Lulu glanced down, nearly causing Lindyss to fall out of her seat. “Eh? What was that?” the holy dragon asked. A black line with a streak of red blurred past the landscape. It was easy to spot because everything else below was brown.

Lindyss added a slight modification to her icy throne, making it so that she didn’t have to worry about being tossed off. She watched as the head of the black and red line went further and further into the distance, disappearing from view. Since it had come from a different direction and wasn’t heading to where they were going, Lindyss stopped caring about it. “There are all kinds of strange things in the world,” she said and tapped the holy dragon’s head with her foot. “Quit looking at it. Have you forgotten it was your curiosity’s fault we’re here in the first place?”

“I was just looking,” Lulu grumbled before raising her head. Her eyes lit up upon seeing a small black dot amongst the sea of brown in the distance. “What’s that?”

Lindyss shielded her eyes from the sun with her hand. “That should be where Grimmy is.”

“You have some kind of connection with him?” Lulu asked, rolling her eyes up to look at Lindyss. “How do you know he’s there?”

“It’s question after question after question with you, isn’t it?” Lindyss asked and lowered her hand. However, a second later, she brought her hand back up to block the sun’s rays. Her brow furrowed. From the hole in the distance, something silver with wings emerged. For some reason, she got a bad feeling. “A holy dragon. That should be Leila, right?”

“What other holy dragon would come here?” Lulu asked and rolled her eyes. “It’s not like my mom would….” Lulu’s voice trailed off, and she let the lower half of her body drop downwards. Her wings spread wide, and her flight gradually came to a halt. She flapped her wings to hover in the air. “Why does that holy dragon look like my mom?” Her eyes bulged, nearly falling out of her head. “Wait! That is my mom! What do we do!?”

Contrary to Lulu’s expectations, there was no response. She glanced up at her head, but the cursed elf was nowhere to be found! The holy dragon looked around. In the distance, a cursed elf with translucent, purple, batlike wings was flying away. Lulu’s jaws dropped open, and she flapped her wings, turning her body to chase after the cursed elf; however, a bolt of lightning flashed from Lindyss’ hand, striking Lulu’s head. The icy throne exploded, leaving no trace of its existence behind. “Don’t follow me! Isn’t it better for one of us to live instead of dying together?”

Lulu stared at Lindyss with a dumbfounded expression. Unfortunately for the holy dragon, the cursed elf wasn’t even looking in her direction. Lulu ignored the threat of the lightning bolt and flapped her wings. She wiggled her body, imitating a fish swimming through water, and closed the distance between herself and Lindyss. “Wait! Didn’t you defeat my mom before? Why are you running now!? I only agreed to run away because you were supposed to be stronger than her!”

Lindyss didn’t respond to the dragon’s questions. Instead, she reached into her hair and pulled out a sleeping fairy. “Wake up!”

Erin opened her eyes. The world seemed to be shaking, but after a second of thinking, the fairy queen realized it was the elf who was shaking her. “Stop, stop! I’m awake!” She glared at Lindyss. “What’s your problem?”

“My problem is that,” Lindyss said and pointed behind herself.

Erin leaned over, peering past Lindyss’ head. “Sorry,” the fairy queen said, “I’m almost useless when it comes to fighting dragons.”

Lindyss rolled her eyes. “You’re a fairy. Fighting shouldn’t be the first thing on your mind,” she said. “Quick, polymorph me into a bird.”

“Polymorph!” Erin said and pointed at Lindyss without even asking why.

Lindyss shrank, and feathers sprouted from her skin. Her arms bent at odd angles as her fingers fused together. A flap of skin extended down from her arms, connected to her sides. Soon, there was a seagull where the elf had been previously. Erin whirled around and sat on the seagull’s back.

Lulu’s eyes widened as Lindyss changed shape. She couldn’t help but glance behind herself, and the thing she didn’t want to happen the most was happening. Her mother was flying straight towards her.

“Lu-In-Dra! Do you know how much trouble you’re in!? You better stop running, right now!”

Lulu gulped, and she dropped the lower half of her body down. She spread her wings out, coming to a halt once more. She watched with a helpless expression as the seagull got further and further away. Weren’t they supposed to be partners in crime? What happened to the basic trust between elves and dragons? Was this the cruel world of adults her mother was trying to protect her from? Lulu turned around with tears in her eyes. “Mommy, I’ve been bullied!”

The flames in Kondra’s eyes dimmed upon seeing her daughter’s expression. The thrum of her wingbeats died down as she used less force to head towards her daughter. Her eyes rolled up and down as she inspected Lulu’s body. “What happened to you? Who painted you green?”

“It’s all that cursed elf’s fault!” Lulu wailed. “She forced me to carry her across the ocean. Afterwards, she brought me to a strange beach and made me catch fish for her. One of the fish was sealed inside this thing, and I didn’t want to open it, but she made me do it! The fish stung me, and now my scales are green from poison!”

Kondra’s eyes widened. “Where is she now?”

“She flew that way,” Lulu said and pointed in the direction the seagull had gone. “She brought me here because Grimmy knows how to cure me, but she ran away when she saw you.”

Kondra narrowed her eyes, remaining silent as she pumped her wings to hover in the air. After staring for a bit in the direction Lulu had pointed, she shook her head. “Let’s get you fixed up first. We’ll deal with the elf later.”

Lulu nodded and exhaled when her mother turned around. Since Lindyss abandoned her first, why would Lulu valiantly take all the blame for her? It only made sense to throw the cursed elf under the carriage.