Holly's POV

The vines around their talons lossened.
Cricket gasped for air as the vine strangling her let go.
They lifted into the air to get out of reach in case the plant recovered, and headed towards the trees, landing on a large Baobab tree.

Sundew and Willow threw their wings over each other, and held on for a long moment.

"Why did the plants let go?", Cricket asked.
"Wasn't there something control them and Hawthorn?"

"Maybe whatever it was is dead", Mandrake guessed hopefully.

"Willow killed only one of it's heads", Sundew said.
"It has a lot more. It's confused right now.
It still has Wasp, but I think without Hawthorn's leafspeak, it can only spread like a normal plant."

"So what now?", Holly asked.

"We save our friends", Sundew said.
"We fight it just like Willow did. I'm ready to do a lot of destroying."

"No!", Willow said.
"That's exactly what we shouldn't do!"

"What?", Sundew asked.
"We have to. And I really want DESTORY SOMETHING."

"The five of us against the queen, the entire Hivewing army, the Leafwings, and our friends? No way."

"She's right Sundew", Cricket said.
"I'm all in on killing Wasp, but that thing has control of everyone. What are we supposed to do, kill all of them?"

"So, we have to protect everyone we still have", Mandrake said. "We'll have to do fighting at some point, and we'll need help."

"Uh, actually, we might need to do fighting now", Holly said.
Mandrake turned around.
Four Hivewings had spotted them, and landed near the bank of the stream.

Sundew hopped down and Holly joined her.
"If this is the last time we fight together", Sundew said, "you've been a great sister to me."

"Right back at you."

Holly's mind wandered suddenly.
She tried to keep her eye on Sundew, and the next thing she knew, one of the Hivewings singled her out.

He tackled her, trying to pin her with a stinger on his tail.

Holly got up, looking around frantically.
She didn't know to fight, but she raised her talons, and tried to look intimidating, which she failed at dramatically.
The Hivewing continued to advance, cornerng her at the base of a tree.

"Uh, can't we just talk about this?", she asked.
He tried to spear her, but she ducked and twice, he instead stabbed the tree.

"Seven-foot frame, rats along his back, when he calls your name, it all fades to black!"
He tried a third time, but only managed to get his stinger point stuck in the tree bark.

Holly rolled under his legs and taking a large rock, she beat him over the head.
He fell onto the wet ground , stunned.

Overcoming her initual surprise, Holly said, "Yeah! That's how we get it done: Hogwarts style!"

She glanced at the others to see how they were doing.
Sundew and Mandrake were fighting the biggest of the Hivewings, an enormous dragon almost as big as the two of them combined.
Holly started towards them, but talons grabbed her from behind, pinning her against the tree again.

"Hello, Holly", the Hivewing hissed.
"I've been waiting for this for a long time. You want to know something?"

"Um, not really", she choked.
His claws cut into Holly's neck.

"It's hard to find a Hivewing with fangs these days. I saved this one just for you."
The dragon grinned so that she could see his long fangs.

"Wait! If you kill me, you won't be able to use me!", Holly said, making a desprate attempt to live.

The dragon sneered.

"I'm not going to use you; that's the other one you're thinking of."

He opened his mouth to bite her.
"Say goodnight."

Holly braced herself for the worst.
But it never came.
Mandrake had torn away from his other opponent and managed to make jagged blackberry vines grow from the rich soil and wrap around the Hivewing's foot and all the way up to his neck, where they tightened so firmly, he could no longer breathe.
Even in death, the Hivewing had iorn grip. Holly had to prye his talons off of her neck before shoving his body aside.

She turned to Mandrake.
"I love you", Holly said suddenly.

"You do? You lo-love me?", Mandrake stuttered, blushing.
Their snouts were frightfully close.

"Guys, maybe not the best time!", Sundew yelled.
"Whah!"

She was pulled backwards as her opponent grabbed her tail.
He suddenly stopped, looked at the sky, and then without a single glance at them, he and the other Hivewings flew off into the air over the trees.

"What are they doing?', Willow asked, helping a protesting Sundew to get up.

"I don't know, but we're not staying around to find out", Holly said.

They flew as fast as they could . . . well, sometimes flew, anyway.
They went to Sundew's village first since it was closer.

Sundew used her leafspeak to move the plants in the dome so they could get inside faster.
Several dragons attacked them, probably mistaking them for Wasp's Hivewings; apparently the fact that Holly had yelled "Your saviors are here!" in order to lift spirits (including her own) hadn't helped.

"But the Hivewings are coming", Sundew said after the crowd calmed down.
"We need to fell back and regroup with everyone at the other village."

"Fall back?", Cobralilly asked.
"We've lost already?"

"Is Belladonna dead?", a few dragons in the asked.

"No, not that we know of", Holly spoke up.
"But she's not with us right now."

