Sigmund was a small dragon with scales the dusty blue of a late-summer blueberry.

He lived in the Sugar-Dust Kitchen, a copper-bottomed pantry that drifted through the clouds like a giant, whistling tea-kettle.

Every evening, Sigmund baked moonlight bread to feed the blinking stars that lived just outside his window.

But tonight, the dough sat in its wooden bowl as heavy and grey as a rain-cloud. In this kitchen, the ovens only warmed when they heard a happy secret, and the dough only rose when it was tickled by a giggle. Sigmund was trying to follow the 'Book of Serious Baking,' which said that dragons must be very stern to succeed, and now the stars were beginning to dim with hunger.