Yuli was a perfectly fine dragon, thank you very much. As long as twenty metres and with perfect black scales, she was laying on the ground, sleeping. You might have heard tales of dragons. Incredible might, otherworldly intellect or hoarders of untold treasures which they greedily protect, day in and day out. Yuli would agree with those statements, and more. The one thing she wished she didn’t do as much was sleep. Why had dragons to be so drowsy a mere hour after waking up?

At less than a hundred years old, Yuli was little more than a whelp, a teenage dragon with a burning temperament. She dreamed about traveling the world, about discovering wild places and being acclaimed by crowds. But unfortunately, dreaming was all she did. Breathing deeply, wisps of smokes rising up off her nostrils as the low rumble of her deep respirations echoed around the dark cave. A woodpile was burning in a corner, dancing lights gleaming on her dark scales.

Engineering was also a interest of her, of course. To her left side were displayed a series of various instruments, ranging from a dark wood music box to devious looking contraptions with wheels, cogs and whistles, somehow looking menacing. Figuring out how these tools worked was fascinating. For all their mundane lives, humans could sometimes come up with devices worthy of her attention. She was always very careful to pluck these away from the occasional thief group or from unfortunate merchants passing by her valley. Before eating them, that is. It should go without saying.

As Yuli dreamt of clockwork and soaring overseas, noises of footsteps and hushed voices brought her back to the present. She cracked an eye open, then gave a large yawn before stretching, reaching with her legs as far as she could with the majestic and uncaring grace of an average cat.

You would think that thieves would know better. You would think they would know to be silent. Clearly, humans could be slow to learn. But that was exactly why she was a dragon, and they were humans. The natural order was simply respected. Quietly, she prowled away from the flames, lying in wait in a dark corner of the cave. You could just about make out the fire’s reflection in her dilated pupils. The thieves entered. First cautiously–then thinking that they were alone–they relaxed. Shouts of exclamations rang against the walls of her lair as they started pointing at her collection and the worthless–but shiny–pile of gold and jewels behind. One started jogging forward, leather groaning and sword loudly clacking at their side. Two others uncaringly jesting at a third. Noises of all sorts amplified by the echos in the large room.

What a cacophony.

Yuli pounced. Before any of them realised what had happened, she slashed her claws across one figure, swiped her tail across catching another and crushing them against a wall. Finally, she bit off the third person’s head, the body dropping in a bloody mess. Their bag fell down along with them, slamming on the floor and spilling its contents around. Bread, a pile of black seeds, feathers and smoked jerky.

Belatedly realising something was wrong, the figure who had sprinted in front turned back. The long hair circled an angular face that turned to utter shock. The woman’s mouth gaped open and she fell to her knees as the horror of the scene reached her eyes.

“Please! Mighty dragon!” croaked the woman, her voice broken after her shock. “I swear to you, we did not mean any harm! Never would we have disturbed you here, had we known of your presence!”

What a load of lies. Of course they knew the treasures she had. What reason other than greed would these humans even consider smudging her holy home by their vulgar presence?

“We are but travellers, Your Blackness! We explore the world, in search of its limits. We report what we find on maps and we only came to this mountain because it looked so majestic. Of course we should have known it would be the house of such a grand creature as yourself!”

Well, she liked that woman. At least she was showing proper respect and awe. “What is this you say about maps? Show me.”

“Of course, Long Claw,” said the woman as she plunged a hand into her rucksack, pulling out an aged book bound shut by a leather strap.

“Give it to me,” said Yuli hungrily. She couldn’t quite keep the trepidation from her voice. A book? With maps of the entire world drawn into it? This was going to be the crown jewel of her collection. But as she impatiently closed near to the woman, it happened–again. Her hiccup came unannounced, flames engulfing the woman like an ephemeral furnace. One second, the human was there, tentatively offering the book to her. The next, a pile of smouldering ashes had replaced her, the treasured pages holding the promise of an entire world scattering with the smoking remains.

Yuli bellowed a scream of pure, visceral rage. For all her absolute perfection, she had but one fault. She was suffering from a hiccup that had caused her time and time again to be rejected by her peers, to be abandoned by her family and that had now lost her the most precious object she’d come across in a century! The other humans must have valuable information she should be able to find. She had to know. Quickly, she jumped from body to body, riffling through their meagre possessions. There were some weapons, feathers, even blank parchments–her heart skipped a beat seeing them–but no treasured map. Fuelled by rage and hunger, she feasted on the poor souls that had trespassed into her den and before long that familiar weariness washed over her. How was she to explore the world if all she could do was sleep anyway.

As she dragged herself back to her usual sleeping spot, she spotted the bag that had crashed to the floor, its contents scattered all around with the huge pile of black seeds that had rolled around. What a mess. Despite her bleary eyes, curiosity got the better of her as she leaned in to take a bite of what kind of seeds would some world wanderer carry. She chewed and quickly swallowed them as an intense wave of bitterness hit her.

