Greater Powers- An Empires S1 Wings of Fire AU

11:: Hunting and The Headteacher

Jimmy blinked as someone walked up next to him.

Previously, he had been sat on a ledge leading out into the forest, watching his friends attempt to do any form of hunting. He had already managed to hook a few salmon out of a lake nearby (supervised by the swimming teacher, a friendly SeaWing called xB) and now had nothing else to do but keep an eye on his friends' (at least, he considered them friends by now) attempts.

Joel and Lizzie were both unknowingly trying to catch the same chicken, each of them unintentionally chasing it closer to the other whenever they failed.

FWhip had managed to catch a hare but held onto it too long while showing off to Sausage and Gem and burnt it, reducing it down to ashes.

Pix and Pearl had both given up on chasing anything down and were working together to set up an elaborate trap with vines and brambles, and presumably were planning on chasing some smaller animals towards it.

Jimmy was watching FWhip attempt to put out a bush that he had set on fire while chasing down another rabbit when he saw someone sit next to him out of the corner of his eye.

He glanced sideways, blinking as his gaze landed on a very interesting looking dragon (he was pretty sure they were one of the hunting supervisors, so it made sense that they were were there).

Her wings were curved in a way reminiscent of a LeafWing's, and she had gold scales scattered across her body and the leaf shape at the end of her tail, but her scales were mostly black, although they did fade to a dark, dusky green at the end of her snout, wingtips, tail and talons.

She laughed awkwardly as she spotted him staring. "You're, uh, Jimmy, right? Friends with that 'dragonet of destiny' guy? My name is Cleo." Cleo? Isn't she one of the- animi teachers? I think? That's what Etho said, right?

"Ah. Uh. Cool. Why are you... here?" Jimmy asked slowly.

"I'm a hunting supervisor? It's my job? Gotta make sure none of you guys set anything on fire. Well. I suppose it's too late for that." Cleo said with a snort of laughter as she noticed FWhip's panicked attempts at putting out a fire. "Man, dragonets. Not a single brain cell to be had." What? The hybrid (presumably she was NightWing-LeafWing) noticed Jimmy's confused expression and corrected themself. "Uh- I mean- yeah. It's- my job. I am also the assistant headteacher!"

"Assistant to the headteacher." A voice corrected her as a somewhat elegant-looking NightWing joined them. "And yes, it is your job, so you should be supervising and helping where it's needed-" The taller dragon's violet gaze flicked to Lizzie and Joel's unknowing hunting collaboration. "-instead of chatting with a student. No offence." He paused. "Unless he's...?"

"No, he's not. It's one of them." Cleo muttered, nodding at all the other members of the Amethyst Winglet who were hunting (apart from Joey, who had begun declaring that he needed sun time every time physical activity was required- despite Sausage's claims that he had never one partaken in suntime before, but because he was part RainWing the school had to let him). "This is Jimmy!" The part NightWing added brightly. "Jimmy, this is the headteacher. Xisuma." Oh. The other animus teacher.

Xisuma wrinkled his snout, seemingly holding back a laugh, as Jimmy thought this. "Yes, that is me. It's, uh- nice to finally meet you, Jimmy!I've heard a lot about you! All good things, all good things, don't worry!" The NightWing added hastily at the part SeaWing's wary expression, suddenly seeming a lot less scary.

"Uh... yeah. Nice to meet you too... sir?" He'd never felt obligated to call any of the other teachers 'sir' or 'ma'am' before but he didn't want to risk offending the headteacher.

"Oh, you don't need to call me sir. Just Xisuma is fine- or X, if you'd like!" Xisuma glanced up at where Cleo and xB had both run over to put out FWhip's fire, which had grown out of control. "Who's the uh, flammable SkyWing?"

"That's FWhip. Firescales." Jimmy informed him, and X nodded.

"Ah. Noted. What about those two? Building a trap- that's really smart actually." The headteacher gestured to Pix, who was waiting by the trap, and Pearl, who was chasing a chicken towards it.

"Pix and Pearl. Both SilkWing hybrids- Pix is a SandWing-SilkWing and Pearl is a LeafWing-SilkWing- hang on, shouldn't you know this? You're the headteacher." Jimmy said with a slight frown.

"Ah, not exactly. I know a lot of names and tribes, but it's very difficult to connect them to faces. I don't have any classes, after all- I can't get to know students through that, can I?" Xisuma said with a laugh.

"Oh- fair enough. What do you know about me then?" Jimmy challenged, still trying not to be rude but also beginning to feel like Xisuma was a very fun dragon to be around.

"Uh..." Xisuma paused, producing a scrap of paper from seemingly nowhere and tapping it. "Jimmy, SeaWing-MudWing-RainWing hybrid, son of Caiman- RainWing-MudWing hybrid- and Quee- oh, that can't be right." The violet-eyed dragon squinted at the paper. "Guess my magic's off, that's weird."

"What is it?" The dull-scaled dragonet queried, tilting his head curiously and attempting to peek at the piece of paper.

"Uh- that your mother is Queen Amphirite of the SeaWings, but that can't be correct." Xisuma shook his head. "Anyway- who are the rest of your... clawmates?"

Jimmy paused, glancing around. "Uh... that's Lizzie, there's Sausage over there, Shelby's- abandoned hunting to look at mushrooms, it would appear, uh... Scott's the one chasing a bird up a tree..." He continued to list off the rest of the dragonets in his winglet, Xisuma having more interest in some than others- Katherine, for example, he watched for a few more moments than the others, or Joel, who he stared at blankly- the NightWing's gaze kept flicking back to Sausage and FWhip even after Jimmy was done with the list.

All in all, Xisuma seemed very nice, but still slightly odd.

And the headteacher's weird enchanted piece of paper had only confirmed Lizzie's suspicions that her mother cheated on her father.

Wooooo update also X and Cleo are here now :]]]

FWhip set a bush on fire L also Joey took advantage of the whole half RainWing thing to get out of doing any physical activity, I respect him for it 🫡

Comments and votes are appreciated :D I know I add that to every chapter, but they do really mean a lot (especially comments) and really help with motivation! :]

Sorry for any errors :>