Mary chewed on her lower lip as she stumbled down the hall. Without her sword, the world was a more terrifying place filled with dangers that couldn’t be cut to death. She could punch them to death, but it wasn’t the same. And since her gauntlets and grieves had been taken as well, she wasn’t sure she could do that anymore. It was a good thing she never cared about the aesthetics of the palace because the palace had been completely destroyed. She heard she had done it when Zyocuh ordered her to kill Tafel, but she didn’t remember any of it. Was Tafel mad at her? Mary bit down even harder, drawing beads of blood out of her lip.

Mary rounded a corner into another hall. The phoenixes had told her Tafel was staying there. She hadn’t been allowed to go earlier since Vur was still asleep, but since he woke up, the dragons stopped keeping an eye on her. They wouldn’t give her back her uncle though. Mary trudged down the tattered carpet and stopped in front of probably the only intact room in the palace. Four different-colored rocks were outside the door, and a fairy was asleep on top of the red one. Mary tilted her head at the odd placement before placing her hand on the doorknob.

“Ah!”

Mary flinched and withdrew her hand. Her head whirled around, looking for the source of the sound.

“Down here.”

Mary lowered her head. She made eye contact with two coal-like eyes. The red rock waved at her, and Mary’s eyes bulged. “Y-yes? Hello, um, rock.”

“You shouldn’t go in there right now,” Sheryl said. “Tafel made us leave Vur’s body, so that can only mean one thing.”

Mary tilted her head. “What?”

“You know,” Sheryl said, gesturing out to the sides with her arm. “That.”

Mary blinked twice and shook her head. “I don’t.”

Sheryl scratched her rocky face. “They’re, um, making babies.”

Mary’s eyes lit up. “Oh!” She nodded. “I want to say hi to the stork. I’ve never met it before.” Without waiting for Sheryl’s reply, she pushed open the door and walked inside.

The four elementals exchanged glances with each other. A moment later, Mary came back outside and closed the door behind herself. She inched next to Sheryl and sat down with her feet flat against the floor, her knees touching her chest armor. Her fingers twined together, her hands wrapped around her shins. There was no expression on her face.

Sheryl cleared her throat. “Um. What happened?”

“There was no stork.”

***

Grimmy yawned and swished his tail in front of Bonnie’s face. She tried to grab it, but it was too fast, and she tumbled over onto her side. “Too slow,” Grimmy said and yawned again. “How boring.” He was on top of the castle walls while Eldest, Youngest, and Bonnie were inside the courtyard beneath him.

“Stop teasing them,” Sera said from her spot near the palace. She was whittling away at a piece of wood with her claws. “They’re not cats.”

Grimmy shrugged. “You heard that, kids? Your aunt says no fun allowed.” He withdrew his tail and turned around, drooping his head over the wall. He scanned the ground. “Oh, that’s a pretty nice staff. Who made it?”

“That one’s mine,” Eldest, Youngest, and Bonnie said at the same time. They glared at each other before diving towards the staff.

“I made it!”

“No, this one’s mine!”

“I picked out the burnt wood, remember? This is mine. Stop trying to steal my credit!”

Grimmy chuckled and folded his front legs. Then he curled his neck and placed his chin on top of his claws, getting comfortable as his tail wrapped around towards his head. Lindyss looked down at him from atop his snout. “Hey,” she said. “Shouldn’t we tell them about the summoning spells?”

“Oh,” Grimmy said. “Right, I forgot.” He lifted one wing and waved it up and down. “Hey, Sera.”

“Yes?”

“There’s three creatures being summoned that’re about as strong as us and they probably want to destroy this continent,” Grimmy said. “You might want to take care of that.”

Sera stopped whittling her staff. “What?” she asked, raising her head to meet Grimmy’s gaze. “Where?”

“Those three little empires surrounding this one,” Grimmy said. “You didn’t notice? The sky even turned red from all the mana. Why don’t you get your mom to handle it? She’s pretty strong, no?”

Sera clicked her tongue. “She went to visit my dad. I don’t know when she’ll be back.” A sigh escaped from the sky-blue dragon’s mouth, freezing the ground underneath her. “If she finds out her home was destroyed while she was gone, she’ll get angry at me.” She turned her head and prodded her sleeping mate with her tail.

Vernon’s eyes fluttered open. “Huh? Is it time to go home?”

“No,” Sera said. “It’s time to go hunting.” She turned towards Grimmy. “Will two of us be fine?”

Grimmy shrugged. “You’ll probably get hurt pretty bad. The person who created them has a huge grudge against dragons. No doubt, those creatures are specialized to hunt dragons down. Magic won’t work on them.”

Vernon scratched his head. “All I’m hearing is, ‘It’s time to abandon this continent.’ Is that what you heard, dear?”

Sera smacked her mate’s snout with her wing in reply. “Grimmy, why don’t you come with us?”

“Eh.” Grimmy grunted and averted his gaze. “Who’ll watch over these brats? And I should stay behind just in case something happens to Vur.” His eyes lit up, and Lindyss got a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach. “Tell you what, I’ll lend you this little elf.”

“I’m not yours to lend!” Lindyss said. Despite her protests, Grimmy plucked her off his head and placed her on top of Sera’s.

Grimmy grinned at Sera’s questioning expression. “Back at Leila’s home, she summoned a bunch of undead dragons and traumatized my mother-in-law through sheer force. She’s actually very strong, you know? I helped make her myself.”

Sera took a second glance at Lindyss. “Is that so. Well, I appreciate the assistance.”

“I never said I was going to….” Lindyss sighed at Grimmy’s narrowed eyes. “Ugh, fine. Whatever. I’ll help.”