Holly's POV

Willow, Sundew, Hazel and Holly reached the throne room first.
The Leafwing queen was sitting on her throne, her eyes closed and her forehead furrowed as though she was having an enormous headache.

"Your majesty", Willow said.
"We heard Belladonna outside", Sundew finished. "I don't know how or why she guessed I was here! I leave the village at night all the time. I didn't know she would come looking for me so quickly, or that she'd think to come here."

"She didn't", Sequoia said. "I summoned her."

"You summoned her?", Sundew asked." Why didn't you tell me? Or at least warn me? I don't want to see her!"

Sequoia looked almost gobsmacked.
"I don't want to see her either, but we have no time for my peace of mind or your family drama. Wasp is about to throw her entire brute force at us, every claw and venomous stinger. We need to plan and we need all talons ready, all Leafwings, no matter what our differnces may be or have been in the past."

"Well, talking to her sure won't help", Holly muttered.

"Well, I don't really have a choice", Sequoia said. "I need to know what else she may have done and what she's going to do next. I told her to bring her captives, or else I wouldn't release my hostages. That means you two", she said to Holly and Sundew. She gave a snort of laughter.
Holly had to admit that after all the trouble Belladonna had caused for her and Sundew, it was pretty hillarious to imagine her reaction to Sequoia's threat.

It was slighty less hillarious when Belladonna swooped inside, once again in her towering cloud of rage.
She came straight through on of the balconies, and slammed her talons on the polished wood floor, scattering raindrops everywhere.
She was wearing only a few of her pouches, which felt out of character for her. Then Holly realized she must have had a stash of the most dangerous weapons in the jungle read for a moment like this. Judging from their tilted angle, Belladonna must have put them on as fast as she'd flown in here.

"What are you doing here?", she roared at them, mostly at Sundew. "You know you're not supposed to talk to Sapwings! Forget come to their village!"

Sundew glared at her. Holly spread her wings and shrugged.
"They caught us."

"CAUGHT YOU?!", Belladonna snarrled.

"And um, dragged us the whole way", Holly said. "Kicking and fighting like Hades the whole time."

"These dragons?", Belladonna scoffed. "Sapwings did that?"

"Yup, and forced us to tell them everything", Sundew said.
"It was barbaric really. You should be mad at her." She pointed to Sequoia, who rolled her eyes.

"Something about this is unlikely", Belladonna growled.

"It doesn't matter", Sequoia said, standing up.
"I should arrest you for treason. You did everything I told you not to. You were seen by Hivewings. You stole their sacred property. And you set on of their hives of fire!"

Belladonna lifed her chin and narrowed her eyes.
"I see you really have to them everything."

"Did you bring your captives?", Sequoia asked.

"I brought the others", Belladonna said. "But not the flamesilk. You cannot have my flamesilk."

"Even in exchange for you daughter?", the queen asked.
"My daughter could kill you anytime she wanted, even without her annoying friend here. She just trying to infurriate me."

"Yep, that's right, Mother", Sundew said with a yawn. "Everything I do is because of you. I think about you. All. Day. Long."

"Stop it, you two", Sequoia ordered. "Belladonna, bring the other captives inside. Hazel, please go retrieve our unusal guests."

Hazel nodded and hurried out of the room.

"What if I-", Belladonna started.

"I don't care if you don't want to!", Sequoia shouted. "You may have been apart from us for the last fifty years,but your still my tribe. If we don't work together, we don't stand a chance." She closed her eyes.
"One. . . . . two. . . . . . three. . . . . ."

Belladonna huffed out of the room.

"Are you going to tell us the truth about the mind control plant?", Holly asked.

"Yes", the queen said. "I have to."

Just then, Hazel came back with Tsunami and the unfamiliar Silkwing behind her.
She was tall, with enormous indigo wings dotted with green.
Her expression was alert and difiant, as though she wouldn't hesitate to punch anyone if she had to.

"Oh, thank goddness", Swordtail's voice said loudly. "I was wondering how long we'd have to wait out here in the rain! I am so soggy! Ack!", he said as he landed on the balcony and squelched inside.
"I am so sorry about your floors! Aw man, look at these footprints! I didn't even know I was this muddy! How did this even happen,? We were flying! I mean-"

"Swordtail?!", the purple dragon gasped.

He looked up and his jaw dropped.
"Io!", he shouted, bounding toward her.
A shower of droplets fell on everyone in the room as e threw his wings around her.

"Swordtail! Holy crap, man!", Holly huffed, shaking herself off.

"This is my sister!", Swordtail crowed. "Sundew! Holly! Cricket! This is my sister!"

"How did you get here?", Io cried.

"That's the longest story ever. How did you get here?", he asked as Cricket silded across the room to Sundew's side.

"Well, my plan was to hide with some friends in the Yellowjacket Hive Crysalis", Io said. "But when I arrived, gaurds spotted me and they chased me pretty much all the way to the jungle. I flew inside to escape them but I was eatten by this huge, sticky plant. It was going to eat me, Swordtail! With like, it's goo, or something! How wild is that? But these dragons rescued me and said I could lay low here for a bit."

"That is bonkers", Swordtail said. "I got eatten too!"

"Oh great", Holly whispered. "Now there are two of him."

"Have you heard anything about Blue?', Io asked. "Did the Hivewings get him or did he find the Crystalis?"

"Neither!", Swordtail said. "He found her." He pointed to Cricket.

