by Grace Irvine
There was a woman who gave birth to a lovely girl named Moonshine. The baby was very pale with glowing yellow eyes, and the woman’s husband, Micmi, hated the child when he first saw her. He had dark brown eyes, light blond hair and not much tanned skin. When he first saw the baby, he said, “Look at that dreadful child. She looks nothing like us. We should throw her out.”
The mother, Niche, looked horrified.
“Are you crazy? Throwing out our only child!” exclaimed Niche, who had chocolate brown hair with blue sky eyes. “So what if she looks different. She’s our child.”
A few moments later, the nurse said, “Well, Miss, your gonna have another baby. Another girl, to be specific.”
Micmi scolded. “This one better be normal.”
Niche sighed.
*
Nine months passed and Moonshine’s sister was finally born. She loved her on first sight.
“Good, a normal child,” said Micmi.
True, she had sun-like hair, but her eyes were white as clouds.
“I’ll go check her out and I’ll tell you anything that’s important,” said the nurse. Niche nodded to the nurse.
When the nurse came back, she looked worried. “She has white eyes but that doesn’t affect her sight, so there’s nothing much to worry about.”
Mimci sighed.
They all went to the house, but a few months later Niche passed away and the two sisters were left with their awful father.
*
When the girls turned five and four, Micmi told them to clean up the house. He was drinking beer, but he also said, “If you don’t, no food for you tonight. Understood.”
Both girls nodded. They were very sad and frightened.
*
Nine years later.
It was freshmen week and Sunshine was so nervous she started to feel strange, but at least Moonshine was there, and Moon was so relieved to see her because secretly her father hated her. Sunshine had no idea that he made her do the house chores because somehow Moon made them fun.
They met at the entrance to the school and then Sunshine started having a headache, but she didn’t care. She was back with Moon. They were roommates. Luckily, Sunshine had insisted.
“So, how’s Father?” Moon asked, a little worried.
Sun replied a little sadly, “It turns out he doesn’t want me. He said, ‘Don’t come back, even if you’re supposed to.’”
Moon sighed. She’d known this day would come.
They kept walking. When they finished the tour, they went through the forest to their secret place, where they had kept in touch for the last year while Moonshine wasn’t at home.
They climbed up the tree and sat down. Then they saw a man walk by with a woman. Sun said quickly, “Get down.”
The woman and the man looked up. The man looked familiar. Then Sun saw it—it was her father.
The woman yelled, “Were you spying on us? You self-entitled brat!”
Moon thought she saw a small glint of glass. She barely blinked until Sunshine was hugging her and a potion was whizzing through the air right towards them. Then everything went black.
*
Their father chuckled when they woke up. They felt different.
“Now you can be chained up. We’ll be rich when the scientists come.”
They looked at each other and shrieked. They had turned into DRAGONS! Sun had colours like the sun and a mane like rays of sunlight and scales and a sun-shaped pendant on her forehead. Moon had a swirl of white in her black scales like mist and a moon-shaped pendent on her forehead. They were chained up with food and water bowls.
Moonshine got the courage to speak, “How did we turn into dragons and what do you mean scientists?”
Moonshine saw his evil smirk get wider.
He knew they probably would be dangerous, but it was worth it. “Oh, first of all, the potion turned you into dragons. Second, I’m selling you to the scientists who will be here soon. Don’t worry you can transform back by … hmm, I won’t tell you actually. You’ll have to figure it out.”
Half an hour passed, and they all heard a knock on the door. One scientist came in. He was young but calmly said, “Where did you find them? They’re beautiful, like the sun and moon.”
Their father was surprised. “I found them near the river of Bevin,” replied Micmi with an evil glare, like he always did when they were home. They hated that glare.
They were caged up in a van, with their mouths locked up in case they breathed fire. The young scientist stared at them with a curious expression. “Hmm what kind of dragons are you?” Then the van drove away to the lab, where they didn’t know what would happen next.
*
They felt a bump. They knew they were at the laboratory.
Hopefully they won’t cut us up, thought Moon.
Then a scientist came out of the building. He looked old with spiky like hair. The scientist said, “Professor Hong, what do we have here now?” He said it in an unkind tone. The girls knew this wouldn’t be good.
They were dragged by a couple of people with tasers to stop them getting out of hand. They were pulled into a bulletproof glass cage.
Spiky hair said, “I think you guys can be useful to us. Co-operate with us if you really want to be together.”
Hearing those words, Moon stood in front of Sun and snarled at him. Then the young scientist, who Moon thought must be Hong, stood between them both. “Sir, I think she understands us, and it appears that this one is older and protective over the other dragon. Can’t you see? Ungag them!” he called, and people carefully took off their gags.
Moon stretched her mouth. Guns pointed at her in case something happened. “Seriously, is that really necessary? Now leave my sister alone!”
Everyone seemed shocked. The dragon spoke!
The boss stepped in front of Hong. “What’s your names and how can you talk?”
Hong looked at his pad and then tried to get Spiky’s attention.
“Sir, we have a problem.”
Spiky looked at him and then at the pad, which showed that one of the animals were loose. “How did the griffin escape?”
Spiky sighed and pointed half the men with tasers to go and sort it out, and then he looked at the dragons for an answer.
“My name is Moonshine, and my sister here is Sunshine. Now, what do you want with us?”
Moon snarled for him to answer.
“All I want to know is where you came from and to see what you’re capable of, and you haven’t answered my second question.”
“We used to be humans until a potion hit us. We can transform back but we don’t know how and we’re gonna be late for school, Spiky,” responded Sunshine.
The scientist started to walk over to her, but Moonshine snarled and went in between them.
“Now, now, let’s not get feisty. We need to work together. And it’s Professor Axis not Spiky.” He saw that the dragons looked shocked. “Why are you shocked?”
Moon took a deep breath. “Because … because our mother was Niche Axis.”
Now he was shocked.
“M … my sister … But how? I thought Micmi found you, but he’s your father. You didn’t transform from a potion. Well, you did slightly. You can only transform by will, and the Axis family has that special blood. We call it transfigurement and it appears you both have the spirit of the dragon,” replied their (apparently) uncle.
They were shocked. “Okay, magician uncle, how do we get out of this? You seem like an expert. What spirit do you have?” Moon said, while Sunshine giggled a little at “magician uncle”.
He took a deep breath and replied, “My spirit is a mouse, and you will be stuck like that for two more days since that potion. Stop calling me names, please.”
Both dragons chuckled.
*
By the time they finished arguing about calling him names, it was night. They went to bed, and he told them that if they wanted to turn back, they would have to listen to him. The next day, they went to the courtyard.
“Okay, let’s start. You will do the fire test, but you’ll need new names for your transformation. Moon will be Kirku and Sun will be Kurki. Any questions?”
“Where are we?” Sun said, a bit traumatised. She did have a point—their surroundings were a bit dull.
“We’re in Area 53, young one. Let’s begin,” he said, sounding happy.
In the courtyard, they saw a dove. It transformed into their mother!
“Hello Sunshine and Moonshine, it’s been so long since I’ve seen you,” their mother said.
Their uncle came out and almost fell over when he saw his sister in front of them.
He went up to her and tried to touch her, but his hand went right through her and disappeared.
“Okay, since our touching moment is over, just think yourself human and I’ll drive you to an apartment near your school. Just say you were sick.”
The dragons transformed back into girls, but one thing just wouldn’t go away—the pendants on the foreheads.
“It’s a part of you now, like I have a stupid mouse tail,” said their uncle, and then he drove them home. It was a nice apartment and they went back to a normal life—with the secret.
