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

After years of waiting, my time had finally come, but for some reason instead of anticipation, I felt only dread. My eighteenth birthday, the day that I would receive my familiar. Maybe I feared this day because not only would it reveal my strengths but also my weaknesses. What would I find alongside me? Would it be a cat, cunning but vain, or maybe a dog, unfailingly loyal but stupidly so. Being a timid person by nature, I feared a repeat of Peter's coming of age, just a few years ago, when he found his personality embodied in a rabbit. I remember feeling embarrassed just being the younger brother of a rabbit, of all things. 
 
 It was finally time to perform the Ceremony, in which I would be given my familiar. I stood, as tradition demanded, facing my family, with my back to the dais on which my familiar would appear. My father began the Ceremony: 
 
 `` Are you, James Christopher White, prepared to accept the responsibilities of adulthood and everything that it entails?'' 
 
 `` I... I am.'' 
 
 All of a sudden, gasps issued from the crowd of family members gathered before me. 
 
 `` It ca n't be!'' 
 
 `` Is that a....'' 
 
 I turned around, bracing myself for the embarrassment of finding a rabbit as Peter had. Instead, I saw a sight that nobody else had seen before. Standing majestically on the dais behind me was a dragon, huge and covered in iridescent red scales from head to tail. 
 
 `` How is this possible?'' I asked myself. I was shy and far from the most courageous person I knew, so how was I the first person ever to get a dragon as their familiar? 
 
 -- - 
 This did n't come out nearly as well as I had hoped, probably since it was pretty rushed. I might try to come back to this and rewrite it when I have a chance. It also cuts off rather suddenly, which I'll deal with later.
