Snake loved being the center of attention. I scrunched my nose as I watched her flip her hair, beaming every time someone came up to congratulate her. Her thin, pale tongue flicked in and out of as her fangs glinted in the light of the lanterns. She was seated in the chair of honor, in the middle of the room, where everyone could see and admire her. It made me sick to my stomach. ​

“Look at her, showing off her…long green hair and toothpick legs.” I complained to Monkey, my horn twitching in irritation. “She’s such a snob. I mean, so what if it’s her year now? Happens to all of us!” ​

Monkey rolled her eyes. “D, you were like that last year.” ​

"I wasn’t nearly as bad as-”

​“You were exactly like that last year.” ​

I chose to ignore her as she scratched behind one ear and flicked her tail towards a bowl of fruit, wrapping it around a peach and drawing it to . She took a bite and closed her eyes, savoring the taste. Then she set it down with a sigh. “I’ll be glad to taste real peaches again. These spirit ones are good, but nothing beats the real thing, you know, when your hands get all sticky and the juice drips down your chin…” She tossed the peach away and tucked her hands behind her head. “I can’t wait for my turn.” ​

I grunted. ​

She rolled her eyes at me. “Okay, D, what’s up? I mean, sure it’s nice to be able to set foot on earth once every twelve years, but- oh.” Her eyes brightened in understanding and I quickly got up and headed for the banquet table. ​

“I’m getting some fish.” ​

“It’s because you didn’t accomplish your resolution,” Monkey grinned, hopping off the couch and heading after me. “Again! I mean, that has to be a record now. It’s been, what, one hundred and twenty years? And-”

​“Hey, look!” Rat popped up behind us, grinning broadly. “Pig fell asleep in the punch bowl!” ​

"Really?” I asked, silently thanking him for the distraction. “Where?” ​

"Nice try, D,” Monkey snapped, putting her hand on my arm. “You can’t avoid the topic. That’s the reason why you’re determined to ruin Snake’s big day, isn’t it?” ​

Rat clicked his tongue, tail twitching from side to side as he shook his head.”Bad idea, Monkey. Don’t bring up the subject of the pea- oops.” ​

I glared at them both, feeling smoke singing my bangs as I exhaled. “I am not upset about the pearl. I am just dreaming of all the ways I can crush the culprit who took it into a bloody pulp and grind their bones into dust!” ​

At the word “dust,” a little stream of flame shot out of my mouth. Monkey and Rat dodged aside as the flame flew past them and lit the tablecloth on fire. Snake glared at me from her throne and I waved my hand half-heartedly. “Sorry. My bad.” ​

A little dose of seawater took care of the job and I turned around, stalking away from the two spirits who called themselves my friends. “But D, haven’t you noticed? The reason the entire Earth has been getting such dangerous weather this year is because you’re angry!” Monkey protested, chasing after me. “I mean, when I get mad, maybe fruit doesn’t turn out as well and college entrance exams get particularly hard, but you…you control the ocean and the weather! When you get mad, humans suffer!”

​“They suffer when you give them hard exams, too,” Rat commented, but Monkey kicked him in the shin. ​

“I’m being serious! You have to let that thing go! You may never see that pearl again and you might just have to live with that!” Monkey yelled. ​

"Hey! Look! It’s all my favorite people!” Dog bounced over to us and pounced on me, throwing her arms around my neck.

"Someone get her off me before I break her neck,” I deadpanned and Rat hurriedly pried Dog away. ​

Dog gave me her infamous puppy pout, but I ignored it. “What do you want, mutt?” ​

She scratched at her ear with her hind leg for a moment, before seeming to remember. “Oh yeah! Wanted to show you something! You’ll like it!” ​

"Is it another ball?” I asked. ​

“No, no, you’ll like it! Come on!” Dog grabbed my wrist and dragged me over to the pool through which we spirits could watch events on earth. “There!”

​I squinted down through the mist and caught sight of a boy with dyed brown hair holding a handkerchief, several others crowded around him. Furtively glancing around to make sure no one was watching, he untied it to reveal a small sphere. ​“Dog, that’s a ball.” ​

“No, look,” she insisted. ​

And as I watched, the sphere began to glow. I gasped, as the surface of the pool began to bubble slightly. Dog whimpered and backed away. “That’s…that’s mine!” ​

The boy in the pool flinched, nearly dropping the pearl as he glanced fearfully behind him. I whirled around and glared at Dog, who was slowly cowering away. “Dog! How did they get that?”

