Only a few moments before I wrote this short story, I was reading some of the Greek and Roman myths that I just love to look up and read. I wrote it much in the style of a myth or a legend or a fairy tale. Try to see if you can find out what the "moral" to the story is.

Once long ago, there lived a dragon named Esbuch who, every few days would go into the town of Mustuff and steal gold, eat good, kill people, destroy buildings, and wreak havoc. The town was steadily decreasing in wealth, supplies, population, size, and development.

The villagers decided to bargain with the dragon. They told him that they would give him a bar of gold, 50 lbs of meat, five flasks of wine, and one villager every week, delivered to his very own castle, if he would not attack their town any longer. The dragon laughed at their offer and said that the town on the other side of the river was giving him two bars of gold, 100 lbs of meat, 10 flasks of wine, and two villagers every week, along with two castles.

He also stated that their offer had offended him so that next week he would steal twice as much gold, eat twice as much food, kill twice as many people, destroy twice as many buildings, and perhaps burn a wing of the castle when he attacked. The villagers then said that they would give him four bars of gold, 200 lbs of meat, 20 flasks of wine, and four villagers every week, along with four castles. The dragon agreed.

The people of teh town quickly built two castles and gave him two old ones. They always kept up with their payments. One week, the villagers decided that they would not pay the dragon because they thought that they had enough soldiers to destroy him. That week, the dragon stole all of the gold, ate all of the food, killed all of the people, destroyed all of the buildings, and turned the entire town to dust. The dragon's stomach exploded later and he died, too.

"Hault! Thief!" Vid yelled as he ran along with five other of the King's Guard after the criminal. They had to have that cursed masquerade in the castle, he thought sarcastically.

He tried to keep an eye on the thief as whoever it was darted throught the rows of merchants' carts which had all been abandone for the night. This was quite difficult, as the darkness of night, the thief's quick zig-zagging, and the various items litering the way fought to confuse him.

He screamed a few cursing phrases as he tumbled to the ground, tripping on an upside-down milk bucket laid carelessly in the middle of the way. The sounds from the castle's ball room silenced immediately, telling Vid that they had heard. He mumbled another curse under his breath, knowing that King Aul would punish him in the morrow for his filthy vocabulary. Damn those paper thin walls, he thought.

One of the other King's Guardsmen stopped to help Vid to his feet. Vid pushed him away and said sharply, "Teve! Unless I command you to do otherwise, you will continue pursuing that man. Clean the unicorn stalls at next light for your foolishness." Teve sighed and began to run after the thief once more. The unicorn stalls were always smelliest and had more to clean.

Slowly, Vid pulled himself up from the muddy way. His ankle ached so, but he forced himself to run. Being the fastest, he soon caught up to his place directly behind the criminal and far ahead of his co-guardsmen. With one leap, he took the thief to the ground.

Vid grabbed the thief by their arm and flipped them over so that Vid was sitting atop the thief's stomach, spit blood from his mouth onto the ground, having bit his tongue in the impact, and stood the thief up to chain him. Vid grabbed the thief's mask and ripped it off. He stood stunned, jaw dropped open, eyes wide. It was a woman! A beautiful woman...

The beautiful woman took this opportunity to, in a very sophisticated and lady-like manner, swiftly drive her knee between his legs.

The sounds of battle echoed throughout the halls of the castle. There was the sound of wood on wood, then wood on skin. Suddenly, there was the sound of a large object slamming hard into the wall. This was followed by the wound of clay pottery falling from their shelves and a blood curdling scream of agony.

"To the darkest of hells with you demon!" The king yelled

Vid rolled his eyes, picked up his "pretend" wooden sword, and stood up from the cold brick floor. He sighed and began to clean up the pieces of pottery that were scattered about under the shelves.

The king bent over and began to help in the cleaning up. He looked over at Vid and sighed, "No offense, but you really suck at dying."

Vid replied, "None taken, sire, considering that if I am ever cut down in battle I will not be very worried about style as I fall from atop my unicorn and have my head trampled upon and most likely detached."

The king giggled as if he were a child, as he often did, "Lovely choice of words."

"Thank you, sire." Vid said, sarcastically while hoping that the king would not remember his "lovely choice of words" the night before.

The king obviously did not, or planned not to punish Vid, as he immediately changed the subject, "Where is Teve? He is very good at death."

"He is out cleaning the unicorn stables."

The king quickly looked up. He remembered the days he had spent under the strict rule of his father. He was always punished by cleaning the unicorn stables. "Why?" He shivered.

