Fwoosh! My paperwork goes up in flames. I groan and hit my head on the table, making my already-horrible migraine even worse. I hate work days. I can barely even read this scavenger-scratch!

When I wondered what I would do next, homework was not the first thing that came to mind.

Clockwork ticks on my wall as if everything is right with the world as I stamp out my flaming book report. I brush the ashes off my marble table (the wood one burnt up a looong time ago) and rip out another paper to start over. "Okay, Dreamwalker," I inhale, righting myself. "Remember not to sigh in the direction of your work this time." Quill set, paper ready, head high...

And my mind draws a blank.

Aaagh!

A sharp knock suddenly raps at my door, saving me from my torment, and I jump up, knocking my chair over in my rush. Hastily snatching off my reading glasses and slipping on my gloves, I stumble toward the door. "Coming," I shout as I trip over my bed and scramble up again. I reflect on what a mistake opening my wings for balance is when I knock over a glass flower vase and it shatters on the floor. What an adventure it always is, moving the ten feet from my messy desk to my messier doorstep!

Finally I reach for the knob and by some miracle get the door open on the first try. Waiting there to meet me are two smirking dragonet faces. I slump. "Why do you feel the need to do that?" I whimper, wings turning to dead weight on my sides.

The dragonets burst into laughter and push past me into my den. I glower as they both sprawl out on my bed. As if they own the place! "Because it's hilarious, big sis," one dragonet shrieks in laughter. My siblings from another hatching, Coal and Stella. I slam the door shut and clutch my head.

"Is this my punishment for not visiting you two over the weekend?" I mumble into my talons. They nod vigorously.

Stella trots over to my desk and stares at the ashes of my homework. "Working hard, I see," she teases, pointing at it. I growl and shove her a little on my way to my tiny kitchen. "You guys hungry?" I ask, trying to change the subject. I can hear their little talons scraping on the stone as they scurry to follow me.

"I could eat a whole elephant!"

"Oh, yeah? Well, I could eat a whale!"

"I could eat a Darkstalker!"

"No, you couldn't, wooly-claws. He had scales hard as... um... as diamonds, and you'd break your teeth, and then you might actually shut up for once!"

WHAM! Coal slams into me as Stella tackles him. All my breath whooshes out of my lungs, and I wheeze as I throw them both off. "Agh, get off, you big lumps!" I holler. "Go wrestle on the porch or something while I get some dinner."

Fifteen minutes and two singed talons later, some reheated leftover albatross is ready, and I walk out onto the ledge of my cliffside home. Coal and Stella sit side-by-side, their tails intertwining and dangling over the edge. "So," I wobble a bit with the plates in hand, "How's Aunt Carrion?"

Stella snorts a bout of fire and scrapes a talon along the stone. "Actually, literally, the worst. She makes us stay inside till our homework's done, and then when we bring it over to show her, she doesn't believe us and punishes us for lying!"

Coal sighs and lowers his head to his talons. "None of the other dragonets wanna be our friends when we're at school, either, because they think we're weird because we aren't allowed to come out to play, and also, Aunt Carrion's den stinks, so we always stink too!"

I taste the air, and sure enough, the stench of body odor and rotting food hangs like a mist, and it certainly isn't coming from me. I blink hard and push Coal and Stella's dinners towards them, and they look over at me. "Come on now, guys. At least you have a place to stay," I say, trying to bring their spirits up but probably failing spectacularly. I take a seat and look down into the chasm below us, where a few homeless dragons rest for the evening. "Most dragonets your age don't even have that..."

Contemplative silence follows. I hate that my little siblings have to live with our horrible Aunt Carrion, but she's the only dragon who was willing to take them in after our parents died. Aunt Carrion is the closest living relative we have. She was my father's aunt. Although both my father and my mother came from the slums, dirt poor, they worked hard to have enough to support their family at the least. My aunt, however, didn't deem it worth the effort and stayed where she was. When I was little, I thought she must've been a RainWing spy in disguise because she didn't care about anything but sleeping and her rotting sugary food hoard.

"When are you gonna take us to live with you, Dreamwalker?" Stella bursts out, startling me out of my thoughts. Both dragonets are giving me the most pleading, starry eyes I've ever seen, and I'm pretty sure you can hear my heart cracking.

"Only two more years, guys," I murmur, stretching out my wings and pulling them toward me. "I wish..." I clear my throat and look up at the sky. "You don't know how much I wish I could take you away from that awful place this very day."

Coal sits up and pushes my wing off him. He stares hard at me, and I can't tell whether he's angry or just thinking. "Well, why can't you?" He whines, tail lashing. Stella and I stare at him in confusion.

"She's not old enough yet, ya slug-eater-"

"No! I mean, what if we run away?"

I sit up, startled. He continues on. "We could get away from this stupid kingdom," he hissed. "We could fly to the desert and learn to survive there like SandWings. Nobody would ever find us. We could-" he chokes and stops for a second. "We could get away from this stupid war and live together like a real family!"

"Coal," I say slowly, "what you're suggesting is treason."

He's silent. Tears patter onto his talons. "I just want for us all to be together again," he whispers.

I reach my wing back over him again and tug both him and Stella to my sides. "I know." I close my stinging eyes. "Me too."

My chest swells with pride, however. I'm not one to get beaten down like this. "Maybe we can't be together now," I start, my voice getting steadier as I talk, "but we will someday. When the war's over and we can live in peace, you two will be the fattest, happiest, most well-loved dragonets in Pyrrhia. I promise."