"SUNBEAM! YOU MONSTROUS LITTLE DRAGON YOU!" Cactus roared. Sunbeam turned a orangish-yellow and backed up slowly. She knew how her mother could be. She was scared that she might make her stay with Cobra for the rest of the day. Cobra, her uncle. He was who Sunbeam stayed with when Cactus didn't want to have to deal with her 'pestering' as she always called it. He looked normal, unlike her. He always made her do chores and whenever she was at his hut, he made her his temporary "servant". She hated Cobra. A lot. When her mother would come to pick her up, Sunbeam would run to her and complain about how mean Cobra was to her. Her mother had asked Cobra what Sunbeam was talking about in a rage. Sunbeam remembered that day very well...

"What is she yammering about? If what she claims is true, that you have treated her like a servant, then I will personally rip all of your claws off! One by one!" her mother had roared.

"I have no idea where this story came from, but it wasn't here! That's for sure!" Cobra lied. Sunbeam had ran at him in attack mode, ready to gouge his eyes out.

But her mother had stopped her saying, "Sunbeam! Dear! Please don't hurt him! Whatever this nonsense you are saying about him being a-a 'piece of fried lizard butt', isn't true. So calm down!"

"I will not calm down! Not until I have my revenge!" After this, Sunbeam had been locked in her room for three days without any food or water (but that didn't affect her because SandWings can go without water for weeks) because of her behavior. She had almost never been mean around her mother again.

"THIS HAD BETTER BE IMPORTANT!" her mother's voice brought her back into reality.

"Well, um. I really didn't mea-" Sunbeam started.

"GET ON WITH IT!" Cactus boomed.

"I-I was just wondering if I could go w-with Tumbleweed and G-gila to our fort," Sunbeam stammered. She gulped, and prepared for an answer.

"WHAT MAKES YOU THINK THAT THAT'S IMPORTANT?"

"Uh, I don't think that it's that important," Sunbeam said truthfully.

"THEN WHY DID YOU STOMP ON MY TAIL?!" Sunbeam's mother was becoming angrier by the minute.

"It was an accident! I swear it was an accident! I was leaping for joy and I landed accidentally on your tail!"

"An accident huh? Well then. You may go to your fort," Sunbeam hadn't expected this! Her mother had let her go anyways! That was so unlike her!

"But," Uh oh, Sunbeam thought, there's the big "but", "you must watch your brother tomorrow as a punishment for acting so unreasonably rude," Cactus firmly said as she calmed down.

"Arg!" Sunbeam cried, then she turned and ran for a little bit, just to get away from her mother, then went ahead and walked out from the Scorpion Den's gates. That was one thing that had become a recent privilege, Sunbeam could only go to her friends' fort as long as she went only there and nowhere else. That was the only place she could go outside from the Scorpion Den.

Sunbeam kicked the sand as she walked toward the fort. Watching her little brother, Dingo, was a pain in the tail. He never did what she asked, no matter how she asked it! Whether she was nice about it, or mean, he didn't care! Dingo was four years younger than she was and, like all of her other family members, was totally normal. She gave up walking and took to the sky, wanting to cry from her miserable life.