His home stht between two mountains that towered like two towers o the dark castle. Mossy forests ran through the try and bogs could be found everywhere betweeowns and vilges. The trees grew tall ahe direct sunlight away. It was always shady and often foggy. Dark curtains covered the windows of the castle to protect the vampires residing there from the sunlight.

  Marlon ran down the hall. His little sister followed him. She was just four years old. A small petite girl with a very strong will. Now she wao py catd Marlon did her the favor. They hurried past the servants and guards, who skillfully avoided them. The two had escaped their two nannies, who wao forbid them any fun. Something that her Marlon nor Annemarie wao accept. The two siblings looked almost like human beings. Only their blood-red eyes revealed what they were. Their skin was still rosy, as was on with vampire children.

  Annemarie shrieked and tried vehemently to catch her brother, who was two years older, but Marlon had ls and was much faster than her. He liked to py with her only when he had an advantage. Marlon loved to win. Annemarie, oher hand, was a very bad loser. When she realized that she would not catch her brother, she angrily knocked over an expensive vase and stamped her foot on the ground.

  Marlon ignored her. He had won. The game was over.

  He wao ask his parents for a pet. A dragon, to be exact. He had heard that a dragon egg had been found. His own dragon. He liked the idea. Dragons did not usually y their eggs in the snd. They lived too far away. So how did it get into the ss? He left his angry sister behind and hurried to the rge room where the queen and king were probably right now.

  He stopped in front of a rge, red-painted door. It was noon, which meant his parents ehe special wihe vampires' thirst for blood did not appear until the age of fourteen, so Marlon did not drink blood yet. The little boy couldn't wait to be a real vampire. He opehe red door and looked into the room.

  People in white clothes sat there on bck sofas and waited for a vampire to drink from them. They generously paid for it. Although it was quite on for vampires to drink blosses, the royal couple preferred to e their wine of life directly. Something they occasionally offered to their guests. Between the sofas were small tables with drinks and fruit. Marlon walked into the room until he saw his parents. They had drilled their teeth into the flesh of a woman with short, bck hair. The woman moaned softly and squinted her eyes while his parents drank their blood with pleasure. They wouldn't drink all her blood. Marlon stared at them in fasation. Most vampires drank the special wine from gsses, but the royal family preferred to drink the wine directly. His parents rarely drank from gsses.

  "Mother? Father?", Marlon interrupted his parents.

  The two let go of the woman and looked disapprovingly at their son.

  "Marlon? What are you doing here?" The king frowned. "Why are you interrupting us?"

  "Did something happen?" The queen smiled mildly and wiped blood from her mouth. "We were almost done anyway." She looked at the woman. "Thank you. That would be all."

  The woman stood up swaying and sat down with the other people, who immediately took care of her.

  " I have the dragon egg?" Marlon beamed expetly at his parents. "The ohat was fouerday?"

  "How do you know about it?" The king took him by the hand and together with the queen they left the room that smelled of blood.

  "I heard the guards talking about it. I?"

  His mhed. "And what do you want with a dragon egg?"

  "Well, if it hatches, then I'll have my own dragon! Then he listens to me and I would be invincible!"

  "Invincible?" His father lifted him up and kissed him on the cheek. "That would be something, wouldn't it? An invincible six-year-old prince!"

  "But unfortunately, it doesn't work", his mother replied, stroking his head. "The egg must be hatched. This requires the dragon’s mother and father. Dragons are very dangerous, so no one is allowed to approach the egg. When the young dragon hatches, he and his parents will hopefully return to the desert. Luckily, they didn't spot the guards when they found the egg."

  "But why was the egg alone if it has to be hatched?" Marlon grimaced. "Birds sit on their eggs all the time!"

  "Dragons are not birds. You do not have to sit tinuously on the egg for the dragon to hatch. Their eggs don't cool down quickly."

  "So I 't have a dragon?"

  "No." His mother shook her head. "Where is your sister?"

  "We pyed catch. I won, so Annemarie broke a vase."

  "Again?" His father shook his head. "Maybe you should let her win?"

  "No", Marlon protested immediately. "I won't let her win! She's a girl!"

  "And that's why she 't win?" The queen looked at him reproachfully. "Even girls be strong."

  "But I'm older!" Marko leaned sulking against his father. He wanted a dragon!

  "Yhnesses?" A servant approached them with the angry Annemarie by the hand. She screamed and kicked the servant.

  "What's wrong?" The queen pulled her screaming daughter away from the servant.

  "She broke several vases. Wheried to stop her, she threw shards. No one is injured and the princess is unharmed. But three vases are broken."

  The queen sighed and lifted up her daughter, who was kig her legs wildly.

  "I expect a prio behave better! I am very disappointed, young dy."

  "Marlon is stupid! Everyone is stupid!", the little girl screamed frustrated.

  "You're stupid!", cried Marlon immediately, stig his to.

  "Marlon!", warhe king, while the servant hurried away to resume his work.

  "I think it's time for etiquette lessons. For both! They are old enough." The queen looked angrily at her husband. "We've waited long enough. I don't want rumors that the princess is a savage, and the prince equally naughty! And we need new nannies. I will have their current ones dismissed, as they are obviously not up to their duties."

  "I'm not naughty!" protested Marlon. "And I don't need efiquette... Lessons!"

  "Me her!" Annemarie nodded sulking. "No efifette!"

  "Etiquette", corrected the king.