A Rose in the Thorns

Prologue:
a HiveWing zipped quickly across the hive, he had to get there, before it was too late! 
He zoomed out and looked around...there! A yellow and red dot on the ground waving to him, he dived quickly down to her, once he got there he asked the other HiveWing
“is it here yet?“
”yep”
”good” he sighed as she held it up, it was a little lighter than maroon, with imperfect lines going across it. 
He smiled warmly and took the egg happily “it’s perfect, a perfect egg for a perfect family“ 
he purred, laying his head on the other Hivewings neck. “Oh, if only we didn’t have to keep this a secret...when will we tell our little child?” Asked the female hivewing 
“ when the time comes cicada killer, when the tine comes” Cicada killer ran a claw over the egg shell “But potato beetle...this is dangerous...I-I think we should confess to the Queen...if we beg-“ 
“No...” interrupted potato beetle “We can’t go back, were in too deep! We can only hope for the best...” 
Suddenly, 2, 10, 50 Hivewings poured out of the hive and to the direction of the couple, 
they screamed and began flying away, but there so many, they seemed to be powered by Queen Wasps anger, the buzzing of their wings grew louder as they grew nearer to potato beetle and cicada killer. beetle spotted a forest up ahead “there!” He called, pointing to the jungle
“what? Are you nuts?! That’s the poison jungle!” Exclaimed cicada killer “its-I’m afraid- our only shot” said potato beetle, determine. they jumped into the jungle, almost losing the egg in the process. 
Most of the Hivewings couldn’t get far into the jungle, either getting entangled, eaten, or stuck, but about 5 were still following them, potato beetle put the egg in cicadas grasp
“I will fight them off, keep the egg safe” he turned to the dragons they hissed in union
“give me the egg...and I might let you live“ potato beetle growled
“bring it” 
he leaped on one guard, biting him in the neck, he fell, paralyzed, he swung his tail into another and he slashed a third, he jumped onto the back of another, causing her to tumble into some spiky roots. some were either paralyzed or dead.
Two painfully got up and continued to peruse them. beetle retreated “Run!”
He yelped, the two ran deeper into the forest, when suddenly, they were grabbed by some dragon shapped leaves. 
They squirmed, but it was hopeless, they were thrown into a cage. 
Wait, what? Leaves dont throw you in cages! The couple got up and realized they were in a cage made by the Leafwings cicada killer wrestler with the bars
“let us out! Please! Don’t hurt us!” She broke down and began sobbing. 
potato beetle came to comfort cicada. He glared at the leafy dragons “don’t get any funny ideas...” he hissed. 
The Leafwings laughed “as if!” Said one, who had a brown underbelly lined with yellow-green. 
Her top was a lining green, which faded to a darker green down to her tail “we never hurt newcomers unless we know their a threat...we noticed you were running away from Queen Wasp...”
potato beetle and cicada killer looked at each other. ”well...I guess we will have to stay here!” Potato beetle said
Chapter 1:(3 years later)
Cotton stainer bounced happily around the house “Im so excited!” 
She exclaimed happily potato beetle laughed “so am I...but first, you need your things!” 
He said calmly. Cotton nodded and rushed off to get her thing. “are you sure this is a good idea?” Asked cicada killer, emerging from the kitchen
“I mean, what if the other Leafwings don’t like her? What if she gets bullied? I heard leafspeak is more common this year” “well, it’s the best we can do, the Leafwings showed us mercy, we have to deal with an all-leafwing school, what other option do we have?” 
Replied potato beetle. Cotton came bounding into the living room again, she had her bag with her stuff in it “I brushed my teeth, had breakfast, cleaned my scales, and made my bed, I’m all ready!” 
She chattered happily, her red and black scales seemed to shine with happiness. “Now cotton, remember” stated cicada killer cautiously, holding her daughters shoulders “if anybody is bullying you, try not to use your tail stinger...you will get suspended..or worse!” 
Cotton took her mothers talons off of her shoulders “I won’t mom, you know that!” 
She ran out to head to the school. It was the second biggest building in the village, she swooped down to the entrance of the building, some nearby Leafwings hissed in anger and/or surprise. 
Cotton ignored them and walked inside, there was a wooden box with maps and a schedule in it. She walked outside again
(once again, ignoring the hissed of nearby Leafwings) 
she sat under a weeping willow tree and began studying the map and schedule. After about 30 minutes, she didn’t notice a low hanging branch near her, it suddenly slapped her.
Chapter 2:
Her head shot up, she looked around to see who slapped her. 
She noticed some giggling Leafwings a few feet away, 2 of them were bright green, must be siblings she thought. The last one was a big burly male.
He has deep green eyes and he was mostly light brown, his underbelly was a yellow-greenish the thing that stood out the most, though, was his big, evil, sneer cotton stomped over “did you do that?” She asked angrily. 
the burly leafwing laughed “So what if I did? What are you going to do about it? Throw honey at me?”
