Poor Dragon-Druggo likes goldo!
By David Taehee Lee
The drawing by David Taehee Lee
There lived a dragon under the earth. It was called many names by men of old, but it commonly went under the name “Sluggo”. A reptile with a well-acquired, blood-thirsty taste for gold, the dragon burned the towns and ate the people who stood in its way. The ferocious lizard was said to kill the innocent and devour precious gems for pleasure! For a long time, it was feared and hated by the people.
However, things were not exactly like the people thought: the dragon was completely blind. In its youth, the dragon toppled off a cliff during one of its flight practices after being shot down by an arrow flung by a local dragon hunter. It had to rely totally on its hearing and scent to get itself moving. Now, dragons only need one thing to survive: metal. Usually, dragons would dig great cracks under the earth in search of metal mines, where they could peacefully feast without fear of starving. That’s why dragons are so hard to see: they live most of their lives underground. However, our dragon stood no chance in this arduous task without its eyes.. it had to turn its head around for other sources of metal.
But through experience, the dragon soon found a very reliable source of metal: villages. With the smell of molten metal from the local Blacksmith gushing through the winds, the dragon would force its starved, limp body into the air and fly dazedly like a bee in search of sweet honey. Once the dragon located the source of its food, it would happily dive in. The villagers, however, took this as an assault on their town and confronted the poor thing with utmost hostility, shooting arrows and firing boulders from catapults. The dragon could only thrash wildly in self-defense, hoping that its invisible enemies would be scared off by the ferocity of its resistance…
One day, the dragon smelled the scent of its favorite metal: gold. The king’s workers were moving a handsome bounty for a dragon hunter who killed another dragon that crossed the kingdom’s borders. Particularly starved, the dragon did not hesitate to take its chance: it dropped from the sky right into the wagon. And what a treat it was, indeed! It was like rain after a drought. The dragon dug in rapaciously: so much it ate that its body started to sink into the earth from all the gold in its belly. With his prey immobile, Galahad the Fearsome loaded Sting, the X-bow that slayed countless monsters. The sharp head pierced through the Slug’s throat, killing the poor dragon instantly…
Come to think of it, the dragon’s doings are (partially, if not entirely) the humans’ fault. It would not have invaded villages in the first place if it had its eyes to help it with its search for metal mines… If the people did not show unquestioned, immediate belligerence at the dragon’s appearance, fewer lives would have been sacrificed… One could go far as to say that humans are the selfish, greedy ones in this world, not dragons: This particular dragon only ever tried to survive despite its horrible circumstances. Yet we humans blame it for its doings, not aware of the fact that it was themselves who brought it all up in the first place. So next time you see a poor, starved dragon, please treat it with care and respect. No blood needed to be spilled.
