Mia was a normal girl. She liked to read, she had waist-length honey-colored hair, and brown eyes. She was 14 years old and the daughter of 2 innkeepers in the kingdom of Aurum in the town of Oakley Hallow.

Right now, she was worried. Well, everybody was worried. The king had gone a fortnight ago to fight the magical creatures on the other side of Aurum. They were vile creatures that wanted all of Aurum for themselves.

She was walking home from school, lost in a book of classic fantasy when she suddenly looked up. It was not her usual view of her street. Huh, I must have taken a wrong turn, she thought. As she turned, something stopped her dead in her tracks…

“Wait, do not leave,” said a gravelly voice that could only be a dragon. I am dreaming, I am dreaming, she thought as she raced out of the cave. She decided not to tell her parents about the dragon. It would be hers and the dragon’s secret. The next day, she went back just to make sure she was not imagining the dragon. It was still there.

“Hello, there,” it said. “I know you’re scared.”

She raced out of the cave. Surprisingly, when she got safely out, she heard unmistakable laughter. The dragon was laughing, at what, she did not know. Still, the next day she went back and this time she stayed for the dragon. To finish its sentence. Slowly, over weeks of effort, she stayed  long enough for the dragon to tell her her name and gender. She was female and her name was Hydra, dragon of water! That explained hydra’s turquoise hue. Finally she actually said something after weeks of the dragon asking what her name was. 

  “Mia,” she peeped. She ran. In time, she and hydra could have a conversation. Hydra told her all about the Magical creatures or the MC, tuned out they were not vile?!!?? One day in autumn, Hydra asked her this, 

  “Can you keep a secret?” Nod. “Good, I want to show you something.” To her surprise, hydra lifted her tail to reveal dragonets. 

  “Their father, and my husband, died in the war.” 

   “I am so sorry.” 

  “It is okay.” The dragonets were adorable! Three girls, one boy. They rolled around playfully  biting each other! Mia came every day to play with Veicka, Reana, Elizabole, and Garrek! Hydra said it was good for them growing up knowing that humans were friends. Two weeks after the reveal of the dragonets, mia wondered,

 “I wonder if the king really is fighting on the MC side? From what you’ve told me, he is lazy and can’t even dress himself!”

“We can find out if you what.”  

“HOW!”

 “Dragons can turn invisible,” Hydra said as if it were a fact like the sky being blue. 

“THEN WHAT ARE WE WAITING FOR??!!!!?” she screeched. 

 “Please be quiet. You sound like a banshee and I did not know you wanted to go.” 

  “Sorry,” she said in a squeak. 

  “And now you sound like pixie! Hop on.”

  “Hop on where?” 

“My back.” 

 “Your back!” she said, eyes as big as dinner plates. 

 “Now!” Her voice was stern. She hopped on. Suddenly, Hydra disappeared! She looked down; she had disappeared! Flying was  AWESOME!!!!!!!!! It was exhilarating. Flying had a strange weightlessness! She could feel Hydra’s rough scales under her legs so she felt on the ground yet  was flying. It was indescribable; she also felt like she had left her stomach behind. When they got to the castle, they ran (more like flew) into a problem. There were guards everywhere. 

“Hydra!” 

“Say no more.”

They flew over them slowly. Hydra stopped next to the dining room for it was around supper time and kings were known for eating early. THE KING WAS HERE! He was talking to his Royal advisors. 

“We must turn the people’s minds so they believe that the magical creatures are vile and vicious creatures. Serves that evil fairy for cursing my wife for a mistake that her mother had made.” 

 “But sire, that would be to feed the people a lie.” 

   “I DO NOT CARE!” the king said in a voice that shook the floor. 

“Let’s go,” Mia whispered. “We have heard enough.” She and Hydra flew off. 

Back in her bed, she thought about what she had heard. So the king isn’t in the MC side of Aurum. A fairy supposedly cursed the late queen Beatrice. Wait a second, she thought, remembering something Hydra had said when she was teaching Mia about MC history. She had said the queen had a friendship with the fairy queen then Queen Beatrice had turned traitor and actually stabbed the fairy queen with iron, the one thing that could kill a fairy. The fairy, with her dying breath, cursed Beatrice’s only child, a girl named Aurora, to fall into a deep sleep. But a fairy’s magic came from their heart so the cursed could be broken by true love’s kiss! That was the curse that the king was talking about.

      We must stop the battle so that the king will be dethroned and Aurum will be at peace. With that last thought in her head, she drifted off to sleep.

       The next morning, she stopped in Hydra’s cave and she filled her in on the plan. During school, she kept an eye on the clock the whole time. She was even bored during library, her favorite time of the whole week! When school finally got out, she went out of school but instead of going to Hydra’s cave she like she usually did, she instead went back home and changed out of her school uniform into tan leather pants and a white blouse. She grabbed her bow and a sheath of arrows, most people didn’t know she liked to shoot. 

     She ran to Hydra’s cave and hopped on her back. They flew over to the MC side of Aurum onto the battlefield. It was horrible.

She took an arrow out of sheath, held it to Hydra’s fire breath, then shot it right into the middle of the battlefield. Everything froze. She landed right in next to the arrow she launched into a reprimand. 

 “Why do you fight? Yes, I know your history but that is no excuse. You are one kingdom that has been divided. Yes, I know that there has been murder and a curse. Still that is no excuse!” Mia reprimanded them. Surprisingly, everybody in the battlefield threw down their weapons and bowed! She thought she was going to have to make so big speech but that was enough. The soldiers of the human side, the captain of the guard, said,

 “Miss, we do not fight because we want to. It’s because the kin  has ordered us to.”

A fairy general said, “And we do not fight because we want to fight, it is to because we need to defend our home.”

“Well then let’s dethrone King.” The fairies did a little magic (they did some innocent brainwashing). Soon, the king was no more than a distant memory and a legend the grandparents told.

 Epilogue

Mia sat down at the main room of the inn. Her mom set a plate of bacon and corn cakes. She started shoveling them down. Turns out, saving a kingdom makes you hungry, she thought. Mia’s hair was in the same simple braid as last night though quite loose and the sides of her thighs were red from riding Hydra. She breathed a sigh of contentment, she was home. Mia’s mother, looking confused, handed her a letter with the royal crest. Mia read it quickly: 

        Dear Mia, 

I am the king’s distant cousin and only remaining relative. Please do not hold that against me. I want to fix the wrongs that my cousin did. If you would be ever so polite to come to the Palace at 3 o’clock this afternoon, it would be quite a pleasure to me, and your dragon friend, I believe Hydra was her name, may come with you.

                                Sincerely,

                            Winfred Lighton

At three o’clock, Mia made her way through the palace gates in a tea length, pearl colored dress and her hair done in a much more elaborate crown braid to meet newly crowned Queen Werferd.

The meeting was very long so I will only tell you the results, Mia got made junior advisor to the queen and Hydra, well, let’s just say she isn’t living in a cave anymore      

                          The End