Fall, 1423

It was another brisk Fall night in the Southern Ranges, and Jayna was curled by the fire with Meratezatgh, leaning on the dragon's side while finishing her supper of cheese, cranberries and bread while scribbling some notes about the day's progress. Chagraff was off checking on the status of the supply wagons, and the dragon was staring silently into the flames. After a while, the Arcadian put her notes away, only to come across another parchment in her satchel.

The one that had started her on the quest that ended with the creature she was resting on.

Jayna took that worn and yellowed parchment out, studying the etchings of the human male and dragon stared smugly back at her. The Arcadian idly put her hand on the gonne mounted with her grandfather's awlpike spear tip stacked nearby.

Finally she got up and leaned over to Mera's head.

"Hey."

She handed the parchment to the dragon, who picked it up, looking at it under the glow of the fire.

“What is this?" Jayna asked. "It depicts you and grandbaba.”

After a few long minutes studying the work, the dragon handed the parchment back to the Arcadian.

“It’s a carte de visite, a gift of an old friend of mine and your grandfather, a talented artist. He wanted to commemorate the ‘Heroes of Stanton’ for us at the end of the Great War. We were feted as heroes after the Battle of Caldern.”

Mera shook his head.

“That was when I was younger and more idealistic, much like you are now. I thought that I was good. I thought that I could change the world. I burned my copy of this parchment when I burned Stanton to the ground. I’m surprised Logan kept it all these years.”

The dragon fell silent, staring back at the flames. After a pause, Jayna broached the subject again.

"You are a hero. My grandfather kept his faith that you were good, even when you had forgotten it. You lashed out when you were wronged and you turned your back on the world, but even you could not abandon who you are. After all, you are here with us, are you not?"

The old dragon chuckled. "You're quite a speechmaker, Jayna Durham."

He casually picked up the Arcadian and put her on his back.

"I certainly didn't strive to be a hero. I mainly tried to survive. But I guess also to do the right thing. I protected Stanton because it meant Stanton wasn't continuously trying to kill me, and when my mate was killed I revoked that protection. I didn't mean to rescue the Jutrstra and lead the Dragon Revolt, I was forced to fight with the imprisonment of my people and I wanted a way out that didn't entail me or all the other Children of the Sky getting killed. Your grandfather helped me in that quest, and it ended with a good friend of his killed. I joined the Battle of Caldern to help him and to help pay that debt. Everything I did was for my own benefit."

"And yet all of those were heroic deeds."

"I guess they were. No one else did them. Maybe I was just stupid, sticking my head out and striving to change things."

"I mean that's what we are doing right now. That's why we're fighting for this revolution. Is that stupid?"

"Well, perhaps it is. But it is what you are." Mera chuckled. "Heroes."

"It is what you are still as well." Jayna shot back.

The wyrm's smug grin evaporated immediately.

"You're right." Mera sat down on his haunches. "Perhaps I will always be a stupid hero. It certainly didn't help my mate."

Jayna was silent. Finally she pinched her forehead and sighed. "You're kinda miserable for a hero. I don't know why I called you back. I don't know if I was chasing a picture of a legend or an actual creature." The Arcadian took the parchment and tossed it down toward the flames.

The dragon stopped for a moment, abruptly catching the parchment in mid air. "I am a miserable fool, but you know what? I'll try to do better." Mera stared back at the drawing. "I just realized something. Everyone need their heroes. Someone to emulate, some ideal to follow. We all need to believe in something."

"What do you mean?" Jayna asked atop the dragon's shoulders.

"If we don't have heroes to believe in, we go looking for heroes in strange places. King John believed that killing me would make him revered throughout Auxia. The Other Men believed that taking over Auxia would solve all their ills. The Freeland Brothers believed the destruction of society would allow them to build a new world from the ashes of the old. The Miscabbards believed that destroying all nonhuman life in Nalbin would create paradise throughout the land." The dragon spat. "Deluded fools. Nothing is ever that easy to solve. All they brought about was suffering and death. It takes decades to slowly bring good change, and an instant to wipe it all away."

The dragon stared at the flames from the campfire. "And I guess that's where heroes come in. That's the role we play-to be a guide. To illuminate the right way for everyone. Hopefully you guys won't make the same mistakes as your predecessors. Be better than those who came before you. Be a hero. Do the right thing. Take it slow. Know what your core beliefs are, and what you are willing to sacrifice for them, because you will be tested in this far beyond anything that you'll think possible. You will lose a lot. You will not be appreciated for this, and in fact you may be insulted and tortured in ways you did not think were imaginable, all for very little benefit. Your heroics are a tree being planted for your friends and neighbors and children-you probably won't see it, but if you're lucky, they will. Being a hero hasn't been good for me, and it probably won't be good for you, but perhaps it will be good for someone, hopefully most people in the world, and that's really all you can hope for."

Mera carefully handed the parchment depicting himself and Logan back to Jayna, who looked at it again before putting it back in her satchel.

"That picture is not me, nor of your grandfather, but what we tried to be. And in memory of your grandfather, in memory of the Dragoneye, I will try to be that legend again."

---

The Lumineers - Cleopatra

Sketch by  Taski_Guru!