— Chapter 9 —
"Oh this is SO wrong, this is BAD, we just left the factory, we shouldn't have done THAT…!" Admiral exclaimed, nervously looking around after fully going up the ladder, probably expecting the place to swarm with soldiers that'll punish them for trying this.
"Quit it, dad," Luna said with a roll of her eyes as she eyed around and felt with her antennae, glad to see that nobody was coming or moving nearby besides their actual group in here.
And she could see that someone had enjoyed themselves with every single biscuit that had been on the tray, every. Single. One. Luna sighed at that revelation and hoped she'd get some more sweets soon enough.
And speaking of the Devourer, Tsunami was certainly enjoying herself at this time. Every Flamesilk was pretty much still staring at her with expressions that ranged from awe to bewilderment and confusion, and she was clearly loving the attention.
"How curious! I see some odd stuff on your talons which makes me think… Are you part fish? Oh and all these stripes and stuff look very mesmerizing, am I falling to one of the tactics of your tribe? Am I being too mesmerized by these things on your body and losing focus? I don't know if I can really be blamed, because it all looks so interesting," Clubtail blabbed on, and Tsunami was looking mighty smug.
"Shouldn't we get moving as soon as we can? Who knows how these two are faring up there, so maybe we should hurry up?" Cricket asked.
"Oh, right, we probably should get out of here, yeah," Tsunami nodded, taking some steps forward and away from the crowd of Flamesilks. "Alright, it's time to leave! We'll all go through an opening I made earlier. The ones that want to leave will be told how to get to a safe cave when we're out, and the ones joining in to fight Wasp will follow us! Oh and you might feel a bit weird and not see anyone for some time, because we'll turn invisible now."
"Invisible…? Is your tribe able to just do that…?" Whitespeck questioned in confusion.
"Some of us can," Tsunami simply replied before using the wristbands to drain the color of the whole group and turning everyone invisible
"Three moons, this is very impressive," Danaid commented, most likely looking at her own nothingness.
"Oh Clearsight, is this safe? No side effects? What if we're like this forever!?" Admiral exclaimed.
"Dad, we've been turning this invisibility on and off for days now, you'll be perfectly fine. And besides it's got other perks too, like how anyone that's not also invisible cannot hear us, so your escape will be much simpler," Luna groaned.
Despite her words, Admiral still kept on complaining, which led to every other Flamesilk to complain at him and shout at him to shut up, which led to Luna complaining to all of them while trying to achieve some peace and silence. And then Tsunami complained the loudest of them all and got everyone to temporarily shut up.
And then everyone truly shut up for real for a whole minute when they stepped out of the warehouse, Luna feeling how everyone stopped after finally seeing the actual Hive for so long, after so many years.
Luna could only imagine their reactions when they inevitably looked up and saw dozens of dragons just stationed in their spots and looking up, Hivewings and Silkwings with blank, white eyes and without any control of their own bodies.
"Please don't talk or raise your voices at all until we're outside now, or these Silkwings will feel the vibrations," Luna whispered, and luckily she got no response, which was a good thing for once, they all must be too shocked from actually seeing what she said earlier.
They very slowly began to walk back to the hole that Tsunami had made earlier on the treestuff, with the Seawing evidently reaching there first and going through. Luna waited to make sure she could feel the Flamesilks going through too, and then she closed the line and went out.
Immediately after ending some steps away from the Hive, the mayhem occurred as everyone talked at once.
"You were NOT joking!?" Admiral exclaimed
"Oh this is… A lot more than I expected from just words," Whitespeck said with a sigh.
"These poor dragons, are they hurt while like this?" Danaid asked.
"Just… Woah…" Clubtail actually was out of words from this.
"Noooot good, not good at all, we… We all already were very controlled as it was!" Pierid complained.
"I… Hm, ah that is… Just how many Silkwings you said got taken…?" Heliconian asked, fidgeting her claws and tapping the ground nervously.
"Okay, glad I accepted the offer you gave us, I want to get away from here and now," Xenica stated.
"Bro, you still want to do this?" Clearwing asked at Cacao.
"We can't really just back off now after saying we will." Cacao answered.
"Hahaha… Oh we are all SO doomed, us against an entire Hive and Wasp… Bring it," Fritillary said bitterly.
