The Last Female Dragon.

My eyes shot open suddenly, a sense of dread pooling into my stomach. I sit up in bed and groan as I realize tomorrow is my seventeenth birthday.

Ma and I were supposed to go do something fun together.

My mom's idea of "fun" isn't usually anywhere close to fun though.

but she tries and it's just me and her ever since my father died, I was only four when it happened but to this day, I can't remember how he died. Ma just says he was sick but I find that hard to believe.. .

From what I remember my father was a very strong, muscular, healthy man, but all of my memories around him are foggy and clouded...

Raya, my best friend, is supposed to be coming over for the night to be here in the morning for my birthday and I'm wondering where the hell she is.

She's usually already here, early as hell, jumping all over my bed and yelling in my ear.

I decided to take a shower and get my mind out of the gutter. Ma is letting me skip school today and tomorrow. She only ever lets me do it when it's my birthday so, I'm going to try to make the best of it.

I haven't been feeling like myself lately. Like... something is missing in my life. I've always chalked it up to not having my father in my life but I don't know now. It feels different.

"Lily, breakfast is ready and Raya is here!" Ma yelled up the stairs, breaking me out of the haze I was falling into.

"Okay, mother!" I yelled back at her.

I quickly have my shower and brush my hair while looking in the mirror.

I see myself: light brown hair, bright blue eyes, perfectly shaped eyebrows with a sharp jawline and small face.

Raya always tells me how jealous she is that I'm so beautiful but I don't really see it. All I see is the same thing everyday and all I think is I'm a freak.

Someone unreganizable.

Pushing my negative thoughts aside, I look through my closet for something to wear and come up with some black jeans and a dark blue, short sleeve crop top, one of my usual outfits.

Jogging down the stairs I see Raya and my Ma talking and eating breakfast. I quickly sat down beside my Ma. Not thinking about Raya's late arrival and her sitting down here, not coming to talk with me.

"Hey Ma, thanks for breakfast," I said and gave her a quick kiss on her cheek.

"You are very welcome, lovely," Ma said with a warm smile, making me smile in return, "You guys have a big day planned tomorrow !"

I looked at Raya with an eyebrow raised because, who planned a big day? Hopefully not Ma I think to myself while laughing silently.

Knowing whatever she planned may not be fun but it comes from her heart. She does truly love me.

Suddenly, my phone beeps with a notification.

Making me look down at my phone.

"I need to run to the bathroom quick guys I'll be right back," I quickly mumbled and ran to the bathroom.

I pulled my phone out and read a message from an unknown number saying, "I know what you are."

What the fuck, what am I? I'm human. What is this person even talking about?

Whatever, I can't even with nonsense today. I have way more important things to worry about than a random number messaging me.

I started making my way back out to the kitchen when I heard Ma and Raya whispering something...

"You know she can't find out! Tomorrow, while you guys are out, Magnus will be using his powers to keep her dragon hidden.. he says she keeps getting stronger each year and eventually he won't be able to keep her contained," Ma whispered harshly, "I need to find a stronger warlock! Her father can never find her Raya , do you understand!! You can not let her know what she is and how important she is.. she just can't know.. I'm just trying to protect her the only way I know how.."

"Yes, Athena. I understand that's why I'm here and I'll make sure we get to Magnus at some point tomorrow and I won't allow her to know anything, everything will work out just fine, don't worry" as Raya finished her sentence I made it known I was coming.

I won't let them know I heard them.. yet.

"So what's this "big day" you have planned out Ma" I asked flatly. I'm fucking pissed that they are keeping something so serious from me.

...'she can't know what she is, her dragon keeps getting stronger every year' ... Like, dragon?! What the fuck is she talking about 'dragon'?!

