"I think that's what we've been told since just now, that it is indeed, your cat. No one is refuting that," Seonghwa mentions. "No one is claiming that it's not yours."

"Ah, ah." Jongho snaps his fingers before putting up a forefinger. "Not 'it'. You may refer to our girl as a 'she'. She's very sensitive about people calling her 'it'. So Your Highnesses," he nods to Hongjoong, "and Your Majesty, we - and that includes Byeol - would appreciate it a lot if you use 'her'."

"She's pretty..." Narae says subconsciously.

"Thank you! Finally, someone who respects our cat." San claps his hands. He bares his sharp canine teeth, looking more like the cat he owns.

"...but I still don't understand on how we're going to get to Opal's Bay with her help."

Byeol has not finished licking her bottom, completely ignoring the scrutinizing eyes of the humans around her. She yawns widely before lying on her back, legs bent and body squirming. She gives a loud and fierce meow, which automatically makes Jongho reach out his hand to scratch her belly. After a few satisfied purrs, Jongho stops scratching and her head plops back to the ground, her whiskers twitching and mouth bared in a happy grin.

"Well she's happy," Yeosang muses as he kneels to touch the cat too, but Byeol quickly bares her teeth before attempting to bite his hand. "Ah-"

"She's a bit hostile with strangers but no worries, we told her that all of you are our good friends and we'll get her accustomed to your scents. Now, Byeol," San carries up an initially-protesting Byeol, letting her body stretch like a slinky due to gravity as he shoves her into each of their faces. "These are our friends that we told you about. You have the handsome king Hongjoong, then the friendly water prince Yunho, this grumpy prince Seonghwa, the pretty ice princess Mingi, the-"

"Amazing," Wooyoung whispers.

"-annoying prince Wooyoung, the gorgeous fire prince Yeosang and last but not least, our most beautiful, wonderful, amazing, astonishing-"

"I think that's enough of descriptions for my fiancée ," Hongjoong emphasizes.

"-princess Narae. So who do you like the most, Byeol? I'm your favourite brother, aren't I- wait, Byeol stop struggling-"

Byeol jumps out of San's grip and lands in a shocked Narae's arms, immediately burying herself in the princess' embrace. The princess giggles as she pets the cat, in which the latter is purring with satisfaction.

"So... Narae is her favourite. Noted," Jongho utters. San is pouting while mentioning about how Byeol has betrayed him.

"But do you name every one of your pet Byeol?" Yunho's eyes roll upwards, trying to remember something. "Pretty sure you had a rabbit called Byeol, and then an iguana... named Byeol. Was there a goldfish too..."

"Thank you," Jongho says smugly as he fake bows. "For noticing that. But we only have one pet, and that's Byeol."

"I get it now!" Wooyoung shouts. "Your pet can shapeshift."

"Spot on. Byeol, please show them," San twirls his hand as he gestures towards Byeol.

Byeol jumps out of Narae's arms, then sits on the ground obediently. But she only meows incessantly while rubbing her head against Jongho's leg furiously.

Jongho frowns. "You had your breakfast just now, what do you mean you can't shapeshift because you're hungry?"

Byeol does a low growl before attempting to bite his finger off.

"Ah, alright! San, take out the canned fish we brought and give it to her."

San scrambles towards their belongings, his movements getting faster with every second Byeol attempts to bite his leg and finally, he cracks open the can and throws it to the ground with a high-pitched yelp. Byeol pounces on the can, gobbling up what there is without complaint while the royals watch on, their positions stripped off by the one truly in power - the cat. The clock ticks as they wait patiently for the cat to finish.

When she nudges the empty can with her head towards San, the prince heaves a sigh of relief before asking, "Can you show them now?"

A short meow is all it takes before wisps of black and white smoke smother her body, swirling in an ominous shape that the royals automatically step back, giving some space for her to shapeshift. All of them watch on with interest, now glued to their spots as Byeol changes her shape into something much bigger, bigger and bigger... until she's no longer recognizable as a cat. After craning their necks to look down below at the tiny cat, they are now craning their necks upwards to look at the majestic creature presented in front of them.

Her tail whips frivolously, causing the royals to duck to avoid being thrown away from the sheer force, while her scaly body writhe as she adjusts to the new sensation of a larger anatomy. She shakes her head, double eyelids going down and up a few times as she breathes heavily and looks at the royals with her fierce eyes. Her iridescent scales blind them as she moves her legs, nudging San and Jongho with her nose. She has forgotten that she's no longer a small cat but a large fire-breathing dragon until the twins fall on their butts to the ground, hissing in pain. Byeol gives a low whine as a sign of apology.