Luna listened to all these words, all at once. The Flamesilks were starting to murmur and talk among themselves, this time with surprisingly no shouting included, the previous sight must have really put them on edge, showing just how truly bad the situation is.
"It's possibly the worst thing to have ever happened to our tribe. We didn't just get demoted to some low class workers that the Hivewings didn't care about, now many of us cannot even control their own bodies while still feeling and seeing the motions, that's why stopping Wasp is so important as a step to end this," Luna said with determination.
"I wish you the best of luck on that, I truly do. Even though my stance on what I'll do isn't going to change. So before I have to see another Silkwing with these eyes, where exactly are these caves you mentioned earlier?" Xenica's voice talked.
As there wasn't anyone nearby or coming, Tsunami turned everyone visible for a moment, clearly making all the other Silkwings confused as they looked at each other while she pointed with a claw.
"Over there to the Southeast is a big lake, Lake Scorpion I think, and a little before its shores to the south you should be able to find a cave entrance concealed on plants, make sure to fly high until you get there, and don't stick to the ground too long, apparently even the insects are on Wasp's side and ready to snitch. I'll turn the ones that'll leave invisible for some minutes so they get away before our friends arrive and you can be seen again," she explained.
The four dragons that are going to leave each gave their own uncertain nods, and now that he was visible, Luna could actually see some real fear in her father's eyes, not just worry about upsetting Wasp and not doing his job, but he actually looked scared, and he was actually looking at her.
"So… How easily can Queen Wasp take control of someone? Couldn't she just look at you and you're done?" He asked, to which Luna shook her head.
"I know she'd love to take control of me, but that's not going to happen, she would need to sting me first and I won't let her," she said with confidence.
"Oh, okay, right," her dad said with awkwardness, clearly not knowing what to even say. "SO, Luna, I still don't like any of this but I don't want you to be… You know, so try to be at least a bit cautious and not so reckless? And should I say good luck?" Admiral questioned.
"Raaaather sure a decent father should at least wish that to his daughter before she faces a possible imminent end, yes!" Pierid said with a huff.
"Okay, okay, FINE! Ugh…" Admiral replied with a grunt. "Luna, good luck," he said with a resigned tone, as if he didn't quite mean it, but didn't quite not mean it either. Admiral just was that conflicted.
Then he and the other three Silkwings that'll leave turned towards the open field, and then Luna noticed how many of them had been taking deep breaths of the fresher air since they came out, or turning their heads and staring at the horizon, seeing the depressing barren savannah.
"Well, don't die, stay as safe as you can while doing something so seemingly impossible, and shall we meet again…" Whitespeck said, turning towards them before slowly opening his wings, clearly not accustomed to it, same with the other Flamesilks.
And so, as they were about to depart, Tsunami turned everyone present invisible once more, and thus Luna could only hear the flap of the several wings as they took off, then flew away from Wasp Hive, and Luna hoped they would manage to reach safety.
"We should probably get onto the next step soon," Cricket mentioned. "I'm sure these two are very capable of keeping Wasp distracted by talking and sharing things that aren't actually important, but we shouldn't risk it."
"Of course, let's make that smoke signal then. It'll tell the others we're ready, and if it's stopped by Wasp or her controlled dragons it'll tell these two we're coming, and maybe they put on a better distraction," Tsunami said.
So for the next few minutes, all the invisible dragons just began to collect talonfuls of grass, or in Tsunami's case, literally just breaking down more treestuff from the Hive itself for fuel to pile up by a side of the Hive.
"Okay, now according to the plan we'll light this up, and then we go to the opposite side for the meeting, unlike what our enemies would expect," Cricket said.
Everyone threw the dry grass and treestuff onto the ground, and Luna stepped closer to it, wanting to be the one to make the move! Stepping closer to the pile she began to throw Blaze Silk into the mix, making it quickly start burning. Then she proceeds to open her wings and flap them to fan the fire.
The pile was burning up really nicely and the smoke was going up. Luna was wishing she could make the fire spread and BURN DOWN THE HIVE WITH WASP IN IT, but that'd be counterproductive due to also potentially burning down the Hivewings and Silkwings in there and, well, Qibli and Pineapple as of now.
