The ice unicorn lowered his horn, poised to tap the sleeping red dragon.

But before the unicorn could launch his malignant spell, Revi the gold dragon tumbled down and pushed him away. The dragon hissed, his claws scraping on the mountain soil. “What are you doing?”

Phaeton held his head high, the horn on his head gleaming. “Why? Do you love your red dragon all that much?”

“My affection for zir is sincere,” Revi protested.

“But ze doesn’t want to marry you.”

Revi’s face was pinched but stubborn. “I know, but that doesn’t mean you get to harm zir.”

“Of course. But how do you know I was about to harm and not help zir?” asked the ice unicorn.

Revi hardened his mouth. “I saw that glint in your eye. Whatever you wanted to do, it would not be good for Ana.”

“What if it’s not good for Ana, but it would be good for you?”

Revi recoiled a little. “I like Ana just as ze is. Why would you harm zir to benefit me?”

“Oh gosh, I said it would be bad for Ana, not necessarily harmful,” the unicorn said. “What if I helped zir see things from your perspective?”

Revi paused, then shook his head with vigour. “No. Ana needs to agree with and follow me by zir free will. No mental manipulation.”

The ice unicorn rolled his frosty eyes. “You’re no fun. And what have you caught in your hunt?”

Revi flushed, because he hadn’t caught anything.

“Then why don’t you go back out to find your prey?” Phaeton taunted. “Or are you afraid that I’ll tamper with your precious princess?”

The gold dragon frowned. “A little. You’re too powerful for your own good, and not entirely trustworthy.”

Phaeton shrugged. “Sure. But are you going to starve as a result?”

Revi said nothing and glanced at him warily.

The ice horse tapped an impatient hoof on the ground. “I promise you that I won’t tamper with Ana’s mind or body in any way while you’re gone, okay? You know we faeries can’t lie.”

The gold dragon still felt suspicious, but he at last nodded. “Fine.” He mumbled, “Ana would be starving when ze wakes up anyway, even if ze wanted to hunt for zirself.” With a final wary glance back, Revi took to the sky again.

Phaeton stood next to the sleeping Anastasia, as if standing guard. He chuckled in a low voice. “You truly are lucky, you know? Remember to count your blessings.”

Ana was still sound asleep and did not reply.

By the time Revi came back, with some birds of prey who had become prey themselves, he eyed the ice unicorn. “You didn’t try anything on Ana, did you?”

Phaeton laughed. “You are impossible. You know I can’t break a vow without great injury to myself.” He tapped Ana’s flank with an icy hoof. The red dragon shuddered and shrunk away even in zir sleep.

Revi growled. “Don’t touch zir.”

Phaeton sneered at him. “Yeah, like Ana is only for you to touch.”

The gold dragon inhaled sharply, and his chest felt tight.

The ice unicorn neighed. “There’s nothing fun for me to do. I’m leaving now…unless there’s anything else you want.”

“Well,” Revi said slowly. “I don’t want you to manipulate Ana in any way, but ze must be stressed from the earthquake and the ghosts. Can you soothe zir and make zir feel better?”

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Phaeton nodded. “As you command.” The ice creature tapped his horn on the red dragon’s snout. A white, watery shimmer appeared briefly on Ana, before fading again. Phaeton smiled. “My work here is done.”

The air beside him rippled, and the unicorn leaped into the portal with a splash, returning to his own world.

***

When Anastasia awoke, ze found zirself in a foreign, mountainous land. Ana was starving and woozy, but ze caught a whiff of something delicious.

Just a few metres away, lay some dead fowl. Ze ambled over and began to eat immediately. Distantly, ze thought there was something strange about zir lack of caution. But Ana was so hungry that it didn’t matter.

After the satisfying meal, Ana wanted to lay down and lounge around.

But before ze could succumb to that luxury, the gold dragon landed in front of zir. He looked concerned. “Ana, are you all right?”

Anastasia frowned. “What do you mean? I just had a good meal — thank you if it was you who caught it for me. And we need to go find my family and the others. We still don’t know where they are.” Ana stretched zir shoulders, feeling zir energy return.

Revi looked at zir with a careful expression. “Are you sure you’re okay? You don’t seem like yourself.”

