The silver moonlight illuminated the quiet, barren land. There were very few vegetation littered across the area, and even fewer creatures relying on it for shelter or food. Next to one such vegetation, a large, bald tree, sat a campfire. In order to stave off the cold that the night introduced, a red-headed teenager inched even closer to the flame before sitting down. Seconds later, a green dragon with a small amount of vines and other floras settled behind the teenager, allowing him to rest his back against its scaly body. Then, the teenager pulled out his smartphone from his pocket and switched it on.

  A set of heavy footsteps could be heard approaching from behind. The entity, upon noticing the unnatural light, pointed his sharp finger at the device and asked, "What is that peculiar little object you are holding, Ryder?"

  Ryder shifted his gaze from the screen to his tall companion. "Oh this? It's a...hmm...it's a magic box of sorts. It can do lots of things. Would you like to come and take a closer look?" Upon finishing his sentence, he dragged his butt a few centimeters to the left, creating a spacious seat on his right.

  The entity stepped into the light, revealing himself to be a dragon. However, unlike the teenager's other dragons, he was standing on his two feet and had humanoid features. The scales on the front side of his torso were of a lighter shade of purple. It was far more numerous and small compared to the rough, thick plates on the rest of his bodies, which had a darker shade of purple. There were a few spikes on top of his head, leading to the back of his neck. Those weren't as intimidating compared to the pair of demonic horn above his skull.

  The purple dragon stood next to the human, raised his tail, and crashed onto the ground, rudely pushing against the green dragon, who looked feeble in comparison. The green dragon huffed out a puff of spore with force and growled, but didn't take any action beyond it. When the purple dragon leaned his massive head toward the phone, its bright light caused him to squint, and he let out a discomforted grumble.

  Ryder immediately noticed his dragon's discomfort and turned down the brightness. "Ops. Sorry, Purple. Is this better?"

  Purple remained silent, though was approval was expressed through his widened eyes. "Fascinatingly peculiar. What is it that you do with this magic box?"

  The dragon rider scrolled through his social media as he explained, "I can use it to calculate large numbers in seconds; I can take pictures with it, preserving a moment in time forever; it also gives me all the entertainment I need to not go crazy from boredom! But most importantly, it allows me to talk to my friends and family who are still back in my home. Although, I'm not sure why it still works. Not that I'm complaining, though."

  "You don't know how your magic box works?" Purple raised his eyebrow muscles.

  "Wellllll, I didn't make this. Someone else did. I just buy it from them."

  "You are allowed to buy such a magical device? And afford it?"

  "It's not a magical device, but yeah. Pretty much everyone back in my world has one. It's how we communicate with each other and do a bunch of other stuff as well. It's called a smartphone, by the way."

  "Not a magical device? Then how can it do so many of the things you described and allowed for interdimensional communication?"

  "Uhm, the interdimensional bit is not part of its original design. I think the Goddess made it possible for that to happen. As for the rest of the functions, it's not magic. There's no magic back in my world. People just took a long time of research and made it work."

  "Incredible. It was the right decision for me to follow you, after all." Purple grinned, revealing his frighteningly sharp teeth, and unconsciously swished his tail. "You must tell me more about your world."

  The green dragon, annoyed with the swishing as it was scratching against his back, swiped his companion's tail away with his.

  Purple rose and growled, "Insolent brat! How dare you land your filthy tail on me!"

  Ryder quickly stood and gestured them to calm down. "Now, now. Let's not get into a fight here." He turned to the plant dragon. "Green, you shouldn't have done that. Apologize to Purple."

  Green's face scrunched up as he glared at Purple's tail. The dragon rider understood immediately. "You could have told Purple nicely to stop moving his tail because it was making you uncomfortable."

  "Hmph, I would die before obeying a Lower Dragon like him." The prideful dragon crossed his arms and kicked Green's tail.

  Green instantly lunged at Purple, fangs baring. Purple nonchalantly picked up Ryder and dropped him at a safe spot before letting himself be attacked.

  The rider wanted to stop the two dragons from fighting, but he knew he would definitely get a nasty wound if he just stepped in. So, he ran over to the brown dragon sleeping under the bald tree to wake her up.

