This made my day. Finally another thing to read from you, i had been waiting for that for a while ^,=,^

I've noticed a couple of spelling mistakes in that one, I think, but other than that I'm glad that you posted it, it was a great story to read, and it definitely feels like there should be more of this storyline.

I'll admit, I've been having the worst writer's block lately. I posted this one without editing. If there's not several errors, I'd be shocked ^^;

You'd think by now I'd know better than to read your stories, yet I do so anyway.

Please do not misunderstand, it's quite good, which is exactly why i shouldn't. Your stories get me all emotional, because all your stories pretty much everyone is a victim of circumstance, humans and dragons alike.

I'm not sure if I'm strange in that I naturally don't have any trouble seeing both the human and dragon points of view on predation; I just happen to think both are stupid. Nature is a bitch. Rule 1 for all life intelligent enough to understand: The game is rigged and can't be won, so kick it's ass. Or to put it in more useful terms; the laws of nature themselves bind us all, but by working together as intelligent individuals it is entirely possible to twist the rules back against themselves, and in effect give everyone breathing room.

It's true that as animals humans are special; and neither are dragons. But by being intelligent enough to comprehend the above, and by being able to communicate with one another something special is true about both species. Namely, that they understand the world well enough to cheat. Dragons are too prideful to do so, and humans are too scared of them to try getting them to see if that way. It's true that the vast majority of both species will never be able to see things from the others point of view; so construct one in the middle and figure out how to bend the world for both species. Unnatural, yes. But as as I said earlier, nature is a bitch. Respect nature to an extent; of course, over-exploiting the world is a problem as well, but following the normal rules will just get you the same fate every species has ever had. Death.

Of course, other options may be avaliable depending on both the extent and limits of the magic that exists. Perhaps, for me, one of the grand tragedies of your tales is that while the dragons can pretend to be human, the reverse is not possible. I don't think full understanding would ever be so easy, but seeing the world from another's eyes and sill refusing to even try to find a solution where you are not at odds is... off, to me. Regardless of which point of view I try to take. Actually, my predatory side, for lack of a better term, is repulsed by it more than the human viewpoint. Killing when you have no choice is fine (More so really). But not actually looking at your options first is arrogant and cruel (to yourself, more than anyone else. Each life needlessly taken is a potential friend, lover, playmate, aquiantence, etc, lost. Not just for them. For you.) If you really refuse to see humans as nothing but food and never try to understand them then playing one is evil. Just a way to play with your food without them ever knowing, which to a social species like humans is a betrayal beyond words.

Of course I'm probably just being arrogant myself, but that is how I have to indulge to live with myself. Seeing stories where everyone is a victim, including those who don't even realize it, hurts. There is no one to blame, and that makes it worse.

(Oh look, I broke my lurking again, that's getting to be a bad habit. Sorry for the extremely long post. I get long winded when emotional).

I see your point in this but in the story the dragon and human village have mutual respect for one another. That is at least a start to what you seem to be wanting see. In my opinion, this definitely could be a building block to live together peacefully but things like that would be very difficult to say the least.
(Yeah, you were getting a little emotional there.)

Well, I think I have to disagree with the idea that they never try. This story is an example, of trying, and the following story to come should hopefully push that point even stronger. But, in the end, how can you say they haven't tried? In the end, dragons need to eat, there's no avoiding that. They don't have a choice, and by your own words, it should be acceptable when there isn't a choice.

That said, I'd also suggest, that you're viewing this from a standpoint of progress. Humans seek to progress, to build, to improve. As a pack we need it. I tend to think it's not as vital a point to dragons, as... as you note, death comes either way. They live, and if they live well, all the better.

Also, I'm afraid I have to disagree with your view of nature, that the only solution is to try and break the rules. On a human lifespan it sounds good, but breaking the rules doesn't tend to work long term. Nature is brutal, but it is also decidedly fair. The rules are never broken, never cheated. It's a simple system, but an honest one. In my opinion anyway. I revel in nature. In the harshness of its reality, I see the miracles of its brighter points all the stronger.

Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but I have to say, I feel you judge the dragons too harshly. Considering that first, you're judging their prior attempts without evidence, and secondly, that I write them as never having evolved the same inventiveness that humans needed to to survive. They're just not as creative, my dragons. Call it single minded perhaps, but I'd not consider it any worse than that

Great to see you writing again. Enjoyed this, but found it a bit hard to believe that the dragon would starve to death, or even allow itself to grow dangerously weak from hunger to honor a 'deal' with its food. The dragons seems intelligent enough to have never made such a 'bad' deal in the first place, and more logically would have said 'you're safe behind your little fence unless I am really starving, but rather than tear your village apart searching for people to eat, I will let you decide who to sacrifice". You do allude to this sort of thing happening anyway, with humans offering themselves up for the good of the community before forcing the decision on the dragon.

The weakest thing about most of the scenarios is your deliberate creation of 'artificial' settings where the normally clever humans are seemingly unable to raise any sort domestic animals to prevent them from being forced to hunt the dangerous forests, and since, so many of the dragons in your worlds seem reasonable enough to accept an equal amount of other meat in exchange for a human they may have caught. Of course, it is easy to see that hornless, clawless, furless, soft skinned, easy to digest humans would logically be their favorite prey. In our real world, even humans populating dense woodlands still have some domestic animals. And as I said before, with dragons capable of making deals like this, and behaving nicely like human 'guests' while performing in the diving arena, some would have surely exploited the human world to a far greater degree instead of sometimes risking starvation in the middle of nowhere. Some dragons would logically be wealthy entrepreneurs living a life of luxury in human cities, possibly even ruling them. This story pretty much proves that eventuality.

You probably have a enough solid material in your various short stories to make them into a real book with a little bit of tweaking to make them interconnected into a larger plotline. The young 'adventurer' of this story could easily be placed in many of the others as he continues to explore, (and write about) his experiences in the lands inhabited by dragons, even taking a job in the "Diving Arena" to learn, and write about all of that. If you pursued something like that though, you might make a point that there are much larger areas where dragons are scarce, (to give the adventurer a purpose in writing down these experiences), like perhaps, there are large human populations in northern climates that dragons may not inhabit due to the cold. He (and you) might entitle such a book, "Adventures in Dragon Country" , "Life in the Dragon Lands", or something similar.

Thanks for sharing.

I think we've exhausted the point that I don't generally agree with your concept of logic or what you feel to be obvious. So I'm not going to even bother addressing my disagreement with most of the points in the middle paragraph, because I already have, at least ten times by this point. If you want my disagreements in writing, simply look at any of our conversations, because you always repeat yourself, and hence so do I.

I would note however, in the case of this dragon, it believes in a concept called Honour. It also, as explained in the text, is looking at this as an almost religious sort of honour. It bears this deal as a peacock does its feathers, and as so, so many animals bear handicaps. There is unshakable proof in the animal kingdom that animals do have handicaps, this one is merely self imposed, but it exists for the same reasons. And since you profess to be a historian, I would ask you take only the briefest glance to the sort of things humans have inflicted upon themselves in the name of personal honour, belief, or religion, and after, oh, twenty seconds of such research reverse your opinion of it being hard to believe that a dragon would inflict less upon itself.

The difference is that the 'honor' humans show is to other humans -- their equals, and not to the creatures they eat. In some human cultures, such 'honor' is a necessary thing for anyone of importance. The idea that the dragon would rather die of starvation than make, (and keep) a foolish, and pointless promise to food items it would otherwise eat if they stray beyond the fence is ridiculous. The reason I continue reading your stories despite the fact that they often make no sense, is that it is possible to simply ignore the goofy, nonsensical parts, like believing this dragon would truly choose to starve to death because it made a promise to its food. (Or that some dragons as demonstrably as powerful and intelligent as you depict them wouldn't have better exploited their superiority over humans than foolishly starve and die in their wilderness caves, until the humans develop the technology (and they certainly would eventually) to exterminate these monstrous predators of humanity. If the humans trapped in the village of this story were assured of a way to kill their eventual devourer, however 'honorable' it may think it is to them, you can be sure they would.

