When you responded to my comment on the last installment of this, I was legit worried the kid was going to uncover like a sad group of people pretending like dragons exist, and it becomes an ultra normal sad revelation (for the Erik and myself)
Then there is this whole scene where they induct him into joining "the club" to help this legend live on. Anyway, glad THAT didn't happen.
In reality, funny enough the older me reading stories like this goes a little to pragmatic. When he loses his shoes while swimming up to the surface for air I couldn't help but think "Well how is this young man going to get back home now?" in a way that echoes my mother's cadence.
I'm so glad you didn't split this up into more parts, but the "He must decide: Would he wake the dragon?" would be SUCH an annoying and powerful reading break. So yeah thanks for not doing that.
(Side note. "as large as ponies" made me laugh - what a delightful and unexpected comparison haha)
I especially like you throwing shade at dragon stories in your epilogue-esque notes. You say "fancy horses" and "big crocodiles" like it's a bad thing! But in reality, I love the ending. I also think it is far better than being eaten, considering the personality you've endowed this particular dragon (I thought Na'Tar would be one of many names he goes by over the centuries, almost like he remembers it, but barely. But instead of monologuing I like how you made Na'Tar a majestic demon of a few words. And a mouthful of fire.)
So glad you appreciate my sensibilities on this one. I also get super bummed by stories that end with the supernatural is revealed to be a cooperative fiction. Sometimes Oz is actually Oz.
Also, yeah, it was always going to be a one-way trip. Even with magic healing water, there's no way he can climb out of that cave.
Do you think drinking the healing water would essentially grant him immortality? If not immortality, surely it would allow him to live without fear of starvation or death simply from malnourishment.
Not saying the dragon would let him live down there for an extended period of time, but.... makes you think.
I thought about that. I didn't want to belabor the idea in the story itself, but in my mind, the water was healing, but not nourishing. So, yeah, you don't bleed to death, and you stay hydrated, but people still gotta eat, and there's nothing down there for him to actually live on. But now that you point it out, I really like the idea that maybe he could have just lived down there indefinitely. Wait for Na'Tar to wake up on Its own, see if he can hitch a ride back out. C'est la vie.
I agree about not including it in the story, this is definitely a post-story fantasy session type of discourse.
You say "still gotta eat" but what about Na'Tar? What is It eating? Is It leaving the cave often? Why don't more people see it? Is there not some sort of correlation you can't escape from when it comes to "healing" vs "nourishing"?
And yeah, IF Na'Tar leaves the cave and IF Erik can negotiate, that'd be fun. Kinda the start of a whole potential journey/story/experience to write home about. Or a long game of cat and mouse could be fun. Or a lot of things could be fun haha. Just intrigued about that body of water and what the potential implications might be
One of the more fun and stressful aspects of writing a story is watching all the potential storylines collapse into one plot beat at a time. Every story is a choose-your-own-adventure when you're the author.
Perhaps the metaphor is putting blind faith into a huge institution can be all consuming, and maybe not in the way you hoped it would be.
It’s really a shame that some people feel the need to be great, to do something great, at the cost of literally anything and everything. People may see following some great movement or some great ideal as easy, but it’s only easy because you are handing someone else the reigns to make decisions for your life.
I suppose this loss of autonomy in the name of something “great” makes me sad because I see so much beauty and happiness in the everyday, the mundane, the familial and familiar.
Excellent point. That puts into words the impulse that drove me to write the story in the first place. Misplaced faith. This is so easy in our current era, with so many spectacles, so many things that seem big and important. It's easy to get lost in the fantasy of one of them, to get caught up in "some great movement or some great ideal" at the cost of what really matters, which is always the people closest at hand.
When you responded to my comment on the last installment of this, I was legit worried the kid was going to uncover like a sad group of people pretending like dragons exist, and it becomes an ultra normal sad revelation (for the Erik and myself)
Then there is this whole scene where they induct him into joining "the club" to help this legend live on. Anyway, glad THAT didn't happen.
In reality, funny enough the older me reading stories like this goes a little to pragmatic. When he loses his shoes while swimming up to the surface for air I couldn't help but think "Well how is this young man going to get back home now?" in a way that echoes my mother's cadence.
I'm so glad you didn't split this up into more parts, but the "He must decide: Would he wake the dragon?" would be SUCH an annoying and powerful reading break. So yeah thanks for not doing that.
(Side note. "as large as ponies" made me laugh - what a delightful and unexpected comparison haha)
I especially like you throwing shade at dragon stories in your epilogue-esque notes. You say "fancy horses" and "big crocodiles" like it's a bad thing! But in reality, I love the ending. I also think it is far better than being eaten, considering the personality you've endowed this particular dragon (I thought Na'Tar would be one of many names he goes by over the centuries, almost like he remembers it, but barely. But instead of monologuing I like how you made Na'Tar a majestic demon of a few words. And a mouthful of fire.)
Thanks again for a great story!
So glad you appreciate my sensibilities on this one. I also get super bummed by stories that end with the supernatural is revealed to be a cooperative fiction. Sometimes Oz is actually Oz.
Also, yeah, it was always going to be a one-way trip. Even with magic healing water, there's no way he can climb out of that cave.
Do you think drinking the healing water would essentially grant him immortality? If not immortality, surely it would allow him to live without fear of starvation or death simply from malnourishment.
Not saying the dragon would let him live down there for an extended period of time, but.... makes you think.
I thought about that. I didn't want to belabor the idea in the story itself, but in my mind, the water was healing, but not nourishing. So, yeah, you don't bleed to death, and you stay hydrated, but people still gotta eat, and there's nothing down there for him to actually live on. But now that you point it out, I really like the idea that maybe he could have just lived down there indefinitely. Wait for Na'Tar to wake up on Its own, see if he can hitch a ride back out. C'est la vie.
I agree about not including it in the story, this is definitely a post-story fantasy session type of discourse.
You say "still gotta eat" but what about Na'Tar? What is It eating? Is It leaving the cave often? Why don't more people see it? Is there not some sort of correlation you can't escape from when it comes to "healing" vs "nourishing"?
And yeah, IF Na'Tar leaves the cave and IF Erik can negotiate, that'd be fun. Kinda the start of a whole potential journey/story/experience to write home about. Or a long game of cat and mouse could be fun. Or a lot of things could be fun haha. Just intrigued about that body of water and what the potential implications might be
One of the more fun and stressful aspects of writing a story is watching all the potential storylines collapse into one plot beat at a time. Every story is a choose-your-own-adventure when you're the author.
“Sometimes you choose your own adventure, sometimes it chooses you”
Perhaps the metaphor is putting blind faith into a huge institution can be all consuming, and maybe not in the way you hoped it would be.
It’s really a shame that some people feel the need to be great, to do something great, at the cost of literally anything and everything. People may see following some great movement or some great ideal as easy, but it’s only easy because you are handing someone else the reigns to make decisions for your life.
I suppose this loss of autonomy in the name of something “great” makes me sad because I see so much beauty and happiness in the everyday, the mundane, the familial and familiar.
Excellent point. That puts into words the impulse that drove me to write the story in the first place. Misplaced faith. This is so easy in our current era, with so many spectacles, so many things that seem big and important. It's easy to get lost in the fantasy of one of them, to get caught up in "some great movement or some great ideal" at the cost of what really matters, which is always the people closest at hand.