The Woman Who Confronted a Dragon
There was once a dragon, fearsome and deadly, who was horribly cruel to a tiny village.
Each day the dragon came out of his cave that lay in a crag atop a stony mountain and burned a field. First the wheat crop, then the barley, next the tomato harvest, and then the strawberries. Soon the villagers would have no food left.
And so the village gathered.
The men talked. And talked. Of climbing the mountain with pitchforks, of making a treaty they could ill afford with rampaging knights, of moving away from the village to settle anew...
Consideration after consideration was offered. Yet there was no resolve.
All the while, a new day was fast approaching.
Finally a woman left the village, climbed the stony mountain, and dared to venture into the cave where sat the dragon, breathing the fumes that were all that was left from the day's burning.
She asked the dragon a question.
'Why?'
The dragon looked at her. Perhaps it was the vehemence of the question, or perhaps fearsome dragons can see into the hearts of women, but her small, simple question was so true, so pure, so unadulterated with a tinge of anything, save sorrow, concern, and heavy dose of anger, that the dragon realized immediately the gravity of what it was he had done.
And he could not bring himself to face the sheer strength of her hallowed, angry heart.
Thus, he flew away, never to return.
For even a fearsome dragon must cower in the face of true anger.