Dragon 

One stands before me 

Weary from fighting 

"Finish me," it says 

"I can't keep trying anymore, 

For they all want to slay me. 

Knights, those damn silly fools, they think I am a threat. 

I plead with them, I mean no harm, but they still keep on, 

And they won't leave me in peace with my loneliness, 

Whom is my only true company, mind you, 

Oh, and you are still here, 

And yet you haven't tried to slain me. Why?" 

I say, "I am only a storyteller, a bard," 

I have no place in their world, in their lives. 

I am not to be taken seriously, and I am, really, 

Not much more than a jester, and I wander this realm, 

To tell of my stories, to reveal deeper meanings, 

To reveal lessons of nature and the earth and men, 

But they don't listen anymore, 

Not with their minds. 

They listen with their ears, but the story is lost, 

Meaningless, nothing. All because they forgot how to truly listen." 

I pause, wait. Look at the majestic creature sitting across from me.

"That's why you can hear me. Because you can listen." 

 The dragon looks at me. Gestures. 

"How about I show you somewhere, somewhere no human has ever gone?" 

And to this I nod. I get on its back, and we fly, 

Soaring away from the cursed human structures that 'gave' me this life. 

Soon we arrive, the dragon's soothing wingbeats slowing, 

As we descend into a world untouched by human life. 

"Everything is vibrant here," I notice, absorbing my new surroundings. 

"My old life, it got so drab and dreary, I might as well have seen only in grayscale." 

"That's a damn shame!" The dragon replies, 

"To think that nothing in your life, 

Absolutely nothing could compare?" 

The dragon is asking me a question posed as a statement. 

"Oh, I had a love once. They died under unfortunate circumstances." 

And to think of it still makes me melancholy and unbearably sad. 

"Please, ignore my stupid feelings. 

We were talking about your emotions, not mine." 

The dragon snorts, as if chiding me. 

"That still bothers you. And you matter to me, so why should I ignore you?" 

I... I matter? 

"You seem shocked. Who told you that you were worthless? 

Who told you that you were just a pawn in the 'game of life?' 

Who tried to teach you that you have no worth? 

Stories have value. Stories are all we have of the memories of the past, 

and of predictions and hopes and fears of the future. 

Stories are so much more valuable than any mortal money. 

And you, my dear bard, are a story wrapped around many other stories. 

It's not the surroundings that matter, it's the story." 

And the dragon, so much larger than me, offers its hand. 

"Will you be my friend, dear shapeshifter, and are you done pretending?" 

"Yes," I say, and spread my wings to fly with the dragon, 

The wonderful, marvelous, awesome, amazing dragon, 

The dragon who saved my life. 

-Emberian Solunaria, aka @BrowniePokemon