It was the day of the fashion competition and every creature in the land was gathering to come and watch.

Miabella peeked her head out from behind the curtain to see her friend, Raina, and her family sitting in the audience waiting for the show to start.

Even though she was one of the contestants, she wasn't even a bit nervous.

She turned to walk to her workspace backstage, passing her opponents and their models along the way.

There she saw them dressing vampires, elves, and other such creatures in their designs.

Miabella smiled to herself, remembering the reason she was so confident in winning.

The other designers turned to her and her model, as quiet whispers broke out.

She turned and arrived at her workstation to see a long, scaly, and winding body coiled patiently waiting for her.

While the other designers played it safe, choosing models that were easy to design for, Miabella did something that no one else was brave enough to do...

She would design clothes for a dragon!

"We're almost ready, with plenty of time to spare," said Miabella as she proudly looked over her design, adjusting here and there.

Miabella looked to her model, grinning from ear to ear. 

"How is it, ShenYong? We've totally got this in the bag!"

Shen Yong squirmed a bit in the seat with an uneasy smile, replying,

"Yea... It's very nice and all... It's just that--"

Miabella's smile froze when she heard that her model was not as excited as she was, and she urged, "Why? What's wrong?" The dragon rushed to clarify that it was a bit hard to move in, but they should be okay!

Despite the model's assurances, Miabella wasn't so confident anymore and she began looking over the design more critically.

While the outfit artistically stretched over the dragon's winding body, she noticed that it would pull and bound the model awkwardly and uncomfortably.

She had been so focused on the design's looks that she forgot about making it comfortable enough to move around in!

This could ruin her chances of winning!

Sitting on the seat nearby, Miabella looked over at the draining hourglass, in shock at this sudden change.

But as she watched the time pass, she saw just how much she had left herself and felt a spark of hope!

Miabella quickly spun over to the other side of the seat to face the desk before yanking over every scrap of paper, pencil already in hand. She could still fix this!

Miabella sketched out dragons in different poses and considered how to make her old design looser and more comfortable. Her pencil flew wildly as she drew long curves and lines.

In only a short time, Miabella had designed about ten new outfits. 'Great! Any of these would solve the problem!' she thought.

But as she looked over her sketches, she felt something was still wrong.

She looked at her model sitting next to her, still wearing the first outfit, then back down at her new designs. She had to take a second look before she even realized.

Her new ideas all fixed the tightness issue, but they were all boring! Her original was new and exciting even with its flaws, but these new designs were generic with nothing special to them!

While it was good enough that she was designing dragon fashions, if her designs themselves weren't great, it might not be enough to win. Well that wouldn't do for her!

Miabella came to win this competition, and that was what she'd do! She rested her chin on her hand and thought of how she could make it unique enough to secure the crown.

As more time passed by, Miabella scribbled out more ideas on her messy pile of papers, crumpling many up and starting over. Even after so much time she couldn't think of anything revolutionary enough.

Shen Yong fidgeted with their claws as they eyed the hourglass, a crumpled ball of paper occasionally rolling past them.  Miabella was becoming irritated as she held her head and huffed in frustration.

There was less and less time, yet as she glanced over to see the sand slip through the hourglass, she started to calm down. If she only got upset about it, she'd never win.

"Think," she told herself, "you're stuck so think about it from a different angle. Your problem is that the designs aren't unique enough, so how can you make it more 'Miabella'?"

Miabella thought back over all her experiences with fashion. Everything she had learned so far, right up to when she first started. Memories of designing her first clothes came back to her.

Back then, she would find random things around the house to make doll clothes with. Even if the items were strange, she still found a use for them. She still did this for fun, even though she was busy with competitions and fashion design.

"That sort of thing wouldn't work here," she laughed to herself. She paused for a moment.

"Wait... Why not?" she questioned, shooting straight up in her seat as thoughts raced in her head.

"There's nothing stopping me. It's a little unusual and no one's done it before... but that's exactly what makes it so special! It's unique!"

Her smile returned and she buried her face back in her papers, scribbling down new ideas quickly. ShenYong saw this sight and became less nervous because of her confidence.

Time was running out, but Miabella's ideas were spilling out faster than the sand could fall. With a loud tap, she slammed the pencil to the table and dropped it with a clatter.

Without a word, she gathered her papers and jumped up, inspired. She then ran off to search for something in the junk leftover backstage as Shen Yong watched curiously.

Glancing at the papers, Miabella rushed about, collecting some seemingly random items and tucking them under her arms as she searched.

Her model watched as she returned with bouncy steps and a bundle of objects in her arms, which she promptly set down with a thump.

Shen Yong gulped nervously as Miabella grinned excitedly at them while wielding scissors, sewing needles, and fabric in one hand; and gripping ribbons and the other contestants' discarded scraps in the other.