King of The Dragons (Wings of Fire X Monster Hunter)

Part 3: Chapter 32 & 33

(3rd Pov Glory)

"Oh, look," Magnificent growled over the applauding RainWings, pointing to the glint of sunlight on wings flapping through the trees. "The fruit gatherers are coming back."

Glory grabbed a nut off the mahogany table and placed it her coconut. Her team followed her. Kinkajou had red and yellow stripes marching along her scales, and Jambu was a little blue-gray around the edges. Glory wondered if her brother had more than two moods.

"You won!" Sunny said happily. She glanced at the sloth of Glory's neck. "Is Silver going to be okay?"
Glory ran her talons down her sloths back, smoothing out its fur and calming it down. "I think she'll be okay," Glory said.
"That should be considered cheating!" Tsunami shouted. "You can't let her get away with that! Boo! Hiss!"
"Silence them," Magnificent said to Handsome with a glare. 

He spread his wings and cleared her throat. "Nothing in the rules forbids what the queen did," he announced. "She will not be reprimanded, but the winner is still Glory."
Magnificent glared at him while Mangrove and Dazzling swooped down from the trees.

Glory was still too shaken to chime in. The others might call it cheating, but as far as she was concerned, Magnificent had only found a trick to reveal Glory's hiding place, the same way Glory had used the RainWing audience for clues.
She had nearly lost. And she would have if it wasn't for Toad.

She couldn't even pay attention to the sorting and counting going on as Mangrove and Dazzling spilled fruits of all shapes and sizes across the greenery. Handsome picked each one up, muttered over it for a moment, and set it in a pile.

'If I were working alone and Toad wasn't here, it would be over by now.' Glory realized. She would have lost the throne in a direct contest with Magnificent.
Kinkajou's eyes were fixed on Mangrove's fruit pile. She fidgeted with her tail and counted under her breath.

Handsome examined the last fruit, a very large, yellow-orange fruit that was shaped like a tomato and oozed a juice that was the came color as it's skin as he poked it. He nodded and placed it in Mangrove's pile next to a fruit that looked just like it but had a more pinkish color to it. Kinkajou shot Glory a worried look.

"Nineteen to nineteen," said Handsome. "It's a tie."
"What?" shrilled Magnificent. She whipped around to glare at Dazzling, who had yellow speckles around her mouth and the large tomato-like fruit - with a bit taken out of it - in one of her talons. In her pile was a fruit that looked just like it.
'Jumbofruit,' Glory recalled the name.

Magnificent was practically seething with rage. "So, what do we do now?" she asked.
Handsome thought for a moment. ". . . We'll continue as normal. If Glory's team with the next event, she'll win. If the queens win, we'll think of something else, then."

"Sounds good to me," Glory said.
"That's fine," Magnificent followed.
"Very well," Handsome said. "We will start the venom targeting contest," he announced.

"So," Glory started. "Are you going to try and cheat again."
Magnificent hissed and opened her mouth to speak but was cut off by another voice.
"That won't be necessary." Wind rustled through the leaves as Grandeur slid majestically between Glory and Magnificent. her bones creaked like ancient forests and the silver cast of her scales made her look as if she were reflecting moonlight instead of sunlight. She wasn't like the other queens. In fact, she wasn't like any other dragon in the village. Glory though Grandeur might be the only RainWing who actually looked, moved, and sounded like a real queen.

She arched her neck and peered down at Kinkajou. "I can crush this little creature easily on my own."
"We'll see," Kinkajou said bravely, but anxious streaks of green flickered in her ruff. 'This is asking too much of her,' Glory worried. Kinkajou was barely half Grandeur's size, with hardly any training. The NightWings had been so underwhelmed by her venom that they hadn't even bothered binding her mouth. How could she possibly win?