The Greedy Dragon - Chapter 6
Bleddyn walked as fast as he could towards the mage’s house (he had tried running, but he was still a little too prone to falling, and the last thing he wanted was getting mud on his skin again). He didn’t know why he had done that gesture, but one thing was certain: being hugged had shocked him in the deep. Worst thing was, he couldn’t even tell it had been an unpleasant sensation, something that scared him only further.Why had he even given gold to a human, he kept telling himself in the meanwhile? He could no more enjoy gold as when he used to be a dragon, that was true, but that didn’t mean he had to be so disloyal to his sacred principles. But he had done it, without thinking twice, without asking his own mind the reason behind doing such an act.He wasn’t either used to diving so deep into introspestive reflection, so that he felt immensely tired. All he wanted to do now was getting back to the sleeping mattress that was his place in the mage’s house, which was not even remotely awesome as his dear old pile of gold, but at least he could rest on.But when finally the house appeared in front of his eyes, he stopped.Galain was out, in front of the door, looking at him intensely and making a big smile. “I’m sorry!” Bleddyn exclaimed out of instinct. “Sorry?” The mage replied. “For what?” “I couldn’t sleep! I just wanted to...well...uh...” “Calm down, now, relax!” The mage said. “You didn’t do anything wrong.” “No?” “In fact, you did the exact thing I hoped you would do, before or after.”Bleddyn needed a good amount of seconds to understand at least an idea of what the wizard was referring to. “What did I do to that woman? Wait...you watched me? But I never saw you around tonight!” “Bleddyn, Bleddyn, a mage’s possibilities are immense, even human mages. Our magic sense does not fall into slumber like the normal senses, so in the moment you left the house, even if I was sleeping, my body instantly recognized the absence of something big. That was what awakened me and made me see you weren’t here. Now, normally we mages have a moral obligation not to use magic to spy on others unless we have a good reason to do so, but considering your past, it was more prudent to make an exception for you.” Bleddyn swallowed. Galain’s reference to his past made him feel uneasy, for he had been taken away from his true body for a long time, not because of the actions he had done to humans...and yet he discovered, to his horror, that now that he was thinking about his lootings of the village, he wasn’t feeling the pride he was accustomed to. “Anyway” Galain continued “what I wanted to tell you is you did something very good.” “What did I do?” “You gave Elide your gold” he explained “you did a gesture of generosity to an unhappy woman. Old you had rather taken the rest of what remained of herr possession.” “I can’t do it regardless in this weak body you forced me into.” “True. But the fact is, you gave her the gold spontaneously. For the first time in your life, you felt sorry for another being. You felt compassion. That is what irremediably distinguishes humans for dragons.” Bleddyn was utterly confused. What was this compassion he was talking about, he wondered? “Uh” he said hesitant “I gave her my coins because she was hugging me and I needed a way to make her stop. I still don’t like hugs!” “Then why didn’t you just take her off with your hands? You could have done it easily, it doesn’t require as much exercise as our cutlery lessons.” That was irrefutably true. He could have used force and be happy, instead he did that gesture. The mage maybe was right. “Bleddyn” Galain said, solemn “tonight you have given me proof that you have understood what it means to be a human. You now know not only about how we live, but also about how we suffer. I consider your punishment to be over.” His own sense of confusion and melancholy disappeared straight on. Bleddyn stopped worrying at all about what had made him do that gesture to the woman and focused solely on the mage’s words... “You mean...” “Yes. Now go rest unti the night is upon us. Tomorrow, I will take you to a place where you can transform back.” What followed after surprised Bleddyn himself even more, especially considering how disturbed he had felt when the woman’s arms had wrapped around him. He hugged Galain. “How human have you become!” The mage laughed triumphant. “You have done amazingly, Bleddyn. Amazingly.” The next day they hiked in the mountains behind the village. Bleddyn was now a fair expert on walking on two legs and he never required any assistance in the various obstacles created by the earth. After trespassing a large forest and crossing some harsh peaks that would have blocked their walk if Galain’s magic wasn’t present, they finally reached a large, empty meadow. “This will accomodate your dragon body easily” the mage announced. “How will you do it?” “With this” and he extracted a new goblet. It was virtually identical to the first one he gave Bleddyn. “What do I need to do with it?” “Touch it. Nothing else.” He lay the golden object on the grass and walked away before Bleddyn could say anything else. Not that he had any words. He didn’t lose any time and his hands immediately grabbed the object. Nothing happened. “Hey!” He shouted. “I don’t feel anything!” But Galain was nowhere to be found, nor did come any answer to his indignation. Bleddyn kept toying with the goblet out of despair, touching it with his hands, with his feet, even trying to put the lower part inside his mouth, to no avail. The mage was gone, and Bleddyn was left alone, in his puny human form, in the middle of nowhere. In that moment, he