The Dragon and the Slayer

It's bedtime and the mother is about to read a fairy tale to her children. "What story do you want me to read, kids?" She asks.

"The Dragon and the Slayer!" They answer in chorus.

"Again?" She moans.

"Yes!"

"In that case, let's read it." She says and then flips the book to the page where it begins.

"Once upon a time, there was a boy who seemed to be like any others. He went to school with his friends, had a girlfriend and lived at a regular home with his parents and his sister. However, he hid a secret from his friends, his girlfriend and his father: he's a fire-breathing dragon. Like all other dragons with powers from his mother's family (she herself didn't have any powers since they usually skip generations), he had to protect the magical creatures from harm. One of the biggest threats to them was a group known as the Huntsclan, made of dragon slayers who believed magical creatures were evil and should be destroyed. Two of the greatest slayers the dragon ever had to face were the Huntsman, known by his followers as Huntsmaster and by the dragon as Huntspunk, and his apprentice, the Huntsgirl. As the magical creatures have been living in hiding for so many centuries, most humans outside the Huntsclan didn't believe the magical creatures really existed and the ones who did were ridiculed. The dragon's best friends at school and his father fit the first group while a teacher who fit the second one did all he could to prove the existence of magical creatures. His first chance was when the Huntsgirl left the dragon unconscious but didn't stay long enough to slay him because she saw people approaching and the Huntsclan avoided being seen by humans who aren't part of their organization. Coincidentally, the two people happened to be the dragon's best friends. Since they didn't know the dragon was just their friend in another form and didn't even know until then that dragons were real, they sold him to the teacher. Fortunately, when they went to his home to tell the good news, they learned the truth and rescued him on time. Rather than erasing their memories as ordered by his maternal grandfather, he let them in the secret and they became his allies at his fight against evil. After several dates he missed, he decided to tell his girlfriend about being a dragon but before he had the chance, he found out she's the Huntsgirl. Devastated, he started avoiding her until the great Equinox Hunt, when she became so close to slaying him he decided she deserved to say goodbye to his human half. However, instead of slaying him, she spared him and eventually became a spy for him. Eventually, she was discovered by her master and forced to betray the dragon. When that betrayal led the Huntsmaster to finally have the power to wish for the destruction of all magical creatures, she interfered and wished for the Huntsclan's destruction, which would have killed her as well had the dragon not made a wish of his own later: that the slayer had never been taken by the Huntsclan. The wish saved her but made her forget all they had together and they went through separate paths until they met at a distant land where she remembered everything and they teamed up against a bigger threat than the Huntsclan: the Dark Dragon, the only dragon to ever turn evil."

"Wait a minute." The daughter asks. "Didn't this Dark Dragon have an accomplice who also was a dragon? Then how come he's called the 'only' dragon to ever turn evil?"

"I never understood it myself." The mother replies. "May I continue?"

"Sure."

"After that, the dragon and the slayer lived happily ever after." The mother finishes telling the tale and then leaves the children's bedroom for her own, where her husband waits for her.

"You know, the way you tell the tale gives me the impression you actually believe it to be real." The husband says.

"Do you think so, Kyle?" She asks.

THE END

Did you like it? I've had this idea on my mind for a while and finally decided to write it. Who did you readers think was reading the tale before any name was mentioned?