"Attacus?" Khapra asked. "Hello? Are you in there?"

"They're here," I say but don't say. "They're all here."

"What? What do you mean by— oh. That's bad. What — how —"

That's what I'm trying to figure out. How did this happen?

"Let — me — go," I say. Never, that weird voice says, presumably the one controlling me. "Fine." I take a deep breath, and reached out for a tool. A cutting board, nope. Extra vines, no way. Finally I find the knife that Khapra apparently used to cut the vines. I grabbed the handle with his left talon, aiming it at his forearm. "You have until the count of three," I heave. "Get out before I make you get out." I point the tip of the blade at the tendon controlling my wrist. You really think it's that easy? The voice snarls. But it's not a dragon. That's all I know. "One," I warn. "Two…" hah. You're not really going to do it, little SilkWing.

You're much too weak for that. "Well," I continue. "How about actually coming out of your cowardly little hiding spot? Let me help. Three." I plunged the knife down at his forearm. Bye bye, you little— then the rush of pain comes. I can't think anymore, but I know it's the right thing. Anything to get that control out. Quickly I take the knife out, and the last thing I feel is slumping down and my eyes shutting.

Ow… I really shouldn't have done that. That… that really hurts. Ugh. I try to stand up. Apparently my right arm has gone on strike after I practically mauled it. But that was that. The mysterious thing was gone. I think. I don't know for sure that it's gone. I'm alone. Khapra left. Just me and my thoughts. I'm not hungry anymore. It's weird, with so much that happened in the past few hours of my consciousness. I feel my body once again.

I count four awkward, lumbering wings living rent-free on my back. I also have a bandage on my right arm. At least someone took care of me. I still feel the dark home that I live in, the home that follows me wherever I go. My antennae tells me there's a whole bunch of SilkWings outside the cave to my right. About 400 paces.

But, the back of my mind suggests. The thing that took over you could come back. My normal thought process takes the wheel. I'm mostly no use to him, but he could still use my antennae. Huh. That's why Khapra never gets controlled — she doesn't have anything to view the world with. Okay. Before I go anywhere, I have to disable my antennae. They're hiding from it, so NO LETTING IT TAKE OVER, OKAY? No more personal injuries. Or maybe… I hold up my bandaged arm. Quickly, with my good talon, I unravel the bandage and relocate it to my head, with which I bind my antennae. I reach out, and, with a sigh of relief, feel nothing. Now I just have to find the wall.

I stand up and reach out with my right talon, walking slowly until I touch a cave wall. I grope around with my left talon, find the exit, and switched over to the right side of the entryway. I turned around, and with one talon on the wall, I walk forward, counting my paces. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven…

All the way to three hundred and eighty-five.

Then I hear the dragonets. They're about my age, a little younger. Maybe four or five.

"Tag! You're it!"

"No fair! I couldn't even see you!"

Me neither, I think wearily. Considering I was a bazillion miles away.

"That's the whole point, bee-brain."

"Hey, guys," I interrupt. "Is it okay if I join?"

"Sure," the dragonet who just got nominated as 'it' replies. "But I'll warn you, It's pretty dark in here. Nothing like the metamorphosis room. I'll count to ten. Oh, and using your antennae is cheating. That's how we use the dark."

"Yeah," A younger dragonet squeaks, one or two by the sound of it. "The dark is horrible."

"Me too," Another one cries.

"Oh no," I say. "So scary. What a nightmare." The dragonets go silent. "You're Lachia's brother, aren't you?" One of them asks.

"Why, yes," I say. "How did you know?"

"We guessed."

"Speak for yourself!" Another voice retorts. I hear water splashing and a shriek. "HEY! Pepper, NOT COOL."

"I say it's more than cool. Cold, right? And refreshing."

"I'M COLD ENOUGH IN THESE DARK CAVES WITH NO SUNLIGHT."

"Nyeah." Pepper sticks his tongue out at the doused dragonet. And is getting dog piled. "HEY! LET ME GO!" Laughter followed. Of course that makes me laugh. I feel someone touch my arm. "Tag! You're it!" A young dragonet giggles. "Got you! And again! And Again! Hey, what's this?" I feel her poke the scar on my arm. "Just a scratch," I reply.

"Big scratch. Why is it there?"

"To make someone go away."

"Who?"

"I don't exactly know. They made me do it."

