Once upon a time, there was a dry, cruel wasteland. Its people lived each day at the verge of death, desperately harvesting the unforgiving land for any scarce food or water they could find and slowly dying when they failed.
However, at the center of this land, there was a magical bubble, inside this bubble there was a small island, and on this island there lived a dragon in complete opulence. Delicious food, fresh water, comfortable bedding... all of this, and everything else the dragon did request, was granted by the gods. It could not see outside the bubble-world, but the starving people could see in. It could not hear the desperate moans and screams of the people outside, futilely beating on the bubble's edge after being lured by rumours of life-giving water; but they could hear its contentment, and it increased their agony all the more.
And so it went; the dragon lived on in blissful ignorance while the people outside lived in agony. However... one day, the dragon woke up and felt that something was wrong. Perhaps a sliver of a tormented shriek had made its way through the bubble's protection, or perhaps it had dreamt of the way the world truly was; either way, it could not put this strange feeling into words. For days on end afterwards, it would squirm on its comfortable bedding and have difficulty eating and drinking the bountiful offerings it was given, not quite knowing what was wrong but knowing that something was.
The gods saw its plight, and asked with concern: "What is wrong, our child?" The dragon thought and thought, until a question sprang to life within its heart. "What lies beyond my home?" it asked. "It is not for you to know." replied the gods, and fell silent. Obediently, the dragon tried to stamp down its curiousity and discontent.
But it nagged within the dragon's heart, the strange wrongness, and again it did ask: "What lies beyond my home?" And again it was answered: "It is not for you to know." But this time, the dragon could not content itself, and it pressed on. "You have granted my every request since the day I was born. Won't you grant this one as well? Please, tell me what lies beyond my home." There was nothing but silence from the gods, and the dragon feared that it had offended its beloved providers until an answer came: "Are you sure you want to know? Once you do, it may mean that nothing will be the same anymore."
The dragon fell silent and thought. Its life so far had been perfect; each need catered for, each pain consoled, each morning bearing safety and joy. It could fall back to that and try to drown its nagging worry with food, drink and play... but somewhere inside, it knew that the worry would always be there, lurking. Whatever lay beyond its home... it would face it. After all, it had the gods on its side. "I am sure." it answered, voice ringing with determination. "Tell me."
The sky flashed with an unbearably bright light, forcing the dragon to cover its eyes. When it could at last open them, it saw that the sky was no longer the sky, but a window to a hellish landscape fraught with wind-bleached skeletons and starving people. Not believing its eyes, it rushed into the horizon until its face collided with the barrier. And as the people outside saw that the dragon could see them, their efforts were redoubled; they banged against the bubble with all their might, screaming and hissing and moaning with envy and hatred and desperation: "Help us! Save us!"
As the sight finally sunk in, the dragon's mind was overcome by shock and horror. To think that it had lived its life in bliss, wanting for nothing and growing fat off the food of the gods, while these people had been in such agonizing hunger and thirst! It frantically tried to give its food and its water to the people outside, but to no avail; the barrier was in the way. "Why?" it screamed at the gods. "Why? Why are you doing this? Why aren't you helping them? WHY?"
"Do you find it unjust, our child?" said the gods cryptically in return. "Do you want to help them?"
"YES!" cried the dragon with all of its might. "Please, help them! Give them food! Give them water! LET ME HELP THEM!" It screamed the last words so loudly that the window cracked, just a little bit. Driven by new hope and determination, the dragon attacked the barrier with its fists and teeth over and over again; little by little, the crack spread, until...
CRASH! The barrier of the gods shattered, and the island of the gods was released onto the wasteland. The people clambered up its sandy edges towards the forests within, mindlessly gorging themselves on the sweet water and the opulent food. They had their fill for the first time in an eternity, but eventually the food ran out and the little lake that the dragon had drunk of became empty, for the perfect world had broken. In a panic over the possibility of returning to the life before, they returned to the sandbanks...
...only to find that, where the dragon had once been, there was now a small, vibrant grove; its spring, they found, did not dry out no matter how much they drank of it, and the fruits upon its trees regrew whenever picked. The force of the bubble's end had killed the dragon, and with its last thought it had wished for the people to never go hungry again. And so the gods, smiling as if something had been proven right, had used their power to transform the dragon's body into an eternal wellspring of bounty.
The people live on that island in the center of the wasteland to this day.
The end.