Firelight reflected off of stone. Within the hallways and caves lay all colors of globes lighting up the mountain's insides. One such cave housed a sleeping dragonet. The air wasn't too humid or dry - great. The temperature was cool - excellent. The halls were quiet - perfect. Rasps echoed as the dragon breathed in and out, a tinge of snoring heard in each breath. A small smile was on his face from the peaceful dream he was having.

  Unfortunately, it is always temporary.

  "Good MORNING!" yelled the most colorful dragon in the school as she rushed into the cave. "Aren't you EXCITED FOR TODAY?"

  Turtle was shaken from his rest by small, pink talons on his shoulder. He groaned at the sudden disturbance.

  I never get enough sleep.

  "It's too early to be excited for anything, Kinkajou." Turtle murmured groggily.

  "Early? The sun has been up for an hour!" came the Rainwing's overly-energetic retort. Bright pinks and yellows warbled all across her scales, which was not what Turtle needed to see right after waking up.

  Even if they were the most beautiful scales in the school.

  "Yeah, it's still early..." Turtle replied. His mat was located on the left side of his cave. The right side was for his clawmate, who wasn't protesting Kinkajou's barging in for whatever reason.

  "Come on, have you forgotten what today is?" Kinkajou asked enthusiastically, practically jumping up and down with excitement.

  "Sleep-in day." Turtle responded as he buried his snout into his arms and closed his eyes, making some effort to fall back asleep. They did abruptly shoot open as he was shoved off of his ledge though.

  "Get up, sleepyhead! The gong already rang once!"

  As if on cue, a resounding BONG! BONG! echoed through the hallway.

  "Let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go!" Kinkajou was almost dragging Turtle by the tail over the floor to the entrance. He desperately held on to his sleeping ledge before a final yank from Kinkajou had him tumble off. Turtle fully stood up and rubbed his eyes. Letting out a yawn, he turned to follow her.

  "Alright, I'm coming." he said, wistfully glancing at his sleeping spot before he trudged behind Kinkajou, who already bounded away. "Hey, wait up!"

  He exited the cave to see Qibli and Kinkajou standing in the hall, chuckling.

  "Not my idea," Qibli said, raising his talons innocently.

  "But you still went with it," Turtle grumbled, to which Qibli laughed.

  "Oh, you poor little dragon. You try to sleep in every day!" Kinkajou giggled, half-teasing him. "Though I wouldn't want to skip suntime either," she mused to herself.

  "You're smaller than me! And this wasn't a nap - this was resting for recovery." Turtle argued. "I need it to function."

  "So? What's the difference? They're both sleeping." Kinkajou responded. "Suntime is also resting to function."

  "I will never understand how you have this much energy and somehow sleep less than me." Turtle shook his head, yawning again. "Where's Alligator?"

  "He left with Blizzard for the main hall. I was about to wake you until Kinkajou showed up." Qibli responded, to which Kinkajou beamed mischievously.

  "With my absolutely brilliant idea!"

  "Yeah, yeah... let's just not be late for whatever this is." Turtle said. He yawned once more, and the three started walking down the hall. The little fire-globes lining the halls casted warm, multicolored light through their stained glass. They walked right by one of the announcement boards that hang regularly in the corridors. The message on it said "No classes today - meet in the Great Hall for..."

  "Do you really not remember what is happening today?" Qibli asked curiously, pulling Turtle's attention away from reading the message.

  "Uh... no?" Turtle responded, visibly confused. Well, I was about to. Too late now, he thought as the board ended up behind them.

  "We're going to join the scavenger outreach project on the Tail Peninsula! We're leaving today! We've been talking about this for weeks! How could you not remember?" Kinkajou was nearly vibrating with excitement whilst painting a myriad of colors on her scales. "I heard that it has the second biggest scavenger den in the world! What do you think it's like?"

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  "I've never been there either." Qibli admitted with a smile. "I wonder if we'll see the same weapon when we were helping Winter. I still want to figure out how it works for Thorn."

  "What happened again? I wasn't there." Turtle inquired. Qibli proceeded to recount the scene of the rest of Jade Winglet trying to contact the Talons of Peace, how the scavengers attacked them with a projectile weapon of some kind, and how Winter heroically saved them by using his frostbreath knock it off course. Qibli's storytelling skills kept Turtle and Kinkajou rapt with attention the whole walk. The noise of over thirty dragon voices came up ahead as Qibli was finished recounting the adventure.

  "You think we'll see Winter?" Kinkajou asked.

  "Oh, definitely. In his last letter he recounted how he participated in 2 outreach projects to some of the smaller scavenger dens. He wouldn't miss something like this for anything." Qibli answered. "I think he also hinted that he'll be bringing along some scavenger friends."

  The group entered the main hall, which was a mess of dragons and conversations. All the winglets were hanging out in their own groups. One and a half years ago, every dragon would've hung out with their tribe. But now Nightwings debated with Mudwings, Skywings laughed with Seawings, and Icewings joked with Rainwings. Jade Mountain Academy's mission was definitely coming to fruition.

