“Okay, so I’m the dragon. Big deal. You still get to be the hero.”

“For a while I thought I was the dragon.I guess I can tell you that now. And, for a while, I thought I was the princess,cotton candy pink, sitting there in my room, in the tower of the castle, young and beautiful and in love and waiting for you withconfidence but the princess looks into her mirror and only sees the princess,while I’m out here, slogging through the mud, breathing fire, and getting stabbed to death. Okay, so I’m the dragon. Big deal. You still get to be the hero.You get magic gloves! A fish that talks! You get eyes like flashlights!”

“Good and evil are a great deal more complex than a princess and a dragon . . . is not the dragon the hero of his own story?”

“No matter how big you get, it's still okay to cry because everybody's got a right to their own tears.”

“Okay, so I'll admit I'm curious. Big deal. We both know what that leads to. Dead cat.”

“So just let me deal with it, I can be emotionally flawed and still love you all at the same time. I’m a great multitasker.”