blue stripes, another was black with underlying tones of green and purple, and Hibiscus had shifted his light yellow to a pale lily-green.

They each opened their wings.

"Jade Academy" spoke Hibiscus in a cam tone. "Where our winglets are,"

"Gold," said the amber one. The inside of his wing turned a faded gold.

"Silver" said the black one. The silver star-scales on the underside of her wing started to eat up the black ones until it was completely silver.

"Quartz" said the gold one, turning her wing a pale rose that appeared faceted.

"Copper" said the blue one, turning her wing a rusty-gold color that set off her blue scales.

"And jade." Said Hibiscus, spreading his wings and turning them a shade of green slightly darker than his scales.

The surrounding dragons faded into the darkness. Then, sparks of color erupted into fireworks behind Hibiscus.

All the RainWings suddenly appeared, folded their wings together, and bowed. The crowd erupted into cheers and applause.