"She's indeed beautiful," Narae breathes, this time sounding firmer as her hands reach out to touch Byeol's body.

"It's all thanks to you, princess," Jongho utters. "You chose her for us."

"I... chose her?" she asks, slightly frowning.

"You did," but San offers no further explanation.

As always, Narae wants to ask further but finds no starting point to. Instead, she focuses back on Byeol as she caresses the dragon's neck. The rest watch cautiously, some scared even, as they wait for the reaction on Byeol's side. Narae looks unaffected as she traces her hands on her jaw. They breathe a sigh of relief when Byeol pokes back at her gently using her snout, messing up her hair as she breathes onto the princess.

"See, this is how Jongho and I planned on how we're going to Opal's Bay. We bring our own dragon. Everyone gets a lift, and we get to enjoy the scenery from the sky before we... you know, run like crazy at Opal's Bay to go and get the Arcus."

"Only one problem is that our girl can be really shy," Jongho explains. "So she might not really be a match against the other dragons there, but no worries! She can put up a fight and so can we."

"Main goal is to not catch the attention of the dragons there as long as possible, or an even more worthwhile idea, until we get the Arcus and escape from there," Seonghwa reminds them. "No one should get hurt."

"Sounds good," Yeosang agrees, before attempting to mount himself onto Byeol. Realizing that he's too far on the ground, he stomps his feet and steps engulfed with fire leading to Byeol's body appears, allowing him to ascend and finally rests on Byeol's back. "We're going now?" He asks as he places his palms on her scaly skin.

Yunho and Mingi look at each other before shrugging, cracking their necks as steps made of water and ice appear for each of them respectively. They join Yeosang on Byeol's back, before the rest of the royals, who are able to fly, lift themselves up and join the row. That leaves Narae who is looking to find something that can help her to get up, now that she's left powerless.

Seeing this, all the other royals offer to help her simultaneously, presenting different kinds of methods she could go up; stairs made out of fire, water and ice, while the rest offer to lift her up. Before she can choose, Byeol looks back and lifts Narae off her feet, letting the princess sit on her snout before putting her down gently on her back.

"Thank you, Byeol," Narae muses as she pats her body, as some of the other royals grumble when they couldn't give help to the princess.

As everyone is seated on the dragon's back, she bends her body close to the ground, preparing to take flight. She flaps her wings on the ground a few times, then pushes herself and up they go, away from the palace compound in just a matter of a few seconds. The sight of the palace gets smaller and smaller, until it only becomes a dot with no significance. Their hairs whip in the wind as they hold on to each other.

Yunho, Mingi and Yeosang - who have no experience of flying in all their lives, gawk at the view, pointing out excitedly whenever they see something even as normal as a bird flying close to them. Soon enough they are engulfed in the clouds, and it takes them a whole lot to not lose grip and fall off. All of them are arranged so as the twins are up front, nearest to Byeol's neck, while those behind them are Seonghwa, Narae, Hongjoong, Wooyoung, Mingi, Yunho and Yeosang.

Seeing that the rest are too busy admiring the view, Narae reaches a hand behind her, and finds purchase in Hongjoong's delicate hand, who returns the gesture by gripping hers tightly. She looks over her shoulder and she sees him smiling at her, and she might as well be falling off from that height if she's not holding on tight. He leans forward, and even with the winds making it hard for them to hear each other, she hears clearly what he's whispering into her ear.

"I love you, princess," he utters with a slight chuckle.

He knows what he's doing to her, yet he knows that she's not able to do anything besides blushing without anyone else paying attention. Meanwhile, her reply is a tighter grip around his fingers as she cautiously watches for her brother and cousin's scrutiny, in which the two are too busy to look at them.

Seonghwa is clearly being fooled around by the twins; who are having fun laughing at him whenever he shows a reaction that satisfies them. Wooyoung, on the other hand, is busy playing around with the other three as they attempt to outdo each others' powers even high up in the sky.

The journey makes it feels like they're going through another dimension, their vision void of any civilization or normality for all they see are the white puffs of cloud and occasionally, some birds flying in formation. The 9 of them are alone up in the sky.

It takes them another gasp of wonder at what's around them before the dragon speeds downwards, her body slinking through the air. They hold on tight as they break through several clouds, where they're headed to becoming visible. The sea is what they see first, the water glittering in the sunlight, giving them the idea of where the name Opal's Bay had come from.

