Holly's POV

"You have got to be kidding me", Holly whispered under her breath, staring at the aqua-green dragon in the puddle.

This is a dream.
This is impossible.
It has to be a dream!
I'm asleep. I've fallen asleep in bed while reading again. I never had that fight with Dad. I never went to the park. I've been home this whole time!

But deep inside, she felt certain that wasn't it.
She could already feel part of her spirit settling into this new body, that the other part, the human part, was like a stranger in her own house.

"Yeah, I do that sometimes", Sundew answered.

"Grow trees?", Cricket asked. "Like really tall trees from out of nowhere?"

"Not out of nowhere", Sundew said. "I can only help along a plant that's already there. I can't just make trees and seeds pop of nowhere.
If I could, I'd be throwing down oak trees and beech groves and pine forests all over Pantala at this point."

"But that's amazing!", Blue said. "Why didn't you just tell us? Oh, because you didn't want Wasp to find out", he said, answering his own question.

"As if we'd ever tell Wasp!", Swordtail interjected.

"Oh!", Blue said. "I think I read something about this once. Leafwing who could control plants. . . . I remember thinking that it was like magic and wondering what I would grow with it."

"Can all Leafwings do this?", Cricket asked, glancing at Holly.

Pantala.
Leafwings.
Clearsight.

Of course!

A wave hit Holly's brain. She remembered wishing that Phyrria and Pantala were real, that dragons ruled the world, instead of humans.
She remebered swearing in the names of Clearsight and the Lost Continent.
But, the thing was, her world was all she'd ever known. Her home was in the there.
And how could she be a dragon? She was so weird, she barely counted as a human, and she certainly wasn't a normal one! She was the last person cool enough to turn into a dragon.
She belonged back on Earth, not here.
But how did she even get here?

Sundew shook her head.
"Only a few of us can."

She was saved from more questions by an eruption of roars coming from below them.

Everyone jumped and Bumblebee woke up.

"RAWAR?", she inquired.
"BAMO SLAMO EEEEEEEENOW?"

"Everyone shush", Sundew said, crouching down to the tree branch. "Especially you", she said to Bumblebee.

"YOUUUUUUUUUUUUSHHHHH HAHA SO SHUSH", Bumblebee declaired proudly.

Cricket provided a berry from somewhere nearby and gave it to the Hivewing dragonet, who stuffed into her mouth, which would keep her quiet for about ten seconds.

Thick leaves hid them from the comotion, but Holly could hear at least three dragons roaring and something else that didn't quite sound like a dragon to her.
Sudew rested her ear against the bark of the tree.

"Come ON, Mandrake!", one of the voices shouted."Strangle it or something!"
"It's moving too fast!", a second voice yelled back.
"If it would just-can we back it over to-or next to that-"
"Can't I please just kill it?", the other voice complained."We could be home and cooking it at this point!"

Mandrake.
Holly hit herself.
WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME?!

"Stay here", Sundew said to the others."Holly, come with me."

Have I been here before?
Do we know each other, or something?

Sundew and Holly swung lightly down through the branches, slipping carefully through the leaves and avoiding the spider webs as well as they could, which, for Holly, wasn't all that well.
They found a clear spot near the tree-trunck with a view of the jungle floor, where, if they kept still, the clusters of huge seed pods should keep them hidden.

"Oh, and by the way", Sundew whispered.
Holly barely kept herself from jumping when she realized the Leafwing was talking to her.
"You still owe me for staining Nettle's eye scales with black berries."

"What?", Holly asked.

"Oh, don't play dumb with me, I know your game. She washed most of it off, but you still owe me", Sundew smirked. "Shh." She pointed down at the scene below them.

Now Holly could see Mandrake darting helplessly around the clearing, grabbing at plants, then putting them down without using them. His father and sister watched from the low branches with matching looks of critcicum on their faces.
The panther slunk after him, snarling, it's teeth bigger than his claws. It's black fur rippled over huge muscles.

Holly found herself grappling for breath, clutching the tree-bark as the wild-cat took a dash towards the Leafwing.
Why aren't they others helping him? He clearly can't do this any better than I could on my own.

Mandrake gasped whenever the predator did so much as flick a whisker, and kept backing up. He looked like he was about to pass out.
The panther pounced experimentally towards Mandrake. He bit his lip and threw a seed pod at the panther, before jumping towards the left side of clearing, closer to the tree that Sundew and Holly were watching from.

His sister, Nettle, rolled her eyes and sighed.

WHAT ARE THEY DOING?! They're right there!

"He has to learn how to do this", Wolfsbane said to Nettle.

"Why?", she complained."I could do it faster than him, magic or no. And if we really need the magic, we have Sundew."

"Sundew isn't with us right now", her father pointed out. "What if she goes on another mission and Mandrake has to step up?"

"Then we're all going to die", Nettle said flatly.

"I can hear you guys", Mandrake protested,
"and it's not helping."
He dug his claws into the leaf mulch and shut his eyes.

WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!, Holly screamed at him internally. THERE IS A PANTHER RIGHT THERE!

The panther wasted no time. It leaped on Mandrake with a mightly roar of triumph.

Then Holly did the stupidest thing in her life.
Without thinking, she dropped from her hiding place and tackled the panther.
The feline roared and clawed at her face, just barely missing her eye.

Her heart paced voilently.
"Arr-aahahahah! Sundew!"

