Wings of Fire: Tangled in Darkness

Chapter 2

Monarch sat up quickly, bonking her head on a colum of wood behind her. Sulphur and Bronze ran out, looking around frantically. Monarch ran up to her father, grabbing his talon even though it was a little *dragonetish.
*Childish

What was that scream? Did it come from a dragon, or just a shrieking monkey? Was somebody screaming from a prank, or did something terribly horrible happen?

She shrank into a lump of scales, crouching so close to the floor she thought dragons might pass her over as orange wood, but Bronze put his shoulder under hers and shoved her up.

"You shouldn't be scared." He said. "Don't be scared. Your going to change the world one day, and there are plenty of things that will be scary. Stand up." He shoved her again, and Monarch straightened herself, taking calming breaths. 

He's right. She thought. If I want to figure out whats wrong with our kingdom, and fix everything that is, I need to learn something. Never back down. 

Monarch stepped up to the edge of the platform, where the sun was covered by many other trees. Below her, dragons crowded around a giant plant. Some of them were pulling on its roots, while others struggled to open up its plant-like jaws.

"Oh no." Sulphur sighed, flying down. Bronze picked her up, wrapping a blanket of silk over her so she wouldn't fall. They landed on the soft dirt, and Sulphur nudged his way through the crowd and his dragonets followed.

A giant plant stood in front of them, looking particularly smug. Monarch recognized the plat from her books. It was a pitcher plant, shaped like a bowl with acid and sharp hairs. 

It must have swallowed a dragon. She thought, although the muffled screaming in the plant sort of gave it away. A Leafwing pushed her way through the crowd, saw the plant, frowned, and pushed her claws into the dirt. 

The other dragon next to her darted around the plant, shoving at it. A Hivewing with glasses produced a sharp thorn stem, and the second Leafwing shoved it through the plant. A startled yelp came from the plant, and a green and gold dragonet tumbled up.

The crowd saw him, grumbled a lot, then dispersed, but Monarch was very interested in what just happened. "Pineshade!" The second Leafwing cried. The dragonet yelped in pain as she hugged him. 

Sticky goo covered his entire body, and if she remembered right, the goo on a pitcher plant stung nearly as much as being stabbed with a thorn stem. Pineshade let out a furious hiss, storming down a path. 

Sulphur came running up. "I'm so sorry, I didn't know there was a pitcher plant here." The second Leafwing patted his shoulder softly, but the first let out a hiss as her claws emerged from the ground. 

"It's not supposed to be here." She said. "It looks like Pineshade took it back when we had gone to visit the Poison Jungle. He probably used his Leafspeak to make it grow these past few weeks."

Oh, I'm an idiot! She thought. This is Sundew and Willow, and Pineshade is there son. Monarch felt her claws itching, as if they wanted to grab onto this moment and hold it to her heart forever. Sundew and Willow were her absolute favorite. 

She had met them a couple times, but that was only when they came to Sulphur to tell him of a dangerous plant in the forest. Monarch's father was in charge of making sure the jungle was safe.

Sundew darted into the bushes, pulling out Pineshade a moment later. Willow's wing brushed hers and she said, "Bit of a troublemaker isn't he?"

Monarch somehow managed to give a calm answer. "He gets his spirit from Sundew." Willow snorted, laughing so loud. 

"Oh no," She said. "He's the calmest in our family, besides me. Ivy is definitely the one to take after Sundew. She has even stronger Leafspeak than Sundew." Monarch had never met Willow and Sundew's daughter, but she had heard about all the battles she had fought with plants. 

But she had never lost. Monarch wanted to meet her. 

Pineshade flicked the goo off his wings, splashing some of it on Monarch and Bronze. "Hey!" She shouted. Willow went to stand by her dragonet, frowning. 

"Pineshade, why did you grow a pitcher plant?" Willow asked harshley as Sulphur helped them rub the scale eating goo off. Pineshade rolled his eyes. 

"I wanted it to eat Ivy." He said. "She stole my rose."  A rustle of disgust came from the trees, and another green and gold Leafwing dived down. Monarch hadn't even noticed her there.

"It was my rose first!" She yelled. "Ash gave it to me!" Pineshade drooled his voice with honey. "You mean your boyfriend?"

"Enough!" Sundew shouted fiercely, stopping Ivy as she sprang at her brother with a vine that wrapped around her leg. "Go home, both of you. We'll discuss this later, and both of you will be punished!"

She watched them go, her eyes flashing with anger. Willow and her turned to the three Silkwings waiting for them. "So sorry about that Sulphur." Willow said.

"No worries." He said, twitching his tail nervously as the pitcher plant slowly leaned close, but Sundew shot it a fierce look and it laid back. "I'll have it uprooted and moved to the poison jungle right away."

Sundew held up her tail. "No, let me handle that. I have a good idea how." Monarch turned as they flew away. Bronze offered to carry her up, but she decided to use the ramp. Her talons slipped underneath the smooth surface, and she fell all the way back to the bottom. 

Monarch sighed, a small tear rolling down her face as she looked down at her knee, which had been skinned, and bleeding. She started to cry, but her knee didn't even hurt that bad. 

She didn't know why she felt sad. Sometimes she just needed to cry, but when someone came up to her and asked is she was okay and what was wrong, she would say she didn't know and dragons thought something was wrong with you.

As the sun started to set, she climbed up the ramp again. Her tears had dried and she could hide her knee with her tail as she climbed the ramp again, hanging onto to the bars this time. By the time she made it up the ramp, she could hear arguing in the main room.

She peeked inside and saw Bronze's tail lashing furiously, but that was all she could see. Monarch could sure hear the yelling though. "You're being so overprotective! What does it matter if I go out one night by myself? I don't need you to baby me!"

Sulphur's voice was soft but only slightly angry. "I know about Rove, Bronze. It's pretty hard to keep a secret when we live right next to Junebug HIve." She took a step forward, peering as far around the corner as she could, and she could just see Bronze's face.

He looked shocked, and confused and angry and sad all at the same time. "How did you know?" Bronze said quietly. Sulphur sat down on the hammock, but Bronze still stood, staring at his father.

"I don't know where you meet or what you do when you meet," He said. "But when we separated you two, you stayed in your room and barley talked to anyone, but the day after you came out of your cocoon, your were smiling. I was so glad to see you so happy, and I know Monarch was too.

"It was obvious to anyone that you were happy, and I had an inkling that you were secretly meeting her." Sulphur held up his talons. "But believe me, I don't blame you for liking a Hivewing. Before I met Marblewing I liked a Hivewing."

Bronze sat down on his knees, sighing. "Dad, I don't like Rove. I love her."