Then they see it; the stories that they've heard as legends up until now, how the fiercest and wildest dragons are kept there where no humans are told to be able to come out of there alive. Some of them instinctively close their eyes; Mingi, Wooyoung and San especially the tightest as they look away from the bodies piling near the resting and sleeping dragons.

Even from the distance it is as if they can smell how horrible it would be down there, with some of the corpses barely looking human. Some of them have lost their limbs with most of the torso still intact, some have been chopped up, their parts scattered around, while some are only bones left. Some must have been at least a hundred years old, while some of the bodies look recent. They shudder at the thought of their own piling there, among the unclaimed corpses.

The grip of the king's hand becomes tighter, if it is even possible, at the sight. Narae doesn't know whether it's Hongjoong trying to soothe her, or it's a gesture to show that he, too, is scared.

"I feel like throwing up," Wooyoung shouts over the noise of the wind against them.

"NO!" Yeosang and Seonghwa simultaneously shout before Mingi reaches out to clamp a hand over Wooyoung's mouth.

"Control your gag reflex, we don't need to do a spring cleaning while we're on our way to death!"

"But I can't- ahhhh!" Wooyoung shouts as Byeol makes another dive again, but instead of heading straight to Opal's Bay, she heads to the nearby forest.

Byeol miscalculates the landing that they crash onto the ground, throwing everyone on her back to the ground and they roll away, collecting dirt and dust on their clothes. Narae screams but before her body hits the ground, a tail coils around her torso, tight but not too tight until her body hurts, before she's put nicely on the ground. Then the tail brushes against her face, helping to tidy up her hair however it can.

"Thank you, Byeol," Narae announces as she pats the dragon's head. Despite her fierce outward appearance, Byeol makes a sound akin to a purr as she enjoys getting pats from the princess.

"Byeol!" San and Jongho scream in despair as they try to stand up from the ground. Their hair dishevelled, their faces smudged with dust. Then San whines, "We took care of you since you're a little dragon baby, hopping around after you poked your head from your cracked egg, but you did not even care to look out for us?! You chose the princess instead?"

Byeol does a low growl before she narrows her yellow eyes, then snuggles close to Narae.

"Oh-ho, so now what, you're the princess' pet? Fine! Forget the people who almost got burned while trying to train you with your fire-breathing," Jongho utters as he puts both hands on his waist.

Narae laughs at them getting angry at Byeol before she caresses the dragon's snout and gives her a hug. "Looks like Byeol would like me instead," she jokes.

Yeosang and Seonghwa show similar disgusted faces as Wooyoung wretches among the bushes, his body bending over before he hits his chest multiple times. He takes a few seconds to calm down his stomach and as he's done, Yunho splashes water onto his face, in which he says a quick thank you to. After wiping away any evidence of his emesis, he gives an awkward smile as he shakes his body in an effort to look cute.

"Can all of you please not talk about that? My reputation as the handsome prince will be tarnished if anyone ever does find out that I get nauseous from a ride on a dragon. Doesn't sound very attractive for my future princess." He blinks.

"We'll think about it," some of them murmur before turning away from him.

"I'm serious!" his voice booms and they get startled.

"Sheesh, keep quiet Wooyoung or you're going to wake up the dragons and they're going to eat all of us!" Yeosang hisses. "Even worse, ravage that so-called handsome face of yours."

They turn quiet as the ground suddenly feel like its shaking and rumbling, with a distant but clear roar coming over them like a net cast to capture them. They refuse to move, knowing that the sound is coming from either one of the dragons residing at Opal's Bay. Even Byeol cowers at the sound of it, cuddling close to Narae as her body curls around the princess. Narae gives a pat to her tail even though she feels her heart racing due to fear.

"So... how many of them are there again, did you say?" Yunho rubs his hands as he looks at Mingi.

"The last known number is that there are three of them," Mingi taps his temple. "All female and all very ferocious. There were even talks of them attacking other dragons who came there, biting away their flesh and cracking their necks-"

Byeol whimpers as she hears this, and Narae tries hard to close the dragon's ears to prevent her from hearing anything more.

"-until they're nothing but corpses. Apparently what's been passed around by the people of Agem Empire was that they're three sisters who were cursed to become dragons who breathe fire because when they were humans, they kept making up stories about people; destroying relationships, breaking up marriages, flaming up fights. They were then exiled to Opal's Bay, where they were turned into fire-breathing dragons, as a reminder of what came out of their mouths whenever they spoke."

"Okay, but why dragons?" Wooyoung asks, exasperated. "Why not make something smaller, like a rabbit that breathes fire or something? Isn't that much safer and not heart-attack inducing?"

