"Wow!"
"S-so this is what flying feels like?"
"That's amazing..."
"This is great!"
"You can see so far..."
High in the sky, Silke was sprawled across the hard, slightly prickly scales on the dragon's back, gazing down at the distant ground and letting out excited cries now and then. Annie, who had been forced to come along and was currently dozing beside her, couldn't help rolling her eyes again.
"..."
(っ-)
She'd been dragged out of bed early in the morning and had spent half the day getting blasted by the wind. Even now, Annie still felt a little sleepy. After rolling her eyes at Silke, she rubbed them vigorously.
"Ah..."
(0`)
"..."
Then she stretched out at length, smacked her lips, and sat quietly to one side.
She hadn't planned on coming along in the first place. Scouting wasn't her responsibility.
In fact, Her Majesty Queen Annie didn't have any responsibilities at all. She could just eat, drink, and have fun. The only reason she joined the others in their activities was because it was fun and she liked having company.
Of course, there were probably other reasons too. But whatever they were, they still weren't enough to make her follow this noisy, wide-eyed apprentice witch Silke, who couldn't even fly, out scouting.
"!!"
"Over there..."
"Quick!"
"Annie, make it fly lower!"
"Fly over there!!"
Suddenly, Silke seemed to spot something strange. She quickly tugged at Annie's skirt and pointed at a spot on the ground in the distance, shouting excitedly again.
"Look!"
"Look over there! Doesn't that tree look a lot like the spirit tree in my teacher's forest?!"
Soon, as the dragon descended and drew closer, Silke saw a large swath of ash among the forest they were flying over. It looked like the remains of