Dragon Riders

## The Origin of the Dragon Riders

The town had a small lake with a plague-bearing dragon living in it and poisoning the countryside. To appease the dragon, the people of Silene fed it two sheep every day. When they ran out of sheep they started feeding it their children, chosen by lottery. One time the lot fell on the king’s daughter. The king, in his grief, told the people they could have all his gold and silver and half of his kingdom if his daughter were spared; the people refused. The daughter was sent out to the lake, dressed as a bride, to be fed to the dragon.

Saint George by chance rode past the lake. The princess tried to send him away, but he vowed to remain. The dragon emerged from the lake while they were conversing. Saint George made the Sign of the Cross and charged it on horseback, seriously wounding it with his lance. He then called to the princess to throw him her girdle, and he put it around the dragon’s neck. When he did so, the dragon followed the girl like a meek beast on a leash.

The princess and Saint George led the dragon back to the city of Silene, where it terrified the populace. Saint George offered to kill the dragon if they consented to become Christians and be baptised. Fifteen thousand men includ-ing the king of Silene converted to Christianity.

When George was about to kill the creature as promised, the king’s daughter stood on his way and said that if the dragon were to consent and become Christian as well, he should pardon its life as well. George was thunderstruck, but agreed.

The dragon converted out of love for the king’s daughter, rather than love of its own life. Thus, the dragon became Silene’s protector and the first of the dragons to protect the Christian faith. It fell in battle many years later against the heretics in Palestina, the king’s daughter died riding it. Her name now immortal, the first dragon rider, venerated by all women who followed her steps and rode the dragon’s progeny for the greater glory of Christ: Saint Sabra, the first of her kin.

Most dragons are considered evil, snakes of Satan, but the progeny of Saint Sabra’s dragon followed Christ. Now, most kingdoms of Europe have a small group of dragons who serve their King and God (sometimes fighting between them, as different kings have different perspectives about what God wants). Muslim kingdoms have dragons of their own, as well, just as evil to Christians as Satan’s (to many, even worse). It is said that China’s Emperor is a dragon himself.

There are all kinds of dragons, firebreathers, acid breathers, those who don’t breath anything strange, those who can fly for days straight, dragons who are small as horses and dragons large as mountains. But they all have one thing in common: if tamed, they will only follow orders from a female human - never a male. It is not clear why.

Dragons only accepting women as riders has changed the way society treats women in some aspects, mostly in that they are allowed to serve in the military and gain ranks within it, but this for farmer folks only means that in addition to being able to marry their daughters off or send them away to be nuns, they can also send them to the military - while keeping most of their other views on the subject.

If dragons were wildly common, a large percentage of women could be trained to be their raiders and this would create a change in the balance of power, which would then change the roles of all women, even those who would never become riders. This is what the Dragon Breeders Society intends, per example. But for now, women in Europe, with the exception of noblewomen and dragon riders, are still treated as second-rate citizens.