Lily was exploring deep into the forest with Alaska one day. She had been having dreams about a cave in the mountains and felt like she was being told she had to go. She spread her magic as far into the forest as she could to be able to sense everything in the forest. She could tell where the cave was because there was a strange magic deep inside that seemed to be calling her near it.

It took hours to find the cave and to reach its end. They had encountered a few monsters on the way but Alaska had Lily use them as target dummies. As she followed the strange magic she found the source, which happened to be a large egg. Just a little bit bigger than an ostrich egg. She placed her small hand on it and could immediately feel her magic being drained from it.

Your magic will help him hatch, and he will protect you

Lily could hear that voice in the back of her head again. It always reminded her of the kind woman she had met. She gently picked up the egg and decided to take it back. It drained quite a bit of magic from her before it seemed to go to sleep. Thankfully, Lily had a large magic supply, so the small amount it took meant very little to her.

She kept the egg a secret from the others at the orphanage and kept it close to her in her bed as she slept. It only took a few months for the egg to hatch. Lily had touched the egg as much as she could and kept feeding it as much magic as it wanted. When it hatched, they were in the forest practicing. A small black dragon was born from the egg.



The baby dragon was covered in black scales that sparkled in the light. He had sharp claws and tall horns that sat on his head like a crown. The small dragon curled up in my lap and purred just like Alaska purrs when he's touching me. I found out through Alaska that my magic was special and seemed to have an almost healing effect on magical beasts. My magic calmed them down and gave them strength. It was a big reason why the egg hatched so quickly. A process that should have taken years only took me a few months.

I named my new friend Drago, and the same golden crown crest appeared on his forehead before it disappeared. Because of the magical link between my familiars and me, they could feed off as much of my magic as they needed. I no longer had to touch the dragon for him to absorb my magic. Since I had such a large supply of magic, it could take as much magic as he wanted, and ended up growing up very quickly.

By the time I was ten years old and he was only one, he had grown into a large dragon. His body was bigger than two horses put together. Although I'm sure he would grow even bigger.



Thankfully, he had special abilities to help him hide, or he wouldn't get to stay close to me like Alaska. His main magic was fire, but he could also make himself invisible. I couldn't wait for the day that we could leave here and travel the world together. I was pretty sure I could take care of any monster with them by my side, so I wasn't concerned for safety. My main issue now was my young age and lack of knowledge. There weren't any books in a poor village like mine, so it was hard to gather information.

I often took advantage of my child-like appearance and would talk to the visitors about the places they had traveled to. Adults often called me cute even though I never really looked at my appearance. There weren't mirrors in the orphanage, and I didn't care what I looked like. To any traveler, I looked like a small child who wanted to hear stories, but I was gathering intel. I wanted to know what kind of world I lived in.

I was currently strolling the village streets to see if any interesting people might have a few stories. I saw a small group of men in fancy clothes talking to the innkeeper. They were looking for a guide in the mountains. They were searching for a certain monster in the forest that someone had spotted. They were here to make sure it didn't attack the village.

Judging, by the way, the innkeeper was behaving with them, the man talking to him was probably an important person. This means he probably had lots of information on life outside this village. I walked over to the innkeeper and hugged him.

"Hey pops, how's your health?"

I was close to the innkeeper since he often told me stories he heard from different travelers. He seemed to think of me as one of his grandchildren, which I did not mind since he didn't care that I bothered his customers. He let out a small laugh as he rubbed my head with his wrinkled hand.

"My health always gets better when I get to see your face, my dear. These gentlemen were just asking for a guide in the forest. Would you mind giving them a hand? They are nobles from the kingdom of Luminara."

I smiled up at the old innkeeper as he knew exactly what I wanted. The man in fancy clothes frowned at the offer and gave me a look from head to toe.

"You want us to bring a small girl into the forest?" he seemed offended and dumbfounded. The old innkeeper just laughed as he patted my head lovingly.

"Believe it or not, but Lily here knows that forest better than any of the hunters here."

I turned to the man and smiled up at him.

"I've been going into the forest alone since I was very small. I have the whole forest mapped in my head."

The man gave the innkeeper a look that said you can't be serious. When the old man just smiled up at him, the man looked at me one more time before agreeing and asking me to follow him.