Holly's POV
"Axolotl says he's heard of a village that worships an abyss!", Cricket said to them when they returned.
"He'll help us if we help him translate the dragon book! And maybe, he'll be my friend, and we'll learn each other's languages! After we save the world, of course", she added, her smile fading.
"He says we can head there tomarow", Umber said.
"Tomarow? But what about the others?", Luna asked.
"We have to wait for the, don't we?"
Hollt's heart sighed and wriggled.
"We can't", she spoke up.
Everyone turned to her.
"As much as I want to stay, we don't have time. Sundew and Lynx should have met us three days ago. If they were here, we probably would have heard from them, at this point. We have to go on without them."
"And maybe, making us visible again was Sundew telling us to move on without her", Cricket added.
"But we won't have any idea what to do once we get to the Abyss", Luna said.
All eyes returned to Holly.
She inhaled deeply, fingering her necklace.
"We'll just have to figure that out when we get there."
"I get how you feel, Holly", Cricket said.
"I didn't think I'd have to do any real fighting with Sundew and Tsunami around.
I wouldn't send me to save the world either."
But someone did send me.
Someone did think I could do this.
But why me?
"What I tell myself is, whatever's down there will help us save our friends. That's all we're doing: finding the truth. At least, in my head anyway", Cricket said.
"What if the answers eat us?", Luna asked.
"Then, we hope the next dragons do better", Cricket said.
"We should leave a clue for Sundew, but we can't stay and wait, not when there's a way we can save everyone, not when we know what the next step is."
"All right", Luna finally said.
"How do we leave a message for Sundew?"
"Oh, let's think", Cricket said.
She got to her feet lifting small rocks, scratching her head.
"What are you doing?", Luna asked.
"Thinking", Cricket said.
"It has to be something only Sundew and Lynx will notice, or else Wasp might get it."
"So we can't paint on the wall", Holly said. "Or use rocks to spell 'Your saviors were here!', or anything like that."
"Because then, anyone could find us", Cricket added.
"What should the message even say? 'Find a human and follow it'?", Cricket asked.
"I'll tell Wren to ask Axolotl!"
Holly glanced in anxiety as Luna spun a bit of flamesilk, using it to dry her scales.
It's fine, idiot, she's just drying herself.
It's just fire.
"But she could use it on you at any one time", someone said.
What? No, she's mt friend!
Who the hell are you?
No response.
Cricket came bounding toward the, her glasses leaning to one side.
"He says the abyss is near a lake in the South; must be Lake Scorpion. We should put that in the message.
Do you have any other ideas?"
"No, but the more you talk, the harder it is to get any", Umber joked.
"Sorry, trying to be funny like Qibli to lighten the mood."
"Sorry", Cricket said immediately.
"I'll shush."
They all thought quietly for a moment.
"Ah-ha! I know, a plant!", Holly said triumpantly.
"Of course!", Luna said, jumping up.
"And most Hivewings never notice them. We need a plant to help us!"
"Sorry, what?", Umber said.
"Sundew can talk to plants", Cricket said.
"If there's an unexpected plant, Sundew will sense it with her leafspeak.
So, we bury the message by it's roots, and hope she finds it."
Umber stood guard at the foot of the cave as they carefully dug out a hardly looking violet, and transplanted it in the muddy floor of the cave.
"Poor thing", Cricket said, as they shifted the dirt over the flower's roots.
"I'm sorry, little plant. When Sundew finds you, I'm sure she'll move you to a better spot."
"Not before she mentally abuses us for nearly killing you", Holly added.
Luna gave her a wry smile.
She brought fourth a twist of flamesilk.
She took the piece of dift-wood that Wren had given her, and burned the message into it.
"Gone to find the Aybss near Lake Scorpion. Meet us there."
Then, Cricket dug a small hole near the plant's roots, and buried the message.
The next day, Axolotl showed up with another, strange human.
This one was wearing a coat of stolen dragon silk, a short dress that fell to the human's waist.
Like Axolotl, this one had dark skin and long, black hair.
The light of Luna's flamesilk caused both humans to blink rapidly.
"This is Oceolot", Wren said.
"She's offered to keep a look-out for our missing dragons.
If we burn another message, she'll give it to them."
