Whole Hive Mind
Dedicated to my BFF, London and her cat!
Chapter 1
Willow remembered when she was very little, sitting on her father’s knee. Her father had said “Willow, never resort to war because war is horrible.” Willow had kept that in her heart even after her father, Cedar, ironically had become a soldier and died. Actually, she was dreaming about that moment when she was startled awake by her mother, Birch.
“Willow”, she called. “WILLOW!”
“Coming”, Willow called.
“What is happening?”, she thought. “What’s wrong?”
“Willow, Evergreen and Maple’s houses are on fire”, her mother said. “We need to go right now to help out”.
“Oh no”, she thought. “Poor Evergreen and Maple! I hope they’re okay!”.
“We’re pretty sure they’re okay, Willow”, her mother said, as though reading her mind.
Willow ran all the way to Evergreen and Maple’s two cozy treehouses. The entire way she was thinking; “Oh no, what if something bad happened to them!?”. Fortunately Evergreen and Maple were just a bit shaken up.
“Thank goodness you’re alright”, she said to them.
“Quite alright”, said Evergreen.
“Yes, quite al...Aaaaaaaaaah!” screamed Maple
“What is it?”, inquired Evergreen.
“H-h-hiveWings”, stuttered Maple.
Everywhere dragons were screaming and running at the sight of another tribe in the forest at night.
“Aaaaah!”, Willow screamed as she realised their eyes were as white as fresh snow.
“By the Book”, Evergreen and Maple screamed. “They’re white-eyed and are talking and moving simultaneously. They’re talking in Queen Wasp’s voice!”.
“That we are”, the Hive Wings said. “Take that, LeafWings”.
Willow stared, caught between wonder and fear at the horrible sight. “Why was Queen Wasp doing this? How?”.
The next day Willow heard about the SilkWings webs getting set on fire in the night by a foreign tribe with alabaster eyes, bodies that talked and moved simultaneously and had only one voice. “The HiveWings aren’t a foreign tribe. Their eyes, bodies and voice must have led the SilkWings to think that”, she thought to herself . “Poor SilkWings! All the webs, that’s their home, their only home”.
That night there was another attack. This time the SilkWings burned down Sundew’s house. She was devastated. Willow thought the SilkWings attacked because they thought the dragons who burned down the webs were the LeafWings. Willow hoped they didn’t do it out of spite.
“Sundew”, Willow pleaded. “I’m sure the SilkWings didn’t realize that it was the HiveWings who attacked them, not us.”
“No, I’m sure they knew it wasn’t us”, Sundew insisted.
“Aaargh”, Willow thought to herself. “Stubborn Sundew” .
There were more and more attacks. But the SilkWings were not the culprits. In one of the ambushes Willow’s own house was burnt to cinders. Her mother was in the healing tree house because she had inhaled too much smoke when her treehouse burned. Nobody knew if she would survive the night, as inhalation injuries were serious. That night Willow cried herself to sleep in the Redwood’s treehouse that she was sleeping in until hers was rebuilt. The next morning, she flew as fast as she could to the healer’s treehouse to check on Birch. Then suddenly, just as she was about to land, it burst into flames, with her mother still inside!
“Aaaah”, Willow screamed. “Help!”.
Chapter 2
Willow’s mother didn’t survive the second fire. Birch was dead only a month into the Tree Wars, as it was called in the LeafWing village. The LeafWing village was barely a village anymore as the scattered houses were burnt to ashes. It was a horrible time for everyone and often Willow cried herself to sleep in despair. Willow’s grandparents, Grandmamma Sitka and Grandpappa Oak, had been terribly wounded in the fire, so now poor Willow lived with Fir because Redwood’s tree house had burnt down and was uninhabitable. Many a night Fir had to comfort her.
“Now, don’t cry” , Fir said. “Don’t cry”.
“Yes, Fir”, Willow mumbled.
Willow sat alone in her new room and stared at the oak leaves that made up the wall. She wished Sundew was there to make Morning-Glories sprout up from the ground and climb up her walls. Suddenly Sundew and a strange dragonet poked their snouts through the door. The dragonet was bright yellow and had 4 wings. She had what looked like a black rope hanging around her, Willow realized that was her markings. She had black horns, claws and talons with bright yellow wings covered in thin black veins. She had dark green eyes which seemed unmatched with her colouring.
“This is Bumblebee”, Sundew said. “She can’t be mind-controlled”.
“Really?”, inquired Willow.
“Really”, Sundew reassured her.
“This one too”, Sundew said pointing out another dragonet climbing up Willow’s ladder to stand with them.
