Once upon a time in a green and pleasant land, nestled amidst rolling hills and lush meadows, there lived a gentle cow named Marise. Cows were the best of friends with humans. They were often travelling companions and were cherished like a family member, welcomed, and cared for in every town and village in every land. Marise was intelligent and kind-hearted, and she bonded with all the beings she met along her way, as was the way of these times. …
Marise had roamed the vibrant lands all her long life. The days of her youth were marked by adventures alongside her human companions. They would set forth on grand journeys, crossing forests and traversing rivers, singing the songs of their people as they went, their individual voices carried together by the wind.
These days of summer fell into shadow as dark wings soared over them all, threatening their once idyllic existence. The dragons, fearsome beasts of legend, once again became sole predators to all the creatures of these lands.
Marise began to work with the humans to do what she could to protect the harmony they had enjoyed together. In time, they found that her milk, a gift freely given, served as a magical elixir that could lull the fiery dragons into peaceful slumber. A bowl of warm milk was left as an offering to these fearsome creatures.
As Marise watched the dragons succumb to the soothing properties of her milk, she could not help but feel conflicted. The sleepy dragon was just a hungry beast trying to survive. Could there be another way? The humans, though, her dear companions, seized the opportunity to subdue and eventually slay the dragons. They began to covet all the dragons’ treasures, their body parts for potent potions, their meat for sustenance and their hides for clothing. This macabre dance for survival had twisted into greed. It had become a business and a sport, creating division among the humans and a gulf between humans and their former bovine friends.
This gruesome turn of events gnawed at Marise’s conscience. But she chose to look the other way, turning a blind eye to the cruelty that befell the dragons. In her heart, she had to believe that the dragons, with their tyrannical tendencies, had reaped the consequences of their malevolent actions. The world was a darker place, but Marise held out hope that these days would soon end, and a time of peace would begin again.
Yet, the tides of fate were unforgiving. As the dragon population dwindled, humans began hoarding the cows’ precious elixir for themselves. The milk, once a gift from the cows to protect the future for all beings, was now taken against their will, souring the friendship that had once united their species, destroying their once-harmonious coexistence.
The humans descended to sinister depths. When cows could not meet the increasingly relentless demand for milk, the gluttonous humans inflicted dark magic upon them, force-fed them dangerous potions, and made them endure painful, indecent, and monstrously cruel procedures, driving them into perpetual agonising servitude. When this was deemed unproductive, humans tore babies away from their mothers’ sides. The wails of the calves woven with the bellowing of humans were lost to the wind, leaving just the anguished cries of the mothers left to mourn their babies. The heart-wrenching separation left mothers, whose once generous gift had been stolen, now depleted in grief.
Marise witnessed these atrocities with a heavy heart, her spirit shattered by the grief and horror all around. The loss of milk was when the bloodlust humans last sated with dragon slaying reared its ugly head. Insatiable greed now knew no bounds, and they turned their insidious desires toward her kind. Innocence was lost, and darkness consumed the land as humans mercilessly slaughtered the cows. Their flesh became a feast for the incessant appetites of humanity, their bones an ingredient in food and potions and their skin became clothing and even decoration. The madness spread like a relentless plague, and no creature was spared from the unimaginable suffering that consumed the land.
Behind a veil of deceit, the humans in power concealed their brutality, their treachery, and their thirst for dominance from the masses. The truth lay hidden, masked by a veneer of righteousness and cunning machinations.
Marise, once a symbol of hope and unity, was ensnared in a living nightmare and could only watch helplessly as the land descended further into darkness, her heart heavy with despair. She pondered the future of humanity, now gripped by a relentless path of self-destruction and greed. Her gentle eyes shed quiet tears as she remembered her beloved green fields, now shrouded in concrete and darkness, from where all creatures but humans were now banished.
Yet who was to blame but herself, for turning a blind eye to the dragons’ plight? She should have taken a stance against her human friends when she had the chance, and now she realised it was all too late. It seemed her old friends had lost any last shreds of humanity, and the fate of her kind was now sealed in an eternal spiral of despair and desperation.
In the end, she just lay down and closed her eyes. Her heart overflowed with regret at not being the one willing to raise a single strong voice to oppose the barbarity that befell the dragons. Ultimately, her inaction allowed this vicious spiral, dooming all her kind to endless servitude.
Where were the new heroes of this age ready to bring kindness and harmony to all creatures?
Who would stand up for Marise and all her companions on this journey?
Will you?
