St. George — Secret Snake Sympathizer?
The legends live on from the Crusades on down.
A desperate town faced certain destruction. They would feed a dragon some sheep to keep it from bringing death and disease. Out of sheep, they selected children by lots to feed the dragon.
St. George rides in and saves the day. He slays the dragon to the delight of all.
But what if St. George wasn’t really a saint? What if history is written not by victors but by subjugators?
What if he was an emissary for a fake church? What if the dragon was only playing dead, and St. George wasn’t really a saint, but a con man — just a snake charmer crossed with a snake oil salesman secretly sympathizing with the dragon?
The dragon threatens the town for a while. The townspeople give up all their livestock, and if they’re really warped, start killing their children by lottery. George rides in to enact an odd acting game with the dragon, they both look like they’re fighting each other as mortal enemies, and at the end the dragon looks dead.
The dragon’s satiated, the townspeople who don’t know any better start a church, George gets tons of hero worship (and a few bedmates), and while everyone’s distracted George and the dragon silently slink off to the next area.
Word of George’s heroism spreads, churchs are built to be served by those who don’t really serve a real deity, the dragon gets food — it’s all good for the bad guys who put the people into bondage to a nightmare resolution, religion based on satisfying evil, relationships with real deity never happen.
Did the dragon really lose? Did George really win? Maybe, secretly, the dragon always won.
