Equal Creation

Great Hornblower’s Inferno, on this night of nights, I certainly did not expect to find such a horrifying sight as this, this poor little creature, a human most likely, crying, whining, spewing into the darkness with nobody around to cease its insufferable noise-making, which to be perfectly honest, sounded startlingly similar to a dragon pup’s whimper when it is in dire need of food, whether that be a cow, a sheep, or an unfortunate human wandering about past curfew, but how this became my problem, as this toddler was reposed only a few wingspan from my dwelling, was beyond infuriating, my dwelling, which I pride on being in the middle of the largest forest this side of the Tremorous Mountains, is supposed to be a sanctuary for me and other wayward dragons to rest, bide time, and admire gold—as I have a significant fortune amassed upon which I sleep—yet in the middle of my peaceful sleep, rather in the middle of my dream where I was advocating for the end of the enslavement of my kind by the pernicious Giant King Galligog, whom I had on the ropes by citing ancient Giant sources that established that “all intelligent beings are created equal” and “if a creature can sign its own name, it deserves to be manumitted” and “if the monkey sings, quiet the crowd,” all of which had just about won me the day’s trial—although now that last piece of evidence seems to be more an invention of my dreaming mind—however the important piece of this all is that I was enjoying my wonderful fantasy, dream logic and all, when a piercing screech cut me from my slumber and stole my attention and led me to find the pudgy, red-faced, scale-less, no-good, infant human child, and to top off my miserable musings, the little creature could obviously see me standing, hulking in the moonlit clearing outside my cave, because it stopped producing squeals, and for a moment, simply looked at me, blank-faced, so after all of my ferocity, I was left feeling sorry for the little creature, the creature that caused me so much angst—ruining my doctor-suggested one-hundred years of sleep—was now at my mercy for it sensed that I had the ability to eat, burn, move, or save it, yet simply this recognition of possibilities forced me to address the ethical dilemma that this poor human was an intelligent being, yes, a crude, stupid—paradoxically so—and environmentally treacherous being, but a being that given enough education, could sign its own name…its own name that probably did not even exist, since its parents surely did not bother with such traditions or risk attachment to a named child that would be left to the wild, and who am I to run in the face of fate, stealing this child from its destiny of starvation or quelling that of predator, since I am but another leaf in the winds of time, unable even to save my friends and family from slavery except in the fictitious dreams of an unacting hermit, nevertheless, though, I admit that I could not help but feel the slightest form of power in my situation, my ability to decide, and with that power, I felt a freedom which is oh-so-rare for my kind, so why should I not take in this outcast, and raise it right, giving it the knowledge of a dragon yet maintaining within the abilities of a human, and together, just maybe, I would encourage the creation of something greater than either one would be on their own, something that could finally share some much needed wisdom and bring harmony to a tumultuous time, a time where my monkey will sing, and I will silence the crowd.