"If you ever feel lonely, remember that she's always with you, okay?"

Eun had become fairly well known around the castle, and she wasn't sure if it was a good or a bad thing. Sure, people mostly stayed out of her way, but there was the odd one every once in a while that deemed her a threat to the royal family and attempted to, ah… remove her from the premises.

She would typically just smack them around a bit – something Sumeragi scolded her for each time – but never before had they grouped up on her.

Didn't they know not to corner a dragon, lest you be slain?

Ah, but of course… they don't know I'm a dragon… do they?

After all, the few that did know avoided her like the plague – or adored her, as was the case with a certain couple of kids.

Still, the people in front of her had seen little battle, some of them didn't even look keen on fighting her, and she could swear one of them looked ready to wet himself. Not a threat, she noted to herself, because they really didn't look like one.

So she hadn't been taking them very seriously and had tried to keep the noise and destruction to a minimum – especially considering she knew that Takumi and little Sakura were napping a mere two rooms from there – when one of them, the leader no doubt, had pulled out a weapon that sent shivers down her spine.

Eun didn't fear many things. Didn't need to. Dragons had few things that could truly harm them after all, especially one as experienced as herself.

But a wyrmslayer was one of few things she could hardly even stand the sight of.

And she paid for her hesitance in blood.

Letting out a grunt – because she really didn't want any of the kids to wake up and see this – she took a leap backwards, gritting her teeth and attempting to ignore the cut on her leg. It wasn't debilitating, but it hurt nonetheless and dammit, why was Sumeragi never around when this crap happened?

Their success only seemed to spur the group on further and Eun wondered if she could seriously get away with putting a permanent stop to them-

"E'n-chama?"

The entire hallway seemed to freeze. A tiny toddler rubbing the sleep out of his eyes stood in the nearby doorway, his voice confused. Eun swallowed, glancing between her attackers and Takumi, suddenly feeling a lot less confident about anything. She didn't want the kids to get involved with this!

"G-go back to sleep, Takumi," she managed to utter in a strained voice, carefully attempting to hide the cut on her leg. Her plan failed fairly quickly when his eyes widened and she cursed in her head.

And then he screamed, and suddenly the entire castle seemed to be there.

She was glad the one of the receiving end of Sumeragi's ire wasn't her, because the look on his face made even her hesitant.

Eun found herself begrudgingly respecting both the toddler and the father then, because really, while they hadn't necessarily saved her life, they'd stood up for her in their own ways.

Even if their tears and their snot weren't very appreciated in the aftermath.