Book 4: Chapter 103 (1/2)

Tafel exhaled and stared at the grinning red dragon in front of her. She kept her expression neutral and nodded. “I was very surprised,” she said. “Can you flip the boats back over now?”

Prika tilted her head. “Don’t you want to watch them struggle?”

“Why would I want to watch them struggle?” Tafel asked and furrowed her brow. She glanced at Mary, who was beside her. “Do you want to watch them struggle?”

Mary shook her head. “Not interested.”

Tafel looked at her husband, who was sitting on Prika’s head. “And what about you? Do you want to watch these people struggle?”

Vur scratched his nose. “A little,” he said. “Prika made it sound like it’d be something really fun to watch, but after seeing it, I think it’s pretty boring.”

“There you have it,” Tafel said and nodded at Prika. “Please flip the boats back over.”

Prika huffed and rolled her eyes. “None of you appreciate good entertainment,” she muttered and halfheartedly swatted at the boats from below. They flew into the air and landed back onto the ocean, flipping multiple times, wet sailors falling out like droplets of water. Three landed upright, but one landed back on its deck. As for the boat Tafel and Mary were standing on, Prika left it alone. “You going to get off? Or should I flip it while you’re still on it?”

Tafel and Mary stepped through a portal which opened up behind Vur. Prika frowned and let out grumbling sounds as she flipped the two boats upright with a few smacks. “Isn’t it polite to ask people before stepping on their heads?” she muttered and glared at the sailors who had managed to remain on the boats’ decks. They didn’t have the energy or breath to scream in fear, so she simply swam away from them. “Hey,” Prika said, interrupting the conversation Tafel was about to start. “Open a portal for me into the sky. It’s too annoying flying straight up from the ocean. The water makes me extra heavy.”

Tafel’s horns glowed silver, and Vur grabbed her hand, injecting some of his mana into her. “You don’t have to do that,” she said. “There’s so much mana in this world that I can teleport a dragon with ease.”

A portal appeared in front of Prika, and she swam through. Her wings spread open, and she took in a deep breath. Her body heated up, and steam rose from her scales as all the droplets of water evaporated, the vapor joining the clouds above her. None of the people sitting on her head seemed to mind the increase in temperature. She rolled her eyes up to look at them. “Alright, now that we’ve found Tafel, can we go home?”

“Yes,” Tafel said. “All we have to do is pick up Alice and Mr. Skelly, then we inject our mana into the receiver crystal that your sister gave me. Are we ready to leave right … now?” She stared at her husband. “Um, Vur? What is that? Is that a ghost?”

Vur glanced down at the spirit rabbit that hopped out of his stomach. He raised his head and stared into Tafel’s eyes. With a blank expression, he said, “Undigestible food.”

Tafel blinked hard. “So…, is it a ghost or not?”