![]() ![]() The wealthy might gain a brief reprieve by bribing the press gangs that came to fetch them but, by constitutional law, nobody, not even the king himself, could put off their turn indefinitely. Although senior people were as vigorous and healthy as the young, and sometimes wiser, the thinking was that they had at least already enjoyed a few decades of life. The fatalities selected were always elders. Seeing that defeating the tyrant was impossible, humans had no choice but to obey its commands and pay the grisly tribute. The dragon’s claws, jaws, and fire were so effective, its scaly armor so impregnable, and its whole nature so robust, as to make it invincible to any human assault. Chemists concocted toxic brews and tricked the dragon into swallowing them, but the only apparent effect was to further stimulate its appetite. Warriors, armed with roaring courage and the best weapons the smiths could produce, attacked it, but were incinerated by its fire before coming close enough to strike. Priests and magicians called down curses, to no avail. Some people tried to fight the dragon, but whether they were brave or foolish was difficult to say. In addition to the ten thousand who were gruesomely slaughtered each day, there were the mothers, fathers, wives, husbands, children, and friends that were left behind to grieve the loss of their departed loved ones. The misery inflicted by the dragon-tyrant was incalculable. Sometimes the dragon would devour these unfortunate souls upon arrival sometimes again it would lock them up in the mountain where they would wither away for months or years before eventually being consumed. It demanded from humankind a blood-curdling tribute: to satisfy its enormous appetite, ten thousand men and women had to be delivered every evening at the onset of dark to the foot of the mountain where the dragon-tyrant lived. ![]() Its red eyes glowed with hate, and from its terrible jaws flowed an incessant stream of evil-smelling yellowish-green slime. The dragon stood taller than the largest cathedral, and it was covered with thick black scales. Once upon a time, the planet was tyrannized by a giant dragon. ![]()
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