— Chapter 5 —
The morning sun shone upon the lonely, faraway island, well, partly. It was a rather cloudy day so the big glowing ball in the sky could only peek from time to time, but at least the breeze was decent and the clouds didn't look like storm ones, which is good because making the long trek to Pantala during a storm would SUCK.
Luna was the first to wake up thanks to her useful internal clock, and she knew she was the first one because her antennae barely detected movement from the others, which meant they were still laying down, so she decided to just remain seated on the spot because she didn't want to bother anyone, or accidentally step on something painful like Qibli's tail or just Lynx in general. If Silkwings are butterflies, then Icewings are hedgehogs. Sometimes magical, loud, grumpy hedgehogs, but at least Lynx herself didn't tick these boxes.
Finally, her antennae detected more movement, she looked over that way and then she clearly heard Tsunami grunting slightly as she woke up as well. "Is anyone else up?" The Seawing asked.
"I've been awake since a bit waiting for the rest of you," Luna announced.
"An early bird, good to know. Mind helping me wake everyone else up?" Tsunami replied, and Luna agreed to this.
So they began to carefully poke and lightly push at every dragon present to wake them up, with the hardest task being to wake up Pineapple in a timely manner, taking a few minutes to accomplish that. Although Luna personally thought Sundew was second worst merely to the fact that she got slapped on the face by the leaf tip of her tail when she tried to wake up Sundew, buuuut at least it could've been worse coming from the Leafwing.
"Okay, now that everyone's awake, I need your absolute and undisturbed attention," Tsunami's voice appeared. This is going to be one heck of a long trip, so we'll eat as much as we can for breakfast right now, because there won't be many stops until we reach the continent unless we get lucky."
After saying that, they began to scavenge for as much food as they could before the trip. Based on the splash of water nearby, Tsunami had gone under the sea to get some fish, which was made clear when some invisible force threw them to land. Some other invisible dragon must have flown up to catch some seagulls as suddenly there were some on the ground now.
Luna meanwhile went with who she assumed was Pineapple walking nearby to the only coconut tree in the small isle, so with several coconuts coupled with the few fruit they had left in their pouches, it meant they had enough as well at least.
15 minutes later, everyone was done eating, and everything appeared to be set, as now Sundew's grumpy sounding voice was heard after another minute.
"I see no fish, bird or fruit left, so I assume that everyone is done with breakfast. In that case let's all keep flying straight west, then we'll reach Pantala by around nighttime, then we kill Wasp, a simple plan."
"Luna, do you sense anyone approaching? So we can become visible one minute for everyone to take off," Tsunami asked.
"Hm…" Luna said, moving her antennae as she looked around to the sky above and the sea around, taking some steps as she turned her head for some moments. "Nope, nothing, it's safe."
After confirming that, Sundew stopped the enchantment so everyone was able to see each other. And for the first time since this journey started, Luna saw something that gave her some more hope with the idea of this colorful dragons saving her home: everyone looked serious or determined in their own way, they all know that this is the day where they get to the next step of this quest, and they seem ready to act upon it.
And that's when the Secret Stealth Team took off, wings beating as one in a synchrony and harmony that made Luna smile slightly as she looked at all her teammates around her, all heading west to the continent, and then everyone was invisible once more as the last trek of the journey overseas began.
Maybe we truly have a chance to do it, to win. She thought as she vanished.
Oh this part truly was VERY bad, the most annoying and dragging one by far. The first three to four hours were perfectly fine with everyone just flying towards their objective, but already after that there were a few short huffs from time to time, and the worst part is that they could only see the vast blue sea with nothing sticking out that promised a spot to rest. But at least only seeing the empty sea is technically good too, as it meant Wasp wasn't crazy enough to just go through open space like this unlike a certain group. (Wait, so that meant that Luna just called herself crazy? Maybe she's a little bit…)
From the very back of the group, Luna was able to hear Sky huffing tiredly the most, with Wren saying stuff to him in their mixed language, so Luna couldn't quite understand all of it, but she assumed that the human was supporting the dragon, since the Skywing was ironically not the best in the sky, which is not helpful when he's making the longest trip in dragonkind's history.
