Vur yawned and stretched out his limbs. He sat up and rubbed at his eyes. He glanced down and tapped the tattoo on his chest. “Stella?”

“I’m here,” Stella said, her head popping out of the tattoo. “What’s up?”

“Can I finally go eat those evil beasts now?” Vur asked. “You don’t want me to wait for anything anymore, right?”

“Nope,” Stella said. “There’s nothing else worth waiting for.”

“Finally,” Vur said and got up. He grabbed the sleeping Recordkeeper and heaved her over his shoulder. He carried her out of the tent and glanced around. The four members of Generis Squad were sitting around a fire. They looked up at Vur with wary expressions. “We’re going to hunt the evil beasts.”

“We’re not eating breakfast first?” Helden asked, raising an eyebrow. He put away the pots and pans he had just taken out.

“The beasts are breakfast,” Vur said. He dropped the Recordkeeper, causing the winged woman to yelp and sit up upon hitting the ground. Vur leaned forward and dropped onto all fours, blue scales sprouting from his body as he did so.

“Oh my goodness,” Ingwer said and covered her mouth with her hands. She stared with wide eyes as wings sprouted from Vur’s back, his body growing in size. “He really is a dragon. We actually antagonized a dragon.”

Helden gulped, and Blau clenched her hands. Forster’s face paled, and she scrambled backwards without getting off the ground. When Vur’s transformation finished, he swept his golden eyes over the group. His front paw reached out and scooped the four of them up. He picked up the Recordkeeper with his other paw. Then, he stood on his hindlegs and bent hit knees. He leapt upwards, launching himself into the air. The people squished together in his paw screamed, but the sounds were drowned out by the wind rushing into their mouths.

After the initial acceleration, Blau turned her head to face her companions. “We never would’ve caught up to them if he had done this from the start. I knew we were being toyed with.”

Helden grimaced. “You’re right,” he said and sighed. He glanced at the ground below. Even with his humongous repertoire of skills, if he was dropped at this height, there was no way he’d be able to survive. “Does this dragon really want to keep me around for my cooking skills?”

“You are a pretty good cook,” Forster said. She wriggled around, but there wasn’t much space to move. “But what does he want us for?”

“Maybe he’s going to eat us,” Ingwer said. “Dragons eat people, right?”

Blau rolled her eyes. “Dragons don’t eat people,” she said. “That’s been disproven for many years in academia.” She used her leg, the only limb she could move, to tap on Vur’s claw. “Excuse me. I have a question.”

Vur glanced down. “What?”

“Dragons don’t eat people, right?” Blau asked.

“That depends on the dragon,” Vur said. “Some people hate the taste of vegetables. Some people don’t mind. Some dragons hate how humans taste. Some weird dragons don’t mind.”

“You’re a normal dragon, right?” Ingwer asked. “You think humans taste bad?”

“I’ve never eaten one,” Vur said. “But I think you’d taste bad.”

Ingwer blinked. She wasn’t sure whether to be relieved or offended. However, she wasn’t going to ask why. What if she convinced him to eat her? The best thing to do was keep her mouth shut. The group exchanged glances with each other and came to an agreement without saying a single word.

After a few minutes of flying, Vur swooped downwards, eliciting another series of screams from the Generis Squad. He dropped to the ground with a thump, landing on his hindlegs. In front of him, there was a creature that looked like a spider with a person’s face on its back. It charged at Vur, and he slapped it away with a sweep of his tail. Vur frowned. “Is that an evil beast?”

“Yeah,” the Recordkeeper said. “It’s just one of them. There’s plenty more. They aren’t all spiders; in fact, the only thing they have in common is a human face on their bodies.”

Vur wrinkled his snout. “They all have human faces?” he asked. He shook his head and dropped the Generis Squad onto the ground. “Never mind then; I’m not eating them.” He stared at Helden. “Make me breakfast.”

***

Emile and Susan hopped along the underground river. A constant stream of phoenix flames lit up the cavern. “How far do you think this river goes?” Emile asked, the flames temporarily going out. “What if it goes on for a long time? It wouldn’t be a bad idea to get some sleep first.”

Susan yawned. “Now that you mention it, we haven’t had a good night’s sleep in a while, huh?”

“Yeah,” Emile said. “It sucks having to keep watch. I think if we dig a hole here, we’ll be able to sleep just fine. It’s been so long since we’ve been down here, and there hasn’t been any sign of a single corrupted creature yet.”

“Alright,” Susan said and stopped hopping. She turned around and jumped while flapping her wings, landing near the wall of the cavern. After taking in a deep breath, she exhaled out a jet of concentrated phoenix flames. It struck the wall, turning the surface bright orange. A few seconds later, the rock began to melt. Susan continued blowing flames until she formed a hole just large enough for two phoenixes to sit inside. She was about to exhale out some more flames when Emile placed his wing in front of her beak.

“Wait. Do you hear that?”

Susan closed her beak and blinked. Her head swiveled back and forth as she tried to pinpoint the sound Emile was referring to. It sounded like faint footsteps heading towards them. Her eyes widened, and she and Emile stared at each other.

“Flee?” Susan whispered. She gestured towards the hole. “Hide?”

“Flee!” Emile whispered back. The two phoenixes hopped while flapping their wings. It was difficult to fly underground, but under the pressure of an unknown creature approaching them, they still managed to do it.