Holly's POV
Holly's stomach sunk.
Why do I feel this way? I've known this for years. This was always the plan.
She shook herself.
No, I haven't! I don't even know Mandrake!
Aragh, why can't I go back home the way I came?!
"Her what?!", Swordtail cried.
"Well, 'future husband' sounds weird", Mandrake said.
"So does fiancé!", Sundew argued. She grabbed a nearby branch and crushed it in her talons over and over again, until it was nothing more than a pile of spinters.
"But-you-this dragon?", Blue asked, bewildered. "I didn't-"
"Picture your true love being someone like this",Cricket finished for him.
"Nobody said anything about true love!", Sundew yelped at the same time as Mandrake stamered,"No, we no, we-we are not that, no."
Oh.
Maybe they don't feel that way about each other.
"But. . . . I thought", Cricket trailed off.
"NOPE!", Sundew shouted before she could finish.
"Wrong! Bad! No thinking! Whatever you thought, stuff it back there!"
She bumped Mandrake's side and did a weird side-hope that definitly would not confince anyone of her sanity.
"We're just betrothed! It's normal! Fine!"
"Oh my-", Blue said blinking.
"What's going on?", Swordtail asked.
"Okay", Cricket said calmly."I was completely mistaken."
"So. How can you have a fiance?", Cricket asked."You're the same age as me, right?"
"I'm six", Sundew answered.
Six?
I'm eighteen and Sundew's six?
Holly blinked.
Unless, dragon ages are different.
"But ever since we hatched, the plan was for us to get married", Sundew went on.
"We both have the strongest leafspeak in the tribe. So our dragonets might have even stronger leafspeak."
"Ohhhhhhhhhh", Cricket said.
"When did my parents get back?", Sundew asked.
"Not long before you did", Mandrake said. "And only Belladonna and Zodallam, though. Your dad and the other dragons were going to the ground near the, er, target." He glanced at the other dragons.
"They know", Sundew told him." They saw it from a distance."
Mandrake's face lit up.
"Wow! Was it amazing? Belladonna said that they torched the whole thing. Flames as the eye could see!"
It was oddly adorable to see him so excited. Holly almost wished they'd been closer. . . and then she realized she hadn't even been there for that part of the trip.
"It was only from a distance. And I'm pretty sure the whole thing didn't burn down", Sundew said.
"The whole hive", Blue echoed.
Mandrake looked abashed.
"Was that your hive?", he asked.
"No. That was Bloodworm Hive", Swordtail told him. "And good ridance! Good ridance to all of them!"
Cricket flinched and Blue twined his tail with hers.
"BLEH!", Bublebee suddenly declared. She threw the tuber at Swordtail's nose.
"NOBOBLEH! EEEEEMIGO!EEEEEEEEEEEGO!"
"Owch! Watch, you little larva!", Swordtail yelped.
Holly snickered.
Mandrake smiled at her, making her laugh harder. She looked away and tryed to calm her breathing.
WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME?!
For the first time, she noticed his scales. They were forest green and tawny gold, like shiny beetle wings, with hints of mahogany brown. She also realized, for the first time, that he had claw-mark sc arson his tail.
"Bumblebee, calm down", Cricket said, trying to wrestle Bumblebee back into the pouch.
But the Hivewing dragonet was too furious to be handled.
She yowled and threw out her wings and flung herself around, wailing until she managed to topple out of Cricket's arm and onto the leafy mulch.
Immediately, she popped up and sprinted to Sundew. . . . if you could call it sprinting.
Bumblebee collapsed on Sundew's foot and batted her woebegone eyes in her general direction.
"Snudoo", she sniffed. "Snudoooooooooobleme."
"What ever a 'snudoo' is, it's not my problem", Sundew told her.
Bumblebee held on to Sundew's foot.
"Humbblesnubbleooble", she said piteously.
"Eeeeeeeeeeeeesnorf"
"How hungery can you be?", Sundew asked. "You can wait until we get to the village."
