'Oh yay. I'm in a winglet with HER.' Apricot growled sarcastically.

'Well I don't like you much either.' Storm replied, curling her tail barb menacingly. They had been arguing non-stop since they had left the Prey Center and I just wished they would stop. Turning away from the growling dragons I peered at the rest of our winglet. Shard was... quiet. That was one word to describe her. Her scales were silver, like a polar bears fur and she had pale white eyes that were always darting around nervously. Beach seemed proud and determined; though I wouldn't know too well as he seemed to only ever talk to Squelch, his best friend. He was Tsunami and Riptide's son and looked like he was only three; quite young to be coming to school. (I figured out that one dragon year is like three humans ones so Beach was only... 9?) Timeturner himself was only 4  but there still seemed to be a big difference between him and the young dragonet. Squelch was an... interesting character. He was small for a Mudwing, but not the same sort of quiet that Shard was. He was more... burly. Unusual. It was always hard to read his expressions and he only ever talked to Beach. Their scales blended together as they walked side-by-side; greenish blue and light umber. I trotted over to our Skywing, his scales were a dark red, almost brown. He had joined us later on; his name had not been mentioned on the scroll Starflight had been carrying but they had sorted it out eventually. His large wings were folded beside him, he wore golden chainmail around his chest and a small silver horn ring on his left head spike. 

'Hey, your Timeturner right?' His voice was low but chirpy, he seemed nice.

'Yup, that's me, the hybrid.' I grinned 'Who are you then?' I asked politely, walking beside him now.  

'Prince Cliff, but call me Cliff.' I stared open-mouthed at the Skywing before me, then I finally realized I looked like a fish and closed my snout. I lowered myself into a bow, placing one talon in front and lowering my head and wings. 

'Ha, no need for that. I've had WAY too much of that treatment in the palace.' He laughed, his white teeth glinting and bumped wings with me. I stumbled to the side; I hadn't expected him to be so strong. I smiled back. 

'I wonder when they'll choose the clawmates.' Suddenly Apricot was on my other side, right now she was pink, yellow and orange... Happy, excited and annoyed. I peered over her shoulder at Sandstorm who was snarling to herself, shooting death stares at Apricot. Heh, this winglet would be interesting. Cliff had begun talking to Apricot now, ducking his head to see her beneath my head:

'Wow! You can really change colours? That's epic!' 

'Your a PRINCE! That is WAYYY more amazing!' 

'I don't know... camouflage scales seem cooler.' And so on. I trotted ahead, catching up with Sandstorm. Come on Timeturner, be COOL. 

'Er, hey!' I called, padding next to her.

'Hi.' She grumbled. Her yellow frill was hanging over onto one side of her face, hiding one eye. I leaned over without thinking, brushing it away from her pale eye. She blinked at me and I blushed, ducking my head. Then I felt her wing brush mine and it tingled where she touched, like a bright light piercing a shadow. I watched her from the corner of my eye, was that on purpose...? I couldn't tell. She didn't move away however so maybe... I told myself not to get my hopes up. She probably just hadn't noticed. That's all it was.

'I wonder who our clawmates will be?' She said, breaking the awkward silence.

'I'm... I am not sure. Who- who do you want your clawmate to be?' I asked. 

'Well-' She broke off, watching me with those pale amber eyes...

'OUR CLAWMATES HAVE TO BE OF THE SAME GENDER!' Apricot said loudly to Cliff, though I knew she was actually telling us that. The prince gave her a quizzical expression, tilting his head to the side. Apricot whispered in his ear for second before he nodded and looked over at us, catching my eyes. I looked away quickly, deciding that my talons looked VERY interesting at that moment. Storm stuck her forked tongue at the Rainwing then replied:

'I KNOW THAT!' And so went the argument till we got to our dorm. 

We had to split up, the girls headed up the left tunnel and us up the right. I trotted through the entrance to our cave, ducking my head under the low arch and following Beach who was still chatting with Squelch.  I could feel Cliff's hot breath on my tail as I walked and I twitched it uncomfortably. Finally, Squelch and Beach had the sense to move out of the entrance and I trotted inside, looking around curiously. There were four corners, each like they had been taken from where they were meant to be and squished into a cave. In the corner nearest to me, left of the doorway, was a heap of mud which oozed in a small circle of rocks; keeping it trapped. That was PROBABLY Squelches. On the right side stood a rock ledge, a bookshelf below. Cliff trotted over to it, running his claws along the scrolls on the shelf, picking one and settling down on the ledge to read. I turned to see a Seawing dart past me, jump high in the air and come splashing down in a pool at the back of the cave. Small droplets attacked my talons and I shook them, scattering the water off. I glared at Beach as he flapped around in the clear water, making water flood around him. Grumbling I turned to find my sleeping spot. It was further back along the cave, near Cliff. It was lifted off the floor, a relief as the ground below was drenched. I wonder if that was planned or just a coincidence? It was covered in a substance like hay but looked much softer than that. I practically glided across the room, diving onto the ledge and curling up in the grass. Why was I so tired? I had hardly done anything today! Cliff and Squelch had begun arguing about who should be allowed to use the scrolls but I hardly noticed. 

I closed my eyes, letting sleep guide me away.