Book 4: Chapter 37 (1/2)

“Aren’t you tired, Vur?” Stella asked. She was sitting on his nose, her hair fluttering in the wind. Despite having such a small body, she wasn’t blown away even though Vur was flying at extremely high speeds. Her legs were dangling off of his snout, and she was gnawing on an odd-looking fruit that was as tall as her torso. She gulped and swallowed a piece of pulp. “You’ve been flying and healing people for so long, and you haven’t even slept yet. Dragons sleep for years at a time, but I wasn’t aware they stayed awake for years at a time too.”

Vur didn’t respond.

Stella turned her head, and a blank expression appeared on her messy face. A drop of juice dripped off of her chin, landing on wing. Vur’s eyes were closed, and his wings weren’t even flapping. It seemed like Vur was sleeping. “Uh, Vur?” Stella asked and nudged the scales underneath her with her palm. “Are you awake, Vur?”

“Huh?” Vur’s eyes shot open, and he blinked twice. “Oh, are we there?” He shifted his gaze down, and Stella nearly fell off of his nose, but she flapped her wings in time, maintaining her balance. “Why don’t I see it yet?”

“No, we’re—”

“Oh! What’s that?” Vur asked and pointed.

“What’s what?” Stella asked and flew to the right side of Vur’s snout. It was too hard to see what he was pointing at because his snout was in the way. Stella squinted, and a blurry white dot appeared in her vision. “That dot?” It was a strange dot. Usually, the land was completely dark underneath them during the night except for the few places with fire they encountered. “It looks like…, fly closer; I can’t see.”

Vur nodded, and he swooped down, angling himself to the right, heading for the dot. As he got closer, the blurry formed revealed itself to be a bear. It was rather large, taller than the trees around it. It raised its head, and its eyes locked onto Vur’s. It stood up on its hindlegs, towering over the trees, and roared. Though the sound was extremely loud, it didn’t disturb the vicinity. No birds flew away, and the forest below remained completely calm.

“What is it?” Stella asked, unperturbed by the bear’s roar. The bear was much larger than her, but it was still tinier than a dragon. “It seems to be some sort of ghost?”

Vur squinted his eyes. The bear’s body wasn’t solid, as if it was composed of fog. The fog was too dense to completely see through, however. Its feet were even hovering a few feet above the forest floor. Vur leaned over, and his body made an arc in the air. He circled the bear, and it followed his trajectory, taking clumsy steps to walk in a circle with its body passing through the trees. After a while of circling, Vur sighed.

“What’s wrong?” Stella asked.

Vur wrinkled his snout, causing Stella to rise up and down. “I don’t think I can eat it.”

Stella blinked and looked at the bear. “You’re probably right about that,” she said after a while. “Even if you could, I don’t think it’d be very tasty. It looks like it’s made of fairy farts.”

“Fairy farts are visible?” Sheryl asked from the rune on Vur’s shoulder.

Stella nodded. “Yep.”