The Dragon's Library

Hello dear reader, my name is Rednar and I am a dragon. Before you go into a fit about how dragons don't exist you're right at this point however they did exist at one point. If you are reading this though then I am dead and with that death the final dragon has passed from this world. I'm not here to talk about the death of dragons though so let us depart from this subject. As a dragon I am a collector of items. You of course know the traditional things a dragon hoards. Gold, jewels, and other precious metals. However that is not the only thing we can hoard. Much like with humans, dragons can have preferences. My preference used to be the typical precious metals but one day it became books.

I lived in the mountains of a place that would become part of the Seleucid Empire. For much of the time I lived there though humans were sparse and living in small tribes that dotted the landscape. I will not tell you how old I am mainly because I myself do not know. All I know is that I watched humanity grow from timid frightened creatures barely capable of gathering berries to fierce hunters that decimated whole ecosystems. However, back to my story. As I said I lived in the mountains and slept upon my mound of treasures. If a human came close enough to me to awaken me I would demand them to leave their treasures for me or I would eat them. One day though a man intentionally came to me and awoke me. I could not help but wonder if he had a death wish as I questioned him, “Why have you come to my cave? Do you not know the stories of me?”

The man nodded, “I am fully aware of who you are great dragon. I come to bring you a new treasure. One you do not possess.”

Immediately my interest was piqued, “What could you possess that I do not already own?” The man laughed at me and from his clothing he removed a square object made of stone. On the stone were carved little symbols that seemed like they may mean something. I looked at the man, “What is this? I own stone. I live inside of a cave made of stone. What use would I have for more of it?”

The man nodded once again, “Indeed it looks like ordinary stone however if you look at these marks that cover it you will see they have meaning. I have taken the spoken word and given it a form that you can look at. I call it writing. I have formed the sounds that we make when we talk into words and then written them on this stone. So now you can look at my words and hear me in your mind even when I'm nowhere near you.”

I studied the man curiously, “Teach me the words that correspond to these symbols and then leave. Come back tomorrow and I'll decide if I accept your offering.” The man taught me the words written on the stone. It was a story detailing a hunt that he had recently gone on. Once I showed my understanding of the symbols he left. After he left I sat and read the stone again and again through the night. What he had told me was true, even though he was gone I could now read the story anytime I wanted. I would hear it in my mind as I read or I could read it out loud and hear myself read the story. This was truly intriguing to me. It had always been that for stories to be passed on one would have to physically speak the words to another. With this writing however one would never have to speak again if they didn't want to. They could write down what they wanted to say and just hand the writing to the other person. After that they could leave and the person wouldn't have to remember what was said instead they could just read the writing again to remind themselves.

The next day came and the man returned. He came to find me still reading his story. I barely acknowledged him when he entered except for a soft grunt. He smiled and sat down on my hoard next to me waiting for me to finish. Once I did he spoke, “I see that you've been enjoying yourself.”

I nodded, “Indeed I have! This is the most fascinating thing I think I've ever encountered. Your words were still with me despite you having left me. I have sat here all night and read it repeatedly. Truly amazing. Your offer is accepted. Take what you can carry from my hoard as a reward. All I ask is that you bring me more of this writing. I wish to learn more.”

Once a week the man would return with more writing on his stone tablets. He would teach me any new words I needed to learn and then he would leave me after collecting his gold. I would occasionally notice a new dent in my collection of metals but I would just replace it with more writing. Word got out to others that I was giving my gold in return for writing. Soon people from all over the world that could reach me were coming with as many writings as they could carry and would leave with as much metals as they could carry. After a few hundred years I finally ran out of metals and space in my cave.

I pondered on this problem for quite a few years. Some people would still give me writings even if I had nothing to return but many stopped coming. One day I had an epiphany. I would build a grand building. One that would house all of my writings. First though I would have to collect much more precious metals. I dug through my mountain tossing rocks everywhere I went. Within only a few months I had collected more than enough precious metals to convince the humans to build my structure. After carefully hiding away all of my writing I flew all the way to the country of Egypt. I'm not even sure why I picked that country but I did. At first the humans were scared but once I told them who I was they welcomed me with open arms. It only took half of my collection of metals to convince them to build my grand building. That was fine by me because it left me with the ability to barter for more writings.

