QUICK NOTE: This story takes place a few hours before the end of "The Hive Queen" from the Wings of Fire series. So spoilers if you haven't read the Hive queen. (My memory is a bit fuzzy and I freaking LOST THE BOOK so I have to get the book again to make this accurate, which will happen one day, but I apologize for the possible inaccuracy.) This is really only meant as a short story, I'm also working on a different story at the moment.
"Everyone, roll your scrolls up to section eight," a hivewing said loudly, casting a glance around his classroom. He stopped and looked down at a smaller hivewing sitting at desk in front of him, scrunching his snout. The dragonet was obviously asleep, her head on the desk, twisted in a slightly awkward way, snoring. The hivewing huffed and sat down in front of the desk, and started to read from the scroll in his talons. The other Dragonets watched with curiosity, wondering what the teacher would do.
"Dragonfly was the great savior in one of the last battles of the tree wars! She started off as a medic, but when many of her comrades started to fall surprisingly to ambushes by leafwings, she turned to become a soldier. She was assigned to scout-" the professor looked over his scroll. "Of course she's still asleep."
The professor began to read from his scroll again, in a loud, almost screaming, monotone voice. "ASSIGNED TO SCOUT ABOVE THE TREES WITH THREE OTHER DRAGONS, AMULET, TAWNY, AND HAWK. THEY FOUND MANY DRAGONS, BUT TAWNY WASN'T ABLE TO AFTER AN INCIDENT OF BEING ATTACKED BY PLANTS. APHID, TELL ME WHY TAWNY WAS INJURED BY PLANTS."
The dragonet blinked her eyes open, immediately quiet. "That's a funny question, professor Saffron," she responded. "Tawny was injured by the plants because the leafwing group had two leafwings with twisted powers that manipulated plants to do their will, and they never had the leafwings with them before. "
Professor Saffron rolled his scroll all the way up and sighed," You know you aren't supposed to be sleeping in my class. I'm glad you know the answer to that question, but you are going to Professor Moth's classroom for after school detention. If this happens more often, I will have a talk to your parents to fix this. Everyone, we will resume reading our scroll tomorrow. It's about time to go. Remember, bring your forms for the trip to lake scorpion before next week. Pass your scrolls to the desk leader."
Ivory rolled her scroll up and passed her scroll up to the dragonet in front of her. A pale orange dragon to the left of her turned excitedly to Ivory after handing her scroll to the other dragonet. "Can you believe it? We're going to lake scorpion! After being cooped up here for three years, we get to go after all the stories we've heard about it!" The dragonet bounded over to Ivory and pulled her away from the desk and to the shelves that held the satchels for all the dragonets.
"We need to stop by my house before going to yours, since I forgot to get my form signed three days ago," Versilia said casually as she pulled their satchels off the shelf and lead her to the window. Ivory took her satchel from Versilia and gasped when she saw the view from the window. Instead of the usual breathtaking view of the savanna with the background of the sun floating behind it and the hives, it showed hordes of reds, yellows, and oranges heading northwest, between Yellowjacket and Wasp hive, and some at Bloodworm hive.
They were hivewings, hundreds of them. Bloodworm hive seemed to have strokes of reds and orange flaring from the hives and burning the webs, the damage tinting some of the treestuff of the hive black. It was on fire, and a few groups of organized dragons were heading there too. She could see silkwings fleeing in terror, but some were scattered around, while more were in groups, following a few silkwings in front of them. Ivory could see they had their belongings, hatchlings or eggs, as much as they were able to carry. Are they running from something? Are they leaving us? I don't want to be left behind! Ivory turned to Versilia in confusionand grabbed her arm,"What are they doing? What are they doing? Where are they going?" Versilia was calmly watching the dragons, all her excitement for Lake Scorpion suddenly gone. Her eyes swept from group to group, over and over.
"They looked like they were running away, but I don't think so. They're flying in unison, except those silkwings. It's a hive control." Ivory watched as the next horde of hivewings began to flood out of Hornet hive. "I think we're next. Mantis hive and Cicada hive." By now, the rest of the class had piled up to look through the two windows, many of them squealing with fear.
Professor Saffron came over and said,"Get back in your seats! I will make all of you stay from the trip if you continue! We are not leaving yet, so-" His face too, contorted into confusion and fear as he saw the hive and dragons outside. He let out a huff of anger, furiously closed the curtains, and turned to the rest of the class,"I said get back in your seats! I don't think the queen wants you to see that, we will all be fine!"
Ivory turned back to her desk along with the other dragonets, when suddenly the door was swung open. A few hivewings stood in the doorway, their eyes white, obviously under control.
"The hive is going to be under control in few minutes. Please leave all of your things wherever you are, and get to the bottom level of your hive, go outside, and wait in your section to make this easier for your queen." They said. She could hear the same voices outside in the hallway, on all the levels. Yes, it's just a full hive command. Why would the queen use… all the hives for this though? She didn't use more than one hive at a time. "Your majesty, I suggest leaving the Dragonets behind, they will be pathetic in battle, and er- easier to demolish," Professor Saffron said to the hivewings. The hivewings turned their heads to the yellow hivewing, and remained quiet. Will we? Will we be easier to kill? what are we fighting? She turned to the dragons in the doorway. The dragons still remained quiet, as if thinking.
