It had been over sixteen hours since Lotus had gone missing, and the village was in a panic. Where could the bright ForestDragon have gone? Holly heard rumors that she was abducted by BloodDragons, but she knew it wasn’t possible. Not the Lotus that she knew.

Of course, she didn’t know Lotus very well. The ForestDragon was Holly’s role model, the dragon she looked up to out of all the dragons in the Plantgrowers—which made Lotus incredibly hard to approach without Holly stammering or tripping over her tail or falling over her claws.

Holly was pretty sure that Lotus had never had a single thought about her. If she did, she probably thought Holly was sick in the head. She’d only met Lotus face-to-face twice in her life, and both times hadn’t exactly been bonding moments.

The first time, Holly had been a very young dragonet. Lotus and her family were going on a parade around the village for Lotus’s birthday. Lotus had needed a volunteer to help her grow flowers all over the village temporarily, and she had picked Holly. After they had grown them all, a young Lotus had given young Holly a hug. It had made Holly’s year.

The second time, Holly had caught Lotus sneaking out of the house. Holly liked to go on night walks under the moons, and had not expected to see Lotus.

She remembered walking along the vines that made the village ground above the trees, thinking about the three plants their village takes care of.

There was a noise in front of her, and she looked up to see a dragon-like shape slip out of the home in front of her. When Lotus had seen her, she had frozen in place.

“Lotus?” Holly had whispered in disbelief.

“What are you doing out this late?” Lotus had hissed. “The moons are in the middle of the sky!”

“Um, I like t-to go on walks. In the night. Alone. I-it’s nice, kind of. Do you—I mean—do you like to go on n-night walks? In the night?” Holly stammered. Oh for tree’s sake, she was horrible.

Lotus tilted her head. “Yeah. That’s, um…” She trailed off, looking over her shoulder and then at Holly. “That’s what I was—going to do! Yep, do doo do doo, hum de dum, this is just me, going on a moon walk! I mean, night walk! So, um, you can go away now! Continue on your walk!” She pretended to whistle carelessly, swishing her tail. She gave Holly a side glance.

Holly stood there for a moment, then got the message. “Oh! Um, I guess I’ll just walk away! Really fast, for no odd reason, yep! On my night walk! And not come back here during the night! Bye!”

She had scuttled away, confused and kind of let down that her hero had just pushed her away like that. Holly was not sure what mischief Lotus had been up to, but she clearly did not want Holly sticking her orphan snout in Lotus’s business.

She sighed.

Right now, she was sitting on top of a very large tree, shredding a leaf in her claws. Holly had no idea what to do. she was useless at everything ForestDragon-related, from gardening (ugh, all those long hours in a hot sticky greenhouse getting bugs in her scales) to poison class (did the really have to learn about all the materials needed to kill someone?) to shooting amber (she was an incredibly bad shot. There was always amber on everyone after she tried). She was clumsy when maneuvering through the trees, and always bumped into other people. Her claws were so sharp, she cut through the thick vines as she walked on them, and dragged marks through trees without even trying. That meant she was bad at stealth because she left marks everywhere.

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She also had very strong venom, which the entire village discovered when she melted the wing of another dragonet by accident. That had almost gotten her banished. Her ability to shoot acid-like venom out of her tail made her feared throughout the village, along with her being a bad shot.

The venom naturally in her teeth was also like acid, which did not help her eat.

Don’t ask.

Let’s just say that meals were very messy.

But maybe, if Holly just improved a little bit, then she could find Lotus. She’d be a hero to the village, and then maybe Lotus would finally notice her, and they could be friends, and then the dragonets in the orphanage wouldn’t bully her all the time for being so useless.

Holly braced herself and shot venom out of her tail spike, aiming for one of the Thornwrangler plants that ate dragons.

The blob of venom missed the plant by eight feet and splattered on a giant spiderweb, melting it and the fat spider on top of it. Holly winced.

She had some improving to do, all right.

But maybe if she started now…

***************

By sunrise, Holly was desperate.

All of her shots missed. She’d been scratching targets on leaves and bushes, but to no avail. Trees, grass, and a few unfortunate animals fell victims to her unrelenting venom blobs. All the things she was sworn to protect as a ForestDragon.

It didn’t help that she shot out almost a bucketful of venom from her tail at a time.

Maybe if I reduce the amount by a little bit, my aim will improve, Holly thought hopefully. Only, she didn’t know how to do that.

One more try.

Holly braced herself again, only this time she made a conscious effort to hold some back. She took a hold of her tail with her talons, and aimed it at the target.

The dark green venom came out once again, but in a much smaller amount. It hit the target, almost on the bulls eye.

For a moment, Holly was stunned.

Then the realization sunk in. She had done it! She had successfully hit the target with her venom, even if she had to aim her tail!

“Yes!” Holly did a small victory dance, opening and closing her wings and prancing in a circle. All she had to do was put a little more effort into her endeavors, and she would become a good shot. Maybe not the best shot of the village, but it was a start.

Holly felt her hopes and confidence build with every shot. She now was at the point where she didn’t have to aim her tail anymore and could still hit the target. She worked for so long that a new question began to crowd her mind.

Could she run out of venom?

Holly didn’t think so. The amount of venom a ForestDragon produced was based on their electrolyte intake, so drinking water and eating the salted glasswort stems kept her venom at its highest point. Plus, she was holding back on the amount of venom she shot out, so, as far as Holly was concerned, she was storing more venom for later use.

By midday, Holly could hit the bull’s eye with her venom no problem. She had to move from clearing to clearing, or she would kill everything around her.

“Alright,” she said to herself, curling her tail around her razor-sharp claws. “I think I’m ready.”

She stretched her dark green neck to the sky, searching the tree branches with golden eyes. Could she find Lotus? Was she up for this? What if she failed?

Holly spread her lime green wings speckled with gold and red flecks. I’ll take my chances, then.

And if I fail…well, the village won’t miss me at all.