Wings Of Fire; Thorns And Roses

"Alone"

The dragons spent the rest of the night enjoying the honey drops and laughing away at the other's jokes and conversations to try and hide the pain of earlier. Locust went off to bed and Radiant followed soon after. 

The dragons spent the next few days uneventfully. Talking and eating took up much of the time and they were keeping up with the news. Reports of LeafWings around the Hives were brushed off by the both as unfunny pranks, though one day Radiant could almost see a bunch of weird figures flying across from the Poison Jungle into the ocean.

One day, Radiant woke up and walked downstairs to see that Locust wasn't awake yet. Radiant noted that it would've been too early in the morning for him and just wanted to get the day over with. 

She walked down and walked over to her basket of vegetables and grabbed a piece of yam and gnawed on it sleepily. Suddenly, she heard a knock at the door. Radiant stretched her ruby red and white wings and walked over to the door.

"Delivery for Duke Locust." the delivery HiveWing said boredly.

"He's asleep."

"Not my problem, get him down and sign the paper."

"I'll just sign it and tell it's for him."

"Alright, do what you want. I don't care," Radiant pulled the board out of the HiveWing's talons and signed it with a quill.

"There, take it," Radiant tossed it back to the HiveWing and he nearly dropped it.

"Gee, here you go," The HiveWing said sarcastically after dropping a letter and package onto the porch. The HiveWing took off and Radiant was left by herself with a package and letter.

"Annoying little... Ugh! They don't even treat us with respect." Radiant whined to herself as she picked up the package. She quickly blew a raspberry at nothing, annoyed, and walked inside slamming the door shut. She tossed the package onto the table, but then saw a small letter fall.

 She went to pick it up to then see a small green locust symbol. 

She inspected it more to see it was from Tsetse Hive. Curiosity took over Radiant as she remembered Locust being panicked about the other letter and wanted to know what that was all about. She held the letter in one claw and tore it open from the top. Her stomach felt as though it was full of butterflies with each tear at it until finally the silk paper came out.

Addressed to Duke Locust

I expect this letter finds you well. You haven't been sending back your signed forms as of recently and I wish to know why you aren't. No, that's quite idiotic... I know why you're not sending your work back. That SilkWing you picked up is the reason, isn't it? Me and father know about that dragon. If you are upset learning about what you actually do, we regret to inform you that it would be a problem. If we do not earn income from you legalizing the trade papers then all of Wasp and Hornet Hive would go into poverty. 

If this problem stems from you trying to "protect" your little pet from the truth we will be forced to remove them ourselves. Disappointing your parents wouldn't be what you want, no? Their kind isn't of worth anyways, that's why they're better off as being low-class workers. Was none of your learning in Mantis Hive even useful? SilkWings are better off as being below HiveWings, you even said so yourself in our last letter before getting them. I hope this pause in your work is only momentarily and you resume once this letter gets in your thick skull.

Duchess Paralyze

"I'm sorry, what?" She looked at the letter over and over again. She wasn't incredibly surprised that Locust said he didn't like SilkWings, but them calling her a pet just enraged her. However, this made her more curious about what it was like in the family business. It said something about 'trade papers' so they could trade something, but what?