Hey y'all! I'm feeling pretty great right now because summer break's on! Yayyyy! Anyway, enough about all that nonsense, I just wanna let you guys know that I put up a poll on my profile. You can vote about the fandom you want my next story to be based on. Oh, and also, I started another story, but it's a crossover between wings of fire and the hunger games, so if you like either or both of those fandoms, check it out, I'd appreciate the support.
Real quick shout out to: iancody81! Thank you a million for following me. You are amazing!
Okay, okay, you've heard enough of me, now it's time you read chapter 8.
Tsunami's (POV)
Cousin? What? Honestly, I'm very confused. I know we came here to get help to rescue Glory, but, honestly, I really just wanna go out into the unpredictable world of Pyrrhia and find her myself. But I know that's not an option, so I go along with the flow.
We glide through the trees of the rainforest kingdom. Well, okay, only Parrot glides through the trees. The rest of us are spending more time untangling our wings than actually flying. But, oh well.
After countless minutes of unraveling vines from our wings, we land on the soft green ground. But there's no hut in sight.
"Where's your cousin?" I ask, but before I get an answer, Parrot tilts his head up the tree adjacent to us, pointing his snout at the entangle of branches above, and calls out, "Jambu!"
Almost immediately, a bright pink head pokes out of the entwine of branches and leaves above. "Hmm?" the dragon called Jambu asks lazily, as if he just woke up from a nap, which, telling from these dragon's agenda, he probably did.
"These newcomers want your help with something. Would you mind coming down?"
Without hesitation or a second thought, Jambu opens his wings, also bright pink, and glides with grace and ease to the awaiting ground, dodging branches and such obstacles blocking his path.
As soon as he lands with his wings flared out and his whole dragon body exposed, I realize that he's all pink. What kind of dragon is all pink? I have knowledge from Glory's color language that pink means happy, because Glory is rarely ever pink because she's rarely happy. Can a dragon be that happy?
I brush the thought off and decide to focus on our possible dragon of help, but it's hard to without laughing because of how bright and happy and goofy he and his grins are.
"Ahh, Parrot, my lovely cousin," he wraps his wings around Parrot briefly, who gives a sort of pleading look, and then he turns his attention to us.
"Hello! I'm Jambu. You don't seem to be from around here, do you?" Jambu's voice is very welcoming and warm.
"No, we're from other tribes, but we grew up together in a cave. We're the dragonets of destiny," Clay responds.
"Very cool. So, you need to ask me for help with something?"
I feel rather annoyed that he just brushed off the fact that we're the dragonets of destiny, the most important dragons in the world according to society, but I wave my frustrations away.
"Yes," I say. "Our friend, who's RainWing like you, went missing a couple days ago."
Jambu's face is a mixture of emotions. "Aww, that's tragic. I would love to help you, but how will we know where to look?"
"Um, we think she was taken by SkyWings. So, I think the SkyWing palace is a great place to start," Starflight chimes in.
"Yeah! Your help would be greatly appreciated," Sunny adds, beaming.
"Of course. I'll try my best. But, is the SkyWing palace sunny? Could I nap there?"
I think I speak for all four of us when I shout, "What?!" Judging by the looks of my friends, they all agree.
Jambu looks taken aback.
"No, you can't sleep there. The SkyWing palace is heavily guarded. We were trapped there once before, and it was horrible."
"Okay, okay, sorry. I was just wondering." Jambu holds up his pink talons in innocence.
I'm starting to believe these RainWings have no brains at all.
"So, when do we start?" Jambu says, perking up.
"As soon as possible," Starflight says sternly. "The likelihood of Scarlet doing something terrible to Glory is at least ninety percent, so if we want to get to her with her in as unharmed a state as possible, we better get going."
The reminder that Scarlet might be torturing Glory at this very moment made me feel queasy, and I struggle to keep down my breakfast.
Sunny looks like what I'm feeling. Her yellow scales are very pale, and she looks close to tears. "Poor Glory," she mutters, barely audible, which is surprising because almost everything Sunny says is completely and utterly perceptible.
Clay is the one who stays strong for us. "Hey, it's okay guys. We'll find Glory and get to her before Scarlet has a chance to do anything cruel, alright? Just have faith."
That makes me feel a bit better. I begin to think with a new string of hope holding all my messed-up thoughts together.
We're offered some lunch by Jambu, who goes off to collect some food for us.
Clay readily accepts the offer, and his stomach makes a resounding growl, making us all giggle, which lifts the partially gloomy mood a bit.
Jambu returns with a wide assortment of fruits. Clay stares at the fruit with a frown. "Where's the meat?" he asks, looking up at Jambu with pleading eyes.
