Orion's green wings stretched. "No! The Atlantis elders can't be dead."

My dragon was mine, and I was his. We were family, and we stared at the city below, our hearts aching.

"Penelope! They're dead," Orion called out. "My magic could only save one person. It'd be monstrous if I didn't try to save my best friend."

The stone castle sank, with all the elders trapped inside.

"It's unfair!" I yelled. "But it's not your fault. We tried to save them all. We tried."

Fishermen grabbed their children and sailed away to better lands. At least they survived. They were the only ones who listened to Orion.

My red hair fell into my face. Tears stung my eyes. I rode on Orion with the other dragon riders when our city fell into the sea.

Orion sobbed.

"I'm sorry." I petted his trembling, emerald-colored wings.

"How could the mermaids kill all those innocent citizens?"

"For food and to build their underwater castles." I nestled against Orion for warmth and comfort. "We witnessed the destruction, and our pain will burn inside us."

It wasn't a normal earthquake, or that the man-made island couldn't support the growing population.

It's the elders who invited the sirens to live with us. Evil mermaids were so beautiful and could become human when they dried themselves off.

Sometimes beauty is like the first Cinderella, for there were many women with that name who were mistreated.

The first was foolish and vain and helped her father's mistress kill her kind stepmother, and she became a servant to the wicked woman.

In the future, this cursed her daughters and step sisters. Each needed love to break it.

Some misunderstood that they needed to love, not to be loved.

Cinderella's eldest daughter married a prince in the sea.

Her offspring became more and more evil with each generation, and love became less popular.

Beautiful monsters, disguised with fake kindness.

The new mermaids convinced the elders to drive my group out, and the dragons saved us from being burned as witches.

"You will not be ash," Orion told me. "You're my human."

Dragons saved us, and we would hide.

The elders were wrong when the mermaids used fire and ash.

The evil beauties destroyed my home, my Atlantis, and my heart.

With dragon magic, we went through time and space trying to escape, and we came back to a modern world.

I tried to keep my new island home safe, and it worked for years.

Mermaids were nothing more than legends.

Ten years passed, and we built another home with the other dragon riders.

Orion's first hatchlings arrived, and I was joyous that my best friend was a father.

I heard singing, and the mermaids had returned.

Orion breathed fire to light my star-shaped lantern.

Three yellow candles burned inside, wax dripping down onto the sand.

Swimmers did not see me. I ran to the beach and climbed the white lifeguard tower. Boaters refused to hear me.

"Come back. They're evil mermaids!" I clutched Orion's back. "Modern humans have been spoiled by children's cartoon shows and fairy tales."

Enchanted boaters and swimmers did not listen and tossed their treasures into the sea. Gifts to the monsters.

The mermaids lied. "Evil dragons will devour you."

"I won't kill you, but beware of the monsters of the sea," the dragon says.

"But we're beautiful," the mermaids called out.

A few humans rowed closer to the sea monsters.

Painted claws drag them under the breaking waves.

Mermaids beckon each man and woman. "Remember us. We have sunk Atlantis, and we will destroy you."

"No, this time we will fight." Orion reached out and scratched the closest mermaid with his claws.

She screeched in pain and fear.

Survivors grabbed laser shot guns and fired into them.

"This time, we can record you, and the world will know what you are," I said.