Viper. A name that's just a word but can leave fear in people's eyes like a knife that is just seconds away from taking your life. Some say it's a snake, others say it's me. But my name wasn't always Viper.

"Vivian!" Mother yells as she plants the new red roses in her garden. I run to her as the wind brushes against my small face and the grass tickles my feet. It's finally spring with tulips and roses covering our land like a warm colorful blanket. When I finally reach mother, she says "Good Lord! Why is your hair all messed up? It was fine a few minutes ago" I just smile sheepishly as she brushes my silky black hair and puts them into two little pigtails. Then I run off to Father and Luka.

"Vivi!" Luka yells as I come towards him.

"Can I play?" I ask father.

"Of course. Let me show you how!" father says warmly as I come to him.

Then in a blink of an eye, I see a cloud that resembles the color of blood, as it comes, it kills ever life that it makes contact with. Every flower and every petal that was in my mother's garden began to shrivel up. I hear a loud thunder that pierces my ears and forces me to cover them with my small hands. And from the corner of my eye, I see them. At first, I didn't know what to call them, I didn't have time to either, the ground was shaking below my feet. My father yields out his sword for protection, and I see them. Figures wearing red masks and red armor. The army looked like a swarm of fire ants. They charged towards us and then lightning struck again, but this time, it hit my father. My mother, who was frightened, grabbed Luka and my hand as she ran towards the castle.

"Knights! We need the knights!" She shrieked.

And before my eyes, our knights charged like a stampede of elephants, and before I knew it, it was war.

I tried my best to catch my breath as we ran on our new marble floor down the hallway. Mother took us to our underground magic compartment below the castle and said "wait here"

"What about you?" I asked.

She gulped. "I-I'll be fine Vivian" She said warmly, but I could see the fear in her green eyes. She started to walk out, but then she said "I love you" and ran out.

"What do we do now?" I asked Luka as I shiver.

"Hold on, I'll see if the coast is clear" Luka says.

"But mother said to wait" I say.

"Yes but my mother is dead" he says

I didn't know how to respond to that. But I sure wished I stopped him because after a few minutes, I heard him scream. And that scream sounded like shattering glass to me. I quickly ran out of the secret chamber to see nothing left. Everything and everyone was gone. I looked around the charred castle. My home was ruined. When I looked out the window, I saw the troops outside. They must be looking for whoever is left, so that they can kill them too. They're looking for me.

.

I sneaked out of the castle thanks to our underground passages. When I finally got out of the passage, I looked back at my castle one more time and started to walk away. I didn't know where to go, all I knew was that I needed to get away from them. Whoever they are.

I walked into the forest and I walked for what seemed like forever, my feet were becoming numb, my dress was tattered and had dirt all over. And even though my mother fixed my hair, it still became a mess yet again. I saw a nearby tree and decided to rest there, but when I woke up, I saw that I was in an unfamiliar place. It has crystals everywhere, it was a room that looked like it was carved into a crystal cave.

"You're finally awake" a voice says.

"Who's there?" I say quickly, in fear.

"Your savious, obviously" the voice replies.

A figure comes inside the room, and it turns out to be a woman in her 30s. She had yellow eyes and long jet black hair. She was wearing very odd clothing which didn't look like what a noble lady would wear.

"What are you looking at?" She says

"Nothing!" I say quickly.

"Here's the deal little lady, I have soup and steak, which one do you want to eat?" She asks.

"Soup" I say quietly.

"Good choice, follow me" She says as she leads me to the dining room, which is also covered in a billion crystals.

I know it's bad to eat from strangers, but my hunger is telling me otherwise.

"Why are you helping me?" I ask, softly.

"Because I'm one of the good guys" She says as she puts a bowl soup in front of me.

There was a small silence between us, and she starts to talk again.

"Well I didn't really know that I would be saving you, I was on my way to gather some things and I saw you, then suddenly a lightning struck the ground between us and I quickly on instinct saved you and carried you here." She says

"oh." I say as I try to comprehend what she said.

She serves me her soup and I start eating it quickly, my throat was so thirsty and I could feel the soup going down my throat.

"You eat very well" She chuckles.

"My apologies" I say as I quickly realised that it was unlady like of me to be slurping down my soup like that.

"it's fine. Now tell me why do you look like a racoon who was run down by a stampeed of mustangs" She said, curiously.

"Oh. M-my family, they're in danger- no they're been killed, by these men wearing red and-"

"Men wearing red?" She says as her eyes widen with what almost looked like fear.

"Where are you from?" She demands.

"I-I'm from the Eastern Empire" I say

"The Eastern Empire?! Oh...oh.. honey you're a sorceress.." She says in disbelief.

"A what?" I say, as I put my spoon down.

"A sorceress, you know, a female sorcerer. A witch, like me" She explains.

"Absolutely not! I am not a witch! I'm a good person!" I insist. Then I gasp.

"You're a witch!" I gasp. "You're evil" I say quietly.

I start to run but she grabs my hand and somehow magically glues me to my chair.

"Okay first, I'm not evil. Not all witches are evil. Honestly, if you ask me, being called a witch actually is very offensive to me considering that I just saved your life. Just because a female knows magic doesn't mean she's evil, you know. Gosh the world we live in today" She says as she shakes her head.

"Then what are you?" I demand.

"I'm Isla, the sorceress, in the flesh" She grins as she waves her hand and creates an orb of light.

"And I'm not convinced that you're nice your unstuck me from this chair at once" I say furiously.

She flicks her wrist and unsticks me from the chair.

"how did you do that?" I say in amazement.

"Magic. and I you want, I can teach you everything about it to become the most powerful sorceress in the world" She says as she grins. "Of course, not as powerful as me since I'll teaching it to you" She jokes as she does a hair flip.

