Pearl — Kenton Kilgore

"To-Ho-Ne calls Mama 'Princess, '" Alijandra whispered. "If she's a princess, doesn't that make us princesses, too?" "We aren't princesses," Isabella whispered. "Princesses live in palaces, not...not here." "Here" is the unforgiving high desert in the Old West of an alternate Earth. Isabella-who is almost 13 years old-and her sister Alijandra-who is almost 8-scratch out a meager life with their parents. Their home is a shack deep in the lands of the Diheneh, the indigenous people, far from the family's former country of Ysparria. Isabella dimly remembers a better time, years before, when they were rich and respected because their father caught, tamed, and trained dragons for Ysparria's armies. But now their father is an outlaw who spends many weeks away from home on futile efforts at prospecting. Their mother, aided by the old native woman who raised her, struggles to grow food, earn money, and keep Isabella and Alijandra safe. Into their lives comes a small, wingless dragon from far away. Finding the dragon near death after a fight, the girls take it home and begin tending it back to health. Alijandra calls the dragon "Pearl," after its tiny white eyes. While Pearl heals, the family begins to learn where the dragon came from, as well as the strange and terrifying powers it possesses. As the family ponders what to do with Pearl, they learn that the hunt for the former dragontamer has intensified. At the same time, Pearl grows more and more compelled to complete the mysterious journey that brought her to these lonely lands.