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For centuries now, dragons have always ruled over the bright green land, the deep blue sea, the heavenly white mountains, and everything else imaginable. However, this lead to something referred to as ‘dragon entitlement.’ Everywhere, dragons would always remind all other competing species that the dragons were the rulers of the world. This would lead to the torture, enslavement, and even ingestion of all others just to remind anyone who isn’t a dragon that they are inferior to dragons, and will remain that way.

Opposing this oppression, humans have been trying to rebel against the dragons, and to ultimately overthrow their blasphemous rank in the world order. 100 times have humans tried, and 100 times have humans failed, often only resulting in the immediate capture and enslavement of the humans, only of course remind the humans who was in charge.

Almost 50 years since the last uprising of the humans, dragon slavers decided to bring the humans to their knees once and for all, as they are tired of dealing with pesky humans so often. Everyday life of a human slave soon became a non-stop work effort. If the human slave got too mouthy with their master, or didn’t want to work, then they would die. Simple as that.

One human child in particular, Mark, was born as a slave, and would regret being born to this moment. At the age of 3, Mark’s parents were unable to work their master’s farms, and were eaten alive as a final punishment. Even worse, Mark had witnessed the death of his beloved parents first-hand. Watching his parents fall down into the deadly depths of his master would scar him for the rest of his days. Even more frightening was the dragon afterwards. He looked at a crying, defeated Mark, and said, “STOP CRYING THIS INSTANT! You will work for me now, or be destined to the same fate as your worthless mother and father.”

After his parents’ death, Mark was the only slave his master had left, and it was time to put him to work. Mark was subjected to the same treatment his parents had received; Work all day, eat two meals, and when the day was over, go to sleep. If Mark was to ever disobey his master’s commands, Mark would be eaten as his parents were.

Tonight would be a little bit of a different day for Mark, however, as his master would be having guests over for dinner.

“I want this cave spotless, all of the animals fed and tended to, and for you to have finished making a fire pit big enough to fit 4 deer before noon.” Said Mark’s master. Mark was hesitant to say anything, as he was both tired and afraid from being suddenly woken up from his straw shack. Mark’s master was quick to notice this, and was even more quick to scare him into work.

“Unless, of course, you would like to be the main course for tonight…” Said Mark’s master. Mark didn’t hesitate to affirm his master’s wishes, and began tending to the animals. His master just let out a smug grin, and flew off. He knew he would be able to leave on the occasion away from his home. Unless Mark had a death wish, he wouldn’t run off.

Mark just sighed to himself, and continued to feed the cows his master had. The cows served no other purpose than to feed his master. Feeding them everyday would continue to fuel Mark’s sadness on a few levels. One, some of these cows had become good friends to Mark. He didn’t want them to just end in the gut of a wicked, greedy dragon. Second, sometimes, his master would cook the cow by using his flame breath. This wouldn’t bother Mark so much, aside from the smell of the cow wafting into Mark’s shack. Mark knew his master was only doing this to tease Mark. His master could just eat one raw without problem, but his master just loves to rub salt in an open wound by fueling Mark’s want to have better food.

Mark just had to stop thinking about it. He was finding himself eating some of the cow food, and knew he would eat all of it if he didn’t stop. The constant hunger became something that was so regular that Mark had just blocked it out of his mind.

After he was finished with the numerous cows, Mark began cleaning out his master’s cave. The amount of bones of different unfortunate animals didn’t phase Mark, as he was used to that by now. What did phase him was the amount of tally marks on the wall. Above the tally marks read ‘humans eaten.’ There were hundreds of tallies on the wall. Hundreds. What stuck out in Mark’s mind were the two lone tallies at the bottom left of the flat wall his master boasted about. Mark couldn’t get that image out of his mind. His master held Mark close enough to his stomach only to have Mark listen to his mother and father’s last words.

“We’ve failed you, master. We deserve this. But please, not our Mark.”

It was followed by a muffled scream, and then, nothing. No more speech, no more movements. Nothing. Once again, Mark began crying.

Mark didn’t stop until about 20 minutes later. He realized that he was wasting the day, and that he would have to finish cleaning and making the fire pit. Quickly, Mark gathered, and disposed of the animal bones by placing them in a spot in the woods. Normally, Mark would bury them, but he couldn’t afford to waste time.

Cleaning the cave was easy, but the fire pit was a nightmare. Mark was only 8 years old. Carrying big rocks was an impossibility, but that would have made his job so much easier! The pit got finished just 5 minutes before his master arrived back, with company, and with a deer to all of them.

“No wood I see… I would be eating you right now, but I didn’t say to get wood. Get wood now, and I will let you live.” His master said, with chuckles coming from all other dragons, but one. He just switched glances back at the proud master, and the obedient Mark. Mark didn’t notice the other dragon, but Mark was focused on living more than a silent dragon.

30 minutes after Mark had gotten all of the necessary wood, the deer were all completely cooked, and the dragons had started to feast. Mark had looked away from his master eating something ever since his parents were eaten, but now he was forced to look, and the only word that could describe the dragons right now is ‘pig.’

Mark just threw the thought of his parents out of his mind. He would either be made fun of or beaten for crying, as he normally was. Mark just looked away, and waited until he heard nothing but laughing and joking from the dragons, signaling they were done.

“And so I flew to him, flicked the sword out of his hands, and when he tried to run, I ate him!” Said one of the master’s friends. An eruption of laughter from the rest of the dragons followed the first dragon’s joke. Every dragon was laughing their tail off. All but the same one that didn’t laugh when the master threatened to eat Mark for not gathering wood.

Unlike last time, this time, Mark noticed this peculiar dragon. He wasn’t laughing about the first dragon’s joke, nor did he laugh when the master threatened Mark. Even right now, as the master is boasting about the valiant knights he’s bested over the years, that dragon isn’t laughing over the deaths of hundreds of humans slain.

Mark snapped out of his trance when his master had shouted at him.

“You, boy, clean this up this mess now. If you do it quick I might just give you a scrap.” The master said. With the promise of food, Mark was quick to clean the cave of deer blood and bones. It took Mark only 15 minutes for him to clean the cave of the remains; A record time for Mark.

“I see you do want a treat. Well, I did promise you a treat, so here you are…” The master laid down the tiniest bit of deer meat that was stuck between his teeth to Mark.

“Hmmm… It seems to be undercooked for you. Let me fix that…” The master blew fire onto the piece of deer meat until it was incinerated to dust. He and the other dragons laughed at this. Yet again, except for the one who wasn’t laughing at anything that the other dragons were doing or saying. Mark didn’t care about this. He just looked at the charred mess, and a tear swam down his face. Unfortunately, the master took note of this.

“Boy, I do NOT take crying in my domain kindly. It is a sign of your weakness. It is a sign of all humans’ weakness. This is why dragons are superior to all. We have no weakness.” The master said.

“Go to bed now. I’m done dealing with you.”

Mark was more happy than sad to hear this, but what humiliated him more was him hearing the other dragons laughing at him as he ran away. In tears.

All of the dragons were laughing at Mark. All but one…