Lindyss shifted and cleared her throat. Sera growled and rolled her eyes down, glaring at the cursed elf in her claw. “Say it, and I’ll drop you.”

Lindyss furrowed her brow. Was it worth saying, “I told you so,” to a dragon? If the only punishment was being dropped out of its claw, then maybe it was…. However, who was she? She was the Corrupted One, an elf who’s survived for centuries despite being cursed by an evil dragon. How could she be a petty person? “Well…, I’m just saying….”

Sera waved her claw up and down, shaking Lindyss like a ragdoll. “I told you not to say it!” Instead of rolling her eyes down, she tilted her neck so her whole face pointed at Lindyss. Hints of an icy breath lingered out of the corners of Sera’s mouth. Half of the dragon’s face was darkened, as if she had been struck by a giant fireball or pillar of light with an extremely high temperature.

“I didn’t say anything yet!” Lindyss said, silently cursing the violent, oversized lizard. “But since you’re going to be so violent, then fine! Drop me! See if I care.” She crossed her arms and snorted. “I told you we should’ve gone west, but you wouldn’t listen. ‘Hurr-durr, there’s a teleportation portal that we can take to the east,’ you said, but look who got their butt kicked by Kondra. I. Told. You. So.”

Sera’s eyes widened, and her face flushed with a faint, pink tinge. She drew her claw back—the one that was holding Lindyss—and belted it forward, tossing Lindyss as hard as she could. The cursed elf didn’t even have a chance to scream before she was swallowed by the ocean that was thousands of feet below. Sera snorted twice, two jets of frozen mist shooting out of her nostrils, and she rubbed her face with her paw, the side that Kondra had struck with a purifying laser.

After flying ahead for a while, Sera bit on her lower lip and flew back to the region where she had tossed the cursed elf. The little elf was her son’s favorite … helper? Yes, the cursed elf was her son’s favorite helper who managed all his kingdoms for him. Perhaps she shouldn’t have let her anger get the best of herself. As she flew through the clouds, the sound of laughter approached her from below.

“Free! Free at last!”

Sera poked her head out of the clouds. Below her, the cursed elf and a fairy queen were sitting on top of a floating piece of ice, both of them drinking out of a glass. The fairy queen’s body was smaller than the cup, but she wasn’t using a straw to drink it. She was standing on her feet, hugging the cup with her arms, and craning her neck towards the sky while drinking. The fairy queen made eye contact with Sera, and she froze. The drink inside of the glass came pouring down, soaking the fairy. “Lindyss! Lindyss!”

“What?” Lindyss asked. She frowned at the drenched fairy. “Isn’t this why I told you to use a straw? Go wash yourself off in the ocean.”

“She’s back,” Erin said in a half-scream half-whisper.

Lindyss looked up, and her gaze landed on a grinning dragon. She swallowed. “W-welcome back,” she said and waved at Sera. “How long have you been up there?”

“I’ve been here the whole time,” Sera said and let herself plunge downwards, not bothering to circle. She dropped like a rock—a meteor, to be specific—and slammed into the surface of the ocean, overturning the ice floe that Erin and Lindyss were resting on. She spread her leathery wings out, allowing herself to float on the ocean effortlessly. When Lindyss’ drenched head rose to the surface of the ocean, Sera asked, “What was that about being free?”

Lindyss cleared her throat. “Well, you see, after you rudely threw me into the depths of the ocean, I was eaten by a leviathan,” she said. “And, since I escaped from it—without your help, mind you—I decided to have a small celebration with Erin here for our newfound freedom.”

“As expected of Grimmoldesser’s lackey,” Sera said and nodded. “You can lie through your teeth.” She snatched Lindyss up, and Erin crawled into the elf’s hair. “I said I was going to drop you, but I never said I was going to let you go. We still have to find Vur.”

Lindyss sighed. “I bet we would’ve found him already if you didn’t get into that fight with Kondra.”

“And who’s fault was it that she wanted to fight me?” Sera asked and snorted. She glared at the cursed elf.

“Well,” Lindyss said, dragging out the word. “If you weren’t so aggressive—”

“Me? Aggressive?”

Lindyss furrowed her brow. “Snappy?”

“I’m not snappy!” Sera said, her teeth snapping shut. “Anyways, it was clearly your fault. Kondra knew you, and the only reason she picked a fight with me was because you were with me.”

“Yeah, of course,” Lindyss said, rolling her eyes. A chill enveloped her body as her wet clothes were dragged through the air. “It has nothing to do with the fact you bit the air near her tail. And it definitely doesn’t have anything to do with Kondra being antsy about her missing son. Actually, yes, that’s it. Let’s blame this all on her missing son for eloping, shall we?”

Sera snorted, and two puffs of icy mist leaked out of her nostrils. “Yes, it’s all that eloping son’s fault. Once we find Vur, I’m going to go find that disobedient child of Kondra’s and teach him a lesson he won’t forget.” She nodded and flapped her wings harder, accelerating through the clouds.

“Alright,” Lindyss said. “I’ll help you when the time comes.”

Erin poked her head out of Lindyss hair and whispered into her ear, “Really?”

Lindyss whispered back, “Sometimes, you have to say things to appease dragons, but they usually forget your pledges after sleeping for decades at a time. Except for Grimmy. Grimmy never forgets.”