Wings Of Fire: Heart of Oak

Sundew's Mother Issues

"Owch! Watch, you little larva!", Swordtail yelped.

Holly snickered.
Mandrake smiled at her, making her laugh harder. She looked away and tryed to calm her breathing.

WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME?!

For the first time, she noticed his scales. They were forest green and tawny gold, like shiny beetle wings, with hints of mahogany brown. She also realized, for the first time, that he had claw-mark  sc arson his tail.

"Bumblebee, calm down", Cricket said, trying to wrestle Bumblebee back into the pouch.
But the Hivewing dragonet was too furious to be handled.
She yowled and threw out her wings and flung herself around, wailing until she managed to topple out of Cricket's arm and onto the leafy mulch.
Immediately, she popped up and sprinted to Sundew. . . . if you could call it sprinting.
Bumblebee collapsed on Sundew's foot and batted her woebegone eyes in her general direction.

"Snudoo", she sniffed. "Snudoooooooooobleme."

"What ever a 'snudoo' is, it's not my problem", Sundew told her.
Bumblebee held on to Sundew's foot.

"Humbblesnubbleooble", she said piteously.
"Eeeeeeeeeeeeesnorf"

"How hungery can you be?", Sundew asked. "You can wait until we get to the village."

Bumblebee climbed up Sundew's neck.
"Pennyfoo", she demanded.

"This is dumb. Why do we have to wait for stupid Wolfsbane?", she said.
"I don't need permission to go to my own village."  She marched towards the trees.

"Uhh. . . .", Holly trailed off helpfully.

"But Sundew, it won't take long", Madrake told her.
"We shouldn't make them mad."

"They're already mad!", Sundew said.  "They'll be mad whatever  we do! We're going in. And no questions."  She gave Cricket a stern look.

"No even - yes, Sundew."
Holly couldn't help smiling.

"Bring the panther", Sundew said to Mandrake.

"So, do you like books?", Holly asked Cricket as they walked.

Cricket looked her incredulously.
  "I LOVE books!"

"Me too!"

"I didn't even know Leafwings read books."

"Are you kidding?", Sundew asked. "Holly drives me nuts, she talks about books so much!"

"On a scale of one to ten, how much of a Bookwing would you say she is?", Cricket asked with a grin.

 "Ten for sure", Sundew answered.          "Actually, more like a thousand out of ten."

"No, that's not how math works."

"To hell with math."

"What books do you like?", Cricket asked Holly.

"I like-ahhhh!", Holly shrieked.

Suddenly, she was small, a mere animal trapped in a cage, haunted by fathomless back eyes.

"I sssee you, Ssscavenger. Where are you? You think you can hide from me?"
Maniacal laughter thrung through her ears.

Holly's body slumpped to the grass, her limbs paralyzed.
"Holly! Holly, what's wrong? Are you all right?', Mandrake asked.

"What was that?", Cricket asked her.

"I-I don't know", Holly slurred.
She tried to sit up, but Mandrake clased her hand (talon).

"You should lie down for a bit", he told her.