They arrived on the northern outskirts; Gretel flapped her wings just once to create a controlled gust, soaring on it and landing neatly atop their boulder. Gadalik climbed up beside his friend.

“You've really gotten good at avoiding trees,” he praised her in all seriousness.

She grinned. “Practice makes perfect! You're not so slow either; I was just kidding.”

“I know,” he replied, feeling warmed from the indirect compliment.

“You're actually very fast as far as earth dragons go,” she said as a matter of fact. “But nothing really compares to the speed of a wind dragon like me,” she added with a playful smile.

“What about electric types?”

“Oh–they’re fast, too! On foot, they'd beat me in a race, no doubt about that. But they don't have wings, so in open spaces, wind types have the advantage.” She considered it. “Earth types also have an advantage in open spaces–just not as much as us.”

Makes sense, he agreed, remembering how the turns had slowed him down in their race. “What else do you know about earth dragons?”

“Oh–not too much. Just the basics from what I've observed on my travels,” Gretel explained. When he tilted his head curiously, she elaborated, “There were earth dragons on the mountains of that volcano island I mentioned. They didn't let me close, though.”

“Ah. Why not?” Will the earth dragons on this land let her in with me?

“Eh, something about not trusting outsiders. At least they were civil about chasing me away from their territory, instead of resorting to violence like everyone else,” she laughed.

“So earth dragons are nice?”

“Well, I can't speak for an entire subspecies of dragons, silly. Everyone's different.”

“Huh… That's true.” Gretel’s certainly a lot friendlier than the wind dragon that tried to prey on Guinevere. “Guess I'll find out for myself when we visit the earth dragon society, then,” Gadaik replied with a determined smile. He had made his mind up about including her; there was no way he could see himself going without his friend.

She tensed.

“You alright?” he asked, confused.

“What do you plan to do after that?” Gretel finally spoke, her hot pink eyes looking into his with trepidation. She was oddly calm, though, almost as though she were prepared to accept whatever scared her.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

“What do you mean?” Gadalik prompted gently.

“When we were on the hill, you told me you didn't plan on moving there permanently, right?”

“Yeah, and I still stand by that. I'm not sure if they'd let me–as a winged hybrid–stay permanently, even if I wanted to.”

She shrugged. “Hybrid or not, you're still dominantly an earth type. There's a chance they'd let you stay if you did want to.” Her tail-tip was twitching, betraying the anxiety under her indifference.

“Well, I don't want to. Regardless, I would never ask you all to give up your homes to stay with me there, if that's what you're worried about. But again, I don't want to stay there.”

“That's what you say.” That anxiety suddenly boiled over as she rounded on him, her striped tail lashing. “But once you get a taste of the high life, you'll change your mind about leaving it. I just know it…!”

“What? High life?” Why is she upset with me all of the sudden?

“You say you don't want us to give up our homes for you–but I'll bet you'd have no problem giving us up for your new home,” she cried between quick, shallow breaths. Then the young dragoness caught herself and regretfully covered her mouth; she turned away from him to hide her forming tears, pawing fiercely at her eyes to dry them as she breathed to calm herself. “Sorry… Really, I'm sorry…! I should go–”

“Gretel, wait…” Her friend was more concerned than offended by her unfounded accusation. I've never seen her act like this before… “What's the matter…? What makes you think I'd do something like that?”

“I'm sorry,” she repeated genuinely. “You wouldn't, and I know that…” The juvenile wyvern shook her head, taking a deep breath and releasing it in a sigh. “I-I should just go until I feel better… See you tomorrow–”

“No, wait! Please!” he begged, and she hesitated. “Talk to me… You let me vent to you when I was upset on our way back from the hill. It's only fair that you can vent to me about whatever's bothering you, too.”

“I’d tell you, but I don't know!” Gretel exclaimed with frustration that was directed at herself rather than her companion. Her tail lashed again, and she sat on her haunches with her forelimbs slightly off the ground; he could tell she wanted nothing more than to take flight the same way she had escaped the violent dragons on her travels all her life.

“You know, I talked to Guinevere after you left yesterday,” Gadalik murmured. “She told me she might be able to help you figure this out.”

“What…? How?”

“Hypnotism… I don't know if it'll work, but it won't hurt to try, right?”

She lowered herself to sit properly, all paws securely on the rock they had met on. By now she had steadied her breathing and narrowed her eyes skeptically.

“Guinevere told me you can come to her anytime you want, and you can always change your mind if it turns out you don't want to go through with it,” he assured her. When she still seemed indecisive, he sighed. “We just want to help… But if you don't want to do it, it's your choice–”

“Alright,” the wind type cut him off. Before he could ask, she clarified, “I'll do it.”

“Wait. Really?” The green dragon was relieved to hear that.

“Yeah… Normally, I wouldn't want to,” she admitted, “but I also don't want to lash out at you like that again. You didn't do anything wrong.”

He softened. “It's alright. I know you didn't mean it. And I'll be with you for everything with Guinevere, if you want me to be.”

Gretel smiled even though she was still clearly not feeling her best. “Yeah–I want you with me.”