Epilogue: Thoughts of a teacher

Isaac sat on a hill not far from the camp, watching the party unfolding below him. Until a few minutes before, he too had taken part and had enjoyed himself as few times in his life, but after almost three hours of revelry he had decided that he needed a break and so he had walked away. His body was very tired after all, he was dizzy from too much alcohol and his ears ached from the excessive noise they had been exposed to for hours; he also had some vision problems, but he didn't know if those too were due to the abnormal amount of beer they forced him to drink or if they were simply the result of having seen the dancing light of the fire for too long. Therefore, a few minutes of rest was a must. He also felt that if he continued to celebrate he might vomit and wanted to maintain at least some semblance of dignity.

As he recovered (or at least tried to recover using some spell, which could only lessen the effects of alcohol on the liver, not the brain anyway) he watched the beastmen dance and sing around the bonfires. He had seen such a scene before months ago, when the escape from the arena had come to an end, but this time it was different. To begin with there were many more people and not all of them were warriors, but many of them were prisoners rescued from an unjust fate. From his position, Isaac could see not only burly soldiers challenging each other to drinking and eating contests, but also children playing and playing in circles, loving couples dancing around the bonfires, old people no longer having the strength to unite they laughed and joked happily. Watching them Isaac felt happy too, because he had been at least partially complicit in the chain of events that had allowed those people to be there to celebrate, and the thought alone was enough to warm his heart.

Isaac had never been a very religious person, but he had received an education in it nonetheless; after all, in a world ruled by the gods, it was impossible not to ever hear of them. And having been born in the Jurao Kingdom, he mainly knew the goddess Heloisa, the patroness of the nation. Isaac had erased many of the goddess' teachings from his memory, but there was one in particular that he had recently begun to remember. According to the goddess Heloisa, all men's pleasures were only fleeting and ephemeral; alcohol, sex, entertainment, food, all of these were but momentary distractions from an otherwise empty life. There was only one action that made it possible to always feel satisfied, and that was doing good to others. By helping another person you not only gained the greatest happiness by seeing their smile, but every time you remembered that smile you always felt the same happiness. While memories of carnal pleasures didn't bring any happiness, at most a little nostalgia, those of altruism and generosity always guaranteed it. According to the goddess Heloisa, this was because humans were naturally good, albeit fallacious, and therefore they couldn't experience true pleasure except by acts of kindness. Isaac hadn't always believed this teaching, since he knew well what cruelties humans could perform (as well as all other races, it should be remembered), but now that he observed the happy beastmen celebrating their newfound freedom, and that he felt that incredible happiness in his heart at that sight, he believed that wasn't so wrong. Perhaps humans and all other races were really naturally good, they just tended to forget that too easily.

And there was another reason why he was so happy at that moment: in the midst of the huge group of beastmen he could easily see huge shapes similar to giant lizards, whose silvery scales gleamed in contact with the light of the bonfires. It was obviously that bizarre family of young dragons that he had stumbled across almost by chance and that he had gotten to know over the course of those months. Those dragons so fearsome and rightly to be feared, but at the same time so multifaceted, each with its own talents, personalities and feelings, that they had completely revolutionized everything he believed about those giants of the sky. Sure, it had to be said that these were still very young… but Isaac was pretty sure that even as adults they wouldn't have been much different. More mature, wiser, but not different. After all, the nature of people, except in very rare cases, was already evident when they were kids.

Even though he was most familiar with one particular member of the family, Isaac had gotten to know and deal with all the others as well. It had been a truly fascinating experience: thoughts so similar to those of a human or any other race with thoughts, and yet so different and exotic. A way of looking at the world that was understandable to him, yet at the same time felt so alien, so strange. Feelings that in some cases seemed identical to those of normal people, while in others they were completely different. Dragons had their own way of seeing things, and Isaac felt like he was just getting to know this terrifying yet magnificent species. Even Haku, who often didn't even seem to know the meaning of the word 'emotions', had sometimes given him big surprises.

Still, he'd noticed that they all had one thing in common: even when they were happy, they looked tired. Not physical tiredness, of course: tired of the life they were forced to lead. Tired of the fact that their entire existence was based only on hiding, running, hunting, feeding. This was normal from Isaac's point of view: even if they were born in that environment, anyone after a while would feel crushed by such harsh conditions. That was basically why they had decided to change, to help the beastmen in the hope of being able to build something new, and Isaac knew that even those who claimed they didn't believe in that dream wished it would come true instead. He wanted it himself, because after spending months with them he had become attached to those dragons, and he wanted them to have if not a life at least a normal childhood.

