My Secret

"Arden!" I cried and then slapped my hand over my mouth. The stupid little bronze dragon had been playing in my paint set again and had then decided to run around the room, making tiny little rainbow dragon tracks all over my floor. At the mention of his name, Arden looked up at me with his gorgeous little amber eyes.

"Paint" I said sternly. Obviously ignoring the fact that he had it all over his feet, he swivelled his head to the side, looking very confused.

"Feet" I said. He looked down at his feet and made a little mewing sound that was probably a 'sorry' in dragon.

I sighed and pointed to my window slash door which was currently open.

"Go to the Lake, wash the paint off, then dry it" I said. The Lake was an old bath tub filled with water. I'd layered the bottom of it with sand, then I'd anchored all sorts of plants and shells on the bottom, giving it the look and feel of a mini lake. I'd even bought some little fish, so everyone could have some extra food when they wanted.

I watched as Arden leapt out of my room and opened his gold and bronze wings wide, gliding down to the water, to make a splashy landing. I giggled as the water from Arden's landing splashed all over Maeve. The dragon queen*, having been aroused from her slumber, was launching herself, in a very un-queen like manner I might add, at Arden. The bronze dragon didn't stand a chance, the poor fellow.

I spun around as I heard footsteps approaching my room.

"Grace, you in there sweetie?" called my mum. I surveyed my room. There were three fey sitting on top of my bookcase, probably discussing their latest spells or something. There were two Pegasus foals playing tag, zipping around the air above my head. The two Dwarf brothers were heading home after another day outside, probably tunnelling. Three hippogriffs were perched on the edge of my bed and a fluffy, white cloud with an equally white drake* sleeping on it floated by. And my mother was outside my door. And she didn't know any of this existed.

"Uh…hang on a sec" I said, stalling. I frantically started making up excuses about her not being able to enter my room.

"I just wanted to tell you that we are still going to Yum Cha with Jo and his son, uh what was his name? Michael, that's it."

"Oh" I said.

"Look. I know you don't really like Jo yet, but you'll warm up to him in time" she said sternly.

"Mhmm" I mumbled as she went away. I really didn't like Jo. He was her boyfriend. Her third since she and dad divorced. I shivered. In time she'd said. Did that mean he was going to be permanent? And I'd never met his son, Michael, before. Hmm... Before my thoughts could wander off like they usually did, I focused on what I had to do. First, clean up the rainbow dragon prints Arden had left everywhere. Second, I'd have to make sure everyone went to their assorted homes, dens and hideaways. Then I'd have to start getting myself ready to go to dinner with them. If Michael was anything like his father, I was in for a boring dinner.

"Uh...I'll have a plate of the pork dumpling please." I said to the Chinese waitress. She nodded and placed the bowl with the dumplings in it on the table, among the other bowls.

*A queen dragon is a female while a drake is a male dragon.

"Thanks" I said as she moved past. I gathered up my chopsticks and was just about to pick up a dumpling when He managed to snake his chopsticks in before mine and snatch the dumpling away. I looked at him with one eyebrow raised (a skill I am very proud of).

"Sorry" he said in a way that made me think he wasn't very sorry at all and resumed chatting to mum. I huffed and then dove in to get another, successfully landing the dumpling on my plate. I'd just taken my first bite when Michael started asking me about my drawings. I froze for a second and then quickly unfroze, hoping he didn't notice.

"Uh...what about them?" I asked cautiously.

"Oh nothing, it's just that dad said your mum said that you were a skilled artist" he said matter-of-factly. I simply nodded in reply. Just how much did they know?

I sat there daydreaming for a while, I was full and the others were still eating. I thought about how I'd discovered my 'power'.

I'd been drawing late at night. I'd been pretty tired and I had just finished a fantastic drawing of a small, bronze dragon with charming amber eyes. I'd written his name below him. 'Arden'. It was then that I had sighed, my breath had touched the page and Arden had blinked. I'd thought it was just my tired mind, but then he'd done it again! I watched the page in awe as Arden had risen out of the page like he would rise out of the water. I had just stared, my jaw slack. My dragon I'd drawn had come to life? It was then I think I half fainted half fell asleep. I had woken up, thinking that was a really weird dream. I'd rubbed my eyes, stretched and then my hand had brushed over something on the pillow beside me. I had looked over to see a tiny bronze dragon curled in a little ball, on my pillow. No...

