Mildred rode on Lance the blue dragon’s back, soaring through a deceptively clear and bright sky.

Anything could be happening to her daughter now. She hoped they weren’t too late.

Demiel, Lance’s brother, joined them without a word.

Lance tried to chat with Mildred. She ignored him and stared straight ahead in a sullen manner.

After a while, Lance mercifully shut up.

However, Demiel piped up. “Mildred, I know you hate us, but really, we’re on your side.” His voice came out as a drawl.

Mildred tightened her lips. Then said, “You may have saved my life, but that doesn’t mean we’re friends.” Her nails dug into Lance’s back as she held on, even though his hard blue scales would be unmarred, anyway.

Demiel tilted his head like some silly toy. Mildred didn’t care. They were both losers, and she was somehow stuck with them. It was suspicious that Lance wouldn’t even tell her where they were going.

Lance had claimed that he couldn’t locate her husband, Clive, but who knew if the blue dragon shifter was lying?

It was possible that this trip to who knew where was a lie as well.

Back home at her barn — far away from the palace earthquake — her youngest calf, Kallias, was safe and sound with his babysitter. But guilt twinged in her chest. Vera was missing and still struck by a seemingly incurable illness.

Mildred yelped when Lance jostled her, whether on purpose or by accident. But he suddenly dove down, past the white cumulus clouds, towards a place that was strangely shrouded in mist.

The mist thickened into fog as they approached. Grayish-white substance washed over her, obscuring the landscape ahead.

Mildred’s heart thudded with fear. But it was too late to back out.

The two blue dragon brothers and the cow shifter flew into the realm of fog.

Mildred could hardly see anything and her human form had a feeble sense of smell. Lance and Demiel must be navigating the air through scent alone.

She knew dragons had a keener sense of smell than a cow’s. But it set her nerves on edge to rely on them so much.

Gone was the warm sunshine from earlier. Cold dampness clung to her clothes and skin now.

She held in a sneeze when some water droplets rushed into her nose. “How much longer will this trip last?” she demanded.

Lance didn’t reply, and she feared that he either didn’t hear or didn’t know. After a moment, he said, “Not long now. Be patient.” He let out a dry chuckle. “I told you it would be unpleasant.”

Mildred rolled her eyes even though he wouldn’t see her. But she held onto him more tightly, in case Lance would be careless in this fog and drop her.

She murmured, “I just want to see Vera.”

“And you will,” he murmured back.

After what felt like hours, the fog grew thinner until it dissipated. Mildred was about to heave a sigh of relief until she saw the building before her. She gasped and almost screamed.

Right in front of her, like some crazy underworld, was a black and purple castle. Maybe castle wasn’t the best term, she thought. There was something wrong about how it looked.

Faint, eerie lights winked from some of the castle’s windows.

The sky was all dark, even though the sun shouldn’t have set yet, unless she had lost track of time.

Mildred tightly clutched Lance’s neck, as she didn’t want to get off. Every instinct screamed at her to run.

But Lance, damn him, landed anyway, onto the dirty, dusty ground on this blasted heath. When Mildred was unwilling to climb off his back, Lance sighed and started shifting to human form.

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Mildred cursed him but finally let go, not wanting to be trapped in an embrace with him, especially as that might be what he wanted.

She dusted herself off, making a belated show of bravery. “Where is this place? And how do you know Vera is in here?”

Lance exchanged a glance with his brother, who also shifted to human. While Lance had blond hair, Demiel’s hair was black. The surrounding darkness merged with the latter.

Mildred shuffled her feet in the dirt, only to wince when she realized that she had stepped into something sticky.

Lance had the nerve to laugh. “What? Stepped in cow dung?”

The cow-shifter stared daggers at him. But on some level, she understood that he was just trying to make light of the situation to calm his own fear.

Demiel seemed the calmest of the three of them. Or maybe he just didn’t care.

“You still haven’t answered my questions,” she pressed, while tugging her foot out from that disgusting mess. “Why the hell are we here? What is this gross place?”

Lance smiled, though it was tense. “This is an old, lost land. We don’t even know the original name, but we call it The Gloom.” He cleared his throat. “It’s….well, we found out that Vera is here, because a messenger from the castle intercepted us and shared the news.”

Mildred’s eyes widened. Fury filled her. “Some messenger accosted you? Where are they? And how do you know they’re telling you the truth? They could be luring us into a trap.”

