Kel told the group about how he tunneled his way from the ocean all the way to the location of the oasis lake he ended up creating there. The dragon also mentioned how he found a massive crater with the magic crystals there. Naturally, his first instinct was to blow them up before eventually eating them.

"Stop that!" Ari, Maya, and Aura were in the female wolf's new pine forest when Sophia suddenly appeared out of nowhere in front of them, and the jaguar didn't appreciate that overly much.

"Hehe." It was precisely the reaction the blonde had been hoping for.

"What's up?" As Maya was already used to her randomly appearing, she just lightly greeted her while lazily waving at the tiger.

"I haven't seen you all day." Aura was also rather relaxed about it.

"I come with good news and bad news." The blonde shrugged before glancing at Maya. "For some, at least."

"WHY DID YOU LOOK AT ME?!" She didn't like that.

"So, which one do you want to hear first?" Sophia ignored her.

"B-Bad one first…" The cat-girl's good mood was gone.

"Do you remember the strong magic from the oasis lake and the sparkly bits in there?"

"I rather not!" She raised her voice.

"Well, I managed to confirm what it is, and it's way wilder than anything you probably imagined."

"That's not bad news, that's horrible news!" Maya didn't like any of that. "The good news better be damn good to make up for whatever monster is in that lake!"

"I made a new friend!" The tiger showed her the brightest smile possible while giving her a thumbs-up.

"Nuh-uh!" All color left her face. "You did not befriend the scary lake monster!"

"Sure did~."

"You really can't be without supervision at any time, after all!"

"He has just a little extra magic and is otherwise just like everyone else!"

"That doesn't mean much with our group!" It didn't make it any better for the cat-girl.

"Okay, fair point." Sophia couldn't actually blame her for that. "Anyway, he's nice! Kel, that's his name, only attacked me like two or three times since we met! He also only got almost killed by Fenny once! Well, in a mutual act, but I'll get to that later."

"Excuse me?" Aura's voice changed ever so slightly.

"Are you trying to sell it to Maya or make her even more upset?" Ari didn't understand the goal Sophia was going for.

"Yes!" The blonde smirked at her.

"I hate you." The cat-girl just glared at the tiger.

"What type of creature are we talking about here?" Ari rolled her eyes over Sophia's very characteristic response. "To see which side I am on here."

"A 300-meter-long ancient dragon who managed to trick Mira and her magic system into giving him more authority." She gave the jaguar another thumbs-up. "Kel, my newest and biggest friend!"

"I hate you." Ari immediately got next to Maya and grabbed her hand to get the point of unconditionally siding with her across.

"It's been a while since I last fought a dragon!" Aura sounded a lot more enthusiastic about the situation. "I still need to hear more about this mutual getting killed thing Fen was supposedly involved in, though."

"Well, you probably know how dragons are, right?" The tiger scratched her cheek.

"They love to fight." The wolf nodded a few times.

"And you know how Fenny is, too."

"I'm starting to understand." After all, Aura knew that her wolf was the exact same in that regard.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

"I still have to punish Fen, though." Sophia then looked at the wolf with a slightly more serious expression. "And by that, I mean, you'll have to punish him."

"What's that supposed to mean?" She sounded confused.

"I've told everyone about the rules and safety mechanisms of my domain, right?" The tiger tilted her head. "How no one can get seriously hurt or die because magic wouldn't allow that to happen?"

"Yes, I remember that." Aura nodded. "It's hard to believe, but it sounds amazing."

"Well, Fen and our new dragon friend actually tried to seriously kill each other just to find out whether or not it works."

"…" She went silent for a moment. "Even though he promised to exactly not do that anymore since the incident you two had."

"And so far, I've been doing my best to keep that promise." Sophia stole a quick glance at Maya before continuing. "That's why my punishment for Fen, because I specifically told him not to test out my domain like that, was to leave it to you."

"Thank you." Aura appreciated it. "Though, it sounds like that dragon was far from innocent, too."

"Don't worry, Kel has already been punished in the most ego-crushing way possible." The blonde smiled at her.

"How?"

"I had Blu beat him up in a fraction of a second. A massive dragon being beaten up by a tiny bird did a bit of mental damage~."

"Ohh, that's a good one!"

"Blu can beat up a dragon?" Ari wasn't sure how to feel about this.

