High up in the sky, where dusk introduight to the departing evening, a gold and azure streak glided across the e and purple background surrounding the setting sun. She was Blue, in both color and name.

  A juvenile drake of impressive features, she had mesmerizing eyes of an intense golden yellow that matched the undersides of her magnifit wings. Eyes which she was using to scout the area underh, looking for a young man.

  Smart as she was for a drake, she did not actually know the human nguage or that Rye was the young man’s name, but she uood enough to know her task was to find him.

  Not that she cared much for humans, or most other creatures in general. As a draic species, pride was a defining trait of her being, and everyone else was to be seen as a servant tnifice. There were, however, a few exceptions.

  A certain young baker girl was one such exception. Something about her made Blue’s heart feel softer, and she looked up to the girl with admiration and fondness.

  The drake also khat, for whatever reason, this Rye boy was very important to Madeleine, and even if Blue did not fully uand why or what she saw in him, she respected the girl enough to also respect him.

  And so the winged creature flew over the roads, looking for any signs of the archer. Not only because that’s what Madeleine would have wanted, but also because the crab asked her to.

  And at least this time he said “please” too.

  plex creatures like drakes take respect very seriously, and anyone who wishes to be at least tolerated by these beings must show the proper revereo their magnifice.

  This was a plicated cept in Blue’s mind when it came to Balthazar, however, since, as far as the drake uood, he was her parent, or at least he should be, seeing as he hatched her, and he certainly had the pride and self-importance of a draic creature himself, a, he was still… a crab.

  It was hard on the young drakeling to her head around the idea that, instead of having a big, imposing mother to look up to, with beautiful wings that could house her entire body underh them and a fire breath that could raze entire vilges, what she had was a flightless crusta for a parent. Instead of beautiful scales, he had a rough shell. Instead of wide wings, he had big pincers. Instead of shooting fire, his mouth only shot many words. Too many words.

  It was just not what the small drake expected when she came out of her egg all those months before.

  How could she submit to a lesser creature when he wouldn’t even show her proper manners? Sure, he rideful like her, and she was stubborn like him, but at least she had the draic preseo justify it. He was just a small crab, mostly cowardly and uo even defend himself. It went against every fiber of her being to see such a being as an equal.

  But, as Blue soared through some clouds, cirg around a hill in her tinued search, she let out a fiery sigh.

  Despite all of those things, and how much she resisted showing it, the drake could not help but care for the crab. His attempts at w on their retionship and learning how to deal with a draic creature, while often clumsy, still struck a chord with her. If only he was less… crabby.

  So long as he was at least trying, she would do her best too, even if it meant they would often bump against each other’s stubborn personalities.

  If even a grumpy old crab was learnihings and putting himself out here to help his friends, then the drake was not about to let herself be outdone by him.

  She would follow him, and together they’d get back their lost friends. If nothing else, just so Blue could have a rematch against the big red dragon. Her pride dema.

  With redoubled determination, Blue dove, brushing aside her doubts and attempts at uanding how a crusta came to sire a drake, and fog on findiarget.

  Scouting the many winding roads, paths, and trails, the winged lizard had not yet found any signs of the archer, and night was fast approag, making it difficult to see very far, even for her sharp eyes.

  As much as she disliked the idea of returning without having fulfilled her mission, with darkness falling over the woods and hills, Blue decided it was time to head bad catch up to the crab and the goblile down by the fire, maybe have some more meat, and then tihe sear the m.

  Following the path she khe other two to be, her eyes sed the open areas betweerees, trying to spot any green ray dots moving below.

  After a while, her sights finally picked up a familiar figure. Druma, carrying firewood in his sy arms, was making his way out of the forest and back to the road, likely returning to Balthazar as well.

  She hovered for a bit, making sure there were no threats around him, such as wolves, bears, or any other predator that might attack the small goblin. A mighty predator herself, she knew how tempting of a target the little green guy could be to er creatures, and as her guardian, she would make sure not to let that happen.

  The drake had given herself the job of proteg the goblin after the day wolves attacked a him severely injured. In her own way of thinking, she knew she liked pying with the goblin on the shores of the pond like they usually did every m, and his disappearance would greatly upset her, thus, being the bigger o was only natural for her to be his protector. Simple as that. Draic creatures were nothing if nmatic.

  Reassured of the goblin’s safety, Blue pushed forward, looking for Balthazar. It did not take her long to spot him in a clearing up ahead, but something peculiar made her frown.

