A Dragon's story

I remember well, those days of old, when the meat was fresh and juicy and ran fast, but never fast enough. When I and my brethren ruled the skies and were feared and fed by minor creatures. We soared through the heavens on our silver-rimmed wings, delighted in our youth and strength, thinking ourselves invincible. The woods were bigger then, and fuller with little creatures who sometimes made the mistake to come out and serve us as our pray. We took pleasure in the hunt, not killing quickly, cowardly like many do now. We scorched the plains here and there, often starting a bonfire that would pleasure the eyes and drive all the little ones to us.
They were truly happy days for me and my kind. Some little ones, the Two-legged souls, the ones that wear fake skins without feathers or hairs, kept nice and shiny things for us in ugly stone places, and when we released them from their guarding duty, they tasted nice and fleshy, and screamed delightfully. How I long for those days now, those Golden Days, the Age of Overflow. But they are no more.

Many of my kind have perished, I rejoiced in their absence for the fewer we are, the more treasure and food. I have never sought company of my kind, other then to steal or burn, to kill and victory. Now they are gone I have one care less.
And that comes in well,for I have had too many concerns the last years. The treasures are getting less, and the Twolegs have made themselves pointy sticks that are treacherous for their lovely shine and shimmer. They never had proper teeth or claws to fight and defend with, and never any reason to, for they were good and fit meals to me, but it seems they tried to better nature by designing claws of their own. No good can come of that. We are what we are, and cannot overcome our nature. We, the Masters of the Sky, who breath fire, we are the first and supreme beings of this earth and always will be. No other creature can better us, now or in times to come. The Twolegs will find this truth, be it in their silly stone-holes or in the belly of one of my kind.

A few seasons ago I was out for treasure in the northern part of my lands. There was a stone treasure-keep that I had not visited for a few centuries, because the Two-legs do take their time in filling the things up again. They are fast in everything else, their lifes seem to pass as quickly as a strike of my wings, but not in this. I do not mind, the treasures are even better when I have to wait to collect them. And my lands are big enough to support two dragons my size.
The keep was once again full of meat and treasure, as I knew it would be. After I fed I set out hunting for the shiny things. They were in the same part of the keep as they were in before, so it did not take a great amount of time. Some of the Twolegs were in with the treasure and they screamed the kind of thing that every dragon likes to hear. It makes us grateful that we are not the only ones born with speech.
"Please, you've taken so much already, please leave us alone!"
"I will not let you take one step further, I will murder you, savage beast!"
And more nice sayings to help the hunger and greed awake in a dragon. Some were leaking water at the corners of their eyes, a gift no dragon possesses for we are creatures of fire.
I looked for the biggest heap of shiny things and stretched my claws. One of the shouting Two-legs stuck his stick at me and with a blow of irritation (he had taken my sight of a lovely piece of treasure) I wiped him out the window. Before more sticks could come between me and my shiny things I blew my fiery breath and quickly they blackened from mood and flesh.
I took my possessions and filled my claws at ease then. One of the female Twolegs had covered herself in treasure, probably to hide her ugliness and pale skin. I took her along to enjoy myself on the way home, and never have made a better decision in my long and stretched lifetime.
Within a few minutes I was ready to take for the skies, I unfolded my wings and stretched my hind legs. Then I was up in the skies and felt a lovely summer breeze caressing my slender body, supporting my mighty wings. With all the treasure I did not feel like burning the neighbouring plains, but I kept it in mind for later. The Twoleg in my claws was leaking from her eyes as if she was trying to create an ocean, sadly enough she had stopped screaming a little while ago. Now only little sobs came out. I squeezed her a bit but she seemed to be to exhausted to react. I would save her, and rest her and then make her scream again. And in the end eat her.

The treasures hardly made my pile higher, I had been collecting and piling here for many lifetimes of the Twolegs and the shining silver and gold, and rainbow-coloured gems could easily fill a dragon my size. After all the burning and plundering I made myself comfortable and had a little sleep.