Ana snorted at him. “I’ve never felt better.” And it was true, ze realized with a touch of amazement. Ze might think about why later.

The gold dragon looked uneasy, for some reason. But he nodded. “We’re near The Valley. The earthquake should be finished by now. Let’s fly there to see if we can find anyone.” He lifted off with a mighty flap of his wings.

Ana zoomed up with him, threading through the fine blue sky.

From time to time, Revi would shoot zir a worried glance.

Ana eventually snapped, “What’s wrong? Spit it out.”

The gold dragon shrunk away a bit. “Nothing. Well, you seem a lot calmer than I would have expected, given all that has happened. But I guess you had a good rest.”

Anastasia pondered his words, but found that ze didn’t want to think too hard. So ze said dismissively, “It was a nice sleep, all right. But now I just want to make sure my family are safe and sound.” Ze glanced around the land below, searching. “Where is that ice unicorn?”

The gold dragon froze for a moment. “He got bored. Said his job was done here and he left.”

A silence stretched between them. Anastasia stared off into the distance. “That’s odd. I could have sworn he was around. I suppose he jumped through a portal.”

“Yeah,” Revi said, his scales glimmering as they reflected the sunlight. “Before he left, I asked Phaeton to soothe you and ease your stress, since it was so overwhelming for you to take everything in.”

Anastasia glanced at him. “Hmm, I do feel…fine. Whatever he did must have worked.” Somewhere deep down, ze wondered whether ze should be more alarmed that the unicorn had done something to zir. But right now, there were more important things to think about.

Before long, they flew over a forest that Ana liked to retreat to, back when ze was still working for the Valve dragons. Ze cringed at the thought of zir former colleagues. “It’s too bad for them.”

“What’s too bad?” Revi inquired.

“The Valve dragons lost interest in their work,” said Ana. “Thought they could chase bigger dreams elsewhere rather than shepherding ghosts in The Valley.”

Revi halted so abruptly that Ana scowled at him. “What?”

A pause. “You don’t remember, do you?” Revi sounded mystified.

Anastasia wrinkled zir nose. “You’re acting so strangely, Revi.”

The gold dragon looked baffled. “Maybe I am, but…” He turned his head away again. “Perhaps it doesn’t matter.” He flapped his wings silently.

Ana was concerned about zir friend, too. “Am I missing something? Are you worried that we won’t find Ero or the rest of my family?”

Revi gritted his teeth. “I’m sure we’ll find at least some of them alive. I thought I saw Princess Teefa escape to the skies when the earthquake shattered the palace grounds. She took someone with her on her back — maybe Ero?”

Something in Ana calmed. “My mother was always scrappy, despite being gentle. If Ero is with her, he’s in safe hands. What about Queen Freya and my other mother, Leyla?”

The gold dragon avoided zir eyes. “I’m honestly not sure.”

Ana was sombre as ze thought about it all. “Did you cure them, though?”

Revi blinked. “Yes…I thought you asked that already.”

Anastasia shot him a look of dismay. “I don’t recall. Maybe I have but was too tired to remember.”

“Yeah, that’s probably why.”

They were beyond Ana’s favorite forest by now, and soaring back towards the palace.

***

Revi felt stuck.

He loved and cared about Ana, yet…

If he was right about what he thought the unicorn did, then he was very fortunate indeed.

He wasn’t so deluded as to think that Ana would return his feelings, but maybe they could still be friends.

How much did ze remember? Ze recalled the earthquake. But ze forgot that the ghosts had become resistant to dragon fire. Ze even thought the Valve dragons had just gone in search of bigger, more interesting game.

Did Ana still remember him and the unicorn trapping zir inside a cage? Perhaps not.

Revi had been so sure that that was the best thing to do, to save the world and also protect Ana from it all. But he had doubts now.

If Ana kept zir memories of the incident, ze would hate him again.

Right now, ze seemed fine with Revi.

The gold dragon sighed inside, blaming the ice unicorn for suggesting they put Ana in a cage in the first place. Phaeton was a sociopath with no principles whatsoever.

Could Revi erase the past, now that Ana couldn’t remember? Was it too late to undo the hurt?

As he floated through the clouds side by side with Anastasia, he made himself believe that anything was possible.

There was no need to be that fatalistic.