Scarab the Fierce

Chapter Nine

Scarab could barely tell where her scales ended and the floor began. Everything felt numb and she could only vaguely feel the press of wings around her. She lifted her head groggily and realized Qibli was half on top of her. She grunted and shoved Qibli off of her. He slid onto the floor with a soft thud, then started shifting as he regained consciousness. Scarab looked around. They weren't in the clearing anymore. 

Below them was a firm platform made of wooden planks. Upon further inspection she saw that the platform was connected to other platforms and built around tree trunks and resting in the thick canopies. She looked over the nearby edge of the platform and immediately wished she hadn't. The distance between her and the ground was dizzying. She crouched low to the floor and crept back towards the middle of the platform.

"Oh look! They're waking up." A voice from behind Scarab made her jump and whirl around, accidentally stepping on Qibli's tail, who was almost fully awake now but still sprawled across the platform.

A deep blue dragon was walking amiably up to them from a connecting platform. She was small for a dragon, but burly, and still larger than Scarab and Qibli. Her eyes glowed with interest and confidence, yet Scarab could tell that she was still wary around the strangers. The new dragon was definitely a SeaWing, the descriptions Scarab had heard and read about fit perfectly. Large strong tail, flowy fins along the neck and back, and smooth watery scales in ornate patterns decorating the neck, wings, and tail. 

What's a SeaWing doing here? Surely they don't live in the forest... 

Arid stirred and lifted her head up and stared at the SeaWing. Scarab was aware that all three of them were sending the blue dragon obvious looks, but the SeaWing only smirked. "What? Don't see many SeaWings in the Rainforest?"

The Rainforest? That explains a few things. Does that mean we're in the...

Another dragon ran up to them from the same direction that the SeaWing came. He was darker, his scales all shades of black and grey. Scarab saw flickering specks of white shifting across his wings as he walked. His eyes were deep and troubled, yet shared a similar glint of interest that the SeaWing had. Scarab had seen dragons like him, NightWings, occasionally in the Scorpion Den. Neither the SeaWing or the NightWing looked like they could be much older than Scarab.

"Tsunami, they might not be ready to talk yet... Oh, hi. I thought you'd be out longer." The NightWing said. His voice was gentle, like he wasn't used to raising it. Definitely a peacemaker. Scarab smirked inwardly. I could take him.

"This is Tsunami." He tipped his head towards the SeaWing. "I'm Starflight. What are you three doing in the Rainforest?"

"I think a better question is why we were knocked out, and where we are." Scarab said, allowing a bit of hostility to sound in her tone.

Tsunami sighed. "Of course. You're in the Rainforest, or more specifically, the RainWing village." 

Scarab raised her eyebrows. The RainWing village? She had never seen a RainWing before, and the descriptions she had seen had been vague at best. Colour shifting scales and expressive frills under their horns. The descriptions mostly enjoyed focusing on their fantastic laziness and sloth-like qualities. She looked around again and saw the rest of the village. Simple wooden huts and platforms connected like a web across the forest, decorated with the natural flowers and growth from the rainforest, and what looked like fruit baskets on every other platform.

But most captivating were the dragons. Swooping and lounging and racing and laughing, dragons of every colour and pattern populated the village. They were all too far away for Scarab to see details, and she realized that she wished she could. She was so engrossed in the village that she didn't notice another dragon walking up to them until she stood right in front of her.