--"I have lived here for a long time. People used to come here for my help with various problems. People eventually stopped coming and my life was fairly uneventful. That changed one night when I was asleep. It was raining hard that night when I woke up. I could only hear the sound of the storm outside at first. But then I heard a noise that caught my attention. It sounded like something was crying outside. I left the house to see what was making that noise and found a little black dragon curled up next to my house. The poor thing was no bigger than a fawn. I took him inside and dried him off. The poor thing was shivering and starving. I fed him and let him sleep in my bed. He quickly went to sleep like a log. I didn't sleep that night but just sat there and wondering what I should do with this little black dragon. I couldn't get rid of him. I had never seen a dragon as weak looking as him before. He was lost and would surely die without my care. I spent all my time caring for him... The next morning he didn't wake up. The poor thing was exhausted. I knew that I had to care for it, and that began with feeding him. So I set out some old traps and caught him something to eat. When I found him he couldn't even stand. With a good diet and a place to sleep, he began to regain his strength. He regained health a few weeks later although he was still tiny for a dragon. Shorty after that, he was talking. He explained to me what had happened to him. He was born the weakest and smallest dragon in his litter. His siblings teased and abused him. This was nothing uncommon, since the smallest of the litter was treated like this. However, his torment was different. While his siblings beat him, their father encouraged it. His father said he needed to get strong or die."

--"That's horrible!" exclaimed the princess.

--"Yes it is. Anyways…" Rinaldo continued, "His father treated him like a parasite and gave him the shameful name of Runtmeat. He was told many times that he should be thankful that he was being kept alive, because was he not worth the food that was fed to him. He tried very hard to show he was a worthy dragon, but failed every time just to be tormented further. One night he overheard his Father talking with somebody. His father was planning to kill him the next day and said that it should have been done the minute he hatched. Little Marco knew he had to get away from home quickly. He wasted no time, and immediately left the cave and mountain he knew as home. He traveled without direction and was vulnerable to the many dangers of the outside. He traveled nonstop for a few days without food or rest. He discovered the smell of my garden and followed it. The storm washed away the smell and he just kept walking in the direction he had been going. He found my home and collapsed next to it. He was certainly lucky to have survived. He could have died, if I had not heard his cries that night. He said the journey was a blur to him, and he couldn't remember any of it. He started calling me Papa, so I raised him as my son. After he explained all of this to me, I took the opportunity to give him a new name. I asked if he would like the name "Marco" and he loved it.

--Raising a dragon has a lot of different aspects than raising a human does. One thing that caught me off guard was the first time he breathed fire. He was trying to pull a book off of a shelf and it fell off and hit him on the head. He got mad and toasted the outside of the books on the lower shelves."

--"It was an accident." Marco objected, "I just was going to yell at the bookshelf." At this Lilia giggled in amusement. "I'm serious. It's not funny." he said.

--"I believe you. You showed those books who was superior." She replied with a laugh.

--"You were very young. There is no reason to be embarrassed, but I should point out that it is funny." Rinaldo said. Marco groaned and rested his head on the floor by table. If it had not been for his scales, his face would have been blushing brilliantly then.

Rinaldo resumed his story, "He was very curious but this was limited by his apprehensiveness. He loved to explore outside in my company. He would chase butterflies, smell flowers, and listen to the songs of the birds during the day. But when it got just a little bit dark, he would panic and desperately want to go back to the house. So I would have to pay attention to the sun to know when to bring him inside. One day he wanted to fly and climbed up a tree to jump out of. Unfortunately, the height scared him and I had to help him get down. He did not try to fly very often, and I never could teach him to. I needed something that would satisfy his curiosity and keep him out of trouble so I would not need to constantly watch him.

--So I taught him to read. I had plenty of books for him to learn about humans. The task of teaching him was difficult but rewarding. It was so cute seeing him wrapped up in fascination with those. I was able to return to my work. But one day he came to me crying. He looked up at me with tears streaming down his face and asked, 'Papa, am I evil?' His question caught me off guard and confused. I told him 'Of course not. What would give you that idea?' He walked over to a pile of books that I recognized immediately. In my years of collecting books, I got an assortment of books that were for reading to children. I put them all in a box and put it away so Marco would not accidentally read them. He had found them, dug them out, and read them. He showed me one of the books and said, 'In this story, a big evil dragon destroyed towns and killed people who lived there. A hero had to go and slay it. This other book is about a knight who slayed the evil dragon that was eating people. Why are dragons evil? I don't want to be evil. If I'm evil, a knight will find me and cut my head off.'

--It took me a long time to comfort him enough for him to stop crying. I told him that he was a good dragon and he would not have to worry. I don't think I ever got him past that though. The innocent little child had been traumatized.

He was able to live on his own many years later. It was a surprise to me when he visited me and told me that he was in love with the princess. I tried to be reasonable with the situation but I could not talk him out of it. He wanted to meet you. There was no way he could marry the princess, but I figured that it would be a good time to get over his fear of knights. So I got out an old spell book and gave him a temporary human form to go Anovia. Once I gave him some money I just decided to wait for him to come back and comfort him about not being able to marry the princess. So it was quite some surprise to me when he brought you here. May I ask how he even got to meet you?"

--"You gave him an awfully large amount of money. Everyone thought he was traveling royalty from a far off kingdom," She explained. "When my father heard about it, he wanted to take Marco in as his guest in hopes of furthering his influence."

--"I didn't give him that much money at all. I just gave him enough money for food, shelter, and some decent clothes," Rinaldo said in surprise.

--"You gave him two large pouches of gold."

--"Exactly! I don't see how he could be mistaken for royalty."

--The princess stared at him for a moment in confusion before saying, "Two pouches of gold is a very large amount of money."

--Rinaldo was getting more baffled by the minute. "It is?" he asked.

--"Yes, it really is a lot of money."

--Rinaldo just sat there quietly for a moment. He took a few sips of his "tea" and muttered, "Huh. Gold is worth a lot more than what I remember." An odd silence filled the room as nobody knew what to say. Finally Rinaldo stood up and said, "Let me get you something to eat. It's a sad day when I can't be hospitable to royalty."

--"Oh thank you, but please don't think of me as royalty. It's nice to be able to talk to nice people like you as an equal," She replied.