01/02/TA425

I was kind of an awkward kid, I used to think stories were silly for the strangest reasons.

I used to hate how they either ended in 'Happily Ever After' or, 'The dragon was slain, while the hero fell dead'.

The former felt too vague, what does 'ever after' even mean? What about saving a princess from a dragon fixes a small country's financial woes or famine crisis - What about saving a princess from a terrible beast means they have romantic chemistry?

What stops another calamity being born?

On the other hand the latter felt too sad, too real for me - The hero dieing to save everyone else, never coming home, sometimes not even completing their promises - How is that fair? And why did a young me already find that more realistic then 'ever after'.

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But that's not quiet right either, 'cause my young self wasn't smart enough yet to see that both endings are actually pretty similar. What happens to the starving village folk the hero leaves behind?

How does the fallen kingdom's goverment hold up now the heir to the throne has gone and sacrificed himself to a dragon - What about the people, the comrades and friends, the dead hero leaves behind?

I'm afraid, afraid that the story is already over - That we are those people left behind - I fear finally finding it out, what happens after the story is done?

Time keeps flowing onward, we must all keep living even after her death and there are more dragons, many more - But now we will face them without her.

Our young Hero is dead.

The dragon is slain - The battle is won, but what happens to those left behind?

To the ones relegated to the blank pages of 'Ever After'?...