Cara came into the room so she wasn’t left out of the conversation, and the watcher handed her a large cup of juice with a plate of pastries.

"A healthy breakfast, I see." Rue joked.

"I already had breakfast burritos, so I suppose this is a morning snack, not breakfast. How were things after we left? I missed out on so much gossip, and I’ve only seen glimpses from the years in between."

"What I don’t get is why? Why go all the way back to when I was a child, help me awaken my powers, and then just leave? Do you know how hard I had to fight both before and after Immortality?"

Karl gave her a sympathetic smile. "The reason we were sent was because not helping you awaken would have been worse for the world than giving you the chance to make a future for yourself. We weren’t sent to guide your whole life, only to give you the chance to make what you could with your own future from a fair start."

Rue sighed, "That sounds like the sort of nonsense that the Time Dragons spew. Alright, if that’s the reason, I won’t hold it against you."

Cara slid the snacks toward the dragon. "So, do you have people now? Your own Clan? I don’t see a tag on your name. Come on, we need details. Oh, and Opal. She won’t forgive us if she misses out."

"Opal?"

"Forest trickster, and former Illusionary Butterfly. She’s a hopeless romantic and peerless storyteller. She makes illusionary plays and dramas to retell major moments in history, as well as to relay her own imaginary stories to the world."

"That sounds dangerous."

"Usually not. Though, she has illusion stones to allow users to insert themselves into the role of heroine in the Romance stories."

"What now?"

"She calls them [Build Your Own Story] type romance dramas. Everyone has roles and the plot is set. But the outcome is up to the user."

Rue looked intrigued, and Karl smiled as he shook his head.

"I should warn you that Opal has some unique tastes in romance. Some of them can get pretty wild."

Rue winked at him. "I was once a Queen, I’m sure that I am at least somewhat familiar with the basics of the Royal Romance dramas."

"Good point. But she’s got some other ones as well. I will have her send you a list later. I know that you’re secretly a lady of culture."

Rue laughed at the badger. "I’m not ten anymore."

"I believe that you wanted the two rings, right? Did you have something good to trade?" Karl asked, diverting the conversation back on track.

Rue nodded, and took out a small pouch full of plant seeds. "I promise you that these are worth far more than the rings are. I’m just a bit short on gear at the moment."

Karl inspected the dragon. She was wearing a robe that covered herself with a disguise effect, but he didn’t see any jewellery on her. Not just couldn’t see the stats, she wasn’t wearing any at all.

"It seems there is a lot more to your story than we’ve gotten so far. But I think that we can arrange a friends and family discount to get you a fresh set of gear. Lady Rae, my Blood Destruction Spider partner, is happy to decorate pretty ladies."

"Are you flirting with me, Mister Karl."

"Not at all. I’m actually quite happily married and Soul Bonded. I was when we met as well. However, Rae is a true fashionista, and she prefers to put beautiful clothing on beautiful people."

"You really do have a strange group of beasts, don’t you?"

"Oh, it gets stranger." Cara laughed. "There is a Dark Flame Phoenix with a deep hatred for all things water element. The Naga Matriarch who has gone full mad scientist with her Alchemy, the Cerro that evolved into a behemoth and married a red dragon Priestess, and then there is Tian, who decided that a three kilo fox was the perfect form to be the group’s bard."

Rue shook her head in dismay. "So, it’s not just the two of you that are oddballs?"

"What do you mean? I’m the normal one here," Cara insisted.

"That is a concerning statement."

"She’s joking, mostly. If any of us are normal, it’s definitely Dana. And maybe either Thor or Leo."

"The scale obsessed behemoth? I will give you Leo, but calling Thor normal is a stretch," Cara countered.

Rue watched them banter and shrugged. "Isn’t that normal for a Cerro or a dragon? There’s just something about a muscular dragon with well polished scales, you know?"

Cara frowned. "Or, it could just be that all dragons are a bit weird and scale obsessed. I mean, fluffy ears are much cuter."

Rue turned to Karl. "Do you support that position?"

"He married a Divine Foxgirl. He’s not going to go against the power of fluffy ears."

Rue gave Karl a knowing look, and he just shrugged.

"Oh, it gets worse. She wasn’t born a Divine Fox. No, his bonded beasts turned her into one so that she could be the perfect wife for him and keep up with his power growth."

"When you put it like that, it sounds like a nefarious plot. Really, it was just Remi wanting to try out a new advancement potion and lacking medical ethics," Karl noted.

"That doesn’t make it sound better." Rue informed him.

"The fox ears are cute, though. Just like Tian’s."

Cara giggled at the dragon’s confused look. "He’s our team’s Stonefur Divine Fox. An adorable little fluff ball, but he’s far too gullible, and he gets pulled into all sorts of shenanigans.

Including the one where our Dana Mage gained fox ears.

He was brought along as both a potion ingredient and the healer, in case the experiment went wrong.

But we are focusing on us too much. How did you end up here? What did you do in the middle? Did you bring more people? Are they entertaining?"

"Right, you’re not one to let things go just because I diverted the topic. Alright, where do I begin?

I suppose I should go from the start, from the moment that you two left Gathuzan."