— Chapter 8 —
There actually happened to be one more soldier within the actual Flamesilk factory at the bottom of the ladder, with the guard being startled upon seeing these two just descend without warning and was raising her tail stinger as she yelled, but now it was time for Cricket to actually use her still loaded blowgun, and with the close proximity it was a clean hit, making the guard fall on the spot.
Of course, knocking down someone on an entrance will wind up gathering the attention of anyone present, and ten pairs of eyes were looking directly at them from different spots of the cave, with literally nobody just expecting someone to come in and KO A GUARD.
"Well, look! It was about time that one of these repulsive "mightier than thou" spike-filled no life simple minded guards got something coming their way!" One of the Silkwings from the back bellowed, this one having a snarly tone and his colors were a light red contrasted by lime green lines.
"You have to be TROLLING right now!" Another voice said, and Luna felt weird when she spotted her dad, staring at them wide-eyed. "They… They knocked down Sandfly! Who does that? She helps make sure everything here is in ORDER!"
"Hi to you too, dad," Luna said slightly awkwardly, because how else is she even supposed to talk to her dad? Last thing she saw of him, he was desperately trying to snitch on his own daughter to keep her trapped, who does that?
Admiral looked at her, his mouth opening and closing a few times as if he was trying to say something right now, but ended up looking like a grounded fish that was ten miles away from any water.
Another Silkwing, this one with bright orange scales dotted by white ones approached them first, looking at the knocked out Hivewing for a second before looking back at Luna and Cricket.
"I don't suppose that you're simply back to work here, are you?" She asked with a curious expression and a slight smile, and Luna remembered when Blue presented her, this one was Danaid.
"You'd be right with that, we're here for something much bigger than that," Luna confirmed.
"Luna, what are you doing?" Admiral asked with uncertainty, his tone sounding like he wasn't sure what to think of his daughter.
"We are standing here, with the guards out of commission, to give you the chance for something that you should have been given so long ago, more than just remaining in a hidden cavern outside the eyes of your own tribe for years, we are here to free you," Luna announced, standing upright with her four wings extended.
She hoped to hear some cheering, perhaps an ovation alongside some clapping as they stood up and headed for the exit, but instead she was met by mostly stunned and surprised expressions from half of the Silkwings, a scoff from the arguing one, and actually interested and hopeful expressions from 2 of them.
"Are you for real? How? There's never been any chance to get away from Wasp, she controls everything, but you think you could do that?" One of the hopeful dragons asked, a Silkwing of pink scales and an expression that seemed permanently unhappy and frowning.
"Pierid, how could you say something like THAT? That's TRAITION!" Admiral exclaimed, scandalized by these words.
"Go choke on one of your STUPID TANGERINES and let us enjoy something good for once!" The other hopeful dragon bellowed at Admiral.
"Be careful, maybe he'll send out ANOTHER letter to Wasp, this time to be a snitch, but even then it'd do nothing because she NEVER reads these!" The grumpiest of the dragons said.
"Oh SHUT UP! You know that she read these, and here's your evidence, again!" Admiral shouted, swallowing a tangerine with a defiant tone.
"That was YEARS AGO!" Grumpy retorted.
Luna looked at Cricket, her antennae lowering in bafflement as she heard all of this. Last time she was here, it was only for a few hours, enough to see arguments happen in this place, but not to see they could just go on like this, and they're STILL arguing!
"Huh, your attention, please?" Cricket said in a not very commanding tone, but at least simply being a Hivewing must have done something, because Admiral lowered his voice and stopped the shouting.
"This is VERY serious, so can you please stop bickering for five minutes?" Luna said, raising her tone and trying to make herself heard among all the constant shouting.
"What you're saying is extremely ridiculous," her father said, his tone clearly showing he was refraining himself from saying his voice at her. "We can't just leave, I mean, I would love to get some days off to enjoy fresh air, but the Queen would have to allow it first of course. To just go? You were here barely a few hours last time, so I think it didn't sink in your head just how IMPORTANT this job is."
"And I am not going to tell you to never again help others with your Flamesilk," Luna retorted. "But I will argue against working any longer for Wasp."
