“Really, I knew the offspring of a cursed dragon would be a troublemaker, but what have you two been doing? Have you been encouraging Ramon’s delinquent behavior?” Kondra snorted upon seeing Grimmy’s grin. “I expected it from you”—she turned her head towards Leila—“but I thought you would know better. Dragons have to be raised with an iron fist, or poor parenting can lead to a situation similar to the one in the southern continent. Do you want to be known as the mother of the dragon that destroyed the eastern continent?”

“Ramon won’t destroy the eastern continent, Mom,” Leila said and rolled her eyes.

“Well, of course, he won’t,” Kondra said and nodded, puffing her chest out. “Now that I’m here, you can bet I’ll teach Ramon how to be a proper holy dragon.”

“Don’t take it too far,” Leila said and shook her head.

“Too far?” Kondra reared her head back and placed her front paw on her chest as if she were offended. “Have I ever taken it too far when raising any of you?”

Lulu cleared her throat from the side of the cavern she was resting at. “There was that time Leo ate a deer, so you made him eat hundreds of deer until he puked.”

“And he never ate another animal since,” Kondra said and nodded. “What’s your point?”

Lulu shook her head. “Never mind.”

Kondra snorted. “Does everyone in this cave think I’m a harsh mother?” Her gaze swept over the dragons in the cavern. “The world is a dangerous place. The more unruly you are, the more likely humans and dwarves will try to kill you. Imagine if Ramon goes out and destroys a few human cities because even though you told him not to, he disregarded your words and did it anyway. When he’s dead, you’ll wish you had been harsher on him when he was younger.” She glared at Grimmy and Leila. “Your job as parents isn’t to befriend your children; it’s to engrave life lessons in their minds before the world does it in a harsher manner for you.”

“Mommy, Daddy, Grandma!” a feminine voice came from outside the cave. A few seconds later, Gloria’s head poked inside of the entrance. When she saw everyone staring at her, she crept forward, while holding something in her paw. It was the hindleg of a bear, and that leg was still attached to the shivering creature’s body. “I found this poor bear freezing in the snow.” Gloria blinked at her elders. “Can I keep him?”

Kondra’s brow furrowed, and she tilted her head. “What’s a behemoth bear doing so far from the woods?”

“I think he’s lost,” Gloria said. “Isn’t he cute? Can I keep him? Please?”

Leila glanced at Grimmy, causing the cursed dragon to shrug. “I don’t mind. As long as there’s no bear poop around, I don’t care what she does with it. Even if it dies, we can always eat it later.”

“You can’t eat Alfonse!” Gloria said, slightly spreading her wings to shield the trembling bear from view.

Leila raised an eyebrow. Wasn’t this the first time Gloria ever truly spoke up for herself? “Since you already named him, you can keep him.” She smiled and patted Gloria’s head. “Why’d you name him Alfonse?”

“Because he looks like an Alfonse,” Gloria said, turning her head back to glance at the poor bear. It seemed to be playing dead.

***

Stella lay on top of Vur’s head with her limbs splayed out. The wind washed over her, and the sunrays kept her warm. A sigh escaped from her mouth, and she stretched her arms over her head, arching her back. She sat up and looked around. “Where are we going next, Vur?”

Vur blinked, and his golden eyes rolled up to stare at Stella. “I thought you were leading the way.”

Stella blinked back. “How could I be leading the way if I was sleeping?”

“I was sleeping too,” Vur said, maintaining eye contact.

“Then where have you been going?” Stella asked, standing up. She walked to the side of Vur’s head and peered over. They were no longer flying over an ocean.

Vur shrugged. “I don’t know.”

The two stared at each other for a bit longer before their gazes simultaneously fell on the Recordkeeper. The Recordkeeper blinked. “Don’t look at me. I was using my viewing magic to see through the eyes of a raven. I haven’t been paying attention since we left the golden cloud island.” She placed her hand on Vur’s head as if she was searching for something. “Aren’t there four elementals inside of you? They might not be the smartest individually, but when the four of them work together, they can be treated as almost a person. You can ask them.”

A green light flashed, and a green rock crawled out of Vur’s head. “Excuse me?” Zilphy asked, crossing her sticklike arms in front of her body which was also her head. “Almost a person? I’ll throw you off of Vur right now, and the mess you leave on the ground will almost be a person too.”

“It’s rare for us to be in agreement,” a blue rock said as it climbed out of Vur’s head from Zilphy’s side. Mistle frowned and narrowed her sapphire eyes. “How should we get rid of her?”

“You can’t get rid of her,” Stella said and pouted. Even though the Recordkeeper was annoying, she still had things Vur wanted. She flew towards the Recordkeeper. “How about you use your raven viewing magic to find us a place to go and eat? Instead of flying around with no plan in mind, we can eat and decide where we go from there. What do you think, Vur?”

Vur scratched his chin. “We should’ve taken Alice with us. She’s good at planning things.”

“Oh!” Stella’s eyes lit up. “Wasn’t Alice and Mr. Skelly planning on getting married soon? Why don’t we look around for a gift to give them?”