I hurled myself over the roadblock. I glanced to my side and saw my competitor, Rin, racing ahead of me. I knew that my friend Emerald was right on my heels. I pumped my burning legs as fast as they could go. Spotting the finish line, I did the first thing that came to mind. I dove. I skidded across the turf for at least ten feet before coming to a stop.

  I sat up and looked at my director hopefully but she shook her head. I was second. I felt like crying. I had been practicing for this since I was seven! I flopped onto my back. Emerald stood over me, her blonde hair shone even after running a mile.

  She reached out a hand and pulled me up. I slapped her shoulder encouragingly. “Good try!” I told her. She shrugged.

  “Thanks.” She never really understood why it was so important to me and Rin whether we won or not. I wasn’t even sure.

  We went inside our facility to change. Just before we went inside, our director pulled Rin aside. I looked on enviously. Rin always got special attention from her.

  Rin never came into our dorm.

  I raced into the cafeteria. She wasn’t there! I looked for our director, but I couldn't find her either! I thought about the restricted room. It had a huge gray door that was at least 10 times my height and ten times my width. It was the biggest room in the facility, but we could never go in. Sometimes, when everyone was sleeping, I would go over and put my ear to the door. One time, I heard what sounded like a garage door opening, but that was crazy.

  I knocked gently on the huge iron-clad door. I put my ear to the door and I heard Rin talking! Right then I felt like breaking down the door and stomping in. But I took a deep breath and knocked again, harder this time. Still no response.

  The huge, heavy door swung open and a teary Rin raced out. Her brown hair streaked with purple was flying behind her. I was stunned. Rin was crying? She never cried! Our director walked out. She didn’t look like she had a scrap of pity for Rin. Half her head was shaved and on the other side her silver hair ended just below her ear. Her eyes widened in surprise when she saw me, but she quickly relaxed.

  “Come with me, Aurora. I have something remarkable to show you.” She said, and reached out a hand. I stared at the slender fingers. I realized she wanted me to hold her hand. I just gave her a hand shake. She raised her eyebrows, but walked into the room and I followed her. Inside was a lush landscape complete with trees and a mossy ground.

  “Why is there just foliage in here?” I said, confused. “Isn’t this supposed to be ‘remarkable’?”

  The director rolled her eyes. “Look closer.” I peered around, using my hand as shade mockingly. My director huffed. “Be serious.” I looked around. At first, I only saw plants. But then, I saw movement. It was a black shape darting from side to side, only a blur.

  I looked to where it landed last and saw something light blue in there. I was confused. Not many animals were blue. Or was it not an animal? A machine, perhaps? But why would there be a machine here?

  Then it landed in front of me. It was tall, taller than me by at least 15 feet. As I had seen earlier, it was light blue but in its stomach and chest area there was some sort of gray plating. It had long, slender wings that looked like bat wings. Was this? No. It couldn’t be. Not a dragon. Those were fairy tales, things I had given up four years ago. It seemed to radiate ice, it had jagged horns like shards of ice, even the air around it seemed to get colder with it around. No, not it, she.

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  My director flashed me a smug smile. “Not just plants here, huh?” I nodded sheepishly.

  One thing was bothering me. “Why did Rin run out crying? Did this attack her or something?”

  The director seemed thrown off. “No, nothing like that. The thing is, this is a dragon. Me and some others were tasked with helping it grow safely. We thought that maybe, once the dragon was old enough, that kids could be good for it.” She swallowed nervously. “We then found out that dragons bond to kids- A nearby facility with the same task found that out. So we got some seven year olds and-”

  I cut her off. “You thought that we could bond to this dragon!” She nodded. I shook my head. “Wow. So what happens when we ‘bond to a dragon?’”

  My director shrugged. “The facility got shut down too quickly for any real research to be done.” I groaned.

  “So when we bond to a dragon, that could mean they’re actually marking us for food but are waiting until we grow older to eat us?”

  She looked startled. “Well, I guess maybe. But it doesn’t seem very likely.”

  I raised an eyebrow. “Wouldn’t that be, you know, child endangerment?”

  “It’s completely legal. The government can’t touch us.” She said confidently, but it seemed like she was choosing her words very carefully. Suspicious.

  The dragon nudged me randomly. I jumped back a pace. She started to sniff me, then licked me right on the ear! I wiped the slobber out of my eardrums and glared at the dragon. I wiped it one last time with my shoulder and felt something somewhat like an earring? I never got my ears pierced- we didn’t do that at the facility. It didn’t feel exactly like Emerald’s, it felt like a clip on earring but not on my earlobe, it was just above that.

  The dragon leaped into the air, blowing dirt into my face. She started roaring like crazy and I backed up a few steps. In doing so, I became next to my director and she spotted the weird clip–on earring.

  Then she started squealing like crazy, though you couldn’t hear it over the dragon. I covered my ears and again felt the weird earring. I took it off. It looked almost identical to the dragon’s horns. The dragon landed, whimpering. She nudged the hand that had the earring and looked at me sadly. I put the earring back on and she seemed to perk up. I took it off. She glared at me accusingly.

  Now should probably be a good time to note that I had no clue how I managed to know the dragon’s feelings. I just knew ’em.

  Anyways, I put it back on and she stared at me suspiciously before lying down. Even when lying down, her head came up to my chest. The director had stopped squealing during our exchange and was watching us curiously. I could feel her gaze watching me.

  I kneeled down and could hear a faint voice in my head yelling DANGER! DANGER! STOP! SHE’S GOING TO EAT YOU! But I ignored it.

  I knew what I had to do, deep down, and I really, really, hated it. I leaned over to the left side of the dragon's head and I licked her ear. I really, really, hoped I was right and that she wasn’t about to eat me. I pictured all the ways she could do it. First, she would cut my head off and toss it aside. Nothing to eat there but my skull. Then, she would slice me open with a claw and… yeah, I’m not gonna finish that thought.

  The dragon didn’t eat me, luckily. She just turned her head to look at me.

  Wow, humans have no slobber. The thought intruded my brain in a childish voice. It sounded like they were four or five and a girl. But that was silly! I did not sound like I was four.

  Are you sure? That same voice said.

  Yeah! I thought.

  Entirely sure? I gave up. Oh, alright. Fine. I am the dragon staring at you right now. And I can hear your every thought. :) I swear, I have no idea how she managed to add a smiley face to her thought.

  I turned to my director. “Am I supposed to hear her talking to me? Is she talking to you?” I asked.

  She beamed at me. Even more than she already was, I mean. “Yeah, you are. And no, she isn’t talking to me.”

  “But why is she talking to me?”

  The director’s smile was so wide, I think her pearly whites almost blinded me. “You bonded to her.”