On dragons

There seems to be a new epidemic (is that the right word?) or perhaps wave of dragons these days. I recently reread "Tristan" by Gottfried as a bit of a refresher course on how to slay dragons, but other than being very brave and very foolhardy, Tristan doesn't have much technique. Dragons are a hearty lot, and if anyone has seen that documentary on them, "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire," they also know that dragons can be very cranky and very ornery. It doesn't pay to irk a dragon. Many people think that dragons are mythical beasts, and dragons are very happy with that status. There are hundreds of documentaries, however, that have been filmed about them, and many great authors have dedicated thousands of pages to debunking the "dragons are mythical creatures" myth. They may be magical, but they are not mythical. Need I even describe the great flying lizards, have ave raris, have reptilian horse? They are, of course, very protective of their young, and most people just do not take the time to try and understand them. The very ethos of being a dragon has to be an existential nightmare: do you want others to really believe or is it best that people only wonder? People often react badly to dragons, and the literature about them is about "slaying" dragons, not trying to understand them. I'll admit, the fire-breathing aspect has most people on the run at once, but they only do that when provoked. The problem with people and dragons is that people want to kill anything they don't like or don't understand. They see a bug, they squish it. Same thing with dragons, they see one and the knights are lining up to slay it. Like I said, an existential nightmare.