A/N: GORE WARNING

Holly's POV

For a frozen moment, everything in the room held its breath.

"No, you can't", Cottonmouth said in human.

"Why shouldn't I?", Lizard said.
"I have been stuck with this story for thousands of years! I had my whole life ahead of me, and I lost it, because of YOU!
You did this to us! If you had just left us alone, the Scorching wouldn't have happened!"

"No. You know that's a lie", Cottonmouth hissed.
"I knew that some day, dragons would crawl out of hiding, that some day, they would unleash their rage on us, that they would mercillessly wipe us of off the face of the earth.
If I hadn't found some way to use them, they would have destroyed us."

Movement beyond them caught Holly eye. The vines were spreading visibly, growing new tendrils, and starting to climb the base of the throne.
"Wow", she said aloud. "Did the vines really spread that fast?"

"Yes", Lizard answered.

"Oh. Is this real? You can see and hear me now?"

"Holly!", Cottonmouth said placidly, as though noticing her for the first time.
"There you are. For a moment I was worried you'd never find me."

He pointed to the throne, and the scene around them shifted.
For a falling moment, Holly could see the vines all around her, and the horrible tablo of the plant growing through the bodies on the throne, and then, the newer room shivered back into place.

"I've been waiting for you.
And now that you are here, all you have to do is, give me your memories, and I'll become physical again. And so will Lizard."

"And why should I?", Holly asked.
"Why should I help you, after all I know you did? And why should I be afraid of you?"

"Because", Cottonmouth said with a flar, "if you don't, I will have to punish you."
He suddenly seemed as tall as a dragon.
"Do you want to know what happens to people I punish?"

A film was pushed into her thoughts.

A man was sitting on Cottonmouth's newly made throne, grinning stupidly, as though he thought that he was the smartest person in the world.

His glory was short lived.

He took a berry from a nearby platter, butting it into his mouth, squarting the juice down his chin.
He chuckled, popping several more into his gluttonous mouth.

But even as he laughed, the end was near.

His expression of glee turned to one of uttermost horror, for when he happened a glance at his arm, he saw three leaves grow from it, cutting through his skin like shards as glass, as beautiful as they were deadly.
His face grew sallow, and his body became so thin, he looked like a stick-figure.
His skin turned green and his fingers turned almost to bare bone.
Thorns shot out of his shins and from his shoulders.

The man tried to yell for help, but all that came out, was a screech of lost humanity.

Sharp vines grew out of his knees.

He screamed, the echo runing through the room like an inevitable plage.

Then, just as suddenly as it had happened, the man froze, his face peterified in the very act of fear itself.

"And if you don't give me your memories", Cottonmouth said in a reasonable voice, "you will never get back home."

"And why should I trust you? You didn't carry out any of the promises you made to the other humans", Holly said meekly, after a moment's thought.

Without farther word, Cottonmouth tore her necklace off, and threw it to the spreading vines.

"There", he said with a pleased expression.
"Now you can't leave without my help."

Holly felt her neck frantically.
No, it couldn't be gone!
It could not be gone!

She desperately darted towards the tangle of evil vines, but it was growing at such a rapid rate, any hope of finding her necklace again, was already lost. In spite of that, she began digging with her claws as fast as she could. But the wires of the Breath of evil had already swallowed it whole.

At first, the shock failed to hit her. One second, she'd been wearing her necklace, the next, it was eatten by an evil plant. Holly laughed and pushed back tears.
That was the last gift her Aunt Sandy had ever given her before the car wreck that had ended her life.
That was her only was back home, and now it was gone.

Holly watched Cottonmouth as he strutted back to his throne.
She sank down by Dusky, not even reacting to the shiver that was running up her spine and shaking her neck frills.
"It'll be all right, Holly", Dusky said, nudging her.
"Or it won't", Lizard chimed in.
"That's how my short life went."
Bait grunted.

As Cottonmouth sat down, a large, green snake, with leafy scales, arose from the floor and settled itself around Cottonmoth's neck, as he closed his eyes, putting his hands to his temples as he did so.

All right, little Miss Pity-party! If you sit around and mope all day, then of course you're doomed! You need to keep moving!
There's gotta be another way out of here, and you're never going to get out, unless you find it.
Now would be a good time for some encouragement, Bird.

Nothing.
Holly huffed.
Fine.

"What's he doing?", she asked Lizard, trying to distract herself.

