Rove was thrown into a prison cell with too much force than was necessary. She attempted to stand, but her legs decided that was still beyond her ability and she fell to the ground again. The cell door swung shut and Rove twisted her neck to look at the four dragons standing outside the cell. One appeared to have his own mind back, he fiddled with a ring of keys to lock the door. The other three stood staring at Rove, their eyes as lifeless and empty as dead snake- skins. 

"I will see you soon, little problem dragon." all three said in perfect unison. "First, you will tell me everything you know about that LeafWing. And then, I will visit you myself and you will get to be like everybody else. How lucky are you?" 

Rove shivered and curled into a ball as best she could, squeezing her eyes shut. She felt one year- old all over again. Talonsteps signified the four dragons had left, but Rove stayed as she was. Until a voice spoke from the cell opposite from her.

"I knew you were nothing but trouble."

Rove squinted at the patch of darkness behind the iron bars. She recognised that voice.

"What have you done now?" The speaker walked up to the bars of his cell and glared at her. Rove could make out the silhouette of a SilkWing, and when he took another step, Rove made out navy and green scales.

"Skipper!" She cried.

"Ha. Bet you never thought you'd say that name again."

"What are you doing here?"

"Same thing as you, probably. Aggravated Queen Wasp. Better yet, what are you doing here?"

"Queen Wasp can't mind control me. That, and I'm friends with a LeafWing."

"Stop lying. The queen can mind control any HiveWing. And a LeafWing? Surely you can think of a better lie than that?"

"I'm not lying! She can't mind control me, I don't know why. And I do know a LeafWing. I met him the day you-, the day you were fired. His name is Alder and he is the sweetest dragon in the world."

Skipper snorted.

After a moment, Rove summoned the courage to ask the burning question she had had for two years.

"Why did you really steal the food that day?"

"I told you, to feed my family!"

"You really have a family?"

"I had a family!" Skipper yelled. Then he stopped, his voice going quiet.

"My wife and son, they were starving, we barely had a home for me to go back to, that day. And then when I stole some Scales off a HiveWing to feed them, Wasp threw me in prison, and took Codling and Chionarctia away. I don't even know if they're alive anymore." A single tear slid down Skipper's cheek.

Rove felt terrible for asking. "Oh. I'm sorry. Really, I am." She moved the little that she could so she was leaning up against the treestuff wall in a relatively comfortable position. 

"Forget it. My problems are not yours." Skipper stomped to the back of his cell where the shadows concealed him from Rove's view.

There were so many more things Rove wanted to say, but she kept her mouth shut. Her sleepless night and pain and exhaustion caught up to her and she lay down, resting her neck on the cool treestuff, and sleep came.

Rove was dreaming, or not so much of a dream than a memory. It was one of the first couple of times Rove visited Alder, back when she was two years old.

Rove landed  gently in Alder's circle of trees, making sure not to hurt any of the saplings. Alder looked up at her and smiled. He was laying down on his belly on the grasses, wings spread wide to soak up the sun. He was busy making a stilt for a little tree that couldn't stand up on its own. 

"How are the trees today?" Rove asked. 

"Alright." Alder answered.  "This one doesn't think it will get enough sun if it keeps leaning over, and a couple of them are worrying that there won't be rain for a while."

Rove gave him a puzzled glance. "How do you know that? Or are you guessing?"

Alder shook his head. "It's a thing called Leafspeak. A LeafWing skill that very few  dragons have, most of Leafspeakers can make plants grow or talk to them, but I can only hear what they're thinking, nothing else. And I have to touch them to do it."

"Wow." Rove brushed the leafs of the one closest to her with her claw. It seemed so simple,  opaque with nothing too it. Now she knew that there was more to plants that there seemed, she had a whole heap of questions.

"Is it genetic?" 

Alder nodded again. "My mother had Leafspeak."

"Had?" Rove had always wondered about Alder's parents, and why he was here all alone. Now she guessed she knew why.

"My parents died when I was little. They were killed. By HiveWings."

Rove felt her own pain of missing the parents she never knew. But this was even worse. Dragons told her that her parents died in a hunting accident. But Alder's parents, they were killed. By dragons she might even know.

"I'm so sorry. I- I  didn't know."

"It's okay. I don't blame the dragons who killed them."

"You don't?"

"No. They weren't themselves. I could tell. They all moved in exact unison, speaking with the same creepy voice, and their eyes, their eyes were white. Like straight white. So creepy." He shuddered.

Rove wanted to run over and wrap her wings around Alder to comfort him. He seemed so young, alone, with no one to turn to. She walked over and sat beside him, resting one talon on top of his. He looked up at her with sad eyes.

"My mum and dad are dead too."

"Really?"

"Yeah. I don't know exactly how, all I know was that something happened when they were hunting, a 'dragon- bite snake' or something like that, I can't remember exactly. But I do know about the creepy white eyed thing."

Alder at up, staring at her.

"It's this thing Queen Wasp does. She can control every HiveWing's mind, at the same time, from anywhere, to anyone. Except me."

"She can't do that to you?"

"No. I have no idea why. I don't think there is anyone else who the queen can't control anymore." The old dragon and the spasm of fear from her one year- old self made her shudder. "She can never know about me. Or..." Rove trailed off.

"Alder squeezed her talon. "Don't worry. I'm here. I promise I will never, ever let anything happen to you."

Rove woke to a sound outside her cell, feeling homesick and lonely. She wondered where Alder was now, she hoped he escaped the HiveWings, safe, far away, never too see Rove again.

The cell door slid open, distracting Rove from her thoughts.

A HiveWing guard stood outside, his eyes normal but his head held high and an evil grin on his face that said; I know what's going to happen to you.

"Get up." He said. "Queen Wasp wants to see you."