She could taste her lip bleeding, she could smell the wild-cat's breath on her shoulder as it scrambled up her back.
Holly's vision and sense of time faded. She could feel the cat barreling down on top of her, but she couldn't even lift her talons to shield her eyes from its sharp nails.
Her eyes darted around, searching for a weapon while it sunk it's claws painfully deep into her scales.
A long barb shot out from the ground a foot away from Holly. She reached for it, fumbled, and pulling it off if its host plant, she inpaled the pedator through the chest.
It fell to the dirt with a groan.

"Holly?!", Nettle cried incredulusly.

"Yep", Holly said, panting and shaking as she dropped to the dirt."It's me."

Mandrake gave her a thankful look. She gave him a nod, hoping she wasn't as red as she felt. Then she look down and realized she was red from all the scratches she'd gotten from the scuffle.

Nettle narrowed her eyes at her.
"Who else is up there? You couldn't have done that on your own, you don't have leafspeak. Sundew! Sundew, I know it's you!"

Holly held her breath.

Then . . . .

"SNUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUDOOOOOOOOW!"

"What was that?!", Mandrake asked, looking slightly spooked.

"It sounded like a dragonet", his father told him.

"Sundew!", Nettle shouted.

"EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE NOWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!", Bumblebee cried again.

Sundew finally dropped from the tree.
"You can come down now", she called to the others."Come down slowly- don't touch anything else!"

Nettle's jaw dropped.
"DID YOU BRING STRANGERS INTO OUR JUNGLE?!"

"Don't be a drama queen", Sundew told her sharply.
"They can help us."

"Do your parents know about this?", Wolfsbane asked.

Holly could tell by the look on her face, this remark ticked Sundew off.

Swordtail was the first to hit the ground.

Nettle look like she was about to say something angry, when Blue touched-down.
Not even she could take her eyes off of him for just that brief moment.
There was nothing that shade of blue in the jungle.

But not even Blue's wings could hide Cricket and Bumblebee, Hivewings, the sworn enemies of the Leafwings.

Nettle flared her wings and hissed.
Wolfsbane brought out a whip-like vine and held it, ready to attack.
Even Mandrake let out a low growl under his breath.

"It's all right! Calm down!", Sundew said. "They're with us."

"That doesn't make it right!", Nettle cried."What is wrong with you two? What if Wasp gets behind them?"

"No she won't!", Sundew snapped. "She can't control these two. She doesn't know where we are, she doesn't know where they are! Nothing has changed! Except now, thanks to me, we have a flamesilk."

"We have a flamesilk? Blue is his own dragon, Sundew", Holly told her.

Wolfsbane gave a huff.
"That one?"

Sundew hesitated a moment.
"Yes."

"I wouldn't say you have a flamesilk", Swordtail put in." I mean, he IS a flamesilk, but he's not for having, I mean. He's his own dragon, he's himself, not some weapon."

"Hmm", Wolfsbane said, ignoring Swordtail and Holly.
"So why not kill the others and leave the flamesilk?"

"Because they're useful and we can't get ride of them without upsetting the flamesilk", Sundew said.

"And the dragonet?', Nettle asked.

"An experiment", Sundew answered."We think she's also immune to Wasp's mind control."

"You think?!", Nettle cried.

"It's going great so far!", Sundew yelled at her.

"You get away with everything because you're Belladonna's daughter and you're soooooo special!", Nettle shouted."But this time you've gone too far! No one will stand for this!"

"Let's go ask Belladonna what to do", Wolfsbane said, resting a talon on his daughter's shoulder.

"Fine." Nettle shook him off. "But I know what she'll say. We'll be back to execute your new pets." She folded her wings and gave Sundew and Holly a final hiss before marching off.

"Wait for us here", Wolfsbane told Sundew.
He started walking into the bushes, then turned to his son.

Mandrake glanced at Holly.
"I think I'll stay here."

Wolfsbane gave a light shrug and followed his daughter.

Holly sat down with a snort of discust.

"Um", Blue said. "That didn't sound like it went that well."

"Really?", Sundew asked, joining Holly on the ground."Pretty much just your average conversation with Nettle."

Holly looked over at the panther and noticed it's ear twitching.
Sundew took a berry off of a nearby bush and threw it at the creature.
It let out a final snarl, then dead.

"Aw cool", Mandrake said.
"We can still eat the panther though, right?'

"It's fine", Sundew said."They're all right to eat if you're a dragon. They're deadly to anything else, though."

"Really?", Cricket asked.
Mandrake passed the berry to her and she gave it a facinated look.

"EEEEEEEEEE?", Bumblebee asked.

"Maybe not this", the other Hivewing told her. "Just to be safe."

"Here, these should be fine", Sundew said, handing Cricket a tuber.

"SNUDOOOOOOOOOO", Bumblebee said, giving her a worshipful look.

"Maybe she thinks 'Snudoo' means food", Holly suggested.

"I'm pretty sure she knows you provide the best food", Cricket said.

"Excuse me, should we be runing away?", Swordtail asked.

"No, you nitwit", Sundew told him.
"We're trying to get to the village, not run away from it. That's why I brought you all here in the first place and it's how we met our great friend, Holly. Nobody's going to execute you. Not unless I tell them to, anyways."

"Oh? Me?", Holly wondered aloud.
We're friends apparently? GREAT friends, no less?

"Because of your powers?", Blue guessed.

"They need yours too", Sundew said.
"So tell them just what you want. Don't let them run you down."

"But are all Leafwings . . . shouty?"

"All except me and Holly", Mandrake said with a nervous laugh.

"I'm Cricket and this is Bumblebee. That's Blue and Swordtail", Cricket said.
"Who are you?"

"I'm Mandrake", he said with a smile,"Sundew's fiancé."

A/N: Remeber to add a vote, comment, and share if you liked this!
Wordcount: 1646

Renx out!