The Castle of Painted Wonders

Art Gallery Metropolis was unlike any city on Earth.

Gleaming towers lined streets where humans and humanoid bovines walked side by side — briefcases in hand, coffee cups steaming, horns sometimes knocking against shop awnings. At the very center of it all stood Crayon Paintbrush Castle, impossible and magnificent. Two towers shaped like enormous crayons — one fire-red, one sunshine-yellow — rose beside two towers shaped like giant paintbrushes dripping with frozen blue paint.

Inside, Crayon Paintbrush Woman stood before a freshly stretched canvas that covered an entire wall.

Her blue hair was pulled high in a ponytail. Her yellow mask caught the light. She tapped her red glove against her chin, her bright green eyes scanning the blank white space.

"Something epic," she muttered happily. "Something nobody's ever painted before."

She summoned her giant purple paintbrush with a flick of her wrist. It spun once, showering tiny violet sparks.

"A dragon," she decided. "A big, magnificent, purple dragon."

She didn't stop to think twice. She started painting.

Wet Paint and Loose Ends

She painted through the night.

By morning, the dragon covered the entire wall — every scale lovingly detailed, every claw perfectly curved, wings spread wide. Purple, deep and rich, like a storm cloud dipped in grape juice.

Crayon Paintbrush Woman stepped back and admired her work.

"Perfect," she whispered.

Then the tail twitched.

She blinked. The tail twitched again — the painted tail, right there on the wall.

"That's... odd," she said.

The dragon's eye opened. It was painted, flat, two-dimensional — and then it wasn't. The pupil rolled. The nostrils flared. A low rumble moved through the castle walls like distant thunder.

Then, with a sound like a thousand wet paintbrushes slapping canvas at once, the dragon peeled itself off the wall and landed on the castle floor with a ground-shaking BOOM.

It was enormous. It was real. And it smelled strongly of fresh purple paint.

It sneezed — a blast of violet mist — and the castle's front gate exploded outward.

The dragon charged straight into Art Gallery Metropolis.