Page 8 of When the Moon Hatched (The Moonfall #1)

M ahmi and Pahpi say I’m too young to have a dragon, and it doesn’t matter that the Moonplumes in the palace hutch let me sleep with them. They say wild Moonplumes will drop from the sky the moment I step onto their spawning grounds, snatch me up, shake me until I’m limp, then feed me to their young.

I think that’s a plop of spangle poop. And I don’t think it’s very fair that I should have to wait until I’m eighteen to find out for myself how big that plop of poop really is.

Pahpi said I can put my argument forth once I hear the elemental songs and I’ve learned to speak them properly, but I think that’s a plop of spangle poop, too. Haedeon waited a long time and they never sang to him. And I’ve been listening really hard, every cycle, singing to the snow and the air and the ground and the flames. Nobody’s singing back but Mahmi and Pahpi at slumbertime.

Not that I mind. I don’t want to wear that silly stone, anyway. Mahmi always looks so tired, like her head’s heavy. Pahpi’s crown looks heavy too, but not in the same way. The stones on his are so pretty and shiny and make him look proud and important. The stone on Mahmi’s is so black it looks like somebody could fall straight through it.

Sometimes, I catch Mahmi trying really hard to pull her diadem off while she screams and cries and folds herself up real small. It makes my heart hurt.

I don’t think that stone is very good for Mahmi.

Last slumber, I found her outside, crying in the dark while the falling snow stuck to her hair. Her sad sounds made me cry, too.

I sang a song I’d hoped would make her feel better, but she just cried harder.

She wiped my cheeks and told me she’d be okay. That she lost something important, but that my cuddles made her feel much better.

Pahpi found us then. He picked her up and took her inside, then tucked me into my pallet, kissed me on the nose, and told me it would make sense when I’m older …

I don’t think I want to understand.