I provided them with my specifications and I went back to my mountain to wait. Once a year I would return to check on the progress and in the meantime I continued to gather more writing. At some point the humans had evolved from stone tablets to using the bark from trees and drying it out so they could write on it. While it made storing them easier it was susceptible to things like rain and just the overall moisture in the air. I figured with enough time the humans would probably figure out how to deal with that eventually.

After ten years the humans finally completed my building. The next month was spent very carefully transferring my entire collection from my cave to the new building. Once there I began the process of organizing it all in the order of which I had obtained it as well as what the writing actually contained. Be it stories, learnings, or my personal favorite the human practice of philosophy. Just something about these tiny creatures who lived such short lives pondering the universe made me smile.

Once I was done I finally opened the doors to my collection. Now people could come and look at my collection and add to it as well. Of course I was asked what I would call this grand building housing all of this writing. I decided to call it glypho pr or house of writing. Many years would pass with me as the guardian of this place. Always taking in more writing and helping the humans to advance their understanding of both writing and each other. I would watch civilizations rise and fall. All the while keeping all records of them that were written safe in my house of writing. I learned over two hundred different written languages in my time. I knew each piece by heart and always knew where a piece was at.

One day a great ruler of men came to me and demanded my home. I stood tall to remind him of who he spoke to. He graciously bowed and left my home only to return two months later with an army more than willing to burn my home to the ground and try to kill me while they were at it. They had come armed with bows, ballistas, and catapults. I wanted to ask their ruler how he had managed to bring all of this here so quickly but that would have to wait. I negotiated with him for days and we finally came to an agreement. I would stay as the guardian of my home but it would no longer be named after me. From that day forward it was known as the library of Alexandria.

The ruler known as Alexander was a conqueror. He went from land to land defeating and subjugating the people of each new country. Human affairs meant nothing to me though all I cared about was the writings that Alexander would have sent back to me. So many mythologies, tales passed down, and great learnings from the brilliant minds of humans passed down to me to keep safe forever. However during his conquests Alexander made many enemies. His enemies knew of Alexander's great library guarded at the time by one of the last dragons in the world. They also knew if they could destroy his home of knowledge it would be a great setback for him.

Alexander sent me a small army to guard the library. This army made my library their permanent home. They would live, work, and die here for generation to generation under the orders of Alexander even long after he passed away. Many attempts were made to destroy my home by those who wished to covet it for themselves and others who wished to eradicate all of this knowledge from the world. Over the next two hundred years many additions were added to the library to accommodate for all the writings that were sent to me. The one who brought it to an end though was one who burnt it down by mistake.

An Emperor by the name of Julius came to my library by accident while fleeing from enemies. He became surrounded and thus so did we. In a last ditch effort to force his enemies to break rank and give himself an opportunity to escape he ordered all the ships he had arrived here on to be burnt. The fire spread as a beast possessed by madness and tore through everything I had built in my time. I watched as the families of the original people who had come to keep me and my home safe fought to their last breath to do so. As everything around me burned I gathered the most precious of my written material including the first stone tablet I had received. I curled my body tight around them, holding them to me as if they were my children. I closed my eyes and let the fires consume everything around me. As they did all I could hope was that eventually my body would be found and that what few writings I had saved would be given back to the world.

A short summary of the book of Rednar. As passed down to his friend and confidant before the library burned.

~

I'll admit I got this idea from a facebook post to the extent of someone asking what if a dragon were to hoard books. After that my brain just ran wild with it. I personally rather enjoyed writing this story and depending on a number of things I may look to expand upon it in the future. If you enjoyed this story then please heart, subscribe, and feel free to leave a tip. You can now also pledge 3 dollars a month to me and help support me as a creator. If you do, you get the benefit of having my stories appear at the top of your subscription feed anytime I post something new. Till next time.