Therefore, Isaac was happy to see that the dragons and beastmen were having fun together, as if it were a normal thing. That was what he wanted to happen: no fear, no deals, just friendship. There was still a long way to go, that was for sure, and even in that large encampment most of the beastmen who had just arrived in ships didn't tolerate the presence of dragons, but Isaac was a person who loved to be optimistic and wanted to take this party as a a good sign for the future. He was only sorry that Maldor wasn't there having fun like everyone else.

His mind went to that shy dragoness, the first of that bizarre family he had known, and who had turned out to be not only a wonderful person but also one of the most extraordinary magical talents Isaac had ever known, if not the most extraordinary of all. Who knows where she was at that moment… well, her real body was obviously still there in the camp, but her mind was elsewhere in a body not hers. It had now been over a week since her 'departure', so who knows what she was up to. Isaac hoped she was happy and that she too was having fun in her own way.

She had offered him to go with him. She had done it almost immediately after thinking of that bizarre solution to being able to save her brother. It was clear that she had expected him to accept and accompany her on this difficult journey. However, for the first time since he'd met her, Isaac had refused. He'd done it very politely, but he knew she was hurt by it. However, he didn't regret his choice. He had good reasons for doing so, including the well-being of Maldor herself.

The first reason was purely practical: to sum it up in a nutshell, that group of beastmen refugees needed a skilled mage. While there were some low-level mages among them, it was crucial to have someone who fully understood the ways of magic, considering how difficult and dangerous the path before them was. To go with Maldor would deprive the beastmen of much of the magical knowledge they could call upon. Even if other dragons, like Haku, had had Maldor teach them how to use magic, surely they would have been too busy with other things to even think about it. Therefore, one of the two had to stay, and since for obvious reasons Maldor could not, Isaac was the one who had to give up on returning to human society.

The second reason was more emotional. Simply put, Isaac had grown attached to and befriended many of the beastmen, and he didn't want to abandon them until he at least made sure they could handle themselves just fine. And then, in that huge group there were also many children: what monster would it have been if he had gone leaving them in that difficult situation, without even checking that they would have arrived at the Thul Oasis and would have been able to settle there? Isaac was unable to do this; he was a good person and didn't regret it. Besides, he had promised Maldor that he would help her build a school of magic in this new community; therefore, it was his duty to at least lay the groundwork for it, so that when she returned she wouldn't have to start from scratch. After all, Maldor had already told him how she wanted this school to be, and Isaac had made sure to memorize everything. He could give her a nice gift and at the same time contribute to the creation of a new generation of mages, as he had always done in his life.

This was what he had answered to Haku when he had come to ask him why he hadn't wanted to leave, and the dragon seemed to be satisfied with that explanation. However, there was actually a third reason he hadn't mentioned that concerned Maldor in particular: the fact that it was time for her to expand her friendships.

Maldor was a shy person. No, rather, she was a shy child. Even though she had one of the most brilliant minds Isaac had ever known, he was still someone who had just begun to walk the world. And Isaac had been her first real friend. Not a brother, not a sister, not someone with any family connection to her: a friend. And Isaac didn't mind being that at all. But he had quickly realized that perhaps such friendship was not entirely good for Maldor. Unlike her other brothers and sisters, Maldor, while longing to have new friends, hadn't tried to meet new people, but on the contrary, had spent more and more time with him. This was normal: a shy person, no, a shy child felt trouble with unfamiliar people, so she would hang on to the few she knew, and Isaac was her only friend. That wasn't a problem for him, but in the long run it could be a big problem for her. Isaac was a teacher and knew how those things worked. Maldor had to be able to break her shell and relate more to others. But Maldor would never do that as long as he was with her, giving her the assurance that she still had at least one friend and thus removing any incentive for her to look for new ones.

Therefore Isaac had chosen to step aside. Even though it wasn't the first time they'd been apart, she'd always been able to communicate with him via avatar; this time, however, there was nothing to connect them. Maldor would be alone again and with only her sister to keep her company, so she would be forced again to shed her shyness and try to relate to others, as she had done with him when they were at the Academy of Magic. That way she could finally make new friends, to whom maybe one day she would reveal her secret... and she would continue to learn to live. Because Maldor was still someone who was still learning how to behave and act in this strange world. And she couldn't learn by standing in one spot and refusing to move forward; as her friend, it was Isaac's duty to give her incentives... even if it meant parting ways with her for a while.

Isaac was always a teacher after all, even though he no longer taught a classroom. And the teachers went out of their way to help the children grow up, no matter how difficult growing up was.

With that thought in mind, he staggered to his feet and walked back to the party. The night was still young after all, and he was sure the festivities would go on until morning.