"She will?!", Cricket cried.
"Isn't that really brave of her? Has she been around dragons before?"
Wren repeated the question and Oceolot laughed.
"She says she's been around dragons lots before. She's not afraid of them. I like her."
"Still, tell her to stay away from Hivewings and Silkwings, anyone who looks like me or Cricket.
Tell her only to trust a green dragon and a white dragon", Luna said.
"Yes, only dragons with two wings are safe for now", Cricket agreed.
"But Wasp can control Leafwings too now", Holly reminded her.
"Oh. Right."
Axolotl gently patted one of Luna's talons.
"He says it will be all right", Wren translated.
"Oceolot is smart. She'll know which dragons are safe and who should get the message."
Wren pointed to Sky's wings and explained to Oceolot, as Luna burned another message into a pice of drift-wood.
I hope this is enough.
Sundew, come on.
"It is very wet outside", Sky said, looking at Oceolot.
"Wren, this poor human is going to get all slippery and slide off my back if we try to fly her now. And sick! Don't fluffy little mamals get sick if they get too wet? What are we going to do? Can we wrap you both us in water-proof leaves, or something?"
He grinned mischievously.
"Fancy umbrella leaf hats?"
"You are ridiculous", Wren said.
"We're not going outside. Axolotl knows a way through the caves that will bring us most of the way there, which is safer than flying around when dragons could be looking for us."
Sky looked a little nervous.
"We're going underground? Like, a lot FARTHER underground?"
"I'm afraid that is where most people keep their scary abysses", Wren said.
Holly inwardly agreed with Sky.
She wasn't normally claustropobic, but these caves were getting on her nerves.
She and the others cautiously followed Axolotl deeper into the caves.
Holly felt something wriggling in her pouch.
With a small grin, she realized how grumpy Bait must have felt.
She took out the Glow-toad, placed him on her head, and kept walking.
"Hey, bud, can you light up for us?", Holly asked, putting him on the rocky ground.
Bait looked at her, as if to say, You bet!, and a bright blue glow began to emit from his body.
Sky gasped.
"What kind of animal is that? Is he a pet? He is SOOOO CUTE!"
He gasped again.
"DOES HE LIKE HATS?!"
Holly chortled.
"He's actually pretty grumpy. Bait would probably rather eat the hat than wear it"
Bait continued walking ahead of them, casting a cerulean light, and ilumintating the cave.
Most of the tunnels were so small, Holly's horns kept scrapping against the ceiling, and her wings kept pressing against the rocks.
She'd never felt so cramped in all of her life. Not even road trips to Texas in the family van were as crowded as this.
If she ever had to go to go into a cave ever again after this mission, she'd scream.
But Axolotl went on confidently, chatting with Wren, almost as though he could see even without the glow-toad, occasionally stopping to consolt the human note-book.
Cricket also had the dragon book tucked inside her pouch with her dart-gun. She'd promised she'd help translate it during their rest stops.
"It's not just a history of the Tree Wars", Cricket said to Luna and Holly, on the third day.
"It a history of the whole world."
"Pweff!", Holly remarked.
"Once, my sister, Claire, and I had to listen to an audiobook for school that was kind of like that. It was a history of America, and it was SO LONG, and SO BORING, I nearly lost my mind."
"History isn't boring!", Cricket cried.
"You wouldn't say that is you'd been there", Holly said.
"Maybe SOME parts of history are interesting, but depending on who presents them, it can be REALLY boring. But I'd love to hear more of your history", she added.
"Anyway, books like the one Axolotl has, all vanished from our schools and liberaries, especially if I ever asked for one. The Hivewing philosopy: everything started with the Tree Wars, and you better not ask any questions about anything beofre it."
"Huh", Holly said.
"We have a similar problem in my world, too, now that I think about it."
"Does it say anything about Pyrrhia? About us?", Umber asked.
"Yes, but it calls you the Distant Kingdoms, like we always have", Cricket said.
"It has a whole chapter on Clearsight, and it even goes way back to the dragons who first came here, and the whole Legend of the Hive."
Holly shivered.
The Legend of the Hive gave her the heebie-geebies.
Up ahead of them, Sky and the two humans had made it past the cavern, and stopped for a short break.
