I wrinkled my nose. “Why did I get him?” I asked, disgusted.

  My best friend, Sawyer, laughed in my face. “You don’t choose your dragon, dude. Your dragon chooses you.” It was a phrase I had heard hundreds of times in the past six years. I was the best in the class and what did I get in return? A pitiful dragon, that’s what. He was small for a dragon, barely taller than me. He had white scales and only one horn. One horn! Everyone knew that proper dragons had two horns.

  I turned my right ear to Sawyer. “What does it look like?” I asked nervously. I hoped it wouldn’t be something dumb like a cloud or something.

  “I don’t know. It’s like, round and gray and there’s some darker spots, and ooh! I think I see a man in there.”

  I scoffed. “It’s called a moon, Sawyer. It’s the newest thing - four and a half billion years ago!”

  He laughed, not taking the bait. “Really? It’s too bad I’m only five billion years old.” I was about to respond, but someone interrupted.

  “Sawyer!” A strict voice said. It was the director. He was always complaining about something or other, especially when talking about Sawyer. He was walking across the room in big strides. You could almost feel his anger. Sawyer turned around nervously.

  “Looks like he found out I don’t have a dragon.” He whispered to me. I think he was trying to sound lighthearted, but I could tell he was really nervous.

  “Why did you pour rotten milk all over my slurpee?” The director said mournfully. “I only get those once a year!”

  “Really?” Sawyer looked stricken. He probably was actually surprised.

  “No, I’m making it up. Of course!” The director snapped. He had reached us by then and was pointing a wrinkled finger in Sawyer’s face.

  “I-I’m sorry sir. Is there anything I can do to make it up to you?” Sawyer said. He always played kiss-up after a prank went wrong. I could tell he was really worried.

  Our director’s face softened into a relaxed smile and lowered his hand. “Yes, of course! You can clean the kitchen every day for the next month!” He walked away, a satisfied smirk on his face.

  Sawyer crumpled to the floor and I put a hand on his shoulder. He didn’t care one bit about cleaning the kitchen. In fact, he was good friends with the chefs. No, he was worried that he didn’t have a dragon.

  “Come on.” I said. “Let’s go.”

  He whined. “But why? I don’t want to see another human being’s face, Storm. Besides yours.” He added quickly.

  I grabbed his arm and hauled him up off the floor. “Come on, dude.” I took him to the place where every dragon lived for now, my pitiful white dragon following me. It was a big open field and I felt the heat of the outdoors and the sun bearing down on me from the blue sky. It was surrounded by a white wooden fence that went up really high. You couldn’t see through the fence and I suspected they were really bars, keeping us in.

  Many dragons roamed around. Red ones, blue ones, green ones, even a furry white one. The furry white one was so much better than mine.

  Sawyer huffed. “I don’t want to see another dragon for the rest of my life.” The future seemed to haunt his normally cheerful features. The directors had only talked about we bonded with a dragon, not .

  I ran towards the far corner. Believe me, that’s not an easy thing to do when dragging your friend. I had been trying to dig a hole out of here for a while, but never got very deep. I had to be really careful because I didn’t want the directors getting suspicious when I had muddy hands. Maybe having a dragon would help.

  I thought. I had heard about other people being able to communicate telepathically with dragons but had never done it myself.

  Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  A mature man’s voice sounded in my head. I knew it wasn’t me saying it, so I deducted it was my dragon speaking.

  The dragon, Willows, didn’t seem thrilled about getting his white scales dirty, but started digging once I did. “What are you doing?” Sawyer asked.

  “Digging out of here.” I responded. “I want to see the outside world.” As much as I hated to admit it, the truth was, I’d never been outside my facility. Besides the Dragon Field, all my life was indoors, all the time.

  Once we dug a hole deep enough, I started digging forward. My jeans were covered in a layer of mud and dirt up to the waist, and my hands were caked in it. Willows was digging much faster than I was. I guess dragon hands were better than human hands. Or would it be paws? I wasn’t sure.

