“And that should be the last of them,” Grimmy said and dusted off his front paws.

Emile stared up at Grimmy with a complicated expression on his face. Just how much did the cursed dragon hate phoenixes? Everything inside this place was designed with defeating phoenixes in mind! Frozen phoenix bones that would explode once thawed, the weird praying mantis that hunting creatures that released flames, a room full of delicious berries which were only poisonous to phoenixes, and much more.

“Stop looking,” Susan whispered to her brother. “If you give him a reason, he’ll definitely eat you.”

Emile nodded. He hopped over to Tafel’s shoulder from Vur’s as quietly as he could. “Hey,” he whispered into the demon’s ear, “why are we still here? Shouldn’t you take us home? What if something happens to us?”

“Nothing will happen if you keep your mouth shut,” Tafel said and patted Emile’s head. She was about to open a portal to retrieve a snack for the bird, but she remembered her coordinates were screwed up. “Grimmy, is there a way to get around your anti-portal magic?”

Grimmy glanced at Tafel, causing the phoenix on her shoulder to dive into her robes. “If I told you, you’d know how to create portals here, and then I’d have to create another method of blocking portals.” He shrugged. “You can figure it out yourself, but when you do, I’m going to change it.”

Tafel sighed. It wasn’t worth it. There weren’t many regions which messed with her portal coordinates. Even if she was close with Vur, she didn’t think it was worth getting on Grimmy’s bad side just to learn something like that. She could delve into it on her own time and test in places not related to the cursed dragon. “So, you said this place is where your parents are sleeping?”

“Yup.” Grimmy gestured towards the space in front of him. There was a gaping hole in the wall ahead; it was too dark to see anything beyond it, but there was a clear river of drool flowing out of it. “They’re right ahead.”

“Why are we going?” Emile asked, only his beak and peaking out of Tafel’s collar. “We’re not related to Grimmy’s parents at all. And when you really think about it, Vur isn’t that related to Grimmy either, right? There’s nothing to stop the evilest dragon in the world’s hopefully not evil parents from eating us.”

Tafel frowned. Emile did bring up a good point. She leaned towards Vur. “Is it okay for us to be here?”

“Why not?” Vur asked and tilted his head. “We’re just going to see my granduncle and grandaunt.”

“No, that’s not right,” Tafel said. “A granduncle is the brother of your grandpa. Grimmy’s isn’t Nova’s or Sharda’s brother.” Her head tilted, and her brow furrowed. “Unless he’s the brother of one of your dad’s parents. Is he?”

Vur shrugged. “Does it matter? Family is family.” He grabbed Tafel’s arm and pulled her along. “They’re going. C’mon.”

Tafel frowned but let herself be dragged along by Vur. “Alright,” she said. “We might be vaguely related to Grimmy’s parents”—she pointed at the Recordkeeper—”but why is she coming too?”

Vur blinked and turned his head towards the winged woman. “Why are you following us?”

The Recordkeeper stopped walking. “Is that something you should say to someone you kidnapped and forced to follow you?” she asked. She cleared her throat. “But before you tell me to leave, I’d just like to remind you that I have no way to return home, and it’d be very rude of you to leave me stranded in the middle of nowhere.”

“Can’t you fly?” Tafel asked.

“Yes, let me just retrieve my wing from that praying mantis’ stomach and reattach it to myself,” the Recordkeeper said.

Tafel turned towards Vur. “You didn’t heal her yet?”

“She didn’t ask,” Vur said and shrugged. He pointed at the Recordkeeper, and a white light circled around her. Pink flesh sprouted out from the stump of her torn wing, and black dots appeared on it as her feathers grew back. Once the white light disappeared, the wing had returned back to normal.

“Do you want me to portal you to somewhere not on the southern continent?” Tafel asked. “I can’t teleport you to an exact location, but it’ll still be safer than trying to return home from here.”

The Recordkeeper frowned. “How about I wait for Vur out here,” she said. “And when you’re done, Vur can take me home?” Upon seeing Vur’s less-than-enthused face, she sighed. “It’s the least you can do after everything I’ve done for you.” And after what you put me through, she added in her head.

Vur stroked his chin. “You can stay out here, but I still need you as my tour guide later.”

“Okay,” the Recordkeeper said. She watched as Vur and Tafel disappeared into the shadows of the entrance before taking a seat on a relatively flat rock. Hopefully, she wouldn’t be left here alone for too long.

***

Helden exhaled as he stared at the giant hole in the ground. The sounds of scratching and digging could be heard from where he was standing. The giant naked mole-rat was a lot harder to kill than he had expected. His attacks were effective, but the creature’s regenerative abilities were stronger than a troll’s. In the end, it had escaped, but it did leave behind one of its toes that the Generis Squad had put all their effort into cutting off.

“Is it over?” Ingwer asked and lowered her staff. None of the party members had suffered any serious injuries, so she didn’t have much to do.

“Without its master ordering it around, it’s just a simple beast,” Forster said. “I don’t think it’ll be back.” She glanced at Helden. “But what about the dragon? Do you think he’ll come back for us?”

Helden shook his head. “We should get out of here before he does,” he said. “If—”

“Pardon me,” a raspy voice said. All the members of Generis Squad whirled around. Behind them, there was a red-haired woman wearing black armor that definitely hadn’t been there a few seconds ago. Her green eyes seemed to stare into their souls as she swept her gaze over each of them. “Did you mention a dragon?”

“Uh, um, ahem.” Helden cleared his throat. “Yes,” he said and nodded. He stared at the unknown woman and gulped. “My name is Helden. You are?”

“Was the dragon a black dragon?”

“No,” Ingwer said and took a step in front of Helden, partially blocking the blond man’s view. “We haven’t seen any black dragons.”

“Oh,” the woman with dark-red hair said. “Okay.” Then, she raised her foot and took a step, but before her foot had hit the ground, her figure blurred past the Generis Squad and disappeared from view.

Forster blinked and looked around. After confirming the unknown woman was gone, she asked, “Who the heck was that?”