Prince John and the Dragon

Once upon a time, there lived a young man named John. Ever since he was little, he wanted to become a hero and fight dragons and other villains. During his entire childhood, John trained to become a hero of his people. He was also a very active person in school. John loved learning all subjects except math. His mom told him countless times that he needed to learn math because who knows what the future holds for him. He hated it but loved and trusted his mom, so he decided to study math.

John’s parents died when he was a teenager. A fire-breathing dragon attacked and destroyed half the village and killed many villagers, including John’s parents. Ever since then, he worked very hard to become a protector of his people.

One night, he set out on a mission to kill the dragon. The village chief insisted that he and other village protectors go with him to defeat the monster. John insisted on going alone because he didn’t want any more people to die. Even though he was worried for John, the village chief gave John permission to go dragon-slaying alone.

John left for the long trip and soon reached the dragon’s lair. John walked inside the huge cave. Soon, a boulder blocked his way. A math puzzle, if solved, would unblock the path. The whole village knew that there were three questions to enter where the dragon lives, but none of them knew what the subject of the questions was. John didn’t expect math. Sets was the subject in math he hated most, but John knew that must not stop him from defeating the monster.

This was easy for him, so he got the pen with the paper and wrote down

“N = {numbers less than 5},” after he wrote it down the clay tablet and pen disappeared and the boulder that was in his way broke into millions of pieces and rolled down the hill.

He continued his mission, another written math problem.

It said “A = {1,2,3},” and he had to rewrite it in set builder notation. It did take him some time to figure out all the symbols needed, but he got it; he then wrote “A = {x | x Є N, x < 4}.”

As soon as he wrote it down the obstacle disappeared and he went on with his mission.

John soon reached a giant block of ice blocking the way and the final math puzzle. It was a word problem that needed to be solved with a Venn diagram: 

He read the question carefully; 

He said it aloud, and the ice melted very quickly; he then saw the dragon sleeping and breathing very loudly. John didn’t want to waste any time and wanted to kill the monster immediately. He took a deep breath and shouted, “DRAGON! YOU’VE KILLED MOST OF MY PEOPLE, AND IT IS MY JOB TO PROTECT THEM AT ALL COSTS; I CANNOT LET YOU DO ANY MORE HARM, SO I HAVE NO OTHER CHOICE BUT TO KILL YOU!” The dragon slowly woke up in the middle of John speaking. The dragon roared and then breathed fire, and John was scared at first. Still, he remembered what he had trained for his whole life and couldn’t mess this up. The dragon was the first one to make a move and tried to eat him. But John was very fast. He ran to the left and wounded the dragon’s side, and the dragon roared in pain. John jumped on top of the dragon and ran his sword through the wings, and it groaned again. 

Before John could stick his sword through it, the dragon spoke, “Wait! Please!” John was shocked at first, but he stayed calm and said, “Speak, monster, before I kill you.

“I invaded your town because they killed my brother; he was the only one that stayed by my side ever since our parents died. The villagers tried to kill both of us, but my brother told me to run and fly away. He sacrificed himself for me. To this day, I always think that I should’ve died with him; he didn’t deserve this. My rage took over, and I decided to take revenge; I regret that. I am sincerely sorry, and I hope you let me live. I promise I won’t harm humans again,” the dragon said.

John felt sad for the dragon because he, too, knew what it felt like to lose the people who raised him. They were both filled with rage and wanted to kill each other, but they didn’t know each other’s past. Now that they know each other’s story, they decided to make a truce and not bother each other’s space anymore. John left, and the dragon went back to sleep. The following day, John told the people about his adventure, and they, too, felt bad for the dragon. The village and the dragon then lived a peaceful life, not harming or bothering each other.