"Checking on all of his creatures", Lizard said, rolling her eyes.
"He has to keep track of all of them, or they'll try to get away. They can't, of course, but they'll try, and then, he has to fly them back. Normally, he has Wasp helping him, but she can only control the ones she's infected, and it's very stressful for him,and for me, fun, because I get to see him angery.
He's keeping an eye out for Sundew, but I hope he fails."

"And. . . .  what happened?", Holly asked.
"How did you and Cottonmouth get here?"

"What happened", Lizard growled, "is he was stupid, and the plant got us both!"

"So. . . . . does he do all of the controlling?", Holly asked, chosing her words carefully.
"What does the plant do?"

"Yep, HE does almost of the mind controlling", the dragonet said bitterly.
"I can move the vines down here in the Abyss, but that's about it. The plant only cares about spreading all over the continent, but it needs out brains for the planing and so forth."

"So, why does he want to become physical?", Holly asked carefully.
"It kind of seems like he has more advantages this way."

"Well, no", Lizard said rather harshly.
"He knows that everything could fall apart if something went wrong, but he's willing to risk it."

After a moment of silence, Holly asked, " What would happen if something DID go wrong?"

"I don't know", Liard said haughtily.
"Depends on what went wrong."

"Why can't he just take my memories?", was Holly's next question.

"It's not that easy. You have to give him your memories. Why he thinks your memories will help him, I have no idea, because he never tells me anything, but it might be because you're from another world."

"Wait, wait, he knows about that? How does he-"

"I don't know!", Lizard almost shouted.
"I'm a half-dead dragonet, how do you expect me to know that?!"

Holly exhaled.
Okay.

"How do you speak dragon?", she asked, changing the topic.
"And why do we understand him and the people in the story speaking human?"

"I learned it from dragons he's taken over the years", Lizard said casually.
"And you're in our Mindspace now, so you see, hear, and understand anything we want you to!"

"Mindspace?", Dusky repeated.

Lizard waved impatiently at the walls around them.
"The place we're stuck in! This is the place we go when we want to talk to each other. We can make it look any way we want it to!"

"Do all mind controlled dragons come here?", Holly asked.

"Not all of them", Lizard said in a bored voice.
"I suppose more of them would, if Cottonmouth wasn't so determined to make me miserable."

"Wait", Holly said, a sudden idea hitting her.
You can see through the eyes of anything who's been infected, right? Do you think you could see through Mandrake's eyes?"

"We don't have Mandrake", Lizard yawned.
"He's in a dungeon with the rest of your friends - aside from Blue, of course.
I suppose I could jump into one of the Hivewing gaurds, but it would be soooo lame."

"Can you?", Holly pleaded.
"Hmm", Lizard said.
She shot Holly a sly sideways glance.

"If you give me your memories, I'll know what he looks like, and then it'll be easy to find him."

"Yeah, I don't think so", Holly said.
"And I kind of feel like you've already seen him through Hawthorn."

"Yeah, I have", Lizard said, dropping the act.
"I've never seen Cottonmouth so angry! I hoped he would have some kind of appaplexy attack and die."

She closed her eyes, putting one claw on her forehead.

"And what about you?", Holly asked. "What would you do if that happened?"

Lizard peeked one eye at her.
"Knowing my luck, I would probably also imediately die of happiness. Here we are."

Holly felt dizzy from the sudden trasition to another place.

They were up on a long balcony, standing along side four Hivewing gaurds.
It was several feet above the floor, and below them, a room with a single bared window at the top, was being gaurded by four more Hivewings.

It was dark, the only light being the flamesilk lamps on the walls.
But from inside the dungeon, voices were speaking softly.

"Don't bother flying over there; he can't hear you", Lizard said, guessing her thoughts.
"Not unless I come along and make this Hivewing say what you want to say, which would freak him out, and be SO funny! Imagine, a Hivewing walking up to the door and saying, 'Ohhhhh, Mandrake! I loooooove you! Look at your dreeeeamy snout!' Ha! I love this plan, let's do it!"

Holly blushed furiously.
"Well, I'd like to see YOU fall for someone the way I've fallen for him!"
She inhaled deeply.

"Can't you bring him into the Mindspace?"

Lizard sighed for a long time.

"No, because I can't do that, unless he's mind controled, and I doubt it works like that."

"Can you at least TRY?", Holly prodded.
"I just want to talk to him for a short time, you know, to tell him I'm okay."