"Oh, sorry, I don't have any. Us RainWings almost never eat meat. You can go hunt for some if you want. Monkeys are good, and maybe a squirrel, but don't ever in a million years hunt down and eat a sloth, okay?"
"Why?" I ask, bewildered.
"Sloths are our pets. We would never eat them," Jambu replies matter-of-factly.
Then I remember that Queen Magnificent had a sloth on her and how I was wondering why it was there and why she wasn't eating it. And now I know.
"Oh, I see," Clay nods, looking somewhat disappointed.
"You can go hunt if you want," Jambu offers, biting into a particularly juicy mango.
Clay's eyes widen at the sight of the mango. "Nah, that's alright." He grabs the biggest mango in the pile and takes a large bite. The flavor seems to melt in his abnormally large mouth, and he closes his eyes in content, seeming to have forgotten about his desire for protein.
We all eat a few fruits, filling our empty stomachs until they are satisfied. We get to know Parrot and Jambu a bit better, and they get to know us.
By the time we've finished eating and chatting, the sun had nearly set, leaving only a sliver of light.
"We shouldn't go looking for Glory at this time," Starflight observes, gazing up at the few stars that made an appearance.
"Yeah, good idea," Clay agrees, followed by nodding of everyone but me.
"Come on, Tsunami, we can search for her tomorrow," Starflight says.
I would agree, but I can't sleep with the thought of Glory possibly being tortured or worse.
"What if they're doing something to her? I don't wanna be too late."
"We'd get there quicker if there was more light. It would be easier to navigate," Starflight reasons with me. I know I can't outsmart him.
"I'm sure Glory's fine," Sunny says cheerfully and reassuringly. Her optimism makes me more optimistic.
"Alright, fine, but first thing in the morning, we're leaving, agreed?"
"Agreed," everyone says in unison, nodding their different colored and sized heads.
We're offered by Jambu and Parrot to sleep in their huts, but the four of us decline, saying we want to sleep on the ground.
We curl up in a big sleep pile next to the tree where Jambu's hut is.
I almost immediately hear the snores of Clay, followed by the soft rising and falling of Sunny's chest.
I assume they're all asleep, but I can't seem to doze off. The horrible thoughts of how Glory's fairing are haunting me. I gaze up at the stars that decorate the sky like it's a black canvas.
I'm not used to sleeping with one of our own missing. I don't know how the others can fall asleep so quickly.
"Can't sleep?" I hear a shadowy voice next to me, making me jump in surprise, although I can't really jump because I'm stuck in our sleeping pile.
I turn my head towards the direction of the voice and see that it's Starflight, his eyes wide-awake and glistening in the moon's light.
"No. You?" I respond.
"I wish." He sighs and stares up at the night sky. I can barely see his shadowy form in the dark. He's camouflaged almost as well as Glory is. But I guess that's what NightWings do.
"The horrible thoughts of what they might be doing to Glory are keeping me awake."
"Same," Starflight agrees. "What makes me more nervous is that I think they took Glory for a reason."
"Hmm?" I cock my head towards him.
"Well, it could have been any of us, but they chose to take Glory. I think it's because of what she did to Scarlet, you know, with the venom and all. Because Scarlet survived, she wants revenge on her. That also increases the probability of something horrible happening to Glory."
My eyes show what I'm feeling. Tears threaten to spill. "What kinds of horrible things?" I know I probably don't want to know the answer, but I can't help it.
"Well, extreme torture that would cause severe trauma and PTSD is a very likely option," Starflight explains, sounding rather solemn.
I feel my stomach flip. Even if we got Glory back, she most likely wouldn't be the same. This scares me.
"But knowing Scarlet," Starflight continues, "she'll probably drag the torture out and make it very slow and painful and traumatizing. After all, in her eyes, what Glory did to her is practically unforgivable."
I nod, but I'm struggling to swallow my tears as they well up in my eyes.
"But, unfortunately, if Scarlet does see this supposed 'crime' inflicted on her by Glory as unforgivable, I'm afraid that…"
My ears perk up as Starflight trails off. "You're afraid of what?" A horrible sensation wells inside of me, and a horrible wave of queasiness washes over my trembling body. I'm afraid of the answer, already guessing what it is just before Starflight says it.
"I'm afraid that Scarlet's only way to fulfill her revenge is by killing Glory herself."
Sooo, that was chapter 8. Hope you all enjoyed it. Sorry my updates have been kinda slow lately. Summer break's on, so we went for a trip for a week. I'm writing a few original fiction stories and I was wondering if I should start an account on fictionpress to post on there. I've got some really cool ideas. Anyway, thanks for reading. Please review, your support is continually appreciated! Have a nice day.
See ya in the next one.
Ducky :)
