Sweat poured down Joy's forehead. It channeled down to her neck and her back, making her tight traveling clothes stick uncomfortably to her back.

The afternoon heat was harsh. It pressed on her from every direction. The hot wind didn't help either, always sending tumbleweeds and an occasional bug for her to dodge.

She felt the back of her shirt to find that it was completely drenched with perspiration.

"Great," she muttered sarcastically. "As if I wasn't uncomfortable enough."

"Joy, did you say something?" her sister said from beside her.

Faith looked almost as miserable as she did. Her older sister's face, like hers, was red from the heat trapped by their face coverings. Flyaway hairs were plastered to her face by sweat.

"Just being annoyed at life," Joy said, making a face.

Her sister laughed, making one back. "My legs are so sore," the older girl said, carefully shifting positions.

Joy winced at her own soreness as she gingerly adjusted her position, tightly wedged between the two humps of her camel. The wood of her saddle definitely wasn't the most comfortable material to sit on for long periods of time.

She stared at it for a moment, tracing the carvings.

Breaking the silence, she finally said, "I miss home."

Home, that was a strange word. People always said that a house doesn't make a home. The people with you make home.

Then why did she feel like her home made her?

It was a slightly messy house stuffed with stained carpets, random knick knacks, and stiff, scribbled-on sheets of papyrus paper, nestled in a quiet little town. It described her perfectly. It made her feel safe. She could be whoever she wanted to be, as weird as she wanted to.

Except it wasn't her home anymore.

Faith's face hardened, and she stared off across the vast desert. "Why did we have to leave?" she grumbled.

Joy sighed, "Because it will be better for us near the city."

"Mhm," Faith said sarcastically.

Joy groaned internally. She hated making her sister mad, because when Faith got mad, she stayed mad.

"But it really will be! Mum could be able to teach more, and Dad would be able to find more business opportunities. A small town is not the place for a merchant."

Even as she said it, she felt her heart aching for her friends, her teachers, everything familiar. But here they were, trekking across the dry dunes to go somewhere strange.

"You sound just like them," Faith spat bitterly, turning away.

Moving had been especially hard for her. Joy had watched as she happily branched out and became more confident that year, only to leave just a few months later.

Joy almost called after her, but she knew Faith liked to be by herself when she was angry.

She always felt like she was the one bridging the distance between her sister and her parents. They just didn't see eye to eye. Arguments always resulted in a furious Faith, annoyed parents, and an awkward, twisted feeling in her gut.

Growing up had been good; she'd had a lot more privileges than most kids. Yet, of late, all she felt like she was doing was not being good at anything and getting worse in school.

Even though it hurt a lot to leave her friends, maybe moving was a chance for something new, an adventure.

Joy decided to close her dry eyes, knowing that she would go to sleep. Maybe it would be cooler when she woke up.

Later, Joy blinked open her eyes to find that she was face planted on her camel's thick, scratchy fur. She got up slowly, feeling a dull ache in her back from being bent over for a while.

Wiping her face and rolling her neck at the same time, she wondered what time it was.

The sun was just setting. It made a perfect half-circle that was slowly sinking behind the line where the sky met the sand. It cast a burning ombré of red, orange, and yellow hues on the sand.

It was beautiful.

She was still on her camel, thankfully. Ahead of her was her mother, on her own camel. She twisted in her seat to check that her father and sister were still behind her. Faith was asleep, while her father gave her a tired smile.

Bored, Joy started to play with her hair.

She remembered what her old neighbors had told her right before they left. They had said that there was a day, a special one, each year when the desert would show you magic. She ruefully wished magic was real. How different life would be if it was!

She twisted the end of her ponytail in her fingers, dusting the sand off.

She watched as the grains of sand fell onto the ground, but were swept away by a sudden wind.

The small breeze started to pick up. Bits of dust and sand whipped by on winds that were gaining momentum every second. A sudden strong gale threw sand high into the air.

"Cover your eyes!" yelled her mum.

The sand thumped down, causing clouds of dust to billow up.

Joy put her head down, but started to tie up her belongings, pulling at the strings as hard as she could.

She could hear something in the distance. It sounded like a roar and a hiss.

She looked back at the exact moment that her father shouted, "SANDSTORM!"

She stared in terror at the huge brown mist of sand and dust that was swiftly overtaking them.

"It's gaining on us!" Faith screamed.

"What do we do?" Joy asked desperately, over the sound of the roaring wind.

"Hold on to your camels and..." their mother's words were cut off.

The cloud was upon them.

All Joy could see in the dusty gloom were falling sand, rocks, and dust. Sharp bits of rock were raining down on her, scratching and striking her skin. Small pebbles hit her arms and legs. She clutched her bundle of belongings to her chest.

A wrinkled letter her friend had written to her was snatched away from her satchel pocket. She watched it flying wildly into nothingness, feeling scared.

A second later, from the exact spot where the letter disappeared, a swirl of sand spiraled out. It didn't seem to be carried on the wind currents; instead, it floated in one place: right in front of her. It materialized into a ball, then lengthened out, forming new shapes.

Finally, where there had been a ball of sand, there was now a dragon. Its details were perfect, every scale outlined, claws and ears precise.

But what captivated Joy's attention were the eyes. They were made of perfectly round pebbles with large specks of gold in them. The gold sparkled, even though the sun was covered.

The creature stared into her eyes.

What was she seeing? Something was wrong with her head. Was it a mirage? It wasn't hot...

Focused on the dragon, Joy didn't notice anything else until her camel snorted in agitation.

Looking up, there were hundreds more dragons surrounding her, all just floating in the air. They seemed to scrutinize her, all with the same unblinking stare.

The wind became deafening, and the torrent of sand excruciatingly painful. She buried her head into the camel's back, hoping it was all a dream.

In a few seconds, it went completely silent.

Joy hesitantly lifted her head up. Panic churned in her stomach when she noticed that her family wasn't there.

Everything was still, even the air. The only thing to be seen for miles was an occasional cactus or rock.

Tears of terror welled up in her eyes before she could stop them. She told herself to calm down, to have a clear head. But all she could think was that she might never see her parents or sister again, and she might not make it out of the desert.

She searched in vain for them for what felt like hours, not going too far just in case someone came back for her. She strained her eyes on every flicker of movement that she could see, finding only lizards and bugs.

Nothing.

The desert was dark at this point. The sky was a rich blue, stained with fading hints of pink and purple.

She decided that she should stop to eat the small amount of food she carried. Her mother and father had kept most of it, but had luckily given her some tough jerky and a small flask of water for emergencies.

She had just found a place near a clump of cacti, when something caught her eye.

A large, black shape fell from the sky in the distance, landing with an audible thump.

Joy silently debated whether she should go see what it was or not. It could be dangerous. Or it could be useful. Hoping against hope that it was something of her family's, yet somehow knowing it wasn't, she mounted her camel. After a few strides, anticipation was practically killing her.

As she drew closer, she made out the shape of a boy. He was unconscious, with streaks of dirt and blood on his face and clothes.

It was what he was leaning on that fascinated her.

"That's impossible..." Joy trailed off, staring in wonder. The only explanation could be magic. But how? Unless the legend was true.

She got closer to examine the unbelievable sight. "It was true. Today was the day."

Behind the boy was a much bigger creature. It was a dragon.