Month: Feb 2025

Bringing home a new pet that breathes fire. Can fly. Feed itself by keeping local rats under control while also not appear to travel far so not getting lost. It seemed to be the perfect pet for Gerald’s children. Even made his cleaner less scared about going into the basement.

Everyone loved it when the new pet fired, literally,  its first kill.

But after a while, with a pet that sleeps all day, does not keep the attention of small children for long. The fun of watching it chase the rats stops when it’s no longer able to satisfy its hunger once the rats realise they can live somewhere else and not be hunted.

And once those wings are used to get up on a table and eat the dinner. Well, this makes those who run the home less than favourable to its presence.

So Gerald had only one option. This option would forever change the continent and send shudders further across the seas. Or at least for a while. Gerald took the new pet to work.

Having a wild dragon sleeping most of the day was easy to keep quiet as a mid-ranking officer in the barracks. The cadet booked to Gerald scared easily at the first sight of fire, and once he realised that food kept the creature quiet, it took little encouragement for him to bring food. Even less effort as there was no preparation required.

This was fine for a few days, but the level of food coming to his office did bring suspicions. Just how much raw food can one man eat?

On seeing the fire breathing creature, it quickly became a novelty at the end of hard days, it would be brought out to test what this creature could do. It was within a week that the flying capacity, target hunting and those vicious claws got some in the planning department for the Kingdom wondering if there were more out there.

Before anyone realised the impact on feeding a scavenger animal constantly, an expedition was being formed to see what could be found out about the creature in its natural habitat.

The reports of how easy it was to capture the creature were casually hidden but it’s ability to set fire to a house was casually leaked. The ease of capture came from someone dropping food into a cage, by accident, and 3 darting in. By the time someone thought to close the opening, the creatures were tucking down on the spilt box of food equally, oblivious to their capture. It wasn’t until hours later when one woke from a well-earned nap that the concept of a cage  was even considered by them.

Through fear of being burned alive, the young boys on watch  threw more food in. The concept of bribery was not learnt but those watching them believed it worked.

The burnt out house was more of a bad throw of a living rat that attempting to run away and the fire caught the corner of an old, dried out building. Propaganda was also formed that week, but no name was given to it either.

So it was shortly after 7 months when Gerald showed his unemotional offspring a wild dragon, the rumours about the Kingdoms new weapon were filling the courts of allies, enemies and disinterested.

Feeding them seemed to make them grow bigger. Letting them roam and warm in the sun kept the fire burning, and with the right level of challenge, they appeared to follow instructions. Once the food was shown and quickly given after that is.

The beginning of the domestication of the dragon had begun. Albeit with little guidance, a lack of any plan and a lot of guess work.

– Click here to go to part 3 –

It began with a simple decision. To bring back a gift for a son.

It was never a bold general that the stories tell. Or a mighty King slaying a beast. It was a mid-level leader in training who found a small creature running around, actually it wasn’t even do anything that exciting. The story that’s told, in case you haven’t heard, is one where a general sees a small creature nibbling at his feet. Despite the small statue of the creature, they look down and see the potential. A vision of change. A future where he will lead his people. The bold strategy that will mean his enemies bow down before him. Or despites its small stature, it had gumption. And that’s what the general, or king in some parts, liked.

Gerald, or some similar name long since forgotten, actually was walking around looking for his sword, stumbled over what at first was thought to be a rock. It barely moved and half appeared to notice it was even kicked. This, in the wild, is what dragons do. They sleep most of the day, roll over in the midday sun to warm their bellies, and use the fire inside their bellies to keep them warm at night when it gets cold. As in 13 degrees or so. If ever in single figures they would actually move to be near each other. Or a cave.

If they have one purpose, it’s to eat.

Their wings? To fly to find food.

The fire? To cook the food before eating it.

Their sharp teeth? To eat the food and tear it apart, before swallowing it. Unless the next mouthful pushes it down.

Those sharp claws? Not to rip through armour, but to hold and save time for their teeth to tear it apart.

Nothing, actually, has evolved to fight. Put two wild dragons in a space together, the only action you will see is from when a living creature they can eat comes into view, then chances are, they will split it in half it between them.

Wild dragons, at least the original ones, not those that escaped years later, were lazy.

But like all things, a human got involved and things changed. Give a dwarf a new way of forging metal, they will improve their equipment and use it to cut deeper into rock. Give a goblin a means to write in new ways, and they will cause more confusion for beings around them with strange notes or markings. Give a race the change to build walls, and pretty soon a duende will appear inside it. Find some new gold, and sure enough, the local tax farmer will be there taking their share. Some things are just the way they are.

But find something in the wild, something innocent or harmless. Give that thing to a human. Then you get something wonderous. At least for a time. Then it can go in any direction. Normally bad for someone, and something.

A wild dragon, before this meeting, was just a way some villages kept wildlife under control. They were too lazy to breed out of control, but hungry enough to eat so much they couldn’t chase all the local creatures in one causing extinction. Too fat too quick.  But when they got too fat, they would work harder to get food, but give a chance for the surviving wildlife to escape, bread, and not go extinct. Then be eaten.

Balance in action.

Then came Gerald. Who had a thirst to impress his child. And now we have dragons. Big scary ones that grow too fast, too big and eat too much.

But that’s the next bit, the part that one on talks about after Gerald, sorry that General, found the miracle strategy.

–Click here to go to part 2–