“I’m sorry! I’m sorry!” A red dragon lay on the ground, prostrating. Her eyes were swollen shut, and there were a few bitemarks on her tail. Beside her, a golden dragon was in similar shape, also lying on his stomach. His paws were covering his head, and their scales were covered in a layer of frost. Above the two dragons, a third dragon, a sky-blue one, was towering over them, a cursed elf sitting on its head.

“So you know you did something wrong?” Sera asked, peering down at the trembling red dragon. “If you knew it was wrong, why’d you do it in the first place?”

“It wasn’t my fault!” Sung said and let out a few exaggerated sniffles. “It was Prika’s fault! She rushed in, and I couldn’t even explain anything to her! If she waited, I would’ve picked out a nice and stable world with lots of hot dragons, but—eh? Why are you getting angrier at what I’m saying!?”

“Angry?” Sera asked and tilted her head. “What do you mean angry? I love it when dragons are irresponsible and play around with the stability of the world. If a few dragons poured into the world, I bet we’d have a nice fine and dandy party, wouldn’t we?”

Sung bit her lower lip. “Err….”

“Does your mother know?”

“Of, of course, she does….” Sung swallowed upon seeing Sera’s smiling face. “…n’t. Of course, she doesn’t.” She swallowed again. “Don’t tell her, please? You already punished me in her place, isn’t that enough?”

“Not quite,” Sera said and sniffed. “That was for sending my son into an unknown world with a dubious teleportation system. I—”

“It’s not dubious!”

Sera glared at Sung.

Sung swallowed. “Sorry, go on.”

“As I was saying, that was just punishment for endangering my son,” Sera said and nodded. “But shouldn’t you be taught a lesson for endangering the whole world?” She nodded again. “I think you should.”

Sung scratched her swollen head. “I mean, there are some safeguards I put into place to prevent our world from being run over by dragons.”

“Oh?” Sera raised an eyebrow. “What about being run over by invasive species? This cursed elf was very particular about that.” She pointed at Lindyss, who was still on top of her head for some reason. After thinking about it, Sera sharply tilted her head to the side, causing Lindyss to yelp and fall to the ground. Sera cleared her throat and nudged Lindyss. “Go on, explain the invasive species to her.”

“I know what invasive species are,” Sung said and rolled her eyes. “They’re people who break into your den and take your stuff.”

“No, those are burglars,” Lindyss said. “Invasive species are species transplanted from one area to another, and they thrive extremely well, usually causing populations of local fauna to die out. An example of this would be humans. You see, my continent used to belong to elves and only elves. Then the humans came along, bred like rabbits, and what do you know? They practically own the place now.”

Sung blinked at Lindyss. “You’re saying a species might come through that can displace dragons off my mom’s continent?”

“I knew you were smart,” Lindyss said and glanced at the contraption on the wall. “So, what kind of world did you send them to?”

Sung coughed. “An unknown one.” Her neck shrank into her shoulders under Sera’s glare. “It should be safe,” she muttered. “I mean, I opened it and checked, and there was some lava; it’s not like it teleported people into the middle of the void.”

“You teleported my child into lava?” Sera asked, taking a step forward.

“No! I mean”—Sung scrambled backwards, her tail folding as she pressed against the wall—“I made sure it was a planet! When I opened it the next time, no lava poured out, so he shouldn’t have entered a lava-filled area at the start. B-besides, even if he did happen to end up in lava, it’s just lava, right? It’s not like it’s harmful.”

“And they get back via a receiver on the other end, right?” Lindyss asked. She glanced around and found a crystal sitting in a corner of the cave. “I reckon it’s this thing? As long as I have this, I’ll be able to come back after finding them?”

“Yup, yup,” Sung said. “All you have to do is send in some mana, and I’ll fetch you out right away. Well, the portal might be a little off by one or two or a dozen or”—she covered her mouth with her paws—“a few thousand miles.” She uncovered her mouth and smiled. “But you should be able to find it if you look hard enough!”

Lindyss turned her gaze onto Sera. “Well, we know where Vur is now,” she said. “He didn’t just vanish off the face of the planet. And if Prika’s in that world with him, it should be pretty safe.”

“I don’t trust Prika to keep Vur safe,” Sera said and wrinkled her snout. “What if she sees a potential mate? She’ll leave Vur to his own devices and abandon him.”

Lindyss scratched her head. “Didn’t you already have an official ceremony or something that made Vur an adult? Something with meteors. Why are you so worried about him?”

Sera sniffed. “Even if he’s an adult, he’s still my little baby. It’s only natural for a mother to be worried, no? Even if he becomes stronger than me one day, I’ll still worry about him if he disappears without cause.”

“That … actually sounds pretty reasonable,” Lindyss said. For some reason, her neck felt itchy, so she scratched it. “So, I suppose you’re throwing me in there to find Vur for you, right? Do you want me to bring him back too?”

“Well, if it’s not dangerous, then he can stay,” Sera said and nodded. “I just want to make sure he’s safe; I don’t want to ruin his fun.”

Lindyss sighed. “Alright,” she said and placed her hands on her hips. She glared at Sung. “Open the portal; I’m going through.”

Sera raised an eyebrow. “I thought you’d try to weasel your way out of it.”

Lindyss’ hands dropped to her sides. “I’ve learned to accept my fate. It helps me stay sane.”