LJ Idol "What Really Matters"
The dragon’s scales glimmered, reflecting the sunlight in a rainbow of colors. His chest no longer rose and fell with each fiery breath. Dark, red blood pooled around his body, forming a stream that would soon be miles long.
The four heroes, bloodied and exhausted, stared down at the magnificent beast’s corpse. Relief washed over them.
Their quest was now complete. The dragon was dead.
The End.
.
.
.
The end? What do you mean “the end”? We still have a long way to go. Sure, the dragon is slain and will no longer torment the local villages, but we’re thousands of miles away from home. That long, perilous voyage to get here? We have to travel it all over again. That bridge that collapsed, you know the one where we lost our wizard, is still out. We have to figure out a way to cross it again, and this time, we are injured and battle-weary.
Speaking of injuries… Frido might lose a leg from when the dragon flung him around like a ragdoll. That is, if the blood loss doesn’t take him first. You think these wounds magically heal themselves once the climax is over?
And just because the dragon is dead doesn’t mean other monsters don’t lurk in these forests. The smell of fresh blood and the scorched earth and trees have likely alerted all of them to our location. We’re sitting targets here, as our healer does what she can to repair our broken bones and torn flesh. Do you think monsters care that we are heroes? No, to them, we all taste the same.
Oh wouldn’t it be nice if some giant birds flew out of the sky and scooped us up to take us back home, where we’d be given a hero's welcome. That sure would be nice, wouldn’t it? But if that were possible, why did we have to trek through these god forsaken forests for months to get here? Couldn’t they have, you know, just flown us here and we could have been rid of this burdensome beast months ago?
Oh that’s right, that couldn’t have happened because then there’d be no adventure.
And we all know it’s all about the adventure. It’s more interesting this way. For you, I mean. I guess it’s more interesting for us too, but I think at this point, all of us “heroes” would appreciate a little boredom.
Well guess what? There’s no easy way back either. But you just want to skip to the good parts - the celebration in the epilogue.
Meanwhile, we’ll try not to die.