  After about twenty minutes of digging, me and Willows had dug a path out. When we broke the surface, I was blinded by how bright it was. When I stood up and peered out- For as far as the (human) eye could see, there was red rock. Craters and cliffs dotted the expanse.

  Sawyer punched my leg because I was standing there, and I hauled myself out of the pit. Sawyer pointed upwards and I followed his finger. That was not the sky I knew. It was supposed to be a blue sky, with white clouds. This sky was bright purple and had dark purple clouds covering most of the sky.

  Was this even Earth? I mean, Earth had dragons, didn’t it? I remembered all those weird stories I’d read about how people were shocked dragons existed… What if this wasn’t Earth? What if it was something else entirely? I gulped.

  Willows said. I scoffed.

  “How would you know that?” I asked snarkily. Sawyer gave me a weird look and I jabbed a thumb in Willows’s direction.

  “There’s a planet four hundred light years away from Earth?” I said.

  Willows said haughtily.

  “Well, this has been a really interesting conversation,” Sawyer interjected, “but I kind of want to explore.”

  He started jogging in a random direction and I followed. Willows easily kept pace with us. After five minutes, I was panting and sweating. I almost thought, , but that wasn’t true. We weren’t in California; that’s just what our director led us to believe.

  I tapped Sawyer’s shoulder but he was going strong. He turned to me. “What’s up?” He said really casually for someone running.

  “Can we- take- a-” I managed over closing air pipes.

  “Break? Sure!” Sawyer dug in his heels and came to a stop immediately. My stop was a little less graceful. Okay, fine. I practically face planted trying to dodge around Sawyer. He stuck out his tongue at me, and I stuck mine right back at him.

  Willows kept running. I looked at the direction he was going and saw he was heading towards a boring metal building. “Willows, stop!” I didn’t want to head home again! We weren’t even that far! I started chasing her, even though I was still tired. Turning my head to check if Sawyer was following me, I saw another boring metal building. That was impossible! We were the only ones within 10 miles! At least, that’s what Director said. Then again, they had said we were on Earth.

  I’m pretty sure Willows hates me. He is doing practically the polar opposite of what I’m saying. I need a way to get to his heart. I kept chasing after him, even when I could scarcely breathe. We finally reached the metal building and Willows stopped so suddenly I almost scraped my face on his scales.

  Willows told me like it was the most obvious thing in the world. I looked to Sawyer, but I didn’t see him. I turned slowly in a circle and saw Sawyer still waiting where we stood before, a strange look on his face. I gestured for him to come here, but it didn’t seem like he saw me. I was still panting like a dog. I didn’t feel like running all the way back to Sawyer, but I didn’t feel like knocking on this strange door.

  Willows made the decision for me and slammed his foot into the door. I glared at him but stood in front of the door because it would seem weird if a dragon was knocking on the door.

  A minute later a woman with silver hair answered the door. The second she saw me, her eyes widened in horror, then she picked up her phone, and slammed the door in my face. I heard a weird choking noise behind me and I turned, alarmed. Willows was rolling on the floor. Was he at me? I glared at him.

  I regained my breath (and composure) enough to run back towards Sawyer to see if he was okay. Just as I was about to start, I heard the door open.

  “Hello?” I heard someone, a girl, say. I turned and saw someone with curly blonde hair that cascaded like a waterfall. I heard a strangled gasp come from her as she saw Willows. At least, that’s what I hoped.

  “Oh, that’s my dragon, Willows.” I told her casually. He broadcast very loudly into my brain. I winced. “Sorry.” I said.

  “No, it’s okay. Its just that I’ve never seen a dragon before.” She said, her voice high pitched. “I’m Emerald.”

  “No, I was talking to him.” She gave me a polite smile, but I could tell she was confused. “I’m Storm.” I added.

  “Well, you want to come in?” She said. “I mean, I don’t know how Willows would fit, but we’ll work something out.” She said.

  “Sure.” I said and walked inside.