"I planned out all kinds of stuff for you guys to do tomorrow! First in the morning you guys will have breakfast at the diner on moonlight ave, then you'll go to the mall and get some early shopping and of course, I'll give you my credit card so you aren't spending any of your own money on your birthday!" She gushed, totally oblivious that I was eavesdropping on them, acting as if nothing is wrong in the world, "After I have bowling scheduled and a hike up camel's mountain!!" She finished enthusiastically.

I look towards Raya and she has a faraway look on her face like she'd rather be anywhere else right now and it's the first time I've noticed and I wonder how many other times she's looked like that before...

Before I could dwell any longer, she suddenly said, "Awesome! We'll have loads of fun Athena, don't you worry!" She winked at my Ma not noticing I was watching her from the corner of my eye.

How was I so stupid not to notice these little things?

Something weird is going on around here and I'm gonna find out exactly what it is.

After chatting with Ma and Raya for a bit longer, Raya says she needs to go home and Ma has to go to work. I say goodbye to the both of them , go upstairs and into Ma's room to try and find some stuff out.

"Where would my mother hide stuff in here?" I think to myself.

I start opening drawers and moving stuff around trying to find something, anything! I go into her closet next and start moving stuff around. I notice a board loose and pull it. The floor starts moving and startles me causing me to jump back and let out a little scream. I crawl back towards it and notice there's stairs going down. What the hell! I think, "Why would Ma be hiding this?"

I decide to go down and see for myself what this is about. As I'm going down I notice the horrifying darkness tunneling down the stairs, the walls are lined with light torches so I grab one and head down the spiral, the torch makes it so much easier to see. I walk down the stairs until I finally reach the bottom. It's so hard to breathe down there with all of the dust and no windows. I walk towards the other end of the room and see a Sapphire coloured necklace locked in a glass container, I try to open it but it won't open. I keep trying and it's just not gonna budge.

I see something heavy and round looking and go towards it, I pick it up and it seems to be some kind of rock.I finally get it high enough off of the ground that I can try to drop it on the glass container and see if it'll break, as I drop it on the container, it shatters and glass flies everywhere. Some even hit me in a few places.

"Ow, fuck sakes! What a joke, what am I even doing down here!" I scream at myself.

I try and pull the glass pieces out before slowly walking towards the Sapphire necklace on the ground. As I get closer it seems to glow brighter with every step I take.

Finally, I bend down to pick it up and when I do I gasp as I'm thrown backwards. I hit a wall hard. I start hyperventilating as my body feels foreign, like it's not my own. My brain feels like it's going through a vice and hurts so bad I think I'm gonna pass out... Before it gets too bad, I hear a voice in my head.

"Hello"

'Hello?...' I say back in my head thinking I'm fucking crazy for talking to myself.

"You are not crazy and you're not talking to yourself Lily,,"it says again. Sounding so majestic and lovely..

"I am your dragon Lily.Lily I have been able to break through the warlocks for-trace with our talisman from our grandmother.. she was a witch and our grandpa was a dragon.. we are part witch and that's why we were able to break through that pesky warlock's hold on me.. if it wasn't for him, I'd have been with you since you turned 10 years old! I've been trapped in the darkest place of your mind, all alone, for what feels like forever and you don't know how happy I am to finally be with you Lily" My dragon tells me.

"You are telling me.. I'm a dragon?" I ask uncertainly

"Yes Lily, we are the last female dragon.. my name is Sapphire and together we will be unstoppable.. but Lily, I am going to need to shift and to do that we need a huge area like a really wide open cave where nobody will see us.. nobody can see us do you understand?"Sapphire asks me.

"Yes I understand but what does this even mean?? Why did our mother want to keep this away from us??" I ask with desperation in my tone.

'Lily, your mother is a witch but not like us. She is not very strong either. Our father was one of the strongest dragon shifters .His father and mother were the witch and dragon. Our mother's parents are a witch and warlock. So you see we should have been a witch., So, technically, I shouldn't have existed, but here I am and we are the last female dragon. We are very important, Lily, In fact, if any dragon shifter found us they would take, lock us up and breed us until we have more female dragons and that would be our life.' Sapphire explains.

