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“So? What are we waiting for?” Grimmy asked and rested his chin on his paws, peering over the edge of a large cliff. In the distance, a red giant was sleeping next to a hole in the fetal position. It had gashes on its limbs and missing digits on its hand, but those were healing and regenerating with every passing breath. “Let’s get it over with before breakfast.”
“We’re waiting for Bonnie to come back with my sister and her mate,” Sera said. “I don’t want to take any chances.”
“I’m right here…,” Bonnie said in a small voice. “Eldest was the one who went.”
Grimmy raised an eyebrow and shifted his gaze onto Lindyss. “Why don’t you summon the rest of your dragon skeletons?”
Lindyss pursed her lips. “They’re hard to control if I summon more than one at a time without any sacrifices to help.”
“Let me control them,” Grimmy said and held out his paw, lifting his chin a little to let it free. His claws wiggled as he held his paw face up as if he were asking to be handed something. “Besides, who’s the one who taught you the spell to control them anyway?”
“The elder lich’s soul,” Lindyss said in a flat voice, staring at his palm but not moving.
“And who put that soul in you?” Grimmy asked, wiggling his eyebrows. “That’s what I thought.”
Lindyss sighed and stepped back. Her shadow elongated, stretching towards Grimmy. Before it touched him, it stopped and widened, opening up a fissure leading into the earth. Bony claws tapped the edges of the fissure. Moments later, the front half of a dragon’s skeleton emerged. Grimmy reached forward and grabbed it with both hands, hooking his claws into its eye sockets. He tugged it out of the portal and stood on his hind legs. The grass and rocks rippled as mana surged around him and into the skeleton, causing its bones and joints to creak. Grimmy grunted and placed the skeleton to the side, a faint blue fire glowing inside of its eye sockets.
“Next.”
Lindyss sighed. “Are you really going to take them all?” she asked in a defeated voice but summoned another skeleton anyway. “Can you control them all?”
“What?” Grimmy asked as he hooked his claws into the next skeleton dragon’s eye sockets. He grunted as he pulled it out of the shadow and lifted it into the air, sending his mana into it. “You think you’re the only one who keeps some sacrifices lying around? I can power ten of these easily.”
“If there’s ten of those skeletons, then are we even needed?” Bonnie asked. She swallowed when Grimmy’s gaze landed on her, and her shoulders hunched forward, her neck shrinking back. “S-sorry I asked.”
“Seriously, what did you do to them?” Lindyss asked, her brow furrowed.
“Nothing,” Grimmy said and raised an eyebrow. “What are you accusing me of? I’d never do anything to my precious family, isn’t that right, kids?” He grinned at Bonnie and Youngest, and the two dragons shook like leaves on a branch during a windy day.
“T-that’s right, Uncle Grimmy,” Bonnie said. She glared at Lindyss. “Don’t accuse him of doing things he wouldn’t do! Uncle Grimmy’s been nothing but nice to us.” Her fierce expression disappeared, and she gave Grimmy a look that a guilty puppy would give its mother. When he nodded at her, a breath of relief escaped from her lips, and she nearly collapsed to her knees.
Lindyss frowned at Grimmy but didn’t say anything. She summoned a third dragon skeleton that Grimmy grabbed and powered as well. “How many do you want?”
“Four should be enough,” Grimmy said with a grunt. He placed aside the skeleton with glowing eye sockets and cracked his neck. “One for each limb.”
“You’re trying awfully hard,” Lindyss said. Her voice lowered to a whisper to prevent Sera from overhearing, “I thought you were just going to leave this to them to deal with. Why are you so motivated now?”
Grimmy shrugged and pulled the fourth skeleton out of the shadows. “It looks a lot more dangerous than I thought it would be. I’d rather not have anyone seriously get hurt. I’m such a kind-hearted soul, you see?”
Lindyss rolled her eyes, her shadow shrinking and returning back to its normal size. Erin poked her head out of Lindyss’ hair and blinked at the ground. “What can you store in there? How does it work? How much space does it hold?”
“You’re too nosy,” Lindyss said and patted Erin’s head with her palm, forcing the fairy queen back into her hair and out of view.
“They’re back,” Sera said, raising her head. In the distance, three dragons were flying through the clouds, heading towards the mountain peak. “Once they’re here, we’ll strike that thing fast and hard before it gets a chance to recover anymore.”
“You’re really not going to answer me?” Erin asked, crawling out from a different side of Lindyss’ hair. “Let me know more about you, you stupid turnip. Aren’t people supposed to like answering questions about themselves?”
“Don’t call people turnips if you want to know more about them,” Lindyss said and plucked the fairy out of her hair. “Why do you even want to know about my shadow anyway?”
“Because I want one too,” Erin said, struggling to free herself from Lindyss’ hand. “It looks so handy and convenient. Think of all the food I could store inside.”
“It’ll go rotten,” Lindyss said. “Only the dead can be stored inside. If any living thing goes inside…, let’s just say they won’t be alive for much longer. Even sticking metal inside will cause it to rust faster.”
“So when you ate the Fangs of Capitis with your shadow…,” Erin said, narrowing her eyes at Lindyss.
“Do you care about them that much?” Lindyss asked and raised an eyebrow. She sighed and shook her head. “They’re doing just fine and dandy, alright? They ran away to live peaceful lives on a farm.”
Erin’s eyes widened. “Really?”
“Of course,” Lindyss said and smiled. “Would I lie to you?” She stuffed the fairy back into her hair before she could respond and waved at the approaching dragons. “Now that we’re all here, let’s get this over with already.”