Chapter 2 preamble

I pray that the dragons in this world will never become extinct.I say this with all sincerity, even though I once played a part in the death of a certain dragon.Dragons are our quintessential archenemy, the epitome of the mortal beings we cannot overcome.More than any other creature, dragons conjure up in us a vague vision of grandeur: colossal monsters huddled and sleeping atop vast piles of treasure, not even demons from hell.They are the ultimate test of a hero, the thing that scares children the most.They are older than the Elves, and closer to the land than the Dwarves.These gigantic dragons are incredible animals, the most basic of beasts, some of the scariest parts of our imagination.

Wizards cannot tell their origin, yet they believe that a great wizard, the Wizard-God, must have been involved in their first birth.There are many long stories among the Elves that explain the creation of every aspect of the world, and there are many ancient legends that refer to the origin of dragons, but they also privately admit that they do not really know how dragons came. My own thoughts are simpler, but also much more complicated.I believe that dragons appeared in the world immediately after the first race with rational thinking ability came into being.I do not attribute their creation to the wizard-god, but to the first rational living beings, who created them from the most fundamental imagination of the unseen.

We created gods and dragons because we needed them, because deep down we felt that a world without dragons wasn't worth living in. There are many people in this land who want to find certain answers to everything in life, and even after life is over.They tried and tested, and just because some of them found answers to certain simple questions, they assumed that every question must have an answer.What was the world like before people appeared?Before the appearance of the sun, moon and stars, was the world nothing but darkness?Did anything exist then?What was each of us like before we were born?And most importantly of all, what do we look like after we die?

Out of sympathy, I hope those who ask these questions never find their answers. A self-proclaimed prophet came to Ten-Towns. He denied the possibility of life after death, and claimed that those who were resurrected by the priests did not die at all, and their resurrection experience was only theirs. The heart is trying its best to deceive itself, this is to make them feel a little more comfortable when they face nothing after death.He said there was nothing but vanity and nothingness. Never in my life have I heard a person so desperately demand to be proven wrong. If there were no more mysteries in the world, what would we have left?If we knew the answers to everything, what hope would we have?

Why, then, is there such a desperate desire in our hearts to deny magic, and to unravel all mysteries?I guess it's the fear of uncertainty in life, especially uncertainty about death.I hope that people can put aside these fears and live without being controlled by these fears, because if we take a step back and look at the truth of the world, we will find that there is a lot of magic around us, and we cannot use numbers and formulas. to explain.What is the enthusiasm aroused by the eloquent speeches of the commanding officer who fought his last stand but magic?What is the peace that a baby feels in its mother's arms but magic?What is love if it is not magic?

No, I definitely don't want to live in a world without dragons, and I don't want to live in a world without magic, because that's a world without mysteries, a world without faith. And I fear it will be the cruelest deception of any rational, conscious being. — Drizzt Do'Urden