Their guide, Diwa, arrived long after the dragonettes had fallen asleep and woke them early. "Fia," she whispered and coaxed her from a restless sleep. "It's time to go."

Fia's eyes flashed open. "Ready."

Next Diwa went to stir Viliant. The three dragons gathered in the main room where the slumbering Rokirith still curled around the egg. Since Fia and Viliant had said their final farewells last night, they did not bother to disturb the slumbering dragon at the break of dawn.

Diwa brushed her wing over the back of his neck. "See you soon, Roki." She finished her last preparations for them to go, explaining to Fia and Viliant: I've salted and hung a few days worth of meat. Rokirith shouldn't have to hunt for himself while we're gone. For their own rations, Diwa packed some slabs of salted meat into a pair of side satchels that she strapped to herself. In addition to this, the dragoness carried the tightly packed parcels of ingredients in a couple of baskets. "Let's go," she whispered and ushered the dragonets through the hatch in the floor.

Fia hopped from branch to branch and tossed open her wings. This was the last time that she expected to descend from Diwa's treehouse. Her wings fluttered so that she could tap down onto the forest floor shortly after Diwa. They waited for Viliant to finish carefully picking his way down the trunk. Once both dragonets joined her on the ground, Diwa distributed her load between them. Fia took a lighter basket of herbs whereas Viliant's cargo contained both dried plants and lizard tails.

"Normally it takes me two days to fly to the capital," Diwa explained as they set off on their journey. "On foot, I expect it to take thrice that."

Fia tried to ignore the lengthy amount of time, reminding herself that the human army would take even longer to complete their march and sail all the way to Carlinoa.

Diwa proved herself more cautious around the jungle's dangers than Rokirith. Though little light reached the forest floor beneath the abundance of leaves and flowery vines, it somehow seemed brighter today. Diwa's considerate nose snuffled in the undergrowth, and she flicked out her tongue to better sample its scents.

When Fia tried to copy her, she sneezed from the pollen tickling her nose. Some white, fluffy spores drifted through the air when she looked up. A small monkey with a tufted tail crouched atop a branch. The nimble creature flipped itself around, swinging through the trees, so that it could make way for the dragons' approach.

"This way," Diwa declared once her nose had discerned the best course. Other times, her keen eyes would spy a set of tracks which the dragoness deemed prudent to avoid. Diwa escorted them through the jungle with little trouble.

At one imprint in the mud, Diwa paused for longer to rethink their route.

You don't have to do this for me and Fia, Viliant said. We're stronger than you think.

"I'm also doing this for myself," Diwa clarified. "It's important to avoid unnecessary fights, especially when your ley lines have been taxed."

"Hmph." Other than that sound, Viliant did not acknowledge her.

"Trust me," Diwa continued. "We'll reach the capital quicker this way." She finally decided upon the way forward and pressed on.

Fia had full confidence in Diwa's ability to get them there safer and quicker than she and Viliant could do on their own. Led by the dragoness, the dragonets marched until nightfall.

"Let's snack here," Diwa announced. Her careful claws unsnapped the buckles of her satchels and wrested herself free of the harness. Diwa took out two hunks of meat, one morsel for Fia and a larger portion for Viliant. "Eat up!" she cheered, even though Diwa ate none herself.

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While the dragonets munched the chewy bites of meat, they observed Diwa quizzically. "Are you not going to eat any?" Fia asked.

"No. It's important for dragonets to eat more frequently than adults."

Viliant's eyes flashed up from the meat on the ground. To Fia alone, he shared scathingly, As long as she didn't poison it. He kept eating.

What? Why would you say that? Though Fia tried to keep that exchange between herself and Viliant, her shock made her project it out to Diwa as well.

"What did Viliant say?"

"Nothing," he mumbled.

Diwa suspended her attention away from Fia and Viliant for now. Instead, she tipped her head back to the nearby tree. "Can we rest for the night in your branches? We'll kill any insects crawling under your bark that we notice."

The tree did not acknowledge Diwa or indicate any response.

"How can you tell that's a talking tree?" Fia asked.

"I can just sense it." Diwa walked a close circle around the tree. Her scales rubbed against the bark, including her tail which shifted from dragging along the base of the trunk to lifting higher than her head. After a full lap, Diwa cheered, "We can go up!"

As they climbed, Diwa showed them how to keep their head hovered close to the bark on the way up. "Listen to the insects rattling underneath the bark. Can you hear them?"

Fia flexed her ear and leaned the side of her head against the tree. A skittering sound danced up the trunk and made her fangs mimic the sound with a shiver up her spine.

In front of Fia's nose, Diwa punctured her claw through the bark. When she drew it back, a beetle had been skewered there. The carapace crunched underneath her fangs as Diwa chose to have a snack after all.

"Are the bugs… tasty?" Fia did not know that there were dragons who bothered to hunt prey so small.

"Eh." Diwa shrugged her wings from where she clung onto the tree trunk. "It's food." Her claws repeatedly stabbed the bark whenever she sensed an insect near. "This is the best way to make fast friends with the trees."

The tree would keep them safe from any manner of beasts on the ground, and since they were on good terms, it would not shake them from the branches as one had done to Rokirith. Fia figured that the trees did make good friends, so she followed Diwa's example. Her talons pierced the bark. Fia had not expected to succeed on the first try. The squirm and gush of an insect around her claw came as a pleasant surprise for her. "Ha!" she gasped. "I did it!"

I can't stop doing it. Viliant's long claws constantly struck one or more bugs with each foot higher that he traversed the tree.

"Hold on!" Diwa suddenly warned.

All three dragons clung to the trunk as the entirety of the tree shuddered. The tree either liked to have the bugs killed that infested it, or it disliked the pricks of the dragons claws—possibly both at the same time.

"Try not to rip up its bark too much," Diwa advised.

As they ascended higher into the tree and neared the canopy, some benign insects started to crawl across the bark's exterior. The ambient noise of their chirping seemed to magnify, a constant drone that would soon lull them to sleep. Once the dragons had reached a sufficiently thick and sturdy branch, Diwa jumped over to it. Her tail wrapped around the bough to anchor herself to it. Her two wings spread wide to welcome the dragonets to join her. Fia hopped and fluttered her wings to reach Diwa's far side. Viliant lumbered onto the branch and looked down. They each took a seat to huddle on either side of Diwa. The dragons did their best to rest while they waited out the rainforest's hours of darkness.

Occasionally, the green dragoness flicked her tail irritably in her sleep. She scratched her claws through the bark immediately at her feet and slashed a few more insects. Her tail coiled around the branch like a vine once more, and she nestled her wings tighter around Fia and Viliant. The dragoness, more accustomed to life in the trees, helped keep balance for them all.

Fia slept through Diwa's occasional adjustments. The pink dragonette found herself able to fall into a deeper slumber now that they were on the move. We're doing everything we can. This soothed her worries, trusting that if she tried her best, they would make it in time.

***

For six days Fia, Viliant, and Diwa journeyed like this. As they drew closer to the capital, they started to encounter other dragons that passed by them on the forest floor. Others' wingbeats caused loud rustles overhead. Fia was shocked to see the dark silhouettes of three dragons when she looked up. "Are we almost there?"

"Yes. These dragons are from my clan, but we're so numerous that I haven't seen anyone I know." Diwa hummed as she praised her people. "The Miorashe Clan oversees all the dragons, humans, and trees that live across the Malakow jungle. Welcome to the heart of the Malakow Empire."