"I will decide what to do with them, hivewing," they hissed, then stormed off down the hall, followed by a few more white eyed dragons from the other classrooms. A controlled guard stopped and stepped away from the crowd and into the room. "Why do you think we are going to battle? I never said any such thing."
Professor Saffron's eyes suddenly found the classroom carpet very interesting. "Well... I don't know it's just, we all looked out the window and- can I speak to you outside the classroom to not worry them?" He flicked his wings to the silent class, not looking up. The hivewing turned to look at the class of dragonets, who all scrambled to look away, then back to the professor. The hivewing's eyes abruptly became lively again, and Professor Saffron was now white eyed. He walked out of the room and left the guard with the dragonets. The guard stuttered with surprise as the wide-eyed dragonets stared at him.
"We're Professor Saffron's class, sir," Versilia said. The guard nodded and glanced out the hallway. Someone seemed to say something to him from the hallway, and he stepped back inside. "Well, um. Okay." He trotted over and stood by the desk where Professor Saffron had sat. "Professor Saffron! Wait! Don't take him! He didn't do anything wrong!" Ivory yelled and hurried out to the hallway, only getting a glance of the professor's speckled tail before the hivewing guard blocked her with an extended arm. "I know you're all supposed to be released in about one minute, but we are all just going to go outside. Come on, in a line," he said. The dragonets rushed into a line around Ivory and followed the guard out into the hallway.
"I hope we get to be heroes after this. If we're going to battle, I want to come back as a hero!" Versilia said. "What if we're not going to battle?" Ivory asked. Versilia shrugged and said,"We can still do something great! Just doesnt have to be battling dragons, I guess. Haha imagine being famous for hitting dragons over the head with a book. Oooo the book criminal, righting wrongs with the totally solid knowledge of a book! I think I'd make a great book criminal." Ivory glanced worriedly at her friend. Whenever Versilia started telling jokes that didn't make sense, it was usually because she was scared. "It's okay," was all Ivory could think of saying. They walked into a classroom and onto a large balcony, where met some other classes, being led by both guards and teachers. The class followed the guard into flight, and dove down, past levels and the balconies, and other classes. When they landed Ivory ran off, and Versilia, already fully expecting her bolt, followed suit.
She shoved past dragonets and teachers, Versilia yelling,"sorry, y'all! Someone's being moody!" to vaporize any angry retorts. Ivory was looking for someone, her brother. He was four years older than her, six years old. She saw the pattern, it was all the dragons that were working, the two year olds, and five year olds were present. Ivory realized that there were sections painted in different colors, representing the category. No silkwings, of course. Green represented the six year old classes, right beside the five year olds. Ivory and Versilia stood behind a few five year old hivewings, who didn't mind. Versilia was surprisingly known by most of the five year olds, and the hivewings crowded around them. Within minutes, the entire hivewing population of Mantis hive stood out on the savanna. The six year old group came last.
Cicada hive was starting to do get their dragons out too, as the last of the dragonets landed. She could see some hivewings coming after the closest silkwing groups, many of them quickly being taken down. Ivory watched for a moment, but then turned away as the six year old classes landed, and ran into the other crowd of dragonets. "Torrent! Torrent! Yell if you can hear me!" Ivory shouted into the crowd, getting a few strange looks from the other dragonets. Someone tapped Ivory's shoulder, making her whirl around.
"I know where torrent is," a hivewing said. He pointed behind her and said,"he is-" A dragon with a set of crimson claws suddenly grabbed her and tugged her and Versilia back. Versilia yelled in short protest before the claws turned them around. "Right here,"A voice said and the welcoming green eyes of her brother greeted her. "You know what is happening right?" he asked Ivory, putting a talon on her shoulder. Ivory nodded and pulled Versilia by her. The crowded space suddenly became quieter as the dragons became controlled. Torrent looked up and whispered,"There it is. I hope to see y'all again." It was too quick. She didn't want to say goodbye yet. Her brother's expression told her that he knew what would most likely happen.
Ivory hugged her brother and he quickly said,"If you aren't able to come back to the hive for whatever reason, or if it gets destroyed, I'll… see you somewhere on the coast. I'll search there everyday, but don't wait for me for more than a month. And don't-" his eyes started to flicker with white. "Don't what? Do you promise to look for me on the coast. Torrent was only able to give Ivory a stiff nod, like he was holding back the queen's control, just temporarily. Then his eyes went wide and white, making ivory duck out of sight. Her mind screamed as Ivory ran off to the two year old section before they became controlled. As she went back in line her mind wandered away, where will we be going?
As if summoned, Ivory's thoughts disappeared, replaced by an urge to get to the poison jungle. They were going to set it on fire. Bring the flamesilks. Take out the leafwings and trees once and for all. The Mantis hive dragons shot into the air, going past Bloodworm hive. Somewhere in the back of her mind, the thin lines of her hope snapped and disappeared.
4-7-21
And there's that! Thanks for reading this! Now it isn't perfect, and Suspect it's DEFINITELY not perfect in grammar, but I fixed everything that I found, and just felt like writing. This story itself probably won't be continued but I'll probably add more short stories to this. Please don't be rude about how short the story is, or how boring it is, or that I have everything wrong, etc, because that doesn't really help me if my main goal was just write and have fun, does it? Anyways I'll try my best to post at least weekly, but if I have a burnout, I have a burnout.