'So you are saying.. dragons..warlocks and witches.. are real? I mean why am I even asking when I am literally talking to you in my head..'

' Lily, we must hurry. I don't have that much time to shift. If I don't do it as soon as possible, I might not ever be able to since I have been confined in your mind for almost 7 years,' she says urgently.

I finally pick myself up off of the floor and can already feel stronger and see without the torch

'Woah, this is weird'

'Yes, Lily, you will get used to it. Your senses are heightened with me and you will be even stronger' Sapphire says proudly.

I walk up the stairs and when I get to the top and put everything back the way it was . Obviously if Ma goes down there she'll see the broken container and the necklace gone but for now I am not saying anything to her. I cannot believe her. I feel so betrayed by the one person I love the most. How could she think of keeping something like this from me? Was she protecting me? I know I'm still young but from what Sapphire said I would've transformed at 10 and I wouldn't be confused.

I start making my way to my room with so many questions going through my head. I just don't understand anything! A dragon?! A witch?! What else is there out there...

'Well Lily, your "friend" is definitely a werewolf, I can smell it in the air... that's the only other smell though other then Ma and us' Sapphire speaks to me in my mind. Which I think is still so fucked up.

'Okay, so you are telling me that Raya is a werewolf, Ma is a witch.We are part witch and dragon, my dad was a dragon and we need to grab everything we need and find a cave or you will what? Explode out of me? Or I will just never be able to shift? That's crazy. But I mean here I am talking to a voice in my head..'

'It's okay to be confused Lily, the moon goddess told me you'd be this way, confused and scared. Not knowing the truth can be scary and it's okay, I am here now' Sapphire says in a cooly voice, calming me down.

I start shoving things I might need into a bag, phone, extra clothes ,because from what I've read when you shift your clothes tear. Some snacks and water cause you never know if you are gonna be starving after or something.

After I grab everything I think I'll need I make my way out of the house, towards the woods and jog as fast as I can. I'm walking around for a while before I see a cave just up ahead. I keep walking towards it. As I get closer, I hear something and Sapphire strains her ears to listen.

"Danny wants them captured alive, he hasn't seen them in 12 years and was told they were dead. He never stopped looking for them. He is basically going insane, man. We can't go home until we find them or we will be skinned alive!" Dude #1 yells at dude #2, and #3.

"Yeah well this was a death wish going on this mission!!" Dude #2 yells back.

"Guys, we have no choice, we either do this or die when we go home, and if we run.. he'll find us" dude#3 says. Unable to handle the truth of what awaits them, he starts walking away from the other guys.

'Sapphire, what are these guys?' I ask my dragon, uncertain of their different scents.

'That's a delta dragon, gamma dragon and warrior dragon. That gamma dragon is the highest ranking one, deltas are like healers and warriors are obviously warriors haha' my cheeky dragon.

'Okay, well, they are walking the other way. So let's just wait a bit and they should be far enough so that we can do this.

Lily's pov.

We started walking into the cave where Sapphire said it was fine and safe. As we're walking I notice that I can see perfectly in the dark, maybe even more clearly than when we were down in my Ma's secret basement.

I blink my eyes, wondering if I'm imagining things.

'How is that even possible?' I think to myself, feeling nervous and confused.

'Remember, Lily, I can hear your thoughts ,' Sapphire laughs again, 'It is very possible, we are the strongest and the most special dragon after all.'

"Right," I mutter out loud, unsure if I'll ever get used to this.

As I'm walking, Sapphire tells me how much she wishes she had been with me all this time and how different our lives could've been with each other instead of without each other.

I think about it and wonder what it would've been like...

Growing up with my dragon...

Knowing about the world I came from.

Knowing the man who helped bring me into this world.

