Wings of Fire: The Rainforest Monster | ✔️

~ The Rainforest Monster: Chapter 15 ~

Vanilla's scales turned light pink in embarrassment. "It's not too hard," she blurted.

"It's very hard," Dainty said. "Vanilla is just hombly."

"It's humble, Dainty," Nightingale said.

"Well that's a dumb word." Dainty twisted around a tree and stretched her wings so they caught the sun.

The group burst through the trees and into the center of the village. Liana led them around the statue of Black Widow and Jaguar and to a large hut. She dove inside, each dragon following after her. Hare was instantly nearly tripped by a jaguar. The creature hissed as she yelped and backed away, baring its teeth and crouching into a battle position. It had a necklace made of pink flowers and a white flower placed by its ear.

"That's Noodle," Vanilla said. "Kinkajou's jaguar."

"And almost as annoying as she is." Bromeliad bounded over and threw a vine leash around the jaguar's neck.

"Why are you here?" Glory demanded.

"The queen sent me here to check on her," Bromeliad replied, pointing at Noodle. "She's so insistent that I care for anything that has to do with Kinkajou." She gave a light tug on the leash. "As if the search parties aren't enough."

Hare looked around. Jaguars were racing around or lounging lazily by the windows. Sloths were sleeping in hammocks or hanging by the vines wove into the ceiling. Glory looked around at the sloths, shifting her talons nervously.

"Maybe she's not here," Sunny suggested after a few minutes.

"Where else would she be?" Glory said. "She wasn't by the boulder when we came home."

A nearby sloth in a hammock lifted its head sleepily. It yawned and blinked. When its gaze rested on Glory, its face seemed to light up. It made a warbling sound and stretched its claws toward Glory. Vanilla smiled. "I think we found her."

Glory rushed forward and grabbed Silver. "Thank the stars," she breathed.

"We need to tell one of the keepers here that we're taking her." Vanilla looked around the hut. There was a RainWing sitting by a scroll and looking off into space. Vanilla bounded toward him and waved her talon in front of his face. "Earth to Piha! We're taking that sloth, it belongs to Glory."

Piha blinked and looked at Glory. "That little thing? Alright." He opened the scroll and ran his claw down a list. He stopped halfway through, dipped his claw in some ink, and marked something. "You're good to go."

"Thank you." Glory put Silver on her back. Piha shook off his talon. "You're that new RainWing, right? I'm assuming so, considering all these dragons." He waved his claw around, signaling to Hare and the others. "You got chosen pretty quick. Sloths normally wait a little longer to pick a dragon."

Glory just nodded. "Thank you, Piha. We should get going now. We have some things to discuss."

"Right, of course." Piha dipped his head respectfully. "I've heard about your mission. Very kind and brave. I can't say all dragons here would risk themselves for dragons they don't know anything about."

"They're dragons who are living and breathing," Hare said, adding, Or once were, silently in her head. "That's enough for us."

Piha just nodded. Liana and Ringtail took the lead, guiding them out of the hut and through the trees.

"We should head back to the tunnels," Nightingale suggested. "Most dragons don't like going there, so it'll give us some more privacy."

Ringtail nodded in agreement. Liana sighed irritably and switched directions, heading in the direction of the clearing with the tunnel. Hare flew with Kestrel uncomfortably close to her side.