Wings Of Fire: Heart of Oak

Don't Fear the Reaper

"Tell me where Sundew is", Cottonmouth ordered.

"We'll never tell you", Tsunami said, at the same time as Qibli said, "Who? No idea who that is."

Cottonmouth cocked an eyebrow at them.

"Wait, who?", Tsunami added.
"I thought you said something else. Who are you talking about?"

Cottonmouth snarrled.

"Did she go all the way to the Distant Kingdoms to get you?", he asked, his eyes glittering.
"Are there more of you?"

Queen Wasp stirred slightly behind Cottonmouth.
"There are more of them; someone stole the two invisible ones."

Holly staggered.
Mandrake and Moonwatcher!
Sundew and Lynx must have broken them out!

"Was that Sundew?", Cottonmouth asked the prisoners.
"Was she here, in this very Hive, and did the incompetent dragon behind me let her go?"

Qibli, Pineapple, and Tsunami looked at each other.

"You took that Silkwing to do something else", Wasp spat at Cottonmouth.
"My Hivewings aren't equipt to watch for invisible dragons. It's your fault."

Cottonmouth vanished from his spot infront of the prisoners, leaving a red-and-orange Hivewing in his wake.
The Hivewing blinked, reaching for the spectacles at the end of his snout, as Cottonmouth reappeared where Wasp had been sitting a moment before.

He reached up, and clamped one hand around his own neck.
A silent struggle played out on the throne.

"This part is always weird", Lizard said to Holly, as Dusky ran to her.
"When he has to punish someone, he has to get inside them, so here in the Mindspace, it always looks like he's doing it to himself."

The Hivewing who Cottonmouth had been inside of a moment earlier, Malachite, Holly remembered, looked down at the prisoners, then back at the throne.
A second later, he was crouching beside Tsunami, trying to slice through the silk with his claws.

"What's happening?", he whispered to her.
"Do you know Katidid? How long have I- how long has it been since-"

"Cottonmouth", Lizard said boredly, "you're overdoing it."

The human glanced over at Malachite, cursed, and let the queen go.
She reappeared on the throne, as he jumped back into Malachite.
The Hivewing barely had time to whisper, "No!" and all Holly could see was Cottonmouth, standing over Tsunami with a discusted expression.

Tsunami strained at the bonds, but Malachite hadn't cut enough for her to break free.

"Let's get this over with", Cottonmouth said.
"Before anymore of them escape."

From the throne, Wasp glared at him with deep, glittering eyes. Thin trails of yellow-green blood ran down her throat.
"I have your permission to go ahead now, I do?"

She slithered off her throne, crept over the shimmering floor, and held her tail high above Qibli.

"No! This isn't happening!", Holly shouted.
"Lizard! please! Do something!"

"No! I won't! Leave me alone!", the dragonet ordered.

At that very moment, Qibli yelled, "Pineapple, now! The queen!"
And then, he opened his mouth and fire shot into Cottonmouth's face.
Cottonmouth gave a cry, and disappeared, leaving Malachite lying on the floor, trying to beat out the flames.

Pineapple's jaw's hinged open unlike anthing Holly'd ever seen before, and a black spray of liquid shot out of his top two fangs, hitting Wasp's face with a hiss.