Wings of Fire: The Return of Wasp

Chapter 2

Luna soared after Swordtail, his deep blue-orange dappled wings reflected the tiny pond they soared over. Luna's heart sped up, she could see tiny lanterns that were hung on a thin line of silk. Small buildings were lined up next to each other. The village!

"Woah!" She gasped to herself, she had never seen the LeafSilk Village with her own eyes before. It seemed newly constructed, and well put together with the help from Swordtail. 

Webs criss-crossed the trees where lamps hung from. A fountain was centered right in the middle, sculpted like Clearsight. A trail of water came from Clearsight's mouth, falling back into the stone fountain.

Swordtail swiftly led Luna to a well constructed establishment, its roof towered over Luna almost menacingly which wasn't very comforting for Luna.

"Read the sign." Swordtail said, waving his wing at a beige sign that rested over the door of the shop. It read 'Sweet Paradise'.

Luna peered through the window to see delicate sugar confections arrayed in a display. A bored looking gray SilkWing sat inside, infinitely gazing at the roof before catching Luna's eye. 

"But you already gave me honey drops, Swordtail." Luna pointed out, taking her gaze away from the window to watch Swordtail who was now staring anxiously up at the trees. What is wrong with him? Is he sick? She shook the nasty thoughts away and tried to look calmly at her boyfriend who gave her a startled look.

"Oh, right. My bad! I was going to take you here to — erm uh... to show you this place. I heard it was the best in the Kingdom!" Swordtail stammered before clearing his throat and going on. "This isn't really the place I was going to show you..."

"Oh?" Luna tilted her head as Swordtail went on; he started to walk down the pathway still talking.

"It's a really nice place, I think you and Cricket would like it. IF Cricket does visit. Remember those tapestries you wove? The one on the Assembly and Freedom? You will see it here!" Swordtail chirped and bounded down the path to a large hut, made of leaves and oak. There, two of her tapestries hung. Not the ones Swordtail had mentioned... but two completely different ones. Swordtail flicked his tail for her to continue inside.

The smell of books hit her nose, fresh with the scent of flamesilk. Little flamesilk fixtures hung from the roof, casting a yellow-orange glow on the shelves of books that sat in front of her. A library! Not an art museum though, Luna felt a bit of sadness hit her heart. Cricket would've loved this place. Why DID she and Blue have to move? She, and Cricket would've just loved this place, Luna would love to hear Crickets scientific talk as she searched through different books.

Swordtail must have seen some of that on her face, he rested a wing on her and whispered; "It's okay, they'll visit soon."

Luna nodded silently, stifling back a sob. She really missed Blue. She missed seeing his small, nervous smile. She missed his sweetness, and spending time with him. He was such a great little brother, even though he could be quite obedient at times. She even missed Cricket! Even though she was a HiveWing and could be nosy at times, but to be fair she was quite enjoyable and cheerful.

A part of Luna also longed to visit the fierce, bitter Sundew. Sundew was kind of awesome with her leafspeak, she is kind of scary at times but her and Willow made a good pair.

To be fair, Luna was quite lonely. Yeah sure, she had Swordtail but most of the time he was busy helping the village spring to life. She should at least visit a friend soon otherwise she might explode.

"But look at all the books!" Swordtail exclaimed, flipping through a history book of the Tree Wars. The book seemed older, the covers' colour seemed to have washed away and the pages were made by some kind of elm tree.

Luna stalked away from Swordtail and down an aisle, peering at the book binds to see if anything would catch her eye. Surely, if she visited Cricket she should bring a gift with her. Luna knew Cricket was fascinated with science and space but all these old, gaudy books were groveling over how Clearsight's prophecies were fake.

Luna stumbled upon her 'Freedom' tapestry that was hung at the back of the room, towering over a cluster of squashed looking bean bags that had little SilkWing dragonets lazing over a book.

Luna couldn't help but smile, she was glad that the Assembly Leaders enjoyed her tapestries as much as she did. She turned back and cantered towards Swordtail who was studying a book about dragon anatomy, his eyes glistening with interest.

"Okay, come on you nut. I want to explore the village some more!" Luna said, nuzzling Swordtail affectionately as he quickly shut the book and shoved it on the shelf and nodded quickly. There, that nervous jumpy thing that he does! What is wrong with him? Is he alright? Should I ask him? Her thoughts spiraled in her head as she slowly followed Swordtail out of the library and back to the heart of the village. Small villas surrounded them, in a large circle and branches off towards the beach and the Hives. The Clearsight fountain continued to spit out water as a few curious LeafWing and SilkWing dragonets dabbled their talons into the cherry blossom petal dappled water. Their parents hung close to them, smiling. Luna twisted her head to a larger establishment which had 'Morpho Inn' inscribed on a bright yellow sign that seemed to interpret the vast ocean.

Luna knew that there would be hotels around the kingdom for visitors, but this particular one seemed a lot more luxurious than the ones she had passed. It overlooked the not too far beach where Swordtail seemed to be heading. Luna passed a souvenir shop, little SilkWing figurines were displayed at the front along with a Pantala shaped pillow.

As Luna started to bound towards Swordtail, a haughty looking LeafWing passed and flicked his tail under Luna's talons. She fell face first into the leaf-mulch path, her body slamming painfully into a rock as the LeafWing let out a chuckle and muttered something and slithered off.

"Oww," Luna moaned, pain bubbling in her side and she guessed that the rock must have punctured a wound on her side. Swordtail gasped and ran towards Luna, fear glittering in his eyes as Luna pushed herself into a sitting position. She lifted her wing to make sure that blood wasn't drawn, and clearly she was wrong. A deep looking gash glittered on her green scales, blood oozing down as Swordtail picked up a bundle of leaves and pressed it to her side. Luna yelped in pain at the sudden contact of the cold leaves and rubbed the dirt off her face.

What was that LeafWings problem? She thought, pulling out a stray leaf from her horns. It clearly wasn't an accident. He seemed so smug about it! He was laughing! It was on purpose! Even if it was, why would he do it? Perhaps a grudge towards SilkWings? But they never did anything wrong to the LeafWings! Perhaps a grudge towards me? It seemed obvious as there was no guilt in his eyes.

But even then, why would he do it?

There must be a bigger reason...

About me.