"Wasp is the one that brought us all here for the better and improvement of the whole kingdom! Both tribes rely on us, so why are you speaking against her like that!?"
"Dear Clearsight! Can you not be a tail licker for ONE day? Disagree with your daughter or not, Wasp is nooooot that amazing in general!" A very old dragon spoke from the back, this one white with some shades of silver alongside brown spots scattered around.
"Whitespeck, since when did you have these thoughts? What's WRONG with all of you?" Admiral questioned.
"Did you really think that anyone would voice that they dislike Wasp while guards are always present?" Pierid questioned with a baffled tone.
"She's literally your queen! CLEARSIGHT elected her from the distant past to make Pantala brighter!" Admiral exclaimed, clearly tired.
"Actually, here's something big, Clearsight actually didn't do that?" Cricket suddenly chimed in, making everyone look at her.
"WHAT!?" Admiral exclaimed, and many of the other Silkwings also started to mutter and exclaim at each other in confusion.
"Well, now they will hear you, alright," Luna commented to Cricket, leaning closer to whisper that.
A dark purple Silkwing approached them, his expression looking very inquisitive and curious. "What do you mean? You said that Clearsight didn't elect her, but factually it's been proven so long ago that she did in fact do it, you're young so perhaps you don't know all the details yet, but a long time ago in her book of prophecies she said how the tribes will unite under Wasp for the best of everyone, so if she saw it, then it had to happen, or otherwise it would be very weird, no? Actually now that I just thought about it, what would even happen if Wasp read that and didn't unite the tribes afterwards? Would that break time apart? Oh now I am confused, do you know?" He was… very talkative and kept trailing off for several moments before another Flamesilk shouted at him to make him cease.
"We know the truth," Cricket stated, her tone turning more serious. "We have actually read the Book of Clearsight, and we know what's written in it, and what it's not in the book."
That caused the Flamesilks to stir and murmur (and shout) some more in surprise and some added awe, everyone looking perplexed.
"You read it!?" Her father exclaimed in shock, and then his eyes widened as if he realized something. "Wait… Blue said that someone had STOLEN the book, did you do that!?"
"I… Helped with that, yes," Cricket admitted a bit sheepishly. "Both Luna and I have read the last pages, and it ends a thousand years ago. Clearsight had never reached this far ahead or knew about Wasp at all."
Admiral's mouth opened so much as his expression turned so bewildered, that Luna feared a little that Cricket might just give her old dad a heart attack, and then the grumpy dragon from the back began to laugh.
"Oh three moons, this is just THE BEST! Hahahah, so everything we've known was a lie is what you'll tell us? HAH! I told all of you! This was all completely pointless! Your beloved queen is a liar! Haaah!" He said as he let out a long winded bitter laugh.
"Woah now, I don't want to doubt you, but are you sure about what you're saying? Those are some big words coming from kids," Danaid asked with perplexed eyes, her expression being of wonder and curiosity.
"Of course not," Admiral snapped. "They're just kids, and they probably got confused by silly… REBEL stuff and all that, they don't know what they're saying."
"Father of the year material," the white old dragon said, words dripping with sarcasm.
"Did I ask for your opinion? NO!" Admiral argued, and Luna facepalmed with a groan, why did her dad have to give such complications?
"DAD!" She finally exclaimed, tired of ALL the shouting that's been happening in less than TEN MINUTES. "Can you STOP ARGUING and actually listen for more than ONE SENTENCE AT A TIME!?"
"Three moons, your brother was much calmer and level-headed," her father replied with a grumble.
Luna gritted her teeth slightly, thinking about Blue just hurts, reminding her of how much he must be suffering as he is forced to scare and hurt others. And Admiral had no idea about that…
"As it was just said, the book had no mention of Queen Wasp, she literally made it up as an excuse to rule over the whole continent! Ever since the Tree Wars, Wasp's only goal had always been to just control and ruin the lives of everyone! She enslaved our tribe, and when it comes to Flamesilks, to her we're both the most useful yet the most dangerous thing for her kingdom, and you can be sure that she's never going to let you see the sun or have a single day off, no matter how many letters you send. And give it some more days… She'll likely not let you control your own body either," Luna said, staring up to all of the Flamesilks.
