A Dream of Sky

WIP||

A girl raised on a farm. A dragon stolen from his kingdom. Together, they must find out who they are beyond their birthrights, even if that means defying expectations.

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Eleven-year-old Darby Quickness works on her family farm. There, she oversees the unicorn stables, and the selkie pond, while her little sister Alvie avoids work, choosing instead to hang out at the mermaid grotto and talk fashion. Darby's fine with her life, for the most part, until, one day, her grandmother up and leaves. With a sneaking suspicion Darby's grandmother left because of her, there's a hole in her heart no amount of chores seems able to fill. That all changes when a strange man shows up in the middle of the night with a note and an egg.

To Miss Darby Quickness, it reads.
Dream big. Dream of the sky and beyond.
- The Librarian at Scall

P. S. He tells me his name is Corbyn.

Darby doesn't understand much about the letter apart from her own name. She's never visited the library at Scall, or even known that a place called Scall existed. Corbyn seems like a silly name for any egg, and she was never much of a dreamer, not when there were so many chores on the farm needing done.

But the man disappears without offering any help, leaving Darby with an egg to take care of (first things first, she must figure out what kind of egg it is), and a directive to dream big, whatever that means. As a strange boy with sky-blue hair starts popping into Darby's dreams, she begins to understand the reasons why her grandmother left. And when she connects them to herself, and her own struggles, Darby realizes the choice she has to make - her family's farm, or her own dreams of the sky.

2025 || first draft ||