Dragon, Dragon, Open Your Eyes

On the land of the Kingdom of Loris, legends of an evil dragon have been passed down for generations.

The evil dragon, Ilan Setis, is said to love eating people and to be guilty of every imaginable evil. The people of this land regard it as an ill omen.

While people wrote poems to keep the dragon at bay and stop their children crying at night, an unexpected visitor barged into its lair.

"Dragon! I come by the king's command! Surrender to me!"

Ilan lazily opened one eye, revealing a golden dragon pupil.

The tiny human was clad in armor and swung his sword with great vigor, all the while spouting words the dragon couldn't understand.

What a noisy fellow.

The evil dragon yawned and blew the human right out of its lair.

But it took the human only half a day to climb back up from the foot of the cliff.

"Dragon! Fight me to the death!"

Blown away.

"Dragon! Face me in an honorable duel!"

Blown away again.

"Dragon..."

At last, the dragon couldn't stand it anymore. It rose from its lair, revealing its enormous body and gold-scaled wings.

Its gold-and-black slit pupils flared with rage. Its body blotted out the sky, and the entire mountain shook.

The human gripped his sword tightly, showing no fear. He was simply thrilled at the chance to face such a powerful foe.

Then the dragon spoke in human words, sounding irritated:

"If you're going to kill me, just do it. Could you hurry up?"

You're so noisy, it's driving me crazy.

*

After answering the king's summons, the hero Kairos ventured alone into the evil dragon's lair.

But unlike the stories, the dragon's lair held neither a room filled with gold and jewels nor a soft bed of cotton.

More absurdly still...

The evil dragon simply lay flat when the hero came to subdue it!

This was just...

The hero set down his sword and cried out in anguish, "Why surrender without a fight?"

The dragon stayed where it was, closed its eyes, and ignored him.

The righteous hero fretted around the dragon until he finally concluded that the dragon was unwell and unable to fight him.

So the hero announced to the dragon, "I'll wait here until you've recovered. Then we'll have a fair duel!"

This time, the dragon opened its eyes.

It watched in shock as the tiny human settled into its lair as if he owned the place, then happily set about enjoying all sorts of human pastimes.

What in the world is going on?

Ilan was bewildered. Had it been isolated from the world for so long that it didn't know humans these days were...

so comfortable making themselves at home?

*

It was only on the day the king's army attacked the dragon's lair that Kairos first saw Ilan in human form.

Bare feet sank into the fine sand covering the obsidian floor. Amid the clamor of war drums, Ilan raised his eyes to Kairos.

His molten-gold hair was like the northern lights of the Far North. Beneath golden lashes, the dragon's distinctive slit pupils left a ring of embossed afterimages in the hero's vision

He heard his heart skip a beat.

[Reading guide]

1. This isn't going to be very high fantasy. It's probably just a simple fairy tale, ovo.

2. I'll add more if I think of anything.

Core theme: Break through every obstacle