Wings Of Fire: Heart of Oak

Sundew's Mother Issues

Holly's POV

Holly's stomach sunk.
Why do I feel this way? I've known this for years. This was always the plan.

She shook herself.

No, I haven't! I don't even know Mandrake!
Aragh, why can't I go back home the way I came?!

"Her what?!", Swordtail cried.

"Well, 'future husband' sounds weird", Mandrake said.
                     
"So does fiancé!", Sundew argued. She grabbed a nearby branch and crushed it in her talons over and over again, until it was nothing more than a pile of spinters.

"But-you-this dragon?", Blue asked, bewildered. "I didn't-"

"Picture your true love being someone like this",Cricket finished for him.

"Nobody said anything about true love!", Sundew yelped at the same time as Mandrake stamered,"No, we no, we-we are not that, no."

Oh.
Maybe they don't feel that way about each other.

"But. . . . I thought", Cricket trailed off.

"NOPE!", Sundew shouted before she could finish.
"Wrong! Bad! No thinking! Whatever you thought, stuff it back there!"

She bumped Mandrake's side and did a weird side-hope that definitly would not confince anyone of her sanity.
"We're just betrothed! It's normal! Fine!"

"Oh my-", Blue said blinking.

"What's going on?", Swordtail asked.

"Okay", Cricket said calmly."I was completely mistaken."

"So. How can you have a fiance?", Cricket asked."You're the same age as me, right?"

"I'm six", Sundew answered.

Six?
I'm eighteen and Sundew's six?

Holly blinked.

Unless, dragon ages are different.

"But ever since we hatched, the plan was for us to get married", Sundew went on.
"We both have the strongest leafspeak in the tribe. So our dragonets might have even stronger leafspeak."

"Ohhhhhhhhhh", Cricket said.

"When did my parents get back?", Sundew asked.

"Not long before you did", Mandrake said. "And only Belladonna and Zodallam, though. Your dad and the other dragons were going to the ground near the, er, target." He glanced at the other dragons.

"They know", Sundew told him." They saw it from a distance."

Mandrake's face lit up.
"Wow! Was it amazing? Belladonna said that they torched the whole thing. Flames as the eye could see!"

It was oddly adorable to see him so excited. Holly almost wished they'd been closer. . . and then she realized she hadn't even been there for that part of the trip.

"It was only from a distance. And I'm pretty sure the whole thing didn't burn down", Sundew said.

"The whole hive", Blue echoed.

Mandrake looked abashed.
"Was that your hive?", he asked.

"No. That was Bloodworm Hive", Swordtail told him. "And good ridance! Good ridance to all of them!"

Cricket flinched and Blue twined his tail with hers.

"BLEH!", Bublebee suddenly declared. She threw the tuber at Swordtail's nose.
"NOBOBLEH! EEEEEMIGO!EEEEEEEEEEEGO!"