Wings of Fire - Cavernous Promises

Chapter 25

ADMIRAL

Admiral felt his face grow hotter as he tried to untangle his talons. Locust got up, "I'm going to investigate something." he called to the group before walking out of the cave. Admiral yawned and with a final tug removed the silk from his claws, he looked down at the beginnings of his scarf, it was a little rough around the edges but otherwise it looked fine. He yawned again, I should get some sleep, I've been on my wings since this morning. He settled down and curled his tail around his claws settling down and drifted off into the dark embrace of sleep.

"Admiral! Peacock!" called a voice from outside.

"Come on Admiral, it's time to get up!" his sister's voice called as she bounced on top of him.

"Alright, alright. I'm up." chuckled Admiral getting up out of his bedding.

"Come on, we're going to the market." called Peacock, before she turned and rushed out of the room. Admiral took a few moments to get up. He glanced around, seeing that he was the only one not awake. He pulled himself to his claws. Before walking out of the room and into the small corridor that made up their cell.

"Admiral! You're awake, come along." called Freefly, her blue and pale yellow wings glinting as she nudged him forward. He walked into the entrance of the cell, where the rest of the dragonets were being sorted into lines by Mustard.

"Get into an orderly line, Pinewhite get off Mulberry! Heath for the last time, get off Postman! Spice and Sphinx, get away from there!" she shouted, while nudging Indra into her place. Admiral glanced at Heath who was pinning down Postman, who looked as defeated as ever, his antennae flopped down onto his horns.

They were soon guided onto the webbing, where they clung on and started to climb along the stringy ropes heading to the marketplace. Freefly and Mustard swooped along beside the dragonets, diving in if they thought one was about to slip. Eventually they made it to the marketplace, which was swarming with HiveWings today. The guards were eyeing them with suspicion as they walked past.

"Halt!" called one he was almost completely black, except for yellow stripes running down his neck and red accents on his wings. "State your business here." he growled, bearing his teeth.

"We're here to spend the day." replied Freefly.

"Alright," said the guard gruffly, he then opened his foreclaw as if expecting something. Freefly lifted her arm up and held it out beneath the guards snout, he analysed the marks before snorting. He then moved through all of them checking each of their palms, he stopped at Rosy, a smile tinging his snout, "Metamorphosis today?" he asked, twitching his tail.

"Yes, I think so." replied Rosy looking at him with pink-tinged eyes.

"Alright then." muttered the guard, before he left with a swish of his tail.

"What was that about?" murmured Mustard, "We've never been stopped before."

"It doesn't matter, now you should go, I'm sure the HiveWings wouldn't like it if you were away from work." Freefly replied, resting her wing on Mustard's shoulder.

"You're right, I'll see if I can be back for Rosy's metamorphosis." Mustard replied, before fanning her wings and gliding out of the marketplace.

Freefly sighed, "Alright, come along children." She called, walking forward.

Eventually they reached a small store where Freefly worked. "Freefly you're late." snapped the HiveWing she worked for.

"No, I'm on time." replied Freefly, snorting at them indignantly, "I have a large family to look after some of the dragonets being quite unruly."

"Well, I don't want them anywhere near my shop." hissed the HiveWing.

"Of course," replied Freefly, "Off you go," she turned and called to the dragonets, "Don't go too far though, Rosy. If you feel you have to go into metamorphosis, go to the Cocoon."

Rosy nodded, scratching at her wrist, before Indra crashed into her side with a wide smile. Rosy turned and smiled chasing after her sister, while the rest of the dragonets left, Admiral watched them as they ran out into the store to play games, all except Peacock who hung back at the doorway. "Admiral, are you coming?" she asked.

"No, I would like to stay with Freefly." Admiral replied, turning to look at his mother, she smiled before looking at the HiveWing.

"Speak to Honey about it." They growled, before turning and leaving to look over the SilkWings working for them.

"Who's that?" asked Admiral, glancing at the retreating tail of the HiveWing.

"That was Maggot, don't let her get under your scales. Or she'll eat you alive." replied Freefly, glancing out after him, "Come on let's speak with Honey."

They walked to the back of the store where a small golden HiveWing with brown stripes was settled at a desk. Her claws were black and she had a circle of black scales around her eyes, like glasses. She looked up as they approached, "Freefly! Nice to see you, what are you here for?" she asked.

"Hello, Honey, is it okay if Admiral stays with me for the day?" Freefly asked, placing her claw on his shoulder.

"Of course it's fine! Gotta teach them young, plus I wouldn't mind having a young dragonet around the place." replied Honey resting her claws on the desk, "Also what's your secret? How do you control all of your dragonets? I only have two and they won't listen to a word I say."

"Hmm, well reward good behaviour that should help with them." replied Freefly, "I should be getting to work."

Admiral trotted two steps behind his mother as they headed to the spinning corridor, a space where all the SilkWings made scarves, cloaks and other items of clothing for HiveWing and SilkWings. There was four SilkWings currently working, Acmon, who Freefly liked as he often joked around when they were on break, Mother-of-Pearl, Pearl for short, who was the oldest and had the most beautiful silk of the group, Queen, who was not really liked as she had a bit of a snobby attitude and Fall the youngest addition who was one of the most hardworking SilkWings Admiral's mother knew. Freefly settled down at her station and began to spin her silk. Admiral watched his mother for hours, occasionally asking questions, at one point getting a ball of coloured silk to play with from Pearl. It was getting to the end of the day when Mustard burst into the room, tailed by Maggot who was shouting at her, "Get back here! This area's out of bounds!"

Mustard skidded to a halt in front of Freefly, the coppery-red scales down her neck shimmering in the dim light. "Mustard, what's wrong?" asked Freefly, putting down the scarf she was making. Mustard panted, clearly out of breath, before gasping out, "It's Rosy, I went to the Cocoon to see if she'd gone into metamorphosis yet and..." she trailed off.

"What?" asked Freefly, her expression becoming more worried at the minute.

"She went into metamorphosis and then she was taken away by the HiveWings!"