Wings of Fire: The Rainforest Monster | ✔️

~ The Rainforest Monster: Chapter 7 ~

"I don't understand why I was chosen," Dainty whined. "I'm far too pretty for this."

"And far too noisy," Ringtail grumbled.

Mangrove led them down toward the rainforest floor. It grew darker the farther down they went, with the sunlight caught in the treetops far above their heads. A pair of long-legged lavender colored birds paused in their stroll through the forest to shoot suspicious looks at the dragons whisking by.

"Why are we so far from the village?" Dainty asked nervously.

"Orchid and I like searching farther out for new kinds of fruit," Mangrove explained, calling over his shoulder in order to be heard.

Hare hissed as Dainty whacked her in the face with her wing. Why had Magnificent chosen her?

Any dragon would be better than her, even Bromeliad!

Mangrove landed beside a giant fallen tree, overgrown with moss and vines. The undergrowth around his talons erupted as lizards and insects scurried busily away. Several bug-eyed sky-blue frogs peeked out from the branches of the fallen tree, flicking their tongues in and out just like dragons.

"So Orchid disappeared around here?" Glory said. Hare was still surprised Glory had managed to convince Blueberry and Sloth to stay behind. The two were practically like a leech connected to their newfound daughter's tail.

"Yes," Mangrove replied.

"Starflight, do you smell anything?" Glory asked.

Starflight sniffed the air. "Something decaying, like a dead animal."

"Oh, gross!" Dainty cried as Mangrove turned a sickly green.

"I'm sure it's not a dragon," Glory said comfortingly. "Right Starflight?"

"I'm not sure," he said, gazing out into the trees. Glory stomped on his tail and he yelped in pain. "Ow! What? I can't tell!"

"At least he's honest," Nightingale said, looking around. "Alright, funny little night dragon, lead us to the scent."

"You won't be glad about his honesty for long," Tsunami mumbled as Starflight led them through the trees.

Dainty hesitated. "Do I have to?" she whined. "I don't want to ruin my scales by being near a dead thing."

"You'll be fine," Hare snapped, nudging her forward. "Now go."

Dainty hissed, then followed the group.

Starflight led them to a small waterfall, as high as Clay's shoulder, that splashed into a tiny pond. A stream no wider than a dragon tail burbled at the top of the waterfall and away from the pond at the bottom. Thick brownish weeds choked the slimy surface of the pond, and a dead fish floated in the shallows.

The top of the waterfall was flanked by a pair of tall dark trees, as fat around as the columns where SkyWing prisoners were kept. Their trunks were so brown that they were nearly black, and their branches began far overhead, so they looked more like black pillars than trees.

The closest one had a boulder leaning up against it that was twice the size of Morrowseer. On the same side of the waterfall, at the base, halfway into the pond, lay a furry, wheezing sloth.

"Oh, poor thing!" Sunny cried, hurrying forward. She cradled the sloth in her arms and turned to Starflight. "We need to help it."

Starflight shook his head. "I don't think we can. It looks like it's been dying for days. Look at that bite."

Hare noticed the nasty black bite on the sloth's leg. It was crawling with insects, and flies were swarming the sloth.

"Then there's no other choice." Ringtail stepped toward Sunny and the sloth. "We need to put it out of its misery."

Dainty gasped in horror while Sunny clutched the sloth close to her chest. Vanilla jumped between Ringtail and Sunny.

"We have to try to help it," she insisted.

"How?" Ringtail snapped. He pointed to the bite. "We don't even know what that is!"

"We can figure it out," Vanilla insisted.

"Vanilla, it's best if we listen to Ringtail," Nightingale said.

Vanilla hesitated, then stepped back. "What do we do? Spit some venom onto its face?"

"No," Glory said quickly. "Venom attacks are survivable."

Hare couldn't help but look at Clay. Clearly the others couldn't either. All eyes went to him as the RainWings caught on.

"I was wondering what those scars were," Vanilla said. She turned to Glory. "Are those from you?"

Glory winced. "It was an accident."

"Of course," Vanilla said kindly. "Dragons who weren't properly taught how to use their venom are bound to make mistakes. It's nothing to feel sorry for."

Glory bristled. "I almost killed my friend."

"But you didn't."

"Let's focus," Nightingale said. "Somebody kill the sloth and let's get on with it."

"I don't understand though," Mangrove said, blinking. "How did no burial patrols find this? Surely some must have come this way over the past couple days?"

"Look on the bright side." Nightingale was walking up the slope toward the pillar tree. "At least that means there's no dead dragons. The burial patrols haven't brought any bodies back."

"That's not comforting!" Mangrove cried as Clay took the sloth for Sunny and brought it into the trees. "If they didn't see the sloth, what else have they missed?"

"A dragon is a lot harder to miss than a sloth," Nightingale called. She circled around the boulder and stopped. "I think I found something," she announced. "Get your tails up here."

The group hurried up the slope. Clay swept dirt over a hole in the ground, where Hare assumed he'd buried the sloth, and raced after them.

Hare slowed to a trot as she approached Nightingale's side. She blinked in shock and stared.

There was a hole in the boulder.