Mina leaned against the wall of the well with Pixit curled up in her lap. Her new storm beast was snoring lightly, which was zero help with facing her family. It must be exhausting to be born and set a field on fire all in the same day, Mina thought, but she couldn’t help smiling down at his puppy face. And exhausting to be this cute.

As Pixit snored, his tongue stuck out between two teeth, causing him to whistle with each breath. Mina stroked between his wide ears. His yellow scales were soft as velvet, covered in a fine fur, and he had feathers sprouting like antlers from his forehead.

Outside of pictures, Mina had never seen a lightning beast before, but there was no question that Pixit was one. If the sparks that had set the fire hadn’t given it away, his brilliant yellow color would have. Rain beasts were blue, sun beasts were red, wind beasts were silver, snow beasts were white, and lightning beasts were yellow.

He’s beautiful.

Papa crouched beside her. “Mina, did you really hatch a lightning beast? You couldn’t have. There must have been some kind of mistake. Were you out of the room while it hatched? Maybe there was a switch?”

Gaton snorted. “Worst practical joke ever. Who would do that? And how? We were all home. I didn’t see a stranger sneak in a lightning beast and sneak out Mina’s.”

“You do know what the word ‘sneak’ means, don’t you?” Mother said as she leaned over to peer at the sleeping Pixit. She then mollified her tone. “But I agree with you, Gaton. There’s no reason for someone to switch beasts.”

Mina smiled gratefully at her mother.

But Mother wasn’t done. “There must have been something wrong with the egg.”

Mina’s smile vanished. There’s nothing wrong with you, she thought at Pixit, even though he was sleeping too soundly to hear. “He didn’t mean to set the fire. He’s sorry.” Lightning beasts were supposed to absorb electric charge from the world around them and store it, like living capacitors, but new ones didn’t know how to store it perfectly—​that was why he sparked so much. He’ll outgrow it. I think. And to be fair, he did say we’d set the world on fire, even if he didn’t mean it quite so literally. He meant we’d be like the guardians and beasts in the tales I read him, who changed the world with their heroics, not their flammability.