They react, but they don't fire. As I've said, they just scare people.

If a dragon flies away and you are connected to the internet, it ends up in somebody else's game.

Hahaha

Well put

I just assume that the particular dragon has finally achieved sentience and has broken free from his murderous instincts, so I let them enjoy the freedom of being not dead anymore.

On my current game I've seen way too many dragons, so I would be happy if they flew away.

I think of them as exploring entertainment when this happens, after all the foliage its nice to get some life in the scenery.

The last time my mage encountered a dragon it turned out to be friendly. It did however started to attack some random giant... where as I decided to help. Killing the giant.
It was awsome, after the fight me and the dragon just stod there looking at each other. We became the best of friends.

Had one circle and circle over me and Farkas out on the tundra last night. We were near the Western Watchtower so I was expecting it to attack that, but it didn't. And it wasn't "off in the distance" circilng either, it actually did a very low flyby right over my head that generated an awesome "whoosh." I kept watching Farkas out of the corner of my eye, knowing he'd probably go into full on combat mode if it turned hostile, but nothing happened.

Then it gradually circled off and off until it got to Fort Greymoor, which it promptly attacked. Since that fort is now full of my CW comrades, I had to go help. It landed inside the fort and killed two soldiers before I got there, but we kept it on the ground and it died right there, mostly I think from all the arrows it was being peppered with. Sadly Farkas would not follow me into the fort and I was really hoping he'd get the chance to fight a dragon eariler than expected, you know, something he could go back to Jorrvaskr and gloat about for a good long time.

I occasionally see dragons flying about in the distance, but unless I'm going in that direction, I never bother to engage them.