A Tangled Web of Silk

Chapter One
For the first three years of her life, Gypsy loved being a SilkWing. Life was beautiful in Bloodworm Hive. Gypsy and her family of five had a happy life. Her mother, Ermine worked for a shop down in Bloodworm Hive market. Her father, Bogong, had a happy life as a school teacher. Gypsy's laughing, giggling younger brother hadn't gone through his Metamorphism yet. Skipper, Gypsy's older sister had gone through a normal Metamorphosis, and had been paired with a nice librarian in Wasp Hive. Gypsy was only three days away from her own Metamorphosis and she was so excited to have wings. Suddenly a rose gold head popped its way through the thick webs around their cell, then a body followed and walked up right next to Gypsy.

"Gypsy!" Swallowtail sang. "Come on! My Metamorphosis is today, and if I am going to be asleep for five days, I need to eat!" Gypsy rolled her eyes and resettled her wings buds. Swallowtail was her best friend, but she loved food more than anything, and now she was going to demand that they go to the most expensive cafe in Bloodworm Hive, probably blowing Gypsy's scales for the next couple weeks.

Gypsy yawned, pretending to be half-asleep. "What are you doing here, Swallowtail? Shouldn't you be at your own cell?" Swallowtail's wings shifted uncomfortably, and Gypsy felt guilty for mentioning it. Swallowtail's mother worked for Lady Bloodworm, so she was always gone when Swallowtail woke up, and Swallowtail's father hadn't been heard from since he arrived from another hive to mate with Swallowtail's mother and have Swallowtail's egg. Then her father was whisked away to the hive he came from. They only knew his name from eavesdropping. Whitespeck.

But Swallowtail only smiled weakly. "No one was home when I woke up, so I thought I might drop by." Swallowtail walked into the light flexing her wing buds. She was rose gold all along her body, with hints of white along her spine and tail, and purple dots along her face (which was usually smiling) like freckles. Her wing buds were unfurling, revealing rose gold swirls with white flecks. She kept rubbing her wrists and putting them on the cool surface of the webs.

"Does it hurt?" Gypsy looked at her friend with concern. Their teachers a Cocoon Academy never said anything about the Metamorphosis hurting. Swallowtail winced.

"I guess a little bit. But I don't know, maybe I'm just stressed." Gypsy hated the anxiety lines on her friend's face. Gypsy bumped Swallowtail's side.

"Come on, someone said food and now I am hungry. Do you want to go to Vegetable Garden? I know we don't usually go their but-" Swallowtail's face broke with a grin.

"Are you serious Gypsy?!" Swallowtail leapt up excitedly, the worry gone from her face. "Lets go!" She jumped off of the web she was standing on and landed on the web below going to the silk bridge. Gypsy followed more slowly, but had to hurry to keep up with Swallowtail's reckless climbing. It didn't take long for them to get to the first checkpoint in the Hive. The line was only a few dragons long, but it seemed to take forever. To pass the time, Gypsy looked around the cramped tunnel, thinking of ways to improve it. ''More guards to keep the lines shorter. More spacious tunnels. Maybe less dead LeafWings in the mural. ''She thought with a glance at the mural. It had the glows of red and orange HiveWing flying across a sunny hilltop, with SilkWing's following behind them, and dead LeafWing's sprawled out across the hilltops. Gypsy shifted uncomfortably. She never liked that mural even though there were dead LeafWing's everywhere. It felt...sad.

"NEXT!" A voice boomed. Swallowtail stepped up, Gypsy right behind her.

"Swallowtail." Swallowtail held out her arms for the guards to examine. The crimson HiveWing nodded, his black scales spread out along his wings and face.

"Metamorphosis today." He said simply. Swallowtail nodded slowly, trying to keep the grin off of her face. Gypsy watched in confusion as the guard leaned over to the other one, who was examining the two SilkWing's like half eaten papayas. He leaned into her and whispered something. She nodded and whisked down the hall, her wings beating fiercely. ''What was that? ''Gypsy thought worriedly. But the guard stepped aside to let the SilkWing's pass.

"You forgot-" Gypsy started, but was cut off by Swallowtail stomping on her foot. Swallowtail gave her a look that said, 'The more time we waste with HiveWing's examining us, the less time we have to eat.' Gypsy rolled her eyes but hurried after Swallowtail who was already heading up the tunnel towards the restaurants. Restaurant Avenue wasn't really what the wide street was called, but that was always what Swallowtail called it, and it was growing on Gypsy. Luckily, Vegetable Garden wasn't too far down the lane. As they stepped into the small SilkWing restaurant, a little bell on the door rung. The seats were low and worn and the windows were always clouded or stained, but it was a cozy place to eat. Gypsy loved eating here not just because of the food, because of Sawfly. Sawfly was a HiveWing who worked at Vegetable Garden. He was always...friendly wasn't the right word, but he wasn't mean to them. Gypsy ducked her head and blushed slightly as Sawfly spotted them and came over to show them to a seat. Swallowtail gave Gypsy an arch look, as if she knew everything Gypsy was thinking.

"Follow me please." Sawfly led them over to a small table and then left them to decide what to eat.

"Gypsy and Sawfly," Swallowtail sang quietly "Flying in the sky. Getting all K-I-S-S-Y." Gypsy shoved her shoulder.