Right after she was done, she heard Tsunami's steps as she moved towards the other direction as she told them to follow with caution, so now everyone started to circle around the massive Hive slowly and in silence, already hearing several wingbeats of dragons moving above and most likely about to notice the smoke.
They reached the opposite side and were now waiting for their reinforcements, and that's when Luna suddenly realized a little detail just now.
"Ah! Hm I just realized something, before any surprise or confusion ensues, you should probably know who our reinforcements are," Luna quickly said.
"Oh right, it'd be better if there's clarity here with the topic and everyone understands what's going on because otherwise things could get confusing and derail?" Cricket said in agreement.
"What are you talking about? If it's just more odd, weird dragons from these Distant Kingdoms, we can take it," Fritillary huffed.
"Hey!" Tsunami complained with a grunt.
"Well, it's not just that, one of them is a dragon from another tribe of the Distant Kingdoms, but there's also another dragon from Pantala," Cricket replied.
"Aaaand what's exactly the big deal about it? If it is another Hivewing, I guess that's a bit surprising but it should be fine," Pierid asked.
"No, not a Hivewing, and also not a Silkwing for that matter," Luna denied.
"Wait, huh? Then what tribe are they from? Those two are literally the only ones, did you find a brand new tribe in this barren place?" Cacao asked.
"Or maybe… Haha, no, that'd be impossible, literally no way. Is that dragon you're speaking of… a…?" Clearwing asked next.
"Assuming we're both thinking of the same tribe, yes indeed, it is from the impossible tribe!" Luna confirmed.
The green Silkwing waited for some moments. Even without being able to see the half a dozen of invisible dragons to check out their expressions, she was able to imagine the silence was them possibly realizing what she said at their own pace.
Heliconian let out a very nervous laugh. "You… You don't mean what's in my mind, RIGHT? Please tell me that you aren't about to say one of our allies is…?"
"A LEAFWING?" Pierid exclaimed, startled as he just came to the conclusion himself.
Danaid let out a soft gasp from this, her tone sounding amazed and confused while everyone else voiced their confusion and shock. "Three moons and dear Clearsight, impossible…! A Leafwing? Alive? But that's…! They all were wiped out during the Tree Wars, everyone knows that."
"Like many other things, Wasp was wrong about this too," Cricket chimed in. "There's still Leafwings, and just some weeks ago, Wasp burned their homes and mind controlled many of them too, she clearly doesn't want to stop:"
"This day's SO insane, I'm wondering if I haven't just snapped and gone mad due to constantly being a bunch of doofuses," Fritillary said, earning the complaints from the other Flamesilks. "All you've said about Wasp, now we're part of some revolution, the Distant Kingdoms are real, and LEAFWINGS are alive? What else, are you secretly Queen Monarch's granddaughter and you plan to be queen after this is over?"
"I've heard that one before!" Tsunami mentioned.
"Hm, no, well, at least I don't think so? Huh, not like it matters, I don't plan to bring my rule to Pantala, I only want to see Wasp dead, then go home and eat honey drops," Luna said, rolling her invisible eyes.
"A-Anyway… How are you sure this is safe? Won't the Leafwings be mad for everything? What if… Wasp dies and then THEY take over after building up their revenge for 50 years!?" Heliconian nervously asked.
"Many Leafwings are angry about everything, that's right," Cricket conceded, "And be warned our friend might not have the best mood, but she's amazing and has helped us so much. And I believe the rest of the tribe only wants to live in peace just like it was before the Tree Wars. Doesn't it sound good? Having all three Pantalan tribes together and on good terms again?"
"Does it?" Clearwing asked with a skeptical tone, clearly not going to be convinced right away about the Leafwings, just like the others.
"I feel like it would be," Danaid's voice said with a tone of wonder. "I was a dragonet back then, but I saw the end of the Tree Wars. A lot of it slips my mind after all this time, but a detail I remember clearly is seeing several faces of sadness and horror when it was announced at the town where I lived that the Leafwings had all been killed. Back then I couldn't grasp how insane it all was, the concept of a whole tribe just being wiped out within a few years." She finished, her tone turning somber as she talked.