Mingi shrugs. "I don't know, it's what I read anyway. How far it's true, no one knows. It's not like you can go up to the dragon and be like, 'Hey, were you one of the three sisters who got cursed?' because the next thing you know is you're going to lose your hair then your head. If you're lucky, only your hair."

"There's no way I'm going to let them ruin my hair," Seonghwa brushes back his hair.

"Your hair that looks like a toothbrush," Jongho mentions.

"How dare you- and yours look like a helmet," he huffs. "I spent at least 10 minutes per day in front of the mirror to get this look. And no," he slaps away Wooyoung's hand, who's trying to touch it, "don't touch my hair."

Narae and Hongjoong look at them quietly, judging from far as they shake their heads. They have been observing since just now, looking at each other before to the rest of the crowd while they are standing next to Byeol.

Another roar comes again and instinctively they duck, as if something is about to attack them from above.

"Right, that's no more time to waste," Yeosang decides. "Game plan?"

"So there are three dragons, each with a different colour. One is red, one is orange and another blue. All of them have black-coloured eyes-"

"Why are we learning about this?" San frowns.

"-because we need to know what to address them as, so we'll know which one we're going to attack if there comes a need."

"How about 'Hey, look behind you, the orange one is about to fucking bite your head off!'" Yeosang raises his arms while shaking it. "Sounds good?"

Mingi thinks about it for a moment, before he nods. "Sounds good."

"My best guess is that Narae hid the Arcus in the cave, where the dragons sleep at night. If we're lucky, since it's not night they might be out so retrieving it from the cave might not be that hard. What's hard is if in case a dragon notices our presence, then we fight."

"Who'll be the first person to go into the cave? I'll say Seonghwa," Wooyoung quickly throws in an idea.

"I'll go," Narae announces, to which they turn in unison to look at her in disbelief.

"No offence, princess," Jongho says. "But you literally have no means of protecting yourself."

"I'll go then," Hongjoong utters. "I can move around quietly, so it shouldn't be a problem."

"Natur is about to lose their king," Wooyoung sighs.

"Don't say that!" Narae punches Wooyoung's shoulder to which he shouts out in pain. "Don't you ever say that about Hongjoong."

"Ah, why are you so protective of Hongjoong now, you guys fell in love or something?" He pouts as he rubs his shoulder.

When the couple immediately turn quiet, the rest narrow their eyes suspiciously before Seonghwa utters, "Kim Hongjoong, did you or did you not go back to your realm yesterday night?"

Hongjoong scratches his head but he's unable to answer, making Seonghwa throw up his arms in frustration and mild anger.

"Aish, I fucking knew it. Park Narae," he growls.

"I'm an adult capable of making my own decisions!" Narae hisses.

"Not the time to fight, guys," Yunho says through gritted teeth.

Seonghwa takes a deep breath, waving a hand over his face as he shuts his eyes. "Fine. Kim Hongjoong, you go, but remember... if you're not killed by the dragons, I will kill you with my own hands after. If you get killed while fighting the dragons, I will kill you the second time. Whatever it is you're dead."

Hongjoong chuckles lowly before looking at him, shrugging. "It's going to happen anyway, so I don't see a problem with it."

Narae is taken aback by the king's answer as she discerns the situation all around, but it seems that the rest of the royals hear nothing wrong with Hongjoong's statement. They go back to discussing their gameplan, but Narae doesn't participate at first. Something is making her feel uneasy with the casual way Hongjoong was talking about it that she gets speechless.

To her, it feels like Hongjoong was not joking and the song she heard in her dream starts to play again... only this time it's louder, reverberating until she hears nothing but the music. Even when the rest has been calling her name, she doesn't hear.

"Narae!" Yeosang snaps his fingers in front of her face to bring her back.

"Narae..." she subconsciously repeats it, making the rest of them confused as to why she's calling out her own name.

"Are you okay?" Wooyoung frowns. The others look at each other, shrugging and signalling with their eyes, asking whether Narae has gotten back her memories, somehow.

"Nothing," Narae announces before trying to give a convincing smile to them.

Some of them look at her suspiciously, hoping that she's still in the dark about her current situation. They must hold this on until they get the Arcus; they can't let anything go astray when they're already so close.

Narae remains quiet, her mind racing as she starts to remember something. Her name and the music piece... it's somehow related, but she can't figure it out. She wants to brush it away, but she can't. The tugging feeling remains there as she tries to find the link that seems elusive.

A connection... a meaning behind both.