Sakura Tree

~PROLOGUE~

Redwood, she still didn't feel comfortable with calling herself queen, wandered aimlessly through the trees. She pushed a branch that was in her way forward, but it flung backwards and she ended up with a mouthful of leaves. "GAH!" she spat the leaves out, frowning, and rubbed her snout where the branch hit. Her ears pricked upwards when a snarl and a growl sounded through the trees. Panthers! Redwood yelped in her mind.

She instinctively turned to run back to her kingdom from the dragon-eating panthers, wherever they may be, but another, more quiet voice arose.

A small, quivering, continuous yelp.

The small voice of a dragonet.

Redwood turned around and ran straight towards the growls of the panthers. She skidded to a halt at the edge of a clearing, merely because she couldn't go any further. A pack of panthers' cornered something, presumably the dragonet she had heard. The panthers turned to face her. Redwood quickly counted seven of the nearly-dragon-sized black felines.

Okay. Seven. Seven EXTREMELY POWERFUL, dragon-sized opponents versus me. But I'm queen! I can do this! I have to do this. She roared and leaped into battle. Black fur clouded her vision. She swung her claws randomly, hoping to feel the blood of the panthers' wounds wetten her scales. She yelped as one panther with deep blue eyes like the deepest shadows of the trees pinned her down. Wait for it... wait for it... Redwood saw an opening and slithered out from under the panther, knocking it off its feet and slashing open a long, deep wound along its side. By the time she caught her breath and looked up, all the panthers had run.

"Thank god that they gave up already," Redwood mumbled to herself, panting to catch air. She turned to look at what the Panthers had been cornering.

A tiny, blood-covered Silkwing dragonet lay wailing in the center of the clearing. Redwood picked it up and wiped some blood off the dragonets also red scales, cradling it. "Shhh, shhh, you're going to be okay now," Redwood comforted the dragonet, smiling.

Redwood gasped when the now-silent dragonet swivelled it's head to look at her.

This dragonet had no eyes. The eye sockets weren't empty, but the eyelids were sealed shut. She shook her head and looked again. This wasn't her imagination. She placed the dragonet on her back, in between her wings, and lifted into the sky.

She could feel the young dragonet's claws dig into her neck to keep hold of her while she flew.

Redwood landed, sand crunching under her talons. She realized that, without thinking, she had taken the dragonet to a small lake that led to the ocean. Redwood placed the dragonet partly in the water and cleaned it. The male dragonet's blood red scales glinted in the sunlight as Redwood pulled him out of the water and onto her back.

She lifted back into the air. This time she knew where she was heading. She couldn't just leave a helpless dragonet to fend for itself in the Poison Jungle, which had a reputation for murdering full-grown adult dragons. And whoever had been the one to leave it in the deadly forest clearly wouldn't want the dragonet back. Plus, her mother, Queen Casia, and her father, King Fig, had told her mere slivers of the few horror stories that went around the tribe about what would happen if you got caught by a Hivewing, or what happened to Silkwings.

No, no, she couldn't just drop this dragonet at the doorstep of one of the Hives.

This dragonet would live with the Forestwings.

Redwood pushed her wings harder. She was filled with determination. She shoved aside the voices, You're a horrible, reckless queen who isn't thinking of the good of her tribe. Her father and mothers voice echoed with the other voice, 'Never, EVER, take in outsiders. The first you see will be brought to the prisons unconscious with a blindfold around their eyes. You remember this law above everything."

Redwood faltered in midair. The voice of her mother and father pierced her heart with grief and sadness. Though it had been nearly a year since her mothers death of a mysterious illness, and even longer since her father was found dead, murdered, she still felt so alone and unsure. She had such big expectations for herself, and so much that her tribe expected her to fulfill.

Redwood nearly felt the tears roll down her face as they had when her mother was dying, and she remembered her mothers light brown, soft, cinnamon-smelling talons caressing her face. "You are going to be the best queen, my dragonet. You will make the tribe flourish. You will make us able to rejoin the world. You hear me?" Redwood had merely nodded. She resented that her last words to her mother had been out of anger. "Why do you have to leave me!?" she had screamed.

Redwood remembered watching in horror as her mother went limp. Her chest had stopped rising. She remembered the incomparable sadness that had gripped her. She remembered the horrible, blood curdling scream filled with anger and sadness and grief that had torn the air. It had lal happened too soon.

Redwood shook her head and wiped tears of all the horrible memories from her eyes. The vine wall that surrounded the kingdom was in sight now. She glided down and landed at the disguised entrance of the kingdom.

Redwood took a deep breath and sighed. This one decision would change her life.

Redwood stepped into the kingdom and raised her head high. All noises, conversations, and friendly mingling stopped in an eerie, all-eyes-suddenly-awaiting-something way. Redwood gulped and slid the Silkwing dragonet off her back. Hopefully addressing her entire tribe, she spoke. "Everyone, this is-"

A/N

AND THEN IT CUTS OFF OOH MYSTERY YUM

Anyways don't expect too many A/N's except ones about me complaininggggggg about any romance parts I write.

BLEH ROMANCE