Honeycomb headed back to the Sequoia tree in hopes of finding Phoenix. Maybe she could talk to her? Honeycomb really didn't want to be on that dragon's bad side. She arrived back at the Great Sequoia and found the angry RainWing and her midget sidekick sitting at the base of the tree. Phoenix had her head resting on the grass, while the NightWing was sitting up straight with her tail coiled around her front legs. As always smoke was steaming out of Phoenix's nose like a campfire.
"Uh, Phoenix?" The RainWing's head tilted up in her direction.
"What?" She said with a huff. Phoenix's scales turned blue and yellow.
"Hi I'm Honeycomb, and I was wondering if you wanted to talk, or something. I've never met a Pyrrhianian dragon before, must be nice living there."
"It's not as amazing as it seems. The rainforest is humid and soggy, the sky kingdom is boring as ever since the arena shut down, you can't visit the SeaWings because the summer palace was destroyed, the IceWings suck, they are not the nicest dragons trust me, the desert is so hot it makes me want to rip my horns off, and don't even get me started on the marshes and swamps."
"Wow. That is- a lot." Honeycomb said flatly.
"Don't you have something better to do SilkWing?" Phoenix said while closing her eyes again.
"No, I actually don't." Honeycomb said with a nervous laugh. "Who's your friend?" The NightWing turned towards her.
"Who, me?" She said, almost sounding confused. "I'm Opal of the NightWings" She then responded in a much more confident voice. Honeycomb was surprised by Opal's sudden change in tone.
"Ok. Well, aren't you guys hungry or anything?" Honeycomb asked. Phoenix then got up and stretched her wings.
"Oh wow, the SilkWing has observation skills! Yeah, I'm hungry, know where I can get some grub?"
"What do you guys even eat around here? I'm not seeing anything to catch… uh, not to be rude." Opal said with her extremely variant tone.
"Um, there's a nice café in Jewel Hive. It's called the Queen Bee Café."
"Mind giving us some directions? If you haven't noticed we're kinda new here." Phoenix said while her scales returned to their normal shade of red.
"Stop being so rude Phoenix," Opal said abruptly.
"I can take you there. It's hard to give directions around the hives." Honey said in a small voice.
"Ok! Where to, Honeycomb?" Opal asked.
Suddenly there was a shaking in the trees and a bright blue rainwing materialized. Honeycomb saw that the RainWing also had black spots on its neck. Is this a new trend or something? Her face was decorated in scales that faded from blue to white around her eyes.
"Uhm who are you?" Phoenix said, her usual shade of red became more of an emerald green.
"You scared me!" Opal responded with a small shriek.
"I'm Pacelia, but more commonly known as Leopard."
"Leopard? How?! Are there two of you? Your eyes look exactly the same. WHY DO YOU LOOK LIKE A RAINWING?!" Honeycomb said, while having a mini panic attack.
"To answer your questions, no there are not two of me, however, I am a RainWing."
Leopard shifted from her bright blue to a deep black, her scales shifted and flipped over, within a moment she was a whole new dragon. A NightWing with oddly shaped wings, large spikes, and a bunch of tiny white speckles.
"OH MY SWEET CLEARSIGHT, WHAT IN THE THREE MOONS JUST HAPPENED TO YOUR SCALES?! WHY DID YOU JUST MELT AND BREAK AND FIX AND-" Honeycomb nearly passed out.
"She's obviously a shapeshifter dummy, only someone as stupid as you wouldn't know that." Phoenix spat out.
"Phoenix! Cool it!" Opal said in response.
I am kinda stupid. She's right. I've never been good at anything. Honey thought to herself, curling her tail and wings tighter around her body and stared at the ground.
"Cool party trick Leopard, but seriously what are you?" Phoenix questioned, letting out a small growl.
"No need to fight, not that you'd be much of a challenge. Also, your not stupid Honeycomb." Leopard growled back and flared her teeth at Phoenix, who spat a plume of fire at Leopard. Leopard didn't flinch, and even after the fire hit her she didn't seem hurt, just kind of offended.
"Now I really like you." Phoenix said, sounding impressed.
