Ashes and Smoke☆☆☆Chapter 8

Instructions

Octavia, still holding on to Kudzu and Oak, dragged them into the exit tunnel and sat them down roughly. Kudzu had never seen Octavia that angry before, not even when one of the archivists spilled sauce all over important documents. With fire in her eyes, she turned towards Kudzu and said "Explain." Kudzu gulped. You know Octavia was really mad when she stopped shouting and instead spoke with that cold, scary tone in her voice. Kudzu stammered out the story of sneaking out and fighting, but Octavia stopped her halfway through. "No," She said. "How do you know this leafwing?" Kudzu paused. She had almost forgotten Oak was there. Sighing, she said "He was in my class in the Poison Jungle. I don't know why he's here or how he found us." At this, Oak made a noise of objection and jumped in with his own explanation. "You were kidnapped!" He said in that whiny tone of voice that had always annoyed her in the jungle. "I had to save you!" Kudzu huffed in frustration. He had done this in the jungle too, all 'my princess' and 'be careful, your Highness!' It had driven her crazy. He was one of the many things she was glad to leave behind, but now he was back and already getting on her nerves. "Oak, I wasn't kidnapped, I came here with my own free will." He faltered, clearly confused. "Why would you do that? You have everything you need in the jungle." Kudzu rolled her eyes. He was so starry-eyed for the jungle and everything in it that it was almost creepy. It was a death trap, not some sort of paradise. "Why can't you just expect that I wanted to get out of the jungle?!" Oak frowned and then rushed towards Kudzu, breaking out of Octavia's grasp. "You've obviously been brainwashed. I'm taking you back to the jungle, it's not safe here!" Before he could grab onto her, she hit him with her tail, stopping him in his tracks. "Why can't you just leave me ALONE!?" She shouted. "Actually," Octavia interjected. "He can't leave. He's found out Migration's location, he'll be a danger to us if we let him go." Kudzu furrowed her brow. She couldn't be serious. Oak was the biggest pain in all the jungle aside from her dad. Having him stay here would ruin everything. Octavia noticed her look and held her talons up. "I know you don't like him, and he did attack you, so I'm going to try to keep him as far away from you as possible. Now if you excuse me, I'm going to bed. And we'll have a little talk in the morning about you going outside, Kudzu." And with that, she sailed away, leaving Oak and Kudzu sitting there in silence.