understood. Galain had deceived him once again! He had pretended he would give him back his body, only to leave him unharmed where he was an easy prey and get rid of him forever! If he only could roar, if he only could hunt the human down...he was such a fierce and majestic dragon, then he had been subjugated to the weakness of human compassion and now he was abandoned, with nothing but a stupid goblet, the sister of the object that had been his demise. Bleddyn did another human thing for the first time: he cried. He did it for the despair that was wrapping him, for the humiliation of being defeated twice, and also for not being able to express his sorrow the dragon way. He howled on the ground, gone completely wild, but he didn’t care anymore. He couldn’t even call himself the most pathetic dragon ever, because he wasn’t a dragon. Eventually, it became night. Bleddyn was becoming tired from letting himself go: he had no more voice and didn’t have any other energy to roll on the ground. Without even thinking about it, he found himself closing his eyes while lying among the green blades of grass, finding finally peace, the golden goblet next to him. When Bleddyn woke up again, it was night, and the mage was still nowhere to be seen. But as he opened his eyes, there was something different, yet very familiar. He could look through the dark. Just like when he used to be a dragon. The meadow also smelt different...much stronger. He could smell not only the grass, but also the ants’ lairs, the rocks, and a mouth-watering scent of deer came from a forest on the horizon. Bleddyn, out of the new acquired instinct, tried to get up on two legs, but found out he couldn’t. Instead of two hands, he had wings. His body was covered in red scales. Bleddyn roared. He roared like he had not done it in months, free to finally release his true nature once again. The dragon moved his wings and danced with the clouds in triumph, breathing fire to the sky, letting the echo of his roar travel through the mountains. It was time to do all the things he hadn’t been let done and leave the inferior life he had passed trhough behind. First and foremost, he flied towards the deer scent’s direction and dined avidly, his muzzle satisfyingly covered with blood. Then he flied back to his old cave. So long had he missed from his home, that there was a chance his treasure was gone. He didn’t want to think about that possibility. He would have to enslave at least two other human villages, and that would be tiring. All Bleddyn wanted to think about is how he couldn’t wait to roll on his beloved golden treasure again. The cave’s entrance appeared. Bleddyn landed and entered, impatient to be in his chamber. When he went in, he was welcomed by a huge shining light and metallic smell. His treasure was still there! As he ran towards his gold, he stepped on something hard. There was a human skeleton, dressed with a knight armor, an emeral sword and a shield with an elaborate crest and the words ‘Hornijal’. So they tried to steal from me while I was out, he thought angry, thinking that human would have perished a much quicker death if he only had let himself be eaten by him. But it didn’t matter, only a dragon could exit the lair once in.Now, however, he had eyes only for his pile of gold.Bleddyn dived in.The dragon rolled on his treasure, smelt it, rubbed his muzzle on it, like he used to do......and yet he didn’t feel the pleasure he would usually get.He didn’t roar out of satisfaction like all the times he had done it.What...? He kept rolling. And rolling. Rolling. For sure the stream of pleasure would come, he thought, if he just went on. But nothing came.Why...? He stopped and looked at the golden pile. For a while, nothing came out of his mind. Then he felt strange. Very strange. “What is this feeling?” Something was wrong inside of him. He did not know what the feeling that was hitting him was, but it felt like it did not belong to a dragon. “WHAT IS THIS FEELING? WHAT IS THIS FEELING?” Suddenly, he remembered the previous night. A woman weeping for his deceased husband. A human hand letting some golden coins fall onto her hand. The same woman hugging the man who gave her the gold out of gratitude. More thoughts came. He thought of the villagers insulting Galain for giving the goblet to the dragon and making their life even more miserable than it already was. He also remembered the expressions they all made when he used to pillage them during those nights when he came to claim his gold, and only now did he understand their full meaning: they were expressions of despair, the same despair he had felt when he first was turned into a human. He was losing his mind. He roared, but this time it was a roar of frustration. He began chasing his own tail. The feeling was eating him from inside, and was getting stronger as the shining light of the golden pile drilled his eyes. “I AM A DRAGON! I AM A DRAGON! HOARDING GOLD IS MY NATURE! I AM SUPERIOR TO HUMANS! IT’S IN MY RIGHT TO SUBJUGATE THEM!” He shouted these words like if saying them would make their truth unquestionable, but while there was no doubt about the first three sentences, he was no more so sure about the third one. Eventually, he lay exhausted, just like he had done on the meadown where Galain had left him. The last thought he managed to make before falling down was the realization of what the appropriate word to describe that wrong feeling was: Galain had talked about it once. His voice rumbled within his mind like a cruel sadist.So, Bleddyn, we humans can produce an emotion that is called ‘sense of guilt’...
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