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Alora stuck her face forward, squinting her eyes while frowning. She was resting on a large rock in a courtyard of the palace. Beside her, there was a fire that she was basking in the light of. The target of her scrutiny was the black dragon snoring away on top of the courtyard walls, his limbs hanging off either side. Underneath him, three dragons were fighting over piles of wood that were in the shape of staves. Alora’s frown deepened, and her squinted eyes narrowed even further. “So that’s the uncle who’s been ruining my life indirectly through Vur….”
Something let out a strange sound beside her. Alora craned her neck and stared at the ground near the fire. A mangled body was twitching and squirming, slowly inflating. Alora tilted her head and poked the back of the body with the tip of her tail. It shuddered once and deflated, spewing out red liquid from near its head. Alora blinked at the mangled body. It didn’t move. She took her tail off of it and turned her attention back to the sleeping black dragon. “If it weren’t for him, I wouldn’t have had to compete and lose against Vur so many times….”
Another strange sound came out of the mangled body. Alora thumped the back of it with her tail, not even looking at it. She sighed, exhaling two streams of smoke out of her nostrils. “What did I say I was going to do when I met him?” Her brow scrunched up, and she tapped her claw against the side of the rock she was resting on. “I’m going to bite him. Right. I said I was going to bite him.” She nodded to herself and climbed to her feet. Then she tiptoed, but made lots of noise anyway, towards Grimmy, specifically towards his tail which was hanging off the wall and resting on the ground. Alora took in a deep breath before opening her mouth.
“What are you doing?”
Alora flinched and closed her mouth, turning towards the source of the voice. Her little sister, Bonnie—or maybe it was her younger brother, Youngest—was staring at her. “Ah?” Alora tilted her head. “What do you mean?”
“You looked like you were about to eat Uncle Grimmy’s tail,” Youngest or Bonnie said.
“What? I was just yawning,” Alora said. “You’ve never seen a dragon yawn before?” She waved her front paws at her sibling as if she were shooing away a fly. “Go on, go play with your wooden sticks or whatever and stop being so annoying.”
Youngest or Bonnie narrowed his or her eyes at Alora before snorting and shuffling back towards the rest of the annoying trio. Alora made sure none of them were looking her way before licking her lips, turning back to the tail that was in front of her face. She took in another deep breath and opened her mouth. Her eyes shifted to the annoying trio. None of them were watching. Then, in one motion, she leaned forward and chomped down. With a jerk, her head was lifted into the air from the tail’s sudden motion. She let go and dashed back towards her rock near the fire, curling up into a ball and pretending to be asleep.
“Alright!” a voice thundered. “Which one of you brats just bit my tail?” Grimmy climbed to his feet and swept his gaze over the courtyard, his tail curved towards him, the tip held by his front paws. His eyes narrowed at the annoying trio. “Was it you, Eldest?”
The dragon he was staring at swallowed. “I’m Bonnie.”
Grimmy’s expression didn’t change. “Was it you, Bonnie?”
Bonnie’s head shook back and forth, her eyes wet with tears. “It wasn’t.”
Grimmy’s eyes narrowed, staring at the young dragon for a few seconds. She swallowed but maintained eye contact. Grimmy snorted and looked away. “Was it you, Eldest?”
“I’m Youngest,” Youngest said. “And it wasn’t us.” He pointed towards the side. “It was Alora. I saw her go up to you and bite your tail.”
Grimmy flapped his wings once as he hopped down from the wall. He strode over to Alora, who was still curled up in a ball, and glared at her from above. A loud snore echoed out of her in response. Grimmy reached forward and poked a spot on Alora’s back, in between her wings. A choking sound interrupted her snore as she flinched, but a moment later, her snore resumed in a louder manner. Grimmy blinked. Then he reached forward and poked her again.
“W-what?” Alora asked, blinking rapidly. She groaned as she got up and wiped her eyes with the backs of her paws. Her voice was groggy, and it seemed like she had been in a deep sleep a few seconds prior. “What happened?” She yawned and sat up, swishing her tail behind herself.
“Your acting is terrible,” Grimmy said.
Alora’s head tilted. “Acting? What acting?”
“You bit my tail.”
“I bit your tail?” Alora blinked twice and pointed at herself. “Me? Bite you? When?”
Grimmy pointed at her face. “There’s blood on your teeth.”
Alora blinked and brought her paw up to her mouth. She wiped at her teeth and tilted her head. “So there is. Huh. Odd. I must be having issues with my gums. You know how gums are, not cooperating and stuff.”
“There’s a destroyed path of grass leading from where my tail was to this spot over here,” Grimmy said, inching over to the side to let Alora see.
Alora nodded. “Yeah…, well, see, you came over here, didn’t you? That’s your destroyed grass. The ground doesn’t take too kindly to being walked on by large creatures.” She nodded again. “That’s right. I didn’t bite your tail, Uncle Grimmy. Why would I do that?”
“Youngest said you bit me.”
“Youngest is a big, fat liar.” Alora glared at her younger brother. “You can’t trust him.”
Grimmy sighed and leaned back. “I guess we have a dilemma,” he said. “Since a dragon bit my tail and only four dragons are present, clearly, one of you is the culprit. And since no one wants to admit that they did it, I guess the only choice I have is to punish all of you collectively. That’s the only fair option, I suppose.”
“But it was Alora!” all three of the annoying trio shouted at the same time.
“It wasn’t me!”
“Yep.” Grimmy nodded. “It’s time for some collective punishment.”