Rosielia and the Eye of the Tiger

Chapter Five: The Queendom

    "Wake up!" was the first thing Rosepaw heard when she woke up. She opened her eyes to see Dia looking down on her. Dia helped her up and they began to roll up their mats. Rosepaw put on the flower crown and picked up her encyclopedia of plants and went to go get her bow and quiver of arrows. When she exited the tent, Rosepaw saw that about half the tents had been packed up and were being loaded onto a dragon. " Hey, Rose! Could you help us out?" She turned around to see Rela waving by a couple of other inx. Rosepaw jogged over and helped them pack up the tent's contents which consisted mainly of red plants and small bottles of colored liquids. "What are these?" Rosepaw asked pointing to some bottles that were arranged in an ombre of pink to red. "Those are some potions that I use to treat various things like food poisoning or wounds." Replied Dephi, the inx that had given the flower crown to her. "So, you're a medical inx?" "Pretty much. Although, I prefer the term healer," responded Dephi. The continued packing up the various books about healing methods and plants, bottles of tonics and potions, making sure to carefully package the fragile ones between pieces of burlap-like material. They spent the next hour doing the same thing and finally they were ready to head towards the Queendom. Mae came out of the woods, almost randomly, and began to take the huge encampment of inx through the woods. Rosepaw, Rela, Dia, Dephi, and Dia's silver sister, Emerald walked in a cluster near the front. "How long do you think this will take?" Dia asked the group. " I'm assuming only until a little after sunset." Replied Emerald. When the sun was above them and started to beat down on them, the dragon began to fly lower, giving some shade to a small amount of the group. Dephi and Emerald began to give out berries to the inx around them, seeing as they had each a sack full, they covered almost everyone, not including the other medical inx or "healers." As it got later, Rosepaw found that she was not quite as cold as she would have been as a human at this temperature. The group began to point out little things to Rosepaw and explain them, as she was new and had no assumed knowledge of the woods. It eventually began to get dark but right after the sun had set, they saw lights, and everyone began to quicken their pace. They were stopped at enormous gates. with a large dog guarding the front. This dog was huge, almost as big as the dragon, which had landed in a small clearing nearby, it had two huge heads and big, red eyes. Not red eyes that seem to know your deepest secrets, the kind that reminds you of a puppy, just on a huge dog that towers over you. "Othrus we have returned," Mae spoke for the first time since the night before. The huge dog opened the gate, letting them through. Mae transformed into a fox, a blue fox, a shade of blue that reminds you of moonlight hitting something. They continued into the gates, hundreds of inx flooding through. all around them, they saw that there were a very diverse group of canine-like mythical creatures, not elves at all. "Did you know?" Rosepaw asked Rela, "I didn't know, but I had guessed. You see, they have called for us before, but only a couple at a time not all of us, and not her."