By the time we got home, it was pretty late. Lucky for me though, it was a Friday night. I quickly went to my room and checked everyone was where they should be. The fey were in the little huts in the tree I'd made for them (I told everyone it was a school project), The dragons were all lying under my bed, as well as the Unicorns, on the little patch of synthetic grass I had bought for them. The Pegasus' were all on top of my bookcase (It was really high, so no-one can see on top of it except if you get a stool), the hippogriffs were in a little clay cave I'd found, the Dwarfs were outside in their snakes burrow (the snake was long gone) and Arden was on my other little pillow, where I had first found him. I quickly changed into my pj's and slipped into bed.

I love Saturdays because usually I spend all day with my creatures. So today was no different. I got out of bed, rubbed my eyes, stretched and yawned. I opened my eyes to see the three fey, Lucinda, Daphne and Milly, flitting around, outside. The Dwarfs were talking to the two Hippogriffs, Marnon and Raven. The three dragons, Arden, Maeve and Challon were playing in the Lake. The Unicorns and the Pegasus' were outside on the real grass, eating and playing. I decided I was going to let everyone decorate the tub today. I got out of bed, changed into some old jeans and a plain blue shirt and I got my paint set out.

"Ok everyone! Just come here for a sec will you?" I called out softly. Sometimes it was really good to have mini mythical creatures in your bedroom.

"So, I know how much you all love paint so...would you all like to help paint the tub?" I asked

I was answered by a chorus of neighs and roars and stamping.

"Keep it down guys" I whispered and they instantly quietened. I went and got all of my paints, squirted them on a massive piece of plastic I'd found and then jumped out of my room, landing on the soft grass that borders my bedroom, with a horde of dragons, Fey, hippogriffs and other mythical creatures following me eagerly.

I set the paint down, just as Arden pounced on it, everyone else following. I simply sat back and watched. As soon as the animals thought they had enough paint on the feet, they ran or flew over to the white edge of the tub, running over it and rolling on it. I laughed so hard my sides hurt when Raven, the black hippogriff, was running along the rim and then slipped because she had too much paint on her feet. Once she came above water again, all of her feathers and fur were dripping wet and she had the funniest expression on her face.

After a couple of hours, the tub was covered in multi-coloured prints ranging from petite little Fey footprints to the neat hoof prints of the Pegasus' to the massive claw prints of the dragons. It looked fantastic.

"Hey you lot!" I called to the creatures. The lot of them came galloping and flying towards me, stopping just in front of my nose and toes.

"Jump up and have a look at your masterpiece." The three Fey perched on top of my wavy red hair, the two hippogriffs peered over my shoulders, the Dwarves settled on my knees (I was sitting), the three dragons sat on the outstretched hands. The Pegasus' were hovering near my ears and the Unicorns on my thighs. All together, with my fiery hair and the tiny creatures I had conjured up from my sketchbook perched on my limbs, I guessed we would have looked pretty weird. As we surveyed our handy-work, I heard the metallic screech of brakes and the unmistakable growl of Jo's expensive new sports car. I froze for a millisecond and then sprang into action, commanding the menagerie of creatures to hurry inside and hide before they were spotted. But it was too late. Too late because I saw Michael with his face pressed up against the glass, like a young child peering through the window of the chocolate shop, except this time he was peering at me and my creatures. He was staring, slack-jawed at me, blinking slowly as if he was just waking up from a life-like dream. Which is probably what this looked like. I scurried inside my room, shutting the glass door firmly and quickly closing the curtain. I closed my eyes and counted to three, drawing deep breaths. I opened my eyes. Most of the creatures were in there hiding places, looking like fake animals. At least that's what I hoped they looked like. My mind raced thinking of possible excuses for what he had seen and the mess outside. I had been painting the tub and my 'toy' animals were out so I could copy their footprints. A plausible excuse. I ran another couple through my mind, but I decided to stick with the first one. It was most believable. I sucked in a breath as I heard a knock on the door.

"Yes?" I asked softly, hoping my voice wasn't shaking. I imagined what Michael would say if he knew what I could do.

"Freak!" he would yell, running out of the room. I shivered.

"It's Michael" came the voice.

"Uh... come in" I said slowly. He peeked through the door.

"What were you doing before, when you were outside?" he asked.

"Um...I was painting" I said nervously.

"Because I was wondering if you were doing something I could do and it's not a normal thing, you know...I uh...yeah" he said it in such a rush, I barely understood the words. But maybe that's also because of the content of what he said. Truth time. If he was talking about something else, I would just say something like: "Nah, just kidding."

I closed my eyes.

"Something like being able to draw things then breathe them to life?" I asked softly. I peeked through my eyelashes to find him smiling. He opened one hand to reveal a beautiful green dragon that was alive and curious.

"Something like that" he said, smiling.