Red Writer’s Note: Hello again, just finished midterms. It was sort of hard and easy at some point. Anyway, I hope you guys have been enjoying the story. Thanks for the subscribers and commentators who have been reading this. It has been really fun and I hope you look forward to the future chapters because this story’s about to make a turn you’re probably not expecting. Now, let’s go on with the story.

When the oracles announced the news, Tiffany was nowhere near the portal. She was inside one of the caves in her kingdom. What she was doing required a great amount of timing and concentration: she was breeding dragons.

Today was the day where a new dragon was supposed to be born and now, here she is in the water dragon and wind dragon’s cave. Tiffany had been excited because the patterns on the egg were one she hasn’t seen before. She wanted to keep a watch over it so she could put it in her catalogs.

She calmed the water dragon as she set down a basin of water. The dragon screeched loudly and then stopped. A small squeal was heard and there it was. Tiffany took notice of the fact that it had tiny spikes on its head. From the looks of it, it was a cold type of dragon. The mother dragon laid her head down as Tiffany cleaned the baby dragon. It looked at her with curious eyes and then it sneezed. The princess coughed as a fairly great amount of white flakes sprayed above and landed softly on her hair. She giggled, looking at the new member of the family.

“Ah, you’re one of those ice dragons… You’re so cute.” Tiffany watched in amusement as the dragon rolled around about and bumped into its mother. Giving another soft squeal, the baby settled next to the mother dragon and slept.

“You’re very special. Thank you for letting me.” Tiffany looked at the dragon with sad eyes and the water dragon nudged her in an attempt to comfort her, as if telling it was an honor to.

“Rest now. I’ll be back. Don’t worry.” Tiffany stood up and patted her light pink dress. Removing her apron, she left the cave, locking the gate behind her, and went into her house. It was a big cottage with a huge backyard. In there, Tiffany spent most of her time with a special dragon. It was Sky. He was a peaceful dragon that never hurt anybody and always looked out for the princess. Tiffany opened the door to the backyard. As if sensing her, the dragon, characterized by his great length, lifted his tail and there was a sword.

“I don’t need my sword. Why are you­­–?” She asked as her face showed confusion. Sky moved his head and when he faced the fire princess, there was a scroll on his mouth.

“Yeah, I needed my notes but why the sword?” He gave no more than a stare as Tiffany took the scroll and sword. With a shook of her head, Tiffany left the cottage, closing the door behind her.

“What the–” Tiffany exclaimed as she looked at the open gates to the breeding cave. In a state of alarm, she ran quickly, her feet not even touching the ground as she glided through the pastures. Sweat ran on her forehead as she made her way back to her dragons. Upon reaching the couple, she let out a sigh of relief as she didn’t see anything wrong or missing. But her relief was cut short when she looked around. It was gone. Panic raced in her blood as she held the sword tightly in her grasp.

“What happened?” Her panicked shout woke the sleeping water dragon. The wind dragon, beside her, growled in disapproval.

“Where is she?” Tiffany asked the wind dragon in a more calmed manner. The dragon brought out something soft and colorful. Tiffany held it in her hands. It was plumage. Her hold on the sword tightened even more that it would’ve cried if it had been anything but a sword.

“Hyoyeon, give that dragon back to me!!!”

***

Near Tiffany’s portal, three princesses stood around a small baby dragon. The princess who wore loose dark green pants for her dancing sneezed.

“What’s the matter, Hyoyeon?” The tallest of the three asked.

“I think we have to go now. Tiffany must be headed here.”

“I told you unnie, we shouldn’t do this. She’ll be angry and I’ll be punished with you two…” the youngest spoke out.

“Come on, Seohyun! It’s better than you spending all day in that creepy planet.”

“That planet you’re referring to is my home. And, it’s not creepy, just a little crowded is all.” She said with a stoic face.

“Never mind that, we have a mission to complete.” Sooyoung said as she touched her right earring.

“Is this the right one?”

“They said the portal would automatically change when we get here with the dragon.” Seohyun said while she touched a small will-o-wisp. Hyoyeon saw it and moved behind the dragon.

