Free Tiny Dragons 1: The Sky Dragons by Bernard Schaffer

Chapter 1: The Little Girl and the Dragon
     
    On a warm day in Brumbleton, with the sun high in the air and a light breeze gently swaying the maple tree branches in her backyard, Alana O'Neil folded her hands under her chin and sighed.  She watched her big brother James through the sliding glass doors in her kitchen.  He was bouncing up and down on the trampoline in their backyard, waving and smiling with every bounce, laughing at her because he was allowed outside to play, and she was not.
    Alana sighed again.  Just past the trampoline was an old shed filled with tools and yard equipment and a broken lawn mower, and past that shed, a field covered in white flowers that ran all the way to the tall, thick trees of Brumbleton Woods.  The woods were thick as a forest and the home of all sorts of wildlife.  Deer could often be seen grazing in the field and it seemed like hundreds of foxes and squirrels and badgers spent their days running in and out from between the trees. 
    The back yard had more to offer than just the trampoline.  There was a jungle gym with monkey bars that begged to be climbed on, a sliding board glistening in the sunlight that simply needed to be slid down.  Scattered soccer balls, and hula-hoops, a scooter with tassels and a horn, and several water guns, all within in a few feet of the closed sliding doors, but to Alana, they might as well have been in another state.  Or even another country. 
    The obstacle to Alana going outside , and the key to her freedom, was sitting directly in front of her. Right there on the kitchen table, a massive bowl of steamed broccoli.  The most awful food in existence. 
    " Alana, did you eat the rest of your dinner yet?" her mother called down from upstairs.
    Alana half-heartedly stabbed the nearest bushy green stalk with her fork and sighed again.  She'd eaten broccoli just last week and it had been a terrible thing.  Today, she'd had to pinch her nose and close her eyes and think of pizza in order to eat just one.  Now, there were at least five more small trees left in her bowl and her mother refused to let her up from the table until they were all gone. 
    "H ey, Alana!" James shouted from the backyard as he bounced his highest bounce yet and kicked both his legs wide in the air.  "Aren't you done yet?"
    Alana grumbled and grunted as she picked up the broccoli with her fork and made ready to pinch her nose.  It was going to be a very long evening. 
    Even Mister Six, the family's sleek gray cat, was having a better time than she was.  Mister Six was curled up on the top of the sofa, stretching out his long legs and licking them until all his fur stood straight up.  The cat purred as he looked at Alana, hoping she'd pet him, but Alana just frowned at him and said, "I wish you were a dog.  Then you'd eat my broccoli for me."
    Mister Six ignored her and just kept right on licking.
    Finally she was finished eating and showed her mother the empty bowl.  Alana raced to the kitchen doors and yanked them open, her bright smile greeting the open air, only to see James climbing down from the trampoline and getting ready to go back inside.  "I'm beat from all that bouncing," he said, wiping his forehead with his hand.  "Do you want to play some video games?" 
    James was almost a teenager.  He was twice Alana's age and twice as tall as her, and ever since Father had left, he had a bad habit of thinking he was the man of the house.  Worst of all, their mother had recently started letting James babysit Alana for short periods of time.  Lately, it seemed that whenever Mrs. O'Neil had to run to the supermarket or the post office, James was left in charge.  That was when he said things like, "You better do what I say," or "You can't have that" the most.  Alana's usual response was to stick her tongue out at him and do what she wanted anyway.
    "Stay out here with me," Alana said. 
    "I can't, I'm hot and thirsty," James said.  "Are you coming in?"
    Alana ignored