I am Alina, 17 years old. I work and study, as a kitchen assistant in a restaurant. I study in the morning and work in the afternoon and at night. I begged the restaurant owner, Mr. Elias, to accept me, because, due to my age, he didn't want to, but I told him about my situation and he was moved and gave me this opportunity. My parents are drug addicts and I have to support the house. I have no relatives besides them, not that I know of... I prefer to work and study; the longer I stay away from home, the better!

Unfortunately, today the restaurant is closed due to preventative pest control. After school, I had to go home. My parents were there, drugged, the house a mess—it was always like this. I sigh just thinking about the scene that repeated itself day after day. Little did I know that today things would be different. I walk into the house and find my father with a gun to his head and my mother lying on the old couch. She was so drugged she couldn't speak intelligibly. My father, upon seeing me, told the man that he could take me as payment. The man looked to be about 50 years old, tall and with a scary appearance. You could tell right away he was a ruthless bad character.

I froze when I heard my father say that I would be that man's payment. I understood very well what he said, but with a glimmer of hope in my heart I insisted on asking.

"What's going on, Dad?"

"What's going on is your father is in debt to me and he gave you to me as payment. Your mother was the one who paid with her body, but I'm not interested in her anymore. Look at her, she's totally wasted. But you, you nymphet, are going to settle all your parents' debts," the man said, looking me up and down perversely, leaving me in a panic.

"Is that true, Dad?” I asked, afraid to hear the answer.

"Go get your things! Now you belong to him. At least it wasn't so useless to raise you," said Alina's father.

"You have 30 minutes to get your things, girl, and not a second more, otherwise, I'll go to your room and drag you by your hair. Do we understand each other?" threatened the man.

I looked at my father who looked at me with no expression, as if he lived in another world. I know my worth. I was never useless. I've always worked to support the house. I remember when I was a child, my mother used to take me to the streets to beg for money. They always found ways to use me to make money, and it only got worse when they started using drugs. It only got better when I started working. Hearing my father talk like that and sell me without any feeling was a very hard blow.

I snap out of my thoughts with hands choking me. I opened my eyes wide, as it became difficult to breathe.

"When I ask you a question, I demand that you answer! Do we understand each other?" the drug dealer shouted.

I coughed several times and with great difficulty answered yes, that I understood.

"Now go! You have 20 minutes! You wasted 10 minutes by not answering the instant I asked," the drug dealer barked.

"Yes, sir," I replied with tears in my eyes.

"Good girl, that's how I like it!" The drug dealer smiled coldly.

I quickly went upstairs in tears, an immense pain in my heart, a mixture of feelings overcoming me: disappointment, anger, panic and despair. I entered my room and locked it, pushed the closet against the door, looked out the window, saw no one, and climbed out.

"I have to escape! I won't live a miserable life, be a sex slave to that old man. Even if it's to help my parents pay off their debt, I don't want that life! They don't love me, they never treated me like a daughter! I'm going to run away!!” Alina decided in her mind.

My house is close to a forest. Why did we come to live in a place like this? Simple! The forest has many dark stories and no one wanted to live here, so I managed to rent it for a very low price and the place was very quiet, ideal for my parents to hide from creditors. They owed money to many dangerous people, this place was ideal. Now this old man shows up, he must be one of the dealers my parents owe. I won't go with him! I'm not an object to be sold to anyone!

I ran as fast as I could until I got close to the forest, when suddenly I heard footsteps behind me. I looked back and saw two of the old man's henchmen and right behind them the dealer himself to whom my father had sold me. He started cursing and threatening me. He yelled for me to stop and that I had nowhere to go! I won't give up! I ran as fast as I could, forcing my legs to go faster than they ever had before. They might even catch me, but they won't have it easy! I will fight to the end!

