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The crowd stayed in front of the large building, waiting noisly and excited. Behind the great door there were three dragons that were about to meet them one by one for an audition in order to earn the honour to become one of them. It had passed one month since the race of the dragons had revealed their existence, after centuries of hiding. To a shocked world, they had declared worldwide their story: long time ago, when their kind was persecuted, they had realized they needed to hide in order to survive, waiting for the mankind to become less aggressive with the world they inhabited. "But now we decided times are mature, and we want to help you re-building our beautiful world" had announced Gåldevan, a golden male dragon that was talking in human language in front of dozens of TV cameras in an European national park. Then, he had said something even more spectacular. "Still, we are too few in numbers to have good chances to make a living again, and that's another reason for our returning. We are looking for men that are disposed to join and become one of us." "What do you mean?" had asked the journalists as one. "I'll show you" and after looking around for a while in the grass he had caught a mouse in his forepaw. The mouse was very agitated but Gåldevan had kept looking at it intensely, and after a while it had began changing shape, becoming larger. The reporters had started taking photos furiosly after a gray dragon had appeared where previously there was a mouse. "I want to alert you" had continued Gåldevan "we are looking for people whose desire is very strong and motivated. Becoming another being means mislearning all you had learned in your first years and then learn them again; it means leaving completely your lives, relatives and all. Think very carefully. We'll start recruiting people starting from tomorrow and then all over the world."

One month later that historical speech, the three dragons had managed to find some people, but they still needed more. They lied on the floor of a big audience room, waiting for the first candidate to come in. After some minutes a young man entered. Gåldevan, who was there, immediately noticed the t-shirt he wore, with a green cartoon dragon in it. Not a good sign. "Welcome" greeted him calmly "what's your name?" "J...James. James Campbell." his face showed high excitement. "I am Gåldevan. These are Veldavel and Shen" and pointed at the two females beside him. Shen, who was silver-scaled, took speech. "So, what is your motivation for becoming one of us?" The young man seemed to hardly find the words, and in the end he talked in a trembling, yet high, voice. "I...I love dragons. I've been loving them for a lot of time. Seeing you live in TV one month ago was a dream come true, and when you said about you looking for people to become...well, I felt in heaven. It would be the best thing in my life." Gåldevan showed no expression, but mentally he had already understood the kind of person they were interviewing, and it was not the kind they were looking for. His two colleagues sure were thinking the same. Anyway, they still kept him with some questions. "If you were elected" said Veldavel "you would be forced to leave your house, your family and your job and never come back to human society again. Do you feel ready for it?" "Well...yes" his tone had become less excited and his eyebrows had raised up their angles. He hadn't thought about enough. "Moreover, your life would be subjected to nature. You would need to hunt for eating, and hunting is never easy, and you may have to fly great distances to do it, and even to drink some water. Living in nature is harsh. Do you understand?" "Y...yes...yes of course..." he was blabbing. No, thought Gåldevan, this is not a good candidate. He loves only our appeareance, but he has never imagined what means to be a dragon. They had met a lot of them during that month; actually, it was a great improvement, after centuries of conflicts and persecution, but they were looking for someone who could - and want - to understand them deeply. He would never declare it of course, but he always felt like being treated like a giant toy when in front of them. After some seconds of silence, he understood none of them had questions to ask. "Well, I think it's enough" said "thank you, James. We need your address in order to trace you in case you're selected."