  The green dragon was certain that he mauled Purple into the ground with his tremendous force, but when the dusts cleared, he saw the higher dragon casually wiped the dirt on his arm.

  "Is this all you got? To think Black was defeated by the likes of you. I'm very disappointed. I doubt you were any help at all to your rider when he fought against that detestable relic of the past!" He broke into a sprint and swung his leg with enough force to send Green flying a few meters away. He spitted at Green and stomped on the sandy ground, as if he was preparing for something.

  Green roared fiercely. Wood tendrils grew from the dragon's back and formed a big hammer at the end of his tail. He swung his tail to build up momentum as the hammer took form. Once the big hammer was solid enough to strike, he charged towards Purple and swung his body, striking his opponent with explosive force.

  Purple, with his feet planted into the ground and violet electricity jumping between his horns, reverted his fist back to his original gigantic paw and smashed the entire wooden hammer, along with the plant dragon's pride, into pieces.

  Green roared again, to which Purple returned with his own that was so devastating, so overwhelming, that it echoed to even the furthest edges of the land where life do flourish. The young, green dragon was sent back a couple of centimeters. Despite his attempt to resist it, he found himself unable to stop shaking in fear. For a better part of his life, he never knew true fear as a dragon, the supposed apex predator of the world. Now, for the second time, he questioned if he really was a dragon at all.

  The elder dragon pulled out his legs and prepared to charge forward at full speed. Green covered his body in tough vines, bracing for impact.

  Just as both dragons propelled themselves toward each other, the brown dragon lackadaisically showed up with their rider, shot off a stream of sticky mud from her mouth, and glued the raging dragons onto the ground, completely immobilizing them.

  Both Green and Purple tried to escape, but to no avail. Brown transformed into her human form and approached the duo, eventually standing between them with Ryder.

  Her eyes remained closed as she yawned. "Green, I know you aren't happy with Purple, but Ryder has accepted him into our team. You need to learn how to get along with him if you want to see Ryder succeed in his journey." Green growled in low volume.

  She then turned to Purple. "You may be the Terror of the East, but you have formed a pact with Ryder, just like me and Green. If you want to remain in this pack instead of returning to your seal so soon after leaving it, you need to abide by our rules and respect your packmates."

  "Respect? Half of the realm used to bow before my might, and now you're demanding me to respect a weakling shameless enough to call himself a dragon? I don't think so." Purple snarled.

  Brown smirked. "And yet, here you are, relying on a mortal to escape your eternal prison."

  The purple dragon clicked his tongue and whipped his tail, causing a wave of sand to fly away, but offered no rebuttal.

  "Take as much time as you need to adjust yourself. Our rider will be happy to help out." She patted Ryder's shoulder before transforming back into a dragon and returned to her sleep.

  The human crouched and sighed. "Can't you two just... get along with each other? I only want all of us to continue this journey happily together."

  Green looked away guiltily, but Purple didn't budge. "I followed you because you promised me a good time. I have no intention of getting along with inferior breeds."

  The two dragons glared at each other with scorn again.

  The rider pulled out his phone and dangled it in front of Purple. "I did, and I remember it was on the condition that you'll get along with the rest of us. If you still don't want to play nice, then I won't show you my smartphone anymore, and other wondrous things it can do. Won't the both of you apologize to each other?"

  The dragon's attention shifted to the phone, and then to his rider, and then to the night sky. Eventually, he let out a disingenuous apologetic growl. Green was dissatisfied, but growled apologetically as well. Ryder smiled at the resolution and stood up.

  "I have something in mind for the two of you tomorrow. An exercise to improve you two's relationship. In the meantime, have fun spending the night stuck in Brown's mud. I'll tell her to break it off tomorrow morning."

  Green was shocked at his rider's willingness to leave him in the cold and growled to complain.

  "This is your punishment, Green. No complaining."

  Purple cackled, angering the younger dragon once more.

  "No breakfast for the two of you if you fight again." The human raised his finger as he strolled back to the campfire.

  Green lets out a heavy sigh. Purple was thinking about messing with him again, but Ryder's food was pretty good, so he decided against it.

  The two dragons gradually slipped into a deep slumber.