Bloodworm Hive

Chapter 12 - Abispa

Animus magic, animus magic, animus magic my soul whispered excitedly. All the power. Change anything, fix anything, be anything. Halflight looked very surprised, and Promise had already fell over. Eclipse's eyes were gleaming with an unknown emotion, and Breakthrough seemed to be plotting how he could successfully steal her talons. "So, where are we anyways?" Promise asked. "Under the h-hive." Halflight said, dumbfounded from the sudden discovery, but she shook her head. "Here's the basics on magic - don't use it or else you'll go crazy and use it smartly, not to do the dishes or anything like that, alright?"  Hal said to Abispa, who jumped a little. "Dishes? Can't I just destroy mind-control or teleport Azure here?" "Nah, those spells are too big for a beginner. You need to do enchant something to keep your soul intact first. But that spell only works when you don't use your magic 24/7, so only emergencies will you use it, alright?" "EMERGENCIES?! Azure is an emergency!" I argued. "Don't be a howler monkey! Just make it!" "My soul is perfectly fine!" I huffed, offended but also wondering if Halflight was telling the truth. "Suit yourself but don't blame me when you go on a massacre rush!" she huffed "If I go on a massacre rush. It's not going to happen." "That's what all the insane animi say, and WHAT HAPPENS TO THEM." Hal remarked loudly, rolling her eyes. "I'm not insane." Abispa shot back, "And I wont ever be." they finished, and grumbled, looking down at their talons. "I'm just LOOKING OUT for you, you very dumb hunk!" Hal snapped, huffing as I resisted the urge to tell the ground to drop her out of the world.

"So how are we sneaking in?" Abispa demanded, but Eclipse just shook her head "We can't. Too many guards." "Ah. We can't." Hal said, and then turned to Eclipse. "Why are you looking at me?" she demanded "My wings are terrible at camouflage." she said, narrowing her eyes. "So, fold them." Hal flicked her talons as her ruff raised a little "It's easy." "Well, it's not easy to fly away with your wings closed." Eclipse shot back, flapping her slightly large wings a little. "Fine. What can we do?" Hal asked, rolling her eyes "Summon him!" Abispa suggested "That's stupid. You'll hurt your soul." she argued, flicking her tail again as Abispa sighed "No, I amen't. This soul thing doesn't exist!" Hal's ruff twitched a little, "Fine. Have it your way." before flapping her wings and taking off "I'm going to go get some lions." Abispa looked down at her talons, but Eclipse smacked them away from her vision. "No, no, bad Abispa. When Hal says that she's being sarcastic." "I noticed." Abispa hissed, grumbling a little. She had always felt something in her talons. It felt like liquid, but it never fell out, only moved with her through her very steps. She thought this was normal for dragons, but apparently it wasn't. Promise hesitated. "The nobles might know what's going on? Eclipse, can teleportation work with this 'animus magic'." "Yess.." she said unenthusiastically, slipping away like a shadow. Promise sighed, and said "We shouldn't teleport Azure here. We should get contact with him, somehow, but he could gather useful information if he stays for a bit. But the nobles might know what was going on with all these weird sitings. Summon Alcon." "Er ... sorry, but who is Alcon again?" "Nevermind, just teleport us to him!" Promise said, avoiding the question. "Not until you tell me who they are." "Alcon is a noble who lives on the High Grounds, alright? Now let's go!" Promise snapped "What about Hal-" Abispa started but Eclipse interruptd her from the dark, making the two jump "I'll tell her you ditched her to go talk to some rich guy." Abispa was about to open her mouth when Promise said "Rephrase it a bit nicer, please." before urging Abispa. "Ok, NOW teleport us." "Why should I teleport you there in the first place?" Abispa argued "Because we need to consult him and recruit him!" "I'm sorry that you think some rich HiveWing is going to help in this situation." "Maybe not, but his servant can!" "WHO IS HIS SERVANT?" Abispa snapped back as Eclipse groaned and covered her ears "How am I supposed to know her name? Now get us there already!" "Fine, tsundere!" Abispa scoffed "I'm just annoyed today!" Promise huffed "Ok, now you sound like Hal. She muttered a quick enchantment, and suddenly she felt as if she was somewhere different. The air was much more fresh, and she had dropped on something. "What in the 3 moons?" someone muttered from below them. Promise? No, this dragon had golden scales with red flecks. 

