[ WP ] It does no good to speak of roads not taken .

`` I am old now, old to my bones, and weary of travel.'' 
 
 Olm looked down on his granddaughter Elm, whose eyes were widened with youth and green as spring. He smiled. 
 
 `` I've walked many roads with these bones of mine, and each path taken has left its mark, its wear.'' He showed her the wrist, where the infamous crescent scar marred his tanned flesh, a grin from the past itself. `` This particular nasty wound was given to me by a dragon.'' 
 
 Elm narrowed her eyes, looking startlingly mature. 
 
 `` Dragons do n't exist, grandpa. I'm not *stupid*.'' 
 
 Olm sighed, feeling tired, and his bones might as well have groaned with him. Youth, they did n't know how to appreciate a good story anymore. 
 
 `` A dragon can take many shapes,'' he grumbled, frowning the bushes of his eyebrows. `` Many forms.'' 
 
 For a moment he collected his thoughts, until Elm interrupted: `` Grandpa!'' 
 
 `` Yes, yes,'' Olm mumbled. `` Ahem. This *particular* dragon was in the business of kidnapping princesses. Now it just so happened that he had abducted the most beautiful princess of all, a girl whose eyes were as radiant as the sun, and whose spirit was fiercer than the molten core within.'' 
 
 `` The sun's not *molten*, grandpa, it's fusing gas.'' 
 
 Olm shook his head. Kids these days were too smart for their own good. Sometimes too much knowledge got in the way of solid wisdom. 
 
 `` The point,'' he said, `` Is that this princess had a spirit that burned so bright, that the dragon became jealous and wanted to take her for his own. Even though the princess was already promised, to a handsome prince.'' 
 
 Olm paused and stroked his beard, trying to look noble, and Elm could n't help giggling. 
 
 `` The princess could do better!'' 
 
 `` Probably,'' Olm conceded, `` Yet she meant the world to the prince, as you now mean the world to me, Ellie.'' 
 
 Elm beamed, and Olm paused for a moment, recollection misting over his eyes. 
 
 `` If only I had been able to show her that...'' Olm shook his head. A man takes many paths in life, and only when he looks back, does he see the distance travelled, the paths he could have taken. The mists of time had come, and went again. `` But we were talking of the dragon.'' 
 
 Elm had gone quiet, with that children's intuition of sensing deep emotion. 
 
 `` Life is funny, Ellie. I could have chosen to reason with the dragon... or to have faith that the princess would figure a way out of his claws alone. Instead I chose to fight.'' 
 
 `` Did you use a sword?'' Elm's emerald eyes were full of excitement. 
 
 Olm nodded slowly. `` Swords were the customary way of dueling at the time. And I was spry, when these bones still had spring in them.'' Olm made a riposte with his hands, and Elm grinned. 
 
 Olm was quiet for a moment. `` I intended to merely scare the dragon off, but a fight is like a wildfire, *especially* against dragons: it moves in unexpected ways, and each flame sparks a bigger one.'' 
 
 Elm nodded, grasping the metaphor this time. `` So the dragon bit you?'' 
 
 Olm peered at the scar, saying: `` Yes. The thing about wildfires is, they grow and grow, until they consume you. In the end, I slayed that dragon.'' He shook his head. `` I went too far. Life is sacred, even that of lecherous dragons. What I did n't realise was that the princess, whose spirit burned so brightly, had come to love the dragon's flames.'' A deep sadness had come over Olm, as he looked at the scar. `` When I snuffed the flame of the dragon's life, I also killed the love in the princess's heart. She foresook our kingdom in search of something to revive her light, and never returned.'' 
 
 Elm looked up, her eyes bright and understanding. `` The princess was grandma, was n't she, grandpa? Do you wish she had stayed?'' 
 
 Olm smiled sadly at her. she had always been too clever, his granddaughter. `` I've walked many paths with these bones of mine, Ellie, and sometimes, I admit, I did dwell on roads I could have taken, or sought paths back to her. But it does no good to speak of roads not taken.'' 
 
 He looked at Elm, her green bright eyes, those eyes that burned with an indescribable fire of their own, and smiled. 
 
 `` Because this is the only path that lead to you, Ellie.'' 
 
 Elm reddened and rolled her eyes. `` Grandpaa...'' she complained, the child again. `` That's so cheesy.'' 
 
 Olm chuckled, watching her get up and run out into the blossoming garden, where her parents were sitting, talking. And for a moment, his bones felt young again.