The second candidate was a woman, a little older than the previous one. Fortunately, she wore no weird clothes. The three dragons introduced themselves again; the woman was called Theresa Brown and when she was asked why she desired to become a dragon she seemed determined. "Because I want to help the others, those who suffer for injustices." "And how would you?" questioned Shen. "With my dragon powers" answered her fiercely "this world is rotten and corrupted. I guess you have come back to improve it, right?" "Well" said Gåldevan "we would have come back sooner or later, when we would feel we'd be safe again...but are you saying you want to intervene in all the issues of the world?" "Sort of. We must re-build our world, you said so." "I did" confirmed "but actually I didn't mean acting like a hero all the time. If we did, we'd risk to cause some incidents, and be persecuted again. We are strong. It takes years to be able to know how to control dragon strength. As for me, I would even say our strength is more like a curse." "When we said about re-building our world" continued Veldavel "we meant to say we would help you understanding the world we live in. We saw you've become sorry for having been damaging it for all this time, and that's good, but after all this time living apart from what's not built by you, you may take even worse decisions. It's not scorn" added "we're sure you men have a lot to teach us, too. That is also why we're looking for men joining us. To collaborate, we need to know each other, and we can't come to your inhabitations too often." Theresa nodded. For what Gåldevan could see in her eyes, there was a little disappointment. "Do you still wish to become one of us?" demanded Shen. "Well...yes" nodded again "if this can improve the world." "And are you aware that living as a dragon has far less commodities than a life as a man, and that you would have to leave all the ones you love?" "Oh..." she suddenly turned uncertain. "No one?" "No one" confirmed her "is there anyone your heart is bonded to?" "Actually...actually there is one." "Whoever this is, did he...or she...apply for being a dragon too?" "Yes" said. "What's the name?" Theresa told them the name. "We haven't met him yet" announced Veldavel "if we think he's good for us too you could join us together, unless something else stops you from it. What about the rest? Would it be acceptable to you to leave behind all human things?" "I think so" was Theresa's answer "I know first time would be harsh, but you would help me, wouldn't you?" "Of course we would. Nobody will be left alone after such a great change" smiled Gåldevan "well, I think your motivation is quite good, although it came from a little misunderstanding, and we're glad to see you're not scared about leaving human society...unless you've thought again now." "I didn't. I have few contacts with my family. They're so retrogade. They were training me to be a housewife and nothing else...and I couldn't stand it. My love has helped me leaving them out. He always encouraged me to continue my studies and being indipendent. I owe him what I am today." "That explains a lot" he said. Actually, the group of those who came from dysfunctional families was numerous, too. Maybe, he thought, after being stopped to realize themselves as humans, they wanted to realize themselves as dragons? Whatever was the reason, choosing such people could lead to bad, even evil, things. She wasn't the dragon they were looking for. "Anyway, we understood it's important for you to have him beside you, so it's crucial for you two to be both good enough. Tell us your address so that we can contact you in case you can join us."

One hour later, after several disappointing candidates, they interviewed her boyfriend, but his attitude was not high enough; that meant no possibility for that woman to join them. Still, the three dragons had agreed her anger for her family would have been too risky to let her become one of them. Now it was the turn of a black-haired man in his mid-forties, who entered the audience room and introduced suddenly himself after first greetings. "Nice to meet you. My name is Sean Walker." "And I am Gåldevan. These are Shen and Veldavel. Please, tell your motivation for becoming one of us." "To help you" answered "but before that, there's something I must alert you about." "Tell us." "Our government is designing for your race a national park where to confine you" explained the man "you wouldn't be let leaving it. Moreover, it's completely covered with forests. It's not suited for you." Gåldevan was surprised. "How do you know about our needs?" "I'm a dragonologist. My occupation had been looking for your traces until last month." "And had you found our traces previously?" said Shen. "Some. It was nearly impossible, but I managed. I could get some information about you, for example your habitat, and I know in a forest you may accidentally burn everything and condemn yourselves. Just to be sure, I guarantee I never told what I had discovered to anyone." The three dragons became sincerely interested: had they never encountered a man like that. "This is, indeed, very true" commented Gåldevan "do you mind if we interrogate you about some other facts about us, just to be sure?" "There's no problem." So Gåldevan, Veldavel and Shen made questions for long time about the race of dragons, and incredibly that man was very fond of it: from dietary, to sociology, and much more. "Impressive. Absolutely impressive" Shen couldn't believe at all. "Apart from some forgivable imprecisions, you seem to know our race very well. Your skills must be very high if you could figure all of this out only from traces that normal men wouldn't recognize." Gåldevan remembered about the