Luna should've imagined it before, but she didn't think about the fact that at least some of the Flamesilks might have lived at least the end of that era during their youth, it felt weird to think about because despite knowing it was 50 years ago, with how historical it was and how much changed after it, that felt like it should be longer.
"So after Wasp is defeated, the Leafwings will come back? Admittedly I would quite like to meet one, I felt that the stories about them had to be exaggerated," Danaid added.
"Absolutely certain without a doubt, Wasp was the thing holding them back from making themselves known, when she goes down then hopefully we can free all the mind controlled dragons and make Pantala a better place," Cricket said with hope.
"And speaking of our Leafwing, I think our reinforcements are arriving, I'm spotting two shapes in the distance, one a very clear pure white, so I'll make them invisible now," Tsunami announced, quickly turning everyone here visible for just a second while still looking at the distance, then quickly turned them invisible once more.
And meanwhile, Luna could already hear movement happening a lot more around the Hive, her antennae straightening as she felt a lot of things, but at least not directly above them or too close to this side yet.
After a few minutes, the beating of a few new wingbeats appeared, two pairs of wings actually, and Luna heard Lynx's voice.
"Hey there, so did it all work as planned?" She asked.
"Extremely well, we're so gonna kick Wasp's tail," Tsunami announced proudly.
"Good, that's been far too overdue. Things won't just end right when that happens, but it will still feel great to get payback," Sundew's voice grunted.
"Hm, heeeey there, sooooo are you the reinforcements we've heard about?" Pierid asked with uncertainty.
"Yes, we are, we're here to take down that queen and rescue some captured allies," Sundew simply replied.
"A-A-And… Do YOU happen to be something like… A green type of dragon that often… Hangs around trees and in the woods?" Heliconian nervously asked.
"Oh so you've been told," Sundew commented. "And care telling what exactly made you realize I am the Leafwing of the two of us that just arrived?"
Luna could feel nervous movement and shuffling among the group, probably with many invisible eyes and antennae all pointing towards the spot where Sundew is standing on, oh it had to feel awkward for them.
"Well… We were hm… Told that you might not have the best of moods, and you immediately sounded grumpier than the other one so it was a quick guess?" Heliconian replied, even more nervous.
"Is that so? Well, just great to know that's how I am presented beforehand to anyone new," Sundew huffed with annoyance, and Luna was guessing she'll give them a mean look the next time they turn visible. "Anyway, that's right, I'm Sundew, I'm a Leafwing, and we have to work together to free you so deal with it."
"Straight to the point, not bad," Danaid said with some amusement.
"Since we're introducing ourselves, I'm Lynx of the Icewings, and I'm glad to help here," Lynx introduced herself.
"Icewings? Are you some sort of walking, sentient ice cube?" Fritillary questioned, with Lynx actually snickering from the comment.
"More or less, yeah, add in a lot of spikes and a pair of wings and you got me," she replied.
"Okay, you know us, we know you're there, cool, moving on, Wasp will know at least something is up after seeing the smoke, so let's get going," Sundew interrupted now.
"Now this is the part I like," Tsunami said. "Let's stop talking, and get into fighting!"
"I could go with both!" Fritillary exclaimed. "I can talk to Wasp by insulting her while I put some flamesilk in her EYE!"
"We team up on her?" Cacao asked.
"The two of us, getting the jump on Wasp," Clearwing agreed.
"Leeet's gooooo!" Pierid said, motivation in his tone.
"Oh boy… This will be, hm… Great…!" Heliconian said, clearly terrified but still sounding ready at the same time.
"I'll have you all know, this might just be the best day in my life, or at least out of the days that I can remember," Danaid said to everyone else.
"Before we do this, please remember that Wasp is the true enemy, the other dragons aren't in control of their actions, we need to minimize deaths if we can," Cricket reminded with worry.
"We won't do much by sneaking where there's far more dragons, so let's storm the palace, and if anyone attacks us, we give them a good hit that Wasp will feel too," Luna said, staring up at Wasp Hive, ready to take down its namesake.
Tsunami worked fast, breaking yet again another chunk of treestuff from this side of the Hive within a short time until there was a big enough hole for everyone to go in, and then… Things ramped up right away.
Wasp had to know by now that someone was either near the hive or maybe right inside it, because several dragons were flying all over the different levels, with the Silkwing scanning the areas with their antennae… And then a group felt their movement down here.
