Socks and Roses (A Wingfeather Saga Fanfic)

Chapter 3: Dragon Day

4 years had past since the Toothy Cow incident, and since then Rose has been seeing Peet a lot more often. It was almost like he was following her, making sure nothing else would attack her. Sometimes if she was carrying anything she would drop it on purpose to try and talk to him whenever he would give it back. She always thought he was just the normal Peet the Sockman, a normal fellow but with some slight...mental issues. But ever since he saved her, she knew he was much more than that, as if he was a whole other person deep down.

Janner had recently gotten the privilege to watch his siblings by himself every 5th day now that he was 12, but they still invited Rose over for regular visits, and boy were those visits fun. Rose will never forget the time Janner face planted into a pile of dung during a game of zizby, or when everyone discovered Tink's secret snack stash which consisted of various bugs. That kid really was a bottomless pit. There was also the time when Leeli found a small puppy outside and alone, the family adopted him and decided on calling him Nugget.

Rose got up and got ready for the day, except she made herself look just a touch nicer than usual. Today was Dragon Day, the one day when Skreeians all around Aerwiar would come to Glipwood to listen to the Sea Dragons sing. Even though they don't speak English, their songs feel like they're communicating with each other, and it's truly spectacular. In fact, their songs feel almost magical. Rose is very sure they have some kind of magic, because one year Mayor Blagges swore out loud that he would never again pick his nose. He didn't last a week.

She put her hair up into a fancy bun at the back of her head with a few curly whisps hanging out here and there, then grabbed her necklace,a gift from her oldest brother, who had sadly passed during The Great War. It had a silver chain with a beautiful round sapphire in the middle. She was extra careful to make sure it was tucked in properly, Commander Gnorm, a nasty fang commander, loved his shinies. Every year on Dragon Day is when Glipwood would pay taxes of jewelry or gold to him, luckily for Rose, Nia had offered for her to be part of their party so she wouldn't have to pay anything. Instead of jewels and gold though, she would be paying him with one of Gnorm's favorites dishes: maggot loaf.

Right as she stepped outside she saw the Igiby wagon waiting for her.

"Good morning Aunt Rose!" Leeli called, waving for her to sit by her.

"Good morning, Igiby's." She replied, climbing on and sitting next to her.

"How are-" she was cut off with a powerful smell that made her want to vomit. Yep, that was definitely the maggotloaf.

"Wow, Nia! Great job on the maggotloaf! Smells even more rancid than last year." She commented.

"Thanks, I mixed in some more rat tails and let it set longer. I hope he likes it."

"Oh I'm sure he will, mama." Janner said, holding his nose with one of his hands.

"I like your dress, Aunt Rose." Leeli complimented.

"Aww thanks Leeli! I like your flowers." Rose replied, gesturing to the daisys in her hair.

"Thanks! Would you like one?"

"Sure!" She took one of the flowers she handed her and put it in her hair. "How does it look?"

"Beautiful!"

They soon arrived where they had to pay their 'taxes' so they could go in and enjoy the events. She could see dragon kites, delicious looking food, and all sorts of unique animals. Soon they were next after a woman who just offered her Ruby ring, unfortunately Gnorm spotted her jeweled necklace and forced her to hand it over. Rose immediately make sure her own was tucked in before moving forward.