Rapunzel

Thoye sifts through the sand of the beach. She’s looking for seashells once again. She loves to pick up seashells to turn into jewelry, or decorations for her lair. She doesn’t live close to the beach, so any time a hunting trip takes her there, Thoye will take her time to look for new shiny treasures!

This time, her stash is getting quite full already, but Thoye still has some time. That is, though, until a sharp pain shoots through her toe. Thoye screams, and lifts up her leg, only to see a small crab hanging from her toe. The other dragons in her hunting party laugh, and she quickly pries it off, trying not to damage her toe any more. Crab still in hand, she walks to the medic of the party, sits down with a dramatic sigh and lets the older dragon take a look at her toe. The medic cleans the wound and binds it. Thoye looks at the crab, that’s still trying to pinch her. “Want to eat seafood tonight?”, she asks the medic, who snorts in response. “No thanks, but one of the hatchlings back in the nursery really wants a crab as a pet.”, she replies. “Think you can tolerate being around your attacker for that long?” Thoye huffs, but smiles. “Yeah, I can do that.”

On the way back, Thoye’s crab is the center of attention and conversation. And despite her toe still hurting quite a bit, Thoye can laugh at the crab jokes that the hunting party comes up with. They get more outlandish as they go, and when the party enters clan grounds again the jokes no longer even contain any mention of toes. Thoye eats with the others, and after that, walks towards the nursery. “I heard someone here wanted a crab as a pet? One found me today.”, she tells the caretaker that’s on duty, who smiles and immediately brings her to a small hatchling, playing with some rocks.

“Gerald, someone brought you a crab!”