Unfinished Stories

Firefly's Story Pt. 4

Even Swallowtail was backing away. I knew that once they were like this, they would never like me again. I then saw Starfruit. She was snickering and grinning and I wanted to go claw that smug smile off her face. Starfruit always hated me because she would never get to be queen. Her mother is Exquisite. The dragons in my village took turns being queen, if they wanted, and one of the dragons taking turns was Exquisite. Now that my mother was permanently queen, no other dragon besides me could challenge her for the throne. That means that Starfruit would never get to be queen. Sadly, she had to go to the same school as me. She always ruins everything.

"Please, do not listen to her! Whatever she said it's not true! Please believe me! Please," I pleaded. Now, they started to walk away together, and I knew they would hate me forever. How do I get them to see that Starfruit is a mean liar, I thought about this question for the rest of the day. I rushed to my cave when it was time. I layed down in my hammock, buried my head in my moss pillow, and started crying. I knew when it was time to head back to our caves, Auklet would stay behind until she was sure I was gone. Then she would rush to our cave before I could talk to her. When she would come into our cave, I did not know when. When she did, I had my nose in a scroll.

As she walked to the little lake in which she sleeps in, hoping I would not notice her, I said, "Auklet, please do not listen to her. She lies all the time. Please, Auklet, I need you and the group. I can not lose you." I looked up and she saw that I had tears running down my snout. She stopped and said, "Listen, Firefly, we have only known each other for a few days. I do not know if I should trust you or not. Starfruit said that you lied to us about everything, and that in the end, you are just going to use me as a bargaining chip. She also said you poisoned her when you were mad. She said she almost died because of it. I do not know if I can trust you anymore." With that, she jumped in the pool before I could say anything else. After what I just heard, I started to cry. I cried and cried until I fell asleep.

In the morning, I woke up because someone was calling my name and poking me. I opened my eyes, and found Swallowtail standing there. "Hi, Swallowtail," I said somberly. I climbed out of my hammock, and headed to class. Suddenly, I stopped and turned around. "What class do we have today," I asked. "Right now we have music," he answered. I turned around again and headed out the door. We headed to music class in silence. Finally, Swallowtail said, "Is it true, what Starfruit said? I do not believe it, but I just need confirmation that I am right. Firefly? Is it true?" He blocked my path. "No, it is not. I can not believe any of you would believe that. Then again, I have only known you guys for a couple of days." I pushed past Swallowtail and started walking again. When he caught up to me, he wound his tail around my tail, and said, "We will figure this out, I promise. We will get your friends back, do not worry." "Thank you," I said, and then I leaned into him.

When we reached the cave, I let go of Swallowtail, and ran over to the drums. All the other students were already playing instruments. Coyote gave me a hateful look and edged closer to Snowstorm. After a couple of moments, after I was familiar with the rhythm, I started playing the drum. All the other students looked at me in shock. I used every part of my body to play. My tail drummed on the back drums while my front talons bumped away on the front drums. Snowstorm and Coyote dropped their instruments and started dancing. After music class was over, my winglet and I were walking towards the history cave, and I saw Swallowtail talking to Auklet. I also saw Auket telling everyone else about whatever Swallowtail told Auklet. At lunch, I brought history scrolls with me.

When I got to the prey center, I hurried over to the fruit pile. I picked up a couple mangos, a couple apples, a couple oranges, a hollow half of a coconut, and a pineapple. I ran to the lake, filled up my hollow coconut, and ran over to the tree in the corner. I used my leafspeak, a power used to talk to plants and to help them grow. I made the top of the tree so thick, it should be able to hide me when the rest of my wiglet came in. I climbed up the tree, propped by food against some branches, and waited for them to come. While I waited, I cut up my pineapple and put some pieces into the water. Then, I ate the rest of the pineapple and my oranges. I saw Swallowtail and the rest of my winglet walk in, and they all started looking around. I realized that they were looking for me. Maple started walking over to my tree, and then I figured out that she must also have leafspeak.

"Firefly, I know you are in there. Do not make me come up there," Maple called. I saw Auklet walk over while the rest of the winglet spread out to look for me. I stayed really still, because I knew that Coyote has super sharp hearing. Auklet asked, "How do you know she is in there?" "The tree is saying there is something in it that is bothering it," Maple replied. "Oh, I read something about this, some Leafwing have the ability to make plants grow, but there has to be something there, they can not just make things pop up out of nowhere," Auklet said. Maple looked a little surprised Auklet knew that. She said, "That's right. The tree is detecting more movement around it. None of the prey can get into trees, and no other dragons beside Leafwings and Rainwings. I can see all the other Leafwings and Rainwings. Soooo . . . ." All of a sudden, Auklet called, "Firefly, I know you are in there. Come down RIGHT NOW or I am going to come up there!" I gathered my things and flew out of the tree. I landed with a thump and I walked over to the tree with the fruit pile underneath. I sat down and took a sip of my pineapple water. Needs more pineapple, I thought. I grabbed another pineapple from the pile and sliced it up as the winglet came over with their food. I put the pieces in the coconut and looked up.

Everyone sat in a circle in silence. Auklet broke the silence with a question. "So, what Starfruit said is not true, is it?" I got so mad, I started yelling. "WHY ARE YOU ASKING? YOU SHOULD BY NOW THAT I COULD NEVER DO THAT! I CAN NOT BELIEVE YOU! Oh, wait, I can. What did you say the other day? 'We have only known each other for a few days.' I thought I would be able to have friends here, but I guess I was wrong." I gathered my things and flew to the tree where I was. When I got there I put my things down and started crying.

I heard someone land next to me, but I did not look up to see who it was. I felt claws brushing against my back. Then, I heard Swallowtail's soothing voice. He said, "Shhh. You're ok. You're ok. Come here." I leaned into him and tried to stop my tears, but they just kept coming. A couple minutes later, I stopped crying and started eating. By the time lunch was over, I had devoured my lunch and stopped crying. Swallowtail and I had shared the fruits and the pineapple water.

When I flew down from the tree, I decided that I would avoid the rest of the dragonets for the rest of the day. I did not feel like putting up with any more stressful things. When I got to my cave, I gave Swallowtail a hug, said "Thank you,", and went to lie down in my hammock. I fell asleep for a while, it felt like. But then I felt Swallowtail tugging gently on my tail. I woke up, looked at him wearily, and got up. Swallowtail hugged me, and said, "Are you okay?" I miserably nodded my head. "It's time to go to art class," he said.

He placed his wing on my back and we walked over to the art cave. The rest of my winglet was already there, but Swallowtail and I avoided them. We stopped at two empty canvases next to each other, and then we waited for our art teacher, Sunny, to walk in. Sunny was a Nightwing/Sandwing hybrid, so she was a goldish color, and she had no tail barb like the rest of the Sandwing tribe. Her mom, Queen Thorn, is ruler of the Sandwings now, an improvement from the three sisters, Blister, Blaze, and Burn.

As Sunny walked in, she said, "Hello class! I am happy to be your art teacher today. For this week, I will let you paint anything on your canvas, just make it school appropriate. Now, you may get started." Swallowtail and I grabbed some paints and brushes and began painting. I started to paint my sloth, Sunburst, with a forest background, and Swallowtail started to paint the savannah on Pantala. I stopped and stared at his painting. He was really good. He must have caught me staring, cause he started chuckling. I felt my face heating up, so I looked away in embarrassment. After I calmed down, I turned back to my painting. This time, I felt eyes staring at me. I looked back, and saw Swallowtail look away and blush. I started giggling. I went back to focusing on my painting. Just as I finished my sloth, my winglet came over.