Six hours passed, and Luna was starting to get sloppy, sometimes accidentally moving side to side as her wings were getting tired. And now she wished she could see the others to at least see how they're doing and not feel like she's one of the few struggling.
Seven hours… Are they even halfway through? They've all been flying at a good pace, and speaking up each few minutes to confirm everyone is still there, and the tones were low and tired, and Luna was starting to think this was all a bad idea.
"If all goes wrong," Qibli's voice said, his tone sounded normal but it was quite clear he was trying to not show his exhaustion. "Then we'll have to use Tsunami as a floating platform on the sea to stand."
"Absolutely not," Tsunami's voice snapped back. "I don't give piggyback rides. And also some of you would be extremely unpleasant to have on my back."
"Shaaame," Qibli simply replied, probably shaking his head.
Eight hours… HOPE! There was finally a patch of land visible in the distance, not Pantala, but it's solid ground! Everyone had slowed down significantly by now, plenty of muttering and mumbling and tired wing flaps, but at last they spotted a small landmass not in the map to rest.
"We… Can rest…!" Pineapple said, basically out of breath by now, and everyone had managed an extra burst of speed, truly wanting to touch the ground with their talons, it didn't matter that the isle was plain, barren, with no trees or such, they just wanted something solid.
They did indeed get to the ground and touch it, and although it wasn't the nicest, with the sand there being kinda rough… It felt as good and smooth as silk to Luna with how tired she felt after flying for so long, plopping down without a care in the world as she relaxed, and based on the sounds and movement she caught, the others did the exact same thing.
Everything… HURTS! I'm TIRED…! Oh sweet land! Come to me RIGHT NOW!
"I think that I'm loving… Sand as much as mud now," Bullfrog announced, his tone probably being the happiest he might be able to sound, although it was hard to tell.
"Aww, thanks, that makes a few now," Qibli replied with a chuckle.
"Huh?" Bullfrog questioned, confused.
"Sadly, I'm already taken, but it's fine, there's plenty of Sandwings out there for you."
"Qibli!" Moon's voice spoke up with a giggle. "Don't mind him, Bullfrog, he's just joking around."
"But… I don't get it," the Mudwing said. "Do I have to meet a Sandwing?"
"No," Moon replied before correcting herself. "Well, I don't know. Only if you wanted to?" She added in a confused tone.
Luna smirked and laughed a bit to herself from the appreciated silliness of this conversation. And then before she realized she had started to doze off after about a minute of laying down.
She was awakened what she assumed was an hour later by the sounds of Tsunami and Sundew's voices speaking up to the rest of them.
"Okay, is everyone rested? All good? We should probably keep going if our wings stop being sore," Tsunami said.
"After getting this rest, it's likely that we can make it to the continent by night, and even Wasp needs some rest, so it should be safer to get onto a safe spot for our base of operations in Pantala," Sundew added.
Luna heard a disappointed sound at her left, probably coming from Pineapple. Luna assumed that the sleep lover thought they'd stay the rest of the evening and night time here.
"You're certain that she needs sleep? If she's been consuming weird plants for 50 years, maybe her habits are unusual. Or she could be a late sleeper queen, I know one of these." Lynx said.
"I… How in the world would I know!?" Sundew replied. "Wasp probably wouldn't let anyone see when she goes to sleep as that's a vulnerable position, but that doesn't mean she doesn't. Night is still safer for us either way."
Luna stretched her wings, still kinda tired but that rest really made wonders, she wasn't completely sore and feeling extremely grumpy at the idea of taking this wacky off path, which is an emotional improvement at least.
"Take a few more minutes for yourselves, and then we'll confirm if we'll be able to make the last part of this trek today," Tsunami said, and there was some collective relief from that.
And finally after a couple of minutes, everyone was up again, and they all took off for the second time today, rested and feeling much better after getting such a lucky resting spot, so they should certainly be able to reach Pantala given they're reinvigorated.
