"Here it comes" I thought.

"What do you mean Elma? We all have our secrets."

She shook her head vigorously. "No No! I mean this secret is not something I should be revealing to anyone but since we're so close, I have come to the conclusion that I can't hide it from you, or rather I should not be."

"Hiding what? Are you a spy or something?"

She sighed. "Nayura, I'm not from this world. Hell, I'm not even human. I'm a er…" her body tingled with indecisiveness. "I'M A DRAGON!" she blurted at the top of her lungs.

Uncontrollable giggling overtook me. After having a good laugh I wiped my eyes. She stomped her feet on the ground and flapped her arms as if they were wings. Her reaction resembled somewhat a child begging their mother for another scoop of ice cream. Her childish innocence and mini tantrums were a sight to behold.

"HOW DARE YOU! YOU DON'T BELIEVE ME?! WELL IT'S NOT LIKE I HAD EXPECTED A HUMAN TO UNDERSTAND!" she continued arguing with me (or herself rather) like this as I continued laughing at her reactions.

After composing myself, I looked at her-her face as red as a ripe tomato and a fang at the corner of her mouth. It was opened in disbelief.

I tried to sound as sincere as possible. "I'm sorry Elma but I thought you were going to say something like 'I'm a mage' or 'I'm some high-tech spy' but a dragon?! REALLY NOW? You seriously don't expect me to…"

She took a deep breath as if I was testing her patience. Maybe I was but it was only normal to react that way. Without any further convincing on her part, she did a 360 spin.

Lo and behold, before me stood a transformed semi-human creature. I couldn't believe my eyes. I thought I was still dreaming so I slapped myself hard to wake up from this crazy-ass dream. Of course, I didn't wake up. This was real and I couldn't believe it. I rubbed my eyes to check that I wasn't seeing things.

Yep. There she stood in silence glaring at me. I was too preoccupied with my thoughts to notice that the blue sweatshirt she often wore at home had completely vanished. My eyes beheld a sight too extraordinary for me. The creature before me was clad in a black leotard which covered her upper body along with a light tan scarf wrapped around her neck. Around her waist was a dark blue sash. She wore a purple kimino with pink piping, with the topped pull down, exposing her robust shoulders. Her legs had bandages around them and she wore simple sandals, which gave off an "eastern" vibe. I took in every inch of the creature before me. A brown narwhal horn "stood out" on her head, which reminded me of a unicorn. I realized she was holding the same trident she had at the party. There it was, as clear as day. The trident did not mysteriously vanish this time. She held it like some battle weapon in her left hand.

I slowly raised the sheets off of me and climbed out of bed, not taking my eyes off of the being.

I slowly approached 'it' still ensuring that there was at least 2 feet between me and the thing in my room.

My gaze was fixated upon the half-human half-mermaid creature. She looked majestic, something worthy of praise. She looked like something right out of a storybook.

It took me a full 3 minutes of continuous staring. The creature hadn't spoken a word and went with the flow.

I barely forced the only word that I could out of mouth. "Elma?" I whispered.

She bit her lip and began fidgeting with the light brown scarf she was wearing, her face the colour of a tomato.

After a few more awkward moments I watched her shake her head with closed eyes.

"Yes yes it's me ok?! This is me."

"I just-I just can't be-believe…"

"Well this is really me, like it or not Nai!" Her whole body shook as she spoke.

I took slow steps towards her.

"So this is you huh? ... never would I ever think that storybook creatures are real."

Her expression changed to clear annoyance. "How dare you say that?! We're very real, at least other beings like myself!" she shouted at me, sounding more assertive this time.

For the first time in my life, I felt fearful of her. Hell, I wasn't even sure it was the Elma I knew. At that moment I thought maybe the "Elma" I knew was a disguise. I thought, whatever she was, I'm sure she could kill me and get away with it- definitely someone I wouldn't like to cross.

"So you're like the little mermaid then?" I said trying to ease the tension between us.

The gaze of her aqua blue eyes penetrated my soul. She raised her right eyebrow at me.

I cursed my mouth for saying something stupid again to anger her more.

"I don't know what little mermaid you speak of. I am a dragon of the Harmony faction. We help humans. We are in charge of keeping peace between humans and our race by enforcing strict laws on those who interfere in this world."

My head was spinning. This was all too much. First my one and only friend transforms into some otherworldly creature then tells me that there are others like her. This wasn't making any sense at all. How could this even be real? Was this some kind of joke?

I felt light-headed. I took a few steps back and held onto the bedpost for support. I began massaging my temples. I wondered if I was losing it.

"Are you ok?"

I looked up to see the cause of my current state.

"Ye-yeah. Just give me some time, ok?"

"Sure."