Flames, Dragons, and Derek's Book part 1

          "Did you see that?" I asked my brother, Derek. It was a hot day, and the two of us were sitting on the front porch eating a piece of ice to keep cool.
          "See what?" he asked, looking up from the paper he was writing on. Of course, I had almost forgotten.
          My brother had entered a writing contest in which you have to write a hundred-thousand word book. The winner got the book published. Derek had been writing non-stop for a week now, and rarely looked up from his paper unless you spoke directly to him.
          "Never mind," I sighed. I looked back at where I had seen it... well where I thought I had seen it.
          No, I had seen it. My eyes were didn't play tricks on me. My imagination did, but not my eyes. I looked back at the woods in front of our little house.
          "I'm going to go exploring again," I told Derek
          "Fine by me, just be careful, Sue," Derek said without looking up. Sue was my nickname. My full name was Zsuzanna, but I preferred Sue.
          I got up and walked into the house. My parents were out camping with a couple of friends, and had left Nathan, my oldest brother, in charge. I didn't like having to live in the same house as Nathan. We had lived together at the orphanage, and had both dearly hoped we would not be adopted together. That hadn't worked out, though, and we were both brought here.
          "Nathan, I'm going out to exploring," I said as I walked into our room.
          "Be careful or I won't get paid for watching you," Nathan said, his dull grey eyes watching my every move as though to make sure I didn't hurt myself just to get him in trouble.
          "Whatever," I answered, rushing back downstairs. I ran past Derek, accidentally knocking a couple of his papers to the ground. I didn't hear him scold me though. I had to know if I had seen one.
          Before my mom and dad had died, they had told me that if I ever saw a piece of the sun fall from the sky, it meant that there was dragon close by. They said that I wouldn't see the sun fall, though, they said I would see a flame appear and then float towards the dragon.
          My parents had been the king and queen of a very small kingdom, but I couldn't remember what it had been called. This is why Nathan hated me so much. He didn't like it when people thought they were more important than him, and when he had heard my story, he was furious.
          I stopped at the edge of the woods for a second, thinking. My parents had done something... something that had to do with the flame. I racked my brain for the answer, and then I remembered. I was not to follow the little flame. If I did, it would lead me to a dragon. A gigantic, full grown dragon. If I found that dragon, I would be incinerated. That was how my parents had died.
          How could I have forgotten? It had been years ago, but I still remember them excitedly pointing at something that only they could see, and telling me to stay with the guards. I had followed them, of course. I followed them all the way to a clearing in the middle of a forest.
          I had been confused. Why did they look so happy, and why are they now screaming? I understood a second later. Even though I couldn't see it, I realized what was happening. They had found a dragon. Since they were the only ones to see the flame, they were the only one to to see the dragon.
          I could see the fire though. I could hear the angry roar and heavy wings flapping up and down. My parents had disturbed the dragon, and had payed for it.
          Shuddering despite the hot air, I turned back towards the house. Derek was still picking up the papers on the ground, so I went to help him.
          "Sorry," I muttered.
          "It's fine, Sue," Derek said. I could tell he was still a little upset about his disruption, so I asked him what his book was about.
          "Well," he said a little pensively, "I kept hearing Nathan taunting you about something, so I decided to eavesdrop. He said something about Princess Zsuzanna and the dragon that was going to eat you if you didn't do his homework. I thought it sounded like it would make a good book so, well... here." Derek handed me his papers for me to read.
          It was amazing. Derek had turned some comment into a whole book like it was no big deal. When I finished reading, I handed the papers back, mouth open slightly.
         "Wow," was all I could manage to say.
         "You like it? Really? Cool!" he replied.
         He sat back down and started writing again. I just stood there, wondering how he did it, when he said, "You know, I think that we should finish the book together. It is about you... kind of."
          "Really?" I asked excitedly.
          " Course," he laughed, and with that, he pulled  the other chair over and told me all of his ideas and I told him all my ideas. It felt good to write about what had happened. The book wasn't exact, but I helped change some things, and together, we won the contest. Nathan didn't bully me again after that. My new parents were so proud.
         When I turned twenty, some official looking men came to our house in the woods, saying I had come of age, and was to leave at once to rule my kingdom. I was happy to leave. Derek promised he would come to visit whenever he wanted to write another book - we had written a few since we had won the contest - with me, and I got to see the look on Nathan's face when he found out he really had been living with a princess.
          I was happy. I was home.