Wings Of Fire: Heart of Oak

Don't Fear the Reaper

A/N: To -F4ND0M-0V3RL04D-,
WolvesOfHope,
MythicalNerdy,
Spark-Draws,
CryoFangs549,
and to you, my good reader, if you've stuck with Holly to the bitter end.

Holly's POV

Holly felt weighed down, like an entire mountain was falling down on her.

She urgently darted towards her friends, trying to tear away their bonds, but her talons went right through them like she was made of smoke.

These were her dragons.
This was her team.
If she couldn't save them, who would?

"None of us are really here", Lizard said, almost sympathetically.
"Only Cottonmouth is really here, inside one of Wasp's attendants.

She flicked her tail at the human, who was holding his head in a strange possition to make his dragon glar at the prisoners.

"Can't you do anything?", Holly asked.
"Can't you-"

"Why should I?", Lizard snapped.
"Those dragons have nothing to do with me."

"They're my friends!"

"So? I never had any friends, remember?"

Arrrah, why do you have to be so selfish?
Okay, stay calm, stay calm.
There's gotta be some way to help them, you just have to find it.

"At last", Wasp hissed, ticking her long claws against a bowl she was holding.
It was made of white porcelain, and when Holly peered into it, she could see a layer of green residue at the bottom of it.

"I have my power once more, and now it's time to expand my army, starting with these. . . . unsual worms."
She set down the bowl, and a vicious stinger slid out of the end of her tail.

"Wait", Cottonmouth said.

Wasp wipped around to glar at him.
"No one gave you permission to speak, Malachite."

"It's not Malachite", Cottonmouth hissed.
"It's me. I'm here to speak to these dragons. Stand down, or I will make you cut your own throat."

Holly realized that the queen and everyone else outside of the Mindspace could still only see Malachite, the dragon; only she, Dusky, Bait, and Lizard saw Cottonmouth in his place.

The queen's wings buzzed, creating an almost audible vibberation in the air as they rubbed togther.
After a long moment, she said, "You can't do that."

"I can", he said.
"You aren't needed anymore. Shall we find out what I can make you do?"

Queen Wasp bared her sharp teeth, and flicked one talon at the prisoners.
"Very well. Speak to them, if you must."

"Unbind their mouths", he ordered.

Wasp twitched, her arms flexing slightly.
"That seems unwise."

"I need answers from them", Cottonmouth said.
"Do as I say."

The nearest guard looked from Wasp to Cottonmouth, and the white glaze went over his eyes, and he removed the flamesilk gags covering the prisoners' mouths.

Cottonmouth stepped forward, and the Pyrrhian dragons looked up at him, Tsunami defiant, Pineapple greenish-blue with anxieity, Qibli managing a mask that was a perfect mix of neutral, happy, and even mildly bored.