It was merely chance that I should happen to look out the window on that particularly fine night, and see a light somewhere outside. It was red, and formed in the shape of a rounded rectangle or a square, faded on one side and slightly jagged.

Looking upon it, I remarked on what it could probably be. Perhaps a vehicle, I thought, parked and turned in such as way that I should see only one of its tail lights? No, for then I would surely see reflections from the other light. A light meant to warn traffic of a potential danger? Nay, for then it would surely be more notable than it was.

From there, the more fantastical nature of my mind began to speculate upon some of the more incredible things it could be. Fire from a dragon's belly, exposed to my eyes as it should yawn from the lateness of the hour? Perhaps the lantern of an ogre come to destroy and pillage. Even the fury of a beautiful nymph could give off that light if the world allowed such a creature to exist.

Then she came up to me, her golden hair visible to me in my peripheral vision as it reflected from the light above our heads. "What are you looking at," she queried, her voice like a song against my ears.

I pointed to the mysterious light I had not yet discovered the source of. "What do you make of that," I asked of her. "Surely a woman would make a more rational judgment than I."

She did look upon it, gazing at it ponderingly for a good half-minute at least before she shrugged, saying "It looks to me like a regular light. Its origin perhaps we can not see because of the darkness, but surely nothing entirely extraordinary."

"As I looked at it," I said, placing emphasis on the "I" so as to make an exception to her observation, "it seemed to me to be a dragon's maw, only why would it lay open for as long as it has?"

She pondered. "Have you seen a dragon before? Perhaps when it yawns it must take in much more air than we do, as it is so large."

"But surely there is no such thing as a dragon, or we would have seen one before." I put my arms out to imitate the motions of a bird in flight. "The large lizard, if it could fly, would surely be quite visible to a peasant or a military man alike."

"One can not claim that, because we can not see something, it must not be there, can one," she asked, not a bit sarcastically. "Surely gravity, though we are unable to see it, has been observed."

"But no dragon has ever been observed; sight is only part of believing."

"What of villages such as Krakatoa, which was destroyed by fire? Is it not possible that a dragon could have done this deed?"

"Do not act as if you are simple-minded, we know Krakatoa to have been destroyed by a volcano."

"But surely a dragon could possibly be a manifestation of that volcano."

I pondered her point for a long second before nodding. "That is true, the native populace perhaps could have believed the volcano to be a mighty dragon, perhaps a very large one indeed."

"Furthermore the village of Roanoke, which disappeared leaving signs of danger, and only the clue 'Croatoan' to show us what may have happened. Perhaps fantastic creatures could have destroyed them without a trace, such as a mighty wizard?"

"You speak of old-fashioned superstitions and folklore; surely you can not believe in that which no reliable man has recorded as happening?"

"Again, you assume that something does not exist because you have not seen it. And yet you are wrong; there are many texts that claim wizardry was real and in fact has done incredible things."

"These are yet folklore: stories. Why would you believe these to be real?"

"The peasants of these old villages would think that they were real. Otherwise they would say so, would they not?"

"They were old-fashioned and simple. Today their beliefs do not apply and are not valid."

"Why not? Surely if something is true it will remain true tomorrow. Time flows forward today; it will not flow backward the day after this."

"There is a difference between that which is true and that which one believes to be true."

"You begin to show signs of hypocrisy, my friend. Surely everything is merely a belief; as Descartes said, 'Cogito, ergo sum,' which, when translated into an English text states, 'I think, therefore I am.' Can one not deny everything as 'old-fashioned' or 'folklore?' There are as surely as I know individuals in the world today who believe nothing in the world is real, merely an illusion."

"I am rational; I know what is true and what is not true."

"But no one knows that, can they? You admit that the light you saw was of an uncertain origin. Surely you can not claim that the light was not a dragon."

"You are foolish; I no longer respect you and do not wish to speak with you further. Good day, my lady."

With that, I turned away, though she said "The acknowledgment of only the tangible is limiting and dangerous." I did not acknowledge her, though I sorely wish I had. For today, brothers and sisters, I dine not with her, and never will again.