Chapter 38
Alvin's POV
"So, can you please tell me what the hell happened at Pantala," Jerboa asked Alvin accidentally overshadowing the tiny dragon, "I heard from Ripper, that The Xerophic was stopped in its spread and the Hivewings and Silkwings were freed from Queen Wasp's control."
"All of that is true, but Wasp is alive, though she has fallen from grace," Alvin retorted with a fancy tone, "The silkwings are still trying to find a queen and the Poisonwings still despites the Hivewings."
"So, nothing much has changed or did something really good happen," Jerboa asked again, "or did we fail in that way."
"We still need to get them out of there and then, we can properly treat the wounds," Alvin replied, "But, we have turned the tide of battle, so the tale shall be told."
Jerboa lightly whacked Alvin with her tail, before giggling, Alvin signed and continued to watch the ocean from the secure vantage point of Jerboa's hut. Alvin was nestled underneath Jerboa's left wing when they had started the conversation. Alvin didn't usually let larger dragons to cover him with their wings, even Victory Strike knows not to do it, but Alvin was always fine with Jerboa's sandy brown, warm wings.
Alvin nudged affectionately Jerboa's shoulder and stared into her obsidian-black, gemstone eyes, while taking in her scent, one that reminded him of a desert oasis and coconuts.
Alvin began to tell the tale of the 'Battle' of the Mimosas.
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Five days ago...
Alvin looked down on Sequoia from his perch on the strangler fig, he had sent 5 dragons to ensure that the bonfire won't be lit ever.
"Sequoia," Alvin hissed making himself visible to the Leafwing queen, and dropping down onto the platform, "I have urgent news for you, that will prove of most importance and value."
Sequoia was stunned for a moment, before saying, "Your Alvin, right?"
"Yes, Hawthorn is not who he seems to be, The breath of evil has him," Alvin said before leading Sequoia to the bank of the river, where the two leafspeakers were, Hawthorn was on the other side of the bank from them with another leafwings, who had a dragonbite viper ready to strike her throat. There were Xerophics underneath them which had tangled up the leafspeakers and their hivewing friend.
Alvin allowed Sequoia to hear The Xerophic's rant and then turned to her, "Don't worry, we got an antidote, and we have successfully taken out the bonfire."
"Thanks,"Sequoia signed in relief, "Can you?"
"Yes, I will get back Hawthorn, but only because Ripper will have my head if I don't," Alvin whispered, "Tell your leafwings to make sure, not to engage with the Hivewings yet."
Sequoia nodded and headed back.
"I see it worked well," Savage whispered as a sundew erupted from a pile of pitcher plants and took out the snake and immobilized Hawthorn.
Alvin took this opportunity to take out a bag of Mimosa powder and sprinkled it on the Xerophics on the bank, causing them to hiss, trash and die in quick succession. Much to the four dragonets' surprise.
Hawthorn stopped struggling in the sundew and shrieked in pain and Alvin jumped over the river with Savage on his back. Savage fired two darts laced with Mimosa powder at Hawthorn's neck and chest.
Alvin parried the thorn that would have killed Hawthorn and severed it at the same time, because he was a badass. The thorn flew harmlessly onto the muddy bank as Alvin sensed movement coming from behind.
He turned to see the female leafspeaker, fiercely hugging the other leafwing.
"Ah, I know you. You are Avarice's boy," The Xerophic spoke through Hawthorn in a shrill and pained voice as it tried to escape through his mouth and nose. Green and red vines tried to snake free, but slowly died. Hawthorn coughed the remaining out.
Alvin proceeded to slice off one of the sundew's arms and hissed using his limited life elemental magic in leaf speak, "leave that dragon alone or else. I'll kill you."
"Y-yess," cried the sundew in pain as it dropped Hawthorn.
The leafwing coughed and got up unsteadily.
"Hey, don't harm him," Savage cried while brandishing his axe, "He is fine."
"How could he be," the female leafspeaker cried in fury.
"You can speak Dragon! Can other talking monkeys speak Dragon! What is that weapon in your hand!" The Hivewing with a pair of glasses asked.