Everyone was looking back at her, and when she finished talking, she could see more nervous faces and fear after such ominous words.
"What… What are you saying? About our body, how could Wasp even do that? What…?" Pierid asked, flinching, his unhappy face now also looking scared.
"Well, here's some breaking news. You know how Wasp can do very spooky mind control to her Hivewings to literally make them do as she says? Well, surprise surprise, recently she has gained access to a power up and can control Silkwings too, hundreds already."
She startled them, alright, they snapped out of their positions, jumping or stepping back and looking at her as if she had just grown a second head, and even her dad had to close his mouth as he processed that for some moments.
"She… You… Them… WHAT!?" Admiral wasn't even really able to articulate a full sentence, so maybe she was finally getting through.
"Wasp controls Silkwings… And she has made them seize the ones that haven't been controlled yet, turned against their own families… Even Blue," she said, looking down for a moment, grimacing at the thought of what her tribe has to go through. "I assume most of you must have a family out there, but right now? Either their mind got taken over, or they're being held captive by their own tribe too"
She had picked the words she considered best, and now she could see yet another general emotion, she had sparked anger within this group, she saw plenty of disbelief, surprise, and fury.
"My family…!"
"My dragonets! What happened to my dragonets?"
"Is it in all the Hives? Please tell me it's not, that'd be ridiculous, you can't tell me that Wasp went to such extents, that is too much!"
"Holly…" Even the grumpy dragon muttered to himself.
"Luna," Admiral said, looking right at her. "This isn't FUNNY, you know we're in here so we can't really see what happens outside, so you think you can just throw whatever you think works."
"Dad, stop it!" Luna snapped now. "Wasp might not even need to get her super mind control on you, you're already brainwashed!" Admiral flinched from her words. "You can't just keep defending the dragon that locked you here for years and wouldn't even go and see your family, and if any of you need evidence, you can just come out and see the Hive for yourself."
Luna stepped off to a side and so did Cricket, freeing the path to the ladder for the Silkwings to step outside if they wanted to.
Some dragons shifted forward towards the ladder, then stopped in place, uncertainty clearly washing over them.
"I… Have always wanted something like this," Pierid started to speak. "But after what you said… What's out there for us? It doesn't sound like we could just fly back home, if it's still there."
Luna looked at the pink dragon in understanding, they can't really "just" go outside and head wherever, the situation is dire, and their family members could easily be mind controlled by this point, so now she began to make her point.
"Right, you make a good point there, but my friends and I are trying to think of a solution," she said, her tone serious. "We can perfectly get you out of the Hive, then you'd be able to go outside and hide, we even know where some safe caves are until we get you after this situation is fixed."
"Staying in a cave, out in the wild?" Admiral complained. "We're old, you're expecting that to be better than this place?"
"Who are you calling old, you nitwit!?" The grumpy red dragon grumbled.
"This place wouldn't be very safe either," Luna continued. "Wasp is certainly going to eventually just come here and control you. And she'd be especially mad if anyone had actually left, so it's pretty much a lose-lose situation here. Oh and talking about Wasp…"
"What now?" Admiral asked with a defeated sigh.
"There's… Something else that you could do, only if any of you is absolutely willing to go through with it," Luna shifted her talons slightly, knowing this is it. "My friends and I are currently trying to make Wasp leave the throne."
"YOU'RE OVERTHROWING HER!?" Admiral exclaimed.
"We're overthrowing her, together. And currently she has several of my friends with her, so… We need help. We came here to free you, but also to request if anyone is willing to help us stand up against Queen Wasp, to free the tribes from her regime," Luna confirmed.
Admiral coughed for some moments, this was all being a whole lot for him. The other dragons reacted with a mix of interest and absolute fear.
"You really think that can be done?" A dragon spoke from the back for the first time, this one a mix of red and yellow with pale wings.
"We've seen Wasp lose and fail, so we know she isn't invincible, she can be beaten like any other dragon," Cricket assured.
"You're some very brave kids, you know?" Danaid said with a grin, despite her age, she still had the energy.
"Or they could be extremely dumb!" The red and green striped dragon said from the back, though not as grumpily as previous times.
