Maki looked around, albeit a bit hesitant. "So... uh... you live here?"

"Yep! Anju replied with a nod, still savoring the taste of apples. "I've been staying here since forever! It's probably a bit hard to get used to for you, but don't worry! You'll love this place in no time!" She pointed to the nearby mirror, which had a huge crack on it. Maki winced. "The mirror there's just as good as any! Sure, the cracks are a bit hard to look past, but if you have enough imagination, you'll be fine!"

"Well... what about clothes?" she asked. "Surely you can't wear the same clothes over and over. Where do you keep other clothes?" As if answer her own question, she spotted a closet in the corner of the room, and went to open it.

"Oh, wait, don't-"

Maki pulled it open and screamed as a skeleton stood inside the closet, seemingly awaiting its freedom. Jumping back, she turned and ran behind Anju to hide from its assault, but noticed that it was stuck in the closet. To be specific, it was stuck on the inside wall of the closet, unmoving. "...i-it's fake...?"

"I dunno," Anju said, "I found it at the bottom of the tower and put it inside so that intruders won't ever think about snooping around my room."

"Oh." Maki gulped. Well, that also answers the question of whether she killed anyone or not. The girl slowly went to close the closet, then sighed. "Okay, then... uh... food. Where do you get food to cook?"

"Cook?" The young dragoness laughed. "No, no, we don't do something stupid like humans do. We hunt and eat stuff raw or fresh from the forest."

"The forest... wait, raw?" The princess paled. "T-that's no good!"

Anju tilted her head. "What's not good?"

"Raw! You say you eat things raw!" Maki pointed to the forest. "Mama told me, if you eat meat raw, you'll get all kinds of diseases! You have to properly cook them! And, and vegetables, and fruits, you must wash them properly!"

"...ahaha! What're you talking about!?" Anju laughed. "That's stupid! You're stupid!" She looked out the window. "The animals out there don't cook food either, and they're fine. It's you guys that are confusing to us!"

"But..." Once Maki thought about it, she realized the girl had a point. Cooking was something they do. A tiger doesn't learn to cook... do they? "...fine then! How about... how about a bed?" She stared at the dusty bed next to the window. It was covered in dust, except for an area the shape of a person lying down. "There's no way you're telling me you actually sleep on this filthy bed. The castles have much cleaner beds!"

Anju looked away. "Well... I mean, it's not that bad."

Receiving no response, she looked back at Maki, who- to her surprise- as near tears.

"W-what? Why are you crying!?" Anju asked.

"It's just... i-it's so sad," Maki whined. "You don't get friends... y-you don't get candies... no cooked foods and clothes... and no good beds..." She sniffed, wiping her tears away. "I-it's like... you're so lonely..."

"Ah, jeez, stop crying!" Anju said and helped wiped the tears flooding her captured princess' face. "What are you, a kid?"

"I-I'm only thirteen! I can't help that you're so sad!" Maki said.

"Oh, well, suck it up! I'm thirteen in human years too!"

She flinched. "R... really?"

"Yeah! ...actually, you know what?" Anju grinned and lifted Maki up. "I should show you how cool some of the things I do are! Let's go to the forest!"

Maki frowned. "U-uh. Wait! Papa says it's dangerous to enter there and oh no please let me go-"

Too late. Anju jumped out the window with the girl in her arms, and spread her wings whilst trying to ignore the loud screams that followed. She headed towards the forest, which was even further away from the kingdom Maki was initially from. At the same time, four carriages were heading towards the tower, something both of them didn't notice.

They really came to the forest. Maki shivered slightly from few factors- the cool breeze, and the sight of a bear. "H-hey! There's... there's... over there...!"

"Calm down," Anju said. "That's just the brown furry meat. They taste good though!"

"Y-you're going to eat a bear!? That's stupid!" Maki said.

"B-be... bear? Is that what you people call it?" the dragoness asked, then shrugged. "You guys are so weird. It's not even that scary. Look, just a little bit of magic is good enough to kill it." The girl put up her hands and channeled some power. A bright ball formed from her palms, and, as she opened her eyes, was shot towards the bear. The beast had only managed to turn its head towards the two when the ball became as thin as a needle and pierced through its head.

Collapsing on the ground, the now-headless bear wasn't able to see Anju's smile nor Maki's shocked and disturbed face.

"See? What'd I tell you?" Anju said and turned to Maki. To her surprise, the princess was covering her mouth and bent over next to a tree. "What's wrong?"

"S-sorry... that was a bit... scary..." the crimson haired girl rasped.

"What, you've never seen red water before? What a kid," Anju said. "Anyways, come on! I'll show you the best parts of eating it."

Maki gulped, not out of hunger. "C-can't we... uh, cook it... at least?" she asked. "Papa's people... me, we don't eat it raw..."

Sighing, the dragoness rolled her eyes. "Fine, then you do it. I'll see how you do it."

"..." The girl paled. She didn't know how to cook! Her royal family's chefs did that for her! But... "I can't cook," she said, "but I know that you need fire to cook."

"Fire?"

"Yeah. You're a dragon, you can breathe fire, right?"

Anju shook her head. "No, that's not how it works," she said. "It's true that I'm kinda dragon, but I'm still kinda human too, as you can see. I'm a demihuman," she explained. "You know. Demihumans?"

"...I've never heard that word before," Maki said. "Papa only told me there were various monsters out there..."