This new dragonet looked like she had bright red and bright orange Vs going down her body. She had what looked like irregular black ink blots all over her body including her wings. She also had what looked like a bracelet of bright yellow inkblots on one of her wrists.. She had bright orange horns, bright red claws and bright yellow talons. This dragonet had bright red wings with thin bright orange veins coursing through them. She, like Bumblebee, also had dark green eyes which seemed uncoordinated with her colouring. Dark green never went well on HiveWings with their reds, yellows and oranges.
“This is Cricket”, Sundew explained.
“Hello Cricket and Bumblebee,” Willow said, a bit awkwardly. “Nice to meet you”
“You don’t have to say that”, Cricket said knowing HiveWings weren’t really welcome. “It’s alright”.
“Cricket don’t say that”, Sundew said in a sarcastic voice. “And then there are these guys” she said looking in the direction of the ladder.
Willow, who had been leaning over the edge of the entrance immediately toppled out of her room and towards the ground past the ladder. She felt strong claws grasp her own, but they weren’t Sundew’s.
She saw a tangle of gold, violet, grey and white claws connected to violet and azure arms. These three dragons hauled her up together.
One of them was violet with gold horns, claws, talons and furling antennae. Around each of them there was an azure patch and her wings were azure with violet and gold fractal patterns all over them. She had violet eyes.
These were new dragons Willow had never seen before. The first was azure with violet horns, claws, talons and furling antennae. The other had violet wings with azure fractal patterns on them, gold claws and azure eyes. The last one had wings like the deep ocean with violet swirled together. His body was azure and he had violet horns, furling antennae and grey claws as well as grey talons.
Willow had missed her earlier but she now saw a fourth dragon. This grey dragon with white circles starting at the tip of her snout and ending at the end of her tail had grey wings with thin white veins. She had white furling antennae, horns, claws and talons. She had silvery grey eyes.
The grey-clawed one spoke first. “I’m Blue”, he said.
“I’m Luna”, said the grey and white dragon.
“Swordtail”, said the one with violet claws.
“Io the SilkWing” said the one with gold claws. “Luna, Blue and Swordtail are also SilkWings”.
“Swordtail and Luna are madly in love with each other”, Io said “And Luna and Blue are half siblings. I’m Swordtail’s sister”.
“Ah’, said Willow who was having trouble realizing that she wasn’t dreaming and that Sundew had really taken the liberty to bring a quadron of SilkWings and a duo of HiveWings into Willow’s room. “Hi” .
“I was hoping they could stay with you”, Sundew said, quite calmly, considering the situation.
Willow promptly fainted.
Chapter 3
When Willow came to, it was because Sundew had dumped river water on her.
“Aaaah”, she sputtered.
“Told you it would work”, Sundew said, half-laughing.
“Still doesn’t look very nice”, Cricket said.
“It’s not!”, Willow exclaimed.
“Hmmmm, thought so”, Cricket said. “I wonder if that’s clean water?”
“Clean?’, Willow said sarcastically. “Of course it’s not clean, it’s river water”!
“True”, Cricket said.
“Mmmhmph”, Willow said.
“Oh dear, am I annoying you?”, Cricket asked.
“Barely”, Willow muttered.
“Is that your way of saying yes”, Cricket asked. “If it is, I should be quiet”.
“Is that possible?”, Willow joked
“I’m not actually sure”, Cricket replied earnestly.
“Want to figure it out?”, Sundew asked.
“No”, Cricket said.
“I guess I can take the SilkWings”, Willow said. “Maybe, not the HiveWings though, definitely not”.
“Alright, I’ll take them”, Sundew said, much to Willow’s surprise.
“Really?”, she questioned. “Alright”.
“Just joking”, Sundew laughed. “I’m a LeafWing, not a HiveWing savior”.
“Still intensely funny” called a voice from the pond 50 metres below them.
“Aaaaahhhhhh!”, Willow screamed.
“You were right about a dragon from the Distant Kingdoms coming to Pantala”, Sundew said.
Chapter 4
Willow fell out of her room yet again in shock at the idea of the myth being true.
She landed with a loud “Splash” in the pond.
“Oooowww”, she screamed as a powerful tail snapped onto her nose.
“Who are you?”, she yelled in a stream of bubbles.
“Current Bubblestream”, replied the dragon happily. “First dragon to come from Pyrrhia to Pantala”.
“Clearly”, Willow said, shaking water off everywhere.
“My sister and brothers are here too”, Current said.
“Hi, I’m Flow”, said a high voice.
“I’m Driftwood and this is Bridge”, said a male voice.
Bridge and Driftwood were the colour of driftwood, with grey claws and talons, and black horns. They had bright blue wings with dark blue veins.
Flow and Current had dark aqua scales and turquoise claws. They had cerulean talons and horns. Flow and Current’s wings were azure with bright blue veins.
