Lotus

Chapter 35

It was harder than I expected to say goodbye to Murre.

It helped a little to see that she didn't seem to understand what was happening. It would have hurt so much more to see that kind of sadness in her eyes. Instead, she waved cheerily at us as we flew away.

Both Gemini and I were silent as we did so. I tried hard to keep my mind from focusing too hard on it, but I didn't find much success. I felt Gemini glance over at me several times, but I didn't feel like addressing him about it, so I kept my eyes staring straight ahead.

After a long stretch of time of neither of us saying anything, Gemini finally started talking. "You know, when I was younger, my sister and I used to get bored a lot. So, we would find a squirrel and let it loose in the palace grounds, having a contest to see who could catch it first." He chuckled lightly. "It would entertain us for hours on end." He turned to look at me.  "We should play it. We have nothing better to do right now, so we might as well."

I hesitated. "Uh, I don't know. I'm not really sure if I'm in the mood…"

"C'mon, it'll be fun. Besides, you and I both need a mental break from everything right now."

I sighed, thinking it over. "Alright, fair enough. But I'm not entirely sure if I like the idea of terrorizing an innocent squirrel."

"Don't worry, it'll be fine. At least we're not eating it when we catch it, like Cassiopeia and I used to do."

I rolled my eyes, but a small smile creeped up my face as I followed him to the edge of the thick forest nearby. He scanned it as I stopped next to him. Then, after a moment, he pointed out a small animal sitting on a thin branch. It was chewing quietly on something as it sat there, but stopped as its beady eyes locked on ours. The three of us stood there silently and not moving an inch. Finally, the squirrel bolted off, seeming to know what was coming for it.

We both took off after it, with me just a second behind him. We scrambled over the thick foliage, trying to not to trip, though without much success. I was pretty sure that I would be finding bruises in a bunch of weird places for the next few days.

The game turned out to be a lot harder than I expected. While we were faster than the squirrel, it kept going into small places that we couldn't follow it into. We were able to scare it out by reaching our talons in, but by the time we got those out, the squirrel had already taken off again.

It also probably didn't help that whenever one of us got close to catching it, the other would hold them back or shove them aside playfully, allowing the squirrel just enough time to escape.

As dumb as it was, I did find myself enjoying the game. I felt like a young dragonet again, without a care in the world. It was nice to be able to just live in the simple pleasures of the moment. 

After a long while of chasing, I eventually had to sit down and rest, letting Gemini continue without me. He did so for a few minutes, then came back to join me.

"Did you get it?" I asked, panting hard.

A shook his head, panting as much as me. "It got away," he said as he sat down.

I laughed a little at that. "Well, good for it, then."

He snorted at that and shoved me a little, causing me to laugh harder. After a moment, he joined in too. We sat there like that for a while, clutching our sides from laughing so hard for no reason in particular. When we finally calmed down, we just silently stayed where we were, wings brushing, staring up at the thin clouds slowly inching across the sky.

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Eventually, we found ourselves flying past the Diamond Spray Delta. We decided to land and rest for a while near some small hills. Just as we landed, though, there was some rustling, and a brown head poked out from around one of the hills. Her eyes widened when she saw us. "Kamala? Gemini?"

"Sienna!" Relief washed over me as she ran over and crushed me in a hug. "It's so good to see you!"

"You too! Oh, my goodness, I was so worried when I heard what happened at Jade Mountain, especially when I remembered that you were still there. I wanted to go see if I could help you, but Copper told me that they would take care of everything and that I should just stay here and take care of my siblings. So of course I did that, but I couldn't help but worry about you, especially when I heard that you left the Scorpion Den. But I'm just so glad you're okay now and that you're here and that--"

"Okay, Sienna, I think she gets it." The new voice belonged to Bemire, who came out from behind the same hill that Sienna did. "You don't need to keep rambling on."

Sienna flushed slightly. "Oops, sorry."

I smiled at her, silently thanking her for the concern, and she did so back. Then, four more dragons of varying age came out the same way Sienna and Bemire did, all looking worried and a little cautious.

"Oh, I almost forgot. Kamala and Gemini, these are my siblings, Warbler, Cordgrass, Egret, Sediment, and Bemire, who you have already met. Guys, these are a few of my friends from school, Kamala and Gemini."

Polite exchanges were made, but the air was tense, growing more uncomfortable by the minute. It increased further with the youngest sibling speaking. "Sienna, when can we go back home?"

Sienna stiffened. "I'm sorry, but we can't yet, Egret. It's safer out here."

As Egret huddled under Sienna's wing, Gemini asked the question I couldn't make myself ask. "Sienna, what's going on, and why are you guys out here?"

Her scales seemed to pale, and she had a hard time looking at us as she answered. "I don't know any of the details, but I know that something is going down between the IceWings, SkyWings, and MudWings right now along the outskirts of the MudWing Kingdom.

"Something...bad."

.....

Hey, guys, I'm so sorry that it's been so long since I last updated. With a super crazy schedule and quite a bad writing slump, I just wasn't able to get any of this done. Things seem to be easing out a bit now, so hopefully, I'll be able to start updating on a regular schedule again.

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season and new year, and thank you so much for reading!

XLizzyMX