Tales of Pluto: Sparks Flying

Chapter 3: The Star Forest

"So, now, you grab the fish out of the water, and don't forget to hold it by its head! Otherwise it can slip out of your talons! Then, you shove it quickly in your mouth, like so", explained Roland, one of the hunting teachers.

"Do we really need a demonstration? It's a fake fish!", whispered Nightflyer.

"Guys! I know! We can run! There is literally a forest right there! Should we run?", whispered back Sparks. Sparks was jumping with joy. If they ran, it would be the most eventful thing that could ever happen in Sparks' life!

"That was a short notice, but sure! I want to run! Sunmaker! I know you hate running, but it's to get out of hunting!", Nightflyer turned to face Sunmaker, with puppy eyes. Sunmaker didn't change their facial expression, but Nightflyer had definitely persuaded them with her words.

"If it's to get out hunting, I'll do anything!", they whispered. Sunmaker was like that. If they wanted to get out something they hated, they would do anything. No matter what it was.

So, as soon as Roland's back was turned, Sunmaker, Nightflyer, and Sparks bolted as fast as their talons could go into the green forest to the side of them. As soon as they started running, chaos emerged in the group. Soon, everyone was running, in circles, in random directions, and Roland was screaming. As well as Lotus too.

"Okay! Everyone calm down! Where is Sunmaker! And Nightflyer? And that bloody new dragonet? What's his name again? I knew he was going to be a nuisance from the start!", Roland was saying, while Lotus was yelling at the top of his voice.

"GUYS! LISTEN TO ROLAND!", and all of the dragonets turned to look. But did any of them listen? No. Not really.

"No!", yelled a dragon amongst all the chaos.

"We're free!", shouted another.

"Here's a stick Lotus! You can shove it up your bum!" yelled a moon dragon named Xade, with a long, brown stick in his hand.

"Xade?! What did I just hear?! Come here! Now!", tried Roland.

"Nope! The others that ran away just made us FREE! We don't have to listen to you anymore!", Xade replied.

"Wait? The others ran away?!", Roland said with a look of curiosity in his eye.

"Oops..."

The sun was shining. The crickets chirping. The breeze rustling the trees. The flowers blooming. The dragons running. The dragons running?! "Guys!", Sunmaker tried, in between breaths and loud wheezing. "Maybe we should stop now! I think we've lost them!"

"Yeah! Sparks! Please? We've definitely lost them!", puffed Nightflyer. They had all been running for 10 minutes now. Sunmaker had done enough exercise for a year, Nightflyer couldn't keep up, and Sparks? Well, this was the most exciting thing Sparks had ever accomplished in his entire life (Apart from becoming friends with Nightflyer, Pineapple, Sunmaker, and Bamboo!)!

"Fineeee", groaned Sparks. He was really sad that he couldn't have more fun in the forest. But they would stay where they were for now.

"We should've stopped 9 minutes ago!", Sunmaker said, still trying to breathe. Sunmaker had already run out of breath, stepped in mud, and cut their foreleg, and Nightflyer had tripped over a tree branch and bonked her head into a tree.

"No! We needed Roland to not catch us even if he realised we were gone!"

"He wouldn't realise we were gone anyway!"

"GUYS! Can we stop arguing for, like, 5 seconds and look UP?!", Nightflyer yelled. She was sick of this arguing already! And it was only the third day of school! Then, both Sunmaker and Sparks looked up past the trees and into the sky. It was beautiful. 

The stars were twinkling at them, like they knew they were there, and the moon was shining so much, it looked like nothing in the world could drown the light out. And the darkness in the sky gave them a sense of calm, like a warm fuzzy blanket had just drooped over them. But something was wrong. Very wrong. It was bright daylight with the sun burning their eyes a couple of minutes ago. And somehow, it was now pitch black with the moon in the sky.

"Is it just me, or did nighttime somehow appear in the middle of the day? And why are there no trees up ahead?", said Sunmaker. Sparks and Nightflyer nodded to the first bit of what Sunmaker had said, but turned to look forward when they both heard about the trees. And Sunmaker was right. There were less and less trees as it got further ahead. It looked like the scene ahead of them led straight to the nightsky.

"I feel like we should see what's up there...", whispered Nightflyer.

"Me too", Sparks replied, nervous of what lay in front of them. No one knew what could be up there, but of course, they moved on forward.