Thea was having one of those days. Everything started out right as rain then Fanswald turned upside down. Add panic with a side of murderous herbs, then a add a dollop of dragon to the mix.

When failing to help the cannon crew find a pruning solution, she was rewarded with a slice of fire and brimstone.

Then after shouting an impressive string of profanities, many of which making no sense, she decided that her biggest priority was still the boss below. Clemiticus and the others would have to deal with that problem. Either way, her cannons don’t fire upwards and any flying creature was out of her line of sight.

“Miss Thea!” one of the cannon crew members called. “Your new ammunition is working but still lacks power!”

Thea bit her tongue. She was certain that her conjuring trick would also work. It was so effective on the little ones. An argument broke out on the deck above. Melly sounded as if she was yelling at herself.

That makes little sense, Thea thought, shrugging it off and went back to scheming. There must be a way to kill that damn thing.

A flash of movement broke her concentration. Winston, the wooden butler, appeared in the hallway.

“Hey!” she called out.

He turned about expectantly.

“Miss?” he gave her a well-practised bow. “Do you require sustenance?”

Thea shook her head.

“I have an idea but I’m not sure if it’s possible,” she replied.

The butler looked confused. “Sorry, I do not follow. What?”

Thea cleared her throat.

“Ok. I have used up all the materials, like wood from the storage. Is there any more stuff where that came from? I need much more to make something-bigger.”

The butler tapped on his wooden chin, looking through the window at the raging battle. He appeared unconcerned with the colossal skirmish below.

“Supplies, only a little. However, we may have a little something, but I’m not sure it will help.”

Thea clenched her jaw. Whatever it was Thea was confident that she could make it work. It just needed to be big.

The magical bubble that carried Dog aloft allowed the whale to have the best spot to watch. The bubble had a slight fish-eye-lens, granting a wider vision and increasing his potential view. Currently, he was above the funny humans who were surrounded by a horde of flowers in a weird dancing competition.

What silly humans.

Clemiticus, his bestest buddy in all Fanswald was having the best time. Dog could tell he was, by the way Clemiticus cheered every few moments with the blue fairy. Dog wanted to join in but knew that these tricky ‘plantys’ only grew when he squirted them, so this time he watched and waited.

It looked like ‘Team humans’ were winning, anyway.

When the black dragon appeared, Dog said, “Ooh! Pretty!”

He wondered if he could befriend this new flying creature; they had so much in common, for one they both could fly. Looking below, Dog could see that the one they called Melly was yelling again. She was always nice to Dog, so whatever she was angry at must be bad.

“Mother, what the heck?” Melly shouted.

A woman jumped off the dragon and onto the deck. It was she who Melly was mad at. Dog nodded to himself and readied his well-practised ‘mean face’.

Melly’s mother swaggered on the deck, then paused with her hands on her hips. Her dragon spiralled above, ignoring the foray below.

“My dear daughter I could ask the same!”

Derrick, the fuzzy red dwarf, stood between the two women with his hands up. Dog thought that this was getting interesting. The building drama was highly entertaining.

“Ladies! Ladies, please!” Derrick pleaded.

Drifting lower, Dog wanted to get a better look at the lady Melly was angry about. He floated slightly above his best bardic buddy. Clemiticus was with the King. They were currently ignoring the family spat and continued with their epic monster grinding session. Every few moments Fairy reported Clemiticuses’ gains with overwhelming positive praise.

Bing!

“Clemiticus has increased his back hand swing by five percent!”

“Well done, buddy!” Dog said, grinning wildly.

“You are hanging around with players? Players!” Melly’s mother yelled.

“Please calm down Tanwen!” Derrick pleaded.

“How do you know about players?” Melly asked.

“And now you're involved with the Queen?” Tanwen asked, ignoring her daughter's question.

“Wait what has the Queen got to do with this?” Melly asked.

Derrick coughed. It was obvious that none of these questions were going to receive answers.

Melly folded her arms and delivered a mighty death stare towards her mother. Dog attempted to mirror Melly’s expression only to look surprised and clogged. Her mother in kind, feigned ignorance offering her estranged family an expression of indifference.

“Why are the two ladies shouting so much?” Dog asked, wagging his tail.

Dog found the entire argument far more stressful that the battle below.

Melly looked up at Dog. Her demeanour softened.

“What on Fanswald is that?” Tanwen asked, staring.

“Good morning!” said Dog.

Melly’s mother shook her head. “Whatever, I don’t have time for this. Send me back. NOW!”

Melly looked just about to explode when her father stepped between them once more, calming his daughter with a gentle wave.

“Tanny,” Derrick said seriously, “We didn’t bring you here.”

“I find that hard to believe.” Tanwen said sharply.

Derrick sighed. “I watched it happen. A book flew up onto the deck and cast a weird spell, then poof there here you are.”

Tanwen eyed the dwarf with scepticism, then looked to where Derrick pointed. She moved towards the book and opened the pages, finding the dragon passage.

Dog watched in silence as the crazier older version of Melly rushed about the deck. She was speaking nonsense.

“They won’t like this. No, they won’t. Will they punish us? Maybe? It’s her fault!”

Nuecus appeared beside Melly. “Who let this crazy bitch on board?”

Melly stifled a chuckle as Tanwen rounded on the Thaumaturge.