  He was not alohere were four ures around him, and while she was too far away to listen in, it seemed pretty clear to her by the se pying out down below, that hostilities were taking pce.

  The drake’s frowning deepened. How could it be that such a small crab was always finding so much trouble?

  One of the figures below, the rgest of them all, was stumbling towards Balthazar, and something about him looked off to her.

  As a drake, if there was ohing she had a sixth sense for, it was fire, and she could tell there was a nasty fme brewing within that human.

  Which was odd, because she’d never seen a fire breathing human before.

  Cirg high above the clearing, Blue shook her head in disapproval.

  She ought to let Balthazar deal with the sequences of whatever he had gotten himself into as a lesson, but then again, her pride also demahat if someone was ever going to roast up the crab in a torrent of fmes, it should be her.

  He was her annoying crab to butt heads with, no one else’s.

  With a swift turn, the drake nosedived at full speed, aiming towards her oddly-shaped parent.

  ***

  Balthazar ducked and covered his face with his cws as the bandit stumbled bad forth, looking si his stomach, which he likely was, after downing an explosive alchemy co.

  With a red fad eyes bulging out, Dax suddenly stopped and breathed in before his mouth opened, like the very maws of hell, letting out the foulest of belches with a most unholy souing from within, which reverberated against the trees all around, sg away the squirrels from their branches and the critters from their hiding holes. Following the unnatural burp came the fmes. Like a torrent of fire worthy of a dragon, they blew out of him with violent force, growing into a fireball that quickly engulfed the thug and expao e everything else around him.

  Peeking from between his pincers, the crab braced for a very hot impact, when suddenly, at the very st sed, he felt himself being picked up by his shell and lifted into the air, away from the explosion.

  Surprised and fused, Balthazar turned his eyestalks up to see Blue carrying him in her powerful cws, beating her wings at full force as she struggled to gain altitude. Naturally, this was because she was still young and not fully developed yet, and not because Balthazar was heavy and full of bread.

  “Blue!” the crab excimed, staring up at her with a big smile on his face. “You saved me! You—” His eyes gnced down, seeing the ground quickly growing distant as she flew higher up. “Yoing to get me kiiiiiilled!”

  His legs kicked, and his pincers filed as Balthazar panicked, watg himself go higher and higher, past the tallest trees and through the chilly wind of the autumnal night.

  “Bring me down! Bring me down!” he screamed. “Crabs aren’t meant to fly!”

  All the kig and struggling were making the annoyed drake’s job of holding on to the crab more difficult, and for a split sed, her grasp on his shell almost slipped.

  “Oh lord, no! Please don’t let me fall, Blue!” cried the terrified mert. “I don’t wanna die like a ripe watermelon dropped on a rock!”

  A bead of sweat running down the side of her face, Blue started desding towards a clearing below, where she finally he crab.

  Gasping and breathing fast, Balthazar fell to his cws and… let’s call them “knees.”

  I’m way too old to only be finding out I don’t like heights now!

  Gng to the side, he saw the drake nding on the ground a few paces away, looking at him with an expression of awkward embarrassment.

  “Uhm, right,” said the crab as he stood back straight and cleared his throat in an attempt to lower his voice’s pitch. “Thank you for the assistance, Blue. I had it under trol, of course, but your help was still appreciated. Just maybe don’t se up into the air like that again without warning. I wasn’t… ready for it, yeah, that was it.”

  The golden-eyed creature was still staring at him with an expression of weirded out disfort.

  “I know you ’t teically talk, but let’s… let’s just never speak of this again, alright?”

  “Boss! Boss!” called Druma, ing out of the trees in a sprint, pieces of firewood falling off his arms as he ran. “Druma hear big kaboom. Is boss alright?”

  “Yeah, I’m fine now, don’t worry,” said the crab, wiping the top of his shell aing the rear of his shell drop to the ground. “I’ll just sit here for a moment to rest, and then I tell you all about the bandits I found.” He looked around the clearing they were in. “I think we’re far away enough now, so let’s just set up camp here for the night.”

  With one of his usual eiods, Druma started preparing a small campfire, while Blue perched herself on some nearby boulders, sing the surrounding trees.

  As Balthazar rexed his shell a out a relieved sigh, a system notification popped up.

  [Bandit Thugs defeated x4]

  [You have reached level 16!]

  The crab’s eyestalks perked up with excitement.

  hat didn’t take long. Time to spend some points!