This is why your world is so sad and unbelievable to any of your more intelligent readers who happen to like dragons. Despite the massive contradictions written by your own hand, you paint the picture that the dragons are too stupid to adapt to a world of humans that will eventually destroy them for the menace they are. It is really a waste of obvious talent, and strange that you cannot see, or do not choose to see, the obvious flaws in your worlds of dragons. Apparently because of your vore fetish, you insist on maintaining and absurd, fairytale world where you think humans would be content becoming the food of such nice, honorable dragons if they are not quick enough to avoid them when forces to leave their safety zones.

And we're back to the idle insults. I really wish you would see, since you choose not to see, that we have different opinions. It is strange you don't understand the concept of fictional writing. Of course some aspects are strange, like writing humans who accept predation, but given that these humans have had a different path of evolution to us, they're incomparable. Many, many times I've explained to you the reasons why my world is as it is, but instead of even once trying to see why my world is as it is, you simply see what you don't like, what isn't perfect in your eyes, and declare it illogical, and go out of your way to insult my intelligence as if I were a child. You have no concept of constructive criticism, which is quite a pity, because despite our disagreements, and your bladed tongue that would prefer to use insults than evidence to try and strengthen your point I had hoped to gain something constructive from our interactions.

So, I'm going to finally say a few things I have wanted to say for some time. You're an idiot. You think I'm an idiot, and you go out of your way to try and say that to me, so I'm going to cut to the chase. I think you're stupid, and single minded, and should stick to non-fiction because you have an obsession with your own voice and being right. Secondly, you continue to say that my worlds are unbelievable to my more intelligent readers. You mean yourself. Don't deny it, because that is very clearly what you think. You think you're the smartest person on my comment page, and so anything you say is golden. You think you're right, and that any attempt to defy that fact is ignorance and denial. Quite frankly, that sort of single minded devotion to your opinion has no place in critical analysis. I feel it a duty to point out to you, that what you're saying, is that 99.9% of my readers aren't intelligent. Oh, I know you mean to say they're just less intelligent than you, but you're insulting them none the less. I won't stand for that. Not sharing your opinion does not make people less intelligent. That is a fact you need to grasp.

And thirdly, congratulations. You are officially the one and only source of criticism that I no longer can find any hope of benefit from. I really want you to understand how rare and unique an achievement this is. To this day I have pondered every comment I have ever gotten, and while many I disagree with, I try to sit back and wonder to myself either if they're right, or, if I think they're wrong, how I can better express myself, after all, you can write whatever you want, but it's making the reader believe it that matters, not whether it's actually realistic or not. You, however, I think will only be satisfied if it's just so, therefore I see no point writing exactly what you think is correct unless I'm being commissioned, and frankly, I think you'd be a nightmare to commission for.

So fine, you deny the existence of personal honor, you deny honor to effectively religious beliefs, and you deny me the right to consider new paths of human psychology due to different paths of culture and evolution which they'd have to have if they evolved alongside dragons. Fine, if you don't believe in these concepts, then I can't make you. The point is, read my stories if you like, but stop commenting on them. Why? Because We simply do not agree. You consider much of my work ridiculous, and I think your suggestions are too. Unlike you, I have several times offered the solution that our opinions don't mix, and we should agree to disagree. You've rejected that every time, and insist that anyone who isn't you is stupid... so fine, believe whatever you want, but don't make me waste precious time on your insulting comments, because it's weak critique wrapped in verbal abuse. I don't think enough of the attempt to critique to push through the tripe to find it. So by all means, scoff at your computer, shake your head and consider me foolish for turning down your thoughts when clearly I should be worshiping them, but accept, at last, that I am rejecting your opinion and thoughts. Because you've lost any respect I ever had for your opinion. I frankly don't care what you think anymore. So please, take your unwillingness to compromise and go bother somebody else. I won't improve at all while you're still hounding me

Oh man oh man! Drake wrote another story! *squees excitedly*

I absolutely loved this by the way! I can't get enough of your outlook on the subject, as you know, and love how you write actual stories with it. <3

I have a whole bunch more to say too, but that might be spoilerish, so I'll talk to you about it directly ;D

^^ Enough people write just vore, right? I always prefer trying to make it a story with vore, rather than vore with a story awkwardly wrapped around it... though this is far from my best ^^;