"A-Alvin," Hawthorn wheezed, "you had an antidote the entire time!"
"Yes," Alvin said feeling the urge to strangle him, "and I told you not to mess with Xerophics. But no, you had to try to control Wasp! Also, Sequoia is right above us."
With the last sentence, Hawthorn flew up to the canopy with glee on his face.
Alvin turned to the four dragonets behind him, the hivewing was pestering Savage while the three Leafwings followed Hawthorn's acsent.
"Hello, I am Alvin. I came here to get rid of the Breath of Evil, once and for all," Alvin bristfully said, "That scavenger is called Savage, he is my friend, so can you please stop pestering him hivewing."
The leafwing who nearly stabbed Hawthorn replied, "Okay, well I am Willow, that ball of fury is Sundew, the shy one is Mandrake and the hivewing is Cricket."
Savage ran behind Alvin as Cricket looked down on them, "Woah, what tribe are you from, how did you kill those plants and how did you 'cure' Hawthorn."
"Mimosa," Alvin simply said, "Come on I have to be at the frontlines. And don't worry the bonfire was taking care of."
"Wait, you used grounded up Touch-me-nots." Cricket asked as Alvin flew to the platform, Savage was hanging indignantly from his tail, the sound of wingbeats told Alvin that the four dragonets were following them.
When Alvin brusted out onto the platforms, he was surrounded by Grim and Leafwings as Mimosa powder fell from the sky over the hivewing lines. Almost instantaneously, they began to cough and hack up pieces of dead xerophic from their systems. Soon, Alvin could see that they were freed of their mental warden, the Xerophic.
Many of the hivewings looked around in confusion after their little exorcism, some bared arms, ready to attack, a few of the adult hivewings went to find their dragonets, calling out their names.
Several Wind-Riders revealed themselves, a tribe of majesty two limbed dragons that were extremely light and natural atoned to the Air element allowing them to float in the air for nearly their entire lives, followed by Ripper's group whom were all responsible for this miracle. Uhh, why much Ripper be the head of group that frees the hivewings. Alvin always had a distaste for the Riproarer, one of the few dragons with the blood of Riproarers. With his fat, smug head and ego the size of Jade Mountain.
Grim dragons roared and clattered weapons ready for any sudden attacks. Alvin took the opportunity to send a call to arms to the Cavern Tunnelers. The ground proceeded to rumble as he slipped down to the Hivewings.
As Alvin landed on the side of the bank where the hivewings stood puzzled and cowering, the ground erupted in cavern tunnelers cutting off any means of escape for any pantalan dragon.
Alvin then coughed to gain the attention of everyone before he spoke in a clear and loud voice. Despite his size," Greetings fellow dragons, I am Alvin of the Grim and Brain Hunter and the master of spies. I had some unfortunate news for you all, because while yes, you hivewings are free from your queen's tyranny and you leafwings are safe from the breath of evil. Pantala is no longer safe nor welcoming for anyone. Which is why I am making you all an offer, work with us, Grim, and we shall provide you all homes, forests and resources or you can object and die in a blaze of fire and lightning!"
The reaction was near instantaneous as the hivewings looked with expressions of fear, confusion, arrogance and hatred. The Poisonwings seemed to be agitated, while the remain dragons seemed to share the same feelings of curiosity, fear, disbelief and shock.
Ripper then bellowed, "What the master of spies, says is of the truth for due to a pestilence started by the leafwings, the same one which had made all hivewing puppets of Queen Wasp, we will have to destroy it with everything we got. May this day be a lesson to you all of the power ones desperation. However, for your safety, everyone needs to leave."
"To where," a Hivewing with yellowish orange and red spots that peeked out of black, "There is nowhere where we can go to."
"Not true, we can go to the Distant Continent!" Ripper noted ," Like how Clearsight came here, we can go to her homeland."
Most of the hivewings seized up in thought as Alvin used two portals to transport his talons to the throats of two hivewings.
