“Do you know why dragons hoard gold?” They waited, unspeaking. The dragon’s face convulsed, and then he spoke again. “It is not merely that we love gold, though we do love it, yes—its shine, its cold weight. It is that dragons are old enough to have seen the world, and seen mankind. Mankind is not to be trusted with hoards of gold. It poisons him. No creature is safe in a world in which any one of mankind has limitless gold.
