Wings Of Fire: Heart of Oak

Dusky

Holly's POV

"No, stop!", Holly yelled, struggling to hurry over to them.
The Leafwing had pinned Cricket to the ground, his claws around her neck.

"Have-to-immobilize-her", he said breathlessly.

"No! No, stop it now! She's Cricket! She's on our side! She can't be mind controled! Let her go!"

"Just to be safe", the Leafwing insisted.

"We're friends of Sundew!", Luna burst out.

"I swear, if you don't let go of her right now-", Holly threatened.

"You're friends of Sundew?", he asked, finally letting go.
"Why didn't you tell me sooner?"

A fire swept through Holly like an unquenchable sea.
"HOW THE FU-"

"Sky, can you get off of us now?", Wren's voice said from underneath Sky's talons.

"What is that?", the Leafwing cried.
"Where are you from?"

"Who are you?", Luna asked.

"I'll do you one better", Holly muttered, "why is Pokeweed."

"You-how-how do you know my name?", he stuttered.

"It's a long story. I'm Holly. This is Umber, Cricket, Luna, Sky, Wren, and Axolotl.
Sky and Umber are from the Distant Kingdoms. They're here to help us defeat Wasp and the Othermind."

Pokeweed gasped when he saw the humans.

"You have a cave-monkey! Two cave-monkeys! Seems a shame not to share them, especially when food is so difficult to find."

"No! They're not for eatting!", Holly said, gritting her teeth.
"They're not monkeys either. These are humans, and they're not mindless animals."

"No earring!", Axolotl said, peeking from behind Sky's foot.

"Oh, you taught it to talk! Must have been pretty hard", Pokeweed remarked.

"No. I'm not a parott", Wren said forcefully.
"I can speak dragon, and I'm just as smart as you are."

Pokeweed looked skeptical.

"Strange. Very strange. Why are you down here?"

"We're looking for an abyss", Holly said.
"We think it might have something to do with the mind control and how to stop it."

"Hmm. I'll take you to Hemlock. We'll see what he has to say about you."

"Hemlock? Like Sundew's dad?", Cricket asked.

Pokeweed was silent for a second.
"Yes", he said, looking at Holly.

He led them on, deeper into the tunnel.
He wasn't very good at listening- at least not to Cricket and Luna, but he seemed to know where he was taking them.
He was also RIDICULOUSLY slow. Holly felt like every three minutes, he was sneaking off to search for food. To be fair, he really did look like he was starving. His ribs were clearly visible against his skin, and his eyes were hallow in their sockets. Holly wondered how long he'd been down here, and if all of the refugees looked like he did.

Finally, he led them through a long passageway that went on, leading to a large cavern.
Three small Silkwing dragonets were sitting near the entrance, eyeing the newcomers curiously.

"Wow", one of them said, looking at Bait.
"Mommy, look! A glow-bean! And a flamesilk!"

The dragonet next to her looked at Luna's twist of flamesilk jelously.

"She has a fire hat! I never get to wear a fire hat! No fair!"

"No, stupid!", the other one said.
"It's a crown! I bet she's a fire-queen!"