Hivewings, Silkwings and a few Leafwings began to swarm down to the bottom level of the Hive, too many white eyes focusing down on their general area with eerie intensity, everyone looking prepared to dive down.
"Intruders," the same word echoed across dozens of dragons. "Do not move, do not resist, stand still and surrender. You are far too outmatched, so stop this insolence."
Luna readied herself. There were just SO many dragons all above them, that making their way from the bottom to the palace in the topmost level sounded daring and impossible, but it had to be done.
Her worries lasted a whole few seconds until suddenly every single dragon in the Hive began to scream at once with such a shriek of pain that it made her jump on the spot as she stared up with wide eyes as many dragons were flailing on the air or falling straight to the ground during the scream.
"I have a feeling that Pineapple must have worked his magic! Let's go!" Tsunami announced with excitement, the sound of wingbeats coming from her spot as she took off towards the massive crowd of screaming dragons, the white eyes fading out right now.
Luna had no idea what "Pineapple's magic" was, or even the fact that the Rainwings had some sort of magic apparently? Or maybe it was a manner of speech, she couldn't know. But what she did know is that there was an opening in front of them, and without thinking any longer she just jumped up and soared straight up, the following sounds telling her the full group started to fly as well.
A lot of dragons had fallen from above and to the ground, confused and rubbing their heads as they looked around, which meant that there were gaps now in the once occupied air to get out of the bottom level and ascend across the Hive.
They reached the Second Level before an angered shout echoed around as all the dragons below and around them came back to their possessed senses, the Silkwings quickly turning their heads towards their location to find them before EVERYONE began to give chase.
There was an insane amount of dragons after them to maneuver around, so Luna began to throw silk as fast as she could to different incoming targets, and it appeared that the other Flamesilks were doing the exact same thing to slow down some and make others fall.
On the other talon, the opposing Silkwings were throwing their own silk as well, but at least with the amount of dragons present, dodging it meant that it likely ended on a different mind controlled one instead, although a strand caught Luna on a talon once and she felt as she was being pulled, so she quickly reacted by throwing blaze silk at the line to burn it off quickly.
Lynx did an incredible work during the chase, because from a side, Luna was able to see as some sort of pulverized glimmering icy crystal things appeared from thin air and hit a chasing Hivewing on the leg, the following sensation had to be so strong as its eyes widened that it momentarily destabilized Wasp's control again to let them proceed further.
They were now reaching the upper levels of Wasp Hive, and Wasp was clearly getting more annoyed each time they took her out of their minds, and now not only Silk was being thrown their way, but also acid coming from the tails of some Hivewings. Wasp must've been especially angered at whoever is throwing ice, because the next time Lynx did it, acid hit the spot of the invisible Icewing as she let out a pained yell while blue blood fell from the air.
"You're okay?" Cricket immediately asked with worry.
"Got me on a leg, it hurts a lot, but I can still go on," Lynx quickly assured.
They reached the level that held the Temple of Clearsight, the tall structure standing proud, and it is directly below Queen Wasp's palace on the very next level, they were so close, but the chasing dragons were also so close, and they were starting to swarm from all directions, the sides, below, and even diving down from that last level.
Now Sundew must have been the one to do something, because a dragon that had reached dangerously close to them began to shake and shout in pain and so did the others, turning her head, Luna was able to see some sort of centipede upon their snout, nibbling and biting with seemingly incredible effect.
They reached the top floor, the Hive Queen's palace looming above them, looking as grand as the ancient temple just below. The front lined with statues of the queen that all looked down coldly at whoever stared. The walls were lined with tapestries of her face and eyes, and there was actual wood used to make it among other materials, not just treestuff.
The sight did not slow them down at all, as they flew for the top of the palace where there were great windows overlooking the Hive, and for one of these big windows they headed for, Luna heard Tsunami huff as faster wingbeats were heard coming from her direction as she went further ahead, then like an invisible force, crashed through the topmost window as glass shattered and spread all over, Luna quickly covering her eyes with a talon as she flew after and entered the palace.
Tsunami quickly turned everyone visible once more as they landed, so now they could see each other, and then they saw they were right in the target: the throne room. Made out of strong obsidian, from left to right there were fine artistic representations of Wasp's rise, reading the book, her great figure spreading word to the other tribes to prevent a calamity, the Tree Wars which she inevitably won.
