The Olive Branch

Chapter 2

         Normally, in stressful situations like these, Olive's habit is to pace back in forth. but when she had tried that, she fell on her face. She whined face-first into the sand. 'How do scavengers even balance on these little sticks??' She had thought grumpily as she rolled over and was forced to continue her panic on the ground, the sun started to rise over the horizon. She rolled over in the shade of the wall of the alley, a bright dot moving around in her vision, a temporary mark from the sun.

          "Okay let's break this down. I was trying to hunt down a scavenger when it turned me into a scavenger too and now I'm stuck like this unless I find that scavenger and make him turn me back." Hearing it out loud made her want to scream. Olive knew that would probably attract dragons so instead she shuffled around and threw sand everywhere, which landed in her mouth and eyes, which did make her cry. Not from the sand, well, partially from the sand but even though Olive could barely see through her eyes, not even that could stop her from feeling miserable about her newest situation.

'Mother would be more disappointed in me if she saw me act like this' She chuckled to herself, though it sounded like she was also crying too. 'Oh, I can almost see her reaction. 'Olive! Get yourself together. You're acting like a dragonet.' 'Olive! What in the moons are you doing?? Are you a Sandwing or a scavenger? GET UP!!' That last quote made her flinch. She'd been getting better at her impersonations of her mother.

          She wanted to continue whimpering about her new circumstances for ten more minutes, but she finally had the backbone to get up, almost literally with her now smaller spine. First, she tried sitting up which went well only after a few tries. The second step was going to be harder. Standing. She had done it when she freaked out, even managing to jump back without falling, she just had to recreate that.

          She slowly got up into a crouching position, this was harder to hold but she had her hands on the ground which helped. Slowly, she started straightening her body, she closed her eyes and focused on her body's balance. When she reopened her eyes, she was standing perfectly straight! She was so excited that she even jumped up, which ended her back on the ground with a sore butt.

          'Alright, that...-hurt. But at least I was able to stand up for a while!' She thought positively. Using the same method she had done before, she got back up on her "feet" or whatever they were called. 'Now all I have to do is walk. How do scavengers walk? Hm. They sort of copy how we walk just with two legs right? So maybe I should try to walk normally.' She focused on her balance again and immediately started walking as she would normally. This ended up with her on the ground again with a mouthful of sand.

              She got back up, it was now getting easier to stand every time she did it, and focused on her core balance. 'How do I do this? I've never walked on my hind legs before and I've never been a scavenger before.' She thought for a moment, almost losing her balance before regaining it back. 'Oh! Maybe I can copy how scavengers do it. I just have to remember how exactly they do it...' She thought, thinking hard about the times she had seen scavengers scramble away from her.

              'You put one leg forward,' She moved one of her legs forward, almost tripping on the slippery sand. 'Then the other' Her other foot sat right next to the one she had moved. 'Did I do it? Is there more?' She wondered before realizing that she had moved from her original spot without falling on her butt or face!

               Slowly, she began moving her feet one in front of the other. She was so happy that she even managed to start running, and for once when she got excited about her walking evolutions as a scavenger, she didn't fall.

               "WHOO HOOOOOO!" She yelled happily, running down the alleyway. A looming shadow came out of nowhere, eclipsing the sun. It was one of the Sandwing dragonets she had seen the night before. She immediately put her hand over her mouth and ran up to the wall, flattening herself against it. The large dragonet Sandwing's head moved back and forth before shrugging. "I don't see anything here Rattlesnake! I think you're going deaf." The dragonet laughed, leaving huge wind waves as it ran off.

                Olive carefully removed her hand from her mouth and stepped back from the wall, but keeping close to it. 'I need to be more careful,' She thought. 'I need a plan. Maybe I should find the nearest scavenger village and ambush that pesky scavenger that did this to me.'

               She tried to remember the maps they were taught in school. This was the moment that Olive regretted not paying enough attention. She hit her head a couple of times, trying to jog her memory. Nothing came to her. 'I guess I should just walk until I find a village.' She sighed. She started trying to see which way she should go.

Soon after, Olive started making her way cautiously out of Scorpion Den out onto the open desert. She continuously walked as the sun was searing down what felt like scorchingly hot daggers. It had never felt this hot before. She has been walking for almost an hour now. Her body begged for her to stop and sit down, but she needed to capture that scavenger, threaten him to turn her back into the dragon she once was, and this would all be over.

Ten minutes pass, her speed decreases faster every passing second. It doesn't help that the sun is fully overhead, and there are no more clouds to help her. "I'm...going....to...kill...that stupid scavenger...when...I find it." She managed to choke out before her body collapsed onto the sand, and she passed out.