Book 5: Chapter 40 (1/2)

“Hi, Grimmy,” Vur said and nodded at the black dragon. His gaze shifted onto the two little heads poking out from near the bottom of the cavern entrance. “Hello, Ramon. Hello, Gloria.” He gestured towards the two rocky hands. “We caught a kirlopion.”

Grimmy blinked. “You caught a kirlopion?” he asked. “Where’d you even learn about those things?” His head swiveled as he scanned the room, and he narrowed his eyes at the Recordkeeper. “Why do you look familiar?”

“You probably know my predecessor,” the Recordkeeper said. “I’m this generation’s Recordkeeper. I would prefer it if you didn’t squish me.”

“Why would he squish you?” Tafel asked. She rolled her eyes. “Would it happen to do anything with the fact you’re infuriating?”

The Recordkeeper shrugged. “He squished the last Recordkeeper, so a precedent’s already been established. Perhaps he did it on accident. He does look chubbier in person. Then again, it has been a few hundred years since the ravens last recorded his image.” She scanned Grimmy from head to talon. “Did you gain weight?”

Grimmy took a few steps forward into the cavern and raised his foot over the Recordkeeper. He stepped down, but Vur appeared by the Recordkeeper’s side and held up the black dragon’s foot. “This is my tour guide,” Vur said. “You can’t squish her.”

“You weren’t really going to step on her, were you?” Gloria asked, staring at her father with wide eyes.

“He wasn’t,” Leila said and pushed past her children, winding up by Grimmy’s side. She looked around the cavern before her gaze finally settled on the rocky hands in the center. “What did you say this was?” she asked Vur. “You caught a kirlopion?”

Vur nodded. “Uh-huh.”

Leila’s eyes narrowed at Grimmy. “You said your traps wouldn’t be dangerous. A kirlopion? Really?”

“It’s not an actual kirlopion,” Grimmy said, emphasizing the second to last word. “It’s just something I cobbled together that’s based off of one. I know I’m amazing and all, but even I can’t bring an extinct creature like the kirlopion back to life; if they left behind a corpse instead of disintegrating upon death, then perhaps I could.”

“Your traps?” Tafel asked. “You made this?” Her face paled. “Did we barge into your secret lair?” Vur had broken two of the barriers inside, and Grimmy could’ve easily pinpointed her as the reason why. She had even freed those people Grimmy had trapped. “S-sorry.”

Grimmy chuckled and patted Tafel’s head with his claw, nearly squishing her. “Don’t worry about it,” he said. “You didn’t get very far, and it’s not really my lair. It’s my parents’. I just made some modifications to it to help them sleep better.”

“Sleeping parents,” Emile mumbled and turned his head towards the river of dragon drool flowing through the cavern near the wall. Then, he turned his head towards Grimmy’s mouth. He gulped and stared, then stared some more.

Susan noticed her brother’s actions and slapped him with her wing. “What are you doing?” she whispered. “You’re being rude!”

Emile leaned over and whispered back, “Do you think Grimmy’s drool tastes just as good? Do you think different dragons have different tasting drool? What if Vur’s drool tastes good too but differently?” He gulped again, and his gaze shifted onto Leila’s face, then Gloria’s and Ramon’s. He took in a deep breath and looked at his sister. “I have a new goal. I’m going to taste the drool of every dragon in existence.”