With the slicing of wings in the air, and dragons roaring and grumbling as they were twisted and manuevered through the sky. Master Stormchaser had forced people to pair up for today's lesson, stating, "an ally can be the determiner between life and death."

The bright red dragon faced the icy colored one. The lightning dragon practically dwarfing the nimble venemous dragon. In a swift motion, the dragons charged at one another. It appeared like they were going to crash into one another but with a quick twist, Whiplash flipped herself upside down, the dragon's talons barely missing raking against each other. Aetherion whipped around and bolted upwards, wings pumping to push himself up in the sky. The low hum of wings partnered up with his as Whiplash fell in sync beside him as they climbed the sky, before both dipping into a divebomb. Spiraling around each other almost in a dance. The point of this lesson was to try and be in sync with your partner, so it was up to the rider's to try and predict the other's move.

Right before they crashed into the ground, the dragons flung their wings open. Gusts of wind ricocheting off from the sudden motion and sending anything not held down blowing backwards.

Seraph pumped a fist in the air, Riven still seemed a little embarassed. He hadn't practiced flying as much as these two had apparently. Even though class still lacked 5 minutes, Stormchaser's bell he always rings to signify class was over sounded out. Without much explanation asides from a very rushed mention of what to be expecting for next class, the tall man bustled back into the building and disappeared.

Riven arched a brow, the rhythmic flapping of Aetherion's wings the only sound he could hear. Aetherion still seemed rather tired. But at least he was actually up moving. "Hey, good job out...there..." his voice trailed off as he looked at Seraph. The petite blonde was keenly staring at the direction Master Stormchaser hurried off to. "Hmm? Oh, yeah, thanks. You too." was the only response he got before the bright red dragon quickly landed and the girl slipped off and stalked after the professor in one fluid movement. The rest of the class already seemed to be bustling off. One student, Hallow? He believed his name to be, did show some interest in Master Stormchaser's peculiar behavior.

Riven applied slight pressure with his legs, Aetherion landing on the ground with a thump. Dipping his left shoulder slightly to allow Riven to slide off, the male tried to hurry after the blonde but apparantly she had already slunk into the shadows. Wasn't she like trained to follow people though? Cool skill to have. He mused to himself. He was going to have to rely on his skills to get him anywhere, just like Seraph had. His skills were in charisma and people though. Acting casually, Riven began walking down the hallway. Flashing an occasional smile and friendly greeting with any person he came across.

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"But what are we supposed to do about the prophecy?"

Master Stormchaser's voice was hushed into a whisper. Seraph had managed to slip herself into a small crevice right outside the Headmaster's office. This is where she stalked Master Stormchaser to. Well, stalk seems like a harsh word. Stealthily follow. Yeah that sounds less....sketchy?

Luckily, Stormchaser still had his arrogance and didn't think to firmly close the door behind him. Only pushed it shut as he passed through the doorway in a hurry and there was a slight sliver in the doorframe she tuned her ears in to listen to.

"Elysia, have you found anything?" Headmaster Draven Stormblade's raspy voice addressed their fretful librarian. Elysia Scrollkeeper was extremely knowledgable, especially about the stuff in her library, but she was easily worried and often required any passers to fully clean their arms and hands upon entry and exit of the library.

"There are only a few books and scrolls I found that might be any help. Vespara! It would be nice to have some help! You are the one who originally told us about this prophecy!" the stressed librarian snapped in a huffy manner.

"HEY! Do not speak to my sister that way! It is not her fault she had that vision." Selene Moonshadow snapped in response.

--

"Hey, what-" the male's voice was quickly cut off and met with a hand snapped over his mouth and his body yanked down into the crevice. Riven has never considered Seraph capable of harm like other student's whispered about, but in this moment, he wasn't sure.

The voices from the professors stopped. And the door was clicked shut with a rather obnoxious shove. Almost like they wanted to make an announcement they were shutting the door.

Seraph pushed the larger male away. Flashing him a rather angry glare as she stalked off.

Riven looked around like he was totally innocent and had no idea why she was upset. Hurrying after her, "What happened? Why did you do that?" He asked the shorter female as he fell into step beside her.

