Prika lay draped over her boulder, staring at Grimmy and Leila, her eyes narrowed at the two dragons chuckling and nudging each other in the valley. They had returned from their trip not too long ago, bringing their two children with them. A frown appeared on Prika’s face, and her expression darkened. The two dragons had attended a wedding without her! They had attended a human wedding and had been given explicit permission to terrorize the patrons there. Why hadn’t she been given that chance? Was she not as terrifying as Grimmy and Leila? Said who!?

Prika flapped her wings once and climbed to her feet. It wasn’t Grimmy’s and Leila’s faults that the red dragon hadn’t been invited to the wedding, but just seeing them, having fun in their non-singleness was enough to make Prika’s heart burn with jealousy. Why did all the good things happen to them? Wasn’t karma real? Didn’t Grimmy deserve to be punished for annihilating a continent? Instead, he got a beautiful and loving mate, offers to attend human weddings, and he even had children that worshipped him as the best father in the world!

Prika wrinkled her snout and leapt off her boulder, landing on the ground in the direction away from Grimmy and Leila. She didn’t have any specific place in mind she wanted to go to, but anywhere but there was a good choice. Not too far away, there was a snuffling sound in the bushes. Prika turned her head, and at that moment, a small blue head popped out of the bushes, two golden eyes making eye contact with the dragon. “Oh, hey, Floofykins.”

Floofykins walked out of the bush and shook her body like a wet dog. Leaves scattered, falling from her blue fur and wings. The half-phoenix, half-boar, half-dragon let out an oink and flapped her wings in greeting.

Prika reached over and scratched Floofykins’ head with the tip of her claw, causing the blue boar to partially shut its eyes and let out a sigh. “What’ve you been up to recently? Find any cute male boars with wings? Probably not, right?” Prika exhaled and shook her head. “I might be single for some strange reason, but you’re bound to be forever single as well since you’re one of a kind.”

Floofykins blinked but didn’t say a word … because she couldn’t.

Prika grabbed the blue boar and placed it on top of her head. “Let’s go on a trip to find romance novels together. We might not find love in reality, but that’s what books are for, right?”

Floofykins found a spot to balance on Prika’s head. The dragon soared into the air, heading towards the region in the wilderness reserved for the elves. “The elves usually produce a lot of romance novels. They live long lives, and they don’t have much ambition, so most of their days are spent in leisure. It lets them be real creative.”

Prika rolled her eyes up to look at Floofykins. After thinking for a bit, the red dragon wondered why she put the boar on her head. Floofykins had wings! She could fly herself. But after thinking about it some more, she realized the boar probably flew too slow to keep up. It didn’t take long to fly from the roost to the elven region. Prika glanced down at the ground, and a deep frown appeared on her face. Where were the elves? Grimmy had relocated them when Leila laid an egg, but now that Ramon and Gloria had already hatched out of it, shouldn’t the elves have returned? Unless…, they didn’t know they could come back?

***

Celia lay on a sea of endless sand with her limbs spread out like a starfish, staring up at the blue sky. The sun bore down overhead, shining on the tanned elf’s face. She sighed to herself and bent her arm, bringing the green thing in her hand close to her mouth. It was a piece of dried cactus jerky. She bit down on the dried plant and gritted her teeth. It took a few bites and tugs to separate a small piece of cactus flesh. Her cracked lips wiggled as she chewed, and she took in a deep breath before swallowing. The expression on her face remained blank as she stared up at the sky that didn’t have a single cloud in sight.

Soft footsteps that sounded like shifting sand caught Celia’s attention. She turned her head to the side, not caring about the burning sensation the sand left on her cheek. A figure dressed completely in white cloth was shambling towards her, leaving long trails as it approached. Celia sat up and exhaled. “Hey, Juliana. Any news?”

The white-clothed figure shook its head. There weren’t any gaps in the cloth for the dryad’s eyes, but she could still see perfectly fine. “Grimmoldesser’s egg must not have hatched yet,” Juliana said. “I do hope it’ll happen soon. Living in the desert is taking quite a toll on my mental health.”

“It’s taking a toll on everyone,” Celia said and sighed. “Why are dragons so unreasonable? Grimmoldesser could’ve relocated us anywhere, but he placed us in the middle of a desert and claimed he was doing it for our protection? Who does he think he’s fooling? I bet he still holds a grudge against us for how we treated Vur all those years ago.”

Juliana shrugged. “Well,” she asked. “What can you do? Dragons are unreasonable, and unless you have the strength to make them listen to you, you’ll always be on the losing end when dealing with one.” She took a seat by Celia’s side. “Speaking of grudge-holding dragons, do you think Vur’s still upset with me for those times I silenced him as a child?”

Celia rolled her eyes. “How would I know? It’s been forever since I’ve last seen him, the same as you. But since he was brought up by Grimmoldesser, the answer is most likely yes.”