Once there was a young wizard, freshly installed in his tower, ready to use his arcane mind to delve deep into the mysteries of the world, and use the power gained through his knowledge to aid the people of the nearby town in their mundane plights.

  Alas, this young wizard soon discovered that the locals were far too.. needy.  They were constantly pestering him to perform some tedious ritual or simple incantation.  The wizard didn't have any time to study his tomes and better his knowledge, to ascend beyond these petty things.

  As a solution, the wizard took his familiar, a glupe, and decided to put it to good use.  He enchanted the glupe with his magic, forming it into a homunculus, a simulacrum of himself.  The wizard instructed his double to stay on the bottom level of his tower, and help the townsfolk when they came, as he knew they would.  The wizard would seclude himself in the upper levels of the tower, and have all the time to prepare his power to forge his mighty legend.

  Sure enough, the glupe was not left standing long before some locals came into the tower, begging the mighty mage for his assistance.  The glupe, not being able to speak, merely nodded and followed the villagers.  They led it to their fields, and began to lament on and on about how the rains had not come for two weeks, and the crops would surely wilt if something were not done; some witch must have cursed them; those pesky gnomes were at it again, and so on.

  After a time, the dim glupe realized they were asking for water and simply turned and began to walk.  The villagers were a bit puzzled by this, but followed the homunculus out of curiosity.  The glupe led them to the nearest river, not so short a walk, and waded into the waters.  It then started to absorb as much water as it could.  To the villagers, the wizard merely appeared to bloat, but it was an odd thing to see.

  The bloated glupe then walked back to the fields, with the villagers muttering behind it. "Strangest spell ever I see'd" "The innkeeper's daughter'd love to have the reverse spell" , and so on.  At the fields, the glupe released the waters it was retaining, and the crops were well quenched.  The villagers let up a great hurrah, and the glupe wandered back to the tower, to wait on he ground floor as it had been instructed.

  The next day, the townsfolk came again.  They wept and cried about how the tax collector was coming to town, and would surely beat every last coin out of them, the wizard had to save them from this terrible calamity!

  The glupe, not understanding the concept of taxes, merely followed the people to their town, and stood before the tax collector, a very large and muscular fellow, not much smarter than the glupe. The tax collector scowled at the homunculus.  He began to shout and yell about how the King would not be denied, those who opposed the taxes would know the pain of a being cleaved in twain with his broadsword, and so on.  The glupe merely stared.
 
  Frustrated, the tax collector unsheathed his sword and swung a mighty blow, through the wizard's shoulder, across his chest, and out at around the waistline on the other side.  The sword merely passed through the glupe, and did it no harm.  The tax collector was stunned.  Then the glupe raised its hand to make sure it was still fully working, and the tax man filled with fear.  Terror, in fact.  This wizard was clearly more powerful than any he had ever seen!  The tax man fled for parts unknown, and again the town rejoiced and the glupe returned to its post to wait.

  The next day, villagers once more came to the wizard's tower, but this time they were quite panicked.  They were covered in soot and weeping openly.  They told the wizard that a fierce fire-breating dragon had landed in their village and was razing the town to ashes!  He simply must help them!

   Not knowing, once again, what was going on, merely that it was to aid the people who came into the tower, the glupe once more followed the people to the town, where the dragon sat in the main square, belching fire, laughing, and eating the occasional hapless villager.

  The glupe wandered up to the dragon, wondering what it was, and how it might be removed.  The dragon simply picked the wizard-shaped glupe up in its maw and swallowed it.

  The villagers stopped in their panicked runs, jaws agape.  Their hero was smitten!  What would they do now?!

  About this time, the dragon started to groan.  "Oooh.. My belly.." whined the dragon.  Deep within its bowels, the digesting glupe was causing quite a severe case of indigestion.  The dragon began to visibly swell from its malady.

  The children of the village, seeing the dragon in pain and moving very slowly, began to do what they do best.  They poked it with sticks. The dragon yelled at them, and took a swipe, missing them.

  The parents called their children away from the beast, as they would rather see their children have fun with them, throwing rocks at the sickly dragon.

  The dragon was very distended and quite irate by this time.  It decided to end this farce with its long range attack, and began to summon its fiery breath.

  ..and immediately exploded from the overabundant gas inside it.  Dragon parts rained down on the town, and the people rejoiced.

  Some months later, the wizard emerged from the upper levels of his tower, now a powerful mage, ready to deal with any problem.  When he reached the lowest level of his tower, he found no sign of his familiar.  He assumed it was off running some errand for the pesky locals.  No matter.  Donning a hooded cloak, the wizard set out to find his wayward pet, so that he could take its dim-witted place and perform whatever task had been set with great flourish and gain his status as a hero.

  When he reached town square, the wizard found something he had not planned upon.  A statue stood there.  A statue.. of him! Inscribed upon the plaque was an inscription thanking the town's hero for his selfless sacrifice to save them all! The wizard collapsed to his knees.  That.. stupid glupe.. had KILLED him.

  He couldn't show his face or use his name now!  His life was over before he even got a chance to start it...  As the wizard despondently sat there, he came to realize a lesson:

  It is always best to live your own life , forge your own legend, however mundane, lest someone else do it for you.