When I am about to enter the forest, one of the thugs throws himself on top of me. He manages to knock me to the ground when he reaches my left foot and I fall. I kick him hard in the nose and he lets go of me. I quickly get up and run as fast as I can into the "haunted" forest. I run without looking back. I run so frantically, dodging trees, that I have no idea where I'm going, when suddenly the ground beneath my feet gives way. I fall down a large embankment towards a lake with a strong current. The last glimpse I have before I fall into the lake is of the two henchmen looking down at me with big smiles on their faces as I plummet into the lake.

I think, is this the end of me?

******

I'm in the water trying to survive, because I don't know how to swim, the current was taking me with force while I struggled to breathe, I mentally determined that this was not how I was going to die. __ Current, don't be mean, take me to a safe place, I thought, wishing for some kind of miracle to happen, suddenly I feel the water pulling me down, I was almost losing consciousness at that moment, I thought I was going to die, my life was fading when unexpectedly I feel as if the river had expelled me, I fall on the sand on the river bank, I'm on my knees coughing fiercely, throwing up water that I swallowed from the river.

I get up with difficulty looking at the river "What happened here?" I think, I look around and have no idea where I am, I start to climb a higher area, moving away from the river before continuing I stop, I turn once more to face the river.

"Even without understanding what happened, thank you river, for letting me live!""I sigh and distance myself from the river."

I haven't even been in this place an hour and I already consider myself crazy, me, talking to the water, if that wasn't impossible I could swear I was spat out by that river, am I going crazy!?

When Alina has her back to the river, the water rises and forms a large hand that waves 'goodbye' and soon returns to its original shape.

Alina starts walking, she looks in all directions to see if she has any idea where she is, but she has no idea of the place she is now, she decides to look for a safe place to sleep since it is getting dark, from a distance she sees something that it looked like a cave, she went with determination in that direction, but unexpectedly she hears footsteps behind her.

"Oh no! the henchmen again, I have to run!""When she was getting ready to run, something fell in front of her."

"Ah! But what? Who are you?""Alina questioned the creature that plummeted in front of her."

"That way, I suppose he flew in that direction! Let's go! Let's go!""Alina hears some voices pronouncing those sentences getting closer and closer, she looks in the direction of the voices and then observes the beast in front of her, her gaze meets the animal's gaze and she feels as if the beast is reading her soul, she comes out of her trance when she realizes that the voices are closer to where they were, she looks again at the animal that has a totally different look from a few seconds ago, now he is looking at her as if asking for help, Alina doesn't think twice and approaches the creature, carries it in her arms and starts running towards the cave."

"Calm down little one, I won't hurt you and please don't hurt me, come on, I'll carry you, okay? Wow! but how heavy you are, I will do my best to protect you. We've arrived! I think we'll be safe here! Stay here.""Alina places the animal on the floor inside the cave, she goes out, picks up some leaves and places them in front of the entrance to the place to make it difficult to be discovered, goes back to the cave and observes the creature carefully with an expression of doubt ."

"One, but what are you? These look like scales and very thick scales by the way""The dragon looks at her with boredom and snorts with smoke coming out of his nose, Alina starts waving her hands frantically to disperse the smoke."

"Don't do that, they might discover us!""As soon as Alina finishes speaking, footsteps and voices are heard in front of the cave, she instinctively hugs the dragon thinking of protecting it, a few minutes later she realizes that the noise outside is getting further and further away, so she slowly releases the air that she didn't even notice she was holding."

"That was close, little friend!""she sighs in relief, looking to sit on the floor, but instead she sits on the dragon's spiky tail, which pricks her buttocks, causing her to cry out in pain."

"Ouch! What is that? She realized that what had pricked her was the beast's tail, she looked more closely and a snap went off in her mind." You! you are a dragon! "" Alina stated as if she were in a guessing game she had just won, the dragon again looks at her with an expression of pure boredom, as if to say: wow, how slow you are, human, he snorted wearily, closing his eyes.

Alina analyzes the dragon's expression and as if she understands what the dragon is thinking, she begins to speak.

