Ruby is an elegant creature, of a ruling bloodline in her homeland mountains. You may think, to look at her, that she would be a lofty sort but, despite her jewels and adornments, she is nearly always the first to dive headlong into the mud.

Her parents expect a clean and tidy heir but here, away from their watchful eyes, she can be the hatchling she aught to be, tumbling in the grass with her friends, foraging through swampy water, diving deep for fish, practicing dust-bathing for camouflage. She enjoys all the rough and tumble that can be found and is rarely settled indoors.

And at the end of each term, when the students return to their families for a while, she and her friends delight in cleaning themselves up, washing away all traces of dust or dirt, so they may meet her noble family and keep up the grand illusion of tidiness. But the students know the truth, and one day the mountains may have a very different sort of ruler.