Dragon Warrior (SatWE)

Saturday Wiriting Essentials prompt:  Challenge: Using prose or poetry, write a story, true or fictional, about something that happened in your childhood that might have had some influence on what you do or how you think today. 

As a child I was taught that nothing is free and that we should work to become productive members of our society and this work ethic has served me well throughout my life’s journey.  I hope the following story will be self explanatory.

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To my utter dismay, I have discovered a dragon in the land.  It just sort of slipped in like a thief in the night, and slowly made itself at home.  As one of the few remaining Dragon Warriors left in the world, I should have sensed its presence.  It’s been peaceful for a while and my guard was down but now I must summon the other remaining Dragon Warriors to help me shoo the creature away.  It’s hard to do but it can be done.  We can starve it out.

Other countries across the world have allowed themselves to be seduced by the dragons’ hypnotic words and lies.  The dragons make grand promises of wealth and prosperity to the people.  They promise the people that they will rescue them from their helplessness and depression and they actually deliver — for a while. They take over all industries, farms and ranches, and ensure equal but measured distribution of all resources based on need. They promise that people will never suffer from illness again as the dragons ensure efficient and adequate medical treatment for all, again based on availability and need (and they determine the need).

The people come to love the dragons, and even to worship them as gods, but here’s the catch: The dragons know something about human nature that we are reluctant to admit.  They know that a psychological change in the character of the people will occur.  The dragons know the people in these countries will soon lose the desire to work or produce or achieve anything worthwhile because all they will want to do is revel in the dragons’ lavish gifts and worship them.  All desire to succeed is striped from them as they let the dragons feed them and take care of them.  They become addicted. They become slaves.

The dragons aren’t the kind benefactors they claim to be. They’re actually ranchers of a sort - only the mindless cattle they raise and fatten up are the people. You see, the dragons feed on human hearts and they’ve become experts at tricking people into willingly offering themselves without a fight.  The people all die smiling as the dragons eat them alive.  The irony is that the same people who once fought to abolish slavery in their own countries now invite it in.  The people now work with no heart or reason to do so because they have all given their hearts to the dragons.  The dragons instigated an old conscription law that allows them to take by force anyone and anything they need or want to keep their slave system running smoothly if they notice any rebellion in the land.  The dragons are like locust.  After all the resources in a country are consumed, and the choicest of hearts eaten, they start searching for other places to feed on, thus the need for the Dragon Warriors.

Interestingly enough, the Dragon Warriors are mostly made up of sweet little old grandmas. We grandmas have lived a long life and everyone knows that with age comes wisdom. Not too many countries have any grandmas left because the dragons end up eating their hearts before they get too old or too wise. In my country we have managed to guard against the invasion of the dragons, thus preserving our dwindling grandma population.  It’s the Dragon Warriors job to alert the people so they can starve this creature into leaving our country and not let it eat us alive.  That’s why when I saw the dragon that has managed to sneak in from who knows where I became alarmed.  How did I get so lax?  There’s no telling how many people it has already seduced with its lies!  I do not want my country to become the dragon’s next meal.

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