Wings of Fire: The Rainforest Monster | ✔️

~ The Rainforest Monster: Chapter 17 ~

"Well, isn't that nice to hear," Eagle murmured. "Anway, we should get going. I need to get Breeze home."

"No," Jambu snarled. "We need to bring you back to the queen. You've been living in our rainforest for years, she must hear about it."

"Oh, let them go," Dainty said dismissively. "They've done no harm."

"That we know of," Jambu snarled.

"No, Dainty's right." Kestrel said. "Let them go."

"Queen Magnificent will have our heads!" Ringtail protested.

"Better than her putting them on display," Nightingale murmured, looking at Hare in a somewhat apologetic way. Hare narrowed her eyes. That's not funny!

"Jambu's right," Liana said. "We need to take them back."

"I kept Breeze here to keep him safe and away from other dragons," Eagle protested. "I can't let it all go completely to waste."

"It won't," Hare promised. "But the RainWings are right. You've been secretly living in their home for years, going out of your way to keep you and your adopted son isolated. The queen deserves to know."

"And for the record, Breeze never needed to be protected," Clay added. "Kestrel wasn't trying to kill him."

Breeze looked down at his talons awkwardly while Eagle looked at Kestrel. "What do you mean you weren't trying to kill him? I saw it plainer than anything! You brought him to the reeds and attempted to kill him."

"You don't understand," Kestrel choked. "I was trying to keep him safe."

"By drowning him?"

"I wasn't drowning him."

"But I saw it!"

"You saw what you wanted to see."

In the brief pause, Hare picked up a quiet whisper from behind her. "Do you think she did something similar to what we did?"

Similar to what we did? What does she mean?

It was one of the dragonets, no doubt, but which one? Tsunami? Glory? The voice wasn't high enough to be Sunny.

Eagle took in a breath. "Fine then. What really happened that day by the river?"

Kestrel hesitated a moment before speaking. "If you really looked, you would've seen a few other dragons with me that day. That was Queen Scarlet and her guards. My dragonets came out different, but Scarlet thought they were deformed and a curse to the SkyWing tribe. She ordered me to kill my dragonet with too little fire, and let me and the other dragonet live." Kestrel took a breath. "So I pretended to kill my son. I took him close to the reeds and made it look like I killed him. I made it look like I drowned him. But that's not what I was doing." Her voice began to break. "I was trying to protect him. I was going to go back for him, but by the time I returned he was gone. Taken by you, I assume."

Eagle blinked. "That would be correct," she said quietly.

Kestrel nodded. "Well, now you know the truth."

Silence followed. The only thing that could be heard was the breeze and the chattering birds above.

"I'm sorry," Eagle said after a while. "I didn't know."

"You did what anyone would've done," Kestrel replied quietly.

Eagle shook her head. "Maybe so, but I took away your chance of being a mother. At least, I think so. Whatever happened to your other dragonet?"

"Scarlet took her," Kestrel explained. "Have you ever heard of Peril?"

"The queen's champion?" Eagle said. "Of course I have. Who has- She's your daughter?"