Versemaker Technic & co.

A dream is a beast you have to feed or be eaten by, and a dream without flight brings no prey back to its owner.

Such a dream had Charles, an idea of solving a mathematical problem that would reluct in its ineffability to another. It was a hungry dream, and it consumed his free time, and gave back scraps. He created ideas and writings on paper to feed it, and it would take the nourishment and leave behind meaningless scribbles and ravings.

Charles didn't want fame but the beauty of being recognized first solver, a link in the chains of mathematical discovery on Earth. His heroes were mathematicians and logicians, warriors in the arena of brilliance. Charles could have been a hero too, but the dragon he tried to rob guarded its hoard too carefully, and his plan missed a secret path, so he watched someone else take a gem of proof, all the rest losing their luster.

When the news got to him, he was heartbroken. In a pittance from fate, Charles finished his proof soon after, not the first, but elegant, and the dream left its nest forever.