"You're physical body is being practically strangled at the bottom of the Abyss, you've been infected with the plant, and you're going to die down here eventually, and when you do, your body will feed the roots. I wouldn't exactly call that okay."

"No. . . . I am okay", Holly said, trying to keep calm.
"I'm going to get out of this, once I figure out how."

Lizard laughed mockingly.
"You are truely helpless."

She sighed again.

"All these dragons are so boring. I thought things would be fun once I had some pretty silkwings to play with, but NOPE, things are exactly the same. The story of my life."

"That's really mean", Dusky suddenly said.

Lizard gave him a surprised look, not an "Oh, I had no idea I was being mean" look, it was an "Oh, you actually talk and have opinions? That's disappointing" look.

"Uh, yeah", Holly said.
"Don't you ever feel sorry for those dragons?"

"Sorry? Sorry?! Sorry for THEM?!", Lizard suddenly shouted.
Her rage threw them back into the throne room.

Holly felt her real body slam into a wall, vines tightening around her throat.
Her vision switched to the real, ancient throne room and its evil tendrils fingers, then to the Mindspace, then back again.

"Don't hurt her!", she heard Dusky yell.
He tried to shove Lizard, but she pushed him away, flaring her wings.

"Why would I ever feel sorry for anyone else! Those dragons can fly, and have friends, eat real food, and reath actual air, and have thoughts of their own, with out anyone listening! My life is the sadest, and the most unfair! I am the most miserable dragon who ever lived, and died! Those dragons should feel sorry for me!"

"I-do", Holly gasped, trying to tear away the vines.
The plants around her neck loosened.

"You do?", Lizard asked suspisiously.
"You agree that my life is the worst?"

"Yes", Holly said breathlessly, coming back into the Mindspace.
"Me too", Dusky said.
"Is there a way to get you out? A way to set you free?"

Lizard lashed her tail, and narrowed her eyes at him.

A low chuckle came from the human on the throne, and the snake around his shoulders hissed.

"We're only alive - if you could even call it that - because of the Breath of evil. If we were seperated from it somehow, we would die again, forever. Anyway, I don't need to be set free", she added rebeliously. "Here, I get to make his life worse."

"You are insignificent to me", Cottonmouth said, without opening his eyes.

"He can say whatever he wants, but I can feel whatever he feels; I torment him, just existing along side his brain, having a dragon crawl around him, hearing me talk. All. Day. Long. And he can't do anything about it. All this power, and yet he can't ever get away from me."

"If you would stop being a brat for one solitary moment of your life", said Cottonmouth, sitting up.
"I think Holly would enjoy a little show, don't you?"

Bait growled.

"Oooooooooh, could we see more of your memories?", Lizard said sarcastically.
"Could be possibly be so blessed?"

"If only you had some interesting memories of your own to share. Oh wait, you died before you could make any."

Lizard snapped her mouth shut, clenching her talons.

"I know what we're all wondering", Cottonmouth said, walking down the steps leading up to the throne, the snake still on his shoulders.
"Does the Breath of evil work on dragons from. . . . what did they call my old home. . . Phyrrhia? Well, that's what we're about to find out."
He snapped his fingers, and the throne room disappeared, and a new scene flickered around them.

They were in a hive. Holly could knew by the patterns on the walls, despite the fact that she'd never been in one.
The veiw out one of the windows out looked a savannaha, the other a coastline.

And coiled on a polished obsideon throne, was a tall Hivewing, who Holly imediately recognized as Queen Wasp.
Lizard stood on one side of her, Cottonmouth on the other.

And crouched infront of them, bond in ropes of golden flamesilk, were Tsunami, Pineapple, and Qibli.

A/N: I went on a power-trip and wrote this whole chapter in one day.
I'm not really adding much to Cottonmouth, and devloping him as a villian as much as I want to, because if I were to do that, I would have to have more flash-backs, many of which probably wouldn't do much to the story, aside from making it a lot more boring.
Keep in mind, Holly falls into the thirteenth book, so any changes I could have made to books 11 and 12, didn't show up, because that's not when Holly's story starts. If I did go and rewrite those, I would definitely add things to foreshadow Cottonmouth.
I know I'm kind of hurrying, but I know how Holly's going to defeat Cottonmouth, I think it's going to be pretty good, so hopefully, that will make this all worth it, and I hope you understand.

Wordcount: 2527

Renx out!