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Ana-Maria Chircea, 38 years old, is participating in the 6th International Literary Creation Competition, from Oradea, Romania. We are grateful for the participation and wish her success.

     Daia

 “What are you doing in the forest at this late hour? Are you lost?”
   “No! We are going home.” answered Daia, feeling that something was not quite right. 
She thought the fox was strange. She had sharp, sly eyes.
   “Please, come with me! You both look as you might need a rest.”
   The dragon nodded, hoping he would get a mouthful of tasty food. Daia thought otherwise, but for the dragon's sake, she agreed. When they arrived at the fox's den, the two of them realized that inside was a proper house. It even had a pizza oven. Out of nowhere, the fox transformed into a girl with wiry hair, a snub nose and ears bent forward. With unforeseen force, she threw the dragon into the corner of the house, whereupon something like a cage fell over him. The wiry haired girl took the key from the door of the cage and put it in the pocket of her dirty, unkempt coat. Daia felt a forceful hand grab her by her waist and, in the blink of an eye, she was thrown into a chair. All this I am telling you, truly happened really quickly, so quickly that you would not be able to spell your name in the time that it took.
   “I am the Daughter of the Forest”, she revealed in a superior tone. “My mother is the Mother of the Forest and my father is the Father of the Forest. In these parts, we are the masters and any intruder will be slow-cooked. We do like to eat high quality premium meat. You're skinny, I'm not in the habit of gnawing bones, but that dragon looks pretty tender.”
   Daia noticed, as the girl with wiry hair spoke that in the house was a shabby table with two bowls on it. In one of them there were a few berries, and in the other one two or three cockroaches.
   “She must be on a diet!” Daia thought.
   “I could do with a juicy dragon steak!” interrupted the Daughter of the Forest.
   “No need!” replied Daia. “Without my magic pepper, the dragon won't taste good at all. You'll be so disappointed. I know that much!”  Daia pointed out.
   “What's so special about that pepper?” the Daughter of the Forest asked, puzzled and curious at the same time.
   “The taste!” smiled Daia. “The taste is the one that makes the difference!”
   What you don't know about the Daughter of the Forest, and I'll tell you, is that she was a little bit naive. She readily accepted a spoonful of ground pepper from Daia's pepper mill in exchange for her release. And she sneezed so much from the pepper, she started to cry. While she was preoccupied with her sneezing, Daia took the key to the cage and three hazelnut flavoured chocolate bars that she found near it. 
   “She is not on a diet, after all!” she thought.
   She quickly freed the dragon. And because sometimes running away is wise, they both took off through the woods as fast as they could. Daius couldn't fly through the trees, Daia couldn't fly at all, so they ran, eating up the ground. After a while, Daia felt the need to stop and rest. There was no one behind them. She leaned against the trunk of an old oak tree and, with her knees drawn up to her chest, had a rest on the dragon's soft scales.
   We don't know how much time had passed, but Daia woke up full of energy and immediately set off down the straight path. With the dragon by her side, she felt strong. She told him stories invented on the spot. The path led out of the forest and into the Longing's Gorge, a rocky area. Here, you could see black goats, wild horses and, on sunny days, even dinosaurs. Daius didn't believe her. Dinosaurs never existed. 
   Suddenly, a creature resembling a giant reptile appeared on a cliff. It perched like a vulture scanning its prey. Or, perhaps, like a lonely wolf, waiting for the golden moon. Daia seriously thought of taking three steps back and heading off on a different path, but it was too late. The reptile opened its wings, which neither of them had noticed before and in the blink of an eye, it enveloped them with its wings. With four strong and fierce beats of its wings, it lifted them into the sky and carried them to its cave in the heart of the cliffs.
   There, the two adventurers learned that the reptile was none other than Laurie, the monstrous serpent with seven heads and golden wings. He was friendly, sharp, gentle and slightly jumpy, a kind of victim and executioner all at once. He seated them at the table and offered them wild boar meat and ladybird’s mushrooms, a delicacy around those parts.
   “It is just what I was looking for!” Daia whispered to the dragon.
   While the dragon ate with a visible appetite, Daia took three ladybug’s mushrooms and put them in the Persian saddle bag.
  “May they well be received!” she whispered again.
   Laurie, the now not so monstrous serpent, looked at them with its seven heads. He couldn't believe his good fortune to meet the dragon.
   “Your friend will stay with me, he said to Daia. I need him as a housekeeper. I'll give you, in exchange, three bags of pennies and a Fate. I'm bored to death with the three of them. It's quite simple. You accept, you are free to go. If you want to reconsider my proposal, you can reconsider it in the dungeon with the Fates.”
   That's how Daia found out that the Fates had been taken prisoner by Laurie. He managed to keep them captive with the help of magical scarlet leaves, which took away their magical powers. Daia's first thought, rash indeed, was to refuse Laurie's offer. So, predictably, she ended up with the Fates, in the dungeon. Laurie, the monstrous serpent with seven heads and golden wings,  put a chain around the dragon's young neck and a chain that was appallingly thick on one leg, long enough to clean and tidy the cave situated in the heart of the cliffs, but too short to reach the dungeon gate.
   The Fates were true beauties. The first Fate had red, fiery hair and was dressed in an emerald coloured long dress, the second one had hair like spring grass and a ruby and slightly purple dress and finally the third one had hair the colour of a peach and a sapphire dress. Daia marvelled at the dresses and their unparalleled beauty. She couldn't believe her eyes and ears at how much they could argue and contradict each other. They blamed each other for the situation they were in. It was only after a while that they finally noticed that there was someone else in the dungeon. In fact, Daia had spoken first and, we think, distracted them from their arguing.
   “Are you the real Fates?” she hesitated.
   “Of men, of fish, of tiny dragons, of serpents with seven heads and golden wings, of birds, of all living creatures” they answered in chorus.
   “I take it you've been to my place, as well. What did you wish for me?”
   The three Fates formed a circle and began to dance slowly. 
   “Daia Hope” they whispered three times, almost like whispering in a secret ritual.
   “Imagination, Love and Wisdom” they answered in chorus.
   “Haven't you thought of wishing me good health?” roared Daia, in a harsh tone.
   “We are truly sorry, Daia! We gave it to our mother on that specific day. She was very ill, poisoned by the monstrous serpent with seven heads and golden wings. Laurie, as you know him by now, has terrorized us for years.”
   Daia took a chocolate bar out of her Persian saddle bag, you know, the peanut-flavoured kind, and gave it to the Fates. As soon as they had tasted it, they escaped the spell of the scarlet leaves, and went out of the dungeon, easily bending some old iron bars. They untied the dragon and, coming out of the cave, knocked down three rocks over the entrance. Laurie, the terrible serpent, was fast asleep. Not even the sound of the heavy rocks crashing over the entrance woke him up. Even today we don't know if he's still asleep or if he made it out of the cave. But we do know what adventures Daia went through with her dragon.
   “What did he have against you?” Daia asked the Fates.
   “It was an old grudge. Mother wouldn't marry him. She married the Sun and that made him terribly angry. Thank you for the chocolate! Much appreciated!”
   “Daius! As we were captive, we were not able to wish anything for you. It's late now, it's been three days since you hatched. But you can make your own destiny. There are no limits. That is the magic of not having us around.”