The ocean never looked so massive. Whitecaps streaked to the horizon, and the thirty-five-foot Down East Lobster boat careened through the waves. I held both hands tightly to my chest slowly taking in the morning air. My eyes peered straight, not moving a muscle, watching my surroundings. Not one seagull in the sky was missed in these moments when I meditated. A large gust of wind whipped my white hair into my eye vision and brought me to distraught.

I squinted my eyes shut and kicked at the sand as I rose to my feet and began to jog back to camp. I felt my body weight shift from one leg to the other as I trudged through heavy sand. I felt a sweat trickle down the side of my brow as the scorching hot sun beamed onto the side of my face.

"Thanh!" I shouted as I came closer to the camp that was set out on the coast  beside the mountains, "Thanh!"

I dragged around the corner and huffed at Thanh who was curled up against the mountain side. Her large scaled body glistened under the beams of the sun, I couldn't have imagined how hot my large dragon friend must've been with black scales such as hers.

I placed my small hands on Thanh's nose and winced at the heat quickly pulling my hands to my face to gently blow on them.

"What are you doing?" Thanh's soft voice hummed as she opened one eye to glare at me, "Are you already done with your morning meditation?"

I nodded, "I was cut off a little early. My hair got in the way."

Thanh closed her eye and sighed, "Then you're not done."

"I am done!" I barked, "Thanh, I want to learn something new!"

"How could you learn something new if you haven't learned anything yet?"

"That's what I'm trying to tell you." I muttered, crossing my arms tight across my chest, "I could at least learn more about my real parents."

Thanh swung her face to the side smashing her beak into my hip. The force brushed me off my feet, skidding me across the sand and straight into the ocean. I pressed my feet onto the mucky mud at the bottom of the sea and shot up to the surface. I squinted my eyes and felt my heart drop as Thanh stood there in full.

Thanh is a mastodonic dragon whose entire upper body, is covered in white, round scales, which in turn are decorated by spiraling, black markings. Her belly, inner tail and legs, is black in color, and seems to be rather smooth. She possesses a blunt, rounded head with four large and elongated plates extending backwards, and has black beady eyes. is full of sharp teeth, and below it is an elongated protrusion pointing downwards. Thanh's gargantuan - her multi-layered wings - are composed of the very same plates covering its whole body, which take on a formation reminiscent of a bird’s feathers. Her massive tail splits in two at its end, where the black plates disappear, and takes on a double stinger-like appearance.

Thanh scooped her wing down into the water and I watched her rounded scales race underneath me before she pulled it up high with me pressed against her gargantuan. The wind rushed through my face as she sent me flying, smashing my nose into the mountain side. I gripped onto the rocks and groaned as I did my best to hold my weight up.

Thanh huffed a puff of smoke toward me and I quickly kicked off the rocks and crashed down into the rough edges below. Rolling onto my feet, I ignored the sharp pains in my back and focused on Thanh's next phase of attack.

Thanh sat down on her hind legs and raised her head to the sky releasing a cloud of smoke into the air before looking back down on me, "You're focus has improved Aurora," she hummed, "But it's imperfect. Come back later when you've meditated enough for a week."

I stood like a stone, waiting. I began to ease my muscle when I was sure Thanh was no threat. I bowed slightly then hurried off toward the other side of the shore.  I felt my body weight shift from one leg to the other as I trudged through heavy sand. I rose my head high and lightly smiled, "Almost there." I muttered pleasingly to myself.

With one hand, I steadied myself onto the pole; with the other hand, I brushed my locks of hair back and clipped it with a pin. I intertwined my fingers and pulled my hands close to my chest, slowly closing my eyes in the process. I inhaled the salty air slowly and held it in my lungs as I began to count. The world around me seemed to slow down after every count.

I let my eyes open and watched the newly colored world be for me. The vibrant blue ocean against the sparkling white clouds sky. Yellow sunned seagulls spreading their wings across the light blue sky. The soft sound of the waves crashing into the shore followed by the hum of boats a far filled the air. I watched the rays of the sunset stretch across the horizon.

I exhaled slowly placing my hands on my knees. I took a moment to think of the past before lifting myself off the ground. I pulled the pin out of my hair and stuck tossed it out into the sea. Scrunching my toes in the sand, I turned to the mountains and began to trudge my way to camp.

Thanh blew faintly into a ton of logs setting them a blaze. I skidded next to the fire kicking sand in the air, "Watch it Aurora!" Thanh roared, "You don't want me to sneeze do you?" I shivered at the thought of Thanh's sneeze. It was never a pretty sight.

I patted the sand behind me and Thanh curled around the fire. I snuggled close to her smooth belly and began to hum a melody. I felt Thanh's belly vibrate as she hummed along.

"Thanh?"

"Yes Aurora."

"Can you tell me which of my parents I got my hair from?"

Thanh's muscles tightened and she quickly sprung to her feet pushing me off and toward the fire. I in my stomach as I flew over the flames, feeling it graze and irritate a layer of skin on my right thigh. I tucked in my leg close to me as Thanh flapped her wings once, "You are always asking about your parents Aurora!"

"How would you feel to be abandoned! To be left alone and scared in this world, to look up to nothing, but only a roaring dragon!" I shouted back, regretting every word I spoke. Thanh raised her head to skies and lit the night in flames. She swung her head as she roared with all her might before turning back down to me, "You scare me Thanh! How could I want to be here!"

"Without being scared, you could not be courageous. Courage is doing what you are afraid to do. Being scared to death and moving forward is what being courage is. Bravery is the capacity to perform properly when scared half to death. You would be a weak nothing if you were not scared of me!"

"I would be insane if I wasn't scared of you!" Thanh took a step back, huffing small thin clouds of smoke, "I want to feel safe, not scared. I want to feel safe, as if I had parents who loved me."

Thanh roared and flapped her wings once, "I'm tired of this! If you really want to know who your parents are then climb! Climb to the tallest mountain peak and retrieve the the pure white crystals. Only then will I tell you who your parents are."

I kicked at the sand as I began to jog away from Thanh, "Fine!" I shouted back at her as I turned the corner.