Ari the moon fairy and Thev the ogre do not quite fit into their respective communities. They’re fine, truly, and happy, to some extent. But there is something different about them. In their own ways, they are both deemed decidedly...odd. They feel a call to seek out something...other...in the unknown. One night, the two unlikely adventurers find themselves caught out in a storm with only each other and a baby dragon changeling for company. A quick decision has to be made: kill or be killed or…survive together. Are they strong enough to put aside their differences to protect the young changeling? Are they brave enough to leave the familiar to return the baby to his family? Are they...odd...enough to let such a journey change them, teach them who they are, perhaps even teach them how to be a truly unique, decidedly odd, forever-bonded family? It all starts one snowy night on the edge of the Heva forest, when a little one finds himself all alone in the cold… ****** The little DRAGON CHANGELING, the MOON FAIRY, and the GORILLA OGRE As *someone* told me when they heard the premise, that sounds like the start of a bad joke. Or - hear me out...Or it could be the beginning of a tale about the oddest, warmest family ever recorded in fictional history… I mean...I’ve read odder bedtime stories... I rushed to get something down before Halloween. Which meant I wrote this in the free time I could squeeze out of three nights. There’s so much under the surface of this story left still to discover and so many different directions it could go. The prose needs polishing and that dialogue..needs audible work. But with three half-nights to develop a handful of story premises, a couple of outlines for the most promising ideas, and write down the beginning and potential ending for their first story, the story of their meeting...I don’t know. I’m kinda proud of the result.  Y’all tell me...bad joke or interesting story? ******* The Editor half of my brain, now that I’ve had time to look back over my hastily typed story, is urging me to apologize profusely to anyone who read this draft and expunge all record of it. The Writer half of my brain refuses to apologize for accomplishing its desire to write this beginning and share it before the 31st. I will choose…to bashfully admit that I was in too much of a hurry and did not take enough time to triple check this story, as I normally would, but I will move forward. I have too little time to spend backtracking on this right now. If/when moving forward with this story as a priority, I will make sure that both the Writer and Editor in me are satisfied with the final draft. But I will not apologize for, change, or delete, my whirlwind-written first draft. It makes half my brain and my entire heart happy, and that’s enough :). There now. Are you happy with this footnote, Editor Brain? Let us move forward…