The Kingdom of Clarines had certainly seen its fair share of strange and wonderous happenings. The most recent was a pair of dragons that had a unique friendship with a certain red-haired royal pharmacist in training.

With that said many in the kingdom had grown accustomed to the occasional flight of the pair, as well as seeing the male move in and around the more run-down buildings and structures in the kingdom and surrounding areas and with a flex of his spines and twist of the wrist from his other set of arms restore them to their former glory.

With that being said, however, there was the odd occasion when the aforementioned pharmacist apprentice would be pulled away to help communicate with either or both of the magical creatures.

Today found her dealing with one...

Shirayuki glanced around intently as she held up her lantern. A short time ago, a messenger had arrived from the mines stating that Coal had charged in with a mad look in his eyes, and now the miners were scared to go inside.

"Oy, Miss!"

She turned and gave Obi a small smile as he dashed up.

"Seen anything yet?"

She shook her head softly as she tried to think. What on earth could have possibly driven Coal so mad? She turned and raised her lantern again.

'Am I imagining things, or did something just move?'

Obi just stretched his arms overhead as Shirayuki strained her eyes to see something in the dark. He was about to comment when something caught his eye from her lantern light. It was blue and glowing in the lower corner of the wall. Curious as ever, he walked past Shirayuki and bent down to pick it up. It felt surprisingly light for how large the chunk was.

"Hey Miss, lookie what I got-"

Obi didn't get a chance to finish as he was promptly headbutted to the mine floor by a dragon that looked for all the world as though it was on a sugar high.

"COAL?!"

Shirayuki's shout was enough to get the dragon's attention as he looked back at her while Obi was left bruised and unconscious on the floor.

"Coal, why are you being so jumpy?"

Shirayuki eased up to him and softly patted his nose as he looked at her with big eyes that would belong to a begging dog.

'Not meant to Healer. But yummy rock here. Yummy. Not eaten in long time.'

Shirayuki then noticed the stone Obi had picked up by her feet. She held it up to Coal's eye and watched him warily.

"You mean this?"

The response she got was a big croon from the dragon and purrs that Star would often give her when she wanted a treat.

"But what is it, I mean it doesn't hurt you, right?"

The dragon shook his head and kept his eyes glued to the stone.

'Me think you call it Mythril.'

Shirayuki felt her fingers grow numb at the idea she was holding a mythical metal ore in her hands. But then she stopped and heaved a sigh as a tired smile worked up her face.

'Then again, I'm friends with dragons, am I going to draw a line and say this shouldn't exist?'

Once it was learned that the mine housed such ore and that Coal's digging had broken through to a massive vein of it, the miners charged in with gusto. After of course promising to give Coal a small share every so often as thanks for him finding it.

The blacksmiths all over the kingdom rejoiced at the chance to work with the metal. That was until the royal blacksmith, being the first to attain it, tried to process it in his forge. He had not been expecting Coal to come barrelling in like a starved dog, or dragon in this case.

Needless to say, Shirayuki was called again to help settle the over-exuberant dragon and his taste for the ore while it was being heated. To him, it was the same as throwing a steak on a grill.

Shirayuki could only smile. At least life wasn't boring.