"Ok, can someone PLEASE explain what is going on here?" Honey asked again. How was no one else this confused?
"She could be an animus? Although after Jerboa broke magic, I didn't think there would be any more animus dragons left." Phoenix said, narrowing her eyes at the black and white some-kind-of-tribe dragon.
"Yes, I am an animus. A long time ago I made an animus touched object to allow me to shape-shift into different dragon tribes. This is my true form, although I used to look more like an IceWing until my brother turned me into this-. That's a story for another day."
"Is your soul ok?" Opal suddenly looked very concerned for this dragon she knew nothing about.
Leopard hesitated. "My soul is protected, so I can use my magic without worrying"
"Does that mean you can enchant something to give me firescales?" Phoenix asked quieter than usual.
"I can, but why would you want that? Firescales burn everything they touch, firescales are not all you think they are, trust me." The animus explained.
"No, no, no, you've got it all wrong. I mean firescales I can control. Then I could have them when I wanted them. I'm just saying it would be really cool, ok?" Phoenix said, shrugging it off.
"What would you do with them?" Leopard said in a "what if" voice. Phoenix's red scales started to shift to blue.
"I don't get what you mean, are you actually considering giving me controllable firescales?" Phoenix asked.
"Maybe, I mean my soul is protected. But I don't know if I could trust you with Firescales. Plus I'm not like my brother, I don't just hand out superpowers to anyone that says please." Phoenix's face turned back to red, but with a blue gray tint.
"Oh, that would still be pretty awesome Leopard! Not that you're awesome, in any way, shape, or form."
~ Chapter 6~Honeycomb wondered if Leopard would ever give her a power, and what she would choose. She dozed off in a fantasy world where she was an animus dragon and could enchant anything she wanted. She snapped back to reality when Phoenix glared at her.
"So, are ya gonna bring us to the café Honeycomb, or are we just going to sit here and starve?" Phoenix snapped, visibly annoyed.
"Oh, right, sorry," Honey mumbled quietly, not daring to meet the fierce RainWing's rainbow irises.
Leopard spent a moment studying Honeycomb strangely, then her scales flipped and shifted again into a dark, honey-colored HiveWing with a light yellow fade on her neck and feet, along with a lot of giant black splotches and white dots around her spine.
The group followed Honeycomb out of the trees and to Jewel Hive. She was still not the best at flying and faltered in the air every once in a while. The group made snide comments about it every time her wings skipped a beat.
"Ha! You fly like a two-year-old dragonet. Why can't you just fly like a normal dragon?" Phoenix mused
"Do you have some kind of disability or something? Just wondering." Opal commented, and Honey wondered if the little black dragonet realized how rude she was being.
She could feel her aggravation and frustration and stress building up inside of her, but she couldn't let them see how she felt. She didn't want them to know that she didn't like how they treated her. If she told them how she felt, would they think she was a bad dragon? She refused to let them think she was mean.
"Oh, wait! No… I just remembered, I'm so sorry Honeycomb… I didn't mean what I said, I just forgot that you get your wings later. Sorry… again."Opal responded.
"It's alright… I get it" Honey said a bit awkwardly.
Leopard shot a death glare at Phoenix for a moment but didn't say anything as the group flew on. When they made it to the restaurant, Honeycomb was out of breath and could barely walk to the front desk before collapsing in a chair. Phoenix gave her an odd look as she landed gracefully in the entrance to the shop.
"I'll have one raspberry tea and a box of 6 honeydrops please," Leopard ordered quickly as if she had been in the hives her whole life. Honeycomb didn't even see Leopard glance at the menu.
Honeycomb chose the roasted mango spears with a side of sugar moths. She watched Phoenix and Opal scan the menu, the dragon working there eyed them curiously.
"Do you have any meat here?" Phoenix asked in a grumpy tone then grumbled, "What do you even eat on this continent?"
Honeycomb mustered the courage to shoot her a quick glare, but she still wasn't brave enough to say anything about it. Didn't RainWings eat fruit too? Even though she is part SkyWing, shouldn't she understand that meat wasn't the only edible thing on the continents?
Honeycomb glanced over at Leopard, who she saw looking around then quickly turned over her wrist and put a bit of flamesilk in her tea.