I have a feeling I'll be with Isla for a while.

"

"Vivian! Put him down for Pete's sake!" Isla tells me.

"But why?! He tried stealing my bread!" I say as I pointed to Puppy, the dragon.

"Magic shouldn't be used without a good reason" She tells me.

"You tied me to a chair just 2 years ago" I say sarcastically as I put puppy down.

"That was 2 years ago, Vivi" Isla says.

it's been exactly 2 years since I moved in with Isla, I can't tell if she's my sister, mother, or aunt because sometimes she's all of them. She taught me a lot of things, like how to wash my clothes, how to fetch water from the lake, and how to float things.

I grab the bucket and motion puppy to follow me. I should really change his name. I told Isla that it's dumb how a dragon is named puppy. But she insists on calling him puppy. She says there's a reason behind everything she does. But she still hasn't told me why one of them was calling a dragon puppy.

I walk out of the cave, which was disguised as an ordinary hill in the middle of the forest. Then Puppy sees a squirrel and starts chasing it.

"I guess I'm starting to see why she calls you puppy" I say as I chuckle.

We go to the secret lake right next to the hill to fetch water and I take a sip of the fresh water as I sit down on the rocks near the lake. It feels cold as ice. I inhale the fresh cool forest air and close my eyes as I listen to the birds singing, the twigs snapping, the rushing sound of the water. If any noble lady saw me right now, they would probably faint, but I prefer this simple life much more than my life back at the castle. I wish I could show my parents this. I wonder if they ever found this cave, even before Isla discovered it. Puppy senses that I'm feeling down and comes near me and rests his head on my lap.

"Thanks Puppy" I smile as I stroke his white scales.

Puppy's still a baby dragon that's why he is tiny and cute, but soon he will become big, a beast, that everyone will fear. He will be able to live independently and roam the forest freely with nothing to fear. I wish I could be like that. Puppy stares at me with his dark brown eyes and for some reason I feel at comfort just by looking at his eyes.

"You're gonna be something amazing one day, Puppy" I whisper to him as I hug him.

He sneezes instead, releasing a white frosty air.

I laugh as I say "Okay! Time to go!"

I grab the heavy bucket and start carry it trying not to spill any of the water. Back at the castle, I didn't have to worry about that, I would just ring a bell, and one of the really nice maids would bring me a cup of water and we would chat about our days. Now I try my best not to waste the water and use it wisely.

Then Puppy starts to make noises. Angry ones.

"What's wrong Puppy?" I say.

That's when I spot a Black Wolf. Her fur is as black as the night and her eyes are icy blue. Looking at her beauty runs as shiver down my spine. But she's also dangerous. Very dangerous. She starts Walking closer to us. Puppy breathes out her fire trying to protect me, but that just makes the wolf mad. The wolf starts running at puppy. Puppy dodges and runs behind me. I drop my water bucket and I freeze. I don't know what to do. Wolves are known for their strength, stamina, and sharp teeth. If I run, it's game over. I look at the wolf and realize it's very skiny. It looks like it hasn't eaten in days. it looks like it wants to eat us. I start to slowly back away. It starts walking towards me.

Suddenly Puppy leaps at the wolf fearlessly and the wolf scratches her and throws her to the ground. Puppy starts bleeding. Since she's only a few weeks old, her scales aren't fully indestructible. I look at Puppy on the ground and I glare at the wolf.

I feel this anger raging in me, I feel my hands burning like fire as I clench them and don't know if I wasn't thinking or I was thinking stupid because I started walking towards that man eating wolf like I was indestructible. Talk about big ego. But then, to my surprise the wolf quickly runs away. What a weird wolf. I look back at Puppy and he looks scared. Not because of the wolf, but because of me. I look at him in confusion. I walk towards the waterbucket and realise my blue eyes are glowing neon blue. I scream. I look like I'm possessed. I look evil.

"Puppy, it's me Vivian" I say softly as I walk towards him.

But Puppy starts to back away.

"I'm sorry that I floated you thus morning" I say as I step forward.

He backs away again.

I grab a stick and slowly wave it at him.

"Puppy want to play fetch?" I say in disbelief as i watch him back away more.

"Please?" I feel a tear coming out of my eye. I haven't cried in years. I didn't even cry the day my parents died and I still don't know why. I remmember Luka, my best friend, who got killed when he was just 8, I remmember the blood on the swords of the red masks as I sneaked out of the castle that day. My head starts to spin and my eyes start to fill with even more water. My face feels warm and my head feels heavy. It's getting hard to breathe and I slowly lose my sight. That day was the first day I cried. And I think the whole forest heard me i couldn't hear anything other than me and because it was crying with me. it started to rain and I just sat on the ground my head laying low and tears dripping from my eyes. I heard thunder strike and it brought me back to that day.. I pounded the ground and started yelling.

"God. what did I do wrong?! did I upset you?! I'm just a kid!! I didn't do anything!!" I cry louder and I start having trouble breathing. the cold hard raindrops tap my skin leaving a shiver down my spine.

"I'm sorry If I did. but please bring my parents back. I promise I'll be good. I swear." I calm down and bury my head in my skirt. I close my eyes and slowly start to drift away.

I wake up to see Puppy resting his head on my stomach and looking at me sadly.

"Puppy?" I say as I slowly get up.

I look at the sky. it's stopped raining and it's almost sundown.

"we have to get going" I say as I walk over to the waterbucket motioning Puppy to follow me.

I glance at the waterbucket to see my reflection and my eyes are back to normal.

"I'm sorry if I scared you Puppy" I say as i pick him up and hug him.

He let's me hug him and breathes softly.

"I'll never ever ever get mad at you ever again." I say as I hug him once more and put him down so that I can carry my water bucket home.

Ever since that day, I despised the rain.