“So,” Prika said, rolling her eyes up to look at Vur, who was sitting on her forehead in his human form. “You’re telling me, you can sense everything below us through those elementals of yours? All the water, all the wind, all the rocks below the water? How far is the range?”

“Yup,” Vur said and nodded. “Since there’s so much mana around, it goes really, really far. I can even sense those boats over there.” He pointed off into the distance. There were five tiny black dots on the surface of the ocean.

“Boats?” Prika asked, her eyes lighting up. “Want to go over there and flip them over?”

Vur tilted his head. “Why?”

“It’ll be fun!” Prika said, her head bobbing up and down. Despite the rough movements, Vur remained in the same spot as if he were glued to the red dragon. Prika grinned. “It’s like flipping a turtle onto its back and watching it struggle to get on its feet.”

Vur tilted his head the other way. “Why is that fun?”

Prika blinked. “You don’t think flipping turtles is fun?”

“No?”

“Oh.” Prika’s brow furrowed. “Okay, how about this? We fly over there, tip those boats over, and you tell me how you feel about it.”

“Have you tipped a lot of boats?” Stella asked, coming out of Vur’s chest. “And how many turtles have you flipped?”

Prika rolled her eyes. “Do you remember how many times you’ve entertained yourself in your life? Of course not. Why would I remember something as pointless as that?” She snorted and tilted, leaning to one side. Her body curved towards the boats in the distance. “Look, it’s more normal to flip turtles over than to not flip turtles over; I don’t get what’s so hard to understand about that.”

“I think I know why she’s single,” Sheryl whispered but not loud enough for Prika to hear. “Oh, and there’s some source of delicious-smelling fire on one of those boats over there. It’s really, really, really familiar, but I’m not quite sure what it’s from…. Do you guys ever get that? Like, there’s something you can remember but actually can’t?”

“Why would there be a fire on the boat?” Stella asked. “And don’t worry, Sheryl. When you get like that, that just means you’re old. It’s natural.”

The boats grew in size as Prika got closer and closer. She rolled her eyes up to look at Vur. “Hold your breath,” she said and pinched her nose with her front paw. “We’re going under.”

“You don’t have to hold your breath, Vur,” Mistle said. “I can keep the water out of your face, and Zilphy can siphon in some oxygen for you.”

Vur didn’t get to respond before Prika dove beneath the surface of the ocean.

***

“Wait,” Tafel said and nearly broke the wooden railing she was holding onto. “That was totally Prika! Why did she dive under?”

Mary shrugged. “I don’t know much about dragons. Do they hunt for food in the ocean like this?” She frowned. “Should I go down there to check? I don’t want to lose track of her right after finding her.”

“Yes,” Tafel said. “I’ll go check. Salt water can’t be very good for your armor, right?” She was about to hop over the railing when two red lumps appeared on the surface of the ocean. They looked like shark fins. “Or not? Is she swimming towards us?”

The two fins got larger and larger as they approached. As expected, they were the tips of Prika’s wings poking out above the water. The sailors below the crow’s nest, on the ship’s deck, shouted and pointed. They had shouted much earlier when Prika first dove into the water, calling everyone up on deck to witness the strange creature.

“What’s she doing?” Mary asked, nudging Tafel. “You’re the expert on dragons.”

“I have no clue,” Tafel said and shook her head. “Should I freeze part of the ocean around her so she stops and surfaces? I don’t want her to think she’s being attacked though. What if she retaliates? I’m not sure what Prika’s specialty is, but I’ve never seen a weak dragon before.”

“If she retaliates, I’ll protect you,” Mary said. “I want to know how strong I am compared to a dragon.” She narrowed her eyes at Tafel. “I still plan on slaying the evil black dragon, you know, the one you said you’d help me kill.”

Tafel cleared her throat. “Yeah, I remember,” she said. “Oh! Would you look at that, Prika seems to be … flipping over our boats?”

Two of the five boats were launched into the air, sailors falling out of them like fleas jumping off a dog. The boats landed back in the ocean deck first, the wood making a slapping sound upon contact with the water. Prika’s wing tips dipped below the surface of the ocean, and the other two boats, the ones that Tafel and Mary weren’t on, were also thrown into the air. Sailors screamed as they fell into the water, sending splashes of white water upwards.

“What the heck!?” Tafel shouted. “Why is she doing this!?”

Mary shrugged. “You know dragons have a twisted sense of humor,” she said. “Maybe she’s doing this out of boredom.”

“I don’t think she’d do something like this out of boredom,” Tafel said, her horns glowing with a blue light. She raised her hand and clasped her fingers into a fist. “Freeze!”

The water around the boat froze in an instant, forming a perfect circle of ice. A moment later, Tafel’s eyes widened as the boat was tossed into the air, ice and all. She opened a portal and dragged Mary through as the boat was still rising upwards. The boat flipped over in a perfect arc, landing on its deck. There was a splash, and once the boat settled, only a perfect hemisphere of ice could be seen above the surface of the ocean. Moments later, Tafel and Mary fell from the sky, landing on the icy surface.

Vur’s head popped out of the water, and Prika’s head followed shortly after, lifting Vur’s body out of the ocean. The two blinked, making eye contact with Tafel and Mary. The two parties stared at each other in silence. Then, Prika raised her two front paws into the air, out of the water and shouted, “Surprise!”