"Zuzy Esterbree Bumpbump, what have you done now?" Mrs. Bumpbump's shrill voice echoed through the small four-room shack that was stuffed into the rows of downtrodden houses lining Ramshackle Road. "When I find you..." The threat trailed off, only to be replaced by banging and nonsensical curse words that made the neighbors cringe as the ever-flowing stream assaulted their gently pointed ears.
Zuzy herself was already down the street, far out of earshot, but her brother Flinch--younger by two years but no less inclined to cause trouble when trouble was due--dangled nimbly from the rooftop with his long fingers clinging to the drainpipe. He watched with a toothy grin through the open window as his mother pulled a pair of metal cutters from a drawer and proceeded to tear apart the dragon Zuzy had created out of the majority of their eating utensils using her father's welding tools and just a little bit of magic. When the irate woman snipped a soup spoon in two, the beast's head plummeted to the counter and proceeded to roll off onto the floor. It bounced once as both onlookers watched in horror, then its front teeth, made from the bent tines of a fork, promptly clamped down on Mrs. Bumpbump's big toe. She squealed and wailed and kicked. The beast released its grip on her throbbing appendage and went sailing across the kitchen to slam into the wall. It fell to the floor and lay there, snorting and huffing invisible smoke as it glared feebly at its attacker.
Flinch could no longer stifle his giggles and his tittering laugh twinkled through the window to torment his mother's ears.
"Flinch!" She spun around and glared at her youngest child with eyes the color of molten lava. "You're gonna get it, you little scamp! Just you wait. I know you helped her with this. Don't you dare try to deny it."
The young pixie pulled himself back up just in time to avoid the flying metal cutters that soared through the window at top speed. With a whoop and a holler, he bounded off across the rooftops toward his sister's favorite hideout.
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