"Lachia?" I call out.

"Yes?"

"Where are you?"

"Behind the counter."

"Whatcha doing?"

"Behind the counter stuff." This makes me giggle. "Do you know where there might be, oh, I don't know, some gift wrapping utensils?"

"Sure. Follow me." So I do, as much as I can. It turns out Lachia's very good at wrapping presents, even more so with cloth. She gives me a soft fabric square and some velvety ribbon. "Thanks. How much is it?"

"Oh." Her voice drops to a whisper. "Don't tell anyone, but it's free."

"Thanks!" I drop down to my knees and take off my little bracelet I wove out of a loose web in the past morning. With nimble hands, I wrap a little bun of webs. I take a little card and attach it, but then I remember that Khapra's blind. "What's it for?" Lachia asked.

"A new friend," I reply. "In case we don't meet again." Lachia sounds amused. "It's a HiveWing, right?"

"How did you know?"

Lachia ruffled her wingbuds. "I can tell."

Wingbuds. Metamorphosis. I'm hungry. "It's noon already," I say. Three moons. In just a few hours, Lachia and I would go through the biggest point of our lives. "Let's get lunch."

"Sandwiches?"

"Yeah!"

"Honey drops?"

"Uh, sure?"

"'Uh, sure?'" Lachia says in a mocking tone. "What kind of an answer is that?"

"Okay, okay. Let's go!"

We spend the rest of the day chatting about everything and eating chocolate honey drops. How good it would be to finally be free of school, what job we would get, and the one that causes us both to gag. "Who would you most want to be partnered with?" I ask. It's sunny. We're on one of the Jewel hive balconies, and Lachia says she can see Bloodworm hive crystal clear from there.

"Ick, no," Lachia says. "If I get paired with anybody, I will rip off that dragon's tail and shove it down their left nostril! The dragon who was in charge of that pairing, of course. Poor innocent SilkWings, getting stuck with me for the rest of their lives." I laugh so much I feel like my head would topple off. I still feel dizzy from laughter after that.

Wait.

"Lachia?"

"Yes?" There's a note of something… different in her voice.

"We should get going."

"Yeah. Think it's soon."

I come up to my feet and started walking in the direction of the cocoon. Down, down, and down some more. Soon I'll have wings. Or maybe something will go horribly wrong and I'll end up dead.

My thoughts are filtering out the things I feel around myself, so I can safely assume my sense of direction has jumped off of the Hive, leading me into countless walls. I somehow reach the cocoon.

"Cuffs, please," someone says to me. I lift my right arm. "Wrong way." I turn around and hear a click as it's removed. Lachia, somehow aware of the situation, nudges me forward to the stage. I pick up Dad's voice in the audience. "See those two? Those are my dragonets. MY DRAGONETS! I have to —" I can't hear any other sounds, they've all fizzled out into nothing. My thoughts retreat out of my brain. I'm only aware. Then it happens.

My legs decide to give up, and I'm falling. My talons raise and silk pours out, too much, it overcomes me with snug warmth. The warm blanket goes up, over my head, and I'm all of a sudden not that warm anymore. I'm not aware of anything else. Not even that my body has surrendered to nothingness.