Wings Of Fire: Heart of Oak

Pantala's Lothlorion

Holly's POV

"Your majesty!", Willow gasped.

Sundew bowed, then imedately jerked her head up again.

Sequoia smiled faintly.
"You have exactly your grandmother's stubern expression. I saw it many times during the Tree Wars."

"My grandmother?"

"Yes. She was my most loyal general", The queen said with a sigh. "Until I gave her an order she couldn't follow: stop fighting and go into hiding. That's when she left me and started your group."

She turned towards the trees.
"You can come out now", she called to the darkness.

Holly lay still for a moment.
Maybe if she bent low to the ground, didn't breathe or move, Sequoia would think she'd just imagined it.

"NOW", she barked again.

Reluctantly, she crept out of her hiding place.

"HOLLY?!", Sundew yelled.

"Hush", Sequoia told her.

She turned, sweeping a noisy frog into the pound, where it sunk with a started glorp.
 "Come. We will be safer in the village."

For a moment Holly was torn between going with Sequoia and going back to the Poisonwing village. But it was only for a moment, and following Sequoia ultimately won out.

"Why were you following me?", Sundew hissed. "Were you going to report me to Belladonna?"

"Trust me, Belladonna is literally the LAST person I would EVER want to talk to", Holly said firmly.
Sundew opened her mouth, then closed it again and turned to Willow.

"Did you tell her about me?", she asked.

 "Sundew", Willow said patiently, like a teacher explaining that three plus three always equals six, "you know I wouldn't do that."

Sundew snorted.

"Don't be scared", Willow whispered.
"I AM NOT SCARED!", Sundew snapped, loud enough for the queen to look over her shoulder at them.
She lowered her voice.
"When am I ever scared? She doesn't even have an army. Why should I be scared?"

Willow stopped walking and after holding Sundew's talons for a moment, handed her a small jade frog.
"I'm sorry she followed me, but I not sorry you're coming to my village. There's something I want to show you."

"You said there was something you were going to tell me something", Sundew remembered sheepishly.

"Well, I think it's exciting, but maybe not you so much. But guess what? There are strangers in our village! Three of them! And you won't belive where two of them are from."

"Is one of them a Silkwing?", Holly asked, butting into the conversation.
"One of the Silkwings Sundew and I brought to the jungle is looking for his sister."

"Actually yes, one is a Silkwing", Willow answered.  "Aw, I hope we can reunite them."

"And the other two?", Sundew asked.

"You'll see."

Holly had a pretty good idea of what form love came in in Sundew's life: criticism and judment.
Sundew's parents "loved" her by ranting about anything and everything she did wrong, being annoying, and starting shouting matches whenever they were even a little bit annoyed.
That was why Willow was so appealing to Sundew: No matter what she did, Willow would aways love Sundew.
Holly didn't need to read minds to know it was more than just friendship.

Holly'd exepted to see a barrier or a fence or a wall around the Sapwing Vilage, as there had been with Sundew's, but there were none of those things in sight.