Whitespeck stood up slowly and took some steps forward before shaking his head.
"This is crazy, and I don't think I could, I really don't feel like DYING… And besides with my age, I'd just hold you back," he grunted, very slowly flapping his wings.
Pierid looked uncertain, his eyes looking back and forth from Luna to the trapdoor, and then he talked. "I want to be free, but I don't want to just hang around in the wilderness, but I also am scared to face the Queen… But well, maybe dying while helping that cause would be better than rotting here forever," he said with a depressed sigh.
A brown Silkwing with white stripes spoke up, this one was the other dragon that Luna noticed looked hopeful from the beginning. "YEAH! Can't believe there's some sort of agreement here for once, but huh, I am helping, yeah, absolutely!" It was very clear to tell she was fidgeting her talons a lot and getting restless..
"You don't have to if you don't really want to," Luna reminded, worried for her.
"No, no! I can help, I know I can, it's just… Woah, this was a lot, and very sudden, so hm, ignore my tone and anything and count me in! Oh, and the name's Heliconian by the way, I was forgetting that."
The talkative purple Silkwing from earlier talked next, and he appeared sheepish. "Hm, I am most sorry but I probably cannot help you with this? I have like, zero experience on these matters and I might as well end up accidentally tripping over one of you with my silk in some confrontation rather than throwing it at Wasp, and there's the fact that the queen is like, extremely scary? And she scares me, and I'd fare even worse if I am fighting the scary queen while I, well, cower in fear."
Luna nodded in understanding, there were obviously going to be some that wouldn't join, and that's fine.
"Clubtail being all talk but nothing else, nooot surprised!" Grumpy spoke from the back, and Clubtail looked hurt at him. "Either way, this is stupid, dumb, pointless and everyone's gonna die! So I'll be joining."
"Ah, no, there's no way that Fritillary is JOINING us! What!?" Heliconian exclaimed in shock and disgust.
"Hah! You THOUGHT I'd actually miss on the chance to finally be face to face with that so-called queen, and get to possibly punch her on the snout? You WISH!" Fritillary said.
"Why not join FIRST? Now I cannot back away from what I said or I'd look like a jerk!" Heliconian complained.
"Well, I already wasn't planning to join, if some of us are to survive outside then they obviously need me, so now that Fritillary is in that team, I have even less reasons to join," a yellow Silkwing said with an arrogant voice.
"Riiight, of course it's just me, admit it Xenica, you're just a SCARED bug! And besides, just like the rest of us, you don't know survival!" Fritillary said, making her huff.
Luna was fearing that having Fritillary on their team would mean that there were less chances more would join this, and with how's his temper, she'd absolutely trade one Fritillary for two different Flamesilks.
But it seemed like there was nothing to fear as Danaid stepped forward with an expression showing some chaotic energy, surprising for her old age.
"Are you coming?" Luna asked, kinda surprised. "Last time, when we were going to escape…"
"I said that my heart couldn't stand running for dear life," she said with a gleam in her eyes. "But this isn't running away, no? And to be honest, it's not like my heart will stand many things for much longer, so why not be actually useful before it happens? There are much worse ways to go."
Then, two dragons stepped forward at once, the one with pale wings that spoke earlier, and a very dark brown Silkwing with white stripes lining his body, those two had been quite silent so far, and Luna didn't remember them talking much her last time here. And alongside Admiral, they appeared to be the youngest of the group.
"Name's Clearwing, and this is my brother Cacao, and we want to help," the one with the pale wings said.
"Our father also lived here for decades and died just a few years ago, his name was Festoon, and he never liked it here. We've always shared the sentiment but were scared to speak up and slip out what we feel," Cacao added.
"And our dragonets… Somehow they were lucky that neither of us got a Flamesilk dragonet, but it scares me that I could see another family member wasting away in this place, so if I can make it so no more Flamesilks will be kidnapped for life, then I will," Clearwing finished, with Cacao vehemently nodding.
Luna looked at Cricket, and she saw that the Hivewing was looking very hopeful as well, six out of ten had joined them, and that is objectively an excellent rate!
Although the words of these two made her wince. Blue and her could have ended exactly like that, siblings stuck together in a cave, forever (besides the one time they'd be brought out only to have children). And she had to agree with Clearwing, this couldn't continue anymore.
