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. It was a perilous journey, but as the sun wassetting the boy made his way into the crevasse where R.Cooper168the shaking seemed the greatest and the scent of dragonsmoke was strong.He trembled because he was afraidand had no sword, and the dragon would likely eat himfor coming near its treasure. But the boy, who was as smart as he wascourageous, pressed on until he heard a great roaringand felt a heat that nearly made him turn back, but hewalked on.He walked until the ground rose up beneathhim and knocked him from his feet, and when helooked up, he found himself face to face with thedragon of the mountains. It was an awesome sight, a dragon as red as thesetting sun, with eyes that pinned him to the spot andteeth sharper than any sword.The boy got to his feetand asked unsteadily why the dragon had been shakingthe mountain.But even as he asked, he could see thecause: a large boulder had fallen and crushed thedragon s tail and had trapped it in its own cave amongall its treasures. The fearsome dragon was really a lonely creaturein pain with no one to save it, howling furiously as ittried to free itself.If the boy waited, the dragon woulddie of hunger and then the people would no longer betroubled by its presence.It was then, with that thought,that the boy also realized the dragon could have roastedand eaten him and lived a bit longer, but it had not.Ithad merely watched him, pitiful and powerful both,until finally the boy made up his mind that no creaturedeserved to die in such a fashion and pushed at theboulder in an attempt to move it. There was still danger, but the boy ignored it tooffer the dragon its freedom, a gesture that was not loston the dragon.The amazed Being demanded to knowwhat the boy was doing, as the stone was much tooheavy for one dragon and one human to push together.It was too heavy for even an entire village to move.The A Boy and His Dragon169dragon was going to die, he told the boy.No singlehuman could save him. But the boy insisted that he try, and pushed atthe rock again, and when it didn t budge, he sat downto think.This intrigued the dragon even more than theboy s beauty until it stopped shaking long enough toask the boy his name and where he had come from.The dragon asked the boy so many questions that it wasmorning before the boy realized that they had passedhours in conversation, and that the earth-quakingtremors had stopped because the dragon had grownweaker during the night. The dragon, smiling though it expected death tocome soon, grabbed a large ruby and gave it to the boyto thank him for the stories during its last hours, butthe boy tossed the stone away and beseeched thedragon to try to push the boulder away one more time. He wept when the dragon asked him to go, forthe sunset-red dragon was kindly and gentle and theboy did not wish it to die, but the dragon insisted, andso the boy returned to his village to tell them he hadlearned why the mountains had been shaking. His tale of the dragon s plight moved thepeople, who had not thought a dragon could feel pain.The description of the treasure moved others, until theyfollowed the boy s path back to the dragon in order totake it.But when the boy learned of their plan, he racedback to the mountain, and there the villagers foundhim, lying alongside the dragon and begging it one finaltime to rise. Pity overtook the greed in their hearts, and theyworked with the dragon to push at the boulder.Thegreat rock at last gave and the dragon was freed. The dragon became their protector, as thevillage itself became the village of the sunset dragon.They had saved him and most importantly, they had R.Cooper170given him his boy, the brave, beautiful peasant boy whohad refused a fortune in order to save the dragon s lifeand to whom the dragon gave its love instead, whichwas a gift the boy could accept.He came to live withthe dragon in his lonely cave and served him well untilthe end of his days. A pretty story, Bertie had added at the bottom. And I am quite certain they lived happily ever after,though the story doesn t say.Dragon tales rarely do,either because they feel the happy ending is implied orbecause they don t feel one was truly possible and don twish to say.Personally, I prefer to believe in those two.They are a classic example of the kind of love storydragons in this region carved into their artwork in thisperiod.Stories like this are also a strong example of thekind of human/dragon cooperation that used to exist,and the belief among dragons that cooperation was theonly way to survive. The bond between a dragon and its beloved,particularly when it chooses a human to love, is withouta word in any tongue, ancient or modern.In fact, thedragons were convinced that to name it would be tocheapen it, for it was beyond value and to define it aswe might attempt to do today would destroy it. It s clear from most of the surviving stories thatthe humans were there to serve the dragons and thatthe nature of the relationship was almost always sexual.It also seems, from the surface at least, that within thehuman/dragon relationships in particular there was adistinct power imbalance.Dragons were and are farmore powerful than most humans could ever hope tobe.But upon closer examination, the relationship seemsmore like an exchange of power.Dragons see theirprimary roles in the world as protectors, as guardians,but they have their weaknesses, weaknesses easilyexploited by anyone ruthless enough.Even peasants inthe Dark Ages could see what a dragon wanted, and A Boy and His Dragon171beautiful young knights and maidens were offered upmore than once as traps to capture a dragon. Within this story, it s clear that the dragon is theweak one.He is completely at the mercy of the boy,even when the boy is depicted in the story as hisservant.This, of course, puts a spin on theirrelationship that a modern scholar couldn t help butnotice, but to call it that of dominant and submissivewould be inaccurate.It may have been that for some ofthe pairings, certainly, and I won t deny that the ideadoesn t have a thrill of its own, but that would miss theother point to these love stories. As seen when it was shown in their art andstories, as in the case of this dragon and his boy, loveitself, between two dragons or a dragon and human,was essential to the dragon s survival.It seems a strangething when the dragon is the creature of greaterstrength and wisdom, but to this very day, the idea isingrained in most dragon cultures that a dragonrequires a treasure, a treasure like the boy in the story,to guard and admire.It was why dragons the worldover looked among the purest maidens for the one whowould stay by their side; a dragon without a treasurewas weaker than one with all the gold in the earth. Arthur took a moment to breathe, to blink, and then readthrough the story again, suddenly understanding why Bertie hadcalled the dragons of this time period romantic little darlings, andthen remembering that Bertie had said his parents thought of him asjust as romantic and old-fashioned.Even his friend Zeru saidsomething, hadn t he, when he called Arthur Bertie s boy.Bertiedidn t deny it, either.Arthur hadn t understood what those words meant to a dragon,but he could recall the number of times Bertie called him his boy after that.His boy.Or pearl, the treasure dragons were shownchasing more than any other.Darling.Treasure.The only thing R.Cooper172Arthur had understood was how warm those pet names always madehim feel, how rare and special and valued
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