"Stop that." She just barely managed to keep the giggles quiet. "You know that is forbidden."

Swallowtail sighed dreamily. "You two are perfect for each other, though." Gypsy poked Swallowtail with her metallic blue tail to try to stop the flow of giggles coming from Swallowtail.

"Well?" Sawfly suddenly was standing only a few feet away from the table where the two SilkWing's were talking. Gypsy felt herself blush as he flicked his orange and black spotted tail. Sawfly was a deep red, almost black, with black and orange chasing their way around his scales like real flies. He gave Gypsy a smile, and she ducked her head. ''How much did he hear? ''She thought in a panic.

"One papaya for Gypsy here, and," She took a deep breath with a sly smile at Sawfly. "Two mangos, a few guavas stuffed with raspberries, some okra, a couple parsnips, one lettuce wrap, and one chamomile tea." She nodded in satisfaction at Sawfly's open mouth. But he nodded and flew towards the kitchen. Swallowtail burst into giggles.

"Did you see his face!?" Swallowtail cried. "''Priceless!" ''Swallowtail wolfed down her food while Gypsy nibbled slowly at her papaya, and they spent the rest of the day wandering around the hive, visiting the Butterfly Garden and watching the river flow through the Salvation Pool and over the side of the hive. The pool was shaped like a giant dragon, darker tiles on the floor creating the stripes of Queen Wasp holding the Book of Clearsight in solid gold tiles. They were splashing in the shallows of the Pool when Gypsy's father rushed up to them.

"Swallowtail," He said urgently, breathless, as though he had flew from the other side of the hive. "It is time for your Metamorphosis. Get going." Swallowtail jumped up, rubbing her wrists, which Gypsy noticed were glowing in a strange way. Swallowtail suddenly took off running, towards the tunnels that led down to the Cocoon. Gypsy jumped out of the river to follow her, but Bogong spread his wings to stop her.

"Sorry Gypsy," He started wryly. "You can't come to Swallowtail's Metamorphosis."

Chapter Two
"What?!" Gypsy cried. "Father, why?" Swallowtail was just beginning to disappear down the tunnel. But Bogong simply placed his dark green wing over Gypsy's back and gave her a small smile.

"You remember you promised to help your mother out in the shop today, right?" He smiled in an annoying way. "And remember SilkWings..."

"...Always keep their promises. Yeah yeah." She finished hurriedly with a wave of her claws. "But I can help mother any day, this is Swallowtail's only Metamorphosis." Bogong frowned.

"No excuses." He made a clicking sound with his tongue as he led her firmly down another tunnel that led to the market. Gypsy thought about struggling or protesting, but she knew se couldn't win. Bogong was right. She had promised to help her mother at Meat Dreams.

"Fine." She grumbled as they walked down the tunnel towards the checkpoint line. The line was shorter than the one coming into the hive, but still at least ten dragons long. Two HiveWing's were standing, asking for names and ID's. Gypsy touched the scars in her palms, carving her first initial G forming a small triangle with B and E for her parents. "I'm glad they did these carvings before we could remember it." Gypsy mused thoughtfully. Bogong chuckled.

"For me, I can remember it. Really well. It was done when I was a year old." He rubbed the letters in his palm as well, gazing thoughtfully at the ceiling.

"What!" Gypsy stared at her father with new interest.

"Yup." He smiled at her. "When I was just a new born dragonet, they were about to do my carvings, but suddenly their was an emergency with one of the eggs. The Carvers all ran to go deal with it, forgetting to do my carvings. Each of the Carvers thought that the other did the carvings. So when it came time for me to leave the Hatchery and move to my cell, they thought it was done." Bogong shrugged. "When I went through my first checkpoint, they noticed the mistake and sent me to get my carvings. They heated up the needle and-"

"Ok Father! I think I get it." Bogong smiled at her and opened his mouth. But before he could say anything, a roar billowed from up ahead.

"ANT!" The bigger HiveWing was roaring at the smaller, yellow HiveWing. The younger one was cowering before the bigger HiveWing, who was lashing his tail in fury. "You forgot to check his wristband!"

"Whoops." Ant said. Her voice was high and it had a slight tremor.

"Whoops. WHOOPS! Is that all you have to say, Ant! I was not turning cartwheels when they assigned you to me! WHY YOU ASK?! You have failed in LITERALLY EVERY OTHER DEPARTMENT! WHY WOULD THIS ONE BE DIFFERENT? Short answer: IT'S NOT!" The big HiveWing shoved Ant aside and turned to the SilkWing's standing in line. Gypsy stared at Ant with a pitying expression. Ant was hunched over in the corner, her wings folded around herself, looking like she was trying not to cry. Gypsy was staring at Ant for so long she didn't realize that they were moving up in the line.

"Names?" The big HiveWing growled at them.

"Bogong." Bogong held out his wrist. The HiveWing grunted and turned to Gypsy.

"Gypsy." She stammered. His brown eyes had a look of such intense fury it made her insides feel all queasy.

"Hmph." The HiveWing stepped aside and let them pass. Gypsy heard a jumble of voices progressively getting louder as they went down the tunnel. They stepped into the market, at least ten times as loud and busy as Restaurant Road. Dragons bustled all around the market, talking and calling to each other. A few SilkWings were trailing around the market, carrying water jugs and chatting with each other.