"Last night. While we were running after that thief, I fell over a flipped milk bucket laid in the middle of the street. He stopped to help me without my commanding him to do so. I have had a many recent times that he has defied my orders or done something without my commands. I believe that you should have a good talk with that boy. He has a lot of potential but it is being destroyed by his independant aditude. Independence is intolerable in a new united Great Kingdoms."

"I understand your point of view, but I do not agree with it. Independence is what brings us together. Do you think that when my father and then I slowly brought all of the Great Kingdoms together we did not have independant opinions? Or that we did not have to withstand many others with many other independant opinions? Independance is what brings us together. Do not forget that. And about that thief--"

"She needs to be punished swiftly and brutally that is the fifth thief in the castle this week. And the first that we caught. She must be our example to the rest. And sire, if all of those thieves would have grouped together, they could have destroyed this castle, litterally. Our walls are as thin as paper. Last night you heard me ye--" Vid interrupted and froze as he realized that he was reminding the king of his great vocabulary.

The king seemed to ignore it, going on without a second thought. "No. She explained to me that she had only stolen to feed her family. And all that we found she had stolen was bread. We shall let her go."

"Food or not. She should have gotten a job." Vid demanded.

"Vid, I am your king. You will not yell at me."

Vid and the king both froze as they heard a woman's voice come from the room's entrance, "Give me the gold."

The same woman's voice that had just demanded the gold went into a sudden burst of hysterical laughter. This was of course after the seemingly very long period of silence, during which she was probably try to choke back the laugh. She obviously lost.

"What in the hells is wrong with you?" Vid demanded, "You nearly gave me a heart attack!" The usually unlaughing, straight-faced Vid could no longer hold it back. He too laughed, but only slightly.

"Sir Vid, I am quite sure that your heart can take much more." She, who Vid and the king now knew was Princess Jikleen, punched Vid in the chest where the heart would be. Knowing that no matter how hard she hit a kingsguardman she could not hurt him, they being the strongest men in the Great Kingdoms, she hit him with all her might.

After the punch Vid simply stood there and looked at her. She shook her head and half-smiled, being cured now from the fit of laugh. After she turned her head, Vid looked at the king, scowled and silently lipped, "Ow." He then rubbed the spot on his chest which she head hit.

The king shook his head and sat down on the floor. "Either of you feel like napping?"

"No, Papa. Actually I had come in here to say that Mama and cook Miclelen are ready with the food for supper." Jikleen said before Vid got a chance to say that he was going to pass out on the floor if he did not get some rest soon.

The king sighed and rolled his eyes. "Has not your mother ever been taught that supper is to be eaten in the evening. Look out the window. 'Tis only midday, told by the sun being directly above the castle."

"Papa! I am hungry!" Jikleen grabbed the king's arm and futily tried to pull him from the floor. She knew of course that she could not a 300 lb man.

The king grunted in exaustion and got up, pretending that Jikleen had lifted him. "Come Vid. Jikleen is hungry so we must suffer."

Vid smiled and layed his hand atop Jikleen's head. His hand was large enough that if he were to curl it into a ball, it would be the same size as her head. He was at least twice her height. He thought it funny that any person could be so small. She thought it funny that any person could be so large. He messed up her hair with his hand and laughed. "'Tis Medusa!" He said and the king and he laughed.

Jikleen, not thinking that it was so funny, gave Vid a swift kick to the shin and took to running ahead of them to escape from Vid's move that was notorious amongst the castle's children. He caught up with no problem, lifted her up as she giggled and screamed with delight, put his hands around her ankles and hung her upside down, swinging her for a while.

As the king, Vid and Jikleen all wrestled about, there came a sudden clatter from the dining room, as if something very large had fallen.

Jikleen, Vid, and the king all ran quickly into the dining hall. Vid was the first to enter, being fastest. Jikleen and the king caught up and were directly behind him in the room.

Vid dropped to his knees and began to franticly pray to Hadeas, the god of life and death. Jikleen stood stunned, tears dripping down her cheeks. The king ran to his wife's side.

The queen laid, crushed and bleeding, unmoving. The china cabinet, containing the glass dishes had fallen on her. As if the weight of the 1000 lbs cabinet was not enough, the glass had all shattered and cut her in the face, hands, and other exposed parts of her body.

Miclelen, the cook servant walked into the room to see Jikleen, Vid, and the king all in tears and praying to Hadeas, and the queen laying on the floor with the cabinet atop her. He stumbled backwards and dropped the large plate of hot foods on himself. He screamed in pain as Vid and the king quickly finished the prayer with, "Amen and blessings" and ran to his side.

Miclelen was screaming and hitting the two men, fighting to get up. He screamed that someone had pushed him and that they were strangling him.