No doubt, the Prey Center was the loudest, most chaotic place Dawn had ever been. Dragons were yelling and running and the prey was squawking, neighing, screeching, and roaring. What was a dragon to do?

She just wanted to grab some breakfast, as classes were starting in a few minutes. But that was almost impossible when you couldn't tell your own talons from a chicken's.

Dawn growled quietly and made her way out of the cave. She found her way to the Grand Hall, weaving in and out of hallways, she was getting better at that, she realized.

Standing at the opening of the cave to the outside, she continued onto the entrance ledge. Crisp morning air pierced her nostrils, and she loved it. Spreading her wings, she launched off the ledge and into the air. This was what made her happy. Flying through the clouds, getting your scales sparkly from the mist, the rush of wind on your wings.

Dawn did a flip in the air then when she saw it. A gyrfalcon was soaring away beneath her. She gained altitude, silently flapping her wings for more power, then dove. The gyrfalcon screeched when it saw her, then made it's own dive. Though Dawn was slower, she had fire. She breathed a jet of flames at the gyrfalcon, killing and charring it in one go. She grabbed it with a talon before it could plummet toward the ground.

She glanced back at Jade Mountain. There was a blurry blue-gray shape standing there. Pike, she guessed. And Dawn was right. Standing on the entrance ledge, Pike gaped at her.

"What? Why're you making that face?" She asked.

"DAWN! YOU JUST DID AN AWESOME FLIP THEN DIVEBOMBED AT A BIRD AND CAUGHT IT! Gosh, I wish I had fire."

"Oh, um, thanks. You want some?" She said, holding out the charred bird.

Pike made a face, "Nah, you keep it. I'm more for raw food anyway."

She shrugged, then using her claw, she sliced the bird up and ate it.

A loud bong resonated off the inside of the Grand Hall, signaling for classes to start. Dawn and Pike made their way toward the History Cave, which was their first class of the day.

When they walked inside together, Swiftwings, Capelin, Aloe, Tamarin, and Frog were already there. Dawn went over to sit beside her NightWing friend and Pike went over to sit between Capelin and Frog. Just then, Webs, the history teacher, came out of an opening in the back of the history cave.

"Oh good, everyone's here. As you might know, my name is Webs and I'll be teaching you about the history of the dragon tribes throughout your years at this school. If anyone has any questions before I start this lesson, please state them now."

Frog, a hazel-brown MudWing, raised his talon. "Aren't you the dragon who kept the dragonets of destiny under that mountain?"

Webs looked uncomfortable. "Um, well, yes that was me." He drew himself up, disposing of the guilty face he wore a few seconds ago. "Now if I may continue, these first few lessons will be about life before, during, and after the Scorching. Who can tell me what the Scorching was?"

"It was when the dragons overthrew the scavengers that once ruled Pyrrhia." Swiftwings said.

"Correct," answered Webs, "they say that during the time, everything was chaos. Dragons against dragons. Fire against flesh. It was only when the scavengers had been overthrown that the smallest hint of order arose. Dragons sorted themselves into tribes based upon what they ate, where they lived, and what abilities and special skills they had. They established royal families and gave the tribes names. Now who knows who the first linage of royals were?"

No one answered.

"Well, there was Queen Sedge of the MudWings, Queen Calascent of the SkyWings..."

And on it went like that. Webs drones on and on about the first queens of Pyrrhia and about the chaos and havoc and facts. Just facts. Dawn didn't like that. She had heard about legends of different tribes and dragons and events, none of which Webs even mentioned. Even though they weren't exactly true, they still gave a dragon some better idea of what it was like 4000 years ago.

When class finally ended, Dawn was the first one out of her seat. They had been given some homework where they had to fill out a scroll about what they had discussed during class. Seems it would be a way to make sure students payed attention in class, she observed. It wouldn't help whatsoever.

While they were heading down the halls to go back to their sleeping caves, Swiftwings came up next to her.

"Boring, right?" Said Dawn.

"Actually, I thought it was quite interesting. Where else would you learn SO MUCH about the Scorching, the event that shaped our LIVES. Sure, Webs isn't the greatest teacher but the subject makes me want to do some independent research. I think I might go do that later, actually."

Of course you will, Dawn thought grumpily.

They were silent for the rest of the walk back to their cave. Once their, Dawn put her homework on an empty shelf.

"What class is next?" Asked Dawn.

Swiftwings glanced at her classes scroll. "Music, taught by Fatespeaker."

They led their cave and down the halls toward the music cave. As they were nearing, they started to hear loud banging, strumming, and singing. When they went in, they saw that Pike, Aloe, Tamarin, and 7 other dragons were already there.

"Oh yeah, the Copper Winglet is with us during music, forgot to tell you that." Swiftwings said. But Dawn barely heard her over the throng of dragons.

"Um, so are we supposed to just, like, pick up an instrument and play?" Dawn asked, confused.

"I guess, sure." Replied Swiftwings. She then ran over to the center of the room and belted out the words to a song Dawn recognized as 'Shining In The Night', by a now-dead NightWing musician named Secretknower.

Dawn moved over to a rack of stringed instruments and chose a guitar. She started playing along to Swiftwings voice, her tail swishing back and forth to the music.

A dark red SkyWing with huge yellow wings came up beside her and also started playing along on a banjo. When Dawn finally noticed him he smiled. She saw that he was at least a head taller than her, with a patch over his right ear. Though his amber eyes glinted happily.

"Hello!" He greeted.

"Oh, um, hi!" Said Dawn, a bit flustered.

"I'm Peregrine, what's your name?"

"I-I'm Dawn, I'm one of the new students here." She said.

"Nice to meet you, by the way, your good at the guitar, you play often?"

"Oh, thanks! I used to play back home, but I never really got that into it."

"Cool, I'm just learning to play, Jade Mountain gives so many learning opportunities, you know, I'm trying to become good with herbs so I can help Queen Ruby with her new hospital area."

Dawn smiled at that, she had really not met any other SkyWings, as she had lived in one of the smaller SkyWing towns on the edge of the kingdom. But the ones she had met were mostly war-oriented and hostile. Peregrine seemed nice though, she thought.

They continued playing until the song died down and eventually stopped. Fatespeaker, who had been playing along on a tambourine, called out to everyone to report to their next class. Dragons had filed out of the cave, chatting with each other. Among them was Peregrine and Dawn.

"Who teaches the healing class, again?" Dawn asked.

"Clay does. He's a really good teacher, surprisingly." he winked, "The cave has this whole setup, with dragon anatomy charts and medical tools. They teach the advanced class how to do other things like extracting the healing juices from plants and even helping Clay when a dragon gets injured. Just yesterday I helped Boto patch up a cut he got in the underground lakes." Peregrine informed her proudly.

"Wow, that's impressive. I've never really been good at that stuff. Just music, like you said, and I'm not bad at carving wood." Dawn told him.

"Cool, maybe you can show me some of your work sometime!" He said.

"Peregrine!" Said a sandy brown SandWing who was standing a few feet away.

Peregrine waved over to him. "That's my clawmate, Pronghorn. I gotta go now, see you later, Dawn!"

"Bye!" She called back.

As she was heading toward her next class, Dawn thought. I never knew making friends would be so easy. I guess I'd never known because I've never tried. But Peregrine seems nice! I hope I can call him a friend.