I repose in the main chamber of my domain, trying my best to ignore the lack of illumination. When that obnoxious burning ball of piss arrived at my door, I knew that I would likely have to repair a number of chambers, but I severely underestimated just how irritable that moron was.

Looking back, I had little problem with that annoyance melting the ice that lines my domain. My grievances were with how he set my glowmoss ablaze. Now, my domain was dark and desolate, like some kind of troglodyte’s cave. At least it’s quiet now.

Regardless of the root-cause of my woes, I was left to remedy them myself.

Which was why I was mentally preparing myself for the task ahead. If I wasn’t at my best while installing blooming glowmoss then I likely wouldn’t survive. It doesn’t help that I haven’t done this myself before.

As I lay there resting, a far off source of magic tickles my senses as it races towards me.

Is that Kiwi?

I suppose her wing has finally healed then. Perhaps I could acquire her assistance.

“Dorran! My wing’s all healed up! Can I come in?”

Oh my she’s here already? I suppose her speed hasn’t faltered while she was injured.

Standing up, I start walking towards the entrance.

“Dorran? Are you there?”

“Yes I’m here, did you not learn patience while you were stranded at Mother’s?”

The small green griffin flexes her wings with a smile on her face.

“I’m too cool for that. I’ve got an imposing scar, so I’m cool now.”

She tilts her right wing to better face me, and I see a deep scar running all along her wing, making a small gap in the feathers. The wing itself still looks a slight bit… off from it’s injury, but nothing she shouldn’t be able to fix with her magic. I understand that doing so directly after the injury was impossible, but she should be able to manage now.

“Why do you not repair your wing with your magic? Wouldn’t that scar make flying unnecessarily difficult?”

Kiwi scoffs as if I don't understand and starts walking into my domain. I follow her. Once the entrance is out of sight, I use my magic to seal it shut. I do my best not to smile. There will be no escape.

“So Dorran, what have you been doing for the past five years? I’ve been stuck in the house so I’ve been sooooo bored. Mom was always trying to get me to do something, and my room was so small. I can’t wait to get my own place.”

“Mother can be rather forceful. As for me, I’ve been… suffering for the past five years. Boreas stopped by for a short visit the other day as well, that certainly made things worse.”

Kiwi tilted her small head.

“Suffering? What do you mean by that… OH! You mean like the suffering Mom says you went through when Boreas was born? Have you been taking care of someone?!”

“I have not been ‘taking care’ of someone.”

Despite my denial, Kiwi just kept talking to herself.

“It couldn’t be a baby, otherwise Mom would have gone crazy over finally having grandchildren. Maybe he got a pet or something? No he’s too lazy to take care of a pet.”

“I am not lazy.”

“So it has to be something with some kind of self-sustainability… a human maybe? But he hates humans, always calling them annoying or whatever. But what else could it be? Hey Dorran have you been sheltering a human? Can I meet it? I wanna meet it!”

I glare at her for a moment before walking past her to the main chamber of my domain. I would deny her claim, but it’s rude to lie to a guest. Regardless, was that brat even human? Humans certainly don’t scream as loudly as she did.

Suddenly, Kiwi paused.

“Hey Dorran, why is it so dark in here?”

Oh? She finally noticed? It’s too late Kiwi, your fate is sealed.

“Kiwi, as I’ve told you before, Boreas came to visit the other day.”

She frowned.

“Yeah, what about it?”

“During his visit, he saw fit to set all my glowmoss ablaze, thus resulting in my domain’s darkened state. As I would prefer my domain illuninated, I’ve been preparing to reinstall some, and you’ve arrived at quite the opportune moment.”

A look of horror flashed on Kiwi’s face as she backed up, shaking her head.

“Oh no no no. I’m NOT helping with any glowmoss installation.”

She ran towards the exit, quickly leaving my sight. I sensed her run all the way back to the entrance, only to be halted by the ice wall I erected before.

“What! No no no NO! You blocked the exit!”

Kiwi tried to ram against the wall to no avail. She may be fast, but strength escapes her still. If Boreas wasn’t so disappointing without his fire, then she would be marked as the ‘runt of the litter’. Although now that she can fly again, Mother likely plans to make her stronger.

