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Yesterday night, I did something I'm not allowed to, and I don't regret it.

The keeper left the barn open. It never happened before, usually the always check no less than three times that the gates are locked down. They certainly don't want to let their precious dragon to get off. How can their rider fight all those human wars, then?

But yesterday, he didn't. For the first time ever, I managed to see the sunset from the barn's gate. Even the smell was different - more refreshing, like if the air itself was getting ready for the night. My rider would never let me experience all that. It was as if once his daily duties were fulfilled, he stopped existing. I never got to know what he'd do at night.

At first, I didn't dare moving a muscle. I wanted so bad to get out, to smell more of what the night was like with my own nose. But I wasn't stupid, and wasn't too brave. I knew the keeper could come and close the gate at any moment. I smelt that sunset air as deep as I could, feeling it would be my last time ever doing it in that place.

As I kept doing it, though, the air kept getting cooler. The sky became darker. No human arrived. It was finally night, and I was alone in the barn, and in front of me was an open gate that invited me to have a taste of the world outside, all by myself. But I couldn't... I would be punished...

Suddenly, my mind told me something I didn't expect it to tell me. They'l never discover it, it said. There was some chance it was true, indeed - at night, humans were inactive. I had seen it myself those rare moments when me and my rider had to travel for more than one day and were forced to share the same location. As the world outside the glasses became dark, he'd become completely motionless, and wouldn't answer my calls. Once, on those occasions, he had forgotten to provide me with water, and I spent the whole night desperately roaring for his attention, to no avail. I almost drained a lake nearby the morning after.

Now one of my front paws was attemptively making a step ahead of the gate. I was shaking. My tail was swinging out of agitation. It was now or never.

I made another step.

Then a third one.

Suddenly, walking started becoming easier as I made more.

Finally, I was out. I spread my wings, and left the ground.

It was my first time ever flying without anything on my back. It was my first time ever flying without being given any direction. In fact, it was my first time ever doing a lot of things, that I stopped thinking about it.

All my fears had remained inside the barn now. I flew just for the sake of it, surfing on the chilly air caressing my scales, the moon providing some lights to the human buildings below me, all quiet and dark. They were all sleeping. I was safe.

There was no reason now to remain there. Next, I flew to the sea's direction. The barn was so close to it, yet my rider had never made me go there, except for when he had to sail on a ship and I had to be closed in the depths of it for months. I liked the sea, but for me it had become something where I'd be confined in the same place for months, with no chance of walking around. Now though, my claws were touching the water's surface. I couldn't resist and dived into the water, then resurfaced, and then dived again. The thought of my rider was but a distant, vague echo as I was now free. In the distance, a group of dolphins splashed in the water; I joined them, before deciding to feed myself on them and gulping a pair, finally tasting live flesh after a life spent eating carcasses.

I was free. I was living like a dragon. This was how wild dragons lived like. No duties, no timetables, no humans on their back. They were masters of their own life. But me? A being hatched in a human building, who barely had the time to spend time with her kind for a handful of days before being taken by a human who 'had always wanted to have a dragon and be a rider'? Was I really worthy of being called a dragon, or was I a parody? All those questions emerged within me, like if they had always been present but I had never realized it. But I would think about those later. Now, all I wanted to do was enjoying my freedom.

But alas, dawn came too soon. My mind hadn't become free enough to escape the fear of what could happen if the humans awakened and didn't find me there. With effort, I soared above the sea and turned to the land's direction, praying I'd be back there before the sun's appearance.

When I returned, the sun was just above the horizon. In a hurry, I shook the water out of my scales and got back to the bed of hay where I was supposed to be, pretending to be sleeping, praying that no one had seen me.

The humans arrived when the sky was orange. I still pretended to be sleeping, and I heard the keeper gasping.

"Oh dear! I forgot to close the gate!"

I made my best not to react to his reaction, limiting myself to listening to him chatting to himself. "Damn, if this beast had flown out of the barn, who would dare tell the master?" Then he got close to me. "Good morning sunshine! Your rider is waiting for you at the training fields."

Slowly, I opened my eye and got up. Duty was calling. I wondered if I'd manage to bear it, now that I had tasted a free dragon's life, even if briefly. But at least, I could say I had done it once in my life. Better than nothing.