The Dragon Chronicles, Part 5

...Dragons are unpredictable. Some dragons come with fire and rage and ruin, and you know well before they arrive that your life is going to quickly take a turn for the worse. Some dragons are content to scare you with their presence and only occasionally spout flame and fume at you to remind you that they are there and that you should be very, very afraid. Some dragons are already grown fat and lazy by the time you encounter them and are content to let you starve to death in the wasteland they have created around them without bothering to confront you directly.

...But SOME dragons are very, very dangerous! They have a full arsenal of the weapons described above and use them individually and corporately as the mood strikes. Their most fomidable weapon, though, is their ability to completely curse your existence. They coax you into believing that you have a chance to stand and fight them. Yet, while you face them with all your courage they are weaving wicked, cursed magic behind your back to bring rack and ruin upon your family, friends, community, and kingdom. They undercut your supports one by one. They don't just kill them, they visit slow, cruel torture upon them using every wile of hate, deceit, cruelty, wickedness and ruthlessness. And when they finish, you suddenly realize that the real fight was behind you, not in front of you, and there is now no longer anything left to fight for. So fighting becomes robbed of its sweetness and reward and every offensive stroke becomes riddled with futility.

...Pretty bleak picture, huh! Kinda makes you feel like not bothering to fight at all. But, ah, therein lies the real key to victory. You see, dragons are incapable of seeing anything positive. They only see the potential for ruin and despair in everything. They only win so long as they are able to push you backwards into the crippling futility of despondency. They are incapable of understanding the knight who has already pledged irrevocably to press forward with the fight no matter what lies behind.

...Such a knight fights for an ideal, a dream of what can be in a dragon-less world. They fight for all the other knights and families and friends and kingdoms which will come after them. They believe, in the words of Samwise Gamgee, "...that there is some good in this world...and that it's worth fighting for!"

...Knights gallant see all the opportunities to give up as touchpoints for steeling the resolve, grasping the sword more firmly, and standing strong when all around seems on the verge of annihilation. They understand that the true danger is to look a dragon in the eye and lose sight of all that's really important. And they know instinctively that a shield can also be used as a mirror to turn a dragon's evil and wickedness back upon itself. For the one thing a dragon cannot withstand is the unavoidable truth that all the evil in the world cannot conquer the steadfast heart and the noble spirit. The true knight is a knight in every fibre of his being and no amount of dragon fire can ever burn that essence from him.

...So steel your resolve, fellow knights. Keep your eye on the true treasure and never, never forget your shield!