“I told you to leave that home!” She said while hiding behind a dragon that had not even learned how to control its powers. The baby dragon blew and snow appeared, covering the two princesses, Sooyoung and Seohyun.

“”Enough dilly-dallying, we have to do this.” Sooyoung said as patted the snow away from her face. Finally, the three princesses, with the dragon on Seohyun’s back since it likes her, jumped on the portal.

A few minutes later, a fuming princess saw her planet portal. Just as she was about to step in, she remembered.

“Wasn’t there something about the portals? What was it again?” Trying to recall the message, she sat in front of the portal. About thirty seconds later, she stood up.

“Ugh! I have no time for this. I must get her back!” With that, she put the sword on her waist and just as she was about to jump, she saw Sky.

“My coat? Thanks. But how did you– Ah!!!” Tiffany was cut off as Sky pushed her into the portal. She braced herself for any hard ground but what greeted her was coldness and small flakes. It was snow... It covered the land and there was not a single person in sight. Wearing her coat, she stood up from the blanket of snow and saw a village. It was not as big as Hyoyeon’s but nevertheless, it seemed to be a warm home, regardless of the snow. Spotting a castle on her right, Tiffany made her way towards it with only one thing in mind: to get the dragon back.

***

The ice princess heard some snickers as she got up from her soft bed. However, as she was still sleepy, she only heard the door close before her eyes widened. Looking at her closed bedroom door, her eyes traveled only to land on the floor where she believed she heard a coo.

“Oh, what is this?” Jessica left her bed and made her way to the small creature. Reaching out her hand to the ice dragon, she gasped. All the other ice dragons she encountered on her journeys were cold to the touch but this one was different, it felt warm and alive.

“Why are you so warm?” Jessica said as she carried the dragon to her bed. To her surprise, the baby dragon opened its mouth and blue flames burst out. Jessica coughed as her face was slightly darkened by the soft flame. She heard that when dragons breathed fire on you, you won’t actually burn and it wouldn’t hurt at all but it will leave a smudge. The princess scoffed as she wiped at her face, seeing the black color on the sleeves of her white sleeping gown.

“Don’t you believe it…” Jessica wiped more of her face when she felt the dragon snuggling next to her. Jessica’s eyes soften and she patted the baby dragon’s head.

“What are you?”

***

“Almost there…” Tiffany said as she saw the castle a few feet away. It had taken her a while to go through the snow since it was a long time since she last played in them. As she neared the castle, she saw three hooded figure. Just before Tiffany could yell, the third one vanished into the portal.

“There you are!” She yelled. The two princesses visibly flinched. They turned around and saw the fuming princess getting her sword out. The two princesses shrieked and jumped into the portal. As soon as she got to the portal, she looked back at the castle.

“I need her back but I don’t know where she is inside that castle…” She thought about it more before coming to a decision. The dragon was really important to her and she must ensure nothing happens to it but… for some reason, she felt at ease. As if the dragon was sleeping somewhere safe.

“I’ll get to the bottom of this first. For all I know, those three musketeers delivered something more than my dragon to that place.  I must know their reasons first.” With that, she jumped into the portal and found herself in a familiar place.

“Hyoyeon~”

“Sooyoung~”

“Where are you~?”

“Ah, unnie, you’re here… he he he.”  The dancer stepped back nervously as she and Sooyoung hid behind maknae.

“Care to explain?” Tiffany tapped her feet.

“…” The three could only look at her, none of them uttering out a single word.

“I’m not angry.” She says but her smile tells them otherwise. Sooyoung hides behind maknae and subtly touches her earring. A voice speaks through it and the strong princess stands straight.

“It was a joke?” A tick mark appeared on the already-fuming princess. There was silence.

***

Orion was still sniffing around for the mine when he heard screams from afar. If it was possible to sweat dropped, he would’ve done so but he had so much fur so it wouldn’t be noticed anyway. Shrugging, he continued to look for the place he was longing to get his sleep in.