It had been a long and strenuous battle, but our forces had prevailed. Those stupid dirty socks had no chance against our fire breathing front line. Even though we dragons were the underdogs in stats, we still managed to win back our kingdom. And I even got to be with the man I loved, but I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s start at the beginning of my story.

“Mooooom! I don’t want to go to this new scchhooooll, none of the kids will like me and I won’t make any new frreeeiiindss”, said Ashley. Our family had just lost our house due to us being in a financial jam, and had moved to Lake Stevens, Washington. The new apartment was a definite downgrade from our last home. The rooms were cramped and the walls were painted a putrid green, but it would have to work. My mom and I had come to accept that we would have to start liking Lake Stevens sooner or later, but my sister had a peculiar feeling about the town. She had been having weird dreams about a war, and the scenery near our new home was similar to the backdrop in her dreams.
“Ashley, stop complaining. Making some new friends today will change your whole perspective of this place”, I said.
With a tone in her voice she replied, “No, no it won’t change my perspective of this horrible, hatred filled place; there will soon be a war!” After that comment, I just shook my head and walked away. She was starting to p*ss me off and I had to leave before it got ugly.

The bus ride was awkward because none of the other dragons knew us. As Ashley sat in the front seat and got acquainted with the bus driver, I got to know our new neighbor. She was Ashley’s age (nine years old) and seemed to have good knowledge on what was going on in this little town. As I got to know her better, the racist comments towards the dirty sock civilization nearby caught my attention. All I could think was, “what a horrible person”. I couldn’t believe how intolerant she was towards them. I had to get to the bottom of this mystery; what was wrong? What was so bad about them?

Once we got to school, I had found out that we only had one class everyday. It was a training class. I asked just about every teacher, or instructor, or whatever they were about why we needed a training class and their only reply was, “to be ready. My dear child, you need to go start practicing”. Then they’d send me on my way. I had no idea what was in store for me, but I started to wonder if my sister had been right.

Just at that exact moment of time, I saw the most gorgeous man ever. He was a babe, and I felt as if he was familiar in some way. He was perfect, a brunette with hazel eyes and an infectious smile, but WAIT. Another girl was flirting with him. Automatically I had forgotten all about my questioning this town and became engulfed in curiosity. Walking over to be in earshot of their conversation, I listened closely to see if I could find out if they were an item.

The girl had been asking if he’d be her partner in the training courses, and I was going to die if he said yes. In the nicest way imaginable, he rejected her and I had to demonstrate a serious, conscious effort as to not bust into the victory dance right then and there. Making a fool of myself wasn’t going to help anybody.

Miserably, she asked why, and he replied with a simple response that he already had a partner. My heart was torn into two pieces, my recent cheerful perkiness had just died in a hole, and I believe that the other girl felt the same way.

Calmly, she asked who the lucky girl had been, and, as I was just about to leave in utter disappointment, he walked over, and, putting his arm around me, he told her, in a melodically tuned, medium pitched voice, “my partner is the new girl”.

I never thought it would be possible for me to make a mortal enemy, but I knew that from then on that girl would hate me for stealing him from her. Oh well; I wasn’t going to complain. Confidently, he asked, “So, what is your name, pretty lady?” and I had just about melted at the sound of his voice again. Stumbling over myself, I found enough confidence to say, “Becca, and yours young sir?” At that exact second I thought I had ruined any chances of him liking me, I had sounded exceedingly awkward. I mean, really? Young sir? I was ridiculous, and there was no way of getting around that. But to my surprise he just laughed and said “David”. Omg! I had been a total loser, and the amazingly hot guy was still talking to me! I almost died from being so excited, but I had to keep my cool. We sat down and conversed about ourselves and got to know each other. I had found out he was athletic, and smart too, and after school was over, he walked me to my bus and we hugged goodbye. It was official, I was extremely excited for tomorrow, and I could tell from Ashley’s expression that she was filled to the top with immense jealousy. I couldn’t wait to tell her my story at home.

Just as I had expected, she was envious of my new man candy, but very happy for me, and loved hearing every single detail of my story. We had decided that this was definitely something to share with mom. Once she got home, we clued her in on everything that had occurred and just as we had expected, she was excited, too. But even though she was happy for me, just like every other good mom would, she warned me that he was just a stupid boy and that all boys do is think with their silly boy parts, and I just laughed at her. I had heard this speech many times before and just learned to love it. Teasing her about me meeting new hot guys just brightened my days, because every time I did, she grew about three new grey hairs.