"Wow, I thought you were a HiveWing in this form!" Honeycomb whispered.
"Hey, I'm allowed to make tweaks. The tea was luke-warm anyway."
"So basically you can shift into anything you want, and add any powers you want?" Honeycomb didn't know how to feel about this.
"Well, not exactly but yes. I can change into any form I can imagine, but it takes a lot of brainpower. I have a few set shapes for every tribe, but I can add abilities." Leopard explained.
"So you could be the most powerful hybrid in the world if you wanted to?" She wasn't so sure if this was good or bad.
"I prefer not to do hybrids since I have to think of what they look like, which gives me massive headaches, especially when it's already hard to think straight with all the thoughts buzzing around in everyone's heads. It's like a swarm of cicadas landed on my brain all at once."
"What do you mean, 'all the thoughts buzzing around in everyone's heads.' how can they bother you when they're in their minds?" she asked, although she was sure she knew the answer already. It struck her like a thousand bees stinging her all at once.
Leopard looked around uncomfortably. "I might be able to read minds," she said in a low, nervous voice.
~ Chapter 7~Her heart sunk deep into her stomach. She knows what I'm thinking. She can hear me right now. She knows how horrible I am and she knows how I feel about other dragons and she knows that I don't like Phoenix and that I think Opal is to self-confident and hard to read, and that Swallowtail is the only dragon I really feel comfortable with and how Faefly isn't my real mom and how mean Gnat is on the rare occasions that he's home and how Scorpion and Hornet bully me almost every day and how much I hate the world. I wish everyone didn't hate me. I wish I could be everything dragons expect me to be. I wish, I wish, I wish.
She glanced up at Leopard and saw a concerned and slightly horrified expression cross her face. Honeycomb quickly looked down again, grabbed her food, and sat at their table. She stared fixedly at the burnt end of a mango.
"Hey," She heard Leopard say in a soft voice. Honeycomb flinched away from her and immediately felt guilty for treating her like a scary monster. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you about it before. I can't control it, but if I could, I would stop it immediately. Also… you aren't horrible. Without you, a lot of things would be worse on Pantala. You symbolize peace between the tribes because your parents fell in love and proved that amazing things can come from any dragon. I'm sorry your adopted parents aren't the nicest dragons, but you have to look past that and see all of the good things that the world has to offer." Honey's eyes welled up with tears. Just then, Phoenix and Opal started walking over to the table. She wiped her eyes quickly and tried to cover up her emotions.
Are you going to tell them about your mind-reading yet? She thought to Leopard. She glanced over and saw her shake her head slightly.
"I'll tell them later. Now's not the time." Leopard quickly said right before Phoenix and Opal sat down.
"What do they eat on this continent if they have no meat?" Phoenix huffed a small cloud of smoke. Opal was looking particularly grumpy. Honeycomb guessed it was because there wasn't any food she liked.
"Sorry, usually only SilkWings come here so this is an all-vegetarian shop." She said a little awkwardly.
"Yeah no kidding, I honestly thought you SilkWings would have better menu options." The RainWing complained.
"Didn't you live in the rainforest? Can't you appreciate fruit?" Honeycomb muttered to herself. Leopard handed Phoenix a honeydrop.
"Here try this, I personally prefer meat too, but these are pretty good." Phoenix grabbed the honeydrop from the orange hivewing and sniffed it. She then cautiously dropped it in her mouth. Her scales began to rapidly change color until eventually, they landed on a rose gold color.
"Dis sis tu shtiky, tut tis bwetty gud" Phoenix said while chewing on the honeydrop.
"Yep very sticky," Leopard said "Forgot to mention that." Phoenix's scales turned bright red and orange.
"Rheally? Fogot to meshion?" Phoenix said, still attempting to chew the honeydrop.
"You're supposed to let it dissolve in your mouth," Honeycomb said with a little giggle.
"Sho mooooow you tehl me," Phoenix said. She assumed that if her mouth wasn't full of honey she would've huffed a ball of smoke. She also got the impression that Leopard gave the little honey drops to her just to see Phoenix like this. This is kinda nice. Having friends might not be so bad after all.
