Book 5: Chapter 16 (1/2)

Ramon lay listlessly on the ground. His eyes occasionally shifted from one corner to the other, but his body didn’t move at all. He was laying on a patch of moonlight, the so-called dinner of dragons. Not too far away from him, Gloria was chattering about, talking with Kondra about raising plants or something. Ramon didn’t put too much effort into listening. He raised his paws and covered his ears, making sure to let everyone in the cave see the frown on his face as he did so.

“He’s kind of a party pooper, huh?” Lulu asked, gesturing towards Ramon with her head.

Grimmy rolled his eyes. “He’s not the only one sick of eating moonlight.” He patted Ramon’s back, causing the young dragon to raise his head and remove his paws from his ears. “When we go to my parents’ place, you’ll have a lot more fun there.”

Kondra’s head snapped towards Grimmy. “Your parents?”

“What about them?” Grimmy asked, raising an eyebrow.

“They exist?”

“I know I’m great, but I didn’t create myself out of nothing,” Grimmy said and rolled his eyes.

“No, I mean, your parents are still alive?” Kondra’s brow furrowed. “I heard they died during the phoenix and dragon war.”

“Oh, yeah.” Grimmy nodded. “That’s just a rumor I spread.”

Kondra blinked. “So…, they’re fine? How come I haven’t heard any news about them?”

Grimmy scratched his chin. “They were injured and went to sleep to recuperate,” he said. “Afterwards, there were a few ambitious humans and dwarves who wanted their things, so I spread a curse throughout the southern continent to protect them. Other people think I destroyed it for fun or something, and I just let them believe that because there’d be no one to bother my parents as they slept.”

“Wait,” Kondra said, dragging out the word. “You made a whole continent uninhabitable to protect your family?” She whipped her head around towards Leila. “You knew about this?”

Leila nodded. “It was a secret, so I didn’t tell you.”

“And you’re telling me now because?”

“It’s about time for them to recover from their injuries,” Grimmy said. “You won’t be able to hurt them if you fly over and shoot them with your laser.”

Ramon’s stomach growled, and he gulped. “Do they eat meat?”

“They do,” Grimmy said, “but I imagine you wouldn’t want to eat any meat in the southern continent.” He shrugged. “After they wake up, the curse I created will dissipate, but the cursed creatures won’t return back to normal for quite a while.”

“As long as it doesn’t taste like moonlight and can fill my belly, I’ll eat anything that’s cursed,” Ramon said and rubbed his stomach. It really was unbearable eating moonlight. Other than being tasteless and not physically filling his belly, he also had to lie still for four hours!

Grimmy chuckled and rubbed Ramon’s head. “As soon as your grandmother is satisfied with your behavior as a holy dragon, we’ll go to the southern continent and wake up your other grandparents.”

***

“What are we waiting for, Helden?”