The sound of a gong resonated through the mountain, and students spilled out of the caves, filling the halls, all headed to either their caves or the prey center. One particular class was late getting out though: Sundews class.

A few minutes after the original gong sound, the students in Goldstone Winglet and Azurite Winglet burst out of the weapons and fighting cave, chattering nonstop.

"How do you think—"

"I wonder when—"

"Did you see—"

Last to emerge though, was a group of three dragonets from Goldstone Winglet.

"Bro, Sundews class was so boring!" moaned a green and brown LeafWing. "I want actual fighting!"

"You think that's bad Croc?" responded a magenta and yellow SilkWing. "She yelled at me for 'smiling too much in a relaxed stance'."

The purple RainWing laughed. "I thought it was interesting!" she said. "Although I do agree, I want to actually fight."

"Well... I think we have history next," said Croc.

"Oooh, isn't that with Cricket?" the SilkWing asked.

"Yeah Goldie, I think we do," the RainWing replied.

"Hey Wild, don't we have a field trip next week?" Croc asked.

"If we do, I haven't heard anything about it," Willow replied.

"I haven't either," Marigold piped up. "Where are we gonna go?"

"I think we're going to see the bridge at the beginning of the route from Phyrria to Pantala," Croc responded. "I heard Tsunami talking to Blue about it last time they were here."

Just then, they arrived at the history classroom, only to find it empty.

"No ones here," remarked Marigold. "I wonder why?"

"Huh?" Croc says. "Oops! I forgot that it was the end of the day!"

"It's ok," says Willow. "But let's head back to our cave for now. We have history tomorrow though."

The trio walked back to the cave, turning in for the night.

"G'night!" Croc called.

"Night!" said Willow and Marigold simultaneously.

They both burst into laughter, and eventually settled down enough to sleep.

•••

The next morning, Croc woke up first.

"Wake up guys, we have to go to history!" he said, shaking Willow.

"Alright, coming, I'm coming," muttered Willow, half asleep.

Willow stood up, yawning.

"C'mon Goldie," Willow said.

"Ughhhh," moaned Marigold. "Whassa matter?"

Croc went outside to get the other dragons in their winglet, but almost immediately came running back in.

"Schools cancelled!" he said excitedly. "Yesss!!"

"I wonder why?" Marigold mused.

"I don't care why. I'm going back to sleep," muttered Willow.

Just then, Croc updated them on why.

"The path is in pieces, the field trip is cancelled!" he announced. "And it said that Middle Town was burned! There's, like, only a few huts left!"

"What?" said Marigold, taken aback. "That's really bad!"

"I don't care. They'll reschedule," replied Willow sleepily. "Let's enjoy sleep now."

Croc shook Willow again.

"We have a project to do for Cricket! Wake up!"

"What project?" Marigold asked from the other side of the cave.

"Ugh. Fine," groaned Willow, as Marigold climbed back in bed.

"Let's go to the library!" Croc announced, heading out the door.

Willow clambered sleepily from her bed, following him.

Meanwhile, Marigold had fallen asleep again.

Willow and Croc reached the library, not noticing that Marigold wasn't with them.

"Good morning, Tau!" Croc said cheerfully. "Got any history books?"

"Sure thing!" Tau, the librarian, said, as he walked off to get some.

Croc looked around, and finally noticed that Marigold wasn't there.

"Oh come on," he said, rolling his eyes. "Did she fall back asleep?" he vented with an even bigger eye roll.

"She's probably back in the cave," Willow said. "I'll go get her."

Back in the cave, Marigold woke up and decided to go to the prey center.

On the way, she bumped into Willow.

"Hi Wild!" Marigold said brightly.

"Goldie!" Willow scolded. "We were supposed to be going to the library, to work on the project, not the prey center!"

Just then, Croc turns the corner, in search of Willow and Marigold.

"Drop it Willow. We can take a little break," Croc advised. "Besides, I want to hang out with Kimber. You know, the SkyWing in our winglet."

As he said that, Croc flew off to find Kimber.

"Ok," responded Willow, taking flight and following him.

"Hey, wait for me!" shouted Marigold, running after them.

A few minutes later, Marigold arrived, panting.

"Guys, don't do that!" she complained, "You know I don't have wings yet," She said with a pout.

"Sorry," Willow and Croc responded together.

Kimber looked at them, confused, but shrugged it off, turning back towards his cave.

"I was just..." Croc began, then broke off, looking around. "Where'd Kimber go?"

"I don't know," said Willow.

"I think he went back to his cave," replied Marigold, pointing.

"Oh," Said Croc. "Ok."

"At least you're gonna get powers. I already have mine, and all I can do is speak to some dumb plants," he said, glancing around to be sure no one else heard. "Also, you might be a flamesilk! That's, like, one of the coolest powers!"

"Wait, you can talk to plants!?" Marigold said, surprised. "And also, I doubt that I'm a flamesilk. I don't think my parents were."

"You know I heard that Croc," said Willow without turning around. "And yeah, flamesilk is really cool!!"

"It's just plant talk. Don't you remember? Sundew did like, a whole lesson about it!" Croc exclaimed.

"I wasn't listening to that! She was yelling at us as she talked, so I zoned out!" Marigold replied.

"Zoned out!?" Croc said, "This is the reason you get yelled at!!"

"That's not true! She just doesn't like me!" Marigold exclaimed.

"True. She kinda hates SilkWings," Croc relented.

"I don't think she HATES hates them, but like they're just not her favorite," said Willow.

"Yeah maybe..." said Marigold thoughtfully, "But she also picks on me more because I'm one of the younger ones. Everyone else our age has either already done or is in metamorphosis."

"To be fair, she doesn't like pretty much any SilkWing, except Blue," remarked Willow.

"He'S sO cHaRmInG the WaY hE tHiNkS," Croc said, imitating Sundew.

Marigold and Willow giggled.

"She doesn't even like Luna!" exclaimed Marigold.

"I know, and Lunas amazing!" Added Willow. "She's the one who came up with the ideas of rebuilding some of the hives, and Middle town!"

"But anyway..." said Croc, veering way from the topic of Sundew and Luna. "I got a letter from the headmaster, summoning us. I think we should go!"

Going through and editing this nearly a year later made me realize how far I've come. I'm so glad I've had support from you guys from the beginning!