Author's note: Just so people know, I'm going to be posting quite a few chapters today. Since I've last updated, I've written chapter 27 (already posted) to chapter 33.


Chapter 28:
The Flower Challenge

Deathbringer was watching Grandeur's team with sharp eyes from the trees where they'd never see him; in fact, only Glory knew he was even there, or where he'd flown off to. When her friends had asked her, Glory had acted as if she didn't know where he'd went now.

"The rules of the Flower Arranging Challenge are very simple," said the judge. "You must use any of the flowers before you to create a picture. Whoever creates the better picture will be the winner. Begin!"

My area of expertise, Liana thought. Glory will be honored when I am finished with my flower art, and not just because it'll give our team another win. I'll make the best flower art anyone ever has in this challenge, and Glory will make me part of her royal team when she's Queen.

She began arranging some sort of blue-green flower she didn't remember the name of in a shape that was unrecognizable at first, as the minutes went by, it began to make sense. Her flower art would be a RainWing when it was finished. She quickly went to working with the white and blue flowers in the tray to construct the RainWing's eyes, which she remarkably finished in less than three minutes. She ran around her project to what must be its head and began arranging golden and red flowers together in the shape of, of course, a row of flowers, so that it looked like the dragon was wearing several flowers around the back of her head.

Splendor's project was not going as quickly, or as well as Liana's was. She seemed to question her decision to make a likeness of a sloth out of flowers when she caught a brief glimpse of Liana's flower RainWing, which was already a third of the way complete. Her team couldn't believe how quickly she was arranging her flowers into a recognizable shape; she really was the best at it, it seemed.

It'd be such a shame if something happened to it, Splendor thought, trying not to laugh, and Glory never became the next Queen because of flower art. She'd probably hate every flower she ever sees from here on out. She had just finished the eye of her sloth, but when the audience compared her project to Liana's, there was no doubting Liana was well on the way to winning. Even though RainWings were biased towards sloths, Liana's flower art looked so much more colorful, well thought out, and beautiful than Splendor's ever would. This clearly showed who had more experience with flower art.

Liana stepped back to look at her art in full; she'd just finished the upper snout. Liana brought over a tray of light green flowers, which she would use to construct the lower snout, neck, and under side of her flower RainWing. The face was already complete, but now Liana needed to get the jaws complete before she could move onto constructing the RainWing's neck and chest. In her mind, she imagined the final result being a portrait of a certain special RainWing on her team.

She'll be really surprised when it's finished! Liana thought.

What are they doing? Deathbringer thought from his hiding spot, when he saw two of Grandeur's team backing away in a way that was nothing but suspicious to him. When they disappeared into the jungle, then reappeared a moment later at a different spot, crawling through the foliage, seemingly toward where Liana was hard at work on her flower RainWing, Deathbringer immediately took off through the jungle after them. He didn't care if anyone saw him. He needed to stop Magnificent and Exquisite from sabotaging Liana's flower art.

They're such sore losers, he thought. They will regret this when I bring them before Glory. Queens or no queens, I'll handle them however I wish. They aren't going to cheat again. I'll make sure of it. And if they think they can avoid me, they'll be sorely disappointed. I'm the best tracker anyone can get. I could track them if I were blindfolded and had one wing tied behind my back. They're sloppy. It's easy to hear where they are crawling.

"Nobody will ever know what happened," Exquisite whispered to Magnificent when they stopped in the jungle just behind where Liana was still hard at work; her flower RainWing was now more than half complete. But only for a little bit longer. When they were done here, she'd have to rush to fix what was about to happen to it, and she'd never get it fixed before Splendor had her flower sloth complete. She'd win by default.

"Yes," Magnificent whispered back. "All we need to do is frighten those howler monkeys, and they'll run right out onto the course, and absolutely destroy Liana's art. She'll never have time to fix it before Splendor completes her's."

Exquisite lifted up a decent-sized stone from the ground in front of her talons and readied herself to throw it up at the family of howler monkeys that were too busy preening each other to care about a pair of RainWings, when…

"What are you two doing?!" a male voice roared. "Put that down!"

Even the dragons in the audience and the two competing stopped to look at the commotion erupting in the jungle. Suddenly, two RainWings were tossed out of the jungle, and a NightWing rushed out after them. He stopped to tower over them.

"Deathbringer!" Tsunami gasped. "What are you doing?"

