"Teacher, do you believe everything you read in the archives about the world before dragons? It sounds much like the Darkwing's world."

"Yes, a very apt parallel young Senset, very apt indeed. I am surprised that you have been reading these musty old tomes, I wouldn't think they would have appealed to a young one such as yourself, but your have shown much promise and intelligence. Many say that the world troubles started during the time of George Bush the younger, but I have spent many centuries researching and I believe it started much earlier than that.

When the America was a young nation it's people were willing to fight and die for what they needed. They were proud of their accomplishments, of their lands and grateful for their families and for the right to live free. Many suffered serious hardships to earn the land they wished to call their own. They had to travel great distances on horseback and in wagons to explore uncharted lands. They fought the elements, and whatever else stood between them and the thing they needed. I suspect the lands they claimed represented to them that they belonged. It is a great thing to belong somewhere, to own land and live upon it. For those who fought great hardships it had untold value. It was theirs and no one was going to take it away. A proud breed these Pioneers.

Then others moved to join them, villages became towns, towns became cities. These people in cities needed ways to travel to other cities so railroads were built to move product and more people. Unhappy with the speed of horses, automobiles were invented. Entire mechanized industries grew, and the opportunities attracted more and more people. Roads were built connecting city to city so more could travel. The intelligence of man began to lean towards Science and the uses it could be put to to enhance daily lives. Can you imagine a world without television or radios? Both helped to make news available from coast to coast in an instant many felt. Life was good and getting better.

Somehow the more man had the more he wanted and the less he wanted to pay for it. Somehow the Pioneer stock became diluted, and man became lazy. They no longer wanted to fight for a living from the land, they no longer wanted to work in factories unless they were paid large wages. They invented machines to do their work and then couldn't understand what happened to their jobs. They invented more machinery to make their jobs easier yet they asked for more and more wages. This drove the price of product higher, so of course in order to afford it, they needed more wages. A vicious cycle created by man that no one knew how to stop. So, they began to demand that government step in and help. Make them pay me more, but control the prices. Do something, do anything was the cry. So the government did, and it grew bigger and stronger and needed more and more of mans wages to support the programs that man demanded.

Then one day man woke up to the calamity of Big Government and then began to cry. Government is too big and too meddlesome they said. So they started voting for men who promised to reduce the size of government, yet they had no clear idea of what could be done. Nor did they wish to sit down and see if they could come up with a viable solution. They began to vote for candidates who lied, who had no clear ideas of what to do on their own, or who were so inept that they followed the advice of advisors with their own hidden agendas. The agendas of big corporations that raped the land and destroyed the environment. Even the so called robber barons of the mechanized age could not in their greed come close to the evil of the late 20th and early 21st century.

Man could never face the fact that his own greed brought that evil down upon him. So he continued his whining and pleading with the government for more and more relief. Relief from taxes, from the high cost of medications necessary to live longer, relief from the poverty he believed himself to suffer. he lost sight of the fact that poverty is a state of mind. It is a condition that exists when men allow no light into their soul. That is the true poverty. When man loses his love of beauty, his desire to be better, not richer, better. That is the absolute depth of poverty. Man did not understand that. At least not all men. Not all sold their soul to the devil for riches. Some truly understood and worked to make lives better for all.



Now, even with the Darkwings wreaking havoc with our lives, we have everything we need. They treat the humans as slaves while we treat them as partners. Together we have built a world that is mostly peaceful and everyone has what they need. Unfortunately we must defend our world against the Darkwings. They make raids on our cities to kidnap the people because they need more slaves. They steal our food because they are too lazy to cultivate crops. So far we have managed to prevent them from doing too much damage. Now that you have caused me to think about all this Senset, I believe that if we do nothing more than what we've done, time will take care of the Darkwings with no help from us. Sooner or later their numbers will decrease and then they will be coming to us for help to survive.

That was how this all came about. Once man saw what Dragons could do, they turned to us for help in fixing what they had managed to damage. A partnership was formed and you and I partake of the fruits of this venture.
Yes, Senset, we all have our roles in this daily life. Oh, the time, the time! I have a class I will be teaching shortly, I must be on my way. Make sure you turn out the lights when you leave" Teacher said as he hurried from the room leaving Senset behind with his thoughts.

Senset began to put the books away, touching each one with reverence, careful never to tear a page. Once all were restored to their places he stood and looked out the window at the world before him. It was a cooler day than usual, and many were out and about enjoying themselves in the park. Many of the dragon children were playing with children of the humans under the watchful eye of both mothers. The sheer difference in size should have led to many a mishap, yet it never did. Senset did not remember ever thinking to himself that he had to be careful with his playmates because they were smaller than he was. Somehow that just seemed to happen normally and naturally, as if it were meant to be. Maybe it always was meant to be. He caught sight of Teacher at the door of the schoolhouse, and he thought to himself that he would do well to learn half as much as Teacher knew. Maybe he would be a teacher some day too. He remembered to shut out the light as he left the library and went out into the day. Just another day in the life of a dragon, but what a day it was.