The King's Beloved

Luna shook her head in dismay. "You\'re a really stupid dragon. I\'ve decided. From now on, that\'s what I\'m gonna call you - stu-pid dra-gon!"

"You\'re the one who\'s foolish! You never noticed how taller and bigger you were compared to the other midgets? And how you have more spiritual energy than ten of them combined?"

​​

Luna stretched her hands and feet to observe them. Now that Ducis mentioned it, she really was and always was, taller and bigger than the others.

"But ... isn\'t that normal? Just like how some Magi are small and some are big? Just height differences?"

Ducis grunted. Then, he reached out towards Luna and poked her forehead, sending a bit of his spiritual energy to her.

Luna\'s forehead sparked and suddenly, she began to grow bigger and bigger until she was as big as Ducis. Her silver hair and tantalizing golden eyes were now more apparent. Her pinkish cocktail dress made of flower petals grew bigger with her. And her translucent white wings that had faded aurora colors extended higher than her head.

"W-wha … H-How?" Luna couldn\'t believe her eyes. Her voice became clearer and sounded a bit more mature than her tiny form.

"Who was the stupid one again?" Ducis mocked her.

Luna flapped her wings backward to see more of her body changes. However, she wasn\'t used to her big size and suddenly fell downwards.

"Ahhh!! I\'m falling! Help!"

Ducis sighed in his annoyance but quickly flew towards Luna to catch her.

"You\'re truly the queen of troubles, aren\'t you? When will you behave yourself?"

But Luna was trembling in fear at that moment. With bawling eyes, she turned to Ducis who was carrying her like a princess. Ducis\' eyes widened upon seeing her face. He wasn\'t used to seeing her up close. Plus, the fact that he was nearly embracing her, by the way his right arm held her back and his left arm, carried her legs.

"Waaaaaaa," Luna cried hysterically. "Why can\'t I flllyyyy?"

"Ugh, that\'s because you\'re not used to having a bigger form and lost your balance".

"Sniff … sniff … sniff," Luna calmed herself. "Oh? I-is that so?"

Ducis nodded. "Since that\'s the case, why don\'t you practice flying now?" Then, he began letting go of Luna.

"What?! No!" Luna disagreed and hugged Ducis by the neck so she won\'t fall.

Ducis was startled and blushed in embarrassment. "W-what do you think you\'re doing, midget?!" He pushed her head away from him but he wasn\'t succeeding. Luna was stuck to him like a glue.

"No! You\'re gonna drop me if I let go!"

"Argh, fine I won\'t! Now, let go of me already!"

Luna loosened her grip and laid backwards. She was now face to face with Ducis, with their perfectly pointed noses just a few centimeters away from each other.

Luna stared at Ducis\' eyes and so did Ducis.

"What now?"

"I never noticed … we have the same eyes - both golden. Why is that?" Luna\'s face turned curious, completely forgetting the fact that Ducis was still carrying her.

"You really expect \'ME\' to know why?"

"You said you\'re the guardian of truth and wisdom! How come you don\'t know?" Luna pouted. "I knew it! You\'re a hoax!"

"Well, I\'m not going to waste my energy trying to figure out why we have the same eye color".

"Hmf! Stingy dragon!"

"Whatever, let\'s just go back to the chamber".

"Wait! Bring me back to my original size first!"

"I can\'t. It will wear off in time, just wait for it".

"What?! You\'re the one who did this to me!"

"Because you\'re being stupid! All these years you lived and you never knew you were a fairy? If that\'s not stupid, then tell me what is".

Luna\'s eyes lit in anger. "Yeah, yeah, I didn\'t know! But how many times are you gonna call me stupid, huh?" In her fury, she pinched both of Ducis\' cheeks.

"A-aw! That hurts, stop it!"

"Serves you right! I\'m bigger now so I can fight you back. Bwahahahaha!"

"If you don\'t stop this instant, I\'ll let go of you".

Luna couldn\'t argue back anymore and just shut her mouth and averted her eyes. And so, Ducis carried Luna all the way back to Anguis, the Forbidden Chamber.

Upon arriving, Luna immediately ran towards Rania and hugged her tight. Rania was surprised, but after a closer look at Luna, she recognized her and welcomed her back.

"Luna! It is you! Why are you here? What happened?"

"Raaaniiiiaaaaa …," Luna cried again. She tried explaining but her words were all jumbled up because of her tears. She was still so cute despite her bigger size.

"Long story short, I dragged her back. She was never a sprite anyway. So basically, she doesn\'t have any \'forest sprite\' duty to fulfill," Ducis explained to Rania and Elliot.

"Oh? She wasn\'t a sprite?" Rania was confused.

"Huh? You didn\'t know?" Elliot asked her.

"Wait, so you knew, too?" Rania turned to Elliot.

Elliot nodded.

Rania raised one of her eyebrows. "You did listen to me when I explained why the sprites needed to go, right?"

Elliot nodded again.

"Then why didn\'t you tell me about Luna?"

"I … thought she didn\'t want to leave them".

"It\'s Rania that I didn\'t want to leave alone!" Luna butted in. "Well, I do love the other sprites, too since they\'re my family. But Rania is my savior, I can\'t just abandon her too". Then, she gasped from her own words. "Wait a minute! Since I\'m not a sprite, does that mean, they\'re not my family? If so, then where is my family?"

"No that you mention it," Rania commented. "But then ... how did you end up with the other sprites?"

Luna thought for a moment while scratching her head. "Hmmm … that\'s weird. I don\'t remember".

"It\'s alright. You\'ll remember in time," Rania affirmed her. "I\'m glad that I get to spend more time with you, at least. We can visit the other sprites from time to time, too, and maybe use that opportunity to ask if they know anything".

"Uhm! You\'re right!" Luna cheered up again. Then, she hugged Rania and rubbed her cheeks to her.

"Now that everything is settled," Ducis interrupted them as his face changed from a relieved expression to a serious one. "It\'s time to continue our journey".