Holly's POV
"I took it", Sundew said."Of course I did. So what?"
Blue sat down and cluched his head.
"When?", he wailed."How did you even get any?"
"I gathered some right after you came out of your cacoon", she answered."Don't you remember? I put it in a jar. I wasn't sneaky or anything."
"But you were with us the whole time", Cricket said.
"I thought your didn't see your parents in all that time."
"I did the night after I took the flamesilk. It was while you were all still asleep", Sundew said.
"Why didn't you tell us?", Swordtail asked.
"I don't report to you", Sundew pointed out. "Belladonna was my mission commander."
"Not like you follow my commands anyway", Belladonna observed.
"I can't belive this", Cricket said.
"I keep thinking. . . . but then I end up being wrong."
"How can you possibly be surprised?", Sundew asked. "Where do you think they got the fire from?"
"I didn't think it was from me!", Blue cried.
Cricket put a wing around him. "You took such a little bit."
"You only need a little bit if you have the right materials", Belladonna said briskly. "But, more is better. Which is why we're going to use you for the rest of the war."
"No!", Blue yelled."I'm not going to be used for killing anyone!"
"You can't imagine that we'd let a powerful weapon like yours fall into our talons and not think of using it", Belladonna said.
"Think of what we're doing as 'saving your tribe' rather than 'killing the other one'. Does that help?"
"No!"
"You can't use anyone as a weapon!", Holly yelled at Belladonna. "He's his own per- uh, dragon, for crying out loud!"
Belladonna didn't say anthing and for a second, Holly wondered what was going to happen next.
"If you want his help", Sundew interjected,"you have to take care of his friends. Safe haven for both silkwings and both hivewing. And I mean actually safe - no weird plants in their food, no fire ants in their beds."
What is Sundew doing?!
Holly thought Sundew was a good person (dragon, duh). In fact, besides Mandrake, Sundew seemed like the best Leafwing out of the whole village.
But, like Cricket, Holly was having a hard time figuring out Sundew.
She hated Hivewings that was clear. . . . . except Bumblebee and Cricket of course.
And (to a degree) she could understand why; the Hivewings had pretty much wiped out the Leafwings and almost all the trees, even though she wasn't sure how she knew that. Still . . . . .
"But Sundew-", Blue begain.
"What she said", Swordtail talked over him."Exactly what she said. Especially the 'No strange leaves' part."
Belladonna sat back on her haunches and reguarded them with narrowed eyes for a long moment.
"Very clever, Sundew. I knew we raised such a smart warrior." She flicked her tail and shot Sundew and approving look.
"Bringing us prisoners in case the flamesilk was reluctant. Very clever."
Holly's and Sundew's jaws dropped.This was not the expected outcome.
Holly wanted to slap Belladonna so hard, not even Google would be able to find her!
"I meant what I said", Sundew growled."Anyone who hurts them will answer to me!"
"All right, dear", Belladonna said dismissively.
Sundew looked furious.
Belladonna turned to Wolfsbane.
"Let's put them in Pokeweed's nest. He'll be gone with Hemlock for who knows how long."
"We'll take Bryony's, too", Sundew said.
"Get them settled, and come report to me", Belladonna said to Sundew and Holly. "I want a full explaination of that thing." She pointed to Bumblebee.
"We'll get the feast ready", Wolfsbane said, walking to the spot where Mandrake had dropped the panther.
Bumblebee grabbed Sundew's ear and whispered "Eeeeeeeeee?" into it.
"Yes. Come on and we'll get you something." Sundew turned towards the foodstores.
"Wait, ask about Luna", Swordtail said, jumping forward.
"Have any of you seen another Silkwing? She was blown out to sea a few days ago, and we were wondering if she came ashore in the jungle", Sundew explained.
Holly's eyes widened.
I have definitely heard this story before.
Belladonna looked at one of her lieutenants who who shook her head.
"Those are the only Silkwings I've ever seen", Byblis said, pointing to Blue and Swordtail.
"We haven't run into any strange dragons in our territory."
She started to say something else, than heasitated, then shook her head.
"No, we haven't brought any strange dragons into our village."
There was a slight, barely perceptible emphasis on "our".
"What does that mean?", Cricket asked. "What were you going to say?"
Bylis shifted.
"No confirmed reports. Just rumors. I don't bring silly rumors back to the comander."
She tilted her head at Belladonna.
"I must admit I'm curious", Belladonna said. "I give you permission to share, Byblis."
"Well. . . . all right", she finally said.
"A few guards on patrol mentioned that there was increased activity . . . . over there. More noice, raised voices, agitated trees. The ones with leafspeak said there was a whisper of something new. But you know trees; they don't know what they don't know. We believe we noted slighty more prey being caught. Nothing definit, mind you, but. . . . potenially consistent with the possibility of one or more strange dragons. . . . over there."
