Sup. Two chapters at the same time?- is what I bet you're wondering questioningly. Yes indeed, my friends. You see, once I start writing, I have a habit of not really wanting to stop. This story prompt was also taken off of the internet, not the book I always talk about. The last chapter was a bit short, I'll admit, so hopefully the length of this one makes up for it. Here you go, and I hope you enjoy!
There are always going to be stereotypes, no matter what anyone else tries to say. It's depressing and all kinds of messed up, but that's just the way it is. There are ways of discriminating against not only humans, but animals too. Stories are written- mostly children's books- to describe what is good and what is bad. We teach these things to the next generation, hoping that they'll turn out better than the one before them.
For example: fantasies. They can be addicting- after all, they're a temporary escape from reality- and that's why so many of us can be found endlessly reading them. We want to read about worlds that are so much more adventurous than ours, and so we devour the stories as if they were a silver platter of food just waiting to be eaten.
Fantasies are great and all, but they have hidden messages written within their depths. Most kids that read them would gloss over it without a second thought, but some are smart enough to know a moral theme when they see one. A book about the life of dragons and how they [would] interact with one another would be fascinating. These types of stories exist, but they can all be compared.
You could see a two books that have dragons in them and see the same recurring theme in both of them: dragons are usually the enemy. They steal the princess, but not for very long, for her noble prince comes and saves her from the horrid beast. Those types of books just write off dragons as monsters without even knowing what else they can be. If dragons were to exist, they would have many other personality traits that would make them unique, just like humans.
So I've decided to write a fantasy of my own, where a dragon exists and is just simply misunderstood- like most of the books we see today do.
A long time ago, you see, a dragon lived by a neighbouring town. This town was relatively small, with about 3,000 people living in it. The dragon's home was by a creek, and it was even smaller. Well, small for a dragon, at least. The cave he lived in was so small that he didn't have very much room for food. Once he caught a meal, he would have to eat it on the spot so that it wouldn't take up much-needed space in his cave. It was cruel, but it was his way of living at this point.
The people in the town despised him. Whenever he would venture out of his cave- which wasn't very often, mind you- they would gather in the square and try to make him leave. Pitchforks and fire was usually involved in this struggle, and the dragon hated it. He knew that his appearance could scare people away- he wasn't exactly the most friendly looking- but they should know by now that he meant the townspeople no harm. If he truly wanted to kill any of them, he could've done it by now.
It got old pretty quickly, needless to say. All of those puny humans just kept persisting in their quest to get rid of him. And with every try they made they failed. He still lived near the same town, and the residents still hated him. This way of life was hard on him, though. He wanted to show them that not all dragons were princess-stealers who disregarded everyone they saw only to later come back and eat them. He ate animals, sure, but he could never bring himself to consume a person.
This cycle continued until he was pushed to the breaking point. He was going on a simple hunt- nothing unusual there- when one of them decided to confront him in the forest. None of them had ever done something like this because the forest was his territory. They had all either been too scared- which was most likely- or too smart to do that. When he was in the town, he allowed them to do what they wanted because the land was theirs, but when one of them decided to wander too far off to where he lived? It was fair game.
He was curious to see what this human would do, though, so he backed down. For now.
The human started speaking. He wasn't that great with their language, but he could understand a few words. Stop. Sorry. Don't hate. Wish they didn't.
He could only assume the best. Maybe he was an outcast too, and ventured here because he thought of dragons differently. Dragons had an unknown ability to share their thoughts, and so he did this with the stray human. It was all he could think of to get him to understand what he thought. Once he forged the connection, he poured all of his emotions out. His fear, his loneliness, his anger, everything. He hoped that the human could understand that he didn't want to hurt him, in fact, he wished to forge a bond of some degree.
After he had given the bond all he had, the human staggered backward. They immediately walked up to the dragon and tentatively put out their hand. He was motioning for the dragon to put his snout there: a symbol of trust. So he did. And he couldn't be any happier.
Someone understood him. He wouldn't be alone anymore. He poured new emotions through his new connection with the human. Acceptance. Happiness. Gratitude.
This could be the start of something amazing.
