“I can’t believe they kicked us out! Kicked me out!” Mikaela muttered for the umpteenth time. “After all the work I’ve done, all the effort I’ve put into being the perfect princess! Now they just shove me out the door?!”

“It’s not like it’s permanent,” I reminded her. “You’ll be back and running the show in no time.”

“I know that!” she snapped, glaring at me. “I just… It’s just…” She hesitated for a moment, before letting out a sigh. “It’s just a lot to take in, alright?”

“Really?” I asked, arching an eyebrow. “I think it’s pretty simple. It might even be fun. You do remember what fun is, right?”

“Of course I remember what fun is!” she retorted, crossing her arms. “We just have very different definitions of it.”

“These days, maybe, but I still remember the days you’d actually join me for mischief. Back before you got a stick up your butt. Maybe you can think of this as a chance to remove it? Let go a little? Have fun?”

“Yes, because putting our lives on the line as adventurers and camping outside without a soft bed in sight is such great fun,” she said, rolling her eyes.

“I mean, it’s not like we’ll actually be putting our lives on the line,” I pointed out. “We’re literally demigods. It would take an actual god just to injure us, and even then I’m not sure they could actually kill us.”

“They can,” Mikaela replied, her voice low and serious. “War between gods is rare, but not unheard of and when it happens it’s lethal. And we’re not even full fledged gods, so long as the restrictions on our powers remain…”

“You mean the restrictions that let us actually live in the mortal realm?” I countered. “Unless you want to activate the timer on getting kicked upstairs like Mama?”

Mikaela didn’t have an answer to that which meant this conversation was my victory! It was quite the rare treat~.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t do a victory dance to rub her nose in it, what with us being thousands of feet up in the air, perched atop a dragon. Speaking of said dragon, though…

“Hey, Jahara!” I called out. “How much longer are we riding you for?”

“We’ll be there in a minute!” she declared, voice booming as she craned her neck to get a good look at us. “Also, you girls have got to be the most casual dragon riders of all time… What happened to the little girls who used to whoop while I did tricks for them?”

“Yeah, well, what do you expect from us?” I asked. “We can fly faster than this under our own power now!”

“Speaking of which,” Mikaela added, “why in the world did Mama ask you to ferry us to the village? Surely it’ll draw far more attention than if we simply flew in ourselves.”

“What can I say? Your Mama’s a worrywart, and I’m the strongest servant she’s got at her disposal.”

“And yet you’re still weaker than us,” Mikaela pointed out. Which… Yeah, okay, harsh, but true.

“You don’t have to point it out,” Jahara muttered, grumbling, “but like I said, she’s a worrywart. Do you have any idea how many supplies she packed into that magical bag of yours?”

“Way more than needed?” I suggested.

“Bingo! And that’s not even including the stuff she strapped to me. Though most of that’s just supplies to trade… You might not be aware of this, but I’m actually a pretty big deal in Derrin Village! In fact, I’m the main courier of supplies and personnel!”

“I know,” Mikaela said. “Which is sort of the problem. How many people flock to you when you land? How many will see us getting off your back? Most of the people you transport are official staff members of the trading post, while we’re meant to be just a couple random adventurers. We’re not even supposed to reveal that we’re demons!”

“Which is why your Dam told me to tell you to get off a little early. Everyone will be too distracted by my arrival to notice yours.”

“I suppose that makes sense,” Mikaela murmured, before nodding to herself. “As expected of Dam. Always thinking things through.”

“You mean always cleaning up after Mama’s messes,” I teased. Mikaela shot me a horrified look, which had me rolling my eyes. “Oh come on, you know it’s true. Mama’s great, but she never really thinks anything through…”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Mikaela declared. “Mama is… Is… Well, she’s…”

“She tries her best,” I conceded, “but she’s a mess and you know it.”

“Well… she did a good job of raising me at the very least,” Mikaela replied.

“I’m not saying she isn’t great or anything, but you do know it’s fine to admit our parents have flaws, right?”

“But… but… What if it gets back to them?” Mikaela asked, worry clear in her voice. “Dam and Mom can take the criticism, but Mama…”

“Isn’t that fragile Mikaela. …Probably…?” I mean, sure, she could be a bit… sensitive. I still remembered the look on her face that one time I’d screamed ‘I hate you’ as a teen. The utter despair. The days spent crying. The relapse into self-hatred. She’d tried to pretend that everything was normal around me, that I hadn’t stabbed her right in the heart, but we all knew what my stupid outburst had done to her.

Still… “I think it would hurt Mama a lot more to know we’re walking on egg-shells around her compared to just admitting she isn’t perfect.”

“That’s…” Mikaela hesitated. “Okay, fair, but… I just… I don’t know. I don’t want her hurt…”

“Well, it’s not like Jahara’s going to say anything,” I pointed out. “Are you?”

“Nope!” Jahara confirmed. “I prefer the boss happy and chipper! …Mostly because she always has the chef cook really salty shit when she’s upset. When she’s happy, the kitchens are full of sweet stuff like fresh baked chocolate chip cookies! So good! I didn’t even know chocolate was a thing before I met her, and now whether I get to chomp down on it is decided by her royal whims? So unfair…”

“As expected of the dragon Mama tamed through her stomach,” Mikaela declared, nodding solemnly. 

