nineteen - Wings of Fire

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Sundew POV:

"Seriously, guys, STOP ARGUING! The scavengers will EAT OUR TAILS if we don't defend ourselves." Sundew said.

"Will they really?" Blue asked nervously. "Eat our tails?"

"Of course not, SilkWing. My point is, let's go!" she snapped.

Sundew took off, closely followed by a bored Winter, a curious Cricket, and everyone else.

As they approached, one of the scavengers pointed at Swordtail, and he flinched.

When everyone glanced at him, he said, "Hey, they were gonna poke me!"

Sundew looked pointedly at Moon.

"Don't you have some great oh-so-fancy prophecy or whatnot to share?" she asked.

"Uh... no-ooo . . ."

"THEN WHY ARE WE HERE." Sundew said, frustrated.

"I saw a vision on what to do with the scavengers. And in it, I was talking to that one." Moon pointed to a scavenger with long goldenish fur from the top of it's head, which was looking at then with big brown eyes.

"Um. Hi . . ." the scavenger said.

Moon whipped her head around to look at Qibli. "Scavengers don't . . . talk, right?" she asked him.

"No, no they don't." he said, half in a daze.

"Are we dreaming?" Swordtail asked.

"Sleepwalking?" Kinkajou added.

"Both?" Blue suggested.

"Can we just LISTEN TO THE SCAVENGER?" Winter barked.

"For once I agree with the annoying caterpillar over there," Sundew said. "It's the first time a scavenger's talked, right, so TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THAT like a SMART dragon."

"So . . ." Moon said to the scavenger.

"Oh. Uh, hi." it said. "How are you?" It sounded more like a question. 

"Uh—"

"WOWOWOWOW!" Cricket yelped, and crouched down to look eye to eye with the reading monkey that was talking. She flinched, and another slightly taller scavenger pulled her behind him, brandishing a sword. Now the reading monkey was squeaking as she spoke to him. Sundew frowned. It could speak TWO languages? 

"Hi . . ." the reading monkey said again. "You're dragons?" she asked hesitantly, as if afraid of the answer.

"You BET we are!" Kinkajou said excitedly, changing from a bright pink to a somehow even more blinding bright yellow and back again so many times Sundew had to look away, spots in her eyes.

The reading monkey squinted too. "Oh. Well, I mean, you don't seem really dangerous," she muttered. 

"Dangerous?" Winter puffed out his chest. "Try me."

"Ha!" Sundew barked. "YOU try ME!" 

"No, you—"

"SO." Moon interrupted loudly. "You're not from around here."

The reading monkey blanched. "Oh! Uh . . . how do you know that?" Her nervousness was clear. Others in her group of magic reading monkeys fidgeted nervously. Could they not understand what they were talking about?

"Well . . . I . . ." Moon sighed. "I saw a vision." she said in a rush. "You were in it, and there were these . . . sorry, but all I can think of is 'magic scavengers.' You guys can walk through walls and make fire and water and winds and fly and—"

"FLY?" Winter and Cricket yelped simultaneously. 

"Oh, did I not mention that?" Moon asked faintly. "I kind of lost track of all the powers."

"You can see the future?" the reading monkey asked, even more shocked than either Cricket or Winter. "That's a thing? You can do that? I was in your visions?"

"Yes, well, it's a  . . . gift." Moon replied somewhat modestly. "It's not a big—"

"If you say 'deal' I will shoot fire at you." Luna rolled her eyes. 

Qibli shifted so he was in between her and Moon. "Well," he said to the scavenger, "you aren't from around here, are you? In fact, you're from Tiny Planet."

"Tiny Planet?" she snorted. "No, that's—"

"See!" Qibli said triumphantly, and the reading monkey sighed. "Yes. Earth. Whatever. How are we even breathing on Jupiter?"

"What now?" Kinkajou asked. "Juice?"

"Never mind," she sighed again. This reading monkey sighed a lot. Sundew wondered if all of them did that.

"Why are you here?" Moon asked gently. "In the visions, I always saw you guys in a glittering city that was smoking with these creepy white eyes."

"We were ordered to come. Many don't want to, as you can see," she swept her arm to show the other nervous and anxious and terrified reading monkeys behind her. "And what was that about a smoking glittery city?"

Moon shrugged. "I think that path is becoming more faint . . . kind of."

"Ordered to come?" Blue asked. "Why couldn't you say no?" he asked sympathetically. "No one should be forced to do anything."

"Our Council told us it was the only way to stop the dragons. But you don't seem too dangerous, so if you don't attack our planet, we'll leave you alone too. I think that's a pretty good compromise, right? Although of course I'll have to talk it over with the others first. Do you agree?"

"Why would we attack you?" Cricket blurted.

"I don't know," the scavenger said slowly. "I just heard that dragons are the most dangerous creatures in the universe—"

"I certainly am!" Winter said haughtily. 

"NO YOU'RE NOT—" Sundew began, but was—once again—cut off. 

"Yes, we agree. Of course!" Cricket cried. "Only . . . Wasp might not. We're not the only dragons i teh world, you know. I don't know how it is in the Distant Kingdoms," she added to Moon, Qibli, Kinkajou and Winter, "but here Wasp might try to invade the other planet. Easter or something? But the rest of us won't. Right, Sundew?"

She nodded, but wasn't entirely sure. Her parents might want to take over a planet if they thought it would give them a home again. Living in the Poison Jungle was not always ideal, and besides, then they would really be out of Wasp's reach and she wouldn't be able to take over a whole planet just to stop them. 

"Right!" Cricket turned back to the scavenger. "Deal!" 

The scavenger nodded and dipped into a clumsy curtsy which seemed very formal and not necessary to random dragons she had just met. But it made Sundew feel like she was important so she didn't say anything. 

"Thanks!" she said as she and the others joined hands and began rising in the air, much to Winter and Crickets—and, yes, Sundew had to admit, hers too—astonishment. With a clap of thunder, they were gone. And a new treaty was sealed.

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