Ashes and Smoke☆☆☆Chapter 7

Instructions

Kudzu was starting to get impatient. Three weeks stuck inside these dumb tunnels and she had barely done anything besides getting stared at by silkwings. That's almost a month! She hadn't even been able to see the hivewing, the closest dragon here to her age. Plus, there was the other hybrid, who hadn't left yet. Both of them were completely harmless, but Octavia still kept her away from them. This place was almost as bad as the jungle! At least she could decide when and even if she went to classes. She always did, though. The classes were the best part of Migration in her opinion. Everything from how to restrain a dragon in a fight to how to add poison to someone's food without them noticing, the classes in Migration were a lot more fun, and useful, than any of the classes Kudzu had in the jungle. It was because of these classes that she was able to sneak out of the tunnels unseen. It wasn't like she was going far, she was just popping her head out for a breath of fresh air once in a while. If once in a while meant every other night. But so far she hadn't been caught, and she meant to keep it that way. Kudzu had been outside (At night, because she wasn't an idiot) when she saw movement on a nearby hill. Movement that looked suspiciously like a dragon. She had hightailed back inside as fast as she could, but now she faced a dilemma. Should she tell Octavia that she saw someone out there? If she did, Octavia would ask what she was doing out there in the first place and she would get in trouble, but if she didn't, she could leave Migration unaware of a potentially dangerous dragon. She decided to wait. If she saw the dragon the next night, she would tell Octavia. Hurrying to her room, she fell asleep that night uneasy. 《《《《•》》》》 The next night was a busy one. The stealth team had brought back someone from who knew where, so the tunnels were bustling with activity. This made it substantially harder for Kudzu to get around without getting seen, but it also made her job a bit easier. Plenty of dragons were close by in case she got attacked. Slipping through the crowd, she made her way to the tunnel's entrance, her nerves on end. 'It's fine.' She assured herself. 'I'm just paranoid. I think Octavia is getting to me.' Stepping onto the cool grass, she slowly began to relax. As far as she could tell, there was no one there. And then she promptly got tackled. The only thing she could see before her head hit the ground was a flash of green. Luckily, the classes she had been in trained her for this exact situation. Kicking out with her back legs, she struck her attacker in the ankle, causing them to wobble for a moment. Taking advantage of this momentary distraction, she elbowed the attacker in their face, causing them to lose their grip on her other arm. She pulled herself out from under her attacker. Her attacker lunged at her, just barely missing her tail. Think, Kudzu, think! What was she supposed to do? Dodging the attacker's grabs, her mind drifted back to a self-defense class she took a couple days ago. When alone with your attacker, you have to draw attention to yourself in any means necessary, so that other dragons could come to your aid. She was snapped back to reality when the attacker charged at her, trying to tackle her again. The screams that came out of her were very, very real. It only took a few more moments of desperately trying to claw her way out of the attacker's grasp when a talon grabbed her and yanked away from the attacker. Kudzu glanced up to see Octavia frowning deeply. She sighed with relief, her heart still pounding. Never had she been so glad to see Octavia's grumpy face.