~ Chapter 8 ~After everyone finished eating, they headed over to Honey's web.
"Umm Honey, this is a web. You said you were bringing us to your home." Opal said, confused.
"This is my home, I just made it earlier today. When I came out of my cocoon and grew my wings, I also got silk and I got to live in my own place." Honeycomb gestured to the orange-ish red silk house.
"Umm, are you sure that's safe Honey?" Phoenix asked.
"It is, actually," Honey responded in a more sassy tone than usual. "Oh, and Opal, please uh, be careful. And by the way, my silk can't burn so don't even think about burning my web down." She eyed the hybrid RainWing. Phoenix wrinkled her narrow snout at her as if she was thinking of doing exactly that.
Leopard leaped gracefully into the webs and her scales shifted from the dark honey-yellow color she was, to a light sky blue. Leopard had become a SilkWing with neat yellow dots along her spine with a dark magenta and green on her wings. Her wrists glowed slightly so Honeycomb assumed she was a flamesilk. I'll never get used to that. She thought with a small shutter. It was one thing seeing a dragon change colors, but a whole other when their scales literally flipped over and melted into a new dragon entirely.
Phoenix made a face, her rainbow eyes observing the webs suspiciously. Honeycomb guessed that the expression was more for Leopard than the webs now.
Honeycomb watched as Leopard wove a small bracelet with her flamesilk. The soft oranges glowing in the afternoon light. Suddenly her silk changed to regular white silk and she seemed to be adding details. That's so cool. I wish I could do that, then maybe I could live in a normal colored web like everyone else. Mine stands out like a butterfly in a swarm of bees. But if I had normal silk then what would make me special.
"What in three moons is coming out of your wrists?" Phoenix asked Leopard looked up at Phoenix with a stern face and said,
"It's called silk stupid, where do you think it comes from, our mouths? Honeycomb giggled and glanced over at Phoenix, her face shaded bright orange as she opened her mouth as if she was going to speak. They are so alike, it's almost annoying.
Honeycomb saw Leopard make a hurt face when she said that and winced. Forgot she could read my mind, I need to be more careful. Sorry. I don't mean it like that… I have a bad mind, I know. I try to think of nicer things but it just pops up in my head.
"Mmhm, you really think so?" Leopard said quickly and the others eyed her confused.
"Who are you talking to? I didn't say anything." Phoenix shot back.
"Oh uh, umm, I was just saying how silly it would be if silk came out of our mouths. Right Leopard?" She said nervously. I am so bad at keeping secrets.
"You're lying. Aunt Glory tries to lie to me all the time, but her scales always tell the truth. Even though I can't read your scales, I can still tell you're hiding something." Phoenix said
"What? I'm not hiding anything." What would I have to hide anyway?" Honey asked, sounding even more suspicious.
"Maybe you're not hiding anything, but she is," Phoenix pointed a talon at Leopard.
"If I am hiding something it's none of your business, Honeycomb just happened to find out. I have plenty of secrets and I'm allowed to. I mean if you were a 13-year-old dragon who hatched over 2,000 years ag0 I think you would have some secrets too.
Honeycomb was shocked. She knew Leopard was strange but she never thought- it never occurred to her that she was THE Leopard. The one that came here with Clearsight all those years ago.
"You mean you are the same Leopard that traveled here with Clearsight?!" Honey's jaw dropped in awe. Opal looked as though she might fall off the webs. Honeycomb held out her wing to catch her if she tipped over.
"Hold up- your Darkstalkers sister, which means you have NightWing powers," Phoenix blurted out.
Leopard suddenly looked very very sad. Did I say something? Oh no, Clearsight. If she knew Clearsight then she knows her friend has been dead for two thousand years. I'm sorry Leopard.
Leopard sniffed. "Don't worry about me. I've dealt with it for the last nine years. Still gets me though." Honeycomb thought she saw a small tear roll down the side of her snout. Out of nowhere Phoenix flew over to Leopard and gave her a half-hug.
"I understand what it's like losing people you love." She said with her scales turning to a light blue and gray.
"Let's go inside and I can show you guys my house," Honey suggested, trying to change the subject.
