Ramon stared up at the sky. Behind him, Grimmy, Leila, and Gloria were staring up at the sky as well. After a few seconds passed, Grimmy let out a massive yawn, his eyes squinting as small licks of fire escaped from his mouth. Leila inhaled deeply through her nostrils, yawning while keeping her mouth shut. Gloria rolled her neck from side to side, cracking it, before looking at Ramon. “Are you sure you’re not lying?”

“The moon turned red; I swear!” Ramon said, turning his head to look at his family. “Koza and Snuffles saw it too!”

“Alright,” Grimmy said, smacking his lips while lowering his head. “We believe you. Do you know when it’s going to turn red again?”

Ramon blinked. How would he know that? He came out here to ask them about the phenomenon. “No,” the small dragon said. He opened his mouth.

Before Ramon could say anything else, Grimmy yawned again. “Then,” the black dragon said, stifling another yawn, “do you know if it is even going to turn red again?”

“No,” Ramon said, dragging the word out. His eyes widened, and he raised his front paws before stepping down on them. “But what if it does?”

Grimmy shrugged. “Maybe the giant root will come out of the red moon again,” he said. “When that happens, you can call us out here again.”

“But it happened in an instant,” Ramon said, gesturing wildly with his front paws while standing on his hindlegs. “If you go back inside, by the time you’re done getting up, it’ll already be gone!”

“Alright,” Grimmy said and flopped onto his stomach, letting his limbs splay outwards. “What if we shut our eyes over here, and if it happens again, we’ll see it?”

“I don’t want to sleep outside because Ramon thought he saw something,” Gloria said. “It’s cold out here.”

“You’re a dragon,” Ramon said. “Don’t act like the cold bothers you.” He placed his front paws on his hips. “And I really did see something! Koza, say something.”

The pink-eyed goat on Ramon’s head nodded. “A portal opened up in front of the moon; a root extended towards us, and then a tentacle slapped it away.”

“Be more convincing,” Ramon said, rolling his eyes up to look at the goat.

Kozabokget shrugged. “Your father did say he believed you,” the goat said. “And he does have a point. We don’t know if it’ll happen again. If they aren’t already fighting, then they probably won’t start. Fighting takes a lot of energy, and large creatures don’t like moving around for no good reason.”

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

Ramon frowned and stared up at the sky. Finally, he let out a sigh before nodding his head. Then, he blinked. “Wait!” he said, pointing straight at the moon. “It’s doing it again!”

Gloria narrowed her eyes and raised her head. She blinked as a red light shone down at her, coming from the moon. As a dragon, she could eat and taste moonlight. As a dragon, she thought the red moonlight tasted horrible. A gap opened within the moon, and a root extended outwards, spiraling towards the ground. It grew larger and larger in size with every loop shortening the distance between the ground and the moon.

“This is what happened last time!” Ramon said, hopping up onto his hindlegs and pointing at the sky. “See? It looked like it was about to touch the ground, but a huge tentacle slapped it away.”

The family of dragons watched as the root grew larger and larger, the thickness of the woody structure easily three times wider than a dragon. Grimmy exchanged glances with Leila, and the two dragons furrowed their brows as the root broke through a cloud in the sky. “What do you think?” Leila asked, squinting at the portal in the distance.

“It might be related to Vur,” Grimmy said. “He did go off on an adventure with Lindyss through a similar portal. I didn’t think they’d come back so quickly.” He narrowed his eyes at the root. If it wasn’t slapped away soon, then it’d make contact with the ground in a few seconds. “Well, we’ll fly over to it if it touches down.”

“Is it going to be dangerous?” Gloria asked, frowning as the root spiraled towards a spot on the horizon not too far away.

“Maybe,” Grimmy said. He turned towards Leila. “Should we hide our kids just in case?”

Leila raised an eyebrow. “Hide them where?”

Grimmy looked around before shrugging. “Dig a hole in the ground?” he asked. “Dirt is a great hiding spot. Most people don’t like getting dirty.”

Leila snorted. “I’ll watch over them,” she said. “You can fly over and see what’s happening. If something delicious happens to appear, remember to save some for me.”

“And me,” Ramon said before Grimmy could respond.

“Of course,” Grimmy said, glancing at Gloria. “If there’s something to eat, I’ll get some for you as well.”

The large, black dragon leapt into the air, flapping his wings as he flew towards the root’s landing point. It hadn’t touched the ground yet, but it was easy enough to tell where it was going to make contact. Grimmy squinted as he approached the root, keeping his distance. If an explosion occurred when the root collided with the ground, he didn’t want to be there.

The earth trembled, and the surrounding trees shook as the tip of the root pressed down against the surface of the continent. An amber light erupted, washing over the region. The light faded, revealing a large wooden circle standing upright with red lightning flickering inside the area of the wooden monument. A rift appeared, and a familiar figure walked through.

Grimmy blinked and flew closer to the platform created by the root. “Vur?”

Vur raised his head. “Hi, Grimmy,” he said as another person walked out of the portal from behind him.

“Hello, Vur. Who’s that?” Grimmy asked, pointing at the well-dressed man with a dazed expression on his face.

Vur’s gaze followed Grimmy’s claw. He nodded upon seeing Kim Hajun. “He’s a hero,” Vur said.