I found the Priestess.

  "WOMAN ARE YOU STANDING ON A PILE OF CORPSES!?"

  I found her laughing, raising her staff aloft, on top of a pile of broken, battered and beaten bodies. A dozen Dragonguards stood at the ready, swords, spears and maces drawn, but only the Priestess was forward, and only she carried the scars of battle... though she appeared to have no wound on her body.

  I estimated there were at least twenty people on the pile she was standing on, and at least twice that number strewn about, on what might have at some point been an encampment, tents, yurts and covered holes in the ground commonly referred to as mud huts, in a mishmash of styles that seemed incongruous.

  "Oh! Great Silver One!" the Priestess called in jubilation, her voice full of happiness and euphoria. "I've cast your judgment upon those that would tread upon their fellows!"

  "So you're telling me this," I landed then, creating a small shockwave and throwing dust and grass all about, "is you following my commands?"

  "The Great One said, and I quote, 'people are not cargo, mate'!"

  I was quoting a movie. Wait- so-

  I turned my attention to what looked to be a wagon, and as one of the Dragonguard pulled at the tarp covering it, I saw that, indeed, they were hauling people around like they were cargo, the wagon's walls were wooden beams and people in shoddy clothing with clear signs of mistreatment were stuffed together past capacity inside.

  "Okay fair," I granted her, "but that doesn't mean you should be traveling around the region starting wars and killing everyone who disagrees with you," I pointed out.

  "Great One, we are traveling and moving seeking all those who disagree with you, and then being extremely persuasive!" she pointed out, raising her staff. "And if they don't agree, then we are even more persuasive, repeatedly!"

  "Blunt force trauma is not an argument," I countered.

  "But it IS convincing," the priestess replied. "Would you bless these poor folks with your mercy, or shall we prepare the survivors of this tribe of slavers, turn them into tribute, sacrifices for-"

  "I said," I slammed one of my front claws to the ground, causing it to shake, "no human sacrifices," I growled out, clawing the ground, "dammit!!"

  "Hear hear, you get to live!" the Priestess called. "Is the Great Lord Dragon not Wonderful?"

  "Do these people even speak your language, Priestess?" I asked.

  "The language of Bonk is universal," the priestess called, 'bonking' one of the bodies. Movement and a groan confirmed that indeed, the language of Bonk was universal.

  I exhaled out through my nose. "Okay fine just have these people captured and go through the standard operating procedures," I said, pretending I totally remembered what those were, "and either send the slaves back to their homes if they have those, or do whatever you usually do with the ones that don't," I commanded. "Dragonguard, move!"

  "Alright then-"

  "And you, miss overachiever," I said, grabbing the Priestess in my hand, "are coming with me, we're going to have a very long chat about what sort of diplomatic behavior is and isn't acceptable."

  "Yes, Great One!" the Dragonguard shouted in response, and then, I spread my wings and flew up. Mindful, of course, of the squishy human in my hand, I used mostly my power to lift myself up slowly, then sped up, flying without actually using my wings. I'd really rather not do this, it feels weird and wrong and it's actually more tiring than actually using my wings.

  Once we cleared the cover of the clouds, though there weren't many in this corner of the sky, I extended my hand and held it palm up, letting the Priestess dust her robes off and then stand up.

  She shivered a little, and it was obvious she wasn't doing the best due to the thin air and cold. That was easily fixed, however. The air around us would be however the fuck I wanted it to be, and I wanted it to be comfortable for the Priestess.

  "Okay, full stop," I said, "this isn't great."

  "What isn't, Great One?" she asked.

  "Look I get it, you're trying to impress me, you want me to make you a Dragonewt," I said, "and I understand that you're trying to do things that you think will please me, but starting wars does not please me."

  "But we're spreading the ideals and morals that you blessed us with," the Priestess replied.

  You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

  "I'm more than a little at fault, I realize that," I said, "I didn't expect, maybe I should have, that you would be this dedicated as to take any of my words this far, to the extreme... Why are you like this?"

  She leaned on her staff, closed her eyes for a moment, and then shrugged her shoulders. "I was ready to die that day, you know?" she said. "I... I guess to some degree I accepted that I more or less was a burden to the people and that the best I could do was be a sacrifice."

  I craned my head and brought it closer to her. Close enough that when I exhaled the resulting wind blew her hair and robes, almost making her look cool. Speaking of cool, seeing her react positively to the warm breeze generated by my breath, I increased the temperature around us. Hard to judge since I can't even feel it myself.

  "So..?" I asked. "That doesn't really explain much to me."

  "Of course Great One, you are a dragon and I am but a single insignificant human but- but you gave me purpose, you made me far more than that," she said, her lips curling into a smile. "The only thing I want to do is let everyone else feel the same joy that I do in doing your will."

  Oh.

  Oh shit. Is this religious fanaticism?

