Dissapointed that the conversation was short and they didn't get any new information, Axel trudged over to the Stables, twisting the ring on their right ring finger that was made to look like a dragon's skull. Most of the students thought that the ring was for Axel's gurnge aesthetic, but in reality, the ring was to surpress Axel's Surges.

Backtracking, the Steel family had been around for centeries, and had been close friends with the Hawkins family. All of the ability users (as well as Axel had known, there has only been 3 before them) had been Photokinesis, and had specialized in training Light dragons. Axel, on the other hand, had Umbarkinesis, and a random, uncanny ability to be able to read other people exceptionally well. They could tell something was distraction that girl, Clem was her name? She seemed like an okay person, pretty interesting, and Axel hoped to talk to her again, hoping to make a new friend. Axel's Umbrakinesis had gotten Axel paired with some dangerous dragons in the past. As a 1st year, they had been with a water dragon. 2nd year, a Wind, third, Dark, 4th, poison, and 5th, Dark. Axel had trained all their life to be a Dragon handeller, and was great at it. Axel had never gotten to train an Earth dragon, so they were extremely excited. Entering the Stables, they looked around at the steel doors for the name plate "Dust Bunny". Finding it at the back at the Stables, Axel took a deep breath and pulled out a handful of ripe mountain berries from a container in their bag. Quickly opening into the doot and slidding into the stable, Axel closed the door and waited for their eyes to ajust. They could see remarkably well in the dark. In the back corner of the stable was an emerald green dragon with a light brown head and dark forest green wings. Axel smirked, then threw the berries at him, truing to ignore the dull twang of pain in their shoulder as they did so. The dragon snapped them up mid-air and returned to glaring at his new trainer. "Hello Dust Bunny." Axel said slyly. "We're going to have fun together, arn't we?"

...

After a while, Axel dicided to head to the Headmaster's Office, Entering the Headmaster's Office after knocking and getting permission to enter, Axel bowed respectfully, a habit of theirs. "Headmaster."

"Axel Steel, welcome back to the Academy!" She said warmly. "If I may ask, why wern't you on the main ferry to the Island? I know Ms. Fern was excited for your return." Axel winced at the metion of Ari waiting on them, and smiled sheepishly.

"Knew I had to answer that eventually." Axel mumbled, straightening. More clearly, they said, "I was in a little snowboarding accident in the mountains this summer. Took a tumble and cracked my shoulder against a rock." They tapped the shoulder brace on their left shoulder. "It didn't break, just some fracture cracks and lines, nothing really serious. I only need to wear this brace for a couple more weeks." The Headmaster nodded, then smiled.

"Very well. Thank you for checking in with me. You know I like to make sure all of my students get here safe. Now, you might want to go find Ms. Fern. She'll be very glad to see you."

Axel grinned, then bowed once more. "Yes Ma'am. Thank you Ma'am." They straightened right more, and then exited, running across the field to the Dorms building, hyper-excited to see Ari.

Clem/ 5th / Dragon: Solar

Clem gritted her teeth as she worked a scalpel around a giant thorn imbedded in her forearm. Whenever she Surged, the plants or animals she influenced either didnt heed her commands, or were downright hostile towards her. This time, a bramble she had accidentally created during the surge shot out at her and got a two inch long thorn into her arm before she got rid of it. She would probably have to avoid the headmaster now, because she saw her an hour after she surged, and she was madddddd. At the very least, no one seemed to be aware that it was Clem who had caused the plant growth, so for the moment she was in the clear. She wasn't too worried about the cut, since with the proper amount of magical influence, she could get it to go away in an hour or so. Having the uncommon skill of Primieval magic definitely was handy with injuries, since with practice, she had learned how to heal them in an hour or two. What she was really worried about though, wasn't that she had Surged, which was normal, but what she had made appear when she did. She had noticed multiple toxic members of the nightshade family, which were not just deadly if ingested, but didn't grow in the mountains. And her magic couldn't be blamed, cause she could only grow things that were already there, and the limits still held while surging. But what was really weird, was that when she reached out to try and get the thorn out without having to cut her arm open, all she felt was an empty presence, like it had never been alive at all, meaning that she couldn't manipulate it. After a few painful minutes of slicing around the thorn, it fell out, and clattered on the floor of her room. Clem then tapped into her imaginary "well" of magic, and began getting it to heal. "Wait, when that other student said Ari, did they mean Arrietty?! Oh man, I totally missed that! I don't know where she is, but I totally could have given them some pointers on where she might be! Oh man, I REALLY hope I didn't just blow my only chance of making ACTUAL friends this year and not just- Actually, I am NOT thinking about that right now. That is not a good mentality, especially around dragons who sense emotions." Clem thought. She then proceeded to unpack her stuff, which wasn't a lot. A chemistry set, some books on animal anatomy and advanced botany, and her prized seed collection. And at the center of it all, the rarest plant known to humankind, the awe inspiring, unbelievable, literally defies the laws of nature, crimson nightshade. Not one of the dangerous ones, but still awesome. What's so cool about it, you might ask? Well this plant is rumored to only grow when in the presence of pure, untainted, comes from the celestial bodies themselves, star magic, which was only ever mentioned in old books describing the first dragon, who used star magic to create the first plants, including the immortal crimson nightshade, which she held in her hands. Anyways, she put the beautiful flower in its specially made terrarium and gave it a healthy dose of magic, and then slung her backpack over her shoulder, complete with most of her portable scientific gear. It was approaching dusk, and when the sun went down, she would have the impenetrable blackness that surrounded Brighton Heights at night as a foolproof cover. The benefits of being a Primieval magic user was that she could see almost perfectly in pitch blackness. The more she had put thought into it, the more impossible it seemed that those flowers could have grown. For one, those flowers only grew in the humid wetlands, where they flourished in huge numbers, since their seeds couldn't survive the cold. And Clem knew for sure that she was incapable of growing plants that weren't there, and there was no way nightshade, foxglove and hemlock seeds managed to find their way up to the Academy. So, under the cover of night, Clem was going to sneak over to where the plants had been, collect as many samples as possible, and return to her dorm to study them. But for now, Clem was PRETTY hungry, and she had heard that the food bar was even better than last year. Last years food bar was pretty good, so THIS years food bar should be approaching completely edible. Maybe. Hopefully?