Bumblebee climbed up Sundew's neck.
"Pennyfoo", she demanded.
"This is dumb. Why do we have to wait for stupid Wolfsbane?", she said.
"I don't need permission to go to my own village." She marched towards the trees.
"Uhh. . . .", Holly trailed off helpfully.
"But Sundew, it won't take long", Madrake told her.
"We shouldn't make them mad."
"They're already mad!", Sundew said. "They'll be mad whatever we do! We're going in. And no questions." She gave Cricket a stern look.
"No even - yes, Sundew."
Holly couldn't help smiling.
"Bring the panther", Sundew said to Mandrake.
"So, do you like books?", Holly asked Cricket as they walked.
Cricket looked her incredulously.
"I LOVE books!"
"Me too!"
"I didn't even know Leafwings read books."
"Are you kidding?", Sundew asked. "Holly drives me nuts, she talks about books so much!"
"On a scale of one to ten, how much of a Bookwing would you say she is?", Cricket asked with a grin.
"Ten for sure", Sundew answered. "Actually, more like a thousand out of ten."
"No, that's not how math works."
"To hell with math."
"What books do you like?", Cricket asked Holly.
"I like-ahhhh!", Holly shrieked.
Suddenly, she was small, a mere animal trapped in a cage, haunted by fathomless back eyes.
"I sssee you, Ssscavenger. Where are you? You think you can hide from me?"
Maniacal laughter thrung through her ears.
Holly's body slumpped to the grass, her limbs paralyzed.
"Holly! Holly, what's wrong? Are you all right?', Mandrake asked.
"What was that?", Cricket asked her.
"I-I don't know", Holly slurred.
She tried to sit up, but Mandrake clased her hand (talon).
"You should lie down for a bit", he told her.
Something inside of her fluttered.
Mandrake blushed.
"I-I-I mean, you should rest for a bit, is all I mean."
"No, I think I'm all right now", Holly said, standing up.
"On to the village!"
She stumbled again.
"Are you sure you're all right?", Cricket asked her.
"Yes! I'm fine. So fine. Totally all right!", Holly said, leaning on Mandrake.
The outer perimeter of the village was a short walk away, thankfuly. For a moment, Holly wasn't quite sure what she was looking at. Then it became clear to her as they approuched. It looked like an upside- down wasp nest, an enormous cadmus-green and chocholate-brown dome of vines and shrubs that went up and inbetween the trees and protected the whole village from the dangers of the jungle.
"Wow", Cricket said, as the barrier came into veiw.
"How-er, I mean- I wonder how dragons could build something like that, and how long it would take, and what kind of plants they used and how it surives, but notice how I'm not asking but I am totally listening if anyone maybe feels like talking."
Holly chortled.
"I'll give you a tour later", Sundew promised.
"Hello, Sundew", Cobralily said as they came up to the front gate.
"You got a little monster around your neck."
"You have no idea", Sundew agreed."How's the village?"
"Boring", Cobralily said."I almost murdered Nettle just to make something happen."
"Can't imagine anyone objecting to that", Holly remarked.
Cobralily narrowed her eyes at her.
"You'll never guess what I brought back", Sundew said, moving Bumblebee so that she could sort through her pouches.
"Spies and sluggs by the looks of it", Cobralily said, looking at the other dragons.
"The Book of Clearsight", Sundew said, handing it to her.
"And the secret of Wasp's mind control, we think."
She brought out a length of vine, which she explained she'd found in Wasp's greenhouse.
"I've never seen it before", Cobralily said, giving it back to Sundew.
"Belladonna said this was usless." Cobralily flipped through Clearsight's prophecies.
"What? No! Didn't she tell you what's in there? And how it changes everthing?", Cricket asked.
"Because now we know the truth!"
Cobralily leveled her cool gaze on Cricket.
"Why is your prisoner talking to me?"