Seraph rolled her eyes. Annoyed Mr. Popular had interrupted her investigation. "I was trying to find out what has the staff all jumpy. When I went to the stables this morning Bronn about had a heart attack when I showed up, even though he knows I get up there early every morning. And Cedric hadn't watered his elephant ears yet this morning and he does that first thing. Not to mention Master Stormchaser's odd behavior. Something is going on and the staff knows but is not telling the students." she spoke low, almost in a whisper and didn't look at Riven when she spoke either. Drawing the least amount of attention as possible to their conversation. Although it was probably weird seeing the school weirdo with the school's hearthrob golden boy.

Riven blinked as he took in her information. He definitely needed to socialize more than the normal students he conversed with. Half the time they talked about pointless things or talked crap on other students. But in the short times he'd spoken to Val, she had been brilliant and spritely. Talking to Seraph now, he realized she wasn't this undercover assassin everyone talked about. She could be extremely useful for information. He never would have thought of, or had the capabilites, to silently follow a professor as adventure-experienced as Master Stormchaser.

Whatever happened though, Riven hoped he could be apart of it. Maybe he could fill Valentina in? This could be a chance to have an excuse to speak to her. Now he just had to think of a reasonable way to bring it up to her.

Riven regarded Thorn with a slight amused look as he watched him grab Valentina's attention. The pretty redhead and her dragon both seemed not too amused at Thorn's inability to tell Valentina what's going on. Out of the corner of his eye he could see a flash of red as the familiar snake-like dragon took off across the grounds. Only a shimmery flash of red before they disappeared behind the borders of the window.

But before he could register what was happening, Thorn had grabbed his arm and was currently pushing him towards Valentina claiming that he, "could tell her what was going on." Seriously? He could hear Aetherion rumbling some laughter and the rider shot his dragon an annoyed look. Clearing his throat, he turned back to Valetina. THINK!! He screamed at himself as his pale blue eyes searched her face, as if looking for some form of an answer before finally speaking, "Umm.. yes, so shy...haha..." he shot another look at Thorn as his comrade mouthed "sorry" at him, the pale dragon behind him only seemed to increase his amusement. Riven could practically feel his mocking smile in his brain. "So Thorn and I, and another student, have discovered something pretty interesting, but I -we- thought, you could help." not his slickest save, but to be fair, what was he supposed to say? "Hey, I followed Seraph because I was curious and she scared me slightly and Thorn overheard us and now we're all a team?"

Aetherion only seemed to increase his laughter before the fiery red dragon came bounding over to where him and Obsidian were. His yellow eyes looking over the dragon as she came bounding over and was very excitedly talking about some kind of sky tag? He flicked a look to Obsidian as if to make sure the darker dragon was also participating in this. Aetherion wasn't necessarily grumpy, but he was lazy. And flying around playing that game seem like a lot of work.

But before he could respond to anything, Riven walked by, adjusting the saddle slightly before pulling himself into it. "We've all planned to meet at the willow." he looked back to Valentina. If this actually worked, imagine all the time they could all spend together now? He was almost... excited? Was that this feeling? Finally having a chance to get to know Valentina better, Thorn seemed cool, Seraph... well, he didn't know what to think about her yet, she seemed very much like a wild card. But surely she's committed enough to curiosity that they wouldn't have to worry too much.

With a nudge, the pale dragon only grumbled a slight disapproval at being forced to fly, again, even though they just got out of a flying class. His wings pumping them into the air until they gained just enough altitude to soar over to the willow.

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Whiplash landed with a silent hush, as the grass beneath her fell to make way for the red dragon. Seraph slipped off, running a head through to tame some of the ash blonde locks. Her gaze ran up the willow, the magical bark seemed to be swirling. The old story of this willow was about an elf, who sought knowledge about everything and vowed to lock himself away to avoid distractions so he could read and learn. Elven kind had always been the most gifted with magic, their kind practically infused with it in their blood, whereas most humans got lucky if they were able to weild magic. Like many of the students here, but some students did have elven backgrounds.