"Where?", Swordtail almost screamed.
"Are you saying there's another village?", Cricket asked. "Other leafwings?"
Belladonna snorted.
"They don't deserve to be called Leafwings. WE are the Leafwings! We're not giving up on our tribe and rolling around like Pillbugs!"
She dug her claws into the ground.
"Mother has a bit of a complex about the other 'tribe' ", Sundew explained with air-quotes.
"We call them Sapwings", Byblis said."By order of the commander."
"My order was never to talk about them!", Belladonna flared.
"But Luna might be over there!", Swordtail cried. "Can't we go over and ask? We can do that, Sundew, Holly?"
"No one's going anywhere", Belladonna said.
Holly and Sundew frowned her, perhaps giving her something to think about.
"Tonight, I mean", she added.
"It's too dark for anyone to wander around in the jungle, especially brainless outsiders who can't wait to be eatten. I will consider sending a message if everyone behaves."
For some reason, she looked at Holly, who gave her a matching glare.
"Luna's a flamesilk too!", Swordtail said."She's much more likely to help you."
"Hmm", Belladonna said."Interesting point, Butterfly Dragon. I will include that in my considerations."
She turned back towards the meeting house.
Bumblebee tugged on Sundew's ear again.
"Eeeeeeee?"
Blue and Cricket were looking at Sundew as though they weren't sure she was really Sundew, the dragon who's helped them and protected them, or a baby-eatting robbot instead.
"The nests are this way", Sundew said, stomping past them.
"Here", she said, stopping at Pokeweed's nest.
It was a ramshakle assorsment of branches woven into a sort of egg shape.
Holly wondered if it would keep out the rain, should it happen to.
At least it was big enough to fit two dragons.
"Blue and Swordtail can sleep in this one", Sundew said, gesturing to Pokeweed's nest.
"Bumblebee and Cricket can sleep in there." She pointed to Bryony's nest, which was nearby and much more tidy than Pokeweed's.
"What about you and Holly?", Blue asked.
"I have my own nest", Sundew said, flicking her tail towards the woven sphere where she slept.
"Of course", Blue said.
Holly smiled.
"I'll stay with you guys, if you want me to."
Blue gave her a thankful look.
"How will we remember which ones are for us?", Cricket asked.
"They all look pretty much the same."
Sundew made a vine of purple Morning glories grow from the ground and twist around the enterance.
"Thank you, Sundew", Blue said.
"So cool", Swordtail commented.
"Sundew?", Cricket hesitated.
"I have to go report to Belladonna." Sundew disangled Bumblebee from her neck, and gave her to Cricket.
"It's just. . . . aren't you our friend?", Cricket asked."There's so much you haven't told us-"
"Maybe not everything's your business!", Sundew flared. "Maybe you don't need to know the answer to every question in the world! Maybe I was alittle bit busy helping you investigate Wasp and keeping you alive!"
"It's not your fault, Cricket", Blue told her softly. "She was trying to help by bringing us here. She's known us for only a few days, it makes sense she wouldn't tell us everthing. And I know she didn't want them to burn down Bloodworm Hive."
Holly wished she could tell him that much.
"Do I know that?", Cricket asked. "Sundew, are you sure you'll be able to protect Blue if he doesn't want them to use his flamesilk anymore?"
"YES!", Sundew shouted. "By all the trees! It's like you cannot keep straight in your heads who are the good guys and who are the bad guys! ARGH!"
She whirled and flung herself onto the path. Holly hurried to keep up with her, stopping just once to throw her friends an appoligetic look.
"She's right", she heard Swordtail say. "I don't know if her mom's bad or good."
I'm not sure either.
They gave Belladonna their reports.
Sundew showed her the length of vine from Wasp's greenhouse.
She recognized it from all the days they'd been hidding there (which was yet another thing Holly shouldn't have known, about but did somehow), but neither she nor anyone else knew what it was.
Sundew also told Belladonna what they'd learned about Wasp's mind control, as she'd promised Cricket she would. And just as she'd predicted, Belladonna didn't care.The entire Hivewing tribe was still trapped under Wasp's control. It didn't matter how they got that way. . . . . at least not to Belladonna, who Holly already hated with a passion. They still had to be defeated, every last one of them, and the only thing Belladonna had to so was decide which have to burn down next.
After giving their reports, Sundew and Holly stopped by the weapons storehouse, where Mandrake was taking care of the hazardous insect collection.
He was always happiest there, even though Holly wasn't sure how she knew that.
