My imagination created this story based on one of my favorite songs (written and performed by John Lennon). It is set in a world created by Crystal Scherer in her work, 'Upon Wings of Change'. This wonderful and talented author has permitted me to use the book and her characters!

Please vote and comment with your thoughts or corrections! This book has a bonus chapter written that I will post once it hits 100 votes.

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Imagine there's no heaven

It's easy if you try

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I'm so excited that the eggs finally hatched! I can't wait to see the new silver and gold dragonets!

My name is Clover, and I'm only four months old, a second-generation Dragonet; my parents are from the original lab that created us.

You see, scientists kidnapped and experimented on my parents when this world was still human, creating a species that looked like a miniature winged dragon. It was overheard that if they were sentient, they would be killed, so they acted like animals, primarily catlike traits, since they were that size. Well, cats that could fly!

They were kept in cages so small they could barely spread their wings open while the scientists continued to create more. A few years into this experiment, an alien race called the Votaks attacked the planet. These invaders killed all of the humans. The dragonets escaped the lab during the initial attack and hid in the denser part of the Amazon rainforest, where this lab was initially set up. Within days, these aliens released animals onto the planet from all over the galaxy. Over half of all native creatures died as a result of this.

The dragonets learned a few things about themselves in those first few weeks. The first big thing was that they could breathe fire like the dragons of myth and legend. The second was The Morning Song. Every day as the sun rises, the need to celebrate it calls to us, and we sing and dance to whatever theme the daybreak brings. They never felt it in the lab, as their cages were in a windowless room.

A few months later, another alien race, the Kymari, removed the Votaks. The Kymari were appalled that the intelligent beings were killed off simply to get a habitable planet near the edge of this universe. Any Votak that fought was killed, and the rest were sent back to their region of space. Since the earth was empty, the Kymari built their own cities with high walls to keep the dangerous animals out. Those walls are guarded well.

After a few years of living in the wild, we had lost a little over one-fourth of our population to accidents or animals without fear of our fire. From what we could figure out by listening in on the guards' conversations, the Kymari do not tolerate other races on their planets, so we never let them know that we can think and are aware. After the threat of death from the humans, we were scared of all races.

To stay alive, we moved into a vast park in the center of a Kymari city. The park has hundreds of edible fruit trees from Earth and other galaxies. Several small and large ponds are situated throughout it, and it takes over an hour to fly from one side to the other. We eat fruit mostly while some of the first generation eat fish, so this park became our little Utopia. The Kymari leave us alone, as we aren't a threat. But they love observing us, like human bird watchers.

"Mom, I'm going over to see if Amanda needs help feeding the hatchlings!"

All Dragonets can talk through the main group link, but we can also speak to individuals or smaller groups.

"Clover, her nest is close to the ground, so be careful. Don't be a bother to her."

"I promise," I responded as I flew through the trees, dodging low-hanging branches.

Once I'm almost to the nest, which is in a small hollow of a tree, a horrible smell bombards me. I'm suddenly so unbelievably angry but terrified, and I don't understand why.

What's going on?!

I stop on a branch and look at the ground, shaking in fear. I see a Kymari child playing alone right where the street and grass meet at the entrance to the park, about a block away.

That's not right. Kymari NEVER leave their children unattended.

But why do I feel like this, and what is that God-awful smell?!

Suddenly, I see Tasha, a friend of my parents, leap into the air and shoot a fireball at something I can't see. She moves toward the meadow behind where I'm hiding, and I jump branches to see what's happening. We only breathe fire if we are under attack.

Oh no! It's a shadow creature like the one we killed on the other side of the park about a month ago. The nest with the hatchlings is right by them!

Several more adults arrive and shoot fire at it, trying to get it to back away from the nest. I feel myself growling low, deep in my throat, but at the same time, I'm frozen in fear. I can't breathe fire yet, as I'm still a kid.

There is nothing I can do but watch in horror.

Tasha dive-bombs it and bites the back of its neck. It doesn't seem to do anything but make it madder. After several rounds of tossing fireballs and streaming fire at it with the others, she bites it again. She got a good bite this time but at a considerable cost. Its tail got her good, and she slammed into the tree I was sitting in. Her wing is broken and sitting at a weird angle. My eyes are drawn to the shadow creature, which is seizing. We realized that when we killed the last one. Something in our bite makes them spasm and die.

My eyes leave the creature when I see a flash of blue from an energy weapon and five Kymari guards surrounding it. The Dragonets scatter, and Amanda and her mate take the hatchlings in their mouths and fly away. I'm still too terrified to move, so I look down at Tasha.

One of the guards approaches her as she cries and tries to get away, but she is too severely injured. He gently picks her up and walks away with her. I sent my mom a picture of what I saw through the mindlink.

We just lost Tasha.

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It's been about a week since Tasha was taken. We tried for days to mindlink her, but it just echoes back, meaning she is either unconscious or dead. We mourned our friend, and I planted some flower seeds around the tree where she was hurt.

The Morning Song has lifted our spirits as it always does. Every day with the rising sun, it calls to us, deep in our souls. We sing and dance to the music only we can hear until the sun has risen and the song stops. When the dragonets feel it, we must respond. The only time it is absent is if we are in a burrow underground or somewhere that we can't see the sunrise, but it comes every morning, assuring us that a new day is dawning and we should celebrate it. If we go too long without it, we get depressed and sick.

Since the attack, we've noticed the Kymari actively searching for us around the park. We change the location of our Morning Song every day, but they still seem to find us. However, they are just watching. We are scared as they now know we can breathe fire.

We overheard several conversations saying they would leave us alone as we had never attacked a Kymari and appeared to be the only animal that could kill a Sicora, which we now know is the monster's name. I know some dragonets are terrified of the fallout from that encounter. We never wanted attention, just to live in a safer environment.

My friend suddenly yells through the mindlink. "Tasha is alive! They fixed her wing, but she is in a cage! Just like the scientists did to Mom and Dad. Tasha said that as soon as she heals and can fly again, she will try to escape and return to us."

I don't know how to feel about that. I'm glad that she's alive but in a cage! The Blood Memories I got from my parents show some of their time in cages. I avoid those memories and don't look too clearly at them.

No one knows why the new Dragonets born have these memories as they belong to our parents as humans and dragonets. They also tell us about all the different races in the galaxies and their languages. The original Dragonets awoke with them, and somehow it's passed down to their offspring.

I hope she gets away. I can't imagine living in a cage.

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It's been about a month now since Tasha left us. The updates I've gotten are conflicting, and I'm still trying to figure out what to think.

One person will say that she is in a cage and they are doing tests on her like the scientists did. The other says she was only in the cage for the first week, and she is being treated well, has a heat lamp, and is getting Sunburst berries every day!

We were warned that the Kymari have figured out that Sunburst berries are the all-time favorite treat of Dragonets, and we will go to great lengths to get one. They said we aren't to eat any that we find because they may be drugged so they can catch us.

I've never had one as they are in the planters outside the park, and I'm too scared to go there. I've seen more and more Kymari in the less popular areas of the park, and I hide until I can get away. My parents are siding with the ones that think she is being caged and tortured. I hope they're wrong.

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A/N:
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