The next few days had flown by almost instantly. Lake Stevens was definitely growing on me, and so was David. I loved that kid, and there was no way of separating the two of us. But today, everything felt different. The calm, exuberant atmosphere had disappeared and was almost gloomy. It was raining fiercely and dragons everywhere were losing power at their houses. I ignored the omen of the weather and went about my day normally. David had met me in front of the school and something about him was a little off, too. It seemed as if he was preoccupied. I knew that something was on his mind. Everyone obviously knew something that I didn’t know, and I feared that it was not a good thing.

Instead of us just starting our exercises when we got to class, the teachers had us seated so that they could announce something:
“As we have feared, the dirty socks have decided to start a war…” As the principal went on to explain that we were going to be attacked, my mind spiraled. Ashley had been right and I had even gotten hints as to show me that something was going to happen, I had been totally ignorant to the facts that had been right in front of me.

I tried to focus on what the principal was saying to us and came to understand that we hadn’t been training for self defense; we had been training to go to war. Sick to my stomach, I became very afraid, feeling as if I was being stabbed in the heart. He explained that today we would be fitted for armor and tomorrow we would head to the battle field. I could tell that he was sorry for us, but teenage dragons are known for being the strongest fighters. There was no way of escaping this new challenge, and only few were excited to serve their town. Stupid boys, they looked at this situation as a chance to kick some serious butt against the stinky socks. Obviously, they had played a few too many video games lately and were ready to charge. Everyone else feared that it would end badly for us; if not dead then you would probably end up being a prisoner of war being forced to wash dirty socks for the rest of your life.

Everyone knew that the socks had the upper hand with their strong stench of nastiness. All we had was our fighting tactics and our power to breathe fire. It was definitely not going to be a fair fight, but all of us seemed ready. We were told to get a good night’s rest, but that was nearly impossible. I was constantly tossing and turning, and once I finally somewhat got to sleep, I had a nightmare about seeing my dear David die, being stabbed in the side by one of those d***ed dirty socks, and then having to live my life as a prisoner of war, until death by starvation. The thought was unbearable and I woke up crying. David tried to assure me that everything was going to turn out fine, but that was very hard to believe.


It was time. Tired and scared for our lives, we headed to the battlefield, marching: hup to, hup to, hup to. We were early, but could hear enemy horns not too far away. Some of our troops began to get nervous, but we kept them under control. The enemy had arrived and I had never seen a worse site. It was hailing at this point in time, and the field was covered in a thick layer of mud. I could smell the foul stench of our foes from across the clearing. Covered in sweat stains, and reeking like a boys locker room, they had to have been the most gruesome, terrifying beings that I had every seen.


The leading commander of the enemy had yelled, “Charge!!!” and my stomach sank. I had that feeling you get when you’re free falling, scared for your life yet happy to get it over with. We attacked while a few of our comrades had fled the scene. Their stomachs were not strong enough to withstand the smell. Seeing friends passing out around me and then stabbed to death, my strategy was to hold my breath as long as I could, and then I had a strange thought. What would happen if we breathed fire on them? They were cotton, right? I found my way across the field to tell the commander about my thoughts, and he decided that it was worth a try. We spread the word of using our power against them, and in one fell swoop, most of the area was engulfed in flames. The heat was intense like the sun itself, and it felt like victory. The socks that survived from using stop drop and roll retreated as quickly as they could. Everyone was exhausted from the effort it took to breathe that much fire, but we loved the sweet taste of victory.


Not too long after the battle had ended, walking around and congratulating people, I had found David sitting on a rock. I asked what he was doing and he replied that he was thinking. He explained that this whole experience had changed his life; he had almost lost me and couldn’t bear the thought of never seeing me again. In an instant he was up on his feet and gently came towards me. Sweetly, he held me in his arms and told me how much he loved me. He said that I was the light to his day. Hearing this made me the happiest dragon in the world; I loved him too and would never let him forget that. No matter what, I would always be his and he would be mine. Our struggles had been similar, almost fully the same, and we were now inseparable. We were going to live happily ever after.