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“So, Gloria was attacked by humans and suffered traumatic injuries,” Tafel said and rubbed her chin. She nodded at the baby holy dragon sitting in front of her. “Now, she doesn’t want to meet with anyone and just wants to be left alone. I see.”
Vur frowned and went to the wall. He pressed his hand on it, and the brown runes on his forearm lit up. The wall crumbled, revealing a curled-up cursed dragon resting in the middle of a room. Gloria raised her head upon hearing the sound of bricks falling, and her eyes widened. “What are you doing?” she asked. “I didn’t say you could come in!”
Vur took a step forward, and Gloria scrambled onto her feet. She took a step back and eyed Vur while trembling. Vur blinked and tilted his head. “You’re scared of me too?”
“I-I’m not scared,” Gloria said and gulped. Her nostrils flared, and she stomped her right foot forward. When Vur didn’t react, her shoulders rose up while her neck shrunk down. Her head drooped, and she let out a small sniffle. She closed her eyes and shook her head. “I’m not. I’m not scared!” By the time her sentence finished, she had burst out into a wail.
Vur scratched his head before crouching. Blue scales sprouted from his skin, and his torso fell forward as a tail extended out of his behind. His body grew in size, and soon, he polymorphed into an ocean-blue dragon. He walked up to Gloria and placed a paw on her head. She looked up at him as silver wisps of smoke floated out of his scales. Then, the smoke surged into her nostrils and mouth, causing her to sneeze.
“Did you make her braver?” Ramon asked. “Like how you made me braver inside the tower?”
Vur withdrew his paw and nodded. “How do you feel?” he asked Gloria, who was rubbing her snout. She stared at him with an aggrieved expression. “Are you still scared of humans?”
Gloria slammed her tail against the ground. “I said I wasn’t scared!” She glanced at Tafel, and the cursed dragon’s lips curled back, revealing her teeth.
Tafel raised an eyebrow and took a step back. “Did I do something wrong?” she asked. “Why are you looking at me like that?”
Gloria took in a deep breath, and her mouth returned to normal. She sat on her haunches and scratched her head. “No, that’s not it,” she said. “I just … don’t like how you look.”
Tafel blinked. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
Gloria scratched her head even harder. “I don’t know….”
The upper half of Stella’s body came out of Vur’s snout. “I think you converted her feelings of anxiety into feelings of disgust.”
“That’s an improvement, right?” Ramon asked. He walked into the room and tackled Gloria, knocking her to the ground. “How are you feeling? Better?”
Gloria climbed to her feet and glared at Ramon. Then, she tackled him back and bit at his neck. He cried out as his eyes widened. “Hey!” he said. “No biting!”
Tafel and Vur watched the two dragons wrestle with each other, their claws slashing and their jaws snapping. Tafel leaned over and whispered, “Was Gloria always this aggressive? She’s never acted like this before, right?”
Vur scratched his chin. Usually, Gloria would get bullied by Ramon and have to end up calling for Leila to help her. Now, she was fighting back, and it didn’t seem like she was on the losing end either. Was it a result of granting her some bravery? A strange sound came from behind Vur and Tafel, causing the duo to turn around. The Recordkeeper was frozen in place, and seven dragons were standing over her, all of them crowding around the entrance to Gloria’s room to peek inside.
“Hey, stop!” Ramon said. “Everyone’s watching! We’ll get in trouble.”
Gloria stopped biting at Ramon’s wing and raised her head. She blinked upon seeing her family members staring at her. Her eyes narrowed upon seeing Vur, Tafel, and the Recordkeeper, but she took in a deep breath and fixed her expression.
“Are you feeling better, Gloria?” Leila asked.
Gloria nodded. “Vur made me braver,” she said. “I wasn’t scared of humans before, but I’m even more not scared of them now.” She broke away from Ramon and puffed her chest out.
Leila nodded at Gloria before glancing down at Vur. “How long does your bravery boost last?”
“Several hours,” Vur said. “If I leave a bear spirit with her, she could call upon it to make her brave whenever she wants.”
“Would you?”
“Sure,” Vur said and poked the tattoo on his chest. “Stella, get the bear.”
“Alright,” the fairy queen said, her voice echoing out of the tattoo. “One cowardly bear coming right up.”
Tafel cleared her throat. All the dragons turned to look at her. “Since we’re here,” she said in a small voice, “I was just wondering if any of you would like to attend my friend’s wedding. She says you’re all invited.”
The dragons exchanged glances with each other. “Your friend wishes to invite cursed dragons to attend her wedding?” Gren asked and raised an eyebrow. “Does she not like the groom?”
“No, no,” Tafel said. “She’s madly in love with the groom, who happens to be a skeleton. It’s her family that she has a problem with. They aren’t exactly too pleased about the deadness of her spouse.” She blinked at the dragons. “It’s not because you’re cursed dragons that she invited you to come intimidate them—it’s because you’re dragons. Her family isn’t biased towards any dragon; they’re equally terrified of them all.”
“Times certainly do change,” Gren said and glanced at her mate. “To think we’d be invited to a wedding. Usually, we’re only invited to bring carnage upon people’s enemies.”
“So, does that mean you’re coming?” Tafel asked. She noticed Gren was staring at Gloria. “How about you two?” Tafel asked Gloria and Ramon. “There’ll be lots of bear meat, and if you’re feeling aggressive towards humans, you can bully my friend’s relatives a bit to make yourself feel better.”
Ramon nodded. “Let’s go,” he said and nudged Gloria. “We’re going, right?”
Gloria furrowed her brow and pursed her lips. “Fine. I’ll go.”
“Perfect!” Tafel said and clapped her hands together. “I’ll let my friend know.”