"...well, whatever. I'm a bit of a dragon," Anju resumed, "but that's only my wings and horns. And my hands, I guess, but they're at least more humans, long claws aside. I don't have the, uh, inside body things needed for breathing fire." She aimed her hand at the ursine corpse. "But I can still use magic though. You need fire, right?"

"W-wait, careful!" Maki warned. "Don't burn it to powder!"

"Yeah, that's a given," Anju muttered. "Let's see, um... this much should be enough." She sent a limited amount of magic through her hands, and a fireball blazed through the corpse. When the fire faded away, a slightly cooked ursine body rested. Maki noticed a small weird scent from it, although it wasn't something she'd say was nice. "...is this good?"

"Uh... I'm not sure..." Maki said. She then recalled overhearing some chefs remark about how bear meat was complicated and needed to be prepared with more difficulties. Not understanding that, she sighed. "Uh, maybe it's better to get some other animals to eat."

"What? No, I killed the brown meat, I'm going to eat it!" Anju said. "I've always eaten it raw anyways, I don't get you."

"...w-well, maybe I'm not hungry after seeing... that."

"Whatever. Suit yourself, then." The dragoness proceeded to grab and tear a limb off the ursine corpse. She brought it close to her face and smelled it. "Hm... smells a bit different from how I usually eat it, but I guess it doesn't seem that bad." She then took a bite off it, a small amount of blood yet to dry from the fireball dripping down her chin. Maki winced at the sight and looked away, but Anju moaned with delight, meanwhile. "Mn! Great stuff... I'm not sure what, but it tastes a bit better than usual..."

Gulping, Maki tried to block out the noise of her chewing out of her ears. "R-right."

"So this is cooking... awesome!" Anju turned to her captured princess. "Are you sure you don't want this?"

"...no thanks."

"Jeez, you are hard to please," she said. "What do you usually eat then?"

Maki rubbed her chin. "Um... I can eat chicken meat," she said.

"Oh, chickens! Perfect!" Anju pointed to the direction of her tower, presumably somewhere close by. "I know a farm in between my house and your kingdom! I can bring us there and get some chickens for us."

"Okay, that's... hey, that's stealing!" Maki exclaimed.

"Steel...ing?" Anju blinked. "No, no, this has nothing to do with steel. Those are found in caves."

"No! Stealing!" Maki repeated. "It's when you take something without permission! If you take some farmer's chicken without asking, that's stealing, and they'll hate you for it!"

Anju scoffed. "No it's not. My grandpa taught me about this stuff long ago!" She waved her finger around as if to quote a wise person. "All life comes from nature, so it's only right for life to become food for other lives in order to return to nature. Therefore, you never need permission for things belonging to nature!"

"...?"

"...okay, maybe I remembered that wrong," the auburnette said, "but my point still stands! It's not a bad thing like you say it is. Now, hurry up!"

The princess shook her head. "No means no! I'm not going to steal some chickens!"

This got the dragoness slightly peeved. "Well, what are you going to eat then!?" she asked. "I can't just let you starve! I brought you out here on your birthday, I'd be a monster if I didn't give you a reason to stay!"

"Yeah, well I-" Maki froze. "...stay?"

"Yeah! Stay!" Anju smiled. "You'll stay with me, right? Since I took you away and everything, the others must be too scared of me to save you. We can spend everyday together and get used to living in the tower!"

The girl frowned. "I... I can't stay with you. Papa will cry, he'll miss me!"

"But... but I don't..." the dragoness stuttered. "I don't want you to go..."

"...why not?" Maki asked.

"You're... the first person who's ever been so... well, not so nice, but kinda nice to me..." she said. "You cried because you think I'm lonely... you gave me that weird tasty green stone because it's my birthday... you even taught me how to cook!"

That wasn't cooking, Maki wanted to say. "But... but you're... I can't."

"..." Anju looked down. Then she turned around and took a few steps away.

"...I'm, I'm sorry," the crimson haired princess said. "But... but if you'd like, I can tell everyone about you," she said, "and... and you can come with me! We can be friends!"

"I'm... your friend?" Anju asked and looked back at her, slightly hopeful.

Smiling, Maki nodded. "Yeah! We're friends now, aren't we?" she asked. "We have the same birthday, and we're hanging out! We can be friends, right?"

Anju nodded. "We can! We can..." Her voice droned off as her expression turned to that of a sadness. "...but, but I can't, Maki. I'm... I'm a dragoness, I'm a demihuman. Your dad... your dad and your people won't accept me," she said.

"They will!" Maki interrupted. "My Papa's kingdom is full of very kind people! Everyone will love you, you're cute and interesting!"

The dragoness blushed slightly. "R-really?" she asked. "Do you think so?"

"Yeah! I'm sure of it!" Maki hugged the dragoness, who turned shy and hugged back. "You'll fit in right well at our kingdom's school too, I'm hundred percent sure!"

"...w-well, if you say so," Anju said. "Then... then should I bring you back to your castle?"

"Hmm..." The princess rubbed her chin again. "No, let's go back to your tower first," she said. "Maybe you have some things that you don't want to leave there. I'll help you carry them, if you want."

"Do I?" Anju wondered and thought about her old, dusty room in the abandoned tower. She ultimately smiled. "Well, okay! I'll go look around then. Get ready for flight!"

"...uh oh." Maki felt the girl lift her again and tensed. "I hate this part..."

"I love this part!" Anju cheered and flew off with the princess in her arms, heading towards the direction where her tower stood.

Or, at least, where it should've been.