“Uh, Sundew why did you bring 4, uh, SeaWings into my house?”, Willow asked.
“So they can help us figure out how Queen Wasp is controlling the HiveWings!”, Sundew said.
“Wait, what?”, cried Willow as she was whisked down her ladder.
“Sundew, we’ve decided that us SilkWings are not coming, it’s too dangerous.”, Io said.
“OK, that’s too bad.”, Sundew said.
As they flew farther into the Poison Jungle, Flow spotted something.
“Hey, there are talonprints on the ground.”, she said. “Let's investigate them”.
They flew down and after Bumblebee pointed out that the talonprints looked like hers and Cricket’s, not like Willow’s and Sundew’s, determined that they were HiveWing talonprints, not a LeafWing’s. Sundew glanced up and saw a gaping hole in the canopy.
“The HiveWings must have fled all together.”, she said. “But why?”.
They all looked down again and realized they were LeafWing and HiveWing talonprints all over the ground in a camp, making them think that the HiveWings must have fled the LeafWings and that the camp was the HiveWing’s. Willow and her group decided to try and follow the HiveWings, so they flew through the hole in the canopy.
“Hey, look”, Cricket yelled over the rushing wind. “HiveWings!”.
“What?’, yelled Sundew. “How do you know?!”.
“I can see the flashing yellow and black colouring”, Cricket cried.
We decided to follow the HiveWings. They flew and flew until they reached a spot in the jungle where the LeafWing hunters had discovered an inexplicable hole in the jungle canopy. The HiveWings descended into it with us following. Queen Wasp made the HiveWings go into an underground tunnel. We followed them into the tunnel. The tunnel was quite low and we had to duck. The HiveWings went into a huge stone cavern, it was like a mini city, it even had a tavern. In the center of the mini city there was a huge dragon bigger than 20 Queen Wasps! All the HiveWings were kneeling before the great dragon, worshipping him. The dragon was a silvery grey with glowing white eyes. He also had lit up golden rectangular scales. She was sitting on a humongous stone throne.
Suddenly he spoke in a powerful voice, “Queen Wasp, if I grant you the power of mind control permanently, do you, as my heir to the position of Great Dragon Spirit, vow to use this power only for good?”.
“I do.”, Queen Wasp said.
Suddenly Sundew sprang out of the shadows.
Chapter 5
All the HiveWings including Queen Wasp and the Great Dragon Spirit screamed in terror when they saw Sundew. That is, until the Great Dragon Spirit said; “Everyone, it’s only a little dragonet!” acting like he hadn’t been scared along with the rest of the HiveWings.
“It’s not just her!” yelled Current pulling us out of the shadows along with her. “It’s us too!”
Nobody yelled when we came out of the shadows. Which was fair, Sundew had been much braver than the rest of us.
Sundew, not really noticing us, yelled; “Hey, Great Dragon Spirit, can you read minds?”
“I certainly can’t!” he replied.
“I didn’t think so, if you could read minds you would know Queen Wasp is lying!” Sundew shouted.
“Oh, Sundew!” I thought.
“I am not!” Queen Wasp said. “You can never trust dragonets.”
“I trust them,” said the Great Dragon Spirit.
“You do?” I asked.
“Indeed, especially my own dragonet, I always trusted you, Willow, correct?” he said.
“I’m not your dragonet!” Willow said.
“Yes, you are, my real name is Cedar,” he said.
“What?!” cried Willow.
“Yes, how is Birch?” Cedar asked. “Before you ask, I was killed in the war and I came back to life as this, the Great Dragon Spirit.”
“Oh, wow!” Willow said. “Mother is dead.”
“Dead?!” Cedar squawked. “No, she can’t be!”
“She is!” Willow said.
“That is very sad!!” Father said, a single tear running down his silver cheek. “At least you are still alive!”
“Yes,” I said.
“Well, Queen Wasp, how are you using your temporary powers for bad?” Cedar asked.
“I was ordering my dragons to start fires to burn down LeafWing houses and I once attacked the SilkWing webs!” Queen Wasp admitted.
“Oh dear, I am going to have to denounce you queen and nominate her queen instead,” Father said, pointing at… Cricket?!
“Me?!” Cricket said.
“Yes, you! You are no longer heir to the position of Great Dragon Spirit, Queen Wasp, Willow, as my daughter, is!” Cedar said.
Epilogue
“Cool!” Cricket and I said together.
Suddenly Queen Wasp was engulfed into the stone floor of the cavern.
“Magic always has a price, and apparently Queen Wasp was the price for recreating the SilkWing webs. Oh, and Willow, you can visit me any time!” Father said.
“OK, I’ll come lots!” Willow said.
By Amani