Ramon lay listlessly on the ground. His eyes occasionally shifted from one corner to the other, but his body didn’t move at all. He was laying on a patch of moonlight, the so-called dinner of dragons. Not too far away from him, Gloria was chattering about, talking with Kondra about raising plants or something. Ramon didn’t put too much effort into listening. He raised his paws and covered his ears, making sure to let everyone in the cave see the frown on his face as he did so.

“He’s kind of a party pooper, huh?” Lulu asked, gesturing towards Ramon with her head.

Grimmy rolled his eyes. “He’s not the only one sick of eating moonlight.” He patted Ramon’s back, causing the young dragon to raise his head and remove his paws from his ears. “When we go to my parents’ place, you’ll have a lot more fun there.”

Kondra’s head snapped towards Grimmy. “Your parents?”

“What about them?” Grimmy asked, raising an eyebrow.

“They exist?”

“I know I’m great, but I didn’t create myself out of nothing,” Grimmy said and rolled his eyes.

“No, I mean, your parents are still alive?” Kondra’s brow furrowed. “I heard they died during the phoenix and dragon war.”

“Oh, yeah.” Grimmy nodded. “That’s just a rumor I spread.”

Kondra blinked. “So…, they’re fine? How come I haven’t heard any news about them?”

Grimmy scratched his chin. “They were injured and went to sleep to recuperate,” he said. “Afterwards, there were a few ambitious humans and dwarves who wanted their things, so I spread a curse throughout the southern continent to protect them. Other people think I destroyed it for fun or something, and I just let them believe that because there’d be no one to bother my parents as they slept.”

“Wait,” Kondra said, dragging out the word. “You made a whole continent uninhabitable to protect your family?” She whipped her head around towards Leila. “You knew about this?”

Leila nodded. “It was a secret, so I didn’t tell you.”

“And you’re telling me now because?”

“It’s about time for them to recover from their injuries,” Grimmy said. “You won’t be able to hurt them if you fly over and shoot them with your laser.”

Ramon’s stomach growled, and he gulped. “Do they eat meat?”

“They do,” Grimmy said, “but I imagine you wouldn’t want to eat any meat in the southern continent.” He shrugged. “After they wake up, the curse I created will dissipate, but the cursed creatures won’t return back to normal for quite a while.”

“As long as it doesn’t taste like moonlight and can fill my belly, I’ll eat anything that’s cursed,” Ramon said and rubbed his stomach. It really was unbearable eating moonlight. Other than being tasteless and not physically filling his belly, he also had to lie still for four hours!

Grimmy chuckled and rubbed Ramon’s head. “As soon as your grandmother is satisfied with your behavior as a holy dragon, we’ll go to the southern continent and wake up your other grandparents.”

***

“What are we waiting for, Helden?”

Helden turned his head. His ginger companion, Ingwer, was looking at him with a disapproving expression. There was a white tiara on her head, and a blue gem was embedded in the center of it. She tapped her staff against her shoulder and shook her head. Even though she had asked the question, she already knew the reason they were waiting around outside the restaurant.

“You know exactly what we’re waiting for,” Helden’s companion who had a bow said. “Quit pretending like you don’t know what’s happening.”

“You shouldn’t talk to your fellow party members like that, Forster,” Helden said. He was about to say something else, but the door to the restaurant swung open. Helden’s eyes lit up as his target exited the building. He might’ve been embarrassed by the woman with the wings earlier, but that didn’t mean he was going to give up on adding her to his party. “Did you mark her?”

“Yes,” Helden’s third companion said. She wore a large cloak, and only her nose and mouth could be seen along with wisps of blue hair streaming out of her hood.

Helden nodded. “Let’s go.”

***

Stella furrowed her brow and turned her head to the side.

“What is it?” the Recordkeeper asked. “Do I have something on my face?”

“No,” Stella said and frowned. “I thought I sensed something strange.” She flew upwards and caught sight of Helden’s group leaving the area. “I think the waiter was right. There’s something fishy about that blond guy.” She flew back down and landed on Vur’s shoulder before tugging on his ear. “I think you should preemptively beat him up.”

Vur raised an eyebrow. “Is he a king?”

“Probably not?” Stella tilted her head. “Why does that matter?”

“If he’s not a king, I don’t care,” Vur said. Why would he waste his time beating people up if he wasn’t going to get a kingdom out of it?

“You won’t beat him up, but you’ll hunt the evil beast in the forest?” Stella pursed her lips. After Helden had left the restaurant, the waiter had also mentioned something about an evil beast in the woods nearby. It was why there were so many adventurers in the area; they all wanted to hunt it for the reward posted in the adventurer’s guild.

“The evil beast might be tasty,” Vur said.

“You just ate!”

“I’ll be hungry later.”

Stella sighed. It was almost impossible to convince Vur to do something he didn’t want to do unless Tafel was around. He always listened to her. Stella crossed her arms and took a seat on Vur’s shoulder. “Fine,” she said. “Let’s go hunt that evil beast. Maybe it’ll have something on it that could be a good present for Alice and Mr. Skelly.”

The Recordkeeper closed her eyes. A moment later, she said, “I found it, but it doesn’t seem to be a single beast. In fact, I don’t think you can even call these creatures beasts. They’re more like homunculi, the same sort of magic my ravens are made of.”

“Are you seeing through your ravens again?” Stella asked. “How exactly does that work?”

The Recordkeeper opened her eyes and stared at Stella. “I won’t tell you. If I do, I’ll lose my job security.”