The two other Leafwings laughed and cotton blushed. She opened her booklet and showed him a rule “it specifically states ‘you shouldn’t use leafspeak on other dragons unless for self defense! You broke a rule!” 
The burly leafwing leaned to the female leafwing “watch out, we‘ve got a nerd alert” They all laughed and cotton blushed harder, she stormed off. 
The bell rang, symboling that school started, cotton ran inside, she went and found her home room class. An old, but oddly tall, leafwing padded in, it looked like she used to have bright green scales, but she has weathered away the color, she took out some paper and organized it on her desk, she sat down and waited for everybody to file in. 
When all of the desks were filled, she cleared her throat and stood up “hello class, my name is Ms Palm, I am your homeroom teacher” 
she clapped her talons together “alright, let’s introduce ourselves” she turned her gaze to cotton, her gaze was cold as ice, her eyes seemed to glaze over a bit over the years, but it felt like daggers were sticking into her head “why don’t we start with the elephant in the room...well, the bee”
she said harshly, cotton cleared her throat and said quietly”Uh, m-my name is c-cotton stainer, um, call me cotton, please, and, uhh...” ‘what else to I tell them? I have a paralyzing stinger? I like honey?’
 She thought quickly. after thinking a bit, she said “and I, uh, like to fly around...” a Leafwings in the back called “what else? Do you have mind control powers to? Or just your dumb Queen?” 
Cotton winced, she heard about Queen Wasp, she heard all sorts of bad things about her, she hated that tyrant as much as any of these Leafwings do. She didn’t answer the leafwing. 
Palm moved on to other students until everybody was done. A bell sounded, signaling the class was over ‘finally! That was SO embarrassing! Hopefully the next class won’t be so bad...’ 
she walked along the hallways, well, more like stumbled, plenty of Leafwings kept ‘accidently’ bumping into her. She entered the science classroom, and she was almost blown away to see who was in there
Chapter 3:
It was that gazelle-snot-for-brained leafwing who slapped her with a branch. 
Cotton pretended she didn’t notice and sat in the second row. The hunk sat a seat behind her. He still had that ugly smirk on his face. Cottons wings buzzed slightly with annoyance. 
When all of the students walked in, so did the teacher, she was a pale green with brown spots all over her. She has half circle glasses on and an excited expression on her face. 
She turned to the class, she recoiled a bit to see a hivewing in her classroom, but quickly covered it with her happy and excited smile again. She turned to the class
“hello! My name is Mrs. Oak! Today we will tell each other our names and I will assign you all your ‘lab partners’ your lab partner is the dragon you do experiments with, and we are doing experiments often in this class because: thats what scientists do!”
She rammbled. She passed a ball to a student in front of her, the student was supposed to say their name and favorite thing about science, then throw it to somebody else. 
All the students passed it to each other, soon, the bulky leafwing caught the ball, still sneering “my name is cedar, and I, uh, enjoy, er, experimenting with things” he said blandly.
He, roughly, passed it to cotton, she caught it with an “oomph!” She held the ball carefully and stated “my name is cotton stainer, please call me cotton, and my favorite thing about science is learning new things about what we were experimenting on!” 
She passed it to the teacher who caught it with ease. She put the ball away and took out some index cards. “ok! On these index cards are your new lab partners” she handed them out. 
As the kids got them, they read the cards and turned to their partners, they either clapped/hugged or they groaned /scowl. When cotton got her card, it read:
COTTON: partners with: Maple
cotton looked up, trying to remember who maple was, she spotted a very excitable leafwing still awaiting her card. Cotton winced ‘right...THATS maple...’ cotton didn’t want a very energetic, or talkative, partner, she didn’t want a partner at all she just wanted to work alone, with nobody judging her at all. 
When maple got her card, she read it quickly and looked up, she spotted cotton and ran over, like nobody's business. Cotton turned her gaze away as maple sat with her 
“hello! Cool scales! Let’s be friends! Not like we have a choice, haha!” She babbled, kinda giving cotton a headache. The bell rang, Maple instantly got up and sprinted to her next class. 
Cotton rushed to her next class. She checked her map/schedule...math. Cotton groaned, she hated math, but she went there anyways. The teacher was in the classroom, scribbling something on some papers. 
She was a tall, lanky, leafwing, with sharp angles. Her eyes were a green-grey. and her scales looked like they were a little darker than lime green, but she dyed some of it, probably blue, or maybe purple. 
Once the dye washed away, it must’ve stained her scales, making them look a greyish-blackish-green. She didn’t even glance up when the students filed in.
But her gaze shot up when she saw cottons bright red scales instead of the normal green brown and yellow-green. Her surprised look narrowed into an angry glare. She turned down to her papers again after a good 5 seconds of staring. 
Cotton, feeling uncomfortable, sat in the back of the class. When everybody settled in, the math teacher got up, and said with a surprisingly sharp voice
“We have assigned seats, students...stand up, and I will assign your seats...” she looked at cotton harshly, she took out a piece of paper and began to organize the students. cotton was in the front, closest to the teacher ‘great, just what I need...’ thought Cotton bitterly
walking up to her assigned seat. when everybody has settled down, the teacher began teaching, not even bothering to ask all of their names. 
