[ IP ] The truly brave men do not slay dragons ...

`` But, what were they *like*, grandpa?'' Goran asked, with wonder. 
 
 The boy looked up at his aging grandfather, no longer looking anything like the warrior he had once been. *Time makes fools of us all*, the old saying went. Still, his grandfather's eyes held some remnants of that strength. 
 
 Courage and fortitude unmeasured existed beyond those dim grey portals. 
 
 Sir Yora Dorak, the Dragon Rider, they had called him. Back in the time when there were dragons left in the world. The world had changed now, and Yora had changed with it. 
 
 The old man looked down at his grandson with thoughtful eyes. 
 
 `` They were the wind, Goran.'' He said in his deep baritone voice. 
 
 `` They were strong like the mountains, they had the heat and passion of a wildfire, they were our greatest fear and our greatest awe.'' 
 
 The boy's eyes widened with every syllable. 
 
 `` But, Grandpa Yora, how did you ride one?'' He asked, almost pleadingly. 
 
 The old man laughed. 
 
 `` I asked permission.'' He said, with a mischievous look on his face. 
 
 Goran cocked his head. His brow furrowed in confusion. His young mind struggled to comprehend. 
 
 `` Grandpa, do n't fool. You ca n't ask a dragon!'' He said, it was so obvious. 
 
 The older man looked out over the mountains that ringed the kingdom. It was a small and peaceful place, but it had n't always been so. That had taken swords and flames and cost lives innumerable. 
 
 Fifty years of peace had cost much. More than the Dragon Rider cared to remember. 
 
 `` I tell you true, Goran.'' He said, sounding far away. `` I asked, pleaded, because my family depended on it. My country, these mountains and valleys, depended on it.'' 
 
 Goran did n't know exactly what his grandfather meant. Surely he was speaking about the time when the Volnar, terrible wolf-like creatures invaded. But, all the songs told how glorious the fight had been, how there had been many brave heroes that stood and fought. Grandpa lead them, from atop his dragon. 
 
 `` We beat them, though grandfather, because you were brave in the battles. You were a hero. We were stronger than them.'' Goran spoke with the self-assured air of a young boy. 
 
 `` No, Goran,'' Yora said softly, `` we were not stronger or braver. They burned our villages and we fled before them. We did not have heroes, we had cowards.'' 
 
 Now Goran was very confused. 
 
 `` In our last days, I climbed the tallest mountain to try to find a dragon. Not because I was brave or mighty, but because I was afraid.'' 
 
 This was n't like the songs at all. Grandpa was lying, Goran was sure of it. Why he would say such things, was a matter of much confusion. 
 
 `` But, you were the only man to speak with a dragon, to get close and live, Grandpa Yora, that was brave!'' 
 
 `` No, it was desperate.'' Yora looked at the boy. `` Desperate men do not need bravery. Their fear is more than enough.'' 
 
 Goran did n't like this story. 
 
 `` Why do they say you were brave then, Grandpa?'' He begged for the answer. 
 
 `` Because they know not what bravery is, child. Brave men do not slay dragons or wolves, brave men learn to live beside them.'' 
 
 Goran did n't know what his Grandpa meant by that. Yora did not tell him, he was far too young to hear it. It was the part of the story that no one liked to tell. 
 
 After all of the Volnar had been killed. After all of their packs hunted from sea to sea. After their young had been burned at the stake, men had breathed a short sigh of relief. 
 
 After they had won, they rebuilt. After they rebuilt, they decided that they would remove the only remaining threat to their supremacy. It was the right thing to do, after all. 
 
 Yora remembered watching his sword sink into his dragon's heart. The dragon that had saved all of his people. *It had been the right thing. * 
 
 They had cleansed the world. Not because they were brave, but because they were afraid. 
 
 *Brave men do not slay dragons. And, I am not a brave man. *
