I spent the better part of my life flying through space. From across the universe I sailed the boundless myriad of stars and planets. Everything was so much bigger and greater than I, that it surprised me whenever I found life on planets so small that they barely came up to my toe. Such a thing happened when I found this planet. Coming down to its surface, I found its natives: tiny, tiny, things which were later known as humans, clad in the fur of lower natives and their own body hair. My appearance evoked a strong emotional reaction from them; some threw splinters and pebbles at me, some cried and screamed and fled forevermore, and some dropped down and began to worship me and call me a God. You can probably guess which of the humans I liked best.
Over time, the violent humans were converted into loving me, though, loving isn’t the correct word. It was more that the humans feared and respected me, and rightly so – they were so small and fragile that one wrong move and I could squish them in an instant. The humans always had strange behaviors, one of which was sacrificing each other to me, in hopes that I wouldn't kill them all. Nothing made sense when it came to the humans, but I found them to be quite tasty. Their settlements were charming; starting with natural caves, they transitioned to constructing their own homes in new places. One thing was guaranteed though, the humans created art, and in that art, was me. The paintings of me in their caves became paintings of me on little clay pots. I was everywhere, even in their stories which were passed down from parent to child countless times.
My own home was farther off in a mountain range, which took me no time to get to from the human settlements. The mountains were the only things in this world that were bigger than I, so I was able to find a home inside of them. And in this home, I slept…
I woke from my nap and emerged from my home. The human settlement had changed so much, and they had somehow constructed large stone homes for themselves, complete with a stone wall around their settlement. I don't know who this wall was for, because I was able to easily step over it. The humans no longer had splinters and pebbles, and they attacked my feet with shiny sticks and strange wooden machines that threw rocks. Like last time, however, there were humans who seemed to remember me, and they stopped the violent humans.
The legend of me was still being told among the humans, and I discovered their art had improved greatly. Their paintings were prettily presented and very detailed; they captured my look perfectly. The humans were less eager to sacrifice each other to me, though. Instead, they made offerings in the form of shiny things, which I had no use for, but took back to my home regardless. Soon, my mountain home had its own mountains of shiny treasure. I thought things between me and the humans were good again, until a stray human shockingly visited me in my home, and tried stabbing me with its shiny stick. This human was wearing a shiny shell, like the other humans who were marked as being violent. I had no choice but to consume this human, which in turn, upset the other humans. I visited them less during this time and kept to my mountains, eating the lower life forms that trolled the woods around it.
When I visited the humans again, they weren't doing very well. Apparently they were very sick and dying, so I lurked around the edges of their ever-growing settlement and monitored them. Though the humans had come so far in their creations, they were as fragile as ever. Some humans had the power to try to cure the ailing humans, and very flatteringly enough, these curers wore masks that looked like my face. For as long as I had been around the humans, they had given me many names. I was previously most known as a dragon, but now the humans called me things like: The Plague Doctor, Doctor Beast, and Plague Beast. I knew that the humans were resilient, and though individuals were easily killed, humans as a whole were always able to remain. With that thought in mind, I took back to my mountain home so that I could have another nap.
When I woke up, the humans were on my mind. I was eager to see how they had fared with their illness, so I left my mountains for their settlement. The settlement was unbelievably huge and extended nearly to my doorstep. The human homes were shiny and tall – a lot taller than me. It was a little disrespectful, but fair enough. I carefully maneuvered their narrow paths – paths that were devoid of humans – lining the monuments. These things the humans created were an example of their latest and greatest work. I wondered where they kept their paintings now, and more importantly, I wondered where the humans themselves were. Interrupting my thoughts, it suddenly felt like I was bitten on my hind-end and I turned around.
In the middle of the path there was some sort of human-created contraption. It looked solid and heavy with a long neck pointed at me. It fired from the neck and struck me again. These humans and their violent ways… It was starting to pack a punch. I moved deeper into the human settlement, away from this attacker. The humans that knew of my legend would be along shortly to stop the violent ones, as the way it had always been. As I was inspecting their Human Home art, I noticed that the humans were surrounding me. They had their solid contraptions firing, humans on foot firing in the same manner, and even humans who had learned to take to the air, firing on me from above. Rude, rude, rude.
I scrambled over their human homes, their creations buckling to my weight as my tail crashed and smashed through the rest. There was so much noise – wailing, deep booms, shattering, the tikatikatika of the human weapons, and my frantic scrambling over it all. The humans, assuming they were protected inside of their creations, were in reality just as fragile as they had always been. I clattered through their paths, crushing whatever or whoever got in my way, and the mouth on my belly slurped and ate everything. I don’t know where the fire came from, but it was there alongside me and my destruction the whole time. I climbed up the tallest human home still around and the front of it shattered as I ascended. I could see humans inside still, so flicking my snout's tongue inside, I ate them too. The sacrifices were long overdue.
I made it to the top of the human home. It was swaying before it, too, buckled and began to fall. I gripped it as more of the flying human contraptions buzzed me. I suddenly opened my arms and spread my wings, colliding with the flying humans and making them explode against my wings. I took a massive leap off the building, and my tail whipped so violently it caught the top of the human home and sent the upper half of it sailing across their settlement. With a few flaps I was already leaving the planet's atmosphere.
Maybe I had too much faith in the humans. Ideally, the humans would have worshiped me until the end of time, but there were always the violent ones that would ruin it. Had the humans completely forgotten my legend? Where did the art go that depicted me? Why had the humans as a whole turned on me? There had always been violent humans, and had always been strange human behavior. There had always been humans. Resilient scum, enough is enough. I had spared their lives for so long, but now I resent them. Their settlement destroyed and their lives lost is punishment for their relentless assault on me. Now with every betrayal I will punish them. Humans will worship and feed their God or else. With a mighty swoop I began to nosedive back down to the planet.