Opal looked around awkwardly and said something. "Um, I don't mean to be rude but there's not really much of an inside, I mean. Leopard's already laying in your house. Are you sure this will support all of us?." She looked nervous. Her scales shimmered shades of a metallic rainbow as they caught the sun. They reminded her of one of the boas she had seen in the LeafWings forest once.
"Of course it will. Dragons hold parties on the webs all the time. But if you have a problem with it, you can always make your own house. I'm sure that would be a great plan." Honeycomb said. She was getting tired of them questioning her house.
"Uhm I don't have that weird silk stuff, and there aren't really any trees to build huts on," Phoenix said returning to her usual self
"Exactly my point. So come on in, and quit complaining. It takes a lot of hard work to make these so please have some respect. Plus, it's getting close to sunset and I don't think you would like to be wandering around the webs at night."
"I can handle myself, but I'll come in this dumb web anyway," Phoenix responded.
"Ahem," Opal cleared her throat "Maybe instead of talking about it, let's actually go in."
Leopard looked up from her bracelets and scowled at Phoenix, it was obvious she had lived as a SilkWing for a while and valued the webs. Honey took a deep breath and tried to stay calm. Don't get mad. Don't get mad. Don't get mad.
~ Chapter 9 ~Honeycomb woke up the next morning very early. The sun hadn't risen, and everyone else was still asleep. Opal and Phoenix were stacked in a corner of the web making it tilt slightly. Phoenix had rolled onto her back and a small wisp of smoke was coming from her nose. Opal's iridescent tail flopped on the RainWing's stomach. Wait, where was Leopard!? She wasn't in Honeycomb's web, and she wasn't outside it. Did she leave us, does she not like me? Mabey she wasn't like she seemed. But she was really nice. Where did she go?
Honeycomb leaped out of her web and flew outside. When she turned to look back she nearly fell out of the sky. There was a Leopard, sitting in a small raindrop-shaped hammock right outside her web.
"For all that is Sacred, what in the name of Clearsight are you doing out here!?" Honeycomb flew over to Leopard and said in a startled voice. "You scared the moons out of me!"
Leopard had a face that looked as though it was a combination of guilt and amusement. "Sorry. It was a bit crowded in your web. Thought I would make my own space out here." Leopard gestures around her at the raindrop-shaped hammock. It looked a lot bigger now that she was closer to it.
"Oh, okay. I never really assumed that I would have three other dragons in my nest when I built it." Honeycomb hovered awkwardly in front of the pod. Her wings were starting to ache. Leopard seemed to sense her discomfort and moved over creating room for her to sit.
"I knew your parents," Leopard said abruptly. "I met them briefly on Pyrrhia during a peace summit for all the tribes many years ago." Leopard shifted uncomfortably and looked as though she wished she could take that back. Honey looked at her with shock.
"You met my parents?" She nearly whispered.
"Yes," Leopard paused and then continued." I have met your parents. You remind me a lot of your father and you luckily don't ask as many questions as your mother." Leopard laughed while mentioning the last part.
"Do you… do you know where they are?" Honeycomb asked hesitantly.
"No," Leopard replied hesitantly. "I haven't seen them since you hatched." Leopard stared intensely down at the bracelet she had made. It was a bright orange with little white lines making a Honeycomb pattern down the middle. She set it to the side and started weaving a new one in the opposite colors.
"I want to look for them." Honey informed her. "You don't have to come with me though. I was planning on leaving to find them tomorrow but I didn't expect to be hosting a party."
"HEY! What are you guys doing over there?" a very tired Phoenix poked her head out of the web.
"I'm here too ya know!" Opal added. Her eyes were still half-closed. The dragons flopped out of the web lazily and flew over to them, flailing around like one-year-old dragonets.
Honey noticed the clumsy dragons were getting some curious glances from early rising SilkWings.
"Oh boy. Here they come," Honeycomb muttered.
"Remind me how they ended up here?"Leopard said, clearly not amused. She looked like she was considering jumping out of the hammock and flying away.
"Scoot." Phoenix demanded.
"This hammock isn't strong enough to hold us all, it can barely hold me and Honey. It also doesn't have enough space for us all anyways."
