~ Chapter 4 ~
School… school… school…
Idiot… idiot… idiot…
Scared… scared… scared…
Shut up Honeycomb... shut up Honeycomb... shut up Honeycomb
Butterfly-brain… butterfly-brain… butterfly-brain…
Rumors… rumors… rumors…
Parents… parents… parents…
Wimp… wimp… wimp…
Scrawny… scrawny… scrawny…
Leopard… Leopard… Leopard…
Termite… Termite… Termite…
Carpenter… Carpenter… Carpenter…
Wingless… wingless… wingless…
Hybrid… hybrid… hybrid…
Hate myself… hate myself… hate myself…
Shut up Honeycomb... shut up Honeycomb... SHUT UP HONEYCOMB!
She woke up with a jolt. All her worries had followed her into her sleep. It was still dark out, but Honey couldn't fall back asleep. Not after that. She curled herself up in a ball and cried until dawn.
When Faefly woke up, she tucked her emotions in the back of her mind and hoped she could hide her depression. She had plenty of time to think about what she would say to her mother when she woke up. She knew she had to ask, she wasn't sure how she could go on with life until she knew the truth.
Honeycomb got up and walked over to her "mother." She got straight to the point, worried that if she waited, she would bail on the question.
"Faefly, are you my real mother?" She blurted She held her breath as she waited for her to answer. Faefly opened her mouth as if to respond and then closed it again, hesitating.
"That depends on how you look at it," the green SilkWing said after a tense pause. "If 'real mother' means the dragon who loved you and cared for you your whole life, then yes, I am your real mother. If 'real mother' means the dragon who laid your egg… then I'm afraid I can't claim that title."
There was a moment of silence. Honeycomb was stunned. She isn't my real mother. I'm adopted. I'm adopted. This can't be right, it can't be true! But all the pieces were being put together in her head.
HiveWing… SilkWing… Hybrid… Halfblood… Blue and Cricket.
She ran out of the webs and into the hive, unable to stand the conversation any longer. She'd wanted the truth, but she didn't want that much of it.
Honeycomb couldn't focus on school at all that day. It was impossible to think of anything other than Faefly and her real parents. She was a hybrid. Hornet and Scorpion were right. There was still no sign of Termite or Carpenter in class today. Where were they? She couldn't remember a single day that either of them had been late or absent. They were both straight-A students and some of the best friends a dragon could have. If you gained their trust, you never want to break it, or your relationship with them is done for.
She stared at the missing signs of Blue and Cricket during class instead of paying attention to her favorite subjects. History was so boring that Honey was shocked. History had never been boring to her. In chemistry, she almost burned one of her claws pretty severely while handling corrosive chemicals. Her grades dropped tremendously that day, but honestly, she didn't care. She needed to find her true parents. It took a while to get it to sink into her head. Honeycomb was royalty. She could be queen if Io chose her. If only she found this information was comforting in any way possible.
She found Swallowtail at the library and felt a slight sense of relief that he was here. She wondered how he would feel about this information, and whether or not he would still love her after she told him everything she figured out.
It turned out that Swallowtail did still love her and that he did care about her. She started crying into him before she even finished her first sentence.
"So, should I call you Lady Honey now? Or perhaps you would prefer the title, Mademoiselle Honeycomb?" She knew he was trying to lighten the mood a little bit, but it was impossible to calm down and actually laugh. It was hard to even imagine being happy. She couldn't see a future where she could ever feel joy again.
"At least tomorrow I'll get to escape from this crazy reality for a bit." Honey sort of wished she could escape the world forever. She didn't wish she was dead or that she would die, she just wished she'd never hatched in the first place.
Swallowtail let her stay over at his web because she didn't feel comfortable going back home quite yet. She woke up the next morning with her handsome boyfriend beside her. He'd taken the day off today so he could see Honeycomb's metamorphosis. Swallowtail and her walked over to the Chrysalis, a large dome building that took up two hive levels. It was named after a secret SilkWing rebellion during Queen Wasp's reign. The Chrysalis was where all the butterfly dragons of Jewel Hive went to grow their wings.
Like all dragonets before their metamorphosis, Honeycomb had very bad claw-eye coordination, a fuzzy brain, and an odd, calming sensation flowing throughout her body.
As she stumbled through the doors, a HiveWing with a grim expression scanned her wrists and wings before letting her go down to the building's first level. That guard looked kinda funky. Wonder why he's so grumpy-faced. Maybe I should've stuffed nectar up his snout to get him to do something.
There were crevices on the floor down here where each dragonet would stand. Honey looked around at the room and saw six other unfamiliar dragons, each in their own shallow hole. There was one spot left off to the side of the room. She walked over to it slowly, trying to avoid all of the glances.
Her wrists were starting to prickle like a hot needle poking her and her wing-buds were practically on fire from how sore they were.
Honeycomb looked up and saw the floor above her. The second level was for family and friends to watch the metamorphosis. She saw Swallowtail leaning half his body over the rail, waving to her. He looked as though he might fall over the edge? She gave him a small wave back, smiling slightly.
A large dragonet across the room started making his cocoon. He moved by instinct, gray silk pouring out of his wrists and slowly wrapping around him. Everywhere his silk touched him, that area would relax.
Suddenly, her own claws were moving without her command. Fiery orange silk came out of her silk glands. One thing she forgot would happen when she found out her father was Blue. She would be a flamesilk just like him.
Honeycomb wiggled around in her cocoon. She dragged her claws through the layers of silk and after a few minutes, she broke free. The light of the Chrysalis was blinding. Honey lay in her little crevice for a second panting. Three moons she was starving. Had it really been five whole days since she'd eaten anything?
