Poisonous Rage

Chapter Eleven

Sundew struggled, but the vines curled around her were like iron bands. The dark red vines of the Breath of Evil covered the field.

"What happened? What is happening?" Willow called.

A dark laugh sounded behind them, and they turned their heads to see Hawthorn.

"Traitor!" Sundew roared.

He's no traitor. the voice of Wasp echoed eerily from his mouth. He's the most loyal LeafWing there is. So loyal and desperate that he'd experiment on himself. Take the Breath of Evil. And then, with me in his head for so long, he went crazy. I wiped it from his memory, made sure he forgot I was in control, and waited.

"But then... if you knew we were alive all this time, why did you leave us alone? Why not wipe us out?" Willow asked.

You still think Wasp is in control. Wasp said. She's my puppet, too. They're all my puppets, slaves of my ingenious poison.

"So you're... what? Someone who created the Breath of Evil? A LeafWing? How are you still alive?" Sundew responded.

"I think... it's not a dragon at all." Willow said slowly. "I think it's the plant itself."

Hawthorn-Wasp-Breath of Evil laughed. So you finally know. You finally figured it out. I ruled this continent. Stretched from sea to sea. Each and every animal my slaves. And then your ancestors came here, crushing me under their talons, and then burning me, cutting me away, until I was nothing more than a clump in this jungle, wondering whether, soon, I would finally be eradicated. But they never found me. And so I waited, waited for my chance to wipe you out and stretch across the continent once again. And now I have it. You used me because you thought I gave you control. But really, I'm in control. Always. And now you have an army marching on your jungle. My army. Here to take control of the last dragons on this continent. And all I have to do is silence you. You'll be useful to me, Sundew. You have incredible Leafspeak. But your little girlfriend doesn't matter to me.

A vine curled around Willow's neck and began to tighten, while a vine curled towards Sundew's mouth. Just eat it, Sundew. It will be over quicker that way. I won't make you watch Willow suffer.

Sundew clamped her jaws firmly shut. Hawthorn snarled and began to walk toward Sundew. There was a roar and then Qibli exploded out of the jungle and stabbed his tail through Hawthorn's throat.

Hawthorn gasped, but it came out as more of a gurgle. Qibli pulled out his tail, and the big LeafWing slumped to the ground, blood spurting from the gaping hole in his neck. Hawthorn smiled a cruel smile and then lunged, with the last of his strength, and slammed his jaws around Qibli's talon with a sickening crunch.

As Hawthorn's eyes dimmed, the plants released Sundew and Willow, no longer animated by Hawthorn's Leafspeak. Sundew rushed over to Qibli, who was gritting his teeth as tears streamed down his snout. "I need you to lie down," Sundew said shakily. He nodded and lay down. "Willow, hold him down. Don't let go, no matter how much he might scream or roar."

Sundew asked a few regular vines curl tightly around Qibli's tail, holding it down. "Qibli, this is going to hurt. A lot." She took a few deep breaths and then pried Hawthorn's jaws away from Qibli's talon.

He roared, thrashing, as Hawthorn's teeth slid out of his mangled talon. Quickly, Sundew wrapped the bloody stump in a couple of leaves and tied them with another vine. She had hoped the damage wasn't that bad, but Qibli's talon was completely unsavable. The muscles and flesh had been completely crushed by Hawthorn's jaw. It wasn't going to heal.

"Come on, we have to warn someone," Sundew said. "Willow, grab some non-sentient vines and make a net. We're gonna have to fly Qibli back. By the way, why are you even here, Qibli? It's not that I'm not grateful, but there was zero indication that Hawthorn was going to escape and was being controlled."

Qibli's claws dug into the dirt. "I had my suspicions, but I wasn't that confident in them. However, when Hawthorn's guards were found unconscious I rushed over to the field as quickly as I could. You're the most valuable asset we have, Sundew. You might be able to fight off the entire army if you needed."

"How much did you hear?" Sundew asked.

"Nothing. I got here just as Hawthorn was walking over towards you guys trapped in the vines."

"Yeah, you missed a lot. We were wrong the whole time. Our enemy isn't Wasp. It's the Breath of Evil. It's the one controlling everyone, including Hawthorn.

Qibli blinked, before tilting his head, considering. "Huh. I... did not expect that. I guess it's not every day you go thinking about how you might be fighting against a sentient plant. Much easier to think about things in terms of 'Queen Wasp is evil, we have to stop her' than 'we're fighting against a sentient plant who is plotting to take over an entire continent simply in order to grow'. Also, kind of hard to predict what it'll do because it's totally different from a dragon. It doesn't want wealth or power, just to grow, to spread. Hmm. I wonder if we could exploit that. Convince it that leaving us alive is somehow better for it? That we would leave it alone? But no, we still don't have an antidote, so it'd control half the continent, and why would it agree? From its perspective, it has all the power. All it needs is to take control of the rest of the dragons on Pantala."

Hearing how Qibli thought was interesting - he went through information much faster and more effectively than Sundew did. She hadn't even thought about what the plant might want. But with the idea in her mind, she realized Qibli was right. Unlike Queen Wasp, there wasn't a simple solution. Wasp Sundew could at least understand. She wanted power and she'd do anything to get more. The Breath of Evil's only desire was to spread. It didn't think, didn't feel the same things as the dragons. It might not even feel at all. It was only thinking of its own survival. But Sundew did think it had some understanding of emotions, even if it didn't feel them. It understood that threatening Willow was a good way to get to her, but Sundew had refused because either way, it was going to kill Willow.

All that led up to... how did they stop the Breath of Evil? Unlike Wasp, it couldn't just be killed. The best solution was to cure all of the dragons underneath the Breath of Evil's control and then make sure it was eradicated, but with Hawthorn's cure being a fake, that wasn't an option. So then what? Kill every dragon controlled by the plant? Sundew couldn't kill them all, no matter how hard she tried. Besides... even though Sundew hated the HiveWings for what they did to the forests, the LeafWings, the SilkWings, they didn't deserve to be wiped out.

But what if they could kill the Breath of Evil? Destroy it and prevent it from controlling the dragons? They wouldn't be cured, but they wouldn't be controlled either. That might just mean Wasp would be in control again, but Sundew admitted to herself she'd rather fight the HiveWing queen than the plant.

She and Willow wove the vines together, forming a net, before picking Qibli up and setting him on it, despite his growls of pain. "I was thinking. We can't stop the Breath of Evil's puppets, but-"

"We can kill the plant?" Qibli asked. "I thought of that. But we have no idea where the plant might be."

Willow and Sundew lifted off, Qibli in between them. "I can use my Leafspeak. Maybe find where the plant is located. We should go back to the SapWing village. It's closest, and we need to get this information to Hazel. The front lines are too dangerous, we have no idea what's happening."

They arrived at the village, and Sundew noticed something was off. Then she realized no dragons were climbing around the trees or flying from place to place. Still, it was odd that there was no one in sight.

They flew to the palace, keeping an eye out for any LeafWings and becoming increasingly worried at their absence. "Wait," Qibli called as they neared the outer branches of the palace. "Look." The SandWing said, pointing below him with his talon. Sundew glanced down and froze in midair.

A spray of red droplets was smeared against a tree branch.