Nova had his palm held out, holding onto a few staves as if they were toothpicks. He used his other paw to rifle through them, flipping them over and inspecting them. “Oh, these staves are very good,” he said with a grin. He glanced down at his three grandchildren, who were staring up at him with sparkling eyes. He resisted the urge to chuckle. “They’re great, but there are some ways to make them better. See how this staff over here is completely straight?”

“Yes, Grandpa,” the annoying trio said at the same time.

“Mana may seem like a simple thing, and it may seem like a straight line would conduct it the best, but think about it, are any of our body parts truly straight?” Nova swept his gaze over the trio. “No, right? That’s because mana doesn’t actually flow at a consistent rate, it ebbs and wanes like the tides. Think of how mana moves through you when you breathe out a breath.” He pinched the straight staff and raised it up. “Who made this one?”

“I did,” Youngest said, raising his paw.

Nova nodded. “Do you mind if I make some changes to it?”

Youngest shook his head.

Nova put down the other staves and whittled away at the straight staff with his claw, gouging and cutting away the wood with precise motions. When he was done, the previously stiff pole had turned into a gnarled walking stick with a spiral cut out at the top end. The bottom end had been sharpened into a point. “When you tried putting mana in this earlier, it was probably stiff, right?” He handed the staff to Youngest. “Try it now.”

Youngest received the staff in his paw and swallowed. Then he focused his mana into the bottom of the staff. His eyes widened as his mana surged unimpeded from one end to the other. He stared up at Nova with his mouth hanging open. “Wow!”

“Let me see, let me see,” Bonnie said and snatched away the staff. After inserting her mana, her eyes widened as well, staring up at Nova with the same fervor as her younger brother. “Woah….”

Nova chuckled and leaned back, sticking his chest out. “How is it? What do you think of your grandpa’s skills?”

“Fix our staves too,” Eldest said, nudging the pile towards his grandfather.

Nova grinned and picked up the next staff, whittling away at it after a quick inspection. A movement in the corner of his eye caught his attention. A woman holding a turtle shell was staring up at him with an entranced look in her eyes. Nova raised an eyebrow. “Who are you? Do you want to learn too?”

Mary bobbed her head up and down. Nova leaned over, grabbed a tree, and snapped it in half. He pinched off a branch and handed it to Mary. “Hmm. You’ll need something to cut that with, won’t you?” His brow furrowed. A moment later, his eyes lit up. “I have just the thing.” He lifted his wing and gestured towards Mary. “Climb up here.”

Mary tilted her head and placed the branch onto the ground. She made sure Mary Junior was still tightly wedged underneath her arm and climbed up Nova’s side with swift motions. Nova pointed underneath his wing. “Do you see that hilt? It’s golden with a phoenix engraved on it.”

Mary nodded.

“Try pulling on it. It’s wedged in pretty tight, but you look pretty strong,” Nova said. “See if you can get it out.”

Mary grabbed the hilt and tugged, but it didn’t budge. She furrowed her brow and planted both her feet against Nova’s scales, bending her knees. She adjusted her grip, making sure her arm was straight. Then she straightened her knees. With a squelching sound accompanied by a squirt of blood, the sword slid out of Nova, and Mary went flying from the sudden loss of resistance. She yelped as she crashed to the ground, landing on her back but holding Mary Junior up with one hand and the sword with her other.

“Ah,” Nova said, letting out a small groan. “That feels so much better.” He flapped his wing up and down a few times before letting it settle against his side. “Can you believe that thing was stuck inside of me for over several hundred years? I actually forgot about it until now.”

Mary sat up and swallowed, her eyes wide as they stared at the blood-drenched sword in her grasp. “I … can have this?”

“Yeah,” Nova said. “It belonged to a human who stabbed me and put me to sleep, but he should be dead by now since humans don’t live very long. You can have it as my thanks for removing it.”

Mary swallowed again, her eyes welling with tears. “Thank you,” she said and hugged the sword to her chest, dropping Mary Junior onto the ground. “I’ll cherish it forever and ever.”

Nova scratched his snout. “Err…, yeah, sure. No problem. No need to cry. You’re Vur’s friend, right? Just think of it as a gift from him to you.”

Mary stiffened. She looked down at the hilt of the sword, then up at Nova. “I…. Okay.” She stroked the flat part of the sword’s blade, coating the tips of her leather gloves with blood. “I’ll accept this as a gift from Vur, my … friend.”

A wooden branch fell into her lap. “Alright,” Nova said. “Now you can get to carving too. You can make Vur a staff in return in the future. Just take some firewood from Sharda’s place and use that as your base when you get serious.”

Mary bobbed her head up and down and scooted over next to Youngest to get a better view of Nova’s demonstration.

“Hey,” a small voice said from off to the side. The four dragons and Mary turned their heads towards the sound. Alice swallowed and nudged Mr. Skelly, who was sitting next to her. She whispered, “You say it.”

Mr. Skelly cleared his throat and rose to his feet. “We’re friends of Vur too. Do you happen to have any more troublesome weapons embedded inside of you that you’d like us to help you remove?”

Nova raised his brow. Then his eyes curved into a smile. “I do indeed.”

“What,” Alice said. “Really?”

“They’re not weapons per se, but my lower back hasn’t been scratched in ages,” Nova said. “I’m sure a few scales are in the process of shedding and haven’t fallen off yet. All you two-legged creatures love using dragon scales as crafting materials, don’t you?”

“So, you want us to scratch your back, and we get to keep the shedding scales?” Alice asked. She stared up at the dragon that seemed like the size of a mountain. How do you scratch a mountain’s back?

“Yep,” Nova said. “You just have to scratch the parts that I can’t reach.” He swept his front paw towards his wing before placing it back onto the ground. Then he lifted his hind leg before setting it back down. “Limited range of motion, see?”

Alice and Mr. Skelly exchanged glances with each other. They nodded at each other before facing Nova with their backs straight. “Alright, we’ll do it. We’ll give you the best backscratching of your life.”