Clem/ 5th / Dragon: Solar

" Okay, this years food WAS NOT what I thought it would be like. In that it was actually kind of good. Usually, the food tastes worse than what the dragons eat. Honestly though, the dragons get pretty good meals." Clem thought as she finished of the last of the warm bowl of soup in front of her. She then packed her stuff up and left the pleasantly heated dining hall, and basically got smacked by the freezing air outside. The downside of Brighton Heights being on the beautiful mountainside was that during the fall and winter, it got very, very, VERY cold at nightfall. Most first years didn't realize this, and were unprepared for the biting cold of the mountains. Now that it was Clems fifth year however, she had remembered to pack for the snow and cold. It was cool to watch the aurora that appeared when the night was especially clear though. Speaking of which, it was almost night, even though it was actually around five in the afternoon. It got dark quickly during the colder months. Clem decided to take a less conventional route, and instead of going down the long and winding path leading to the dorms, she slid down a rocky slope near the dining hall and began walking through the pine forest near it. There were two things she wanted to do in the forest. One, look around for animals or plants to add to her book of species in the mountains. Two, try and figure out any way that non native plants could have grown, and also root out any invasive species so that the ecosystem remained pristine and healthy. It had been awhile since she had last been in the dense forest. Clem never worried about finding her way back, since the plants and animals here recognized her, and would always show her the way back. Clem stopped, and then surveyed the ground. " That one. There is definitely some thing new here. Maybe a bear or another large creature?" Clem said to herself, right before dashing of in the direction of the imprints left by the unfamiliar creature. Suddenly, there was a forty foot gap between one set of imprints and the next. Clem had a sinking feeling when she reached the rocky outer cropping where the imprints stopped completely. It dawned on her that maybe, just MAYBE, it wasn't a bear, or a ram, or any other typical forest creature that you might randomly encounter. Her fear was confirmed when above her, something started scraping its long, spiked tail on the rocks. Her eyes widened in fear when she looked up to see the source of the sound, something you never wanted to encounter alone in the woods. " Why did you have to go into the woods without telling anybody? WHYYYYYYYY CLEM?! It isn't that hard!" Was all Clem had time to think before she turned and ran from the now airborne, fully grown, clearly hungry, Wyvern. She knew that her only chance to escape was to try and distract it with magic, but she wasn't currently able to focus and use it. After hearing the flapping of the giant creature grow closer, she turned tried to summon as much magic as she could in about half a second, and was about to release it. Then she got a good look at it and started laughing as the Wyvern tackled her. And then proceeded to lick her face like an over exciteable puppy would upon seeing its owner. Yep. Apparently, the very same clutch of Wyverns that got Clem into the Academy had followed her there. Clem petted the Wyvern, and gave it some leftover food that she had brought with her. " Hopefully nobody else noticed these guys. THAT would definitely warrant an explanation from the headmaster. Okay you guys, it's awesome that your all here, all seven of you, but you kinda need to go before somebody notices that your all here. So, can you fly back to the Mainland? Pretty please? With extra whipped cream and dragon fruit on top?" Clem asked. She smoothed the Wyverns spines down, and the largest one purred in agreement, then roared to its siblings to take off. Clem tossed them some jerky, and watched as they flew off into the horizon. " Okay, that was nice. Now what was I doing? Oh right, trying to find out why those plants were here when they shouldn't have been. Okay. Let's figure this out before it gets too late." Clem thought before heading deeper into the woods. What a weird day.

Axel felt joy threaten to overflow when they saw Ari. They hugged her like they hadn't seen her in years, even if in reality, it was only a couple of months.