"You should be asking Exquisite and Magnificent that," he said. "I found these two over there in the jungle, about to frighten those howler monkeys out onto the course so they'd ruin Liana's flower art, and Splendor will have her's complete before Liana could repair the damage. I overheard them say it all."

Everyone gasped, especially the judge.

"Then I'm afraid I have no choice but to declare Liana the winner by default," she announced loudly. "Although I believe she would have been the winner regardless, assuming things went fairly."

Liana was nearly finished with her flower RainWing already. She just needed to finish the shoulder, do some final touches on the vanilla-hued robe it was wearing, and then it was complete.

"That looks just like—" Sunny began.

"—Glory!" the rest of her friends and team finished.

"And she made me dressed up like a Queen!" Glory gasped. "Right down to the flower crown and a robe. I like that. It's going to become reality very soon, too," she added.

Sure enough, even Glory saw the resemblance. Just as Liana had hoped, she felt honored by this portrait; it was such a shame they couldn't move it to her future pavillion when she was Queen. This was the most perfect piece of art she'd ever seen; she'd hang it up on the wall of the pavillion forever if she could.

"B-But—" Grandeur stammered. "If Liana wins, then that means our two teams are tied at three wins each. Kinkajou, Tamarin, and Liana from Glory's team have won; Fruit Bat, Dazzling, and myself have won on my team. What are we going to do now, if we are tied? This has never happened before!"

The judge flew over to them, while Liana continued her work on her flower art even though she'd been declared the winner. She wanted to finish it for Glory.

"We will have one more rapid challenge," the judge explained, "to break this tie." She waved her tail at Glory and Grandeur. "The two team leaders will compete in…"

Compete in what?! Glory thought anxiously. Whatever you choose, I can beat Grandeur at it, she additionally thought confidently.

"…Tree Finding. The first to locate a specific tree," the judge continued, "will be the winner, and she will be our next Queen. The tree I want you to look for is the Cecropia."

What is a Cecropia? Glory wondered. I don't know anything about the trees that only grow here.

"Tamarin, let's go look for sloths!" Kinkajou randomly piped up.

What is she talking about? Then it dawned on Glory. Wait a minute. She's giving me a hint, isn't she? Look…for the sloths. Cecropia must be where sloths like to gather the most. Thank you, Kinkajou.

Glory was the first to dart off when the judge shouted "Go!", much to Grandeur's surprise. She wanted this challenge to end fairly, but she really hadn't expected Glory to be so quick to understand what they needed to find.

Oh, come on. Where are the sloths? Glory thought as she zigzagged through the rainforest with Grandeur and the judge on her tail. I need to find them to find the tree so I can become the next Queen. Who knew my future would ever depend on sloths? Sloths…Sloths…Sloths...? Come on, where are they? Then she saw something climbing up a tree. THERE!

Glory soared toward a strange looking tree with several sloths climbing all over it, trying to find perfect places to sleep. This tree possessed large, circular, palmately lobed leaves, and had very few branches; she could barely call it a tree.

"Glory is the winner!" the judge cried. "And you broke the record for the fastest time for finding a Cecropia tree!"

They actually keep records of anything? Glory thought. That's a miracle.

Grandeur wanted to say, 'I cannot believe it!', but instead she said, "Congratulations, Your Majesty." Then she and the judge both bowed down at Glory's talons. "You earned this."

"W-Wait? I won?" Glory gasped. "I won! I'm the new RainWing Queen! I can't believe it. My friends will believe this even less. I came in all the way out here a nobody and I'll come back to them a Queen! I must be the youngest RainWing to ever earn the throne."

"You are." Grandeur smiled, standing back up. "However, I want you to do one other thing." She ripped a leaf from the Cecropia tree and spat her venom on it, right in the center. "Venom test."

Wait, why?

Glory spat her own venom exactly where Grandeur had, and much to her shock, it counteracted the effect Grandeur's venom was having on the leaf. In a few spots, anyway.

"I sensed that about you the moment you arrived, Your Majesty," Grandeur explained. "You and I, we are distantly related. You are the true heir to my throne, and you have earned it, as well."

"I-I can't believe this," Glory stammered. "I'm related to royalty?"

"It seems so. Now let us go break all this news to your friends. They will be shocked to learn they've been best friends with two princesses—you and Tsunami—for their entire lives."

Glory wiped her eyes and chuckled softly. I need to stop crying before we get back to them, she thought. I can't let them see me like this. I'm the new Queen, and when everyone finds out, I need to have my emotions under control. I can't be the new Queen and show up crying at the big reveal.