"Ah-erm-sorry. We sort of teleported here."  the HiveWing gave them an odd look, and Abispa quickly realized that was definitely the wrong thing to say. "Ok, you 'teleported' here. Now why are you here?" "She told me to!" Abispa pointed a talon at Promise "We wanted to speak to Anise about something." Alcon narrowed his eyes "What do you need to talk to Anise about? She's my servant, if that's what you're thinking." "WHY would we steal Anise? We aren't looking for servants, we're looking for INFORMATION." "On my secret recipe? Then you're not getting it. I know you were lying about teleportation, how should I trust you now, tell me." Alcon huffed. His eyes were dark ginger red, and he was freckled with orange speckles from head to tail. "BECAUSE." Eclipse said from behind him. "What was in that cake?" Alcon muttered. "THIS IS NOT BECAUSE OF A CAKE. I DOUBT YOU EVEN HAVE THE BRAINCELLS TO IMAGINE THIS." Promise snapped and Alcon sighed "I think you're right about that."

"So, can we see Anise?" I demanded once again, annoyed by his persistence. "Why can't I visit?" "SilkWing business." Promise said grimly as Alcon raised his eyebrow. "You two aren't SilkWings." "I ench-" I started as Promise shook her head at me and said "We might as well be, judging by what we're doing. So please-" "What does that mean?" "REVOLUTION, THAT'S WHAT IT MEANS!" Promise shouted and shoved him aside (how she could even manage, I don't know). She stormed around the house, nearly breaking pieces of pottery I barely managed to save with outstretched talons "Hey!" Alcon complained, and hissed as Abispa caught them "Don't touch those!" "So you'd rather have it smashed by my unwieldy friend I see." I said sarcastically, "Oh, my dirty talonprints have stained their purity! Oh Clearsight, please forgive me!" I continued as he snorted "Fine, fine. Make sure to stain everything she tries to knock over with your dirty talonprints." I yelped, catching a gleaming white glass cup and quickly putting it back on it's shelf. "Where's Anise?" she demanded, turning towards Alcon so quickly I nearly dropped the pottery.

"GIVE ME A BREAK PROMISE!" I hissed, quickly uprighting myself and adjusting this vase. It was made of brown ancient metal that someone had definitely tried and failed miserably to polish. The intricate flower and tree designs were still visible. "Whoa." Abispa breathed. "Do you support LeafWings or something?" "I will not answer that question." Alcon declared "I just wanted to keep an antique that so happened to have ONE tree on it? Is something wrong with that?" "A very visible tree!." Promise pointed out. "We're getting off-topic. And why are you not suspicious we teleported out of nowhere?" Promise seemed to be reacting weirdly, but it probably was because she wasn't used to stress. Back when Abispa stressed about a test in their old school.

"ARGH! THAT DUMB FORMULA!" I hissed, covering my ears in hopes it would shut up my headache for a little, which didn't work. I lied on the bed. Flick wasn't here, and I had no siblings - older or younger geniuses - to ask for help. My brain simply  was dead this night, and it happened to be the one before my math test. I was in 3rd grade. "WHY IN THE 3 BLASTED MOONS DO WE NEED TO KNOW THIS?!" I yelled. Being alone was good sometimes, like the fact you only followed your own rooms - but the worst thing was that, when you didn't know something, were missing homework, or stressing on a test, like, for example, RIGHT NOW, you had nobody to save you.  I sighed and my tail lashed like it always did when I was stressed. THIS WAS MATH! I had always hated math, but this was the one exam that could help me pass! And all grades were sent by messenger to parent, so Flick would see it no doubt! I groaned at the blue silk-woven book that spelled out  M A T H  in bold letters and spaced out writing, like it made it any better than all the other identical boring math books which droned on and on about useless things only a few jobs could use. Why didn't they give dragonets the choice, she had wondered. Probably the same snooty grown-up reasons. "BLA BLA BLA! DRAGONETS DON'T KNOW WHATS BEST FOR THEM BLA BLA!" as her Agriculture teacher, Ms. Phasmid would say - no - drone was a better word. Guess that applied to both agriculture and math. I couldn't ask anyone. I had no friends at school. Maybe I could ask Carnifex. She was the mysterious kid in my class, always staring at everyone with cold, calculating eyes. 

Apparently, I had proof from a doctor I had gotten a fever, but that wouldn't work out with my teacher. She said "STOP THE EXCUSES, SO ANNOYING, BLA, I aMEN'T STUPID, BLA BLA!" So boring. And so annoying. She didn't even allow me to show her the doctor's slip, that silly creature. All she did was open her mouth, close it for a millisecond, and open it for another 5 million years to say what was coming out of her annoying throat. She walked, talked and thought slow.

"So, you wanted me?"