"If anyone is wondering about how to get there, then look at these portals, which can take you anywhere as long as you know where you want to go and can open portals," Alvin explained.
There was interest from the Hivewings and some of the Leafwings, after all, it was where Clearsight came from and where they may start a new with non-dangerous flora that could be a placeholder for their ancient old home.
"How do we know that you all wouldn't just enslave us all," A hivewing shouted in defiance, "as far as we all know, you could be lying an dleading us into a slaughter."
The cavern tunneler Groundspillter howled in laughter, "If we had wanted to kill you all, then we would have done it by now! We outnumber yah all 5 to 2."
"And if, we had wanted to turn you all into slaves," Echo, the Death serpent hissed with amusement, "We wouldn't be having this conversation."
Several dragons laughed as Queen Sequoia descended with Hawthorn. The couple landed and greeted Alvin.
"How long has it been, Alvin," Hawthorn asked the brain-hunter as Ripper and landed next to Alvin and towered over Hawthorn.
In a flash, Ripper swiped at Hawthorn leaving a single clean slash over his mouth. Hawthorn flinched and Sequoia braced herself.
"You fool! I told you, I berated you to not use that damn plant, but no, you just had to risk the lives of every single dragon on the continent," Ripper roared, "You cocksucking, mad, idiotic and insane dragons!"
"Ripper," Alvin warned, "Remember what the Queen said."
"I know, I know Alvin," Ripper retorted with a poor imitation of Alvin's voice, "Don't do around yelling like a drunken loon at a bunch of idiots, just because they are king and queen of Leafwings!"
Sequoia coughed, ignoring Ripper and focusing on Alvin, and then said, "Thanks Alvin, saved us. However, I was wonder about why the Hivewings are the only ones to get to leave for now."
Alvin nodded, "There is a large rainforest in The Distant Kingdom, also known as Pyrrhia. However, there are two tribes that live there and they have literally no idea about you all, so in order to minimise chaos, the Queen has stated that she will make an agreement over territory that will give your tribe the benefit of a relatively safe home, that is far safer than The Poison Jungle, but in the meantime , the Leafwings can stay at their camps after they have been checked for The Breath of Evil. However, before we can discuss the Hivewings need a representative."
After a bit of arguing, the hivewing that had mentioned how suspicious the situation was walked over to the group.
"I am General Butterfly," Butterfly greeted with a serious face, Ripper looked as though it was the best joke in town.
"I am Alvin," Alvin said as two cavern guards brought down Belladonna and the five Ambercasters that Alvin had sent to the bonfire, they carried the two silkwings in a thick casing of Amberine, came back with the flamesilk and a silkwing, then dropped all three at my talons, "This Leafwing, Belladonna, was leading a group of leafwings, called PoisonWings, who tried to sabotage your hives, she also came up with the idea of stealing the Book of Clearsight and burning down Bloodworm Hive."
Butterfly growled and extended his stingers from his talons, "So this is the dragon who orchestrated the burning of Bloodworm Hive?"
"How dare you compare the destruction of our home to you, Hivewings to the destruction of one of your disgusting hives," Belladonna hissed and stepped forward, earning an axe to be held to her throat and a muffled growl from one of the Cavern Guards, Granite.
"Enough," Sequoia snapped, before proceeding to count , "I have had enough of this, nonsense, Belladonna. And I am truly sorry for what happened to Bloodworm Hive. However, I personally didn't approve of her idiotic plot."
"Just know that all the hivewing eggs were stolen before the fire," Butterfly said before slightly bowing, "When we finished putting out the fire, we found that several of the eggs were spread out on the grasslands 20 meters from the hive and found the rest a day later, near both Jew and Mantis Hive. All the eggs in Wasp Hive and Cicada Hive, as well as the Silkwing Cocoons were also stolen."
"That would be our handy-work, several of our dragons had spotted a few Poisonwings, near those hives, so as a precaution when the flamesilks escaped, we moved them to other locations," Alvin explained, "Yes, we did know about the escaped Flamesliks."