“I know it can seem that way,” Lance said with a lopsided smile. “But trust me. The messenger who shared this information is not someone I would take lightly. They absolutely wouldn’t bluff about your daughter being held hostage here.” At Mildred’s expression, the dragon shifter added, “Don’t worry. Vera is just a little kid. They will put her in a comfortable place with enough food and water.”

Before Mildred could bite out a snarky reply, a deep rumbling sounded from inside the castle.

She had the impulse to hide behind Lance. But only pride and dignity prevented her from doing so.

In the end, it was Demiel who said, “Let’s go inside. They have your daughter, so they won’t feel threatened by us.”

The cow-shifter thought that was an odd way to put it. But the two brothers marched towards the castle entrance, and Mildred hurried after, not wanting to be left alone in this hellish wasteland.

***

Ero, currently in his calf form, swam purely by instinct towards that cave deep down in the lake.

He couldn’t hear Princess Teefa’s warnings anymore. And he marveled again that he could breathe underwater.

The calf landed on the cave face and paddled in, surprised that the cave mouth was wider than he expected. He had plenty of room, even in his calf form, to wade in.

The cave walls were dark and rocky, yet he felt so sheltered, as though it were a source of wonder and comfort. He couldn’t see a thing, but he felt comfortable swimming through, guided by his sense of smell.

The cave smelled like an ordinary cave of stone and dirt. Yet, there was an aroma that drew him in.

He then realized that the aroma was cow’s milk.

Ero was surprised. He would have recognized the scent earlier if he wasn’t so caught off guard by it.

Regardless, he kept swimming, and somewhere along the way, the water receded and he could walk instead. The sweet fragrance of cow’s milk only grew stronger.

Ero’s senses flooded with warmth and reassurance, like he was enchanted.

Soon enough, he spied light at the end of the tunnel. In his excitement, the calf shifter dashed towards it.

***

Anastasia cried out at the top of zir lungs, “Fly far, far away!”

Ze zoomed away with Revi the gold dragon, and zir mother Leyla the green dragon, close behind.

The volcanic ash and fireballs were nasty and would leave welts, but they wouldn’t kill dragons. Still, Ana worried because Revi said he hadn’t planned the disaster.

When the three dragons had finally flown far away to be out of range of the volcano, Anastasia turned on the gold dragon and sniped, “So, tell me more. You and Phaeton did not plan to make a dormant volcano spew flames again?” Ze glared.

Revi looked both grim and embarrassed. The now twilight sky cast a soft glow over his golden scales, and not in a flattering way. He coughed as if to stall for time. “I’m sorry, Ana. We had only planned for the earthquake at the palace. Perhaps the volcano naturally decided to wake up right at this time. Maybe it was unhappy about the sheer number of dragons coming by. Or maybe it was Phaeton wreaking havoc.”

Anastasia growled. “And where is Phaeton? Can you summon that ice unicorn and question him?”

“Who is Phaeton?” Leyla the green dragon asked, looking flummoxed and distrustful.

Revi looked even more sheepish than before. “Phaeton is an ice unicorn and — a friend of mine.”

Ana doubted they were actually friends.

The gold dragon continued, “We’re not close, though. We do some things together, but we have our separate lives. Phaeton is many things, but most of all, he does whatever he wants.”

“Is he your friend or a fiend?” Ana snorted.

Revi sighed and looked away. “Both, I suppose. Phaeton isn’t as bad as you think, though he is selfish and willful.”

Ana didn’t know the ice unicorn well, but ze didn’t remember him being kind. Come to think of it, ze could hardly remember what Phaeton did, beyond leading them to that land of vials, and getting them the cure.

But after that memory, Ana’s mind grew unfocused, like there was something ze couldn’t remember. But something in zir told zir not to care. There were more important things at stake.

Leyla interrupted them. “Whatever this fiendish ice unicorn is, let’s find a safer place to stay. And hopefully it won’t become dangerous like that supposedly dormant volcano.”

As the light in the sky dimmed, the two teenage dragons followed the adult green dragon, flying over vast areas of land in search of comfortable shelter.

Ana couldn’t help but wonder why they didn’t just go to Revi’s mansion, since it was safe from the earthquake.

But something in the red dragon’s mind, told zir not to ask, not to even think of the gold dragon’s mansion.

Revi looked too sad for Ana to want to ask him, anyway. Ze felt sorry for him and thought that ze might have been too harsh on the gold dragon.

The gold dragon caught Anastasia staring at him. He blinked, then glanced away in a hurry.