[ WP ] When everyone turns 18 , they receive a pet which is figurative of their personality . You 're the first person to receive a dragon ...

“ Prepare for something large and definitely carnivorous. ” 
 
 The entirety of the Sheirestein kingdom was gathered in the castle grounds. Nobility and peasants alike gambled together and kept the castle alive with boisterous activities. Lady Freda, eldest daughter of Kind Arren, was having her eighteenth birthday, and the kingdom celebrated spectacularly, constantly crying out to the still virgin beauty held high above them on a magnificent pedestal carved ornately with all the icy creatures of the north. 
 
 Atop the pedestal, Freda stood defiantly above her father and his charges. She refused to abandon her gray eyes from the sky, which seemed to reflect her own attitude with its angry howling. The snow stung her face, but it did n't bother her. She refused to dress appropriately for the blizzard outside, choosing instead her finest clothing for the occasion. Her pale skin and delicate frame was clothed in the typical skin tight seal suit to keep out the worst of the cold, though covering that was not her bulking furs, but blood-colored silks, whipping about her furiously. 
 
 Corralled beneath her barked fifty seal pups and hundreds of fish. The smell disgusted her even at her height. 
 
 Her birth hour has long passed, and her family began to worry. Perhaps the diviner had been wrong and their daughter would have to travel elsewhere to meet with her soul companion. Freda could imagine their thoughts. The kingdom had begun to rot with corruption. Wars from southern countries finally seemed possible and peace treaties had been broken. A marriage is the last hope of the kingdom. 
 
 “ I can promise my virginity. The kingdom's survival. A peaceful pact with the most successful southern country which will allow us access to all countries between. You need only wait for me to receive my soul companion. Forge the treaty. The prince is too young for marriage anyway. I will travel the night of my eighteenth birthday. ” 
 
 Freda's bargain with her father six years ago prevented the first war, stopped the groping hands of the guards, and gave her protection from harm or selling until her eighteenth birthday. 
 
 Now was the day to pay up and seal her fate as a daughter. There is no succession in the kingdom for her. No right to become a Queen. No right to a voice. Her thin lips parted in a smile as she saw a shadow in the sky. She had insisted the kingdom be here to see her soul companion and wish her a safe journey for marriage. Her family sat beneath her. Her mother and queen. The true heirs to the kingdom with their masculinity cloaking them in safety and assurance of prosperity. 
 
 Directly before her, hovering on great wings, each downward motion sending gusting flurries to the earth beneath buffeting the audience, was her soul companion. A dragon. The dragon. 
 
 “ My heart. ” The sound of the draconic voice caused a few women to scream. The power of it threatened to rip the clothes off Freda. 
 
 “ My soul. ” Freda whispered. Her eyes lighting up, she laughed and cried out, sweeping her arms to motion the entirety of the kingdom, “ Feast! ”
