Chapter 4
It had been one week. Over the course of that week, Dolphin had decided that it would be nice to have a permanent home, and they'd created one inside a cave. Also over that week, Startide had seen Gyrfalcon quite a few more times.
Now Startide was at Jade Mountain. She watched the dragonets going in, hoping to see Gyrfalcon. But there was no sign of him. She assumed he had already gone in. But it still made her nervous.
She went inside the mountain. A full-grown RainWing tapped her on the shoulder.
"Hi! I'm Kinkajou! Oh, wait, I know you! Hi, Startide! Welcome to Jade Mountain! If you want to know all of the school's secret passages-" she lowered her voice "Visit Moon and Qibli in the library. I'm telling you this because I already know and trust you. Here-I'm supposed to give you this. List of Winglets. Bye!" She shoved a scroll into Startide's talon. Startide raced to the library to look at it. And this is what it said.
JADE MOUNTAIN ACADEMY WINGLETS
Jade Winglet
IceWing: Gyrfalcon
NightWing: Startide
Sap-LeafWing: Oak
Poison-LeafWing: Moonseed
SeaWing: Gar
SkyWing: Oriole
SilkWing: Atala
SandWing: Fennec
HiveWing: Amber
MudWing: Nutria
RainWing: Ocelot
Silver Winglet
IceWing: Caribou
NightWing: Anger
Sap-LeafWing: Ivy
Poison-LeafWing: Drosera
SeaWing: Conch
SkyWing: Junco
SilkWing: Beetle
SandWing: Cheetah
HiveWing: Mosquito
MudWing: Beaver
RainWing: Elegance
Copper Winglet
IceWing: Wolverine
NightWing: Earthshaker
Sap-LeafWing: Maple
Poison-LeafWing: Pitcher
SeaWing: Turquoise
SkyWing: Crimson
SilkWing: Swallow
SandWing: Jackal
HiveWing: Aphid
MudWing: Copperhead
RainWing: Tucuxi
Gold Winglet
IceWing: Blizzard
NightWing: Deepseer
Sap-LeafWing: Birch
Poison-LeafWing: Veitchii
SeaWing: Marlin
SkyWing: Ladybug
SilkWing: Brushfoot
SandWing: Gazelle
HiveWing: Anasa
MudWing: Swamp
RainWing: Toucan
Quartz Winglet
IceWing: Crystal
NightWing: Underhand
Sap-LeafWing: Pine
Poison-LeafWing: Burmannii
SeaWing: Shrimp
SkyWing: Cardinal
SilkWing: Karner
SandWing: Poison
HiveWing: Junix
MudWing: Muskrat
RainWing: Anteater
Startide grinned at the fact that Gyrfalcon was in her Winglet. She walked up to Moon, and asked, "Excuse me. I'm not sure where my cave is."
Moon looked up from her scroll. "You're Startide. Am I right?" Startide nodded. Moon smiled kindly at her. "Second cave down on the right. Actually, that was my cave when I was here! Not that I slept there very often."
Startide smiled hesitantly at her, and went down to her cave.
The first thing that she noticed was that there were three beds: a hammock, an alcove lined with moss, and a rock ledge. The second thing was that there was only one other dragon in the room, and he was reading a scroll. The third thing was that that dragon was-
"GYRFALCON!" Startide cried, tackling him from his ledge. "Three Moons, Startide! You scared me!" he yelped. Startide laughed and stepped off of him. "Sorry. Dibs on moss! Oh, any idea who the other dragon in here is?"
"His name is Nutria. He's our MudWing. Wanna come to the Prey Center?" Gyrfalcon said.
"Sure." said Startide.
Apparently Clay hadn't learned his lesson about live prey, because there were chickens and cows (Quite a few cows) and deer and sheep and bears and all manner of other prey.
Gyrfalcon bounded over to a black bear and tried to get it's neck between his teeth.
It threw him off, cuffed him with it's paw, and ambled away.
"Ow. It is so much easier to hunt polar bears." Gyrfalcon groaned. Startide helped him up. "You okay?" she asked. He nodded. "It's just that bears are the only meat I know how to catch in here. Or, actually, I thought that I knew how to hunt bears. Turns out I don't."
"Ever tried fruit?" asked Startide. He shook his head. She grabbed his talon and dragged him over to the fruit pile. She handed him a honeydew melon.
"Eat it!"
Gyrfalcon tried too slice through it and ended splattering pale green fruit everywhere. He licked a bit off of his talon and wrinkled his snout. "Um-it's a bit too sweet-" Startide tossed him a mango. Eventually he had a pile of fruits he liked next to him.
Then Tsunami came in, followed closely by Clay and Sunny.
"ALRIGHT DRAGONS! THOSE OF YOU WHO HAVE BEEN HERE BEFORE, YOU KNOW WHAT'S ABOUT TO HAPPEN! THOSE OF YOU WHO ARE NEW, I HAVE TWO WORDS: FOOD FIGHT!" Tsunami yelled.
All of the older dragonets grabbed a piece of something. They seemed to be waiting.
Tsunami threw a banana at Clay.
Suddenly the room was chaos. Meat and fruit flew everywhere. A SkyWing came up to Startide and Gyrfalcon. "I'm Oriole. I'm in your Winglet. Winglets work together in this. Come on-let's gather everyone else. Except Gar. He's not here. He doesn't like food fights. Watch out for Gar, by the way. Oh, there's Nutria!" The SkyWing said, pointing to a MudWing who seemed to be listening to something in the ground.
"Hang on! I'm asking Ted how we can win this." Nutria said.
"Who's Ted?"asked Gyrfalcon.
"He's the guy in the ground. He gives me the answers." Nutria said. "Okay, Ted! Thanks!"
Then he jumped up and said, "I know how to win!"
Then he started screeching "CHICKEN LOAF!" and racing around the Prey Center, randomly throwing chickens-and only chickens. Startide threw a mango and he ran up and shouted, "ONLY CHICKENS!"
Needless to say, it was an afternoon to remember.
Bạn đang đọc truyện trên: Truyen4U.Com