"I can explain", Sundew said. "But I'd rather do it once, in front of everyone, and we don't have any time."

"Leafwings don't retreat!", some idiot said.
"We stay and fight! We bare our fangs and-"

"End up as zomies like the Hivewings", Holly interupted. "Listen to Sundew."

"We can't do that", Sundew went on. "We need to find an un-normal way to fight Wasp, and we can't do it alone."

"I'll gather up the dragonets", Cobralilly said.
Several dragons followed her.

Holly glanced around.
All of these Leafwings were fighting to get back at the Hivewings.
Most of them were too young to remember Pantala before Wasp killed the trees, and to many, the village was the only home they'd ever known.
She walked around, images floating through her head. There was the grand old Oak where she, Mandrake, and Sundew used as their club house when they were younger. That was the spot where she and Mandrake had once pranked Nettle by replacing her assassin spiders (which she'd threatened Holly with) with candy. Over there was the log Mandrake and Holly hid from Nettle whenever she bothered them. That was the spot where the two of them like to catch bugs and toads for the warehouse.
And now, it was doomed. Soon, it would be nothing more than an abandened ghost town.

Hollt watched as dragons crawled through the hole Sundew had made.
The two of them had tried counting them, but they eventually lost track and stopped trying.

They flew a bit slower now, due to their larger numbers, and because of the weaker members of the village; older dragons and afew dragonets too little to fly.
As a result, they decided to travel on foot, for the most part.

"When do you think Wasp will get here?", Mandrake asked as they tore through the jungle.

"Honestly, I'm surprised we haven't seen anyone already", Willow whispered.

"Do we need to talk about what this -this Othermind is?", Mandrake asked.
"Is is the same thing that was controling the plant in the Legend of the Hive?"

"I don't think it's a dragon . . . ", Holly trailed off.

"I think it's the plant itself", Sundew finished for her.

Holly blinked.
She didn't feel like that was right.
She could imagine a evil plant wanting to get revenge from large creatures who cut through it's vines, but this? It felt too intelligent, too . . . wrathful too be a plant.
But then again, Sundew was the one who'd lived her her whole life, not Holly, she she must know what she was talking about.

"The plant?", Cricket asked.
"But plants don't even have brains! They don't make any evil plans or anything!"

"Actually, some of them do", Sundew said.
"They don't have voices like ours, and I'm guessing this one didn't until dragons came along."

It was late morning when they reached the other Leafwings.
They left the dragons from Sundew's village in a clearing as they went inside.
Nobody attacked them this time.

Bumblebee bonded over to them as they landed in the throne room.
She imediately went to Sundew and reached up to be held.
Tsunami and Turtle were the only other dragons in the room, still reading the Book.

"Found anything?", Willow asked.

"Not yet. But I do like Clearsight a lot more than I did before", Tsunami said.

"Why not?", Cricket asked.

"I thought she was an idiot who nearly let her boyfriend take over the world. But, to be fair, I guess we almost did too."

"What?", Willow asked.

"Long story."

Hazel swept into the room, several gaurds following behind her.

"Where's Inchworm?", Sundew asked.
"I had my guards take him back to the river", Hawel said.
"What happened? Did the antidote work?"

Willow told her the story as fast as possible; Hazel looked downcast by the end of it.

"So, you think this Othermind got everyone?", she asked.
"Maybe not everyone", Holly said.
"It may not have reached the dragons farther away from the smoke, but I think we have to assume it did. All it really needed was the queen- it could just get her to tell everyone else to eat the antidote, and they probably would."

"So . . . we have to get everyone and hide somewhere", Hazel said.
She turned towards the guards.

"Gather the whole village. Tell them we're evacuating and moving out by noon. Don't bring anything you don't need, Try not to make anyone panic. Tell them all is not lost, as long as we move quickly. Tell them we might still be able to save our queen and our friends, and that I'll tell them more when we get to safty."

"But where are we supposed to go?", Willow asked as the guards flew off.
"If we keep retreating farther and farther into the jungle, we'll eventually reach the ocean."

"We have to cross it", Cricket said.
"The Distant Kingdoms are the best place to hide."

Tsunami slammed down the Book.
"This thing has nothing useful in it!", she said.
"Me and Turtle can't swim hundereds of you over there!"

"Let me see that", Hazel said.
Turtle handed to her.

"This book feels weird", Hazel said.
"I can't say I approve of whoever bound it."

Holly grinned.

"Look at how the back cover is thicker than the front. That's just messy. Unless. . . ."

"Hazel, what are you DOING?!", Cricket cried as Hazel cut a long slit along the back edges of the Book.

Hazel reach two claws inbetween the leather and slid out a tiny peice of paper.

The world held it's breath as Hazel unraveled the paper.

"It's map", Hazel said.

A/N: Hope you enjoyed!
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Wordcount: 1701

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