"My summer was...interesting." Axel said sheepishly, rubbing the back of their neck. "I fell while snowboarding in the mountains and cracked and dislocated my shoulder." They laughed. "It took all of my persuasion skills to get the doctor to let me come to the Academy at the beggining of the year. They were worried about me cracking, my shoulder again, making the injury worse if I was thrown from my new dragon, but I told them I would be fine, and we have medics here too." Axel grinned at Ari. "What do you mean, ' I don't even know if I can ride her'? You're Ari! You can ride any dragon! I got Dust Bunny, a young earth type." They said. "He's really mean and cunning, so that makes us a great pair!"

Axel slung an arm over Ari's shoulder. "Let's go fine our Dorms, eh? I wanna see how they look like this year!"

As they were walking, Axel asked Ari, "How was your summer?" They were wondering what had happened since they had last seen each other. Axel felt the happiest they have been in a while. They were out of the white, sterile rooms of the hospital, they were at their favorite place in the whole world, they had a challenging dragon, and they were with their favorite person ever.

Yeah, this year was going to be fun.

Arrietty's eyes widened at the thought of Axel dislocating their shoulder. She chuckled whenever they reassured her he was alright. "Well, If I'm going to ride her she is going to need to shoot up!" Ari laughed as she walked to the academy with Axel. "Those for the girls the dorms last year were" Ari gagged. They really were horrible, it was so tight, she swore. She felt bad for the 6th year. "Well if you really want to know...I moved. Axel, it's horrible. And not to mention I will be doing online schooling this year!" Arrietty groaned. She looked around once inside and smiled, it's good to be back. Ari looked at Axel and smiled, honestly they were her favorite person. Even at home, her friends there were not as good as him...but again, were they just friends? Well, it didn't really matter to Ari, they just liked being around Axel.

Axel winced, knowing how bad moving and online schooling was. "Oof, that's really bad, I feel sorry for you," they said, half joking. Getting to the Dorms building, Axel turned to Ari. "You wanna take the stairs or the climbing wall?" A couple of years ago, while Axel was a second year, they had installed a climbing wall inside the building that lead up to all nine floors. Don't worry! There were think, see through plastic/glass floors that you needed to press a button on the top of the wall to open. You also had a harness, so it was completely safe. The school installed it at first to help the little hatchlings and wyrmlings to grow stronger and practice flying, but soon enough, students got permission to do the same thing. Many students used the wall to get stronger and develope agility and quick stratigy planning.

Axel loved the climbing wall, since they loved climbing in general. They were a quick climber too, after years of practice.

But it was up to Ari, and Axel just wanted to spend some time with her.

~

Ari smiled, "Climbing wall.". She smirked before racing to the wall, well this was going to be fun. Arrietty didn't believe she had done this last year. Maybe? Well if she had she doesn't remember, Ari grabbed a harness and put it on. She hooked herself onto the belay and then laughed, "Come on!". She remembered to chalk her hands before starting to climb, Ari was a bit surprised at what speed she climbed at. It was pretty fast for a girl that had thought herself to be a bit rusty. "Axel, Im going to have blisters after this and it's going to be all your fault." Ari joked and then laughed, she paused to look down at Axel. "I always thought it interesting that us kids just started using this, I mean. It's for hatchling dragons! Oh god, what would my parents say?". Ari laughed, her parents would never allow her to be doing this, "You could fall, break your neck even!" they would say. Well, they weren't here now where they. So Arrietty could practically do anything.

Axel laughed, slipping on a harness easily, hooking theirself in and skipping the chalking part.

I might fall cause of that, but I should have enough experience not too. They thought, throwing themself at the wall.

Quickly gaining on Ari, they called up to her, "If you get blisters, I will personally nurse you back to health myself, alright?"

Getting to where Ari had paused on the climbing wall, Axel said, "We're practicly dragons. We just lack the wings and abilities.

Axel felt a little unconfortable, knowing about their ring and Umbrakinesis. Abilities in humans were rare, and it was collectivly looked at as a bad omen. Axel hadn't told anyone but the Headmaster, and he knew to keep it quiet. They didn't use it during training while around anyone else, either. Axel felt bad about not telling Ari, but they didn't want to lose her. Realizing that they were frowning, they quickly smiled and said. "Now, C'mon! We still got six floors to go!" They let one arm swing off the wall and smashed their hand on the button, the glass/plastic roof of the wall sliding slightly back, just engough for the students to squeeze through.

~

Ari could feel the tension in the air for a second, it confused her. She wondered what had happened...She climbed up to meet Axel and squeezed through the door space. Ari groaned whenever she remembered how many more levels they had to g to get to the doors. "Why do they make this place so big?! A first-year could get lost" She gave a small laugh before holding out her hand to help Axel. "I wish we had wings though...that would be great. You would always feel so free. You could literally get away from almost anything." She dazed out for a second and then snapped back into reality. Ari smiled at them, and with her hand still out she said, "Come on, lets continue.".