“From dangerous beast to gluttonous mount… how the mighty have fallen!”

“Yeah, yeah,” Jahara grumbled. “Look, I’m going in for a landing, now, so… now or never if you wanna avoid being seen.”

I traded a look with my sister, shrugged, and - with a quick ‘bye’ to Jahara - leaped off the dragon’s back.

Flying through the air was a wonderful thing. Falling through it, on the other hand was… Well, a bit… unpleasant. And undignified. My skirt was flapping all over the damn place even as I held it down as much as I could, and my hair - currently red and carefully braided - was threatening to come apart as the wind whipped it about. So, of course, I wasted no time conjuring my wings and breaking my fall.

My sister, on the other hand, plummeted straight down while gleefully yelling at the top of her lungs, only summoning her wings after her feet had already penetrated the foliage below. That, and the tree branches she crashed through on the way down, broke her momentum enough to avoid a disastrous crash, but it was still too close of a call for my liking. If she’d actually hit the ground the resulting impact likely would have alerted the entire town to our presence.

Still, I wasn’t going to say anything - not when I could oh-so-clearly imagine her rolling her eyes and telling me what a spoilsport I was. Instead, I gracefully flew down, pushing branches aside and making room for myself as needed until I was able to gently land on the ground.

“WOOO!” Charlotte yelled. “I haven’t had fun like that in… ever, I think? Mama doesn’t usually let me divebomb the ground. I almost wish I did just faceplant into the ground to really leave an impression!”

“That’s because she takes flight seriously. Invulnerable or no, the damage we can do through reckless sky-diving is-”

“Yeah, yeah, spoilsport,” she grumbled, rolling her eyes.

“Why do I even bother?” I muttered, pressing fingertips to my forehead. I’d heard mortals could sometimes suffer from something called a ‘headache,’ and while I’d never personally experienced one… Well, if anything could possibly have given me one, it most definitely would have been my sister.

“Anyway, we should check out the supplies Mama gave us!” Charlotte exclaimed, quickly switching gears.

“...That’s actually a reasonable idea,” I replied, pleasantly surprised.

“Don’t get too excited,” Charlotte warned me. “I mostly just wanna see the weapons! And to find out what sorta snacks she packed!”

“...Of course you do,” I muttered, shaking my head. “And you dared to comment on Jahara’s gluttony… Very well. I believe she included an inventory list in the bag…” 

Saying so, I reached into the seemingly empty pouch at my side, and pulled forth a… scroll? A rather long one, too, from what I could tell. The handwriting was neat and tiny, detailing a list of everything she’d given us.

It was mostly food and clothing. Clothes for any possible occasion we might possibly run into, and every form of weather we might come across, and enough food to let a small village throw multiple feasts. At the bottom, though, there was mention of something interesting - weaponry so that we could look like proper adventurers.

“There’s apparently two daggers and two swords,” I murmured, reaching into the bag and pulling the aforementioned items out. The blades were all in sheathes, but… something about them gave me a bad feeling. “...You don’t think they’re the same ones Dam had made for Mama, do you?”

“You mean the blood sword and the unicorn dagger?” Charlotte asked, arching an eyebrow. “I hope so! But there’s two sets, right?”

“Right…” I muttered, hoping against hope that I was wrong. Alas, reality was cruel - though I was technically mistaken, it was only because Mama had apparently added a unicorn sword and blood dagger to the mix,to make two full sets.

“I call the blood blades!” Charlotte declared, immediately grabbing the aforementioned weapons. They had been forged by an orc - a species whose native wild magic allowed them to forge with any material as if it were metal. Despite the grim name, they hadn’t been made with actual blood, but rather the blood red horns of horned wolves. They were something Mama apparently had plenty of due to the adventure she’d apparently met Aunt Bailey on.

Similarly, the unicorn blades weren’t actually made of unicorn horn, but rather a material Mama referred to as ‘nacre.’ The iridescent material had been carefully scraped from countless sea shells and then forged together with diamonds in order to create proper blades. They shone like rainbows under the light.

Mama had never used either weapon, her adventures coming to a close before she ever could. Which was probably for the best, considering how eye catching they were, even without the overly dramatic names she’d given them. Yet now we were expected to wield them in battle?

As much as I hated to admit it… “Mama… You really need to start thinking things through…”

~~~

Author'sNotes

I'm honestly a little worried about this chapter... It feels rather transitional, and a lot of it probably only truly clicks for people who've read the original series. I have a lot more confidence in chapter 2 and 3, by comparison, and part of me wanted to skip this chapter as a result... but at the same time, while the chapter is rather transitionary in nature, I think it would be too jarring to go straight from the prologue to their arrival at the city. I did my best to make the chapter entertaining for everyone, regardless of prior knowledge, so... Hopefully I more or less succeeded? Not that I'm expecting all that many new readers.

Many thanks, as always, to FallingLeaf - he not only edited, but also come up with the title. Many thanks to the rest of you for reading, and sticking with me so long, as well!

As always you can read ahead by 2 (unedited) chapters on Patreon for as little as a dollar! You'll get to read ahead on my other series, like Naughty Magic and Heart of Fire and Fey as well, plus you get access to my Patreon! (Though you can get that as a free member as well.) Either way, I hope to see you there!