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Sung yawned and smacked her lips a few times. She was lying on her back with her limbs splayed, her wings spread open. Her eyes were shut, and a stuffed bear was tucked between her front leg and her side. She yawned again and rolled over onto her side, bumping into the cave wall. Her claws scraped against the rock, and a screeching sound rang out. Sung’s eyes shot open, and she blinked a few times before looking around, craning her neck back and forth. She stretched her neck towards the entrance of the cave and placed her cheek on the ground. “Bobo, how long have I been asleep for?”
A gruff voice echoed through the cavern. “Around two months.”
“Two months?” Sung blinked. All she wanted to do was take an hour-long nap, but she had fallen asleep for two months instead? Her brow furrowed, and she felt like she was forgetting something. Well, she had forgotten her dream, but dreams weren’t usually important. “Oh! Did my device go off?”
“Which one?” A golden head popped into Sung’s view from a hole in the cavern. “The one that tracks ghosts has been going off pretty frequently. The one that keeps track of how long the yams have been in the volcano also went off, so I went to retrieve them while you were sleeping.”
“Oh, the yams are done?” Sung asked and rolled onto her feet. Her stuffed bear fell to the ground, and she picked it up, shifting it to a corner of her cave. “Wait, that’s not what I wanted to know. The device that sends people to different worlds that Prika went through. Was there a signal from the receiver?”
The golden dragon, Bobo, scratched his snout. “It has the weird chirping sound, right? It didn’t go off.”
“It’s not a weird chirping sound,” Sung said. “That’s the sound of two phoenixes fighting over a cherry.” She scratched her head. “But two months have passed and it still hasn’t gone off?”
“Should it have gone off?”
“I mean, yeah,” Sung said. “The dimension they were sent to didn’t seem to have much danger. The mana levels were higher than average, but large beast frequencies weren’t detected. That fake mate of Prika, Vur, he should’ve found her by now. Were my settings messed up?” She lumbered out of her room and went to the cave where she had set up her mate-finding device. The green portal wasn’t on the wall anymore, but the device was still lit up. “No…, everything looks normal. Why haven’t they found Prika yet?” Her head tilted, and she scratched her butt with her front leg. “Odd.”
A golden head poked into the cave. “Should we go in and find them?”
“Eh.” Sung grunted and turned around. “If they don’t send a signal within a month, let’s tell everyone else. I don’t want my mom to think I lost Prika after she just came home. Oh! Maybe Prika’s busy wooing a dragon. That should take her a while since she doesn’t have any experience. Yeah, I hope she’s having a great time.”
***
“Sung! I’m going to murder you when I get back!” Prika roared. Her head was sticking out of the snowy ground with crystals of ice rolling down her snout. The rest of her body was buried. Cracks grew on the ice all around her neck as the earth bulged. One red claw burst out beside her head, spraying ice and snow everywhere. Her other claw rose out of the ground, and there was a massive cracking sound. The fissures around Prika’s neck extended outwards, creating a giant line. The land shook, and two pieces shifted as Prika’s body burst free. The sound of a thunder rang out as half the icy world seemed to fall away. With a crash, a giant splash of water rose into the air, white foam inundating Prika’s body. “Gah! That’s freezing!”
Prika scrambled away from the edge of the glacier and looked around. Behind her, there was an ocean. The landmass that had fallen was floating above it, slowly drifting away. And in front of her, there was an endless expanse of white. As far as her eyes could see, there was absolutely nothing but ice. “Sung!” Prika roared again. “This is the worst prank in the history of pranks!” White mist flowed out from between her teeth as she exhaled. When she had first entered the mate-finding device, she found herself surrounded by lava! There was also a strange attractive force that tugged on her when she tried to swim away, and the pressure was giving her a huge headache. Despite being a dragon, it was uncomfortably hot down there, and she actually thought she might die. After she swam struggled and swam away, she encountered some soft rock. Then some slightly harder rock. Then even harder rock. Then a layer of water. Then a layer of ice. And then even more ice! Now that she was finally out after two months of digging, there weren’t any of her promised hot, single dragons waiting for her! There wasn’t anything at all! Even the sky was completely clear without a single cloud in sight.
Wait, that was wrong. In the distance, there seemed to be creatures walking around on two feet. They didn’t have any arms, but there were some short wings obviously not fit for flight. Were they birds? Birds were a bit bonier than what she usually ate, but after not eating for two months, even some birds would do. Prika swallowed back her saliva and pounced forward, spreading her wings. With a few flaps, she was above them. The birds tried to run and slide away, their wings completely useless. The poor flightless creatures never stood a chance. After a quick meal, Prika licked her lips and looked around. How odd. There was nothing here, but birds still managed to survive. Where did their food come from? The ocean? Prika nodded her head. It seemed like this world was mostly made of oceans then, with barely anything living on the surface. Perhaps Sung hadn’t lied to her. The dragons were in the ocean!