Gren stared at the shattered crystal pane in front of her. The upper half of the pane was completely missing, but its fragments lay all over the floor. The bottom half of the crystal pane was intact, but it looked like someone had hastily put it back together. There were cracks all along the pane, and crystal-clear droplets that resembled dried glue dotted the edges of the cracks. Clearly, the unsealing of this evil hadn’t been done recently. Gren’s eye twitched, and she stared at Vur, who was standing on his tiptoes to peer over what remained of the crystal pane.

Vur dropped back down onto his heels and looked at Gren. “Ramon’s not inside.”

“I can see that!” Gren said and snapped her jaws shut, her teeth clacking together. “Before I entered hibernation, I did a full check of the tower. This was sealed. The only person who could’ve accessed it while Kal and I were sleeping is Grimmy.” Her expression darkened, and she smashed the broken pane with her front leg. “It’s a little insulting to think he thought gluing the crystal back together would fool me.”

Vur grunted and looked around before pointing at the next sealed room. “That one’s broken too.”

Gren took in a deep breath through her nostrils before exhaling through her mouth. She walked over to the room that Vur had pointed at. This time, the shattered pane was left scattered on the floor. There wasn’t even an attempt to fix it up. However, the dust gathered on the crystal pieces were enough to tell Gren that this wasn’t a recent event either.

“Ramon’s not here,” Vur said.

Gren slapped her tail against the ground. She turned her head away from the empty room to look Vur in the eyes. “Do you always state the obvious?”

“No,” Vur said.

“Then why are you doing it now?”

Vur tilted his head. “Because I’m helping. You were staring at an empty room for such a long time; I thought you got distracted.”

“Maybe her eyes are getting worse,” Stella said. “Does that happen to dragons? Do their eyes get worse when they age?”

Gren snorted. “Right,” she said. “I did get distracted. I’ll interrogate Grimmy later; for now, we have to focus on finding Ramon.”

***

Ramon blinked. He had no idea where he was or how he had got there. One moment, he was next to his parents, trying to peek at the book. The next moment, he was here, sitting on small island—just barely large enough to fit him—surrounded on all sides by lava. Thankfully, it didn’t seem like he had to swim through the lava to get out; there was a tunnel located above him. However, he didn’t fly up straight away. “Hello?” Ramon asked. “Is anyone there?”

“Hello, Ramon,” a feminine voice said from behind the holy dragon.

Ramon turned his head, unafraid thanks to the blessing Vur had given him. He was greeted by a pair of pink eyes staring at him. “Are you Kozabokget?” Ramon asked and turned his body around to face the eyes.

“That’s what the dragons call me,” the feminine voice said. The pair of eyes stared at Ramon, and Ramon stared back. After a moment, Kozabokget’s voice rang out. “I know this is a bit sudden and strange to ask you after first meeting, but can you do me a favor?”

Ramon tilted his head. “What do you want?”

“I’m dying,” Kozabokget said. “I need you to heal me.”

“Aren’t you sealed?” Ramon asked and blinked. “How are you dying?”

“I’m dying because I was sealed,” Kozabokget said. A sighing sound brushed past Ramon’s ears. “I was locked up in a small room for nearly two thousand years without any food or water. It’d be more appropriate to ask me how I haven’t died yet. Could you survive that long without eating or drinking?”

Ramon placed his front paw on his tummy. Sometimes, it felt like he couldn’t live for a few hours without eating. Even when he filled himself up with moonlight, it was uncomfortable. Ramon blinked at Kozabokget’s eyes. “How do I heal you? Why didn’t you ask anyone else for help?”

“This is the first time a holy dragon appeared in the evil-sealing tower,” Kozabokget said. “How can I ask a cursed dragon to heal me? You know how cursed dragons are. They’re very skeptical, and they won’t believe me. They’ll think I’m trying to trick them into setting me free.”

Ramon blinked. “Does that mean you think I’m easy to trick?”

“I’m not tricking you,” Kozabokget said. “Aren’t you here to make a pact with one of us sealed folks? Why not pick me? If you heal me, I’d be willing to form a pact with you.”

Ramon tilted his head. “What can you do?”

Laughter filled the small cave, and the lava around Ramon bubbled. Tiny dragons made of lava emerged, and they waved at Ramon before pouncing on each other in a playful manner. A moment later, the lava stopped bubbling, and the figures dropped back down. “I can speak all the languages in the world.”

Ramon peered at the lava. “Are you the lava?” His brow furrowed. “How does speaking all the languages help you control lava?”

“Isn’t it obvious?” Kozabokget asked. “I asked the lava to put on a show, and it complied.”

Ramon blinked. “Huh?”

The pink eyes floated down closer to Ramon and blinked at him. “I’m just a goat. I don’t have any magical abilities, and a regular bobcat or mountain lion can easily kill me. I was just born with the ability to talk to all things.”

Ramon pointed at the lava. “But wasn’t that magic? When you made the lava figures?”

“I didn’t make the lava figures,” Kozabokget said. “The lava made them for me. When you ask your mom to make you dinner, is it magic when you have warm food in front of you an hour later? When you yell at someone to stop running, and they stop, did you cast a spell to make them stop moving? Asking someone to do something isn’t magic.”

“But … lava can’t speak,” Ramon said and tilted his head.

Laughter filled the cave. “That’s because you don’t know its language. If you listen closely, everything knows how to speak. Even right now, I’m asking the air to transmit my words to you; I’m asking the light to show you my eyes. Come, heal me, and I’ll teach you how to talk to things.”