Through a character's eyes

by Frances Moritz


How I rescued the dragon

What an exciting time! The ship sank off the coast of Manhattan Island and we – a hodgepodge selection of survivors - washed ashore, where we were found by a gnome and several strangely dressed, well-tanned individuals. We followed them back to their village, where we rest and fed before the villagers told us – the survivors and Kastlin, the gnome – about a dragon they had seen. A silver dragon flew overhead and saluted the villagers. Immediately afterwards, they saw a bright light flash from the ground and the dragon plummeted.

One of the villagers led us to where they had been when they saw the dragon fall. From there, we were able to find where the dragon had landed – the massive clearing will all the felled trees was a dead giveaway. We followed the trail left by whoever dragged the dragon away and discovered a camp full of hobgoblins and orcs and other nasty creatures. While the others squabbled about what to do, Brother Thunderfoot and I sneaked down to the encampment by different routes. I sneaked into one of the tents to create a diversion. After checking for interesting items in the tent, I piled everything flammable in one spot and lit it up.

I left the tent and circled around, so I could approach the dragon, who was chained down in the center of the camp, from a less obvious direction. Sure enough, the fire distracted some of the nasty guys, though not the guards surrounding the dragon. I easily sneaked between them to the dragon’s head, and unlocked the muzzle they had put on her in a few quick seconds. We introduced ourselves after she thanked me, and I headed towards her front leg, to lift the stake holding the chains down.

Brother Thunderfoot chose this opportunity to join me. I directed him towards the stake as I stood guard. A giant spotted us, so I readied my hoopak and let loose a bullet. The shocked look on his face was priceless!

He still lumbered towards us, so I sent another bullet his direction, as I glanced back at Brother Thunderfoot to see what was taking him so long. Suddenly, a crossbow bolt swooshed down from the ridge, bringing a circle of darkness with it. As the giant fumbled around in the darkness, I helped Brother Thunderfoot pull up the stake.

At Myron’s request, we moved to free her tail. As we did, our companions finally came down from their safe spot on the ridge and joined in the fray. They held off some ugly monsters as we freed her tail; we then went to rid her of the chain holding her neck.

With her neck freed, Myron was able to free her other legs and turned to face the evil-looking hobgoblin. Since I wasn’t needed for that fight, I moved around to the tent the hobgoblin came out of, picked up a couple interesting items, and set the rest on fire. As I exited, an explosion shook the tent and hurled me towards the hobgoblin. In a skillful display of acrobatics, I bounced off the hobgoblin and landed on Myron’s back. The momentary distraction gave Myron the chance she needed to reach down and bite off the top half of the hobgoblin. He obviously didn’t taste very good, cause she immediately spit him out.

As a show of gratitude, Myron split her treasure with me and took me for a short flight over the encampment. I took a couple small items from the treasure, and then split the rest with my companions before heading back to the village.

Copyright 2004-2005 The Lady Gamer. All rights reserved.