Throughout the countryside, a plethora of kingdoms sit atop high hills minding their own business. The peasants and the royalty take care of their daily tasks separately: milking the cows, tending the fields, and mingling with upper-crust nobility. As casual as these everyday activities may seem, all kingdoms’ schedules are easily shaken when a monster moves slyly into the region: an almighty dragon. Dragons, no matter what the size, are a major problem to any kingdom, and their presence is an enormous danger and irritation. Based on this, every kingdom, large and small, will eventually organize a party to carry forth the slaughtering of a dragon if one is nearby. There are several causes that eventually lead to a brave knight slaying a dragon: the endangerment of natural resources, the destruction of economy, and the complete stop of visitors.
A kingdom can only be successfully sustained when natural resources are close and easy to obtain. Some important natural resources include rivers for drinking water, forests for lumber to start fires and construct buildings, and open land for space to grow food and house cattle. Even when a kingdom is situated close to all of these elements, a dragon can disrupt the arrangement. Dragons love to destroy these precious, limited resources for their own pleasure. Dragons pollute a stream or lake’s clear waters with their waste and leftover carcasses; dragons also torch forests and watch the wildlife run rampant from the fiery flames. Open land, while not comparable itself in the entertainment sector, provides a dragon with a wide selection of delicious animals and crops to snack upon.
Besides for the state of natural resources, a kingdom must have a stable economy to be prosperous. The currency within a kingdom, while partially established on strong bartering between the residents, is majorly based upon the treasury held by the monarchy: gold, silver, and jewels. Dragons, however, do not care about the fragile economic system or mind pillaging what they can. If any news arises about where a kingdom’s treasures are stored, a dragon will plunder whatever it can get its claws on. Dragons are mostly drawn to jewels due to the fact that diamonds, emeralds, rubies, and sapphires are needed in the rejuvenation cycle of a dragon, but that does not mean that a dragon will steal precious metals. Dragons have hobbies of their own and enjoy building up their own trove; on top of that, a dragon’s sharp vision is attracted to shiny articles. In one fell swoop, a dragon, due to its greed and prowess, can entirely damage the reputation of an entire monarchy.
Even with a strong economy and honored nobility, a kingdom must also have good graces with neighboring provinces and be able to trade with them. The trade between various ruling powers is a necessity because not every kingdom has all the resources or luxuries that they need or want. A dragon, however, can prohibit these relations from occurring. A dragon always guards its territory, which happens to include the nearest kingdom to its lair. Peasants who plant or hunt too close to a dragon’s den become a meal of themselves. People traveling cross-country to bring necessities, such as coal, or luxuries, such as expensive cuisine, are an easy target for even a dragon’s youngling: even the most talented knight would fall victim after traveling for weeks with little food or sleep. If the peasants and armed guards are easy prey, than the wealthy nobility of neighboring provinces would definitely not risk their lives to travel and negotiate treaties and trade between kingdoms; dragons love the flesh of the wealthy much more than the poor due to the fact that their flesh is softer and meatier because of their inactivity. All beneficial agreements would never occur if the wealthy would not travel to trade, and the dragon-infested kingdom would surely fail.
A kingdom has a delicate structure based on three main components: the availability of natural resources, a stable economy, and good foreign relations. These points are desperately needed to keep a kingdom strong and a monarchy respected. However, a dragon can cause serious harm to any aspect of a kingdom. No matter what defenses a ruler may think they have in place to protect themselves and their subjects, a dragon has more brute strength and a higher intelligence to overpower any defensive mechanism a human creates. A ruler must then make a decision: let their kingdom crumble underneath the oppression of a mere beast or rise from the ashes to slay the monster. With that perspective, the only plausible choice would be for a kingdom to organize a party to set forth and slay a nearby dragon. The fate of a monarchy’s legacy and a kingdom’s life depends on the removal of any monstrous lizard.