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Thuban swam through the mighty river. He wasn’t a water dragon, but he also wasn’t big enough to keep the humans from hurting him. He liked to watch humans. They were very clever, far more clever than he was. He knew that opinion would win him nothing with the other dragons.
Thuban was also a young dragon. He had no treasure, but he was reaching the age when he needed one to impress the lady dragons. Thuban loved the river, he loved it more than the sea. He loved watching the humans. There had been times when he just had to dive to avoid being seen.
Then he saw something going on just off the river. All dragons had excellent vision; it was how they all caught food. It was a branch of the river off the side where he was swimming down. He took the branch and allowed himself to quietly float down it. A few of the humans were standing nearer the water, but Thuban's, also as with all dragons, hearing was excellent, part of the reasons most other dragons had left. It was why the water dragons had left the river as well; humans were noisy beasts.
“We need to have one side of the pyramid facing north,” one of the men had said.
The other man nodded. “We also need to have the entrance to be align with the standing star.”
Standing star? Thuban thought. That must be a great thing, a great treasure. He had to know what star it was.
As night fell, Thuban tried to understand the stars. He was not a night dragon, the excellent vision he had during the day was very poor at night. He swam slowly to the edge of the river. He could see a barge tethered to a dock, a low flame in a container on it. There was a man sitting on the back end of the barge.
Thuban had learned the human language decades ago. He could speak it, not well, but he had made a few exchanges with solitary humans in the past. Once a goat was given in exchange for chasing off a pack of animals. Once he had rescued a child of a woman who had been kind to him when he was younger.
“Good human,” he said softly.
The man jumped to his feet, looking around in fear.
“Good human,” he said again. He brought his head further out of the water.
Thuban felt the fear from the man.
“Do not fear,” he said. “I wish to know something, and I am willing to give you a gift of fish for the information.”
The man was still afraid of him; dragons did not have extremely good reputations.
“What do you wish to know?” the man asked, his voice seemed to tremble, but he didn’t shout.
“Do you know about the standing star?” Thuban asked.
“Standing star?” the man asked.
“Yes,” the young dragon replied.
“Can you not see the stars?” the man asked.
“No,” Thuban said regretfully. “I am a day dragon not a night one.”
“Oh,” the man sat again. “Are you really here?”
Thuban lifted his head a bit more. “Yes,” he answered. “You may touch me if you wish,” he said.
The man did something with his head, but it had been so long since Thuban had dealt with humans he didn’t understand.
After a long moment the man seemed to understand. “Yes,” he said.
Thuban came to the edge of the barge. He could touch the bottom of this part of the river, so he slowly reached his nose up to the man.
The man slowly reached out his hand and they touched.
After a long moment they both backed off.
Thuban knew what the man had felt. Young dragons were cold; they had to eat like any animal. Thuban was young, but he had reached the point where his internal fire had started. He no longer had to have food, even if he sometimes ate for pleasure.
The man gave him an honorific bow. “Honorable dragon, I, Khepri, humbly greet you.”
Knowing that names were power, Thuban did not tell the human his name, but did respond in kind.
They spoke until there was a glimmering of light in the east. Not being able to see the stars, Khepri had explained how to find the star.
Thuban, in return, went and found the largest fish he could find and placed it on the deck of the barge to keep his part of the bargain.
# # # # #
This human became a friend. Thuban finally shared his name with him and his family. It was several human generations Thuban had befriended. He continued to help them in secret. He secretly herded fish into their nets. Swimming in water was the same as flying, but it helped make him a stronger flyer when the time came. He almost regretted leaving the family in the days before he left.
# # # # #
None the less, Thuban often swam to the main part of the river. He observed the rising and setting of the sun. He had time, all those generations of his human friend's family. He now knew he would have the greatest treasure of them all, he could observe until the day he would decide to fly to the great, standing star. Sometimes he flew into the great desert and saw other dragons, some laughed because he hadn’t gathered a treasure yet. He told them he was going to claim the greatest treasure of them all, soon.
Even day dragons only flew at night near the great river. Thuban decided to leave from the river. In the time since he had decided to claim the standing star, he had grown. So had the things the humans had built.
He told an old river dragon that he was now going to claim his reward. She laughed but said she’d tell others that he had left.
With powerful beats of his wings, he took off. He sailed into the black sky, using what he had learned from the human, who he had remained friends with until the old man’s death. He pointed his noise in the direction and flew.
# # # # #
With no sun to rise, and nothing but his own internal heart to know by time he flew. He was sure, every time that he was near his prize, his treasure, but it remained too far away for him to see.
He was afraid to turn back, what if he could not find the planet he was from now, so much time he had been flying.
Then he spotted a glow ahead. He flew on, his treasure now in sight. He was surprised that it was a sun like what he had left behind but realized all those years of flying in the dark. He could still claim it; he had grown so much. He circled it, basking in the warmth; the cold of the dark was over.
He had done it. He had claimed that greatest treasure of them all, the standing star!
# # # # #
“Yes, Miss Watson,” the professor said.
“Dr. Sagan,” Linda Watson started. “I heard from a friend that the entrances to the pyramids are supposed to point to the North Star, but they point at a star in the Draco constellation.”
Carl Sagan paused for a moment. He watched as the other students in the class really noticed the question. It was an important question at this early stage of their education. “Yes. When the pyramids were built, the binary star system Thuban was the North Star. This is because of the axial precession of the Earth. It will, in about 21000 years be the North Star again.”