The Sunspire Do you see these eyes, when have you known me to cry?

her voice is so much fun to write in, for sure <3
The story with a lot of liberties taken is this one - I do like it quite a lot! https://www.uexpress.com/tell-me-a-story...h-folktale

Not only did Wraen definitely not remember it, but she seemed to be enjoying it too!  Caught up now in both pride in her own storytelling (obviously it was awesome) and the story itself, she didn't need much urging.  Wraen's encouragement was more than enough to send her sailing onward!

"Well, first, he went to a deer.  Somehow he got to ask a question without it running away," she shrugged, it was a story, right?  "and he asked it 'Hey, you!  Are good things paid back with more good, or not?'  Now, I guess you can say deer kinda get the short end bein lunch and all, and the dragon glaring at it didn't help.  So bein a deer, he said 'No good deed goes unpunished' or something and ran away."

"Well, the knight wasn't convinced, probably because he realized he shouldn't have asked a dumb deer about important things since deer are scaredy cats.  So he looks for another opinion, but the only one he can find is a duck."  Maia shook her head.  "Why he thought askin a duck would go any better I do not know, but he does, and of course, the duck goes with the dragon too.  'Definitely bad,' he goes, and flies away quickly before the dragon can snap him up.  He's a dragon.  Anyone but a wolf is probably gonna be scared of a dragon."

"Anyway, the poor knight is startin to think maybe he's wrong, and good deeds aren't the way to go.  But just as he's second guessin his entire code, a fox comes by.  Foxes aren't all that great I don't think, but they do have a reputation, and the knight figured it was probably at least smarter than a duck.  So he says 'Let's ask them, foxes are smart'.  The dragon doesn't care because everyone's afraid to disagree with him anyway, so he's all for it."

"So the knight levels with the fox, 'I helped this dragon out of a tree and he tried to light me on fire as thanks.  Don't you think good things should be rewarded with good?'  And the fox turns out to be pretty smart, actually, because he plays dumb."  She loved the ending of this story, and her smile widened as she neared it, in anticipation.  She tried not to rush it, but man it was hard sometimes.  "The fox says he doesn't understand, and needs it explained.  The dragon gets frustrated and tries to explain that he doesn't owe the knight anything for kindness, because that's not how things work.  But the fox still says he doesn't understand, he needs to see what happened."

Maia giggled.  "And this is where the dragon's really dumb, because he agrees, and goes back to the tree to stick himself all over again and show what they are talkin about.  Cept when he's stuck, he realizes - there's no way the knight is gonna free him again when he already showed what happened next.  So the knight thanks the fox, and they both leave, with the mean dragon crying behind them."  She finished with a flourish, though there was definitely a summary in there somewhere she was missing.  Some kinda lesson.  Maia figured the point of it was mostly bullies and rudeys would get what was comin to them, and one should be careful who they were nice to.  But also it was just a fun one.