I talked Shryke and Darhla into doing a little messenger work for me. They flew to each town to talk to the officials and make sure they knew that the dragon who was going to show up soon was not attacking. You see, I discovered after I made the first harbor outside of the elven town up north, the sight of an ancient dragon using an over-sized magma spell just outside of town disturbed them for some reason. After they calmed down a bit... and reentered the town, they crowded the walls to watch me alter the course of a local river to fill the new harbor. Then I started carving the access and making the spill gate to keep the harbor level. It was only the matter of an hour or so.

  Most of the others went quite easily. I only had one that I had to divert about thirty miles, so that one did eat about four or five hours. I noticed the river did run faster over the glass smooth channel I had cut for it. Something about spell enhanced dragon flame seemed to do that to mere stone. One river had to have tributaries added to it, but that was little problem as well and got rid of a nasty marsh that was stagnating in some low hills. All in all, it took less than a week. I did have to enlarge our north channel to handle the extra water flow and widen it all the way to Calalistos but it did seem to make traffic more convenient as larger draft ships could now travel it.

  Calalistos had more than doubled it’s size and Haladoria asked me to enlarge her harbor as well. It was tricky as I had to enlarge it without letting it fill or it would have steamed the whole area. So once the added area was done and fairly cool, I blasted the encircling ring of stone around it to let the water flow in. Wherein I found that the boats that were close were almost sucked in. I had to carry three of them to safety. Much to the shock of their crew. I did leave a peninsula that shielded it from the sea so it was a safe area.

At it’s completion, I landed on my pad by the docks and was greeted by a very quiet crowd... and Haladoria.

“Greetings Lord Dragon!” She grinned as she exclaimed.

“Michael, milady.” I sighed as I shifted.

“My pardon, Michael, but you are so fun to tease.”

  I glanced around and our little exchange seemed to shock the locals out of whatever was bothering them and a few greeted me as they went back to whatever they were doing. I smiled and exchanged pleasantries with them as best I could.

“You do well, Michael. How is the rest of the channels doing.” She inquired.

“Oh, I finished them up yesterday. I decided to enlarge the channel to here to provide an acceptable flow.”

Her eyes widened slightly, then she laughed. “Somehow, the thought of what level you must be terrifies me.”

I cocked my head in puzzlement. “Why should that bother you?”

She shook her head. “That much power.”

I laughed. “That much power is useless unless you can do something with it. While many may dream of it, it is a burden beyond reckoning.”

She stared at me a moment. “Why would you say that?”

  We had been walking to the local pub... which had a new sign “The Dragons Rest” hanging over the door. I looked at it with a chuckle. After we entered and I had a sip of their most excellent brandy, I continued.

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“Think on this... What goal do you have when there is nothing that can challenge you? Where do you find drive when you have entire universes at your claws? What do you buy when you own the wealth of a thousand worlds? Where do you call home when you don’t even know the name of the planet you live on?”

Her eyes were wide when I finished. I took another sip of brandy to let her think on it.

“You are alone.”

“Yes.”

“Is there no one else that is of your level?”

“Not even close. The golden dragon you saw when you first came to my harbor is the closest I have found and she holds less than half my power.”

“My god.”

I smiled. “No, just a very old dragon.”

She chuckled and smacked me on my shoulder. “I see now why you are interested in our ways. To be blunt, you must be bored as hell.”

I laughed, then thought how accurately she had summed it up. “Truer words have not been spoken, milady.”

“I do find you amazing, Michael. I cannot image such power.”

I laughed. “I am only level 8764.” I said as I took another sip.

Her eyes widened and her face paled. “My gods.” She whispered.

I smiled. “Your harbor did not appreciably touch my mana. But that is not anything important. What you do is important.”

“Us?”

I chuckled. “Have you ever heard me sing?”

She looked stunned for a moment, then started chuckling. The chuckle evolved into a laugh at which point I joined her.

“You see, milady. You have something I do not. You have a drive, you have art, you have music and you have hope. The other dragons are much like me, but have not realized they are poor for all their power. We cannot sing or dance or make art. For all our abilities, we are far poorer than you and your people.”

I noticed the room had grown quiet. Looking around it seemed that we had an audience.

“Up until this point, my people thought they had everything. Not knowing what we missed. Shryke and Darhla were the first to come to me and it took them less than an eve to understand. Dragons have power that few can conceive, but they only know how to horde their wealth or destroy. They cannot even understand your art. Your lives may be but a moment of our life, but it is so much richer than what we have. This is what I come to learn from you. This is also what I seek to teach the others of my race. We need you to teach us how to use our powers, as we seem to have made a mess of our efforts up to now.”

“But we owe you so much, Michael.”

“No, milady, I owe you. You will find that I am pragmatic well beyond your belief. While I understand and appreciate your humor, I have yet to grasp it as my own. So far, as far as I am concerned, the only constructive things that I have done to date is dig a few ditches. What I wish from you, lady Haladoria, you and all the nobles of this land, is to keep bringing me problems. The larger the scale, the better. I would also like to learn of your magic and see if it can be combined with what I know.”

“Our magic?”

“Yes. It would take but a thought for me to level this town, milady. I think you say, I wouldn’t break a sweat. But I cannot so much as make a flower grow. Nor, for that matter, paint a picture or carve a statue.”

“Our magic. You do not seek it as a weapon, you seek it to make things.”

“Aye, I would learn the subtle magic and see if I can refrain from just being nothing more than a winged bearer of destruction.”

“You are not that way, Michael.”

“No? Remember your return to your city?”

Her face paled for a moment.

“Do you know what took me so long to accomplish that?”

She shook her head.

“I had to figure out a way to do it without completely leveling the entire city. I wound up fashioning a sword of pure mana and doing it one orc at a time. Nothing else I could do would save your town.”

She stared at me. “But....”

"The harbor... well you saw how I did that. That was very hard for me.”

“How so?”

“I had to hold back as much as I could to cast that blast. This is not creating in my eyes, this is just controlling destruction.”

She smiled softly. “But even in destruction you have made something that we needed. Your harbor and your channels? That would be the work of decades for even the strongest of the people of these lands. You did it in but a week. Do not count yourself short, for even a stone carver must destroy the stone that is in the way of his creation.”

Her words hit me like a dagger. I had watched the dwarves carve and yes, it was controlled destruction if you looked at it like that. So what if I carved the harbor and the channels with dragon fire. A tool is a tool.

“Milady, you have begun my education most profoundly. I thank thee.”