The Bright Future (COMPLETED)

Do we have to?

"What?" cried Starwatcher and Jerboa at the same time. 

"We can't!" the NightWing protested. "We need to find something really important!"

"We can't!" the SandWing protested. "Small dragonets aren't our thing!"

"We'll do it," said Clearsight, kicking them. "What are their names?"

"Panther," said Glory, pointing at the smaller female, "and Shadowhunter. But just call him Shadow."

Clearsight gasped. "Shadowhunter? Really? That's what Darkstalker and I were going to name on of our dragonets!"

Deathbringer narrowed his eyes at her. "Darkstalker? That's funny. You don't look two thousand years old."

"Long story," said Clearsight. "Anyways, how long do we have to dragonet-sit them for?"

Glory tipped her head. "I'd say... three or four hours."

Starwatcher groaned. Three or four hours??? No. No way. She saw Holly shaking with laughter in the corner. Starwatcher made a face at her and Holly made one right back. The NightWing just couldn't help laughing. "Fiiiiiiiiiine," she said. "As long as we make Holly stay with us, too. She seems to think dragonet-sitting is a fun job. Why don't you hire her?" The little RainWing shook her head furiously at Glory.

"No, no, no, no, no! Besides, look at Panther! She likes you guys!" said Holly quickly. Indeed, Panther was clutching Jerboa's leg and making cooing noises. Jerboa looked horrified. 

"Absolutely not!" insisted Jerboa. "We don't have time for this! Please let us go!" She said it like the Queen had trapped her in a dungeon full of torture devices--which was partially true, thought Starwatcher. Shadowhunter and Panther wrestled together, bumping other dragonets aside. She stepped to one side as the siblings grappled into the wall. Undignified wriggle-worms rolling around, thought Starwatcher. 

"Uh... maybe. I mean, sure, yes, dragonet-sitting, hooray!" said Starwatcher unenthusiastically. "Yup, we got this, we'll watch these two dragonets for three--"

"four," whispered Clearsight.

"Four hours. Right. Four.... whole.... hours." Her eye twitched. 

"AND the other dragonets," said Deathbringer. 

"WHAT?" exploded Jerboa. "Look, two dragonets is enough. I don't want to spend four hours shoulder-high in, like a million tiny dragonets!"

"Uh," interjected Glory, "it's only five. No, wait, ten. No, wait--"

"AAAUGH!" screamed Jerboa. "That's not better!" She smacked her tail against the ground. "Fine. We'll do it. I'm doing this for the future of Pyrrhia and nothing else. Hear me?" 

"Yes, yes," Deathbringer said. "Now we need to go to check on the NightWing village. Take care of the dragonets and... and make sure no one gets hurt."

"But do we have to?" whined Starwatcher. "They'll be fine! Just for a few hours! Pleeeease don't make us do this!"

But Glory and Deathbringer didn't even look back. "See you in four hours," said the queen.