Chapter 3

Parrot went over to the platform that he felt comfortable in during sun time. When he flew all the way to the top he saw Droplet flying all over the place trying to find something. What is she doing? He flew over to her stopping her in her path. He put all his effort into trying to keep himself up in the air to talk to her but it a lot of pressure on him.

"Droplet why are you flying all over the place?" he asked. She looked at him with her scales turning to an orange color.

"I can't do sun time properly without Orangutan," she responded to him.

"Why can't you... just do sun time by yourself?"

"Because it feels weird without him okay," Parrot thought it was weird considering dragonets like him and Droplet napped by themselves usually.

"You can sun time with me if you want? It might help," What am I doing? Parrot had a weird feeling pumping through his chest, he didn't know what he felt about it but he for sure felt embarrassed for it but there was also another reason why he was regretting asking her. He usually left space for himself to sun time on so he could roll around without falling. It had happened to him a few times but with enough room, he could manage. Droplet made a face, her snout was scrunching up and her making a weird sound through her throat.

"Sure! I would be glad too!" And I'm going to fall off again he thought. They flew up to where his sun time spot was and they settled down next to each other.

"You feel better now?" he asked her. She nodded to him with a small smile.

"Thank you," she lowered her head closing her eyes and falling asleep. The way she had been today, helping him collect those fruits. The way she walked like she was trying to show off to everybody but the feeling when she did it didn't feel hostile. She's cute and- This was when he realized he had a crush on her. Oh no! Maybe I could just nap this feeling away and it will be all well and good. He laid down right beside her closing his eyes. He tried to think of ways he could try to improve on his venom control and how to fix that with Toco but all he could think of right now was Droplet for no reason. He didn't want this feeling in him, it felt very distracting, and he just wanted to do his usual stuff without this feeling. When he woke up from his thoughts of her, he blinked a few times before rubbing his eyes. He turned to see one of Droplet's wings around him, his blush becoming more apparent. She blinked her eyes open before yawning and rubbing her eyes also. She looked over towards him noticing her wing over him. She drew it back turning away from him turning into a pink color with a blush on her face which was like his. "Y... you... mind if I came back... here tomorrow for sun time?"

"Um... sure," he replied. She got up to spread her wings and began flying to her next instructor. Parrot also got up and continued to stare in her direction that she flew through. He also saw Toco flying towards him landing right in front of his view of Droplet's path.

"Parrot are you ready to practice with your venom again?" He snapped his focus back onto Toco nodding. "Who was that RainWing that you were with?" as they glided through the trees back to the place that they had always practiced at.

"Just someone that helped me today, that's all." He swapped the topic to the hole from yesterday since it had expanded more since last time. "Toco do you remember the hole from yesterday?"

"Yes, why'd you ask?"

"I just noticed that the hole is bigger now. Do you know?" Toco's smile turned into a frown.

"What do mean?" That was when her eyes widened when they arrived seeing the hole had become so much larger. It looked like it could consume multiple huts in one go if it was even alive. "By the moons, what is happening?" A strange noise was being made inside of the large hole like a squeak. Toco walked closer to it peering down into it, she moved her neck closer.

"Toco is that safe!?"

"Yes, it seems-" suddenly a large web like a spider wrapped around every part of her body pulling her into the hole. "HELP!" bat-like arms came out of it, lifting itself onto the surface. It seemed like a large bat of some kind, its wings were useless making it so it could only walk on the ground, its eyes seemed a bit blurry, but he could tell it can see well, and it had pale skin. It let out a screech and began running towards him. Parrot began running in the opposite direction from the large beast as it gave chase. What is that thing! Then he heard a strange sound, he turned and saw it was gone. That was a close, he thought turning back to the direction he was running to only to meet the beast in his way. He screamed walking backward away from it before tripping onto his back.

"HELP! SOMEBODY HELP!" Parrot cried out, but nobody came. The beast came closer, its mouth drooling with saliva. Suddenly a cry erupted from the sky causing Parrot to look up. What he saw was weird, a black dragon was falling from the sky yelling as if his wings had been torn off. The creature from the hole looked up at the dragon confused. He came down with a crash into the dirt floor underneath him.

