Gren exhaled to herself while she swept away the rubble that Kondra had left behind. Honestly, who was rude enough to dig a hole out in someone’s ceiling simply because they were hungry? And holy dragons were worshipped as being well-mannered by humans. Just because holy dragons refrained from eating meat, the humans viewed everything they did in a positive light. Little did the humans know, most holy dragons were slobs who laid around doing nothing all day. Gren brought the rubble to the entrance of the palace before patting it into dust with her paw. Then, she blew the tiny particles outside. She walked back into the palace and poked her head into the living room. “Kal, fix the roof when you have time, will you?”

“Yep, sure thing,” Kal said, his eyes not moving from the boardgame resting between him and Kondra’s mate. The cursed dragon moved a piece on the board forward, causing Kondra’s mate to frown.

Gren pulled her head back upon hearing Kal’s acknowledgement. She was about to make her way back to her room when the sound of lumbering footsteps caused her to turn around. A very familiar holy dragon came into view. Gren blinked and tilted her head. “You’re back already?”

“I realized I forgot something,” Kondra said.

Gren blinked again and tilted her head to the other side. The vague outline of a question mark seemed to appear over her forehead. “But you didn’t bring anything with you? Unless you’re talking about your mate or daughter?”

“No, no,” Kondra said and shook her head. “I forgot I had something to tell your son.”

Gren raised an eyebrow. “Well, alright,” she said and nodded. She leaned over to the side and peeked around Kondra’s body. Her gaze landed on the mud and dirt being trekked inside, a trail of brown left on the palace floor. Gren’s eyes narrowed. Hadn’t the holy dragon ever heard of using the welcome mat? A sigh escaped from the cursed dragon’s mouth. “It’s been a while since I’ve cleaned the entrance of my home. Now is as good a time as any I suppose.”

“No!” Kondra said, practically shouting. She cleared her throat upon seeing Gren’s startled gaze. “You can’t. There’s, uh, a … disease … outside, and you can’t leave your house right now.”

“There’s a disease outside my house,” Gren said with a blank expression. She said it as a statement, but she was clearly questioning the sweating holy dragon.

“Right, right,” Kondra said, bobbing her head up and down.

“And I can’t leave?”

“Absolutely,” Kondra said. “You can’t leave. Let me finish my talk with Grimmy, and I’ll take him outside to clear the disease for you. There’s no need for you to trouble yourself.”

Gren stared at Kondra, and the holy dragon snarled while taking a step back.

“What are you looking at me like that for?” Kondra asked. She raised her head and puffed her chest up. “I’m doing you a favor, and you’re suspecting me?”

“That’s right,” Gren said and nodded. “I’m suspecting you because you’re acting extremely suspicious.” She took a step to the right. “I wonder what you’re trying to hide from me.”

Kondra took a step to the left, blocking Gren’s path. “I’m not hiding anything from you,” Kondra said. “Nothing at all. Go back, Gren.”

Gren’s eyes narrowed. “If you’re not hiding anything, then why are you blocking my way?”

“I’m not hiding anything,” Kondra said, shifting her body even more to prevent Gren from going towards the entrance. “I already told you; there’s a disease outside, and you can’t go out. You won’t listen to me, so what else can I do but block your way?”

Gren sat back on her haunches and chuckled. “You want to keep me captive in my own home? Keep dreaming!” Without warning, she pounced on Kondra, and the two turned into a blurred ball of black and white scales. Blood scattered as teeth snapped. The walls shook, and dust fell from the ceiling. The two male dragons in the living room took their gazes off their boardgame and made eye contact with each other. They both shrugged and resumed staring at their game.

Not too far away from the ball of rolling scales and claws, Lulu poked her head out of her room. Her cheeks turned pinked, and she placed her front paw on her forehead. Why was her mom so aggressive? Couldn’t she tell her behavior was embarrassing? A sigh escaped from Lulu’s mouth as she retreated back into her room. As for doing something about the fight between two matriarchs, who was she kidding? She was just a young dragon that couldn’t stop a meteor yet. Without an appropriate amount of strength, trying to interfere in a fight between two dragons was like trying to break a dragon’s egg with a rock. Before the rock could even get close, the holder of said rock would be eaten.

In a different room, Ramon raised his head. Gloria was standing at the door. “Our grandmas are fighting again,” she said, causing Ramon’s eyes to light up. He climbed to his feet.

“Vur’s not here to stop them this time,” the baby holy dragon said and rushed out the room. “Who do you think will win? I’ll ask Mama to make us some snacks, so we can eat something while we watch.”

“You’ll get in trouble again if you do that,” Gloria said but did nothing to stop her brother as she followed him to their parents’ room. “I’m telling you now, so when you ask me later why I didn’t stop you from getting into trouble, I’ll say I did, but you didn’t listen to me.”

Ramon rolled his eyes. “Yeah, whatever,” he said. “We don’t have to tell Mama why we’re asking for snacks. We just have to eat them.” His feet froze, and a snarling ball of black and white rolled past him. After it disappeared down the corridor, he continued walking as if nothing had happened. He turned his head back to look at Gloria, who had stopped. “What are you waiting for? If I ask for food, Mama will question me, but if you ask with me, she’ll make it for us without wondering why.”