​“I-it was in a m-museum,” she whimpered, tail tucked between her legs. “A-and they broke in to steal it-” ​

"They broke in to steal something…that belongs to me on the last night of my year?” I said slowly. Cinders flew out from the skirt of my qipao and Dog yelped, sprinting away to the safety of the banquet table. I was mildly aware that all the other zodiacs were staring at me now, but I couldn’t care less as I gripped the edge of the pool and stared down at the little punk holding my pearl. “How dare you dishonor the dragon like that! You will pay for this!” I shrieked. ​

"D, calm down!” Monkey cried. ​

“No! I will not calm down!” I kicked off my slippers and stepped up onto the edge of the pool. ​

"Wait! But it’s almost midnight, and you can’t be out in the human world when it’s not your year!” yelled Monkey. ​

I glanced at the giant golden clock hanging in the center of the room. “It’s eleven o’clock. I have sixty minutes. That should be plenty of time.” And with that, I raised my arms into the air and dove into the pool. ​

The transition between spirit and human world always takes some getting used to. One moment, the weather is spring all the time and everything is warm and toasty, the next, it’s really, really cold. ​

I wrapped my arms around myself, cursing the fact that we always had to take our shoes off before entering the human world- if we track things back to the spirit world from the human one, it could get messy. At least I wasn’t the only one wearing a qipao, although I probably was the only one who was barefoot. Also, my head felt a little unbalanced without the horns. The buns my hair was tied up in made for a poor substitute. ​

It took a few minutes for me to adjust to my new human senses and brush the cold to the back of mymind. it was the last thing i needed to worry about; I had to find my quarry and soon. If I were Monkey, I would sit down and make a plan, calculating the odds of where my prey would come next… ​

But I’m not Monkey. ​

I made my way down to the edge of the river, where throngs of people were waiting to watch people set fireworks off from the boats. “Sorry, everyone,” I smirked. “But the celebrations have just been cancelled.” ​

Raising my arms into the air, I watched as storm clouds quickly dimmed the glittering sky and the temperature dropped even further. All around me, people were staring up at the sky in confusion. ​

"It looks like…” I heard one woman whisper quietly. “It looks like…” ​

The sky roared with anger and split open in a bright bolt of lightning. The clouds opened up, releasing torrents of rain down on the happy celebrators. Screaming and ducking their heads deep into their jackets, people went sprinting for their cars, the subway stations, stores, seeking whatever shelter they could get. ​

I smiled, the rain plastering strands of hair to my cheeks. With the entire population immobilized like this, it would be so much easier to track down those thieves. ​

I closed my eyes, feeling for the energy of the pearl. It was my own, given to me at birth; every dragon is given a pearl at birth. It is our treasure, the symbol of our power, of our superiority. The dragon is the king of animals, both loved and feared by the Chinese. ​

The pearl beats with a pulse that matches the beat of my own heart. I knew it could hear me calling to it, but no matter how I tried, I just couldn’t draw it to me. Taking a deep breath to calm myself, I tried to visualize where it might be, based on the pattern of its energy signature. It was down…underground…in a subway station, one of the main lines. And the boy holding it… ​

Glimpses of the boy’s face came into my mind. The images were blurry, like an unfocused camera, and the sound of the voices all around him were distorted. But I saw enough of him to nearly make me boil the entire Huangpu River dry. ​

It really shouldn’t have surprised me, though. I mean, the Chinese people call themselves descendants of the dragon. To them, we’re sacred animals. What’s more, they believe in us. They know we’re real. ​

But foreigners have no such respect. And that little foreign brat was about to get what was coming to him. ​

The river coughed and shivered once, a huge wave washing up over the edge, barely grazing my toes from where I stood just a few feet away. When the water receded, I found myself smiling at the glittering army that bowed at my feet. ​

“My lady,” one of the crab-warriors murmured, raising his head towards me. “It has been a long time since we last heard from you.” ​

“Eight years isn’t that long, Pang,” I replied. “And besides, the last time I called you out, a tsunami wiped out half the islands in the Indian Ocean.” ​

“Well, you weren’t there to supervise,” Pang retorted and I chuckled. ​

“I have a special mission for you all tonight,” I announced and the army rose to stand at attention, armor and weapons gleaming from the lightning. “Five thieves have dared dishonored me by stealing something tonight. Find them all and bring them to me so that I may deal with them personally.” ​

With a roar of agreement, the army vanished, scattering into the streets to hunt them down. Humans screamed as they stared out upon a mob of giant sea creatures. Shrimp armed with spears, crabs bearing swords, fish in scale-like armor, and a whale or two with giant clubs. I folded my arms across my chest, ignoring the water soaking through my qipao. ​

"Sorry, Snake,” I murmured. “But it’s still my year. And no one can ever forget that.”