Chapter Text
As Torpedo locked tails with her mother, Avisa, she held back tears.
Seeing her daughter's eyes welling up, Avisa wrapped her forearms around Torpedo in a sentimental hug. They were both crying openly now, and the school headmistress, Queen Coral's daughter Tsunami, was trying not to look too uncomfortable at the scene in front of her.
Seeing Princess Tsunami looking sad, Torpedo pulled away from her mother. "Bye, Mom," she told Avisa tearfully. "I'll see you...well, I don't know. Sometime soon."
Avisa nodded. "Goodbye, my sweet Tory. See you soon."
She waved as Princess Tsunami led Torpedo inside the academy.
Tsunami soon disappeared, leaving Clay and Sunny to give the new students a tour of the mountain. Torpedo saw the princess a little while later, though, shouting at some muscular SkyWings.
"Oi! Keep it down!" Tsunami yelled at the dragonets. Looking scared, they shut up and began muttering among themselves, casting dark glances at the frowning face of Tsunami.
Torpedo met all the teachers and most of the students, but all the names blurred. She only remembered a couple, though; teachers named Qibli, Moonwatcher, Sunny and Starflight, and a few students, mostly SeaWings she'd met in the oceans of Pyrrhia.
Everyone was super nice, though, except for a couple of haughty IceWings and the show-off SkyWings from earlier. Torpedo found her best friend Pearl quickly, but she was in Gold Winglet, and Torpedo in Jade Winglet.
They could still hang out together, though, just not all the time. The goal of the academy was to make friends among the other tribes, and have fun with the other dragonets.
I'll try my best, Torpedo thought. No promises, though. She wasn't sure she wanted to be friends with Lumi or Eira, the IceWings that distanced themselves from everybody. They didn't seem very nice.
Moonwatcher showed Torpedo to the common room in Jade Winglet area, and introduced her to her winglet.
They were Blackdrift the NightWing, Hawk the SkyWing, Audun the SandWing, Vinea the RainWing, Eira, and Sienna the MudWing.
To Torpedo's relief, she was not clawmates with Eira, but with Sienna and Audun instead. Vinea and Eira were together, and Hawk and Blackdrift were sharing a sleeping cave.
Moonwatcher explained the short but not non-existent list of rules, and asked if there were any questions. No one raised their hand.
"Well, then, go on! Get settled!" Moonwatcher smiled at them. "Oh, and please, call me Moon."
The winglet nodded, then scurried off to their respective sleeping caves to unpack.
When she got to her sleeping cave, Torpedo could instantly tell which bed was hers. Well, there were only two sleeping places in the room. Hers was more the bed that wasn't there.
There was a small pond in the corner farthest from the opening in the cave, but it was just the right size for an average-sized SeaWing.
"Wow," Torpedo whispered in awe. "This place is so cool."
It really was.
Her clawmates arrived a little later. Probably catching up with friends, Torpedo thought. She suddenly felt a pang of guilt. Speaking of, I should check on Pearl. Not that she needs my supervision, but...I miss her.
So Torpedo said a quick hello to her clawmates, then scurried out of their sleeping cave, looking for the Gold Winglet's hall.
After a slight mishap with a large NightWing and getting a little turned around in the winding hallways, Torpedo found the Gold Winglet, and proceeded to ask after Pearl. "Would you know where she is?" she pleaded with the SandWing, a kind male by the name of Griffon.
He shook his head. "Sorry. Haven't seen Pearl in a while."
Torpedo asked the winglet's RainWing, too. Ambi, the RainWing dragonet, answered her excitedly. "Oh, yeah, I saw her! She's my clawmate! She's in our sleeping cave, I think. See ya!"
Torpedo was already rushing towards the sleeping cave with the sign over it; Ambi, Pearl and Dawn.
Inside, she saw Pearl chatting with a SkyWing that must be Dawn, placing her seaweed sheet on her rock slab that served as her bed.
Torpedo recognised the style instantly: it was the way her mother, Raina, always made Pearl's bed. Torpedo herself had slept on that kind of bed many times at Pearl's place. Torpedo cleared her throat, trying to get Pearl's attention. It worked.
"Oh!" Pearl turned around, flashing her light strips in Aquatic. Torpedo! How are you?
Good, Torpedo flashed back. You?
Pearl beamed. Amazing.
Dawn cleared her throat. "Ahem, ladies?"
The dragonets turned to look at her.
"Oh, sorry!" Pearl apologised. "This is Torpedo. Torpedo, Dawn. Dawn, Torpedo."
Torpedo and Dawn touched their front talons together.
Pearl beamed. "There you go! Now you're introduced!"
The dragonets all smiled at each other.
Torpedo's days began to fall into a routine: eat breakfast, get ready for classes, spend the day in class with breaks for lunch and outside time, then eat dinner and go to bed. And repeat.
She made friends with her winglet, and they now had an unbreakable bond. They were devoted to each other, and Torpedo felt like the dragonets were the sisters and brothers she'd never had.
She'd walk to class with Sienna, Audun and Vinea, and sometimes even Eira. Torpedo was surprised that there was an affectionate side to the frosty IceWing, and took a while to adapt, but Eira had turned out to be a wonderful, loving friend.
It turns out that Torpedo was wrong about her after all.
Torpedo was happy, though, and that was what mattered.