On Trusting Dragons

I had some difficulty in sending comments into the story this time; my instruments seem to have been affected by some unusual weather recently. I’m not sure Gwendolyn heard anything directly, but she does seem to have been strongly influenced by what was said.

Gwendolyn hesitated. The dragon had just offered her one of the things she came for, but… she still didn’t trust him, and had a strong feeling that she should never trust a dragon.

“Well, halfling?” The dragon prompted.

Ceased by a sudden urge, Gwendolyn called, “What make you thinks you know how I got here? And where I came from?”

The dragon did something with his face that would have been considered raising his eyebrows, were he human. Then with something like a sly smile, he said. “There are only two things down that passageway. One is a river that leads to the place the ratty little water mites live. I know this because occasionally they come up the stream and out from the tunnel. They are quite tasty. The other thing is a place where the star Ariadne hid at a time when she escaped and tried to wake her lover. It is full of her tears, but Cadderon does not know that.”

“She escaped?”

“Yes, and woke Fisher and tried to leave; but they were captured again, and now he is chained and I am stuck here, waiting for Cadderon to grow tried of the game he plays with the two of them and give me something more interesting to do.” He snorted.

Gwendolyn though about this. She was still uncertain, but after all she and the dragon seemed to have in common that they wanted Fisher free. She stepped out from behind the boulder-

-and an instant later was being held tight in one of the dragon’s claws.

As she struggled and kicked, he held her high up in the air and examined her with one large, luminous eye. With the tip of the claws on his other forearms, he lifted her necklace, gingerly by its chain. His eye seemed to glow with fire when he saw the stone. “What have we here? If you did not come by the tunnel, you must have come by some magic. And being bound to serve a human magic user, I despise them. Little human child, give me one good reason that I shouldn’t eat you right now.”

“I thought you wanted to leave!” gasped Gwendolyn. The dragon was holding her very tightly, making it hard for her to breathe.

“If it were as simple as making Fisher disappear, I would have eaten him centuries ago. I am bound and enslaved, I cannot simply allow him to walk away.”

Gwendolyn continued to squirm and kick in the dragon’s claw

“Stop wiggling, or I’ll just roast you now.” The beast said. “I ask you again, is there any good reason why I shouldn’t eat you?”

Oh dear. This is not good at at all. Apparently, dragons are not to be trusted. Perhaps there is something Gwendolyn could offer him in exchange for her release? What could a dragon possibly want? Treasure, perhaps, or perhaps something that could be done for him?

This point in the story should stay open until about midnight on Tuesday.

Thank you for your assistance.