  "You made everything so much better, not just for me, but for all of us. We no longer struggle for food, children are not abandoned in the wild by their parents when they cannot be fed, we no longer suffer the bitter cold seasons or overheat the suffocating hot seasons... You've taught us so much, you've taught us of letters and of numbers and of many words, you've given us laws and you've made us so much more than we were... we were a simple tribe, struggling every day, but you made us a nation! You gave us an identity!" she gushed.

  I didn't frown but that's because I lack the physical means to do so.

  For some reason, it doesn't feel right. It doesn't feel right that what has basically been just my whims, capricious and flighty, have changed so much of these people's lives. Is this what it truly means to have power? To have the ability to control and shape things to my will?

  This goes above and beyond merely exerting my will on the land, to make the world do what I want, this is affecting individuals, existences with their own thoughts, choices and desires... humans, just like how I used to be.

  "So is that it?"

  I asked and I thought.

  "Did you think I spared your life so that you would be a slave? Have I not been clear? I don't like this, humans, people, people should not be objects, should not be tools to be used, thrown and discarded, no one, not even myself, should just- decide for another, freedom is- it's a basic right..! Neither I nor anyone else has the right to deny it to you!"

  I felt myself getting agitated.

  Maybe I want her to react. But at the same time, do I want her to just... disagree? Disagree with me how even? What the hell am I thinking and saying!? I don't even know anymore.

  This wasn't supposed to be a problem. I'm supposed to be the Dragon, above it all... so why...

  The priestess cast her gaze down. "When I had nothing you gave me life, Great One, and of my own free will I choose to give this life to you. There is no meaning in freedom if I cannot choose to serve another!" she insisted. "So- so let me, I want to be yours to use, I want to be your hand, your voice, your will, because that's my will."

  It was then that she looked up at me.

  "Not as a slave... but as a follower. Not because I don't know better, but because I know no better."

  "Is that true?" I asked. "Is that what you really want? From the bottom of your heart? Is there nothing else that you want?" I asked.

  I didn't let her reply.

  I turned my palm and let her drop, and as the rushing winds swept past her and caused her hair and her robes to flap about and shake all over the place, I followed her and met her face with mine, her entire body was so small I could devour her in a single bite.

  Her wings spread, her horns grew, heir tail stretched from the base of her spine. Innate, instinctive understanding had her spreading her limbs, her robes became but ashes spread in the wind and she was suddenly clad in robes of white and gold, she filled out some and I brought her far beyond the peak of health and into the realm of impossibility.

  There she was, as close to a Dragon as a mere human could ever get, standing, or rather, floating, before me, a Dragonewt.

  "And here you are - beyond all other mortals..." my blue eyes focused on hers, as I wreathed her in gold brooches and clasps to help her outfit stay together, I decorated her in flowers of impossible white fabrics, I gave her shoes and accessories and everything else, I turned her from the Dragon Priestess to the Dragonewt Princess, and I gave it all to her in the space of time between blinks. "So what now?" I asked.

  She looked up at me.

  "What now, that you stand beyond all of them? Will you subjugate humans, now that they are less than you? Will you stomp on them, dominate them, for their own good? Because you know better?"

  She spread her wings and looked up at me with a smile.

  "Eh, don't feel like it."

  Her voice was clear, no strange phrasing, no stilted speech, no artifacts of translation. She spoke with the tongue of a Dragon, and I understood her at a fundamental level.

  "But you taught me that the lives of all humans are equally valuable," she said, her wings flapping a little as she leaned forward, then she put her hands on the tip of my snout, between my nostrils, and leaned to rest her weight upon it, raising her legs and crossing them at the ankles, her upper body resting on my snout.

  She then pushed off of my snout, and turned around.

  Somehow, she had already learned to manipulate her newfound power well enough to walk in the air as if it was the ground, linking her hands behind her back.

  She then reached forward and her staff was called to her hands.

  "You gave me the power to heal wounds and cure sickness, to treat the ill and spare the weak," she spoke. "You gave me the task of liberating the enslaved and supporting the downtrodden, and in that, I've found happiness and joy. Thus, I will continue to do so... not because you told me to," she said, "but because it makes me feel good."

  There wasn't a hint of deception in her words, it was true, pure and honest, she had found joy in the purpose I had given her.

  The thought that what I said, what I did, could have so much weight for someone, for a real person, right in front of me was...

  Stunning.

  Then I realized she started looking confused. "... how do I fly?"

  Wait.

  Is this the centipede dilemma?

  Oh. She's falling.

  Maybe I should catch her.

  No.

  It's like a mother bird pushing her babies out of the nest so they can learn how to fly. Any second now she'll instinctively spread her wings and catch the wind and use her power to propel herself into flight.

  Any second now.

  Aaaaaaaany second now...

  Any-

  OKAY FINE I'LL CATCH YOU SHEESH!