My greatest sympathies Kiwi.

Even so, free labor has fallen into my lap. I’d be a fool not to exploit it.

Kiwi, having tired herself out, stopped bashing the wall and turned to me with a look of desperation.

“Dorran, please. I JUST got out of the house, my wing is all better now, I was gonna spend all day hunting cattle with the fairy dragons! I don’t want to install glowmoss!”

“Firstly, you do not ‘hunt’ cattle. You steal them from human farmers, which is dangerous and inadvisable for you. What if a valkyrie or berserker happens to be patrolling the area?”

“That's what the fairy dragons are for-”

“-Secondly, fairy dragons are unreliable and a bad influence. Just recently a fairy dragon intruded into my domain. At first I thought it a blessing, the fairy began tormenting an annoyance that had taken to my domain. Unfortunately, the annoyance responded by becoming even more annoying. I do not wish for those fairy dragons to make you annoying.”

Kiwi, who desperately tried to make a case for herself, sulked as I interrupted her misguided ramblings.

“But everything's annoying to you.”

“Thirdly, if you help me with my plight, I’ll help you with yours.”

The small griffin creased her brow.

“My plight?”

“To summarize, if you help me install glowmoss throughout my domain, then I shall have you go on a… mission let's say… for an extended period of time.”

“And how does doing more things for you help me?”

Kiwi tilted her head, clearly failing to grasp the implications of my offer.

“This mission would, by virtue of you being far away, force Mother to delay your training. And of course, cool people love going on missions.”

Her eyes light up with sheer joy at the thought of getting out of the stockpiled five years worth of hell she could not partake in due to her injuries. With such energy that would make you think she wasn’t desperately fleeing from me a moment ago, Kiwi marched toward the main chamber of my domain.

“Come on Dorran, if we don’t start soon then Mom will get suspicious.”

I melt away the wall blocking the exit. I no longer require its service.

“Of course.”

As we work, slaying the quickly growing glowmoss before it devours our magic, we fall into a comfortable rhythm.

I would secure it to the ceiling, then Kiwi would force her magic through it and quickly flee before it acclimated to it’s first taste of magic power and began to seek more, after which I would wait for the moss to start glowing at which point I send spikes of ice through the moss, killing it and halting it’s cycle of magic, keeping it illuminated.

At this point, the glowmoss would be true to its namesake and act like a moss rather than some hellish creature. It absorbs magic through its roots in the ceiling, so it would never go dark, unless I moved the ice to deprive it of any magic to absorb.

“So Dorran, what ‘mission’ did you have in mind? It better be a cool one, as a very cool griffin I don’t deserve any less.”

I roll my eyes at her insistence of being ‘cool’, but play along.

“I need you to keep tabs on a particularly annoying individual.”

“So you want me to stalk Boreas?”

“No. Although he is annoying, I need you to ensure that a particular human lives long enough to repay her many debts to me.”

Kiwi paused before she cycled her magic into glowmoss hanging on the ceiling of the cub’s old chamber. She took a look around at all the junk I had yet to clean up, then seemed to have a realization of some kind. She looked at me with a smile on her face.

“Dorran! You’ve been taking care of a human haven’t you!”

I reflexively take a step back.

“Lies and slander! I have done no such thing!”

Kiwi flies close with an amused smirk on her face.

“Oh come on, don’t be shy! Tell me about her! If you call her annoying, then she’s probably more fun than you!”

Those fairy dragons really have been a bad influence.

As we continued working, she persisted in asking intrusive, personal questions that had little to do with the task I wished to give her. I will admit that I would send her to watch the cub and ensure that Boreas refrains from vaporizing the puny human, but that hardly means anything. All I’m attempting to do is secure the various favors owed to me by this specific human.

“Come on Dorran, if you don’t tell me anything about the human, then how am I supposed to spy on her?”

I heave a deep sigh. She raises a valid point.

“Fine. The brat’s name is Julie Fulcreek-”

“You mean Fulcreek like Terry Fulcreek! Mother said he and his daughter died! You saved her! I knew you weren’t as big a jerk as you try to be!”

“If you don’t wish to hear about her then by all means, continue to interrupt me.”

“Oh, sorry.”