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Gloria turned her head. She stared at Ramon as he tiptoed out of his room and slunk down the hall, his tail waving as it disappeared from her view. Gloria put the grape pinched between her claws down and got up. Her head poked out of the entrance of her room as her claw grabbed the doorframe. “What are you doing?” she asked, her voice not exactly a whisper but not loud enough to attract any adult’s attention.
Ramon flinched and turned his head, a panicked expression on his face. “Nothing,” he said to his sister. “I’m just getting some water.”
Gloria’s eyes narrowed, and she glanced at the pink-eyed goat, which was standing on Ramon’s head. Despite the holy dragon’s movements, Kozabokget remained perfectly balanced, her knees bending every so often to prevent herself from falling off. “Just getting water?” Gloria asked. “Why do you look so guilty then? Are you going to play a prank on someone? You shouldn’t. Tafel’s not here anymore; if you play a prank on anyone else, they’ll beat you until you cry.”
“I’m not playing a prank,” Ramon said and brought his claw up to his mouth in a shushing motion. “Be quiet. Go back to feeding your bear.”
Gloria pursed her lips. “If you don’t tell me what you’re really doing, I’m going to tell Mommy you’re up to no good. Then we’ll see if she believes you about getting water.”
Ramon made a face. “Fine, I’ll tell you, but you can’t tell the adults, okay?”
Gloria bobbed her head up and down.
Ramon looked around before whispering, “There’s people outside looking for dragons. I was going to spy on them to see what they’re up to.”
Gloria tilted her head. “Isn’t that dangerous? What if they’re here to harm us?”
“I have Kozabokget,” Ramon said and pointed at the goat standing on his head. “She’s strong enough to be sealed in the evil-sealing tower. If anything goes wrong, she’ll protect me. If those people are out to do bad things, if I can catch them, then maybe Grandma won’t force me to study; she’ll realize how strong and resourceful I already am.”
“In the end, you just don’t want to study,” Gloria said, staring at Ramon. She nodded. “I’ll go with you.”
Ramon glanced around, making sure no adults were nearby. “Alright,” he said. “But you have to be quiet. If we’re caught sneaking out, then I’m going to blame it on you.”
“Blame it on yourself!” Gloria said and snorted. “We won’t get caught. Can’t Kozabokget ask the floor to not make any sounds when we walk on it?”
Ramon rolled his eyes up to look at the goat. “Can you do that?”
“I can,” Kozabokget said and bleated at the ground. A moment later, she nodded her head. “You shouldn’t make any sound when you walk now.”
Kozabokget bleated again, and in the other room, a voice was transmitted to Gren’s ears. “This is Kozabokget. Ramon and Gloria are sneaking out of the palace to observe the humans that recently landed on the continent. I’m warning you ahead of time, so please, don’t feed me to Vur when you find out they’re gone.”
Ramon blinked at Kozabokget. “Did you say something else?”
Kozabokget shook her head. “Just clearing my throat.”
“Do we have to bring anything?” Gloria asked.
Ramon rolled his eyes. “Do you even have anything to bring? What are you going to do? Throw grapes at them? Make them read stone tablets?”
Gloria slapped her tail against the ground, doing her best to imitate her grandmother’s actions. “How long are we staying outside? What if we get hungry? We’ll need food and water, and if we stay overnight, I’ll need to bring my blanket.”
Ramon furrowed his brow. “Since when did you have a blanket?”
“Tafel gave it to me,” Gloria said and blinked. “She said it was a present. What did she give you?”
“A brick.”
“Just a brick?” Gloria asked and tilted her head. “Is it special?”
Ramon shrugged. “I don’t think it’s special. She said I could use it to hit bears. It can also be used as a weight to prevent the stone tablets from moving when Grandma stomps around.”
“Oh.” Gloria scratched her head. “Do you like it?”
“I haven’t used it yet,” Ramon said. He scratched his chin. “Wait right here; I’m going to bring it with me. Maybe the humans will have a bear.” His eyes lit up. “Or I can use it on the humans!” He whirled around and dashed back into his room, not caring about keeping quiet because the floor did that for him.
***
Tafel walked back and forth, picking up stone tablets on the ground and putting them inside of a portal. Stella was perched on the edge of a desk, watching the demon store her spells. “Why are you putting them away?” the fairy queen asked. “Did you learn them already?”
Tafel continued with the task at hand, not bothering to make eye contact as she spoke. “I took them all out to get an overall view of them, to see if they were directly connected or not. Since they aren’t, it’s better to work on learning one spell at a time.” When all the tablets except for the first one was put away, Tafel closed the portal and placed her hands on her hips. She stared at the tablet, mumbling to herself as she read and reread the words scrawled on it. After a bit, she sighed and sat down by the desk, taking out a piece of paper and a quill from a nearby drawer.
“What’s wrong?” Stella asked.
“Nothing’s wrong,” Tafel said. “It’s just … Minerva’s handwriting is a bit hard to read.”
“Well, duh,” Stella said. “She wrote this with her feet. She doesn’t have hands.”
Tafel blinked. The fairy queen raised a good point. “Yes, you’re right. Minerva’s footwriting is hard to read, so I’m rewriting it. Copying and rewriting is a good way of learning as well. It’ll help engrain the spell into my memory.”
“You’re not going to try it out first?” Stella asked and fidgeted in her seat. She came here to look at spells, not to watch a demon study!
“No,” Tafel said and shook her head. “When it comes to learning new spells, it’s better to have a solid foundation of knowledge before attempting them; otherwise, something could go terribly wrong.”
Stella kicked her feet and pouted. “How boring.”