  The trio spotted their winglet in a corner near the main entrance and walked over to join them. Peril, Moon, Alligator, and Blizzard paused their conversation and smiled at them. After losing Winter and Umber, the Jade Winglet had remained partially empty for a few months. Alligator and Blizzard had come to fill in the spots fourteen months ago - and while it wasn't the same with Carnelian and Umber gone, they fit in nicely with the winglet.

  "Hey guys!" Blizzard beamed. "You ready for the journey?"

  Blizzard was a little smaller than Qibli, although still larger than Moon and Kinkajou. His scales were borderline white - one could see the gray tinge if they looked closely. He had blue shading on his spine, and he seemed to have a permanent smile on his face, just like Kinkajou.

  "Not particularly," Turtle answered with yet another yawn, to which everyone laughed.

  "You have to exercise more, Turtle," Peril said. "You can't just sit around all day."

  "Then what am I doing in classes?" replied Turtle. Peril opened her mouth to respond, paused, and closed it.

  Hah. Turtle thought smugly, proud of his clever comeback.

  "Not today you can't. We're going to fly across the continent," Alligator pointed out.

  Alligator was the second biggest student in the winglet - only Peril was larger, but she was older too, so it kinda didn't count according to Turtle. His scales were the brown of spruce trees. He was quieter than the others - more like Moon and Turtle, really.

  "It won't be too hard anyways." Peril shrugged, careful to keep her wings from touching anything that wasn't stone.

  "Says the Skywing," joked Blizzard. "You'll probably fly circles around us."

  "Oh, I will. You are all too slow, and I'll be bored if I don't."

  "Is that a challenge?" Blizzard asked, to which Peril only smirked. "Oh, you're on."

  "You'll regret that," Qibli told Blizzard, who shrugged his wings. "Or more likely, your wings will."

  "Worth it."

  "No, it isn't."

  "It will be."

  "At least it's over the course of a few days. I can't imagine flying across the continent all in one go." Moon piped in. Turtle shivered at that comment, remembering when he had to chase Anemone before she did anything like their ancestor Albatross. "Where are we stopping again?"

  "We'll fly to a point two-thirds up the Winding Tail River where-" Qibli began.

  "Short version, please," Peril interrupted. "You can give details when we're sleeping." A few dragons in the winglet chuckled. Qibli shot her a funny look and sighed.

  "First day alongside the Winding Tail River, second day at Queen Moorhen's Palace, third day at Connection."

  "I don't care how long we'll be flying, so long as I get food along the way." Alligator said.

  A loud BONG! resounded through the main hall. Dragon voices died down as heads turned towards the main gong, Fatespeaker standing there with the mallet in her talons. She had been joined by the Dragonets of Destiny, of which Sunny stepped up.

  "Glad you are all here on time!" Sunny began.

  A Mudwing and a Skywing ran into the room just as she said those words, breathing heavily. Tsunami peeled off from the others, likely to scold them about not being late despite having the three warning gongs.

  With a quick glance at the two late students, Sunny continued. "Today begins the first day of our trip to the Tail Peninsula, where we'll be joining the Talons of Peace and volunteers from the Kingdoms in an outreach to one of the largest scavenger dens on the continent!"

  There was a smattering of applause throughout the hall. Some dragons seemed bored, as if they wanted to start flying, like Peril and most of the Skywings. Others were listening intensely to make sure they knew every detail. Qibli and Blizzard were giving their full attention. And naturally, there were those who weren't paying attention. Turtle fell into that last group, since he was busy trying not to fall back asleep.

  Clay stepped up and started speaking to the dragonets. "The journey will take us three days to complete, since not all of us are distance fliers." Some Skywings chuckled at that. "Today's goal is to make it to the Slithering Bends in the Winding Tail River by lunch. That way we all have enough time to rest for the next day. Remember to stay with your winglets, help your clawmates, not fly too fast..."

  Most of the dragons tuned Clay out as he droned on out what they should do to stay safe. A few whispering conversations started up - and were abruptly shut down after an angry glare from Tsunami, who had returned to the platform. Turtle was now really trying not to fall asleep. A lecture just always seems to do that to him. Especially history with Webs.

  Clay eventually wrapped up his speech about safety and rules. The Dragonets of Destiny stepped off the platform and made their way through the crowd - the winglets started murmuring excitedly as they reached the entrance.

  "Clay and Tsunami will be taking point today. Do not fly ahead of them. Fatespeaker, Sunny, and I will stay at the back to make sure no one falls behind." Starflight said. Clay and Tsunami launched into the air, followed one by one by the students. Once the final student spread their wings and took off, Fatespeaker took Starflight by the talon and led him into the air, with Sunny being the one bringing up the rear. With the sun illuminating the morning landscape and wind filling their wings, the thunder of dragons embarked on their journey.