"She's not a prisoner", Sundew answered. "She's. . . . I don't know, an ally. And she's right. We almost got killed stealing it, so it better not be useless", Sundew growled.
Cobralily gave the Book back to Sundew.
"Cool.Good luck explaining them to everyone."
As Holly hurried to follow the others, Cobralily stopped her.
"Look, I don't know who you are, or why everyone thinks you belong here, or how you got here, but you can't fool me. I know you're not one of us."
Holly gasped. She wanted to argue that she hadn't even wanted to come here and was the least dangerous dragon on the face of the earth, but guessed it was pointless. She hurried to catch up to the others.
A moment later, they were inside the village, or at least some kind of chamber.
Cricket looked at the tightly woven branches around them in puzzlement.
The space where they stood was barely big enough to fit four dragons (and one tiny dragonet).
It was meant for four dragons, but of course Swordtail squashed himself in as well.
Mandrake, on the other hand (talon, of course she meant talon), waited politely for his turn.
"Get off my tail", Holly said to Swordtail.
"Bumblebee, close your eyes",Sundew told her.
She reached up and covered the dragonet's face.
"Why are we- ahhhberber!", Blue yelped as a cascade of water poured over them.
Cricket threw her wings over her head and Swordtail blundered onto Holly's tail again.
As quickly as it had come, the water was gone, sluicing through a cannel that led outside the barrier.
"That's to wash away any seeds that might be trying to get inside", Sundew explained."The Poison Jungle is always trying to get in and it has lots of tricks. But we have tricks too!"
"Bet you feel real stupid, seeds!", Holly yelled at them.
"The seeds. . . . . feel stupid?", Blue asked, blinking.
"Well they should!", Sundew agreed."I've told them to stay out millions of times!"
"Maybe the instinct to spread is too strong", Cricket suggested. "It's how they surrive.
I mean, is it disobedence if they can't help it? How would a plant teach it's seeds to fall off before we reached the village? If it could do that, it would have to know that what's going on in the village will kill it. Maybe some kind of warning. . . "
She stopped spectulating when Sundew open the door and they walked out under the green lights of the dome.
As they entered the village, Holly felt Sundew tense, bracing herself for what was to come.
She soon realized why.
"SUNDEW!"
Belladonna came thundering out of what appeared to be a meetinghouse, her wings billowing like storm clouds.
She flew down the steps and landed with one of her claws already in Sundew's face.
"You dare bring enemies here?!"
"I told her to wait!",Wolfsbane said.
"Yeah, I don't know where you got the idea that you can tell me what to do", Sundew told him.
She batted one of Belladonna's claw away.
"And you, mother, might remember that it was your idea to work with these 'enemies' in the first place."
"Out there!", Belladonna said, pointing out of the village. "WHAT IS ON YOUR NECK?!"
"This is Bumblebee", Sundew said.
"Isn't she cute?"
"Me mum me", Bumblebee said.
Other Leafwings began to gather around them, quietly fighting with each other.
Some of them pointed to Cricket and growls went through the crowd.
"These are our allies!", Holly said in a raised voice. "Anyone who hurts a scale on their bodies will find his or her eye-balls on the wrong side of a bombardier beetle!"
She'd said it without thinking; she didn't even know what a bombardier beetle was.
Sundew turned back to Belladonna.
"Cricket, as you know, is imune to the mind control. Blue is a flamesilk. They helped us get the Book of Clearsight, and now they need a place to hide from Wasp."
"A flamesilk?",one of the Leafwings asked.
"Prove it!"
Sundew grabbed Blue's wrist to stop him, but he remembered.
"He doesn't need to prove it", Belladonna said. "It was because of him that we were able to burn down Bloodworm Hive."
Blue cried out and pulled away from Sundew.
All the dragons around them looked pleased.
"Is that true?", Blue asked.
"Sundew", Cricket said. "How did your parents get Blue's flamesilk?"
A/N: Remember to vote, comment, and share!
Wordcount: 1926
Renx out!