She scooped up Bait as she approuched them.
"It's after dark outside", Luna said.
"Are the humans getting tired?"
"How can you tell?", Holly asked.
"It's a Silkwing thing", Luna said.
"We always know what time of day it is."
"Wow! Very cool!", Sky remarked.
"We can go on a little farther if you can", Wren said.
"Axolotl says that up ahead, there's a drier cave where we can make a fire and spend the night."
"Okay", Holly said, and the others agreed.
They set off again, squeezing into yet another small tunnel.
Holly felt Luna and Cricket behind her, trying carefully not step on Bait, who was following at her heels.
"Tell me more about that book", she said.
"Well, I haven't read this part, but there's a chapter about something called the Scorching."
Just behind them, Umber stood up straight.
"The Scorching?"
"Yes. Why? Do you know something about it?", Cricket asked.
"What was it? I've never heard of it."
She suddenly paused.
"Umber, was it something that happened in Pyrrhia? Tell me everything! What do your history books say about it?"
"Not a lot. It's a bit of a mystery, really", Umber said.
"It's how we got tribes, and queens, and kingdoms, and things like that."
"Really?", Cricket said.
"How? Why? Weren't there always kingdoms and tribes?"
Holly reached the end of the tunnel, and crawled out onto a ledge that swooped down to the ground.
She begin to slide down it, but hit her head on a stylactite.
"OW!", she groaned, rubbing her head, as she and Bait skidded to a stop at the bottom.
How do I always find dumb ways to hurt myself?
Luna, Cricket, and Umber, slide down beside her, and they hurried after Wren's torch.
"Umber! Tell me more!", Cricket proded.
"Um, history wasn't my best subject in school", Umber admited, "but I'll tell you as much as I can.
There were a lot more humans back then, I think, over . . . . five-thousand years ago.
And there weren't any tribes; dragons lived mostly alone. And food was scarce, I'm pretty sure. And then, a human made a dragon really mad, and the human got eatten. The dragon burned a whole city, or something. That kept happening. More dragons killed more humans. Eventually, those dragons formed a kingdom, and that was the Scorching."
"Wow", Luna said.
"So, the dragons destoryed an entire human city JUST because of ONE human?", Holly asked.
"I wonder what the human did to make someone that angery", Cricket said.
They continued walking quietly for some time.
"Doesn't it drive you crazy how much there is to know, and how much we don't know?", Cricket asked.
"Like how much we still have to learn about the humans?"
"I guess", Luna said.
"We have so many problems already, I don't really think about it."
"I'd rather not think about the humans much", Holly admited.
She shut her eyes firmly.
They reached a cliff, and they spread their wings to fly to the top, where Sky had already flown the humans.
"It would be nice to find a book titled 'What's in the Abyss, and What to do About it' ", Cricket said.
"Yes", Luna said.
"Heck yes", Holly said.
" '101 Ways to Kill an Evil Queen- without, you know, being evil.' "
Holly laughed.
"So, you guys worry about that too?", Luna asked, as they landed.
"Beating bad guys without being bad guys? All the time."
Luna held out her talons.
" 'How to Use a Gift Like Fire to Stop a War, Without Hurting Anyone.' "
" 'How to Understand my Life' ", Holly said.
" 'Understanding Your Feelings for Boys, 101.' "
"Oh my gosh, YES!", Luna said, laughing.
" 'How to Stop Being an Idiot and Save the Fickin' World' ", Holly went on.
" 'How to Save the Worlds. . . . . For Dummies."
" 'How to-", Cricket breathed through giggles, " 'How to be Funny, Even When You're-' "
They'd been walking along the cliff top for a while, under a vast ceiling of glow worms and stylactites, when Umber suddenly stopped.
"Shh!", he said, staring intently at the inky darkness beyond their light.
Holly suddenly felt a chill go down her spine.
Luna wipped around.
"We not alone."
Scarcely had the words escaped from her mouth, when something pounced on Cricket.
A/N: This chapter took me WAY WAY WAY too long.
I'm really sorry guys.
Also, I have a
*inhales*
Ihaveacrush.
You can go look at my artbook for more on that.
If you enjoyed, be sure to add a vote, comment, and share!
Wordcount: *Way too many*
2390
Renx out!