Sakura Tree

~CHAPTER EIGHT~

Grasshopper was stunned for a second. Her mother and- SHE HAS A SISTER?! "Um- I gotta go," he quickly dismissed himself from the conversation and raced quickly to catch up with the two dragons headed towards the infirmary, having to put on a fast run despite the fact that the two Forestwings were merely sprinting.

He caught up with them quickly. "Hey!" he yelped, alerting the two dragons. The older dragon, a plain tree-y brown with curly dull green hair, stopped dead for a second before spinning around to face Grasshopper.

The sudden movement started Grasshopper and he stumbled backwards. "Ack!" he yelped before regaining his footage. Then the dragonet shoved her face super close to his in a flurry of excitement. This dragon had a distinct scale color of brown, however there were streaks of orange and pink, similar to Rainbow's streaks; She opened her mouth to speak, but she was quickly shoved back by the wing of the older dragon, presumably her mother.

"Who-" The older dragon started speaking, but then glanced at his leaf-shaped wings, which he had spread out on instinct when startled. He quickly shuffled his wings back against his side, a bit embarrassed, as the dragonet blurted out, "You're that Leafwing Princess Sakura brought into the kingdom! I'm Candlebark, and that's my mum Eucalyptus! Your name is like Cricket or Mantis or something, right?!" Grasshopper winced, and a wave of guilt and sadness surged over him as he remembered his mother.

He had always known that he would be leaving her forever when he left to go to the Forestwing kingdom. "I-is something wrong?" The dragonet called Candlebark flicked her tail as she innocently asked Grasshopper, looking worried. He snapped out of his trance and shook his head, showing Candlebark a small smile, "No, no, I'm fine. And my name's Grasshopper."

Before the two could speak any more, Eucalyptus grabbed her daughter's arm and began pulling her further down the hall. Candlebark yelped once at the sudden grab of her arm, but didn't protest. Grasshopper leaped once and began walking beside them. "You're going to go visit Rainbow, right?" Grasshopper questioned. Yeah, that's a good start. He thought to himself. "Yes," Eucalyptus pulled Candleark once more with another yelp, and began walking faster. Grasshopper had to nearly sprint to keep up with Eucalyptus, and it was clear Candlebark was having trouble keeping up, too.

Candlebark looked about two years younger than him. They had arrived at the infirmary by now, and quickly the trio made their way to room 312. Eucalyptus opened the door and walked in, Candlebark not a scale behind her. Grasshopper ducked his head and walked inside to see Joshua beginning to get up from laying down beside the cot and stumbling away next to Grasshopper, who was still near the doorframe. He scowled, eyeing Eucalyptus. "I assume you've met Candlebark, Rainbow's sister, and Eucalyptus, her mother," Joshua spat the word Eucalyptus like Grasshopper would Chinch. Grasshopper nodded. Eucalyptus was kneeling beside the cot where Rainbow lay.

Candlebark sat down patiently right beside her mother, staring at her sister. Suddenly, a rustling noise disturbed the unnerving silence. Rainbow groaned and sat up. She rubbed her eyes and glanced around the room groggily. "Where- Is he- Chinch?" Rainbow suddenly whimpered nervously. "Where is Chinch," she cried out. Joshua rushed to her side and began comforting her. "Chinch is dead. You killed him!" he said quietly. Rainbow shook her head, her eyes watering up. "NO no no no. NO!" she wailed.

"Rainbow-" Grasshopper reached a talon toward her, but she snapped her head to glare at him, eyes slitted, and he jerked back his talon. "Rainbow, what's wrong?" Joshua took a step away from her. "He's not- he can't be-" Rainbow stuttered, unable to finish. "Rainbow, he was the bad guy, remember? You're on our side," Grasshopper finally saw his chance to butt into the conversation.

Eucalyptus fake-coughed to get everyone's attention, and when everyone turned to look at her, she spoke, "Rainbow and I are going now. Candlebark, come." She grabbed Rainbow's wrist and dragged her out of the room as she started sobbing again. Joshua and Grasshopper exchanged confused glances before both trying to push their way out of the door at the same time. Grasshopper felt their wings touch and a shiver went down his spine. He and Joshua both looked in opposite directions, both faces turning red.

An uncomfortable silence spat tension filled with thousands of unspoken feelings as the two made their way across the hallways until finally, FINALLY, The two split up and went separate ways. Grasshopper quickly walked along the hallways in no particular direction. He just knew he wanted to go somewhere. Suddenly, he bumped into a dragon, causing both of them to flail backwards wildly. Grasshopper yelped and then immediately began apologizing.

Then he looked up and met Sakura's eyes.

Sakura narrowed her pupils, annoyed, and began walking away. "Wait!" Grasshopper yelped, stopping Sakura in her tracks. "What?" she snarled, twisting to face Grasshopper. "I- uh," Grasshopper didn't know why he had stopped Sakura, but it was clear she was getting impatient. "I need to talk with you," he blurted out quickly. Sakura raised an eyebrow. "Okayyy..." she answered, slightly suspicious.

She turned to walk along the hallways, flicking her tail to signal Grasshopper to follow. Every talonstep echoed in the large, empty hallway. Sakura flung open the door to her room; it wasn't exactly angrily, but more sad and confused. Most dragons would probably mistake it for anger... but when Sakura had entered and glanced at him to signal to enter, he could see... hurt? He walked through the door frame.

A small breeze rustled the moss covering the windows. Vines draped from the ceiling, which was covered by leaves and flowers. A vine hammock lay in the middle of the room. Sakura drew herself towards the windows, proceeding to toss the moss covering aside. Sunlight blanketed the room, giving it a green-yellow glow. Distinct smells blew into the room. Grasshopper recognized one of the stronger, more sweet-scents as the stink a Dragontrap gave off. The Forestwing's had a field of them not too far past the kingdom's border. Grasshopper took a few steps closer to the window, and his breath caught in his throat when he saw the view beyond. Beyond the vine wall that separated the kingdom from the forest was a, well, vast expanse of forest. Beyond that, the ocean spread as far as the eye could see.

Suddenly, a flash of green caught the corner of Grasshopper's vision. He turned to look at it, but it had already disappeared. "Huh..." he mumbled to himself. "What?" Sakura walked up next to him and gazed around. "I just thought I saw something..." Grasshopper squinted. Sakura shrugged.

"So. Anyways," she sat down on the edge of the vine hammock. "What did you need to say?" Grasshopper turned to face Sakura, "Oh..." he had completely forgotten that that was the reason he was here. "Umm... you know what, I think I forgot. Haha, oops, well I guess I gotta go now!" Grasshopper yelped quickly. He ran to exit the room, but Sakura slammed the door shut.

"No. I want to hear what you have to say," she commanded sternly. Grasshopper gulped. Sakura rolled her eyes, "You didn't actually have to say anything, did you?" She opened the door again and signalled for him to leave. "Well, I guess you can go then." she sighed.

Grasshopper met Sakura's beautiful eyes for a mere moment and instantly knew he had to release all his bottled up emotions. "Sakura, I love you," he blurted out suddenly. "I've loved you since the moment we met, just not as much. As I've grown to know you better, I-" Sakura clamped his mouth shut with her talon.

"Well, that's been obvious enough, you stupid ball of scales. I love you, too," Sakura scolded him, but not in an angry-seeming way. Grasshopper stared at her. "I-" he started, then realized that he truly had nothing to say this time.

Nothing seemed to be clear anymore. What should he do now? What could he do now?