And right at the middle was the queen herself, and she looked furious. Standing at her great height, age had been kind to her with size and a still good physique, And now she looked even more unsettling than descriptions ever made her out to be as below one of her fourth wings, her scales had melted and revealed her skin tissue and bones. She also had her tail raised with the stinger out and looking ready to strike,
"And the cavalry arrives right in time! Was getting kinda worried over here," Qibli said from the side of the room, facing off against two guards at the same time, although everyone's attention had turned to the arriving group.
Pineapple was at another extreme, his scales a mix of green with some few white ones, holding a blowgun which had clearly been put on use as there were several dragons laying down on the ground nearby.
And Moon was close to the middle, her body still had several loose strings of silk around it, but she was free at least, and based on some bruises and cuts she got, she'd been fighting as well.
"What's this?" Wasp snarled from her own body and the many dragons around, staring at the group, and especially at Lynx and Tsunami. "More outsiders engaging in something that doesn't concern them? You made a mistake, coming here to Pantala, you could have lived in peace back in your continent, but you chose to wage war on me."
"Oh, shut it with that act of trying to act all creepy, you look as if you're trying too hard!" Fritillary was surprisingly the first one to answer back with a huff. "You big backstabber, liar, overbearing daughter of an insect!"
Wasp glared at Fritillary for a moment, looking clearly baffled before her fury just began to rise further, and meanwhile someone else began to laugh now, Luna looked at the source and there in front of one of the Tree Wars tapestries was a quite big dark green Leafwing, half of one of her horns was off, and between these horns there was a crown made out of golden leaves.
"Unbelievable, those are the ones that have been causing you so much pain now? Dragonets and the elderly? It appears that your grasp wasn't strong enough on your own kingdom, a rookie mistake, but it can always be rectified," the Leafwing said with an absurdly smug voice, and Luna knew right away that this had to be Cottonmouth talking, both heads of the plant were right here.
Wasp seemingly chose to ignore them, and Luna could feel her glaring a lot at her and the Flamesilks next. "You made a poor choice when you decided to betray me. All of you were relevant to the future and upbringing of this kingdom, and now you throw that away, along with your lives, such a waste,"
"Oh right!" Luna talked back to Wasp, glaring back up to the queen with an angered expression. ""Such a POOR choice to choose freedom over being your prisoners for life. The only thing that YOU consider relevant about us is our silk, not who we are or what we think! So instead I believe that you made the rather poor choice of trying to catch fire while expecting to never get burned by it!"
Wasp's glare hardened even further, and the many soldiers, who'd been standing or hovering right above for these last few moments, began to close in on the group now.
"Your rule got criticized by a child, clearly there's something wrong there," Cottonmouth said with amusement. "But regardless of Wasp's actual quality, this is a reign that will never go down, it'll stand proud and strong with its sturdy roots until the very end, and we'll always be there to make sure of it. And now… Sundew, this is your last chance before Wasp releases all of her forces upon this group, come with us and you'll be saved, as nothing can assure that a stray shot during battle couldn't reach you despite our efforts. Help us make Pantala flourish, and we may even spare as many of your friend's lives as we can, they're of more use alive either way. Do as your queen orders."
"Oh just shut up and die already!" Sundew grunted, making the first move and clawing at the snout of an approaching dragon and making them back away with a bloody nose.
"Then I will bring order back to my kingdom, with the first step being to snuff the life out of all those who dare bring chaos into my perfect rule," Wasp's voice echoed, and the throne room got crowded as countless dragons came in.
Luna was ready, her body in position to move and dodge, and her talons eager to launch silk, hopefully burning one to Wasp. And now at this exact moment, with her taking a mental picture of this scene, with dozens of dragons upon them against the comparatively small group, she felt something building up within her, a strong feeling washing over her senses.
Despite how dire it all looked, to know that she was actually finally standing here, staring up at the evil tyrant and about to actively fight against her alongside other dragons that wanted to bring her down as much as she did. Now that she might be at the end of everything and about to face death…
Luna felt Hope.
Author's Note: Oooh yes, the next chapter is gonna be a big one!