And at last, after a few more hours of flying, Qibli's voice spoke up in an excited manner, suddenly filled with a lot of energy
"Land ho!"
Luna's heart began to beat faster, land… LAND! They did it! The plan worked! Okay, now to NEVER AGAIN do something as dumb as trying to cross such a big part of the sea nonstop.
"FINALLY!" Tsunami exclaimed. "See? I knew this plan would work."
"Never doubted you nor had any thoughts of all of us falling into the sea, not even for one second" Qibli cheerfully said.
"We're back…" Cricket said, her voice a mix of emotions.
"And it's probably looking just as much in shambles and depressing as when we left it," Sundew grunted, but Luna could hear a hint of something else among her grumpy tone.
"But at least it is still home," Luna announced, seeing the ever-approaching land just made her feel even more determined to release it from both Wasp and Cottonmouth, they'll be free at last.
"I can't wait to see all the cute animals that surely only exist in this place!" Sky announced with excitement.
"I can't believe it, I'm actually looking at the lost continent, another piece of this world, and that is a lot to take in," Moon commented.
Twenty minutes later, they were soaring directly above Pantalan ground, and Luna was itching to touch it with her talons, but that would have to wait a little.
"Okay, the first course of action is to find a good hideout, some deep caverns should be good to hide coupled with our invisibility," Tsunami said.
That was reasonable, so they began to fly across the Dragontail peninsula and onward, with Cricket mentioning on the way that they should be reaching Lake Scorpion relatively soon, which is as good of a starting point as any other.
They made a short stop when they must have been about midway through the path to reach the lake, so far the night was looking really calm, and the clouds were long gone, leading to a rather bright sky illuminated by two full moons, and Luna felt at peace as well right now.
Although after 15 minutes of relaxing and casual chatting, Tsunami let out a short grunt. "Agh! Three moons, something stung me!"
Luna turned her invisible head to the invisible Seawing, which of course wouldn't really accomplish much, but it's kinda instinctive, and then Sky let out a small, cute eep right after.
"Wren! Did you just poke me with your fingers? Like, very hard?" He asked.
"Now why in the world would I do that?" Wren's voice questioned.
"Huh, I think something stung me too…" Bullfrog said without much interest.
"Okay, WHAT is going on?" Sundew questioned.
Luna turned her head to look around, and after a moment she spotted what it was, and based on the unamused sounds that others let out, they must have seen it too.
There was a very small black cloud near them, composed entirely of… Mosquitoes, relatively large, bothersome, stinging, mosquitoes.
"Seriously? This is the welcome committee that we get? These bugs?" Tsunami grunted.
"What's surprising is that they even aimed for us, so mosquitoes are able to sense this type of stuff too? Didn't know that one," Qibli said.
"Ouch! I don't care about that right now, I care about getting away from this spot right now," Tsunami replied with a grunt, and Luna heard many sounds of standing up.
"We've never had these in the Ice Kingdom, so I would also like it if we stepped away," Lynx said.
Everyone began to walk forward in the direction of the lake, which still wasn't in sight, but the mosquitoes just kept on following! Arrrgh! A few of them stung Luna so she began to swat at them with an invisible talon, and seemingly so did others.
"I've dealt with these insects before back home, but they were never this persistent," Pineapple mentioned.
"We'll seriously have to take flight to escape mosquitoes, "Tsunami muttered.
But before any wings were opened, Moon's voice suddenly let out a gasp.
"We need to go! I'm feeling several minds quickly coming closer to us from the north!"
Luna turned her head so fast in that direction that her neck hurt, but she didn't give much thought to that, given that she spotted what must have been at least 20 dragons coming their way, and based on the vibrant colors against the night sky, most of them were Silkwings.
"WHAT!? Everyone, fly onward! We must get away!" Tsunami roared, beating her wings and taking off, and everyone quickly followed, but the large group of incoming dragons had changed direction to also point to the west, even though Luna knew that their antennae weren't that strong.