“What kind of foul swill are those,” squeaked Yuli, disgusted as she started retching from the taste. It didn’t take long for her hiccup to manifest again, engulfing with her flame the bag’s content. Now being both tired, grumpy and with an absolutely revolting after-taste lingering in her mouth, Yuli settled down to sleep. She rolled her wing above her head, gave a long yawn and closed her eyes. Despite her recent disappointment, thoughts of exploring the world, of flying of continents and exploring mountains coming to her.

She turned, putting her back to the fire.

Could dragons live underseas? What would it be like to have a home at the bottom of a lake? Would wings work? Could there be races of dragon that had long fins where she had wings? More thoughts about what that book could have contained came to her, picturing maps, borders. Knowledge.

She tossed again, changing position.

Why was she not asleep yet? The tiredness that usually smothered her energy like a heavy weight felt like it had somehow lifted. More and more rapidly, thoughts started fusing one after the other. Maps. Lakes. Her soaring over an entire continent. Libraries, containing untold treasures. Before long, Yuli was bursting with nervous energy. Such energy that she had not felt in decades. No, ever! Both of her eyes flew open as she jumped to her legs. Soon, she was starting to spew flames with every ragged breath. Her mind was chaos, thoughts barely having the time to form before being replaced by another one. Unable to contain it any longer, she rushed forward, bouncing up and down like an excited hatchling out into the open air for the first time. She had barely passed the crack in the mountain that marked her home before she jumped off the cliff.

Icy air and cold winds greeted her, rushing around her shape and buffeting her from all directions. Their intense pressure mingling with the chaos that was happening inside her brain. As she dropped and adrenaline kicked in, a smile slowly spread across her jaw. She was flying. She was outside. She had exerted herself and was not even feeling the tiniest drop of exhaustion in her body. How could that be?

As she spread her wings open suddenly stopping her mad descent, she knew. The seeds had to be the answer. If all the price she had to pay to have a world of wonder was their repulsive taste, then that was a sacrifice she would gladly make.

Yuli sprinted back to the cave, through the narrow entrance and tunnels all the way to the large room. There, huffing and puffing black smoke with her mouth open like a vulgar hound, she contemplated the ashen remains of her salvation. The seeds were gone as quickly as the maps had. Their existence barely fleeting enough to show a vision of what could have been. She could feel the flood of energy slowly abating, chaotic thoughts leaving place to a more manageable stream of ideas. She had to find a solution before her body reclaimed its due sleep.

Yuli rushed out of the cave again.

This time she didn’t just drop from the cliff, but purposely jumped and glided down to the nearby village where she landed with loud thump. A short hiccup and a house on fire later, she turned around trying to find a human she could talk to. They were all screaming and running in panic. She should have thought this through better, although a disappointed part of her figured they would have welcomed a divinity blessing them with her presence, burning house notwithstanding.

She turned to a middle age man who hadn’t yet left the square she had landed in.

“Stop,” said Yuli to a human male. She advanced her head so it would get to high level with the man before continuing. “I found these see–,” she started. But mid sentence, the man dropped to the ground, unconscious. Oh, bother.

She turned to a woman who had fallen running away. Shaking from head to toe, the woman sat looking back square at Yuli. The woman bowed to the ground, and with the whispers of a shaky voice said, “Mylord, or Milady dragon, please! Spare me.”

A smug smirk bloomed on Yuli’s face. It was always nice to be revered. As it should be. “Fear not, human. I only want to ask you a question.” At least this one had not fainted, that was progress.

“A… question?” said the woman, unsure. Always before, if thieves had not come to fill Yuli’s stomach, she had come sweeping. Eating either cows, sheep or human. Easy to understand the confusion this human could feel.

“Magical seeds have been brought to my lair. I want more of them. They are black and have the bitterest taste. I need you to provide me with some.”

“Magical seeds, Your Dragonship?” said the woman, clearly confused.

“Yes. Eating them confers to the eater wells of energy.”

For a couple of moment, the woman looked back at the dragon with utter confusion. But soon, her mouth slowly opened in a ‘O’ shape.

“C–coffee, milady?" She seemed to have decided that Yuli was female. Good thing she did not get mistaken, either. Being mistaken for one of those male dragons? Bah! They were always so self-important, full of themselves and so infuriatingly proud. Always ready to flaunt their scales as if everybody should revere them. They were absolutely insufferable.

“I can offer you this privilege, human. Should you bring a bag of those seeds every week, I will do my best to restrict my diet to only cows and sheep. Consider this a great honour.”

It wasn’t quite clear how much honour the human lady thought of the deal, as her mouth just opened, then closed without a sound. But this thought, Yuli never even considered it.

She had already turned and was already flying away. Really, it was inconceivable to even consider denying the request of such a grand being.