"Okay, then. Bye," she says. I sigh. I let a little soft silk spill into my right talon. Then I knead the silk blob around and stretch it out to form a little bouncy ball. I took some solid silk and stick it in a coil around the ball to make it solid. With care I roll it in between my talons and sit on the floor. It's warm, but not hot. This ball is special, I realise. I don't know if all SilkWings could do this first off the bat.

"Ooh, cool," a new dragon says. "Can I have one?"

"Sure," I say. "Here, I'll make one for you." So I do it again. The stretchy silk spills into my talon and I wind normal, solid silk around it to form a small, warm ball. I pass the silken ball to him. "What's your name?"

"Chalcedon. Yours?"

"Attacus. Cool name you got there. What hive are you?"

"Bloodworm. I'm pretty sure you know what happened."

"Yeah. Sad thing. I'm from Jewel Hive, but that was the part that burned down before they could put out the fires in the webs. I was in my cocoon when the whole thing happened."

"Oh. That's… horrible. You couldn't even see what happened."

"Well, I wouldn't have been able to see it, cocoon or not."

"Yeesh," Chalcedon says. "So… you're six, right? Just out of your cocoon?"

"Yeah. You?"

"I'm supposed to go in tomorrow. I'm here with my little sister. Too bad these cuffs can't go."

"Ouch. The only two ways I know of to get the cuffs off is either that remover the HiveWings have, or Flamesilk, and we don't have either."

"I believe I can help with that," Lachia's voice says. I hear her walk closer. "Here," she says, passing me a metal object. "Lachia? What is this?"

"I borrowed it from the HiveWing guards when I came out," She answers. "It was pretty chaotic with the fire and everything, so I had no problem. Would you like to do the honours?"

"By all means," I say, relieved. I turn to Chalcedon. "Wrist cuff, please."

I feel Chalcedon's talon touch the mechanism and line up the cuff. Happily, I activate the mechanism and hear a cha-GUNK as Chaldeon's wrist cuff falls to the floor. I pick it up and run my claws over the engraved letters. It reads:

CHALCEDON

WEAVER HALL

"And the other one?" Chalcedon asks hopefully. Cha-GUNK, the remover confirmed. This one read:

CHALCEDON

CONSTRUCTION

"Why are you on construction?" I ask. I hear a sigh from Chalcedon's direction. "The same reason that got my mom killed. My dad… Wasp got him. Imprisoned him a while ago for getting lost in her private garden. They found him a couple days later. All he told me was this—" He pulls out a shrivelled vine from somewhere— "Is what Wasp uses to control the HiveWings."

"I think you mean Royal Dung Head."

"What?"

"Instead of Queen Wasp. Royal Dung Head suits her personality better."

Chalcedon laughs. "Yeah. No joke." I slip the bandage covering my antennae down onto my neck. Chalcedon's standing next to me with his right talon tossing the ball up a few inches up in the air. "So, uh… where are you off to?'' I ask him. "I get the feeling you're not sticking around in this dark cave."

"Quite right, actually," I say nonchalantly. "I thought I'd get some sleep." Even if I feel like I just woke up. Twice, my mind continues. But still, it's the type of feeling when I have to get dragged out of bed so I'm not late for class, and I can't keep my eyes open for the rest of the day. "Get some sleep!" Chalcedon echoed. "It's the middle of the day!"

"Well, yes, but I'm still tired."

"HOW?"

"That still remains a mystery to this day. Bye, Chalcedon."

Chalcedon sighs. "Bye." I walk away to find Lachia and Khapra, who are waiting for me in one of one of the hallways. "What did you do?" Khapra asks me. "Why did you do that to your arm?"

"I had to chase the voice out," I say, well knowing that it sounds completely weird to her. "Well, the queen. The moment you gave me that snack, Khapra, he came into my head."

"But the queen's a girl."

"The voice was not at all female."

"So who was it? Or… what was it?"

"I still don't know." Lachia folds her arms. "Well, brother," she says. "You need some actual sleep. Nothing has been normal in almost two whole weeks." I laugh. "I've been told quite the opposite," I say. "It's the middle of the day."

But do I really need to sleep? I'm guessing I do, based on how Lachia is shaking her head ruefully and telling Khapra how I never sleep when I need to the most, and how it will definitely come back to me someday — "Alright, alright!" I exclaim. "I'll go to bed! Just because you say so doesn't mean I most definitely need to do it right that minute."

I walk to the neighbouring alcove and lay on the mat that I had woken up on. Within minutes of thinking, Hah, my internal clock will never let me sleep-

I fall asleep.