There’s a rock inside my head. It’s a flat rock. It’s like the books in Auntie Ilya’s room. This rock is special; that’s what Auntie Ilya says. I can’t let anyone know about it, but that’s hard! Auntie Ilya always wins when I play games with her. Big Sis Mirta always wins too. I can only win when I play with my two mommies. I asked Auntie Ilya why I always lose, and she said it’s because I’m bad at games! I wanted to beat her, so I asked Big Sis Mirta to help me.

I have to practice to win—that’s what Big Sis Mirta told me. So, I practiced and practiced and practiced, but I never won against Auntie Ilya. Keeping the rock inside my head a secret is like playing the game. It’s hard! Auntie Ilya says I have to lie, but I never had practice lying. Because I didn’t practice lying, I’m bad at it. I can still fool my two mommies because they’re worse liars than me, but anyone else will find out if they ask. I have to practice lying.

But I’m puzzled. Auntie Ilya said I should never lie, so even when I do, people think I’m telling the truth. But Big Sis Mirta said I have to practice things to get better. I don’t know who to listen to. Big Sis Mirta is much nicer than Auntie Ilya, but Auntie Ilya is much older!

“Sophia? Are you still asleep?”

“No, I’m awake, Mommy.”

“Oh, are you coming out soon?”

Is the sun coming up? “Yes!” I love it when the sun comes up because the dark goes away. I have a secret. I’m afraid of the dark. It’s so scary! There are monsters in the dark. They watch me from the shadows. Only a light can keep them away. Auntie Ilya gave me a shiny rock that glows in the dark, and the monsters are scared of it. I want to grow up faster. Adults aren’t scared of the monsters because they can beat them up. When I start training, I won’t be afraid of monsters anymore!

I’m going to celebrate my birthday in three more days. My mommy says I’ll have a huge party, and everyone in the sect will be invited. I’m a little nervous. There are some really scary people in the sect. Uncle Claw is the scariest. I caught a rabbit once, and it was really cute. I wanted to show someone, and Uncle Claw was the closest person. He took the rabbit, chopped off its head, and cooked it for me…. I cried.

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Other than Uncle Claw, Uncle Chen is scary too. His face is always red, and his breath always stinks. He also wears the same gray clothes every day. They’re made of metal, and they’re very sharp and pointy. I wasn’t paying attention and ran into him once. My nose hurt and bled a lot, but he didn’t even say sorry! I haven’t seen him in a long time. He disappeared after I told my mommy what happened to my nose.

My favorite person in the sect is Mrs. Feathers. She’s really nice to me, and she lets me ride on her back whenever I want. It’s great to be so high up! Everything looks so tiny when I’m in the air. Mommy says I can fly on my own when I become a sky-realm expert, but that will take forever. I asked her how long that would take, and she said if I try really hard, I can fly when I’m twenty. I’m never going to be twenty! I’ve been alive for so long, and I’m not even six yet. I didn’t believe my mommy, so I asked Auntie Ilya how long it would take to fly. Auntie Ilya said my mommy was wrong, and she gave me a flying boat, but my mommy took it away!

I asked Mommy why she took it away, and she said I couldn’t opah…, opeh…, operate! She said I couldn’t operate the boat without spirit stones. I asked her to give me some, but she wouldn’t! She said I had to get a job to make my own spirit stones. I went to Auntie Ilya and asked her for a job. She made me her bodyguard. I had to stand in the corner of the room and be very, very quiet. Every four hours, she paid me one spirit stone. I asked her how many spirit stones I needed to fly the boat, and she said I needed one hundred per hour. I quit the job. It’s much easier to climb onto Mrs. Feathers. She doesn’t need any spirit stones.

“Sophia! Is everything okay?”

“Yes, Mommy!” My mommy worries a lot; I don’t know why. All I’m doing is washing my face and brushing my teeth. Big Sis Mirta said if I don’t wash my face, I’ll look like Uncle Claw when I grow up. If I don’t brush my teeth, my breath will smell bad like Uncle Chen’s. I don’t want to grow up like either of them. When I grow up, I’m going to be just like Mrs. Feathers! I want to fly in the sky and do whatever I want without anyone telling me I can’t.

I’m keeping it a secret from my mommies, but I already know how I’m going to train—with the Divine Dream Scripture! It’s from the flat rock inside my head. If I master it, I can turn dreams into reality. I’m not sure what that means, but it sounds super cool! I can’t wait to start training. I wish my sixth birthday was here already! And when I turn six, my teacher said I’ll be moving to a new class for body training. He said I’ll have so much fun because there’s a lot of fighting in that class. I really liked the self-defense class because I could hit people. When I go to the new class, it’s going to be like the self-defense class every single day. I can’t wait!

“Look! Mommy, the sun is rising!”