Nightshade

Chapter 1

1 week later-

Nightshade was a dragon on a mission. She had to tell the MudWing Queen, Monsoon, that Queen Anaconda was dead, and the new Queen was Queen Jacaranda. That, and she had to kill the MudWing princess upstart, Delta. That shouldn't be too hard... The RainWing thought to herself. Nightshade was what some would call, 'unique,' others, 'weird.' She had a slightly misshaped wing, enabling her to fly somewhat slowly. But she practiced and practiced, and soon she could fly at an almost normal speed. That wing was why she usually taught the recruits instead of doing a job. 

But now... I finally get to fly! She did a flip in the air. And my venom is growing cold. A little-known fact about venom: If RainWings don't use their venom for 20 years, it starts to freeze. You see, it has to be used so it can warm up. The longer the RainWing waits, the weaker the venom will be after she uses it. Once the venom has frozen completely, which takes about 5 years, the RainWing is venom-less for the rest of their lives. 

Nightshade hadn't used her venom in over 5 years.  Her mouth felt a bit cold, which was one reason she was excited to go the Mud Kingdom. Ever since that mission, when everything had gone wrong...

No. She couldn't think about that now. I'm a dragon on a mission. An important one, to help my Queen. Nightshade reassured herself. Then she started going over the weaknesses and strengths of Princess Delta.

So she is strong physically, but she will walk into any trap I lay, according to Clover. Clover was a young adult, he had just turned 7. Nightshade was only 8 herself. Back to the plan... Mustn't get off-track thinking about his beautiful light green eyes... No. Ok, back to Delta. Suddenly, something hit Nightshade in her bad wing. She looked back, and saw a small hawk-shaped hole in her wing. She thought, Uh-oh. Then began to plummet. 

Nightshade let out a screech as the ground rushed up beneath her, then land smack in the middle of a maple tree. She thudded into the trunk then rolled off onto a branch. She fell on the ground with a grunt, then looked behind her to check on her wing.

It wasn't good. The hole had widened after the fall, and was bleeding badly. Nightshade staggered to her feet then took a look at her surroundings. She saw a bright orange light in the distance and decided to walk towards it. 

Fire! Warmth! I can cauterize the wound! Oh no. These were just a few of the thoughts running around the assassin's head when she walked into the clearing. It was a nice roaring fire, perfect for cooking, sleeping next to, providing light, basically anything you want to do with a fire! She sighed with relief, but when her eyes focused, she saw a large MudWing patrol, maybe 6 or 7 dragons, all fully grown. 

"Uh-oh..."

The largest MudWing stood up. He took a long look at the RainWing. Probably sizing me up. He took a step towards her, but then Nightshade had a sudden thought. INVISIBLITY! A few other thoughts ran through her head, cursing about being caught. The MudWing took another step forward. Oops. Invisibility time! A green color began to ripple down Nightshade's scales, and she started to vanish. The MudWing made a confused sound. 

"Hey, where'd the intruder go?" He asked confusingly. Oh moons, he can't see me. At least my scales still work. 

"Walnut." A female voice said from next to the fire. "It's obviously a RainWing. Look, there's a bloody trail moving away from where she was." Oh three moons above. Nightshade was terrified. A MudWing patrol was about to catch her. A small light brown MudWing with a burn on her arm stepped out from next to the fire. 

"Look, the trail stops here." The female MudWing pointed exactly where Nightshade had lifted her wing. She padded over, and her foot touched Nightshade's tail. 

Oh great, there's literally a MudWing on my tail. 

"Almond! Stop taking over the bigwings' job!!" The large MudWing, Walnut I think, cried to the light brown dragon, Almond. "That's really mean! You're supposed to be our medic not our detective! Pecan! Get over here! You're the bigwings!" An extremely large dragon, over twice the size than little Almond, hopped up. 

"Walnut! I was asleep!"

"Well you should have woken up!"

"It's not my fault my ears were damaged in the last war!"

All of the MudWings hushed, including the ones that had just woken up. Nightshade decided to attempt her escape. She slowly moved towards the trees, then stepped on a stick. 

"Oh no you don't." It was Pecan, the 'bigwings.' He stepped calmly over the fire, and she saw a burn rise up on his leg, but then it simply disappeared by the time he had come over. Nightshade unwillingly turned a bright shade of white. "Ah, surrendering are ya? I see you don't have a white flag, so you decided to become one yourself, eh?" The giant MudWing gave a great roar of laughter, and his siblings did too. 

"Alright, let's get her in," Said a new one, a dark reddish one with a single bronze earring. 

"That  sounds great, Cashew." whispered Almond, still angry about being yelled at by Walnut. Walnut then began to open the satchel on his neck to pull out some rope. 

"This is so we always know where you are." Nightshade, paralyzed with fear, didn't move a muscle while Walnut spoke. Walnut tied a tight knot around each leg, and then tied a leather bag around each of Nightshade's talons so she couldn't cut the rope.

"Wait, don't RainWings have a weird power?" A medium-sized dragon with light green horn rings said from the other side of the fire. "I thought they had magical spit or something."

"Pistachio, you're thinking of NightWings. And it's 'magical DEATH spit' not magical spit." Walnut leaned in close to Nightshade's face, and stage-whispered, "You don't have death spit, do you?" Nightshade shook her head, glad the MudWings didn't know about the venom. She was about to breathe a sigh of relief when the last MudWings that hadn't spoken stood up, grabbed some rope, and tied a piece of rope around the RainWing's mouth. 

"Better safe than sorry, that's the Peanut way!" The small dragon sang. 

"Nice rhyme Peanut. Going in your new song?" Pistachio praised. 

"Nah, I have better ones." The dragon replied. 

WILL THEY HURRY UP AND DO SOMETHING? This is even worse than when I got stuck in Queen Acacia's dungeon for a week. Nightshade began to struggle. 

"Oh no you don't." Pecan grabbed the bag around Nightshade's mouth, and dragged her into the sky. "You're coming with us to Queen Monsoon's palace. The Queen wants any and all intruders to see her."

The last thought Nightshade had before her feet left the ground was, How did I mess this up?