Sakura Tree

~CHAPTER TWELVE~

Chinch snarled. "Rainbow, since you apparently have no problem revealing to everyone the secrets that have been hidden for so many years." Rainbow ducked her head. Chinch landed, Mezereon and Rainbow right behind him. Grasshopper stared Mezereon in his eyes. Their gaze locked. Grasshopper could see his own eyes reflected in Mezereon's, who's eyes looked exactly like Grasshopper's.

Grasshopper looked away. He almost wished he still didn't know that Mezereon was his father. He heard talon steps and saw Joshua running at Rainbow. Joshua and Rainbow hugged each other. They mumbled a few words to each other and Joshua Stepped back and next to Grasshopper.

Chinch mumbled a few words to Rainbow and she nodded. Rainbow ducked away and reappeared next to Mezereon. Chinch spread his wings and spoke. "Now you see that you cannot trust anybody. Now believe me, the prisoners would have already caused a full on uprising if I had let them loose, which I am fully capable of doing. Grasshopper has seen me."

Forestwing pooled next to each other in front of Chinch. Everybody wanted to hear what he had to say. "Rainbow here would absolutely love to tell you all everything, but nobody can truly trust her."

"How are you an animus?!" Grasshopper yelped.

Chinch sighed and dug his claws into the ground. "Rainbow, explain. And if you somehow still miserably fail, I can toss you away," Chinch shoved Rainbow forward.

Rainbow cleared her throat. "Chinch's family came to Pyrrhia with hybrid animus members. That animus lineage carried on and now Chinch is the last left in his family, or so we think." Rainbow stared down. Chinch pulled her back into his wings and she sat down.

Grasshopper felt a dragon shove him to the side. Queen Redwood stepped forward. "Chinch. I hoped I might finally never see you again. Ever since your death. Apparently I was wrong to hope. Well, a queen can't help but hope," Redwood blinked calmly at Chinch. The two spread their wings. All dragons made a circle around the two. If there would be a battle was up to Redwood and Chinch, but nobody was going to get caught in the center of one.

Redwood and Chinch both copied each other's formal and confident poses as they circled each other. Grasshopper watched with terror. No matter how much Redwood scared him and he wanted to be with Sakura, he didn't want her to die. And yet Chinch was a flamesilk animus dragon. How could Redwood win?

Grasshopper found himself glancing at Mezereon multiple times, and the dark green Leafwing shoved through the crowd to get closer to Grasshopper. "Mantis told you. And yet you still know nothing. Nobody does. Not even I know everything," Mezereon lanced away from Grasshopper, who stood silently.

"Why did you do it, Mezereon?" Grasshopper hissed almost silently. Mezereon spread his wings and tapped his claws a few times before responding to Grasshopper.

"I never wanted to. But in the battle I was caught during the battle and never got the chance to get back to you and Mantis. You know, Grasshopper, I think it's your fate to live in the Forestwing kingdom. If Chinch's plan had worked you would have been living here for much longer."

While Mezereon was talking, Chinch and Redwood had begun fighting. So far it seemed to be a fair fight, and Grasshopper couldn't tell who was winning the slightest. That was good.

Grasshopper ducked as Mezereon spread his wings again. He backed away under dragons legs. He felt Sakura's talon grab him and pull him out. He stood up and faced her. Sakura's eyes were fixated on the fight. Sakura would want Redwood to win more than anyone, otherwise she would become queen. Nobody would want to become queen so soon.

Grasshopper noticed that Chinch spread all four of his wings quickly and then quickly laid them back against his side to distract Redwood, but each time he had to spread it out so that Redwood was still surprised. Each time Redwood pinned Chinch down, instead of slipping away like most dragons would against a dragon bigger than them, Chinch would try to make himself larger and flatter and slam his hind legs up on Redwood, shoving her off of him. There were so many other strange moves Grasshopper would have never used, or anybody else he knew.

After a while it was clear that Chinch was winning. Chinch pinned down Redwood's wings, which was how she normally escaped from pins, and when Chinch replaced one of his arms pinning down Redwood's wing with one of his hind Grasshopper flinched back. Chinch raised his talon to kill Redwood, and Grasshopper wanted to look away. And yet he couldn't. But instead of slashing Redwood's redwood's throat and killing her when he slashed his talon down, Chinch tossed Redwood's crown off of her.

A few dragons gasped and small, quiet mumbles arose. Grasshopper could feel Sakura shaking slightly beside him. He glanced at her horrified face, with eyes slitted in disbelief. Chinch stepped off of Redwood and grabbed up her crown. Redwood scrambled up. She had been thrown aside by Chinch and scratched and torn at so much. Chinch had gotten the same amount of gashes and bruises, which showed how close Redwood was to winning.

Grasshopper glanced back and saw Sakura and Spruce sitting together, tears streaming down her face and Spruce comforting his crying sibling. Spruce slitted his eyes when he noticed Grasshopper staring at them. Joshua and Birch sat together, both comforting each other. Redwood had lost. And yet she wasn't dead. Oak stepped forward towards Chinch. What would he do?

Oak spread his wings and turned to the crowd. "Redwood has lost a fight for the throne. Chinch has made it clear that was his goal. He has taken the crown." Oak turned to face Chinch again and bowed. He slipped off his crown and lay it on the floor. The rest of the Forestwing kingdom bowed in a ripple.

This was worse than Grasshopper could have imagined. Not only had Chinch won a fight against Redwood, but not he was king. And everybody was bowing to him. Grasshopper gulped and bowed with the rest. He glanced behind him and saw Sakura and Spruce and Joshua and Birch bowing reluctantly.

After everybody lifted up from bowing, Sakura and Grasshopper both sat together silently for a moment. Grasshopper's heart leaped as he realized what this meant. If Sakura wouldn't be the next queen, then she and Grasshopper could openly be together without any restrictions!

Speaking of which, Grasshopper heard Redwood's talonsteps angrily approaching him and Sakura. Sakura and Redwood glared at each other. Grasshopper could almost immagine Redwood's scolding of Sakura, and her response. "Mother, I love Grasshopper. And you cannot disapprove of him anymore." Sakura tipped her chin up confidently. Redwood just sighed.

"I cannot. Physically I have much less control over you now. But look at Chinch. I let him into the kingdom, and unlike Grasshopper, he was a dragonet. And look at me now. I have lost my throne and my kingdom. Only if I somehow raised up a rebellion, Chinch will stay." Redwood turned and walked away, but Chinch stepped in front of her.

Chinch spun a long strand of glowing silk and mumbled something under his breath. The strand of silk flickered into a long chain. At the end of the chain where Chinch had wrapped a large loop from the silk a large chin for the neck appeared. Chinch snapped the loop around Redwood's neck and held the chain like a leash. He pulled Redwood away, and Redwood gave a final apologetic glance at Grasshopper and Sakura. It was official. Chinch had taken over the kingdom.

A/N

AND SO THE PLOT TWISTS BEGIN

this was originally NOT what I had planned for part three but hECK why NOT