Io saw Cricket for the first time and her cheerful expresion quickly turned into one of fury.
She took a step towards Cricket, and Holly rushed infront of her friend, but Swordtail stopped his sister first.
"No, calm down, Cricket's on our side. He's here, actually, just at the other Leafwing's village."

"Oh", Io said. "But what about-" She rolled her eyes back so far almost only the whites showed.
"Doesn't work on her or the dragonet", Swordtail said.

"Excuse me", Tsunami said, "but did you just say Blue? Someone told us-"

"Oh my gosh!", Cricket gasped, grapping Holly's arm.
"Oh-oh my gosh! Did you see that? What's happening? Who is that? Why is she so amazing and blue and look at her wings and are those webbed talons? They're for swimming, right? IS she a water dragon? AND OH MY GOSH, SHE'S FROM THE DISTANT KINGDOMS!"

"If you're going to faint, at least give me Bumblebee so that you don't squash her", Sundew sugested.

"Maybe I should vist other continents more often", Tsunami said. "I wish everyone was that happy to see me."

"What until you tell Swordtail you've seen Luna", Sundew said.
Swordtail whirled around to face Tsunami.

"Yes, she's all right", Tsunami said. "She washed ashore on our continent. She's the reason we're here, actually- she said you needed help and to find Blue and Swordtail and tell them she's okay."

Io put a wing around her brother as he buried his face in his talons. "It's going to be all right, Swordtail. She'll find her way back."

Holly spotted Mandrake as he walked inside.
He smiled at her and she waved to him.

"How does she speak our language?', Cricket asked, still oogling at Tsunami.
"Is it magic that we understand her? Or is she a magical dragon like Clearsight? Oh my gosh, can you see the future?"

"I can see a future", Tsunami said, "where it takes me three years to answer all of your questions."

"REALLY?", Cricket gasped.

"Calm down, Cricket", Sundew said. "If she could see the future, she wouldn't have almost been eatten by an anaconda."

"True", Tsunami said. "I also wouldn't have eatten the thing this morning that looked like a slug and actually turned out to BE a slug."

Sequoia clapped her talons together and everyone looked at her.

Holy crap, I feel like I'm at The frickin' Counsel Of Elrond.

"We have a lot to cover and not enough time", she said. "We will save introductions, reunions and questions for later. As I understand it, a few days ago, Belladonna and the Poisonwings commited an act of war when they burned down one of the Hivewings' cities. During the mission, they were seen, so there is no doubt in Wasp's mind that our tribe is still alive, and that we were the ones who started the fire."

"Can't we tell them it was them, not us?', Hazel asked.

"Good idea", Wolfsbane said. "I hear she's quite reasonable."

"Sorry, Hazel", Sequoia said. "Wasp hates all Leafwings equally, and she'll be even more furious when she learns I'm not dead. There's no chance she'd let half of us carry on peacfully in the jungle."

"And besides", Holly said, "even if the tribe was split into two groups fifty years ago, Sequoia's still the queen."

"And she's right." Sequoia flared her wings.
"There's no chance I'd let her kill the other half of the tribe, even if she promised to leave the rest of us alone. Those are our dragons too."

"We don't bow to you!", Belladonna snapped. "The Leafwings have no a queen! We don't NEED a queen!"

Sequoia narrowed her eyes and took several deep breaths.
"But you do have a problem, and you won't be able to sight them with only half of the tribe. Even a full Leafwing army wasn't able to beat her last time, and our numbers are much smaller now."

"How do you know we have an incoming army problem?", Belladonna scoffed."Maybe we scared them. Maybe their licking their wounds and wondering if we're vengeful ghosts."

The queen shook her head.
"I know Wasp. She strikes back when she's struck. I'm guessing we have a day, maybe two, while they put out the fire, tend to their wounded, and relocate their dragonets and eggs. Then maybe another day for her to gather her forces and travel here -probably less. If they're not on the border of  the jungle by
tonight, they will be tomarow."

"Tonight!", Willow gasped.

"That's ridiculous", Belladonna growled. "She can't orgainize her army that fast!"

"Yes, she can", Cricket said. "She doesn't need to waste time sending messagers or waiting for dragons to say their goodbyes, or any of that. She can just get inside their heads and MAKE them come to her."

"I already told you about the mind control", Sequoia sighed. "But, you didn't believe me."
She held up the mysterious vine.
"This is another reason she doesn't need to waste time. She needs this plant to conrol her subjects and keep them in her power, but Sundew and her friends destroyed her supply."

"Which was a good idea", Swordtail said. "And it was very heroic and I was definitely involved."

"She might have another supply of it though", Cricket said. "We burned down one greenhouse, but she could have more, right?"

"Maybe", the queen said. "But she also knows where to get more: right here in the Poison Jungle, where it originated."

"It's from here?", Sundew asked. "Are you sure? I haven't been able to sense it."

"That's because it's quaranined."
Sequoia looked at the vine as though it didn't deserve to be alive.

"It only grows in one corner of the jungle, guarded by a dragon named Hawthorn, who is forbiden to let it escape."

"Really?", Hazel asked.
"You never told me about this."

  "I've never heard about any of this either", Belladonna growled.

"It's not a secret we want anyone to know", Sequoia said.
"It's the most dangerous plant in the entire jungle."

She plucked one of the white flowers off the vine and held it up to her eyes.
The pale white faded to brown, but at the heart of the wilted flower was a red seed , so dark it was almost black.

"Have any of you heard of the Legend of the Hive?"

A/N: Add a vote, comment, and share. . . . . or else.

Wordcount: 2086

Renx out!