“You!” she looked to be in a panic for a split second then relaxed. “You are not the one. But someone here is connected to the Queen.”

They all looked at each other, confused. Melly’s mother was making little sense.

“What’s going on, Tanny?” Derrick asked.

The dragon rider stormed to the side of the ship and pointed down at the plant monster. “That thing is magic created by the Queen and this here,” she gestured towards the book, “summoned me. It feels like that same power!”

“You’re still not making much sense, Tanny, would you like to sit down?” Derrick asked.

Melly’s mother finally conceded and sat beside her diminished ex-partner. Sighing heavily, she then looked up to her dragon and said softly, “Help them any way you can. I will think of something.”

The dragon must have amazing hearing, for it nodded far above the balloon and swooped down towards the boss and engulfed it with fire.

Melly ignored her mother and leaned over the side of the ship. The plant monster was on fire but was far from defeated.

Dog's fascinating soap opera had paused for the moment as the deck was once again absorbed into a plant versus human fighting match. Clemiticus was still dancing with the flying flowers, showing no signs of fatigue.

The giant plant boss below was also not slowing down. Every time the black dragon burnt its body to a crisp it branched out revitalised, regrowing twice as fast. Large vines shot out down the city streets striking its fellow plant monsters down. They were quickly absorbed by the larger plant sending power and nutrients to the central bulb.

Every second the boss grew bigger and bigger. There was no way to stop it.

Thea the young girl reappeared. She had one of her victory expressions on. Poor Dog felt jealous. He had been trying to make that same expression for weeks and found the best he could deliver was his hungry face.

“Another one?” Melly’s mother said. “Why are you associating with two players?”

Derrick only shrugged as the town planner ignored the recent addition on deck.

Thea looked up to see the floating whale, then beamed up at him.

“Good morning!” Dog said.

“Good morning indeed!” she replied.

Dog like Thea. She was always super nice.

“Say Dog, I need your unique talents!”

An explosion of excitement filled him with joy.

“Dog can be useful?” he asked.

Thea nodded. “Dog can!”

The young girl produced her magical schematics book and said, “Summon construct water storage.”

A large barrel appeared before them complete with a bright green funnel.

“Shoot as much water as you can in here.”

Dog nodded excitedly, then used his fancy water spraying technique towards the funnel. They watched as the red indicator on the side of container flinched.

Thea’s expression fell. It seemed Dog's waterpower was simply not enough.

Clemiticus then chose that moment to interrupt their water sport, asking, “And what’s going on here, then?”

Thea pointed towards the container.

“AH! I take it you have a plan,” he asked.

Thea nodded.

“And you need our bud here to ramp up his water abilities?”

“Good morning,” said Dog.

A mischievous smile fell on Clemiticuses’ face as he whipped out his special instrument.

“If its magic buffs you need to gain,” Clem said, grinning. “Then my riffs shall be insane!”

“Please don’t turn into another Ulberto.” Thea said quickly, adding, “We don’t need a bard that’s super lame.”

“Ah, nice one!” Clem added.

The musician quickly thought on the spot, then sang,

Once a party had a Whale and Doggo was his name oh!

D-O-G-G-O!

“So lame,” Thea said, shaking her head.

“Hey, you put me on the spot!”

The magic of the song rippled around the floating whale’s bubble. A sense of power overwhelmed Dog, filling his eyes with an azure magical glow.

The gauge on the container flickered as the intense flow of water surged inside.

Clemiticus turned back to the oncoming flying flowers to protect the two workers. The container was nearly full.

Bing!

“Ok you can stop!” Thea said, looking very pleased with their progress.

“Dog did good?”

Thea nodded. “Dog did!”

A sense of accomplishment washed over him as a particular smile fell on his lips. Dog had finally learned the victory expression.

“Ok next!” Thea said clearly excited. “It’s time for phase two! Container modification.”

A concerned fairy appeared beside the grinning town planner. The azure guide had stepped in to help Thea ever since Midori had escaped with the mysterious god.

“Are you sure?” the fairy asked.

Thea nodded.

“You will have to sacrifice all other current materials into energy to complete modification.” Fairy instructed her. “That includes your other turrets.”

“Do it! But leave that machine,” Thea said.

The fairy nodded. “It’s done.”

“Now, summon instant ice machine!”

The young town planner searched her book as the water contain disappeared into her other worldly material collection. The second machine appeared momentarily, sending a frigid wave of fog over the edge of the ship.

“A couple more seconds!” Thea noted.

Bing!

“Done!” Fairy said.

Dog watched as the town planner raced to the side of the ship and held out a hand. The Dragon above soared away instinctively as Thea drew on the ability she had honed since landing in Fanswald.

“Create item, Ice Anchor!”

The air temperature dropped instantly as an immense ice sculpture appeared in the sky.

“Oh, cool,” Clemiticus said.

The Dragon above swooped towards it and pushed the anchor in the right direction, directly towards the boss below.

Thud!

The anchor collided with the plant with monumental force severing it in two.

Bing!

“Thea has defeated the Plant Boss!”

The weight of the anchor was so immense it sent a shock wave through the land in all directions as Ice shards filled the air, dropping the temperature significantly.

“YAY! It’s snowing!” Dog cheered.