Seraph stepped forward, almost entranced, and laid a hand on the bark of the tree. It was almost like feeling magic rippling under her palm. But before she could recoil her hand back, the tree started...moving? The bark began to actually ripple, Whiplash was on her feet bristling and baring her venemous fangs, but she couldn't see what was causing her rider's disturbance. Part of the tree fell away, revealing a door that looked like it was fused out of the tree. Whiplash lowered her wings slightly when the door revealed itself. Dragon and rider exchanged unsure glances before Seraph reached for the handle, the door swinging open. Revealing a narrow set of stairs, not large enough for dragons though. Whiplash voiced her uncertainty, but of course Seraph didn't listen, why would she? It's Seraph. The smaller girl began climbing the stairs. Admiring the intricacies of the wood detail before she reached a hatch. With a push, she lifted the hatch up and allowed the door to fall back to reveal an open home. It was adorable and cozy, like it had never been abandoned in the first place. The wood and the branches of the willow made up all of the structural support, and gaps in the branches served as windows. She could see out, but no one knew they were there. This would be a great place to hold super secret meetings! And, it helped that all of the scrolls and books the elf hoarded here all seemed to be intact. After all, the willow reveals itself to those who need it.

The bright red dragon looked to the new arrivals, the deep black dragon and his rider. Her vivid purple eyes not giving any hints away, the only acknowledgement was her tail tip flicking back and forth slightly, reminiscent of a cat. Whiplash quickly went back to studying the tree. Whiplash was a relatively carefree dragon, but she didn't like not being able to see her rider.

--

Seraph was sitting on the floor with a scroll in her hand that she was lazily skimming through when she heard footsteps approaching. Her jade green eyes meeting the new face. Thorn, the guy from earlier that spoke to her and Riven. She had to manually remind herself to relax her muscles that instinctively tensed up at the sound of footsteps. Old habits die hard apparently. Suddenly becoming increasingly aware that they were just standing here in awkward silence, Seraph glanced back to her scroll but kept her senses tuned to any more movement. Was she supposed to say something? Is that the polite thing to do? Was Riven going to be here soon? He knew how to talk to take up silences. Who was the other student they knew they went to ask to join them?

Breathe... She heard the voice rumble in her head. Whiplash could hear all her thoughts swirling unfortunately.

"but out." she muttered aloud, then remembered she was in fact not alone then just hoped Thorn wouldn't notice.

"So... who was the other student you and Riven went to find?" she finally spoke aloud, looking up to Thorn with an unidentifyable expression on her face.

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The glistening red dragon, and deep black dragon were already here. Both seemed to be rather irritated their rider was gone. Aetherion landed with a lazy thud, dropping his shoulder to allow his rider to slip off. The sunlight beams filtering through the willows swaying branches were causing his pale scales to dance with different light refractments. Aetherion gladly went to find a comfy spot to hang out while his rider ventured up to the willow, the same door opening up to him as well. Luckily the door only appeared for those in need of it, so any passerby's would think there was just some dragons hanging out under the willow.

--

Riven was hesitant to push the door open to the stairs. Was this a good idea? What if this was like a trap? Oh who cares, who would even set up a trap? Riven climbed up the stairs to find Seraph and Thorn already waiting on them. "What's up everyone," he gave a small smile, happy to just be included really. He came in and found a spare spot to plop on the ground while he swept his pale gaze around the cozy environment. Ooh there was even a small kitchen! Maybe he could try and pick up some of his cooking projects he was working on back home! They wouldn't let him in the staff kitchen so he often just didn't cook while he was at the academy.

"So, Seraph mentioned she heard something. We've all seen the professors-"

"And Bronn." Seraph chimed in like she just made some big announcement.

Riven nodded as he continued, "and... Bronn... have all been acting off. Granted, this is the start of a new semester, but they've never acted like this before. So, brainstorm!" Riven couldn't even recall a time he'd been this excited. It was such a mediocre thing to be excited about, sitting with people he barely even knew talking about something going on at the school but it was nice to just be around people who weren't fluffing themselves up to seem cooler. Riven only worked at his home, and at the academy, if he ever went out, it wasn't with actual friends. Riven paused for a moment, it might be a little too early to call them all friends, but he was hopeful.

Seraph shrugged as she put away the scroll she was aimlessly looking at to focus on the conversation. "I could hear the headmaster, the moonshadow sisters, Stormchaser, and the librarian in the headmaster's office discussing something about a prophecy. Scrollkeeper sounded like she was on the verge of a heart attack." Seraph snorted with amusement. Waiting for other responses. She didn't have much to go off since Riven ruined her eavesdropping.