Once her eyes adjusted to her surroundings, she scanned the room for Swallowtail. Honeycomb saw him sprinting towards her, beaming.
"I missed you so much!" He declared. The white and blue SilkWing circled her and scanned her from head to toe. She spread her new wings and examined them. She realized when she saw them that she wouldn't be able to hide the fact that she was half HiveWing. Her small, lower set of wings were blue-purple with dots of yellow in them. They were beautiful. Her large, top pair, however… was transparent just like a bee's wings, with orange and black on the rim. Now everyone would know she was a half-blood, and Hornet and Scorpion would bully her more than ever.
If Wasp were still queen, she would be trapped in a cave and forced to give the HiveWings all of her flame silk. It was terrifying to think about. Another problem would have been the fact that she was born from both tribes. Ever since Lady Scarab's great-great-grandmother was queen, no SilkWings were allowed to love HiveWings. Queen Scarab recently lifted this law but there haven't been any hybrids that hatched yet besides her.
Honeycomb spotted a box of honey drops and fruit behind Swallowtail and immediately snatched it and started scarfing it down. Thank Clearsight he brought all this food.
"Not sure if... this was for me... but I'm too hungry to... care right now," she said between mouthfuls. He laughed and hugged her.
When Honeycomb came out of her cocoon, she'd forgotten all about her parents and Leopard and Carpenter and Termite. All her problems vanished, and it was peaceful. She expected to see Faefly smiling at her and hug her, telling her how much she loved her. She expected to have normal SilkWing wings and gray silk just like all the other butterfly-like dragons. For a moment, she was happy. That happiness didn't last long.
Honeycomb had the day off before she had to choose her job so she spent most of the day testing out her wings at the SilkWing flight center. She learned how to lift off, land, hover, and she even learned some new tricks including flips, twirls, and dives. Once she finished her training for the day, she flew to the library. Three moons flying was amazing.
Swallowtail was busy helping little dragonets read their books so he couldn't talk to her much. Honey passed by the ladder she used to climb to reach the books at the top and picked out a book with ease.
When she was done picking out her book, she went and found a cozy little pod at the side of the library. Small dragonets rushed past her, and she could hear them saying something about dragons visiting from Pyrrhia. There had been a few visits from Pyrrhians in the last few years, but not many. I wonder why they're here this time, or maybe the dragonets are wrong.
There were rumors all over the hive that new dragons were arriving. Sounds like those dragonets were right. Honeycomb flew over to the Great Sequoia Tree located in the center of the Pantala. A LeafWing warrior named Sundew had grown the tree with her leafspeak. It grew tall and wide and is known to be the biggest tree on Pantala.
A year ago, an animus dragon from Pyrrhia enchanted the tree with tunnels across its trunk. Each led to a different part of Pyrrhia. The main tunnel brought dragons to Sanctuary, and there were other tunnels scattered throughout the tree that led to small towns around the other continent. The Great Sequoia Tree is the center of the new LeafWing village. Both the SapWings and PoisonWings live together now, as one tribe.
She pushed past the crowd of dragons surrounding the tree and was able to see a dragon with red scales and a rainbow pattern down her back. She was escorted by a large pink dragon and a small iridescent black dragon. If Honey remembered her dragons correctly, the pink and red dragons were RainWings, although she didn't remember hearing her anatomy teacher say anything about RainWings with fire. The black one looked to be a shiny NightWing no older than 6 years old. The rainbow dragon had smoke rising from her nostrils and a glare that could kill a lion if it were looked at.
Everyone cleared a path for the two of them quickly, scared of what the dragon might do to them if they got in her way. The raspberry-colored rainforest dragon announced himself to the three queens.
"Hello, my name is Jambu, I am Queen Glory's big bro and this is my little troublemaker Phoenix. Oh and Opal although I have no idea why she's here," he began. Phoenix looked at her with a scowl. Her scales were a ruby red with speckles of black similar to Honeycomb's. Her eyes were a very odd shade. Were they rainbow? Phoenix crossed her claws, smoke steaming out of her nose. "I'm here to take Phoenix to the Jungle of Poison, I mean- Poison Jungle because she blew up Glory's pavilion and has been banished. If she survives her time in the forest- er jungle, whatever, she will be allowed to come back to the tribe. If not, then goodbye my little hatchet."
Honeycomb stared at Phoenix. She's a hybrid like me. Maybe we can be friends. But why did she blow up a pavilion? I probably shouldn't make friends with dragons who blow things up. I shouldn't judge a book by its cover though. I'll try to talk to her and figure out if she's worth being friends with. That's a good plan. Jambu attempted to go back through the tunnel before Queen Hazel stopped him.
"Jambu, you didn't know? The Poison Jungle burned down years ago." Queen Hazel said.
"Oh." Jambu turned a bright shade of red. "Well she can't come back to the rainforest, sooo- I guess you can have her for a year! I'm outta here!" Jambu quickly camouflaged and went back to Pyrrhia.
Everyone looked at Phoenix and her NightWing companion. Honeycomb noticed some green on the tips of her wings. Phoenix huffed out more smoke and pointed her nose to the sky.
"What are you looking at, monkey brains?" Honeycomb wondered if that was supposed to be an insult. Leopard should know about this new dragon. Honeycomb flew around the forest looking for the black scaled hivewing. Wait, what am I thinking? I barely even know her! Besides, she could be anywhere in Pantala by now. I should head back to The Sequoia Tree, maybe I can talk to Phoenix.