Ramon hummed while bumping Kozabokget up and down with his snout. No matter how roughly he launched her into the air, the goat still managed to land on his head on all four hooves, never falling off balance. There was nothing about her expression that indicated she was enjoying the process, but she didn’t seem to dislike it either. However, that couldn’t be said for everyone.

Kondra stared at the playing holy dragon and frowned. “I don’t approve of this at all,” she said and shook her head. She glanced at her mate. “Can you believe they’re letting Ramon keep such a dangerous creature by his side? What if something happens?”

Kondra’s mate scratched his head. No matter how he looked at Kozabokget, the so-called world-ending evil was completely harmless. Of course, as Kondra’s mate, he had to be supportive of her words in public. “Yes, it’s quite irresponsible of them,” he said and nodded. “I agree completely.”

Kal rolled his eyes. “The two of you came here with a purpose, no?” he asked. “Weren’t you searching for your missing daughter? Is the search going well? Have you found her yet?”

Kondra shifted her gaze onto Kal. The cursed dragon was sitting on his haunches, his hindlegs extended. They touched a circular platform with a clump of wet clay on top. His front paws were sculpting the clay while his hindlegs spun the platform. Kondra watched without saying a word as the clump of clay extended upwards and turned into a pot with seemingly no effort at all.

“We were looking for her, yes,” Kondra said, “but Grimmoldesser was otherwise preoccupied. Now that Ramon and Gloria no longer need his help, Grimmoldesser should be free to help us find our daughter.” Her expression darkened. “That is, if he didn’t run off immediately after finding pets for my grandchildren.”

Kal shrugged and exhaled out a breath of flames, engulfing the pot in fire. After a few seconds, he stopped and lifted the pot off the platform. He lifted it over his head and eyed it from below. Then, he brought it down and peered inside of it. With a frown, he closed his paw, crushing the pot, and discarded the broken shards onto a pile of more broken shards beside him. He retrieved another lump of clay and slapped it onto the circular platform.

Kondra shook her head before climbing to her feet. Kondra’s mate blinked. “Where are you going?” he asked and lifted his head off the ground.

“I’m going to make myself useful,” Kondra said and wrinkled her snout. “Instead of just sitting on my butt waiting around for Grimmoldesser to come back, I’ll use this time to purify the southern continent. Since Gren and Kal are awake, the spell corrupting the lands should’ve stopped.”

Kondra’s mate slowly nodded his head. “Right,” he said. “Do you want me to come with you? Maybe I should wait here for Grimmoldesser to return?”

Kondra snorted. “It’s obvious you don’t want to come,” she said. “Just stay here.”

Kondra’s mate nodded again and plopped his head down. His eyes shifted onto the circular platform by Kal’s feet. When Kondra left the room, Kondra’s mate cleared his throat. “You got another one of those spinning things? It looks pretty interesting.”

Kal’s tail slapped against the ground, and a hidden compartment opened up. His tail dipped inside and fished out a circular platform. The curse dragon flicked his tail, and the platform landed in front of Kondra’s mate. Kal picked up a blob of wet clay and tossed it; it landed on the platform with a splat. “Here you go.”

Kondra’s mate chuckled as he sat up and extended his hindlegs, copying Kal’s sitting position. “Thanks.”

***

Lindyss’ expression darkened as she picked up her chair and retreated backwards up the beach. Starting from the ocean, the sand was turning green, and the odd color was rapidly spreading upwards. A holy dragon’s head was sticking out of the water, and a sheepish expression could be seen on her face. “That, um, wasn’t supposed to happen.”

“What did you do?” Lindyss asked and took a step backwards. The green color had reached the grass, and the originally vibrant stalks withered and blackened. “Why does every single one of your experiments end up like this?”

“Hey,” Lulu said and pursed her lips. “Don’t slander me like this, okay? A third of my experiments bear fruit, and of those that don’t, very few wind up with a poisonous result. Usually, nothing happens, but sometimes they might explode or sizzle a bit.”

“You ruined my vacation spot,” Lindyss said and stomped her foot. The ground surged upwards, and Lindyss waved her hand. The poisoned portion of the ground remained in the air while the unaffected portion sank back down. She repeated the process, doing the same for the sand. In the end, she was left with a sizable mass of poisoned material floating in the air.

Lulu blinked and rubbed her eyes. “Isn’t that geomancy?” she asked. “I didn’t know you had a contracted earth elemental.”

“I don’t,” Lindyss said. She frowned when the sand turned green again. Evidently, the poison was in the water, and removing the poisoned layer of ground didn’t do anything. She let the clump of material fall back down and beckoned for Lulu to come over. “How far is your poison going to spread? Do we have to abandon this island?”

“The effect shouldn’t be this exaggerated,” Lulu said and frowned. “Maybe it’s that pufferfish I added. It was really, really strange.” She scratched her head. “There was this rocky formation near the bottom of the ocean, and there were also some strange scribbles. Of course, I couldn’t hold back my curiosity, so I went down there. There was a bit of resistance, but some holy magic got rid of whatever was blocking me, and I found this pufferfish inside.”

“Your foot is green.”

Lulu glanced at the paw she was using to scratch her head. It was bright green. Her eyes widened, and she flapped her wings while kicking her hindlegs, shooting out of the water like a rocket. Half of her body was green as well. She landed by Lindyss and glanced at herself with shining eyes. Holy magic engulfed her body. Although the green tinge didn’t disappear, it did stop spreading further. “Uh….” Lulu looked at Lindyss with panic in her eyes. “This probably isn’t as bad as it looks, right?”

Lindyss exhaled and ran her left hand through her hair, pushing it back starting from the top of her forehead. The motion caused a few strands to fall out. “Your mother’s going to murder me if she finds you looking like this. Why did I listen to you and bring you out?”