"The only beings in existence who could best Blu would be the overseers." Sophia just shrugged. "A dragon isn't even considered a snack for our best parakeet."

"I am so happy that I've always been friendly towards Blu!" The jaguar was glad that the bird had no reason to dislike her.

"So, let me get this right, there's currently a massive dragon in your domain?" Maya got the conversation back on track. "One that apparently loves to fight?"

"Pretty much."

"How do you keep attracting such eccentric people?!"

"I have no idea, miss-who-challenged-me-to-a-fight-five-seconds-after-we-met."

"A-Ah." The cat-girl had forgotten about that.

"In fact, my chat with Kel before he challenged me was way longer than when you wanted to fight me."

"I'm sorry…"

"Hehe." Sophia liked her reaction. "So, who wants to see Kel?"

"It's been a while since I last bullied a dragon, so I'm all for it!" Aura was getting excited about their new friend.

"Please don't go too hard too fast, okay? He's a bit of a handful, slightly more than everyone else here, but I'd like him to become friends with everyone if possible."

"I'll try my best~."

"Great!" The tiger gave her a thumbs-up before looking at Maya and Ari. "What about you two?"

"Only if I can hide behind you the entire time!" The jaguar was still worried that they were talking about a dragon here.

"Well, I am very relieved that it seemingly wasn't simply a mindless monster of horrors beyond comprehension living in that lake, so I'm not quite as concerned anymore. A dragon does sound incredibly interesting, too." Maya's curiosity got the better of her. "Scary, in a way, but if Blu's with me, I'm okay."

"Why has ARI more trust in me than my actual GIRLFRIEND?!"

"Okay, I don't want to get held back even more by your three-way flirting because I'm sure Ari's next sentence will be a teasing 'because I love you more than Maya', so can we skip all that and go play with the dragon already?!" Aura was having none of their usual bickering.

"…" The trio went silent before Sophia eventually nodded. "Sure."

----------------

"Woah, it really is a dragon!" Arriving on the little island, Maya couldn't help but marvel at the massive sight of Kel a little further away from them in the water.

"Why is Steph standing on his head…?" Ari peeked her head out from behind Sophia's back and noticed a certain dog-girl being on the dragon, though she was barely visible because Kel was just so much bigger than her.

"Steph wanted to ride a dragon." Chloe, Anna, and Fen were still on the island as well, and the fox-girl gave Ari a simple answer.

"I can't say I'm surprised." The jaguar had nothing else to say. "In fact, it was a stupid question, knowing who we're talking about."

"I can't really blame her, though." Chloe shrugged. "Riding a dragon should be on everyone's bucket list."

"True." Both tigers agreed with her.

"My bucket list seems a little different than everyone else's." Ari wasn't sure how to feel about that. "By the way, why is he so sparkly? I've seen drawings of dragons from the distant past, but while they've been colorful, they've never been this impressive in that regard."

"Well, long story short, Kel messed around with some magical stuff that changed his look to this new shimmer and sparkly version." Sophia didn't feel like going through all that in great detail again. "His body is infused with some things that let him use magic for longer, but came with a makeover."

"Interesting." She looked visibly confused. "You really have a talent for making the most peculiar friends."

"That's why we're friends~." Sophia turned around to smile at her peculiar jaguar friend.

"Yeah, I walked right into that one." Ari scratched her cheek in return. "I don't think I'm on the same level as a magically enhanced dragon, though."

"There's no need to sell yourself short!"

"Shush."

"He does look pretty cool." Maya nodded a few times. "I'm still not sure if I'm ready to be alone near him, though. Steph being so friendly with him doesn't say all that much, after all." She was still a little wary.

"Fen." While the girls were chatting, Aura eventually approached her wolf with an incredibly dry voice.

"I AM SO SORRY!" He instantly started apologizing as he knew where this was going. "I got swept away in the moment! A-Also, in retrospect, I agree that it was a little reckless. Still! We're talking about Sophia here! If she says her domain is safe, I have no reason to doubt it."

"Are you happy with that excuse?"

"Not really!" He shook his head. "Though, you've fought dragons before! If someone you know is trustworthy tells you it's impossible to die in this fight, no matter what you do, would you not play around?"

"Huh." Aura had nothing to say in her defense and faced the blonde instead. "Sophia, he's making some good arguments here."

In the end, as her plan of having Aura punish Fen backfired, Sophia had Blu also play with him for not following her rules.

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