Before I Was A Big Sister

//Leave me a comment if you enjoy the chapter, maybe powerstone vote, idk. Your go.

Sonata exhaled softly upon the lump of firewood gathered upon the pit, her hot breath tickling her skin a little uncomfortably in the still slightly humid air. She was at the point where she could sort-of control her fire breathing so the fire would get lit somewhere between her first seven tries, which was pretty great, on her part. But still, not ideal, since when she wasn't concentrating her utmost hardest, she still went back to her two modes: literally no fire, or the entire firepit and some of the sand around it went up in flames all at once. If she did that, the fire wouldn't last long at all, though they did keep a few larger branches off to the side in case the old ones burnt through in the middle of the night.

CRACk—CRACKLE...

Sonata blew her small hearth to life, like coaxing a sleepy Sophia off of her lap.

She sat silently, staring at her handiwork, none too late as it was nearly completely dark. The heat was a little uncomfortable today, but she didn't want to be in complete darkness. She was sure if she woke up from her sleep and couldn't tell if her eyes were open or closed, there was nowhere to run if she had a nightmare again.

Sophia was humming softly to herself, it was only with her mind blank again that she even noticed. She turned to see the small figure in the corner a couple of paces towards the exit of the cave, doing something with a few smaller sticks. Sonata squinted to try and see.

"What are you doing?"

Sophia's play was momentarily interrupted, but she didn't appear to judge it important enough to turn around, and it quickly resumed. "I'm playing dolls."

"Dolls...?" Sonata repeated. She climbed over the a rock she could have probably very easily walked around, coming just close enough she wasn't looming. She supposed with the one oddly shaped stick, those two tiny extrusions down there would be taken for feet, and those there for arms, and the two tiny things there for fingers, hm...

The smaller girl had stopped playing, and was staring back at her sister with a look of disapproval unfitting of her tiny constitution.

"What?"

Sophia sighed, turning back around to play with her makeshift toys, slouching to try and conceal whatever she was doing in hopes her sister would get bored and go away.

"I didn't know you liked dolls." Sonata leaned her head against her arm, as she leaned against the cavern wall, still some distance away. "You're as small as one, when you change."

Sophia stopped again. This time, she looked back. "I am?" She asked.

Sonata shrugged. "I imagine. I never played with dolls, so it's only an estimate."

Sophia looked down at the twigs in her hands. She frowned. "You didn't have dolls?"

"No, I didn't like them."

Sophia looked from the dolls to her sister, a little dumbstruck. "What.." she finally murmured, "what did you do?"

"Yes?"

"What did you play...growing up?" Sophia asked. Sonata felt the corners of her lips subconsciously rising. No! Bad Sonata! Sleepy Sophia was prone to going wild at such a blatant provocation...even if she really was cute.

"I don't know." She sat down, tucking her legs to the side. "I wasn't really thinking for most of it, but I think there was a very long time before you were around where I didn't have arms."

"You..didn't...have arms.." Sophia echoed, horrified.

"Yeah." Sonata lifted her arm and pulled the sleeve of her underdress up, easily warping her her hand into a small arm-sized claw, though marginally adapted to fit the constraints of an otherwise human body. "Claws."

Sophia nodded, then frowned. "Then what did you play if you didn't have dolls?"

"You mean on my own?"

Sophia nodded.

Sonata tilted her head. After a short while, she murmured to herself "...did I play? ...I think... I think I just played at trying to shapeshift better. I think I would try to wander around the castle without anyone noticing me." She tucked her feet securely under her dress.

>"Why are you such a useless girl? If you're a princess, you should be practicing more. You should at least be able to shapeshift properly. It should as comfortably to you as breathing in and out. Are you even a dragon, if you struggle so much to even change your shape a little from that tactless form?"

"And then I would give myself tasks to make it more challenging, like finding strategic places I could hide and stealing a loaf of bread from the kitchen while no one was looking, or making my soles more cushiony so I could sneak into the servant's parts of the castle and explore what it was like. And..."

> "You should be trying harder. Do you actually want to be a disgrace? You do, don't you...No, don't cry. Sonata, why are you acting so weak? If those words upset you, do something about it. If you're my daughter, prove it to me with your actions."

"I figured out how to latch my claws on so I could climb a tree, and then I could...see...everything...ah-" As Sonata went on, she began to realize the six year old before her probably couldn't understand half of what she was saying. She'd gotten too swept away.

Sonata mock-coughed. "And then when I figured out how to make hands and hold things with them, I started having lessons."

Sophia tilted her head, completely enraptured in the conversation, and confused. "But you started lessons when I was little." She added in.

"No, those were etiquette lessons. I was always taking those."

"Edikit?"

Sonata stood up. "The one where they teach you to bow like a graceful lady" she spoke fancily, making a dramatically drawn out curtsy, "and speak like someone's just told you about how the gems in their treasures stash are the best all around, and you must tell them excuse me good sir, but I do believe you are quite mistaken for I must intrude that the gems in my treasure stash must be the best ones around."

Sophia giggled at her overdramatized voice. Sonata smirked. "The one with the lady who served you sweets."

Sophia clapped her hands together in realization. "I know that one!"

"I'm sure you do. All she seemed inclined to teach you was how to sit and act cute at gatherings."

"Did I do well?"

"Yep. You picked up all the dainty princess stuff like a sponge." Sonata commented, tugging her sleeve back down.

Sophia tried to remember what she'd leaned from the nice lady.

"You got a lot better at not spilling your food than you were before." Sophia noted, trying to ease her confusion. "And it probably had something to do with how well you managed to hold the bowl without dropping the berries, today."

Sophia was almost glowing in the firelight, giddy from getting so many compliments today.

"But mother and father had her sent away a while ago, so it's no wonder your having trouble remembering her."

Sophia cocked her head. "Why?"

"Because, apparently, we were acting too dainty for dragons."

The child's head stayed tilted. "So we did good? ...Or bad?"

Sonata shrugged. "I don't understand it better than you do."

Sophia pouted. "The nice lady, though." Sonata reaches out her arms, and Sophia quietly walked over and let herself be embraced, cuddling against her older sister in the darkness, firelight illuminating the outlines of their forms. "I miss edikit classes."

Sonata sighed. "Me too."