Holly realized, much to her dismay, that her backpack had fallen off somewhere in the jungle. Now that they were in the village, however, there was no point in going back for it. It could be anywhere. In fact, it probably fell into a dragontrap.
She groaned.
Sundew took off her empty pouches and reoriganized her weaponry and supplies between the rest of the leafy bags, then she resttled them around herself.
"Do you want to restock?", Mandrake asked. He gestured to the wall of neatly labeled boxes.
"More sleep lilies? Or smoke leaves?"
"Not tonight", Sundew said. "Maybe tomarow."
"Um", Holly said, a little awkwardly, "do you have any more of those pouches? My packs fell off somewhere in the jungle."
Mandrake passed her some from over the counter.
She slipped the pouches over her long, dragon neck and fit them around her shoulders.
She looked around the storehouse and spotted a strange, green-and-yellow toad-like creature.
"What's that? Is it some kind of frog or something like that?", she asked.
"Oh", Mandrake said. "I'm not sure what that is. I found it outside yeasterday. It doesn't have poisonious skin, unlike any of the toads here. Instead, it creates a bright light that it must use to stun either prey or predaters", Mandrake answered, his face lightening.
"I call it a glow toad."
"A glow toad?", Holly asked with a smirk.
"Yes", Mandrake said, a smile playing at his mouth."What's so funny?"
"It reminds me of a show on Netflix", Holly answered.
"Net Kicks?", Mandrake asked, puzzled.
She giggled.
"Can I have the glow toad?", she asked.
"Of course!", Mandrake said. He handed it to her with a crooked smile on whis face, which was much too adorable to have belonged to a dragon. But, at the same time, it almost looked better on a dragon than it would have on a human. Holly blinked. She wanted to hit herself into Tatarus for being so stupid.
She took it, and gently put it into a pouch around her neck.
Images raced though her head, "memories" of her and Mandrake; of the two of them staying up until midnight, discusing the creatures in the storehouse and naming them; of her and Mandrake laughing until they couldn't breath, as Nettle gave them weird looks. But the memory that stood out the most to her was of her and Mandrake sneaking out of the safty of the vilage to watch a meteor shower, a few hours before dawn, and definitely without permission.
In the real world, she didn't have anyone she felt she could really call a friend.
Mandrake seemed to be that kind of person (dragon), the kind that would understand her no matter how weird she was. He struck her as someone who might even like a bit of strangeness in his life.
And then, she remembered where she was from and knew that all of those memories weren't possible.
Sundew sat through the feast, pretending to be cheerful, but, Holly could tell she was upset. She didn't eat much, and didn't say anything if she could help it.
Holly on the other talon, was starving.
As glowing night flowers lit up the vilage, Holly watched Leafwings sidle up to Blue and Swordtail, testing out questions, slowly letting them in.
She saw Cricket try to join the conversations, and she saw all the Leafwings turn around away from her, wings curled and teeth bared.
She saw the looks of hate they gave Bumblebee as the tiny dragonet grabbed and ate everything she could reach and how she seemed to sense it and grow smaller, keeping close to Cricket.
Finally, the feast ended.
Leafwings started crawling into their nests.
Two dragons took up their posts at the gate.
Blue paused infront of Sundew.
"Are you sure you don't want to stay with us?"
"Yes. I'm sure", Sundew said blankly.
Swordtail waved to her from the doorway of Pokeweed's nest.
Sundew nodded back, and Holly watched her climb into her own nest, before following Cricket to Bryony's.
Hours and hours later, Holly couldn't get to sleep.
She'd always been a night-owl, but tonight she was confused and (dare she think it?) afraid. She had no backpack, no way of communication, no MP3 Player and worst of all, no book.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Sundew slip quietly out of her nest and pad steathily to the far side of the barrier from the enterance.
Holly quiety snuck out of the nest and followed her.
The plants leaned away from one another, bending and twining until there was a hole in the barrier just big enough for Sundew to hop through.
Just before the hole closed up behind her, Holly hopped through without her noticing.
The night was even louder than the day, between the insects and night-prowling predaters, the declarations of the frogs and the skittering of the large clouds of bats above them.
Soon they came to a pond. Dark water rippled in front of Sundew, reflecting slivers of moonlight.
Sundew set a small jade frog on the boulder in the middle of the pound at climbed up into the safty of a nearby tree.
A light rain started to fall, misting through the leaves above Holly's hidding place.
She wasn't sure how much time had passed.
At last the shadows around the pound rippled and one glided up to the boulder, and then down to the moonlight in front of Sundew.
She leaped out of the tree and bonded over the grass into ivory-colored wings.
A/N: If you liked this chapter, remember to add a vote, comment, and share!
Wordcount:2672
Renx out!