Butterfly signed and then smiled with relief, "You Grim, saved a few hundred eggs, which would have perished, when Wasp took control, she had every single Hivewing forced out of the hive and presumably left the eggs to their fate, till they started to pop up. Thank you."
"Don't need to mention it," Alvin replied as Cricket and another Hivewing who looked quite similiar to her ran up to the Flamesilk and Silkwing, whom were still wrapped up in Amberine, " Spinner, Orb-Wrever, Get those two silkwings out of their little prison."
Spinner and Orb-Wrever struke the amber cocoons with their tail tips like a whip and they shattered like a sugar crust. Dropping their cargo down on the floor. Cricket ran up to the Flamesilk and helped him up.
"Katydid, this is Blue and Swordtail," Cricket explained while looking waryly at Butterfly, "The little red dragon is called Al-"
A portal opened, right next to Alvin as a very familiar figure exited, Queen Victory Strike.
"Alvin, how are things going," Victory Strike asked joyfully as she pasted him a jar of something that resembled a mix of toffee and honeycomb, Victory Strike much have decided to be a female today,"Say where is Lady Scarad and Jew?"
Before Cricket could ask a question or Alvin could explain, another portal opened and the two dragoness in question jumped out followed by a group of bloodied Grim and Hivewings with their minds not controlled.
"Good timing," Victory Strike chirped as he passed them both a jar followed by Sequoia and Cricket, "It is honeycomb toffee, I made it mysef!"
Lady Scarab had a 'seriously' face on, Victory Strike seemed to have noticed and turned his smile into a scowl. Jew took a bite of the toffee before passing it to her mother, they both seemed to have enjoyed it.
"The name is Queen Victory Strike of the Grim," Victory Strike introduced smoothly, "Say, why are there only two of you, here, where is Cicada, Bloodworm, Yellowjacket, Mantis, Hornet, Teste and Vingaroon?"
"They were dead or had vanished when we arrived, your highness," The leader of the group, a Triple-Slasher named Quickbite answered, "Wasp must have killed them."
Victory Strike, Lady Scarab and Princess Jew's faces told otherwise, Victory Strike probably had them killed to make sure that Jew gets the throne of the Hivewing.
"So, that must mean that Lady Scarab, will be queen," Butterfly inquired.
Scarab signed, "Yes. Say so I heard that we need to leave Pantala?"
"Yes," Victory Strike cheerfully said, "especially since those hives required the destruction of all the great forest which will need time to replenish itself, a great deal of it, so you will need to share our tunnels."
"Wait, did you say tunnels," Princess Jew asked
"Yes, princess, us Grim have a complex maze of tunnels that we call home, it is a tad bit more complex that your old home, though and can certainly can house your tribe for the next 3,000 years," Victory Strike boasted, "They are also safe from any type of seismic activity, so don't worry. However, we will need to wait for the Silkwings."
Just at that moment, as though the universe bend the knee to the Queen of the Grim, five portals opened as a swarm of Silkwings and Grim dragons appeared, buzzing loudly as they descended to ground. Several silkwings were brought out of the swarm.
"Ah, you guys must be the Chrysalis," Victory Strike said in a flurry, "I will have to be going now, but Alvin will explain everything."
Victory Strike then turned to Belladonna and unhinged his jaws and sprayed the Rainwing venom he stored in his slender upper fang onto her side and wing. She then turned to a portal she made and jumped through.
Belladonna began to scream in agony as she touched her side and her talons began to burn. Alvin thought, "Great, she knows about Willowdew."
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"That is what happened in a nutshell," Alvin explained before nuzzling Jerboa.
Jerboa giggled and kissed him on the forehead, "Thanks, so Belladonna then kidnapped the two seawings and the rest is history?"
"Yes," Alivn said before blushing.
"Thanks for making me feel pathetic, Alvin," Jerboa thanked the Brain-Hunter, "I always hated how my mother forced me to take this path and hearing about the struggles of others does ease me a bit."
"Don't worry," Alvin reassured her, "We can overcome that issue, one step at a time."
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