'There's one more thing I should explain to you Lily.. we will have a fated mate,' Sapphire says suddenly in my mind, making me feel even more confused at all the secrets kept from me my whole life.

'A fated.. mate?' I ask slowly. What's that supposed to even mean?

'Yes Lily, a fated mate, our soulmate. We will know the moment we smell them, their scent will entice us and we will want nothing more than to go and be with them. Being with them makes us feel complete. The feeling is wonderful and having a mate is what we live for. Some people never meet their fated mate but we have one. I know we do.' Sapphire whispers, sounding so sure of herself.

We keep going until she tells me the spot we've reached is good enough.

Wide open cave, you couldn't even tell how tall it was... it seemed to go on forever.

'Okay, Lily... this is gonna be pretty painful and brutal if I'm being honest with you. We should have shifted on your tenth birthday and it's almost your seventeenth. This isn't normal so it's gonna be painful at first. Just listen to me and I'm gonna guide you through this the best I can. Start by sitting on the ground and breathing.' she explains, sounding so concerned, It does not help my nerves at all.

'Okay Sapphire, I am sitting on the ground, taking deep breaths, now what?' I question the dragon in my head. Before I can say anything else I feel my mind and body begin changing.. my body becomes larger and foreign like it isn't my own. A guttural scream escapes my mouth as my body morphs and changes into that of my dragon.

"SAPPHIRE IT HURTS SO BAD," I scream out loud, excruciating pain tearing through my body as it tries to take a completely different form.

'Lily, shhh, calm down, it's okay. Just breathe it'll all be over soon.' Sapphire tries to soothe me, but all I can focus on is the pain. The unbearable pain tore through my entire body. Making my eyes water as I listened to my bones cracking.

I continue to breathe and I close my eyes tightly, trying to distract myself from the pain.

Not knowing what else to do...

What feels like forever passes and when the pain is gone, I open my eyes...

Everything is looking so much brighter and sharper. I also notice that I am definitely not 5 '6 anymore. I have to be like twenty five feet tall!

My head almost touches the top of the cave.

I try to walk and start falling instead. Not knowing how to move in this new form.

'Here,' Sapphire offers, 'let me take over for a little, while you adjust, Lily.'

I let her come forward and take control.

Like sitting in the back of your own mind as you watch someone else control your body...

She starts walking and stretching her wings out.

It must feel free.

She's looking at her tail and wings and all I can think is, wow. Beautiful Sapphire with the colour purple everywhere. She's got to be the most beautiful dragon ever. Her shiny scales and massive wings, sharp ass teeth and a beautiful face.

'Want to see something cool?' Sapphire asks me in my head.

'Of course I do' I reply, feeling the excitement bloom in my belly as I watch my body moving without my control.

Instantly I hear her give off the most powerful roar, that makes the cave shake! She starts blowing out flames and then all of a sudden she's blowing out ice!

'Woah!' I say absolutely flabbergasted, 'that's crazy, can you do that all of the time?

'That's not all! And the ice not so much, sometimes it hurts my throat... but watch...'' Sapphire muses before blowing out this purple mist.

'What is that?'

'It's magic, Lily, our magic. You'll learn how to use it and when to use it soon. We should head back home now' Sapphire whispers in the back of my mind.

'But how do we become human again!?' I basically cry out, feeling every nerve on edge at the thought of it.

I have no idea how we even shifted into our dragon form let alone how to turn back to human.

'Think of yourself as human, imagine it. Feel it,' she answers before giving me control and pushing herself back into the darkest parts of my mind.

I imagine being human and feel my body change. Once I look down I'm human again, but my clothes are in pieces. I wear the extra clothes I carried with me from home. Eventually, we started walking back home, finally having made our way out of the cave.

'When can we do that again?' I asked Sapphire with a smile I couldn't wipe off of my face, feeling free, feeling like that piece I thought was missing had found me.

'Soon, my Lily, soon' is all she says before she goes to the back of my mind.