Sakura Tree

~CHAPTER SEVEN~

Grasshopper blinked. Rainbow was the one standing half-on Chinch's body. Rainbow panted, and for a moment nobody moved. Then Rainbow's eyes rolled back in her head and she collapsed. Joshua leaped towards Rainbow and picked up her limp body. Rainbows head lolled into his arms.

Joshua stared at Grasshopper expectantly. Grasshopper jumped over out of surprise and helped Joshua pick up Rainbow. "You still have those keys?" Joshua asked.

"Um... yeah," Grasshopper reached into a pouch and pulled out the key necklace. He looked into the one pouch he had laying against his chest and saw the lid of the jar with the pink praying mantis. It reminded him of his life before moving to the Forestwing kingdom. He thought for a second and remembered how horrible it was before. He would take the Forestwing kingdom over the poison jungle every day.

"Take Rainbow and I'll get the door open," Joshua snatched the key necklace out of Grasshopper's talon and plopped Rainbow into his arms. Grasshopper yelped, caught off guard, as Rainbow's limp body flopped into his arms. Joshua leaped over to the lava tube in the center of the room. He started feeling around the floor of the lava tube. Joshua shoved the third key on the necklace into the ground and turned the key. Grasshopper heard a light and quiet clicking noise.

Joshua swung open a trapdoor and climbed down it. Grasshopper could hear his voice echo up from wherever he was underground. "Bring Rainbow through here! This tunnel is wider!" Grasshopper dragged Rainbow over to the trapdoor and looked down. A spiral staircase led down. It looked like it curled around the lava tube, especially since the wall curved directly in a way that curved around the lava tube.

Joshua helped Grasshopper shuffle Rainbow as quickly as they could down the staircase. Grasshopper closed and locked the trapdoor behind them. While the two dragons were carrying Rainbow down Joshua explained the second tunnel. That tunnel was meant to bring in unconscious prisoners, because of how difficult it would be to transport a whole limp dragon through the original skinnier, steeper tunnels. The skinnier tunnels were originally meant as a distraction entrance, but ended up being used as a visitor entrance.

The staircase turned into a forked tunnel, and the tunnel that Joshua led them through curved upward. When Joshua, Grasshopper, and Rainbow exited the tunnel, they were in the palace halls. This made everything much easier and they rushed to the healers. They rushed Rainbow into the Infirmary and quickly three healers grabbed her and rushed her away. Joshua went to follow them, but Grasshopper grabbed his tail. Joshua whipped around.

"Grasshopper-" Joshua sighed and his worried expression changed. Grasshopper opened his mouth, but Joshua spoke. "Listen, Grasshopper, I used to love you." Now that was unexpected.

Grasshopper didn't know how to respond to that, so Joshua continued talking. "I was most definitely jealous of Sakura," Joshua sighed.

"Wh-what? But Sakura and I aren't-" Joshua cut him off and spoke.

"And then Rainbow fought and changed sides, and I realized- I love her. So let me go and stay with her. I'll give you an update next time you come by," Joshua smiled weakly. Grasshopper let his talon slip from Joshua's tail, and with one final glance, Joshua rushed away to be by Rainbow's side. He heard light, delicate talonsteps behind him and whirled around. Sakura flared her wings open.

Grasshopper yelped happily and flung himself at her, throwing his wings around her. He heard her yelp loudly and thrust herself back, but he didn't care. Sakura pried Grasshopper off of her and shoved him back. Grasshopper calmed himself down and remembered what he still wanted to ask her.

"Why did you lie to me?" Grasshopper confronted Sakura. She tilted her head and opened her mouth partly. "You told me that no Forestwing would be stupid enough to commit a crime. And yet I saw one on the top level of the MOST DANGEROUS PRISONERS prison, and Chinch mentioned that there were more!" He yelped.

Sakura sighed. "You don't understand, Grasshopper. You're not a Forestwing, and there are already so many secrets that only royals can hear about- and all Forestwing's go in that prison." Sakura turned and walked away. Grasshopper was left standing in the empty hallway of the infirmary.

Grasshopper stood and looked around, having no idea what to do next. After a few minutes one of the three nurses that had taken Rainbow away poked her head around a hallway and sprinted over to Grasshopper. Her voice was heavy with an accent when she spoke, "You're Grasshopper? Come." She gestured for him to follow when he nodded.

Grasshopper was led quickly through some short hallways. He was shoved into a room and saw one nurse doing something over a table. Joshua was leaning over Rainbow, who was on a piece of wood covered in leaves to make a soft surface. It was suspended in the air by spun vine ropes. It was sort of like a flat hammock.

Joshua turned around and sat down facing Grasshopper. The nurse working on something on the table spoke. "She would be dead already if Grasshopper hadn't taken most of the impact from the fall. She should thank you when she regains consciousness."

Joshua flicked his tail towards the nurse, as if to say, Well, that. The nurse turned around and started fussing over Grasshopper's wounds. She grabbed his talon and wiped some sort of gel all over the crinkled scales. The gel felt cool and weird against his warm scales, but it also soothed the pain. Another nurse came into the room(PALM, MALE) and started attending Rainbow.

Grasshopper pulled away from the nurse tending to him. Grasshopper and Joshua exchanged glances and Grasshopper left, heading to the exit of the infirmary.

Grasshopper messed around in the hallways, trying to figure out how Rainbow got her wings to speed her up when he chased her.

Eventually Grasshopper got it to slightly work, and he found himself naturally walking towards Sakura's room. He was used to her comforting him, but she was probably angry at him right now.

Grasshopper reached Sakura's door quickly, still messing around with his wings, and found it slightly ajar. He knocked a little, and the mumbling noises he could hear inside stopped. He opened the door slowly, wincing at the creaking sound it made.

Spruce was sitting in the corner of the room, with a brown and dark green spiky dragon sitting next to him with a scowl on her face. They were twining tails. Spruce stared at Grasshopper with heavily slitted eyes. "Hello, Grasshopper. You've been introduced to Maple, Holly, and Rowan, right? Evergreen," he flicked his tail at the dragon sitting next to him, "Is Maple's sister, and my girlfriend." A low growl formed in his throat as he said girlfriend, as if Grasshopper was the one in a relationship with her. "Sassafras is Rowan's Girlfriend, and they're all here to-"

Spruce was cut off as a rush of wind slammed into his tail. He whirled around to glance at the dragons who had been running in such a hurry.

"Ah, and those two are Eucalyptus and Candlebark, Rainbow's mother and sister, headed to see her," Spruce purred. 

A/N

*screams happily*

THIS IS THE LAST REWRITE CHAPTER

I uploaded a bit late compared to the actual finish time bUT

TWO CHAPTERS IN ONE DAY WHAT HA

MAYBE THREE

anyways time to upload the other two pre-written chapters