She didn't know why she'd even bothered looking towards him, but Luna still turned her head towards Admiral, and every other dragon present did the same as he was the last one that needed to give an answer.
"What?" He mumbled annoyed. "I am NOT just going to end a good professional relationship with the queen after years of sending letters. And neither I am going to hide in some barren fields where meals aren't assured everyday."
"Wow, you are SO DENSE that I'm shocked this cave doesn't collapse wherever you step!" Fritillary said, making Admiral glare at him.
"Because I know that throwing my whole life away to do something literally impossible is pointless! Maybe my child is right about what Wasp is doing, but if so, then it just shows how pointless it is!"
"Ah, yes, throwing your whole life of… Sitting, eating, spinning silk into a cauldron, sleeping, repeat, forever," Cacao said with a very dry sense of humor.
"Dad, you CAN'T just stay here," Luna said, extremely serious. "Nine Flamesilk leaves and one remains? What are you expecting, Wasp being grateful for your sense of duty and decision to stay? No! If… If this goes wrong and she lives… She won't take risks with Flamesilks again, she'll certainly have you chained to the spot, and very likely will stab you with a stinger so she can control you wherever, your life will be WORSE."
"I'll start back from zero by sending her letters…"
"And you're so certain that she'll listen? Or that by that point she'd even give you the materials to write?" Luna retorted.
She left Admiral without words, and then Xenica stepped closer to him.
"Ad, you don't have to agree with your daughter about everything else she said, but at least on this part she's completely right, it could go really badly for you. C'mon, don't make me have to leave you behind to eternal suffering, you can do better than that," she said.
Admiral needed a whole minute to grumble to himself, but at least it seemed like Xenica was more capable to convince him than Luna as he finally gave a resigned, defeated sigh and slowly began to walk towards the ladder.
Luna… Really didn't expect something else, her father was just something else when it came to trusting on the Queen, she felt anger towards Admiral, but couldn't actually get mad. He was a victim to a type of brainwashing that in a way might be even worse than the actual Breath of Evil, because this belief on Wasp it's all him, the queen broke him down to complete resignation after making him spend his life here.
So at least this might just be the best outcome for Admiral.
Heliconian approached her to ask something, still looking nervous. "SO, hm… What's your plan? It's not just going to be the 8 of us here raiding the palace, RIGHT?"
"Of course not, it'll be almost double that with my friends, and we got a plan to get in," Luna quickly assured.
"Oh thank Clearsight," she said with relief.
"I'm very interested in meeting your friends, they must be great people," Danaid said now, everyone was going up the ladder in a line.
"Hm, you should all probably get a fair warning, our friends are not exactly dragons that you've ever seen," Cricket said. "Most of them are not from Pantala."
The Flamesilks looked bewildered at Cricket, and Admiral let out a huff as he got to the top of the ladder.
"Not from Pantala? I told you, these dragonets don't really know what they're doing or saying. From where else could dragons come? The Distant Kingdoms?" He said sarcastically.
"Why, yes, that's exactly right," Tsunami said, appearing near the top of the ladder, making Admiral screech in fear and surprise while making the others stop and look up to the Seawing with wide eyes.
"What… WHO ARE YOU?" Admiral bellowed.
"One of these friends they were talking about, I'm Tsunami, a princess from the Distant Kingdoms as you call them, a pleasure to meet you and now let's go quickly."
Admiral just stared for a whole half of a minute longer, until Fritillary, who was right behind him on the ladder, did several pokes at his tail with a claw to make him keep moving, although even he was looking surprised by this.
"Oh my, you weren't kidding, so the Distant Kingdoms are real?" Danaid said with amusement and excitement after the initial shock everyone had for a few minutes. "I can't wait to see the rest of them, this will be the best uprising EVER!"
Author's Note: I am REALLY sorry for a whole SEVENTEEN days of waiting, I am ashamed of it, but I was stumped for the first few days due to there being TEN heckin' Silkwings, most of them with barely one line and no appearance descriptions, and two that I had to make due to not being shown in the book, I promise a wait like this shouldn't happen for a looong time.