“Alright, alright!” Prika’s head poked out of a massive hole in the ground. “You win, okay? I give up!” She lumbered out into the sunlight, sand falling off of her scales. They were dusty and had lost their luster. Prika snorted, and two brown clouds of dust shot out of her nostrils. She muttered, “Earth dragons are just too dang hard to find when they don’t want to be found.” She patted herself on the chest, dusting off her scales. “Well, that’s fine. I’ll just remember this spot and come back here later if I can’t find a mate. Right, that’s what I’ll do. Dragons should find mates similar to themselves.” She sighed and pursed her lips. “Where’s all the hot red dragons at?”

Prika grumbled and spread her wings, more sand cascading off of the leathery flaps. She leapt into the air and flapped her wings. Her wings pumped harder and harder as she flew straight up, climbing higher and higher until she was way past the clouds. “Alright, let’s see what this world looks like. I should’ve done this from the start.” She frowned. “Not much air up here, huh?”

Prika scanned the world below. It was mostly blue and green with strips of white clouds blocking portions of it from view. Her eyes narrowed, but she couldn’t find any large volcanos at all. If there weren’t any volcanos, where did all the red dragons live? Sung had tricked her! There weren’t any hot single mates to be found at all! And there was another thing…. How was she going to get back home? Prika tilted her head and blinked hard a few times. How the heck was she going to get home!? She craned her neck towards the dark reaches of space above her. “Sung! Are you there!? Sung!”

Prika took in a deep breath. Then, she took in another one. And another. Her eyes bulged. “Why is it so hard to breathe!?” Her eyes darted to-and-fro before she flew downwards. “Phew. I guess there’s just no air way up there.” She sighed and pumped her wings. “Might as well check out the other side of the world. Maybe there’s a ton of volcanoes there.” She narrowed her eyes and stroked her chin with her front paw, her wings locked into position as she glided above the clouds.

After a few hours of flying, a golden twinkle caught Prika’s eye. “That’s not a volcano, but … is that a giant piece of gold?” She licked her lips and angled her wings, descending through a layer of clouds. “Maybe I wasn’t tricked! Dragons really are easy to find here. This one isn’t even hoarding his gold, and he’s building statues of himself with it! He’s so dang handsome too. I’m totally going to make him my mate. Wait a minute…. Is that … Vur?” As she got closer and closer to the statue, it became more familiar and familiar. Her eyes bulged when she saw a line of text on top of the statue’s head. “I went that way, Tafel?” Prika read. “Why is it Vur again!? Every time I see a handsome dragon that I think is going to be my mate, it’s always Vur!” She exhaled through her nose and slapped her tail against the ground. “Well, it’s a good thing there wasn’t anyone around to hear me this time.”

Prika frowned and scratched her chin. “But it looks like Vur is somewhere on this world too. I guess he followed me inside? He probably knows the way out! But more importantly, I’m going to find him and get him to help me capture a mate.” She nodded twice before a movement on the ground caught her attention. It was a brown-skinned human. However, instead of eyes filled with fear that most humans normally had, this one’s eyes were filled with … something else. Prika wasn’t sure; human faces all looked the same to her. “Hi.”

The native said something that Prika didn’t understand. Prika scratched her snout. “Yeah, I’m going to go now. Bye.” There was an arrow on the golden statue’s head, and Prika assumed Vur would be waiting in that direction, so that’s the way she flew, ignoring the native that tried to speak with her. After a while of flying, she encountered another gold statue with another set of directions. “How many statues did Vur leave behind?” She frowned and scratched the statue, peeling off a layer of gold, revealing a plain old stone surface underneath. “Cheapskate.”

After confirming the statues weren’t made of pure gold, Prika followed the directions until she lost count of the number of statues she encountered. “If all these arrows lead me in a giant loop, I’m going to hurt someone,” she muttered as she followed an arrow for the umpteenth time. After a few minutes of flying over a forest, a massive city built around a lake sprawled into Prika’s view. She raised an eyebrow. “Well, this is new. And … is that Vur?”

Prika circled around in the sky, looking for an appropriate place to land. It was extremely crowded around Vur’s body, and if she were to land close to him, she would’ve crushed a few buildings, maybe people too. So, she solved that problem by landing directly on top of Vur instead. “Vur! Is that you?”

A snore rang out of Vur’s body in response.

Prika frowned and poked the snot bubble rising out of Vur’s nostril. Her claw sank into it, but it didn’t pop. “Okay, that’s a bit disgusting.” Before she could do anything else, a sharp pain stabbed into her tail. “Ow!” Her eyes widened, and she whirled around. Behind her, there was a native holding an axe. The native was shouting at her, and a whole group of natives were gathering around with weapons in their hands. “What the heck is this? How come he doesn’t get attacked but I do!?” Her brow furrowed. “But more importantly, why did that hurt so much?”