Since all three dragons served as judges in their cooking competition, they each needed to sample the dishes that everyone had prepared.

Mahi lowered his neck to intimidate the one dragonet that he deemed a worthy adversary. "Looks like this is just between me and you, little dude," he said to Viliant. "If I'm totally honest with you, I'm concerned that you're trying to eliminate me." Mahi gestured his wings at the shadow fish which surrounded them like a field of magical mines.

"Hey!" Fia objected. That single word was lost to a whine in her throat. The fire dragonette could not open her mouth lest she drop her tiny fish. I have a fish too! She brandished it with a gentle shake of her head. With one claw lifted to point at it, she spat the guppy into the palm of her paw.

Mahi's eyes bugged out like a dragonfly. A flurry of stunned blinks fell over his eyes. "Well, would you look at that," he said once he regained his voice. "No offense, but that seems more edible than what you made, Viliant."

"I'm not trying to poison you," Viliant muttered to reassure him. While he had no intention to do so, Viliant also acknowledged that his fish might have unknown side effects.

As Mahi gawked at him after this admittance with disbelief, his wings folded lower until he finally shrugged them up. "I never say no to free food."

"Try my fishy!" Fia shouted. "Everyone needs to take a bite out of it." The dragonette took her nibble first before she shoved it between Viliant and Mahi.

Both dragons backed their necks away. Viliant flitted his eyes over the fish to Mahi who he expected to take an enthusiastic bite. "Go ahead. You first," Mahi offered to the dragonet whose smaller mouth could take a more precise sample.

Viliant bowed his nose closer to Fia's outstretched paw. His tongue flicked in between her claws which grasped around the bony fish. Carefully, Viliant stripped some flaky meat off. "It tastes just fine to me," Viliant appraised, salivating over the aftertaste that lingered on his tongue. The dragonet had yet to experience a food that he did not like.

Mahi swallowed the rest of the fish, its whole body a morsel to him. "More bone than fish," he said, smacking his jaws in time with the snapping bones, "but it leaves a nice, smoky flavor in your mouth. Thanks, Fia."

"Yeah. Thanks, Fia," Viliant echoed, realizing that he had forgotten to pay his appreciation to the chef.

The pink dragonette ruffled her wings. Fia had braced herself to receive negative reception due to the measly size of her catch, but their compliments bolstered her perception of her cooking ability.

Then, Mahi shoved a foot into his mouth. "Certainly not the best, but I expect Viliant's food to taste worse."

"Hmph." Fia snorted out of displeasure, but she focused on his original compliment. As for the insult to Viliant, she figured that the time had come to try his food. Her snout stiffened as she said, "I'm sure your food is amazing, Viliant."

"In that case, you should try it first," Mahi said, pushing Fia closer to the nearest fish with a sweep of his wing.

"I will!" she shouted, but her bravado faded as soon floated in front of it. The dead fish, its eyes clouded by a dark murk, made her fear that she would turn belly-up like it. Fia tilted her head away as her snout scrunched into a cringe. She scarcely wanted to flick her tongue out to smell it. However, Fia had no other choice but to crack open her mouth and take a bite.

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The moment that her tongue brushed across the rough scales, Fia wanted to spit it back out. To suspend her judgment, Fia cut herself off from all telepathy. Her eyes watered as she forced herself to scarf down the fish as quickly as possible.

"Don't eat too fast," Mahi cautioned her in the middle of a gag.

With too much blocking her windpipe to speak properly, Fia gurgled, "It's just so good." When she hacked up some bits of fish, the rancid flavor was laced with bile. Fia swallowed it back down to spare Viliant any embarrassment.

Her odd behavior sparked concern in the black dragonet as well. "Are you crying?" he asked in Malakan which happened to be the language that they shared the most words in common. "You don't have to eat it if it's bad…." Though Viliant suggested this, he turned his cheek away since he did not want to see his best friend spit out the food that he had made.

"It's making me cry tears of joy," Fia clarified after she gulped down her current mouthful. Once she suffered the last bit of the fish, she said, "It makes me wanna—" The dragonette belched a stream of fire into the air.

"Whoa!" Mahi shouted. "Now that's a glowing review! I can't wait to try it!" With his suspicions laid to rest, the slush dragon devoured a shadow fish. "Hurk!" Mahi gagged over the fish before he managed to swallow it. A chill made his whole body shake from his neck down to the tip of his tail. "Ugh. I swear. That thing almost gave me a heart attack!"

Viliant hung his head, unwilling to apologize for his best attempt at a tasty meal. It's not my fault that my element's not any good at cooking food. In that regard, Viliant flitted his jealous eyes at Fia. Her element allowed her to roast all sorts of foods in her flames. At the same time, his eyes pinched up in appreciation. His best friend had pretended to like his food no matter how thoroughly it had disgusted her.

"Don't listen to Mahi," Fia said with a weak smile in her tail. Her thoughts over telepathy betrayed a disordinant worry for him.

"It's fine. If no one likes my fish, then more for me." Viliant drowned his negative emotions by munching away.

"No!" Mahi shouted, his voice nearly breaking into a roar. "That was amazing! I never tasted food which has given me such a heart-pounding thrill before." The slush dragon cackled as if the shadow-laced fish had unraveled his mind along with his taste buds. "I already know what my sushi tastes like, and I like this better. Go ahead and try mine. Have all of it!" he corrected himself. Mahi paddled through the water and scooped up the shadow fish with his head tipped all the way back. His neck bulged each time that he swallowed another one.

Meanwhile, Fia and Viliant drifted over to the sliced fish that Mahi had iced on a platform of slush. The mahi-mahi had a sweet—almost floral—flavor to it without much fat. This made the strips of raw fish taste more mild than some big game from the ocean, but it was also more delicate than other whitefish.

A sigh heaved from Fia's mouth as she took another bite. The mahi-mahi sushi cleansed her palate and restored her appetite. After she had endured the ordeal with the shadow fish, Fia felt an unspeakable amount of gratitude that Mahi's fish tasted good. Luckily, she need not articulate what she had gone through to receive thanks.

Viliant's shoulder bumped against Fia's side as the two dragonets dined beside each other. You didn't need to do that, Viliant told her, but thanks.

Fia's wide eyes glimmered at Viliant who tossed his shy gaze aside. You're my best friend. Of course, I'd do anything for you. Since Fia could hardly go back on her lie that Viliant's fish tasted delicious, she voted him to take first place.

"I can hardly argue with that." Mahi stuffed his face with more shadow fish. "You win."

Viliant beamed with a straight neck. His wings even lifted out of the water from his surprise. The sunshine sparkled off his sleek, black scales. Even if he did not deserve it by his own merit, the acknowledgement made Viliant happy.

The three dragons continued to have fun on their voyage across the ocean. Whenever they needed to do something serious for the sake of their survival, Fia and Mahi devised a way to turn it into a game. The concept of fun became less foreign to Viliant, just in time for him to arrive in a foreign land.

A large island appeared in the distance with the jagged dome of a mountain. Its sandy beaches had the fronds of palm trees interspersed by the flight of gulls. Their sharp cries sounded dull in the distance, but that made them no less welcoming.

Fia blinked rapidly, expecting the island to disappear like another mirage. Can that really be? she wondered. The pink dragonette had never gotten a good look at her homeland from far away, so she was uncertain if she recognized it. "Is that… home?" she asked, too shocked for her voice to rise above a whisper.