Reflections & Pounding Hearts (a Wings of Fire Fanfiction)

~ Chapter 1: Arrival ~

Helix let a deep exhale escape her snout in hopes of relieving some of her stress as she turned to head down the first tunnel to her left, leading her away from the Great Hall of Jade Mountain Academy.

Unsure though if she was going the right way to find her dorm room, the young SeaWing turned a pair of squinting magenta eyes down toward the personal map she had received from the school aide.
She was *pretty* sure the friendly SandWing had told her to go to the first tunnel on the left, third cave on the right... Checking the map over for the section of tunnels that lead down to the student dorms, Helix let herself relax a bit as she spotted the area she had entered, and noticed that she seemed to indeed be going in the correct direction.

With that particular object of concern melting away after consulting her map, Helix redirected her attention to where her talons were stepping as she walked further on through the slowly downward-spiraling tunnel, enjoying the relative quiet of this passageway in contrast to the Great Hall -which had already been quite filled with other dragons milling about and exploring- along with the warmth of the colorful glass globe lights that were hanging from the ceiling, casting bright, comforting greens, yellows, blues, and a variety of other colors that lit up the passageway.

Being a dragonet who especially loved the vibrant colors from all the different types of life she got to witness under the ocean's surface, she found the tinted lighting was both almost familiar in a certain way, and just quite pleasant as well, with its large variety of hues. She had heard about the colored glass globe lights beforehand from the pieces of writing that she'd read about Jade Mountain Academy and it's founders' upbringing, but to actually *see* the tunnels lit up like this was just sort of astonishing in a way.

-I wonder how they got enough of those globes to string up through every hallway in the school... Did someone specific make them, or were they purchased somewhere?- Helix pondered over this somewhat absentmindedly as she progressed through the tunnel, ducking past and weaving around the few other dragonets she passed by here and there, who either seemed to potentially be on their way to their own dorms, or simply wandering through the tunnels like many of the other dragons were doing right now, since today was supposed to be a bit of an 'exploring day' before classes started in the morning, as the SandWing from earlier had informed her.

Helix was actually quite thankful to be given a day where she was free to roam and get used to the caves a bit more, but the fact that there were so many strange dragons everywhere still left her feeling quite a bit on edge, thus why the young SeaWing felt relief flooding through her as she finally approached the third cave on the right that she'd seen so far.
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The first thing Helix noticed as she passed by the pair of stalactites hanging over the sides of the doorway was that the three glass globes -one of which was a pretty teal ocean blue, the other a bright purple, and the last one a sort of warm golden-brown color- which were attached to the ceiling of the room appeared to already have a flame flickering in each of them, and as the SeaWing dragonet turned her gaze to take in the rest of the cave, she was somewhat startled as her eyes landed on the form of another dragon standing in the room, off to the side of the cave entrance, observing a familiar-shaped scroll within her talons that Helix quickly realized was one of the welcome scrolls that the school aide had been handing out to each student upon their arrival.

Immediately, her earlier relief faded and was now quickly replaced by nervousness as she unconsciously held her breath for a few moments, silently working up the courage to say something.
"Oh, um, hi... Are you my clawmate...?" The teal-scaled SeaWing said, hoping that she hadn't spoken too softly, as she knew that she had a tendency to be a bit quiet when talking with other dragons, even, sadly, when using Aquatic sometimes as well. Thankfully though, despite her worries, the other dragonet seemed to hear her just fine, and the MudWing responded in a slightly deep voice, one that Helix imagined could only really be described as calm and warm.
"Ah, hello there! If this is your room as well then I suppose you must be... Helix, am I right?" The female MudWing's olive-brown scales shone softly in the flickering lights as she shifted from her position by the cave entrance, facing her newly-arrived clawmate with a gentle smile. The larger dragonet's friendly demeanor put Helix a bit more at ease, and she offered what she hoped wasn't too much of an awkward smile in return as she nodded.
"Mmhm! I'm Helix, and you are...?" The MudWing's kind smile still hadn't faded, and she briefly blinked in understanding before responding with a warm tone.
"My name is Cress. It's very nice to meet you Helix." The young SeaWing nodded again, this time slightly more confidently as she smiled once more, feeling progressively a bit less awkward and anxious every time her new clawmate, Cress, spoke. Thankfully, she seemed rather nice and friendly, so... So far, so good, right?
"Oh, yeah! It's very nice to meet you too." Helix chuckled lightly, nervously, as she stepped further into the room and set the bag she'd been carrying with her onto the floor of the cave, propping it up against the back wall. Cress watched her movements with relaxed golden-brown eyes for a few moments, then turned her attention back to the scroll she'd been examining when Helix had entered the room, humming quietly to herself as she went back to reading.