serious things Sean was going to talk about. "Now, tell us about what your government is planning, please." "Since you came out last month" he began "the world has gone crazy, as you will have figured out. Both in good and bad terms. The problem is, usually the bad terms prevaricate over the good ones more often than the opposite...especially when it comes to creatures big and powerful as you. A lot of people are sure your true intention is prevaricating over our society and exterminate us all...and many among them are in the government. But for finding a compromise with those that instead support you - you know, those who are called animalists? - they decided the best thing is to isolate you completely, in selected wildlife sanctuaries. All full of forests. Without asking your opinion." The three dragons looked each other astonished. "No one told us..." trembled Valdevan. Shen turned suddenly to the man. "And what do you suggest to do?" "I have tried to earn some funds to start an organization" explained "for the improvement of human-dragon relationships. For now, I have succeeded in finding a quite large group of men for discussing this decision with the government, but we need you, the dragons." "If it's how you say it is we'll come immediately after the last candidate shows to us" said proudly Gåldevan. "But did you come here only for alerting us?" asked Veldavel "Or do you really want to become a dragon?" "I've reasoned long about. I asked myself if I was able to sacrifice my human nature for your cause. Yes, human society isn't very appealing to me, but wouldn't I miss reading, listening to music, drink wine and so on, I kept thinking? But in the end I said myself that the most important thing for me were dragons. And if they needed help from men, I would be sure available. It will be harsh, I know, but with time I will find my mind balancement; and I'm sure about, because I want to find it." "Well, we got pleasant activities, too" smiled Gåldevan "we love to narrate stories and play, even when adults. But most of all, flying is the greatest pleasure of all. I myself love to travel. But does your family know of your choice?" "I've already informed them. They were expecting me to do this, although they have never thought well of my job, even after you have revealed yourselves." "So your family won't be a big problem. What about your association? Will it stand up?" "In the association" smiled Sean in turn "there would be dragon members as humans. This is the only way to make it work. Listen, I can understand why you prefer to remain separated, and you're absolutely right; but simply ignoring human society is something that would lead to incomprehension and bad decisions, like the one the government is doing, even with humans turned into dragons. We should at least meet together once in a while to take the best ways for both of our races, and to support those men that will have become dragons." Gåldevan, Veldavel and Shen stayed silent for a long time. Eventually, the first one said: "I must admit you're right. We'll soon join your group and do all the best we can for building together a better world. We will continue to find humans to join us, for we are still too few and for getting elements that have lived both our worlds; but this will not last forever. As for you, thanks for informing us. You're the best candidate we've had found since we've started and you'll join us for sure. Just don't tell the other candidates, for now."

Sean was looking at the sun going down behind the mountains, smiling. In front of his yellow eyes, a beautiful scenery of dragons flying freely among the tops. He spread his new wings and join them, not actually Sean anymore, but Seanork, the turquoise dragon. The transformation had been executed only yesterday in a large meadow that was now, while flying, under his scaly body; it had been very painful, and he had felt like he wanted to die; but then, all had ceased and the pain had been replaced by a strange sensation, the sensation of being in a completely different body. Suddenly Gåldevan, Veldavel and Shen had showed them how to move their paws and wings, and he had immediately felt confident. In few hours, all the men turned into dragons had been able to do the basic movements. Still they had to learn how to hunt and all the rest, but they were not alone. After the interview, when he was still human, he had managed, together with the three dragons, and with the help of his association, to discuss with the government their infamous plan. Without Gåldevan, Veldavel and Shen, it would have been impossible. Too many economic and political interests were behind, from businessmen wanting to confine them for being exposed to the public, to demagogues that were always in search of easy approvals by the people. But when the three dragons appeared, their arrogance had disappeared. Not that they had been menacing; instead, they had acted incredibly gently and kindly, although at the same time convincingly. The result had been this: the dragons would not be subjected to local governments, but at the same time the association started by Sean became international, and managed by both the races in order to promote and develop friendship between humans and dragons. So it had ended in the best way possible. Tomorrow there would be the first international meeting of the association, organized among those mountains, and Seanork would be the ambassador of the dracomos, so they had been called the men turned into dragons; Gåldevan would represent pure dragons, and a close friend of Seanork humans. That meeting would sign the beginning of a world of peace. For now, the turquoise dracomo enjoyed the air around his body while flying, thankful for his new life.