"LUNA! Just how strong are your antennae!?" Sundew snapped from somewhere ahead of Luna, probably assuming that once more she had forgotten to share information.
"Not at all capable of catching vibrations from so far away!" She quickly replied.
"Then explain THIS!" The Leafwing argued.
Luna had absolutely no answer to this, she knew the limits of her own body for Clearsight's sake! What is she supposed to say? But then she heard Cricket let out a short gasp.
"It's like in the legend! They're even using insects against us to find where we are!"
"Oh you GOTTA be kidding! A mosquito patrol? Really!?" Sundew snarled.
Luna looked back, to the swarm of insects, luckily they were quickly outpacing them with their speed, so they shouldn't be able to catch up, and she hoped their detection range would be much smaller.
And the other dragons were upon them, about over a dozen Silkwings, and the few left are Hivewings, with the former having their antennae stretched forward and moving a lot as they headed for Luna and her friends.
"I know we can't see each other, but still try to not stick too close together! Make it harder for their silk to get us!" Tsunami commanded.
Luna tried as hard as she could to stay away from the sounds her group made, but it also wasn't easy given that there were plenty of approaching sounds too.
"You couldn't ever hope for the chance of escaping us, we will always be one step behind you, and two steps ahead!" All 20 voices spoke at the same time, shouting at them.
Oh great, so MAYBE Wasp does go to sleep, but it's possible that Cottonmouth never does… Luna mentally grunted.
And then silk began to be sent over to them, they're already starting to fire even from that distance! They all were missing, but that large group just kept getting closer and closer… And only now did Luna consider, when they were in the middle of a chase like this, about the fact that the 4 wings of the Silkwings and Hivewings meant that they already were close in speed to the best fliers of the group, so they were catching up fast.
Lake Scorpion was visible in the distance, but then… Luna heard a gasp coming from Moon's voice somewhere to her right, she quickly looked there and saw a thick line of silk was sticking to the air.
"Moon!" Qibli's voice cried out, but before he probably could have done something, a dozen strands of silk were fired at that spot in unison literally just a moment later and began to get forcefully pulled to the approaching enemy group.
"Qibli, don't! There's too many!" The Nightwing barely got to say before far more silk was fired and she was quickly getting partially cocooned.
No, no! Luna thought, panicking and not knowing what to do, there were too many nearby to just pull her away, and so much silk was used on her that breaking it would literally take ages.
The Silkwing heard an angered roar that was coming without a doubt from Sundew, then she felt how something flew past her and closer to all these other dragons, and then a second later some very small thing was visibly moving forward on the air and landed on the snout of one of the Silkwings holding Moon.
Immediately, every single controlled dragon howled in pain, whatever Sundew threw at them was so strong that Cottonmouth's reaction echoed through all 20 dragons. Then Luna saw pulling and snapping at the partial cocoon that was still in the middle of the air, and Sundew proceeded to grunt.
"This is absurdly strong! It's barely budging!" She growled, cutting at any strands she could.
"You… You should go," Moon's voice spoke from there. "I can still hear Cottonmouth's mind, they're still in control despite the pain, you should get out of their reach and hide because we're all done for if they capture you. And even more dragons could still appear.
"What? But what if they-" Qibli's voice began to say but got interrupted.
"I doubt they'd do that with a dragon they can't see or know what they are, and besides I would work better for them as a bargaining chip," Moon said the last part in a gloomy tone. "Three moons, I am hearing their thoughts starting to get more into place, just go!"
Tsunami grunted behind them. "I hate this so much, but we can't all risk getting captured together, especially with Wren here so… Retreat!" She ordered with uncertainty.
"I'll think of a plan to get you out as soon as possible, I'm already making one!" Qibli said in a hurried tone filled with panic.
"Qibli, I know you will," Moon said with such love and confidence in her tone that even Luna felt moved.
Before the dragons could snap back to their senses and follow them again with their antennae, the group darted away as fast as they could to lose them, and Moon was left behind.