"Ah! Take it easy on me, buddy, it's not every day that we see a dragon, oh! Wait! But that's impossible! Dragons don't exist! Do they exist?""Alina looks carefully at the dragon, who ignores her completely, Alina sighs and begins to recap everything that happened to her and goes to the entrance of the cave to make sure they are safe, when she realizes that the place is calm, she looks at the sky and is surprised by the image, she had never seen the sky with as many stars as she sees now," It's splendid! "" Alina murmurs, kneels down and says a prayer, ending her prayer, she is grateful to have found the dragon, because for the first time she feels that she is not alone, she is grateful for having been spat out by the river, because she is alive and away from the trafficker.

"I just have to be grateful, thank you creator! She gets up, goes to the cave and lies down next to the dragon, when she falls asleep, the dragon opens its eyes, pulls Alina with its tail wrapped around her waist, covers her with its body, warming the human who is now sleeping peacefully."

Alina falls asleep thinking about the madness she is living, she was so physically and psychologically exhausted that sleep overtook her.

Alina didn't know it, but she had just entered a wonderful adventure!

Alina wakes up and realizes she is snuggled up to the dragon, which now seems much bigger.

__ But how? I carried him in my arms, it was difficult I confess because even though he was small, he was very heavy! Is it normal for dragons to grow overnight? Who knows...! This is all so crazy! I can't believe I found a dragon, I'm glad at least I'm not alone.

I try to get out slowly so as not to wake my dragon friend, I notice that his black scales are hard as armor, I get up and go outside the cave, my stomach is rumbling, I need to get food, I walk and look everywhere trying to find fruits and nothing! I take a deep breath, I go to the lake I had gone to the day before hoping to find fish and to my surprise there were, great! Now how am I going to catch them? I enter the lake slowly and stand still trying to fish with my hands unsuccessfully, I rant in frustration, I sit on the edge of the lake and think about the day before "those men who were walking near the cave were the old man's henchmen or were they after the dragon?" Will they still come after me? And my parents, are they okay? Did that old man kill them? Tears started rolling down my face, I felt terrible, overly guilty, because I could have saved them, but I was selfish and only thought of myself, but I couldn't! I wouldn't be able to stay with that old man! Just thinking about what he would do to me, I can't even think straight it makes me nauseous!

I cry for a long time with my stomach rumbling, I sigh heavily and say to myself.

"I need to bring food for my friend, if I'm hungry, imagine him at that size! (I exclaimed a little surprised to remember that he grew so fast) I begin to wipe my face to wipe away the tears that were still on it."

Unexpectedly something jumps on my lap, it was a big fish he struggles and I try to catch it so as not to let it escape, I get up and leave the fish further from the river so that it does not return to it, I come back and wait for the miracle to happen again .

"I thank you immensely beautiful river, but would you mind sending me one more fish I have a great friend to feed, as soon as I finish speaking two more fish are thrown out of the river, I immediately go and catch them, I catch the three a little clumsily because the three fish together were heavy and moving it was difficult to carry."

I look back and thank the river for helping me, I walk towards the cave happy, when I get to the entrance I have a feeling that I am being watched, I stop, look all around, but I don't see anyone, I shrug and enter the cave. The dragon sniffs and raises its head staring at the fish, I think "he must be hungry as I am" I go out and get some sticks and try to arrange them as if it were a bonfire, now how to make fire? I look at the dragon with a smile, he looks at me with a confused expression that makes me laugh.

"Come on friend, can you set these sticks on fire? The dragon looks at me and I point to the sticks arranged in the shape of a bonfire."

"Look friend, I want some of your flames, you're a fire-breathing dragon, aren't you? Please!""I say pointing to the sticks again. The dragon watches me lazily, its neck glows, it opens its mouth and releases a small blast of flames, now we have fire, that's it!""I speak excitedly."

"Thank you very much, Drago, that will be your name, friend."

Alina starts roasting the fish while the cave is being watched.