Tafel frowned and looked up at the sky. Honestly, she didn’t feel like thinking and planning was her strong suit. If only Alice were here, things would be a lot easier. She could take it easy and leave all the complicated things like evaluating danger and safety to the guild master. Since Alice wasn’t here though, she could only think things through by herself.

“Is something wrong?”

Tafel lowered her head and glanced at the woman sitting across from her. Well, she didn’t have to think everything through by herself, but the lady didn’t seem to be of much help despite being someone native to this world. Tafel shook her head. “No, not really. I’m just thinking about some things. By any chance, do you know where the dragons live?” If she could find Prika first, then that would guarantee her safety. It was almost impossible to die if a dragon wanted you to live. But with how she had been taking shots at Prika during the family reunion…. Tafel’s expression darkened. Prika would still protect her, right?

The woman sighed. “I don’t know anything about any dragons. Like I said earlier, I don’t think they even exist.”

Tafel nodded. Then the dragons of this world must be hiding for some reason. “If dragons did exist, what would you do?”

The woman frowned, and a wrinkle appeared on her forehead. “Probably give offerings to it, hoping that it won’t kill me?”

Tafel nodded again. No wonder why the dragons went into hiding. Even Vur’s grandmother was tired of all the sacrifices and offerings given to her. Since that was the case, finding Prika was going to harder than she thought. At least it would be easy to find Vur since he was going to make a ruckus.

***

“Bigger.”

Diamant sighed, lighting up the brown runes on Vur’s arm. “Isn’t this big enough?”

“No.”

Diamant sighed again. “How big do you want it?”

Vur rubbed his chin and thought a bit. The statue in front of him was pretty tall already, larger than all the buildings and trees in the surroundings, including the pyramids. “I want it to be so big that Tafel can see it from where she is.”

Diamant crawled out of Vur’s arm in the shape of a small brown boulder. “Do you know where Tafel is? How am I supposed to know if it’s large enough for her to see?”

“If she sees it, then she’ll teleport on top of it,” Vur said and pointed at the top of the statue. It was a statue of him in his human form. “And she’s not on top of it yet, so that must mean she can’t see it.”

Diamant rolled his diamondlike eyes. “It’s nighttime.”

Vur grunted. “That makes sense.” He nodded. “Make the statue shine.”

“I’m afraid that goes beyond my area of expertise,” Diamant said. All he could do was manipulate the earth. How was he supposed to make the earth glow? He already added a layer of gold that was within the earth to make the statue seem as if it were completely made of gold, but even that wouldn’t make it shine at night.

Vur scratched his head. “Then I guess this is big enough for now.” The statue was pretty proportional, and he was as tall as its big toe. If the statue happened to fall over, it’d probably destroy the whole capital. “We should move somewhere further away to make the other statue.” If the statues weren’t large enough for Tafel to see from where she was, then Diamant would have to expand them, and he didn’t want them to bump into each other.

“We’ll probably have to build it on the other side of the lake,” Diamant said. The city that they had landed in was actually on an island situated inside of a lake. He figured that out by seeing through the eyes of the statue. He could actually see from all parts of the statue, but it felt most natural to use its eyes.

“Alright,” Vur said and nodded. He looked around himself to make sure there was enough space before polymorphing. His body expanded and turned blue as scales grew out of his skin. He fell onto all fours as his neck extended and wings grew out of his back. There were lots of gasps, muffled and unmuffled, as the natives who were still awake watched Vur’s transformation. They shouted something repetitively, but Vur had no idea what they were saying, so he ignored them. He leapt into the air, knocking the natives to the ground with the gusts of wind that surged around him as he flapped his wings. “Where should we build the next statue?”

“Over there!” A tiny hand extended out of Vur’s nose, pointing towards the left. In that direction, there was a few lights illuminating what looked like a city. Stella’s voice could easily be heard despite the rushing of wind. “It looks like people live in that area. I bet they’ll worship you too, but maybe you should wait until morning?”

“I’m not tired,” Vur said. “Let’s build it now.” And with that, it was decided. He pumped his wings and headed towards the faintly lit city in the distance. As for what the people worshipping him down below would think once he left, he didn’t really care. It was uncomfortable being offered so many hearts when he was clearly not interested in eating them. Maybe the people in the next city would be more reasonable and offer him bears instead.

With his hopeful thinking, Vur flew across the lake and circled around the city with the lights. There were just a few fires here and there, not nearly enough for the people down below to notice him. “Over there,” Stella said again, pointing with her hand that extended from Vur’s nose. A beautiful temple lay below on top of a hill. In fact, it almost seemed as if the whole hill was a temple with gardens and stone paths laid out in a pleasing manner. “That’s a perfect spot for a statue.” And thus, there was a new addition to the templelike hill: a giant statue of a dragon.