[ WP ] Man can bond with any creature , be it dog , cat , dragon or butterfly .

As Manda walked down the street in her electric pink high heels and long black dress, she turned heads for a couple of reasons. One of them was her outfit, and the fact that she looked stunning. However, the reason most people were staring was probably the dragon on her shoulder. 
 
 Thor *was* pretty great, even for the already high dragon standards. Everybody had a spirit animal—a little monochrome hologram, with special AI meant to match the owner ’ s personality. When you were eight, you got your animal from SPIRIT Inc. and paraded your new accessory around. SPIRIT tended to give dragons to those with a “ fiery personality ” and/or “ passion and creativity ”. And Thor was a stunning dragon—dark blue scales that went well with Manda ’ s brown hair, and piercing ice-colored eyes. He was about nine inches tall, the legal limit for a spirit animal, and loved soaking in the attention. His tail was raised up, like a peacock ’ s when it wants to show off. Manda and Thor were the perfect pair, and the way they marched down the avenue showed it. 
 
 “ Hey, Mari! ” Manda shouted at a girl outside Papa ’ s Diner. 
 
 At the mention of her name, Mari turned around. Her violet butterfly, Sol, was hovering about six inches above her blond hair. “ There you are! ” she said in her bubbly voice. “ Ready for our lunch date? ” 
 
 “ Yeah, ” Manda replied. “ I need to take my mind off the interview. ” 
 
 “ Ooh! ” Mari ’ s eyes gleamed, and Sol did a little flip above her head. “ How was it? ” 
 
 “ I ’ ll tell you inside, ” Manda responded. 
 
 They went inside and sat down at a booth by the window. Thor curled up his holographic tail around Manda ’ s neck and stretched his wings. 
 
 “ So, your first job interview! ” Mari giggled. “ How ’ d it go? ” 
 
 Manda started to speak, but was interrupted by a waiter and his spirit squirrel. “ Hey, ladies, ” he smirked, winking at Manda as he did so. His squirrel was fixated on Manda ’ s hair. 
 
 “ Hello, ” Mari said. “ We ’ d like a medium pizza, half pepperoni. And two Dr. Peppers. ” 
 
 The waiter nodded, but the squirrel seemed disappointed that it couldn ’ t continue staring at Manda. “ Comin ’ right up, ” he uttered, walking away. 
 
 “ Yeesh, ” Manda groaned. “ That ’ s the second time today. ” 
 
 “ Gosh, he thought he could hit on you, ” Mari whined with fake pity for the waiter. “ Not with that ugly glorified rat. If SPIRIT gave him that, I imagine his personality isn ’ t so great. ” 
 
 Manda nodded. “ So, I walked up to the building— “ 
 
 “ Was it big? Were there machines and stuff? Did all the employees have cool animals? ” 
 
 “ No, ” Manda returned. “ It just said ‘ SPIRIT Inc. ’ on the outside. And they changed their slogan again. Now it ’ s, like, ‘ Taming your personality ’ or something. And I don ’ t think you ’ re allowed to get cooler animals if you work at the place. ” 
 
 “ Lame, ” Mari said. “ So what was the actual interview like? ” 
 
 “ There was a hot guy with a lynx, ” Manda recalled. “ And he asked me stuff. ” 
 
 “ What kind of stuff? ” Mari begged. If there were two things that described Mari, they were gossip and vanity. Currently she wanted gossip, however dull. 
 
 “ Not a lot, actually, ” Manda replied. “ Some personal stuff, like what ’ s my name and my age and where did I graduate and stuff. And then he quizzed me. ” 
 
 “ You studied your ass off! ” Mari interjected. Sol was flitting around like a ping-pong ball ricocheting against invisible walls. “ What ’ d he ask? ” 
 
 “ What kind of person gets a polar bear, what would you give this person, what ’ s the legal size limit. All stuff I studied. ” Manda smiled as she remembered the interview. Polar bears were shy and smart, she had said with confidence, and the person in the description definitely got a seven-inch-tall penguin. And she blurted out the size limit—the animal must fit in a nine-inch cube—before hot lynx boy even finished the question. 
 
 “ Was that all he asked you? ” Mari questioned. “ You were gone for, like, an hour and a half! ” 
 
 “ Pizza! ” interrupted a voice. The girls turned to see another waiter, this time with a panda. He set down the pizza on the table and complimented Thor before walking away. 
 
 “ He was kinda cute, ” Manda suggested, taking a slice. 
 
 Mari shook her head. “ Meh, I ’ ve dated pandas before. Not too much fun. So anyway, did lynx boy ask you anything else? ” 
 
 “ Well, he also asked me stuff about the algorithms they use to make the animals behave like they want. ” Manda smiled again, this time because she knew everything about the algorithm that wasn ’ t confidential. “ But he spent most of the time looking at Thor. ” 
 
 “ I mean, Thor is pretty nice, ” Mari offered. “ I read that only 1 % of 1 % of people have mythicals. ” 
 
 “ He said that most of the applicants were owls, ” Manda explained. “ But he liked Thor a lot. And he would know. ” 
 
 “ Yeah, you ’ re pretty lucky in that department. ” Mari held her hand out for Sol to perch on. “ The only other mythical I know is Rick, and he isn ’ t amounting to much. ” 
 
 “ Well, he is a goblin, ” Manda mused. 
 
 “ Yeah, ” Mari exclaimed as she took a slice of pizza. “ He tried to become a teacher, but he got rejected. It ’ s probably because of his goblin. ” 
 
 “ That doesn ’ t seem fair, ” Manda said. “ He ’ s a nice guy. ” 
 
 “ Well, it ’ s science, ” responded Mari. “ Goblins are troublemakers. The scientists say Napoleon Bonaparte was either a goblin or a dinosaur, and he took over Europe. And that guy from the one movie we saw was a goblin, but they edited the goblin out to be a lion. He could n't act the part. ” 
 
 “ I suppose, ” Manda pondered. She ate the last bite of pizza and reached for her wallet. “ I'll call you tomorrow if I hear from SPIRIT. ” 
 
 “ And text me if you see any tigers! ” Mari shouted back. “ I'm looking for a new boyfriend. ” 
 
 Manda laughed, put some bills on the table, and stood up. Mari was usually looking for a boyfriend. But that was her. “ Bye, Mari. And you too, little guy, ” she added, looking at Sol. 
 
 “ Bye, you two, ” Mari shouted back. 
 
 And with that, Manda and Thor swung open the door and prepared to be the center of attention as usual.
