It was a normal sunny day like any other one in the mountains. The stomach of Glerath had taken care of awakening him and convincing him it was time to go hunting. Still opening his jaws from residual sleep, the dragon walked towards the exit of his cave.
He sniffed the air, which smelled of a serene day. There would be little trouble while hunting; hopefully, he would eat just before the sun peaked the highest and then get back to slumber in his home. The stomach growled another time. Why would it deprive him of such a pleasant sleep...but hunger was hunger, and if it was time to eat, there was little else he could do. Glearth opened his wings and soared up.
The dragon flew around the peaks and the woods, sniffing in search of something edible. As a dragon, he wasn’t above any kind of prey: as long as some animal smelt like one, it would be his.
After a while, a scent of prey came on his nostrils. It was quite different than usual, but also strangely familiar. Yet it smelt so good, like if its main purpose was to be eaten. The growls in his stomach doubled.
He followed the direction of the wonderful scent. It brought him a bit far away from the woods: on a field. Strange prey the one that walked so mindlessly on such an open space, so close to dragon territory. It had to have migrated very recently. Well, even better, Glearth thought: he wouldn’t struggle to catch it. It was really made to be food. And here it was.
It was a human. Only once had he seen one of them; Glerath could not remember well, but it had to have been during his hatchlinghood, next to his mother. He was not sure about it, but the long hair on its top indicated it was a female specimen. He was salivating heavily, his belly was begging to be filled...
It was in that moment that the memory came back fully.
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He was barely bigger than his mother’s paw, and they were watching a group of those creatures from a mountain peak. “Look, son,” she indicated, “those are humans.”
“What are they?” little Glearth asked. “Food?”
“Oh, no,” she said severe, “don’t be fooled by their smell. Humans are fare more intelligent and dangerous than usual food. They have brought more calamities to our kind than any snowstorm.”
“But they look so tiny!”
“That’s their peculiarity. Their small bodies hide great abilities that we will never hope to achieve.”
Little Glearth got closer to her chest. “I’m scared…what have they done?”
“I will tell you when you have grown up, my son. I brought you here today so that you will never think of crossing their territories. Our peaceful existence, and all nature, is based on our and their race: when there is one, there can be no space for the other one. When the two try to merge, terrible conflicts arise. And humans have prevailed far more often than we will ever admit.”
There ended adult Glerath’s memory. Humans...tiny funny people that smelt delicious, pillars of nature’s balancement? How could it possibly be? That figure looked so fragile...it would take a pawful of instants to maul it. What could ever happen?
“After that dragon preyed on the human, other humans tracked him,” his mother answered from another of his memories, located inside the same cave he lived, “they killed him in his sleep with a terribly long shiny claw that trespassed his heart. One human per one dragon. One dragon per one human. Remember, son, the only reason to end a human’s life is when it ended a dragon’s life. To keep nature balanced.”
That human...would they really come after him if he ate that one? Would they kill him in his sleep? There was only one safe thing to do, no matter what his stomach was telling him. He fled.
Some more time later, Glerath placated his hunger with a big moose found in the usual woods, then finally got back to his dear cave for a well deserved sleep. He had remembered an important lesson that day. Better to keep it on mind should another delicious smell come to his nose. Just before drifting into slumber, he repeated in his mind again and again: do not eat humans.