"This is the life." Tear said as the bright, cheery sun slipped its way past the thick canopy of palm trees. A breeze blew by and the ruffles on her swimsuit swayed like the leaves above her.

"Yes." Kyle said, clinking his glass with Tear's. "Yes it is."

"More lemonade, mistress?" Tear turned towards the voice and lifted her sunglasses.

"Why thank you, Edea." Tear said, and exchanged her half-empty drink with a fresh one on Edea's platter. This time, the little umbrella was blue and not yellow. Tear took a small sip, and Edea gave a small curtsy with her maid dress.

"It is my pleasure to serve you, mistress." Edea stated, and simply walked away.

"And do have Eskalade remember to sweep the floors properly this time, please."

Edea turned and gave another curtsy before responding. "Of course, mistress."

Tear sighed in bliss. This couldn't get any better.

"Tear, my darling…" Kyle began. "We've been together for so long now…"

The dragon boy hopped off his beach chair and knelt beside the girl. Tear gasped.

"Tear, my love…I cannot hold back any longer!" Kyle produced a small, black box from nowhere.

It could get better!

"Will you…"

It was getting better!

"…please…"

Tear closed her eyes and gently held out a hand trembling with excitement.

"Wake up, meow!"

Tear blinked, and the wind grew silent.

"Er, roar. I meant roar." Kyle said again, slightly embarrassed.

Tear stared at the boy.

Kyle stood up and brought his hands behind his head as if he were holding something, like a bat or a stick.

"HYAA!" Kyle shouted, as he brought his hands down.

Tear felt a sharp crack on the back of her head, and the ocean view she had been watching earlier shattered painfully into a series of colorful blobs. She clutched her head and let out a groan, not even finding the strength to say "ow".

"Oh, good, you're awake!" Said a particularly large and funny-shaped brown blob.

Tear focused and the blob grew sharper. She blinked in well-justified surprise, considering she was now face-to-face with a lion.

A lion, standing on its hind legs, wearing a brown cloak and a grass skirt. In its hand it held a rather solid-looking curved staff, decorated with colorful leaves.

Talking animals were nothing new in Maple World, and many such talking animals wore clothes as well, but the creature before Tear seemed more human-like than any animal she had seen. Its hands were jointed in ways that more closely resembled a furry human fist, and its face was flatter and shaped differently than that of a normal lion.

Tear found it kind of creepy.

She moaned in pain again before struggling with her actual words.

"Who…who are you?"

"Oh! Me?" The lion-creature responded in surprise. "I'm the greatest hero and chief that Chu Chu Island has ever seen! I am as wise as I am strong, and no one is more respected by the villagers…"

Tear would have doubted this, if it weren't for the searing pain.

"I'm Lyon, meow!" Lyon said cheerfully.

Tear blinked.

"Meow?" She asked.

"H-huh?!" Lyon stepped back nervously. "Y-you're hearing things. I clearly just roared."

Tear frowned.

"I distinctly heard a meow..." She said quietly. "Aren't you a lion?"

Slowly, her thoughts came trickling back to her.

"Wait…" She thought through the pain. "AHH!" She squeaked and stumbled back.

"It's a lion!" She said, rather obviously. "Or…at least…" She hesitated. "…some kind of man-lion-thing…"

"No, no." Lyon smiled. "Lyon. With a 'y'. Come along, I'll show you around the village!"

Tear was about to protest, but Lyon simply turned-heel and marched off in the opposite direction.

The dragon girl, now alone again, frowned.

"Well..." She said aloud, although she wasn't quite sure who she was talking to. "A walking, talking lion-person isn't the weirdest thing I've seen in Maple World…"

The girl paused for another second before picking herself up and hurrying along to catch up to her new guide.

Tear finally burst from a rather thick cluster of colorful plants and found herself in the middle of village. The houses were oddly-constructed, seemingly made of thatched wood, carved into trees, or simply cobbled together out of natural materials.

If you could call any of the materials "natural", that is. Some of the things hanging off of the buildings seemed to defy logic; wood that seemed infused with patterns she had never seen before, fruits that went well beyond the definition of "exotic"…it all felt so surreal. A melody seemed to play through the town, one that made Tear want to hum despite having never heard the song before.

"Welcome..." Lyon announced. "...to Chu Chu Island!"

Tear stared in bewilderment.

"Chew…Chew?" She ventured.

"Yeah, Chu Chu!" Lyon said proudly. "What do you think? Isn't it a great name? Hahaha, I have the greatest names! Don't you like it?"

The lion-person stared at the girl expectantly.

"Er…" Tear hesitated. "It's…great?"

Lyon beamed.

"Anyway…" Tear continued. "Who are you? And what was that huge creature blocking my path? I need to keep going…although…I'm hungry…and my head really hurts."

"T-that's probably nothing!" Lyon said quickly.

Tear eyed him suspiciously.

"A-anyway…" Lyon continued. "That big creature was Muto, and as I already explained, I'm Lyon; the chief."

"Muto…" Tear said quietly. "W-wait, and you're the master of this village?"

"Well actually," Lyon said, playing with his mane, "there is this cool, brave, and handsome chief but…master? I'd say I'm a volunteer. I'm nice like that. Nobody asked me to maintain order, I just do it out of the kindness of my heart, meow!"

Tear opened her mouth to say something but was cut off.

"And in any case, those that live here don't have any memories of their past. It's kinda weird now that I think about it."

Tear blinked. "No…memories?"

"We all just sort of woke up at different times in different places. Eventually, we all ran into each other, and started this village, meow!"

'He's a little too dumb to be one of the Black Mage's minions…' Tear thought to herself, smiling politely on the outside. 'A lion that walks and talks like a person, hmm…it's like the people on this island were made by mixing a bunch of different animals together.'

Tear had heard of the alchemists of Magatia doing something similar, and it had always weirded her out. Especially since the Black Wings had reportedly done the same thing in the mines of Edelstein…only to humans…

"…and as for Muto, hoo boy…" Lyon blabbed on, snapping Tear out of her thoughts. Muto was what Lyon had called that giant creature, right? The mean one that stole her precious sandwich.

"Muto is a baby adored by the people of Chu Chu Village." Lyon said. "He's such a nice, honest kid."

Tear had thoughts about the "baby" part, as well as the "nice" part, but Lyon continued.

"Muto is the one who protects us from Gulla!" Lyon announced proudly.

"Gulla?" Tear questioned the new name.

"Gulla is a giant monster that lives near Chu Chu." Lyon explained. "He's really big and strong. And violent. Gulla comes up to land every 10 days to eat anything that moves."

Tear gulped. Nova girls don't generally like being turned into fish food.

"Thankfully, our adorable Muto managed to defeat Gulla every time he attacked Chu Chu." Lyon said. Tear breathed out a sigh of relief. Giant rock monster or no, not being fish food was generally a good thing.

"So, us villagers cook Muto food as a token of our appreciation!" Lyon said cheerfully. The lion-person then frowned. "But, lately, he's been refusing all of the food we make for him…and if he doesn't eat, he won't have the strength to fight Gulla."

Tear frowned right back.

"But…he ate all the food out of my bag," Tear said, shaking her pack for emphasis, "except for this lonely half of a sandwich…"

Lyon perked up.

"Muto…ate something? That's…that's…" Lyon hesitated. "…that's GREAT NEWS! And he ate all your food you say? We have to speak to Master Lyck at once!"

The lion-person hurried off in a certain direction, dragging the poor, hungry dragon girl by the wrist behind him.

Tear sighed.

Something told her this was going to be a very long day…