"Then MAKE SPACE!" Phoenix barked, her words slightly slurred.
"Come on Phoenix, get out" Opal said sounding annoyed, "we can sit somewhere else."
"Errg fine."The Rainwing angrily got out of the hammock.
Honeycomb glanced at the crowd of dragons nervously, scared it would collapse under all the pressure.
"Here, I can get off so you can sit." She said starting to slide off the hammock.
"No Honey, you can stay!" Opal almost yelled. Her eyes were wide open now.
"It's fine, really. It was a bit cramped in there anyways." Honeycomb stood up on the web and spread one wing, gesturing to the small hanging cot.
Phoenix started forward to the hammock and Leopard looked at her uncomfortably. She seemed to dig her claws into the pod and mutter something.
Opal then jumped in front of Phoenix, her scales catching the rising sun, turning her hypnotizing rainbow color. Honeycomb watched Phoenix struggling to get past Opal.
"C'mon Phoenix, you're better than this."
"Eh, not really. I can get a lot worse." Opal then gave Phoenix a look that should have lit all the hives on fire, "Fine! I know, sorry."
Honeycomb was back at her web now but still watched the drama from a window. She thought she heard Leopard say something like, "Do you want me to just make another pod?" She watched as Leopard climbed out of the cocoon, a protest arising from Phoenix and Opal.
Phoenix and Leopard were face to face, arguing about space and who got to sit in the hammock. Honeycomb eventually got tired of this and walked away from the window. Just moments after she laid down, she heard a roar. Honey reluctantly got up and flew outside to see what was going on.
"YOU WANT TO SIT IN THE HAMMOCK THEN FINE IT'S ALLLL YOURS PHOENIX! JUST TAKE IT!" Leopard began yelling about how there wasn't enough space in the webs for all of them.
"WELL WE CAN ALL FIT JUST MOVE OVERRRR!" The Skywing growled loudly and tried to push Leopard back into the hammock and then attempted to sit on the edge. By this point, Opal had found a large beam of silk to sit on and was watching intently.
"ARRG YOUR SO ANNOYING, WHY CAN'T YOU BE MATURE AND FIND SOMEWHERE ELSE TO SIT?" Leopard shot back.
"Oh I'M ANNOYING?" Phoenix's scales were jet black and ruby red now, and smoke was continuously coming out of her nose.
Honeycomb decided that this argument had gone on long enough. "For crying out loud I'm two years younger than you Phoenix and SEVEN years younger than you Leopard! How am I acting more mature than you guys? If you two can't learn to get along and stop arguing, I'm kicking you out. So unless you want to find somewhere else to stay, I suggest you quit it and act your age." Phoenix and Leopard huffed simultaneously and turned away from each other.
"What do you have to say for yourselves?" Honeycomb said in a motherly voice.
"OK! SORRY MOM!" They said in unison. Phoenix spat a plume of golden flames to the side, her scales returning to a deep red color.
Leopard mumbled something under her breath which Honeycomb heard as "I built this myself anyways."
"Well if I'm your mom then go to your rooms! Until you can calm down, don't come out!" Leopard and Phoenix both looked at her with varying expressions.
"But… we don't have rooms." said the Rainwing
"Then separate yourselves. Or better yet, go build your own room."
"And how am I supposed to do that?!" Phoenix questioned
"Well, figure it out." Leopard responded with a growl. The two dragons stormed off, murmuring complaints to themselves. Honeycomb turned back to her web and saw Opal staring at her in amusement.
"Oh, uh, I forgot you were here…" Honey said awkwardly.
"Umm, Honey- you do realize you just tamed the untameable, right?" The small NightWing asked.
"What do you mean?" Honeycomb asked. The untameable?
"Phoenix never listens to anybody, I mean not even Queen Glory could get her to listen," Opal explained. Her scales were still shimmering in the early morning sun. Honeycomb wished she had pretty scales like that. "Ever since her older sister went missing she's been like this. She used to be such a nice dragon, and actually a bright shade of yellow at one point." She giggled a bit. "It wasn't until Ember disappeared, that she became mean and reckless."
"I never knew." Honey said. She almost felt sorry for Phoenix. Almost.