"OWW!" he said getting up and moving around. "I'm never doing that again!" The black dragon looked up to see the beast about to kill Parrot. "Sorry, did I just drop into something? I'm used to this happening!"

"Help!"

"Oh, right!" he had a weird thing over his back that covered his wings which for some reason he didn't mind. He raised his talons to his neck before realizing he had nothing there. The dragon looked towards his neck and began moving his talon all over it. The beast now focused on him began growling before running towards him. The black dragon looked around all over the place before running to a tree with a vine loose on one of the branches. Parrot saw as he picked up a rock and threw it at the branch doing nothing. As the dragon got under the tree branch, he pulled on the vine causing the branch to snap right off hitting the creature as it neared it's prey. The branch made contact with it's head making a sound like a coconut being pounded by another coconut. The creature began rocking itself trying to keep itself stable before succumbing to unconsciousness. The black dragon turned walking up to offer Parrot a talon to get up.

"Who are you?" Parrot asked the strange dragon.

"My name is Rhinoceros Beetle, but you can call me Rhino for short," Rhino said looking around wildly. "Do you have any food? Mouth feels weird so consider that as well."

"We got some pears," Parrot said. Parrot found it weird that Rhino had talked nonchalantly as if he didn't just face a horrible monster. Who is this guy?

"Oh, I would love some of those... but not peaches! They're too fuzzy and I believe that if I took a bit out of one then it would cry out." Parrot had told him to hurry because of what had happened to his instructor. "Tell me what happened to your instructor?" he took a bite out of both an apple and a jackfruit.

"I thought you wanted-"

"Pears are terrible! Demon-spawn if I had to say, as well as bananas, watermelons, and Peaches."

"...Okay then? Anyways she was taken by a spider-web that covered up all around her dragging her down into that hole!" he pointed to the massive hole in the ground.

"And I assume that's where the bat creature came from," Rhino said looking at the strange monster. "Judging by it being overgrown and partially blind as well as the wings it must have grown in an environment that isn't really hostile."

"So it isn't from around here?"

"Yeah... Have you seen anything else strange?" Parrot thought about the strange bug that had bitten him.

"Yeah, a bug with a light and was like a mosquito that had bitten me late night, I think it came from the hole." that gave Rhino a strange puzzling face with him scrunching up his snout.

Rhino began making a strange noise from his mouth like a whine: "Yeah... This thing must've been caved off from the surface."

"What do you mean by that? What does caved off mean?" Rhino in turn made a puzzled face at Parrot.

"You're three years old and you don't know what caved off means?"

"What's three?" He sighed before sticking out a claw.

"This is one claw and if you lift another up, that would be two. Continue up it and it'll be different numbers. In order, it would be one, two, three, four, five, and so on. The 'so on' isn't in it though." Parrot nodded in understanding. "Come on now, if we're going to rescue your instructor we're going to have to be quick on this." Rhino walked over to the hole looking over it almost mimicking what Toco did. What type of dragon have black scales and remains like that though? Parrot wondered.

"Rhino... Why are your scales black constantly?" Rhino turned with a questioning glance before looking at his talons.

"Must be because I'm tired or something, though my wings are feeling weir- AHHH!" he cried out when he saw his wings as if he's never seen them before. "What happened to the other two!?"

"Don't we all have..." Parrot counted his claws before turning to see his own wings counting it as he did with the claws. "Two?"

Rhino began calming himself down: "Maybe they'll come back later, anyways no time to lose let's go!" He jumped straight into the hole, Parrot ran over before stopping. It was really dark and whatever was in there could be scary or as scary as the bat thing. He turned to see the creature lying there unconscious. Maybe I should stay- The monster started twitching with movement. Small juts before the arms and legs started moving, it got up before it turned to him growling. On the other talon! He jumped in following the black dragon.