Anada

I swim deep through the dark water as silent as always. Kicking both with my legs and arms. While I breath in more water, I become more calm as I feel the current run over my scales.

My name is Anada, it is pronounced the same way you say Canada. I'm a dragon, or you could say a water dragon to be more specific. Yes, I have wings, a tail, and I can also breath fire like a normal dragon. Except, I can only breath fire after being out of the water for twenty minutes. My scales are blue and green. I have large pair of wings, a sleek body, and a long slender tail with sharp spines.

     But really, I am a shapeshifter. I can choose to be either a dragon or a human anytime I want to. I'll tell you more about myself later.

     As I continue on through the dark waters I notice the hull of a ship. Many of the ships I see are similar, but something about this particular one was different. It looked like any other ship with a bottom covered with barnacles and slime.

     I, for some unusual reason, swim closer. As I do this, I start to hear voices coming from the boat. It sounded like they were arguing about something, but there was an edge of violence in their voices. I then decided to reserface far away from the boat so no human eye could see me.

     This boat was really a very small cargo ship. There were two groups of people aboard. A man in dark clothes stood with what looked like three henchmen at his back. The other group consisted of three other men and one woman.

I happened to come up during the middle of the argument.

The dark clothed man spoke, "This has gone far enough I won't let you continue. We will transport these drugs and you shall not stop us."

The leader of the other group answered, "You know this is not right. We have no choice, but to stop you."

I looked closer at the one who last spoke. He looked strong and ready. The others on his team were the same. The opposing men with the dark clothes was both big and muscular. They were probably on drugs themselves. There was no chance for the ones who were willing to stop the men in dark.

The groups continued to argue as I dove underwater. I knew they would eventually start a fight, and I also knew who would win.

What can I do?

I thought for a second. Then I swam over to the hull. What I had in mind was dangerous, but it was the only way not to show myself.

A year ago I was completely human myself. I hadn't yet received my dragon side. I lived in an orphanage for girls for my entire life. Everyday was boring, uneventful, and sometimes slightly depressing. One day we had a field trip to the ocean, and I absolutely loved it. The night before we left to return inland I went out to the beach by myself. I only wanted to see the ocean one last time. Slowly, I got deeper in the water. I don't know why I even got in. The waves were much too big, and I still to this day have no idea why I kept getting farther into the waves. In a way I was amazed by the ocean's extraordinary characteristics.
Eventually, I was caught by the undertow and never resurfaced. I shockingly woke the next day as a water dragon. The first six months after that I never returned to land. The fact that I had become a mythical creature seemed to overwhelm me.

After I finally got used to shifting, I started visiting towns on sea shores and then I would return to the ocean later that day. I never would leave the water if there was no place safe enough to surface.

The one thing I always did was to make sure never to stay in a town too long, because sometimes I would go to the same town more than once. Why do I do this? I don't want people getting suspicious.