Dragonfly's Fight

General Stinger paced angrily around the room, tail lashing. “You mean to tell me,” she barked at the courier. “That an entire wing of expertly trained soldiers got wiped out by a single village of LeafWings?”
Paperweight gulped, nodding. “Y-yes ma’am. I don’t know how. It says here that they used some sort of explosive plant to-”
“They have a new weapon?” Stinger said, suddenly still. Her bright green eyes latched onto the nervous SilkWing. “Did it not come to you that you should have said that FIRST?” She stomped over to Paperweight, looming over him. “You should have brought this directly to the army leader, not me!”
“I had to come to you, ma’am. It says here that you’re being demoted to rookie training.”
Stinger was silent for a brief moment.
Then she exploded at him.
“WHAT?!?” She screamed, flaring her wings. Paperweight flinched hard enough to tear the papyrus in his claws. “We- we’ve got a new batch of trainees coming in from the south end of the Rolling Hills and they want you to train them! I’m just a messenger ma’am please don't hurt me!” he blurted, shaking violently. Stinger snatched the paper out of his claws and read it herself. Apparently, what he said was true. She clenched her talons, crushing the edge of the letter. “Fine,” she sighed. “Tell the Major that I’ll begin training when they arrive.”
Paperweight nodded hurriedly and darted out of the building as fast as his little claws could carry him. Stinger laid down on her cot, utterly defeated. She was better than this. All because some of her stupid soldiers decided to ambush a fortified village without her say so, she had been demoted to traning the fresh meat. She growled deep in her throat. At least she hadn’t lost her rank.
I need to eat something she realised, remembering she hadn’t eaten since that morning. She was hungry now that she thought about it. Oh no, poor Paperweight! He was probably scared. No, he was definitely scared. She sighed, putting her head on her talons. I have got to work on my anger issues.
. . .
“Crimson?”
“Yes, sir.”
The red and yellow speckled HiveWing glanced over the rim of his horned glasses at the SilkWing across from him. He scoffed. Crimson shifted uncomfortably in the chair of the recruitment tent.
“Please, SilkWings can’t fight! A LeafWing would crush you like a bug!” He said snidely, putting the papers away. Crimson opened her mouth to protest, but he waved a talon at her. “Go home. We need soldiers, not SilkWings.”
A burly guard in dark blue armor walked in and put a wing on Crimson’s, forcibly guiding her out of the room. She hung her head. It was unfair! She was plenty strong enough to fight in the Tree Wars. All the fliers said was that they needed dragons to fight the LeafWings. She was a dragon! Requirements met!
Crimson couldn’t help thinking about her old bully, a dark brown LeafWing named Ginko. A few years before the war started, Ginko nearly killed her. She still had dents on her neck scales from when he tried to strangle her. A HiveWing had slammed into him and saved her life. The HiveWing brought Crimson with her to the new Hive for medical attention. Crimson owed the HiveWings her life, and she was willing to fight for them.
The guard let her go near her house, a small cabin made of wood and straw on the shore of a small lake. She smiled at him, and she thought she saw the corners of his mouth twitch slightly. He was probably annoyed.
“Can I get you something to drink, maybe?” Crimson said, nervously. It’s not a good idea to make a HiveWing mad. He shook his head and actually smiled. “No, thank you,” he said, lowering his wings. “I am impressed that a SilkWing would want to sign up and fight. My mother always said you were too peaceful for your own good.”
She sighed. “Most of us are, and it’s given us a bad reputation. We used to be great fighters.” He nodded. “I’ve read some old books about the BeetleWings,” he said, twitching his tail. “I can believe it.” Crimson tilted her head at him. “What’s your name?” she asked.
“I’m Brick. You?” He said, smiling again.
“Crimson. You sure you don’t want a drink?”
“Hmm. Actually, a drink sounds pretty good right about now.”
Crimson spread her wings toward her hut, and he followed her inside. It wasn’t a big house by any means. It was mostly a sitting area with a few pillows and a low table, with a couple tapestries she had woven on the walls. There were two doors on either side, one to her bedroom and another to the small kitchen. Brick settled down a large bright pink pillow that clashed horribly with his terracotta scales and blue armor.
“You can take your armor off if you want.” Crimson said over her shoulder to Brick as she bustled over to the kitchen, grabbing some nectarines and a sweet drink made from strawberries. “It’s better if I keep it on,” he said. “You can never tell when an ambush might happen.”
She set the drink and fruits down on the table. Brick took a sip from a small ceramic cup. He looked surprised. “This is really good!” he said, looking into the glass. “What’s it made of?”
Crimson grinned from ear to ear. “It’s a recipe passed down in my family” she said, pouring herself a glass. “I use strawberries from my garden, a pinch of cocoa powder, and some lemon juice. It’s not as good as my dads, I think he used a secret ingredient.”
“What are you talking about? This is amazing! You should open a cafe in Monarch Hive when they finish building it.” He said, slicing open a nectarine and popping a slice in his mouth. “I think that they’re gonna be done with it soon, they just need to finish a few more things.”
They sat in silence for a few minutes. Then they started talking about the war, and how Brick thought it was strange.
“Queen Wasp said that in the Book, all the tribes would unite under her rule,” he said, shifting his body on the cushions. “But the LeafWings refused! How can that be possible if it’s supposed to be the future?” He shook his head. “It just doesn’t make any sense to me.”
“Maybe Clearsight was wrong?” Crimson said, placing the rind of the last nectarine next to her cup. “It’s possible,” Brick said. He rubbed his chin. “It’s been the first major announcement from the HiveWing royalty since Queen Wasp took the throne. Why didn’t she tell us about that huge tsunami that destroyed the eastern shore villages?”
He sighed. “We shouldn’t be talking about this. I could get in serious trouble, and so could you.” Crimson nodded, then looked outside. She gave a small jolt when she realised the sun was going down. Brick seemed to notice it too, and got up to leave. “I better go,” he said over the clattering of his armor as he stood up. She nodded and opened the door for him.
“This has been fun. Maybe we could do it again sometime?”
“Sure! But with maybe a bit less treasonous talk next time.”
She laughed despite her best efforts. “No guarantees. And I’m hoping I see you in the ranks soon.”
Brick smiled. “I’ll see what I can do for you. But you could also just fake it ‘till you make it.”
“Me? Nah, I’m just a skinny kid from Beetle Lake.”
. . .
Time passed. The war grew worse, with the HiveWings being pushed back in every battle. They were losing the slim advantage they had. Wasp decided to turn to horrible weapons. Spears tipped with flamesilk, catapults that shot balls of flaming silk into dense forested areas, and a saw that could cut down the largest trees. Some HiveWing soldiers had reported something flickering over their eyes, and not feeling like themselves.
But Crimson was more determined than ever. She applied 3 more times, painting her scales differently each time to avoid getting caught and using different names. Rosebell: Rejected for being a SilkWing. Sunbeam: Rejected for being a SilkWing. Leafcutter: Nice name. But rejected, again, for being a SilkWing.
She heaved a giant sigh as she flopped down on her bed and curled up in her quilt. It’s not fair at all. A HiveWing half her size got enlisted when she went in as Sunbeam! Just because she was a different tribe, they wouldn’t let her join. Brick says that the army isn’t too picky when it comes to soldiers, but they just don’t enlist SilkWings.
Category:Fanfictions
Category:Fanfictions (Incomplete)