The Dragon's Den

Welp! It’s 2025.

And with the new year, I’m hoping that everyone has a chance to make thier resolutions known.

As for me, I went on a nice, week long vacation to Aruba with my family for Christmas, and during that week, I wrote out a few story-related notes for when I return. Basically, some hard and soft-magic rules that can be accessed in the “Notebook of Notes“.

For the experience in Aruba… it really went to show how different people are in other countries. The rest and relaxation was pleasant, and it helped with the creativity boost, but it also made me really aware as to why I started this mission to share this story in the first place. The main concept of the story itself is that there are consequences to actions, but the secondary theme to this tale is that nothing comes easy. I always hated flying– the stuffy plane, the various checks, and sometimes people themselves make travelling a difficult ordeal, but the end goal was always just to enjoy the relaxing sun, the sea, and the people.

Kane may have taken on a bit of a heavy burden, and all he did was lift up a weapon he knew nothing about. But the thing is, through the struggles, he learned a lot about himself, and Mysherra too.

Now, determining what struggles are worth the level of patience is all a part of life in general. Many times, Kane thought about leaving Mysherra behind. I’m sure there’s a lot of readers that might not be so fond of how Mysherra reacted to Kane’s anxiety about situations. Mysherra comes from a different time– an era where survival was the most important thing to do. To her, there was, or sometimes is no reason or time to feel fear for anything. Times change, and now there’s a descriptor for nearly everything. That’s unheard of to her, but to Kane, she’s being incredibly unreasonable.

Times change, things change, and people start to become more aware of the things that they did and the things that weren’t okay. Perhaps it doesn’t excuse Mysherra’s words or actions, but if she had not made the change, she would not have been with Kane long.

Kane, however, is often suffocated by his own shortcomings. He doesn’t want to make that step towards success because he feels that if he didn’t get it the first time, he won’t get it a second time. Such thinking stems from this social goal of being “successful”. Whether that’s making six figures or having a house, or some other third thing, that sort of paralysis happens when you’re raised with the ideation that you’re meant to be something– that you’re supposed to be smart, or good with numbers or good looking. It’s shallow, but when it’s a constant reminder, you tend to want to make sure you meet those expectations. And if you don’t, the first failure is going to feel devestating.

For Kane, becoming less critical of himself was not easy. For Mysherra, becoming less critical of others was not easy. Both of them share a difficult background that shaped them this way. Some people don’t get far enough to notice this fact and change their ways. Change does not happen in isolation. Change happens because it is wanted, but change does not happen immediately.

Because change is not easy.