Most people would say:
Very little.
This answer is understandable.
It is also wrong.
Dragons and travelers share a surprising number of traits.
Both leave territories.
Both carry memories.
Both change over time.
Both make choices.
Both leave stories behind.
Both influence places they pass through.
Both struggle to understand worlds larger than themselves.
The differences are obvious.
The similarities require attention.
Yet they exist.
A traveler begins with questions.
Many dragons seem to have begun there as well.
A traveler gathers experience.
Dragons certainly do.
A traveler carries regrets.
One suspects dragons do too.
The older I become, the less interested I am in what separates people from dragons.
And the more interested I become in what connects them.
Perhaps that is one reason the chronicle remains unfinished.
The realm is not a story about monsters.
Nor a story about heroes.
It is a story about choices.
The forms making those choices matter less than the choices themselves.
MAGDA'S NOTE
Pell spent a week writing that.
Here's the short version.
Everybody's trying to figure things out.
Some of them are larger.
The dragons endure because they remain part of the world.
The travelers matter because they continue changing it.
Neither role is complete without the other.
Which means the future belongs to conversations not yet had.
Roads not yet walked.
Questions not yet asked.
And stories not yet written.
The chronicle remains open.
That is not a flaw.
That is the point.
Pell's Final Note on the Sixteen
Do not seek dragons merely because they are dragons.
Seek understanding.
Seek perspective.
Seek wisdom.
Seek truth.
The dragons are simply one road toward those destinations.
There are others.
Magda's Final Note on the Sixteen
If you happen to save the world, that's nice.
But don't forget to enjoy the journey.
You'll spend a lot more time traveling than saving the world.
Trust me.
I've checked.