Our Planet has Crashed [COMPLETE]

twenty nine - Wings of Fire

Sundew POV:

Whoa.

Sundew knew it was serious the moment Moon whispered those three words.

They're probably dead.

Kinkajou told them everything.

From them leaving Pantala . . .

. . . to them flying across the ocean . . .

. . . to resting on the islands on the map, but only for a maximum of fifteen minutes per island . . .

. . . the the three mysterious magic reading monkeys . . .

. . . to Winter's burns . . .

. . . to Qibli's attack . . .

. . . to it's fail . . .

. . . to his falling into the ocean too . . .

. . . to them finding Sundew and her friends—uh, acquaintances . . .

. . . until now.

"Wow," Cricket breathed. "That's just . . . I'm so sorry," she said mournfully.

Even Bumblebee seemed to sense this seriousness. She covered her head with her wings and burrowed deep into the sling she was still sitting in. 

Moon was still crying, and didn't seem to want to stop.

The other dragons in the hut shuffled around, unsure of what to do.

Hazel spoke up. "I . . . should check on my dragons. Sundew, maybe you should too."

"Alright," she agreed quietly, surprised at how solemn she sounded.

The pair walked out into the fading sunlight, and towards the small-but-somehow-fits-like-a-hundred-and-more-dragons-in-it cave in a lagoon near Jerboa's hut.

She suddenly realized what Hazel had said in the hut.

Her dragons.

Yes, they had decided that both of them could be the leaders of the remaining LeafWings, but she hadn't realized that Hazel would so willingly give half of her power to Sundew.

"Have you met them?" Hazel asked, snapping Sundew out of her thoughts.

"What?" she said, startled.

"Winter and Qibli," Hazel explained.

"Oh . . . yeah. Yeah, I did. Though Winter was more of a caterpillar brain, and Qibli was like Cricket number two, but . . . they weren't bad dragons. Well, Winter was annoying, but you get my point, right?" Sundew told her. She also mentioned how they had met Tsunami's little brother and sister, Turtle and Anemone.

"I see," Hazel stopped in front of the cave, thinking. "What will we tell them?"

"I don't think Winter and Qibli should be mentoined. They don't even know them. But we can, I don't know, tell them a bit about Pyrrhia and why they have to stay in the cave and not go out because I think Jerboa said there was a SnowWing queen who wants to kill us."

Hazel frowned, "I think we should leave out the we're-going-to-die part."

Sundew snorted. "No, they should stay in the lagoon cave thing. It's also better for management."

But as they were about to enter the cave, they saw the two guards posted near the cave's entrance's eyes widen. Next they heard a loud grunt and a splash, then a yelp and then panting.

Sundew swung around, ready to attack the intruder.

But it wasn't an intruder.

Sundew knew this dragon. Not well, mind you. But at least she'd met him. And her.

"Turtle? Anemone?" Sundew squinted at the two—wait, three—figures on the beach.

Turtle and Anemone were dragging something—no wait . . . someone.

"Here," she said, running over and helping them haul whoever it was onto the shore.

Hazel and one of the guards—Mandrake—came over to help too.

"Who is this?" Mandrake asked, peering at the dragon's face.

Sundew glanced over too, and gasped.

In the fading moonlight, she could barely make out the dragon's features. But there was no doubt it was a SandWing.

A SandWing named Qibli.