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“Vur, hey, Vur. Wake up. You have to wake up.”
Vur’s right eye creaked open. A silver dragon’s face was staring down at him, a foolish grin plastered on the dragon’s face. Vur closed his eye and rolled over onto his side while groaning.
“Maybe we should leave him alone,” a small voice said from near the entrance of the cave. “Mommy said we shouldn’t disturb people when they’re sleeping.”
“Shut up, Gloria,” Ramon said and snorted. “Go back to eating moonlight if you don’t want to play.”
“The moon’s not out.”
“I know that, stupid,” Ramon said and rolled his eyes. “Do you think I don’t have eyes?”
“Ramon! Don’t call your sister stupid!” a feminine voice said from outside the cave.
“Yes, Mama!” Ramon said. “It won’t happen again!” He glared at Gloria and muttered under his breath, “Stupid.”
“Mommy! He said it again!”
“No, I didn’t!” Ramon yelled. Then, he spread his wings and pounced towards the black dragon, knocking her onto her back. He slapped her shoulders a few times while she struggled to get free. “Why do you always run to Mama? If you have a problem, solve it yourself! Papa said dragons have to be independent.”
“Stop hitting me!”
A tired voice came from outside the cave. “Ramon, stop hitting your sister.”
“I’m not!” Ramon shouted while slapping his tail against Gloria’s legs. “She’s making things up like she always does!”
“I don’t make things up!”
“Be quiet,” a sleepy voice mumbled. A pair of massive earthen hands sprung out of the ground. They grabbed the two siblings and pulled them apart before pressing them down on their bellies. Two strips of earth rose up and fell over the dragons’ snouts before merging back into the floor of the cave. The dragons could only grunt and squeal, unable to say a single word thanks to the strip of earth clamping their mouths shut. The culprit, Vur, opened one eye and admired Diamant’s handiwork before rolling over onto his back. He closed his eye again and scratched his belly, letting his hand rest on his stomach once he was done. Soon, soft snores echoed through the cave.
Ramon glared at Gloria. He couldn’t say anything, but the expression on his face was more than enough to convey his meaning.
***
Outside of the cave, a silver dragon and a black dragon were laying on their backs, sunbathing on a rock. Leila lifted her head up and raised an eyebrow. Grimmy opened one eye and observed his mate’s expression. “What’s wrong?”
“It’s too quiet,” Leila said and rolled over onto her belly. “Gloria and Ramon should be fighting right about now.” She stood up. “I’m worried about them.”
“When they’re too loud, you worry. When they’re too quiet, you’re worried. When they’re behaving, you’re worried.” Grimmy curled his body up until his torso was upright with his legs and butt still on the ground. “They’re dragons, dear. They’re not like Vur when he was little. If Vur fell off a cliff as a baby, his head would crack open and the world would have one less Vur. If Gloria and Ramon fell off a cliff, then the ground at the bottom of the cliff would break, but our babies would be fine. Heck, they’d be fine even if they fell into a volcano. You don’t have to worry so much. Even if something inexplicably terrible happened to them, it’s not like we don’t have methods to resurrect them.”
Leila smacked Grimmy’s snout. “Don’t say things like that. Even if we can bring them back to life, we aren’t going to let our children die, understand?”
Grimmy chuckled. “Accidents happen, so on the off chance they do happen to kick the bucket under my watch—”
“I’ll bite you,” Leila said, cutting off her mate’s words. However, she did curl her legs and rest her belly back on the ground. “You have a point though. With all these traps you placed around the roost, there’s no way any adventurers can wander in here.” She nodded, mostly to reassure herself. “Our children are safe.”
“Until one of them wanders into Grimmy’s trap and gets eaten by a ghost,” Prika said from a boulder not too far away. She raised an eyebrow at Leila’s and Grimmy’s expression. “What? I’m just saying. It’s not like both of you don’t know Ramon is a little sh—snot bubble who has no respect for any rules. You think he’ll listen to you when you tell him not to wander down the mountain because there are traps?”
Nova’s head popped out of his cave, and the green dragon bobbed his head up and down. “Ramon would probably dare his sister to touch one and taunt her until she did. That’s how he got her to tip over one of my paint buckets.”
Leila sighed. “Do you think there’s something wrong with Ramon’s personality?”
“What? No,” Grimmy said, shaking his head back and forth. “Growing up, I was even worse, and look at me now. Ramon will be fine.” He sighed and scratched his chin. “However, I am a bit concerned about Gloria. The girl doesn’t have an ounce of spine in her body. The other day, I saw her watering and sniffing flowers.”
“There’s nothing wrong with gardening,” Leila said.
Grimmy snorted. “There is if you’re a cursed dragon.”
“Well, as a holy dragon, Ramon shouldn’t be going around biting the tails off of rabbits,” Leila said and rolled her eyes.
“You’re expecting too much from him,” Grimmy said and patted his mate’s back. “It’ll be a while before he’s strong enough to bite the tails off of bears.”
Leila smacked Grimmy’s snout. “It’s the biting-off-tails part that’s the problem!”
“I have an idea!” Prika said slapping her tail against the boulder she was resting on. She sat on her haunches, and her eyes lit up. “We should have an intervention! Grimmy will teach Gloria how to behave more like a cursed dragon, and Leila will teach Ramon how to behave more like a holy dragon.” She glanced at her fellow dragons’ expressions. “Well? What do you think?”
Grimmy and Leila glanced at each other. Then, they shook their heads. It might’ve sounded like a good idea on paper, but since Prika came up with it, things were bound to go wrong if they followed her suggestion.
Prika snorted. “If Sera and Vernon were here, they’d agree with my awesome idea.”
“I have an even better idea,” Nova said. “Give me a second.” His head disappeared into his cave, and a moment later, he came back with two buckets of paint: one silver and one black. “We can paint Ramon black, and we can paint Gloria silver. That way, their personalities will match their appearances.”
Grimmy raised an eyebrow and glanced at Leila. “That’s not too bad of suggestion.”
“You’re right,” Leila said, nodding her head. Her expression darkened. “It’s not a bad suggestion; it’s a horrible one. Shame on you for even considering it.”
Grimmy shrugged, and Prika’s head perked up. “So…, is my idea the winner by default?” She glanced at Grimmy. “Intervention?” Her gaze immediately shifted towards Leila without waiting for Grimmy’s response. “Intervention? Yes?”