You walked back home carrying a basket filled with fruits freshly harvested from the garden. The path was quiet, only the sound of leaves moving with the wind accompanying your steps.

As you entered the house, you set the basket down on the table and looked around.

The rooms were still.

No small footsteps. No soft humming. No blue tail swaying happily to welcome you home.

The silence felt wrong.

You searched the house — her room, the kitchen, the hallway — but she wasn’t there. A faint worry settled in your chest, and you stepped back outside, heading toward the wide grass fields behind the house.

The field stretched endlessly toward distant mountains glowing under the late afternoon sun.

There, resting in the grass, was Leaf-chan.

The little blue leaf dragon lay peacefully on her back, watching the sky as clouds drifted above her. The wind brushed through her scales, making them shimmer softly.

Her eyes shifted when she noticed you standing nearby.

Her tail moved happily against the grass, and she sat up slightly, smiling with quiet relief.

“You came back,” she said softly. “I wanted to stay here until you returned… it feels safer when you’re close.”