I awoke in the magic light of dusk, when two worlds meet. Of course the little Twoleg had gone, but since they have no wings they can never escape a dragons reach. Slowly I opened my eyelids and turned and twisted to rid myself of sleepiness. From where I lay I could see a little circle of the outside sky, being a magnificent deep blue that resembled the scales of the dragon I know lives in the south. I set out quietly, brushed by the few blackened stumps of trees and held my fire. I did not need long to find the treasure-covered Twoleg, her bright fake skin and her many shiny things stood out even in this half light and she had not tried to take cover and hide. A silly thing, she was. I let out some fire in a deep sigh, and at that she started running. Yes, very silly indeed. But humans will try to outrun a dragon, and some even get away when there are trees nearby.
I flew slowly to have some pleasure in the hunt, but this Twoleg had already fallen on the ground and had taken to sobbing again. It was annoying to be denied the pleasure of a good hunt by such a small and meaningless creature. I hovered over her but she did not react. Living in stone keeps makes the Twolegs weak and vulnerable, I think. They no longer seem to know how to react to danger, or how to please a dragon. It annoyed and angered me, so I decided not to eat this stupid creature, but to keep her and feed her until the hunt would be better.

Only a few weeks had passed when I was surprised by yet another Twoleg, who had climbed my mountain sitting on a maned Four-leg. The hunger had started to build up again and I was pondering about the idea to eat the female Twoleg anyway, because her running had not improved one bit and though she screamed a bit more, most of her time was still spent sobbing. She was making herself into a big nuisance. I had opened one eye to evoke a little squeal when I noticed the male Twoleg, all covered in shiny clothes. Those shiny clothes usually took quite some chewing. He was gesturing to the female Twoleg. I cut the pair short by stretching first one leg, then the other. The male Twoleg had now lost sight of the female Twoleg. Nothing happened for a while, but supense, fear and a touch of hope made a lovely scent in the air. There would be a hunt today.
After a little waiting the male climbed my left paw. Quickly I opened my other eye and held him with my gaze. The male stayed where he was. He was a courageous Twoleg, for he didn't whine or whimper or even freeze from my stare. He stood there and looked back at me.
'I have come to release our princess and bring her home, dragon.'
The female Twoleg let out another one of her squeals, and started to run towards the man, but with my other claw I caught her short.
'Hmmmm,' I answered the man. 'Interesting.' I was wondering what that meant: princess. It clearly was the female twoleg and the sound of it rang of importance.
'In return for our princess we will give you as much gold as the size of your eye.'
'You have no gold nor jewels I cannot take from you.'
This clearly was not an answer that pleased my little meal, but he played the game well and I was enjoying it. If the silly Twoleg had brought this on me, well, maybe she wasn't so bad after all. The talking went on a little more, but in the end my vistim took out one of the smaller pointy sticks and tried to stick it into my eye. He did it so suddenly, it had nearly worked for him, but not fast enough. He was an odd Twoleg, for he naver ran away but kept coming back for his precious princess, even when he could only crawl. I ate him, and chewed for hours on his cloth. He was the best prey I'd ever had.
The princess was sobbing.

Over the months, many of these Twolegs came, some as brave as the first, some cowards who ran away as soon as they would see me, yelling something about a princess. I ate them and sat in my lair being delighted with the new way of finding food. I didn't need to hunt, for my meals came to seek me. In the end I ate her as well, in a flash of not-thinking nuisance. No more Twolegs came when they found out.

After that time, I have made sure to keep a Twoleg at all times. I discovered that princesses are better then other females, they bring on much more prey. It is not very hard getting by them: I simply fly up to the nearest keep in my territory and burn and hunt along the way. Then I demand a princess to be given to me, and the kind Twolegs will present a treasure covered heap of ugly pale sobbing. This is a way of living that nearly brings back the Age of Overflow, and a dragon of my age could not wish for anything better than a good meal once in a while, devoured on my golden treasure mountain.

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