The dragon stayed seated, twisting his long neck to face me. He tilted his head to show his confusion.

“You don’t know where the Blue Fire Sect is?” I guessed. He bobbed his head up and down. “Go left, and I’ll point you the rest of the way.”

He opened his mouth, revealing a set of razor sharp teeth, white as his scales. “Grandpa…” he said in a soft and childlike voice, “I forgot. Which way is left?”

Oh no. I’m not ready for this.

“Er, that way.” I pointed left. I held onto his scales and he took off. We kept flying up into the cloudless sky, until we were so high up mountains looked the size of bricks. Cities on my home planet were dull gray no matter where you stood. From the sky, the Grand Flames City was a patchwork quilt. Each mountain or cluster of mountains was covered with buildings in their distinct color.

“Where should I land?”

I pointed down. “You see that blue mountain?”

“Found it!” he squealed in excitement.

“Good job! Drop me off there, please.”

Hovering in midair, he looked back at me. “Hold on tight.”

I did. He spread his wings and plunged down. My stomach clenched, but he wasn’t done yet. He twisted and kept twisting until he was spinning like an airplane propeller. He was a spinning meteor plummeting at the earth, and I was hanging on for dear life.

He suddenly stopped at the last possible moment. I lurched forward and almost flew off his back. We landed in the middle of a plaza, causing a few cautious auras to appear. He emitted a seventh stage aura, scaring off the others in the sect. “We’re here.”

I jumped off and stumbled.

“Granpa? Are you ok?”

“Yeah,” I said, “Granpa isn’t a dragon, so flying is hard on him. It makes him dizzy.”

The dragon snickered, “Getting old?”

“I’m not old!” I insisted, “I’m seventeen.”

“So old! I’m only two, even mama’s only months old.” The bystanders heard everything, but understood nothing.

“I’m not old. And you can’t be two years old if you’re already able to speak.”

“Nope, I’m two. Both my mamas are very good teachers! ” he declared. He shrunk back to snake size and slithered to my neck.

“Hmph. Who’s the other mama?” I asked.

“Old mama is called Esha! New mama is Jing. New mama is nicer, so she’s my favorite,” he said, blunter than a club. Oh Jing, I’m so proud of you.

I pat his scaly head, “You should’ve started talking to me earlier.”

“I thought you were ignoring me,” he said in a pouty voice.

“No! I’m sorry. I thought you couldn’t understand me. Granpa will spend a lot of time with you now.” I grimaced. Did I just call myself granpa?

The ground groaned. A vine broke through the tiled plaza floor and wrapped around me. It pulled us deep underground and deposited us in a secret chamber. Only two people on the planet could find this place: me and Jing.

A voice came from above, “Hey Vincent.”

A teenager was embedded into a wall two stories up from where I was standing. He turned his face to me, but kept his eyes shut, as if he was sleep talking. His body was stuck in the wall so that I could only see his head, like a hunting trophy.

“Is this the man who tried to kill mama and auntie?” the snake asked.

“Yes,” I responded. He hissed at Mark.

“So you have a question for me?” Mark asked.

“Yes. I’ll just get straight to the point-”

“Let’s not.”

“Excuse me?” I said.

“Let’s not ‘get straight to the point’” he said, “It’s very lonely down here, you know? And I have a lot I want to say.”

A part of me would be fine if I killed him right now, and that part was growing bigger by the second. “I don’t want to hear it.”

“You’re the one asking me a question. Unless you leave, it’s not up to you to decide what you hear.”

“What do you want.”

“Let’s not get off on the wrong foot. I just want a conversation. Well, I also want to be freed, but that’s not going to happen.” He chuckled. “Ok, but really.”

“If this is about killing Jing, I’m not buying it.”

“Huh?” he finally opened his eyes. “What do you mean?”

“Jing’s my sweet daughter. I’m not going to kill her over some prophecy you could be lying about.”

“Daughter or not, we have a responsibility to uphold. Jing is just one creation, compared to the world. You can’t be selfish enough to sacrifice the world over one creation.”

“She’s a person.”

“Person, creation, whatever. Let’s agree that the world is worth far more than one person. Can we do that?”

“...”

“And about the existence of this prophecy? You don’t need to take my word for it. Have you met Allison yet?”

“Yes.”

“Has she invited you to her meeting yet?”

“No. I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Allison’s planning a meeting in five days. Sophia, ‘The Oracle’, has been invited, along with all the people from our class she’s managed to find. You’ll be invited soon. The meeting is to discuss the future and how all of you will handle it. Sophia will bring up Jing on her own, will that be enough evidence for you?”

“...”

“Ok, that’s all I needed to say. Let’s move on. What were you going to ask me?” he said.

I didn’t move on. “I’m not going to kill my daughter. There’s too much I don’t know. And you don’t know her, she’s not the malicious type.”

“People can change. People won’t change a lot in a week, or even a year, but how about hundreds of years? Thousands? And Jing probably has a long lifespan. It doesn’t matter what you think anyway. You should kill her even if there’s a one percent chance of her bringing the apocalypse. Jing’s life is worth nothing compared to the world.”

My priorities are skewed and crooked. I’ve known that since sixth grade, when Brian got obsessed with morals. But I valued Jing and Hui Ming more than cities or even countries.

He shook his head and continued, “I’ve said everything I can say. I can’t do anything if you’re still not convinced. Now, what did you come to ask me for?”

“There’s a group attacking the Endless Flame School. They’re using guerrilla tactics. I needed you to find where they’re stationed,” I said grudgingly.

“I see.”

I waited a few seconds, “Are you going to tell me?”

“I would, but I can’t see them. The school is behind me. It’s not in my line of sight, and I can’t see through the back of my head, so…”

“Oh, right. My bad. I forgot.”

“It’s kay.”

My plants took him out from the wall and rotated him around. I gave him a description of some of the members.

“Thanks,” I said, although I didn’t want to.

“Mhm.”

I sat and waited. “Found them,” he said a few minutes later. “Got a map?”

“Yeah,” a vine lifted it in front of his face. His Qi punched a small hole in the cloth. “How many of them are in there?”

“I found everybody you wanted me to find. So probably most of them.” I turned him back around and put him back into his spot in the wall.

I sighed, remembering Mark and I were in the same high school class before this. He was trapped by vines, I was about to invade a base of superhumans, and he wanted me to kill my daughter. But for a moment everything seemed to go back to normal, even though I still hated him. I sighed again, “Got it. See ya, I guess.” A vine grabbed me and carried me back to the surface. We came out in the plaza, which was now surrounded by armored guards and power rods.

I ignored them. “Take me back to the school.”

“Ok grandpa.”