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Chapter Two
    A few months later, Jillia and her siblings had reached adolescence. Two had already been eaten by dragons. Another had been killed in a digging accident. And Jillia had had enough.

    She went out to look for worms with her brother, Matte. Jillia had already been banned from helping with construction projects (after she had destroyed most of the eastern tunnels) and Matte was the runt, and not strong enough to do much. He was much smaller and paler than the others. Jillia felt responsible for him, since they were both the outcasts of the litter.

    "Man, Matte, I am so sick of this place. I wanna go somewhere else. Anywhere else!" Jillia groaned as she dug her claws into the soft soil above her, searching for the wiggly shapes she knew were hidden deep inside and throwing them down to her brother.

    Matte blinked in surprise. "But Jillia...where would you go? The dragons would kill you! Remember what happened to-"

    "I know, Matte! Don't remind me." Jillia said bitterly, yanking her paw out of the soil.

    "Uh, Jillia..." cautioned Matte.

    Jillia ignored him. She didn't notice the bits of earth falling around her. "I hate dragons! I wish I could give 'em a piece of my mind! Yeah! Teach 'em a lesson!" she said, rearing up on her hind legs and making punching motions in the air.

    Matte gaped at her and started to say something before Erintrude, their sister, approached them.

    "Jillia, Mom says you should-"

    Erintrude was cut off by the entire tunnel ceiling collapsing on top of her. Jillia had leaped away just in time, leaving her sister covering in rubble.

    Matte and Jillia looked at eachother worriedly before Erintrude's head popped out of the pile.

    "Mom!" Erintrude called angrily. She was already coming, along with some others, since the noise had attracted their attention.

    "What happened?" their mother asked.

    Erintrude took it upon herself to answer. "Jillia ruined another tunnel!" she said, brushing herself off.

"I hope you're happy!" Jillia's mother snapped, "Now we have to waste time cleaning this up and rebuilding it! If we all get eaten by dragons tonight, it's all your fault!"

    Jillia shrank away. "I can do it! I'll make it even stronger than before!" she protested.

"I think you've done enough." said her mother as they went to work. Jillia walked away sadly.

"Nice going. Now you've gone and made Mom angry again." Erintrude remarked angrily.

Matte tried to comfort her. "I-It wasn't that bad, Jillia..."

But Jillia didn't hear either of them. In her head, she was formulating a plan that would change her life. "I'm leaving." she said suddenly.

"What?!" said Matte and Erintrude simultaneously.

"I'm gonna go and I'm going to beat up those dragons and get back all our old territory!" Jillia proclaimed.

Erintrude and Matte were in shock for several seconds. Erintrude was the first to speak.

"That may be the stupidest idea you've ever had!" she said.

"There is just no pleasing you, is there?" Jillia growled at her rosey-colored sister, "Everything is always 'the stupidest thing'!"

"That's because you're always so stupid!" Erintrude snapped, "You're always destroying everything, maybe it's better if you do leave!"

"Fine, I will!" Jillia said, turning away. Matte came up to join her.

"But Jillia...I'll miss you." he said, "What if you don't come back?"

"I'll miss you too, Matte, but...for some reason, I just know I have to do this." she said, hesitating before speaking again, "And I'll come back. I promise."

Before anything else could be said, Jillia ran outside. As she cooled down, she started to second guess her decision. Maybe she should go back.

Jillia shook her head. No. It was too late now. She bounded through the meadow grasses, off into the unknown.