However, while teaching, cotton could feel her gaze when she was working on her math worksheet. Cotton wrapped her tail around her desk out of nervousness. When the period was over, it was lunch time. 
Cotton hastily went to the cafeteria. When their, there was an assortment of different foods. Fish, lizards, cow, turkeys, other small birds, and even a SAUSE station! 
Cotton grabbed a plate and put 2 lizards and a small fish on her plate. She sat down and started eating. Cedar walked past her table, ‘accidently’ smacking her with his tail. 
Cotton grumbled as she ate her food, making sure nobody was trying to smack her with a branch again, after eating, she threw away her leftovers and walked to class, checking her schedule, her face brightened, it was health! 
She didn’t particularly like health but it was better than nothing! As she was walking there she realized she had a bit of a headache. She didn’t think much of it ‘probably from all of those Leafwings ‘accidently’ bumping into me or something’ she thought, walking into class.
As she walked in, a...um, fat leafwing and turned to the class with a bored expression on her face
when everybody filed in, the teacher would get up and write her name on the board
”Alright class listen up! My name is Ms. Tulip! And as your first assignment, fill out this paper
she barked. She had a New Yorker accent, kind-of
Cotton received the paper and began filling it out, it had the standard questions like ‘name’ ‘likes’ ‘dislikes’ etc.
’good thing this is the last class for today, school is SO boring!’
After cotton finished, she raised her talon
Ms. Tulip pretended she didn’t notice her for a minute or two
soon, she sighed and called on cotton “what?”
”uh, where do we put the paper when we are done?”
”in the basket!”
”oh, ok, thanks!” Cotton stainer would proceed to get up and place her paper in the basket
She would wait patiently waited for the class to end, she watched as everybody handed their papers in
and Cotton was 60% sure, Ms. Tulip was playing self tic-tac-toe on a piece of scrap paper
eventually, FINALLY! The last end of the day bell rang
Cotton swiftly grabbed her things and dashed out side, finally free!
she was outside of that horrid school at LAST!
she did a loop-de-loop of happiness before heading home 
Cotton was soooooo happy that it was ove!
as she was heading home, she felt her headache again, this time, harder
Cotton didn’t mind it, probably just the sudden change in lighting from the school
nothing, right?
as she went on, the headache got worse and worse, until it was mind breaking
it was messing with her flying!
then...she blacked out
CHAPTER: 4
Cotton was in a dark, black room, she saw nothing, just a light in the middle of the room
curious, cotton walked towards the middle of the room
10 steps away, a strange, shadowy, thing, emerged out of the darkness
cotton screamed and fell, backing away on the floor
the thing was a bear minimum of a dragon:
snout, horns, tail, wings, no feet either, or scales, just a shadowy-mist dragon thing
“Don’t be afraid, Cotton stainer... I am here to help!”
Cotton growled “WHO ARE YOU? HOW DO YOU KNOW MY NAME?!” She screamed, not trusting the strange thing 1 second
the thing laughed, it was light and airy, but strong
”’ how do you know my name’? I know you, Cotton Stainer, because I have been watching you”
Cotton backed away “y-you didn’t answer my first question...who are you?”
the thing laughed again
”my name is beyond your vocabular, in a language your tounge can never pronounce...but, call me Sleuth”
”Sleuth...” Cotton suddenly realized that Sleuth wasn’t moving its mouth when it talked, and neither was she
”why are you here? What do you want from me?”
”I am here to help you! I will make your life easy...simpler, you won’t get bullied again!”
that did sound good...
Sleuth floated closer to cotton, wrapping a misty wing around her, it was cold and sightly moist
” Life will be a fantasy!”
”at what cost? There HAS to be a catch here...”
“Oh no! No catch!”
said Sleuth innocently , floating away, looking slightly hurt
”All I need from you is your body...let me take control...let me-“
”NO WAY!” Cotton cut him off “I don't know what you would do to me! Get away from me!”
”please Cotton, think about it, 8:00 tommorow, I will return, decide by then”
he dissapeared from sight, and so did the room, it fuzzed away and the world was back, 
it was second before he had blacked out, ‘he must have, like, stopped time or something...odd’
Cotton decided not to tell her parents about Sleuth, not like there was much to do about him anyways
As she got home. She grabbed her snack, and went into her room. She took out her homework and started on it.
She worked for a few minutes. Let’s see...26 times 45 1/2... she thought carefully. Doing the mental math.
Suddenly. She felt a cold chill and the same bear-minimum-dragon-shape split from her body. Sleuth
Cotton screamed in surprise and stumbled back.
Sleuth rolled his milky white eyes. “Relax worry pants, it’s me!”
”I know!” hissed cotton stainer angrily 
(MORE TO BE ADDED!)
Category:Fanfictions
Category:Literature
Category:Fanfictions (Unfinished)
Category:Wings of Fire