Caleb watched and waited for his friends to get into position. Every now and then he’d risk a peek over the ridge. He didn’t see or hear the little dragon anymore, but the princess still paced the battlements. She threw off fireballs or lightning bolts every now and then, as if idly practicing her aim.

A thought struck him. Then he checked his Quest Screen one more time.

Veteran Adventurer's-Level Quest: Return Princess Lilianna Nevin to her father, King Nevin. Quest difficulty increased 200% due to the following two constraints:

Condition One: Lilianna Nevin must be returned unharmed to the palace.

Condition Two: The King’s Dragon must be returned unharmed to the palace.

STATUS: IN PROGRESS.

He let out a breath. At least nothing had changed in the Quest Difficulty level to make things more difficult.

Besides, he thought, things are as difficult as they need to be right now anyway.

Finally, he heard a distant rustle and saw movement in the underbrush on the opposite side of the circular ridge that surrounded the keep. Lilianna heard it to, just as she was supposed to. She took a few steps towards the far side of the battlement, eyes ablaze with power, hands raised and ready to conjure either bolt or fireball.

Tavia’s elegant palomino head appeared out of the bushes. Then her forequarters as she stepped out more into the open. A few wisps of her golden mane sparkled in the light breeze. The sun glinted off her delicately spiraled horn.

Caleb tensed up. Here’s where we see if Gilarska’s mythology is close enough to Earth’s when it comes to unicorns.

Liliana Nevin let out a squeal of joy.

“A unicorn! Truly, this is my blessed time! Are you here to bestow your blessings on me?”

Tavia gazed dispassionately out at the princess, as if evaluating her. She raised her nose, sniffed the wind, and considered a moment before speaking.

“Indeed, I am Octavia Morningstar, paladin and devotee of the unicorn deity Kirren. I have been called to seek thee out. To give thee the blessings of the unicorn. Yet...there is a problem.”

Lili blinked. “A problem? What problem?”

Tavia let out a snort. “I may only give my blessings to those who are pure. Virgin.”

The princess’ face reddened. However, it was from anger, not embarrassment.

“What are you talking about? I’m still a virgin!”

And that would be my cue. Caleb carefully stepped out from the tree line, sword in one hand, kite shield held by the straps in the other. He took a deep breath and sprinted towards the keep, listening as best he could to the conversation. It wasn’t difficult, as the exchange had already started to grow louder.

“Your words say so,” Tavia shot back. “Your scent tells me otherwise.”

“Then your nose is telling you wrong!” Lili flared. “My maidenhood is well and intact!”

“Yet you’ve been around boys. How many have you kissed? Does your father know?”

The princess’ face reddened even more. “Not...not that many. And it’s none of his business how many, anyway!”

“Yet it is mine. What kind of kisses are we talking about? Steamy ones?”

“A...a little steamy. Maybe a lot steamy. The princeling from the island over has very warm lips. And a delightful looking tight end that I want to grab–”

“Aha! That’s going in Kirren’s little red book!”

“No!” Lili shrieked. “You horrible...horse-with-a-horn!”

Caleb was perhaps halfway to the keep’s closest ground-floor window. Sweat beaded his forehead and his lungs heaved to keep up his speed. There was a low hum as the princess gathered her wizardly powers to throw lightning.

An eagle’s shriek sounded as Tavia dove back into the woods behind the ridge. Caleb saw a shadow flit by overhead as Shaw swooped in, distracting the princess’ aim. She let out a cry of surprise and launched a bolt into the air.

He heard a crackle as she let loose. It was followed by a pop as it struck something. Shaw let out a somewhat comical yelp. The drake flashed by Caleb’s vision as he came around for another pass. A plume of smoke trailed from the very tip of the griffin’s tail.

A second crackle as she released another bolt. Shaw furled one wing, rolled in mid-air and dodged it. He dove for the underbrush just as the princess changed spells to throw a fireball at him. He vanished into the bushes just before the ball’s impact made them burst into flame with a whoosh.

Caleb skidded to halt before the iron bars at the base of the keep. He picked the rustiest looking bars in the ground-floor window and jammed the longsword between them. A heave, and he was rewarded with a pair of metallic twangs. The first was when a three-foot long section of a single bar sheared off and landed on the turf nearby.

The second came as the longsword bent and then broke in two.

In an instant, Lili’s face appeared directly overhead, looking down at him with a pretty teenaged scowl. Caleb felt his gut compress as if in a wine press as she saw him. Her hands came up again, ablaze with a swirl of energy.

“So, my father seeks to trick me!”

He held the shield aloft, trying to protect his body. A whoosh echoed in his ears like the onset of a driving wind. It was followed by the boom of a fireball that knocked him to his knees.

Caleb felt as if he’d taken the blow of a giant’s broadsword across his shield. The metal remained intact, but the surface sizzled as the gilded edges peeled back. His nostrils filled with the scent of singed hair from his forearm.

He heard four little clinks nearby. Then a little girl’s voice pierced the air.

“Hurry! Get in here before she roasts you, Sir Knight!”

To his amazement, Caleb watched as two more of the window bars fell away as if they’d been cut cleanly with an acetylene torch. The opening was just big enough for him to squeeze through. He didn’t hesitate.

Caleb dropped the red-hot shield. He leaped through the opening just as Liliana Nevin cast a bolt of lightning. A crackoom! and his body hair stood on end as the spot where he’d vacated vaporized in a fountain of fresh earth and burning grass. He tumbled through the opening.

Stars exploded in Caleb’s head as he fetched up against one of the stone walls that made up the inside of the keep. He groaned, forcing himself into a sitting position. He’d no sooner gained a strangled breath than a weight landed on his stomach, making him grunt anew.

Worse, the weight began to bounce joyously, shifting from one leg to another.

“You’re here! You’re here!” cried the little dragon. “I’m saved! Yay!”

And with that, the little reptile extended her long tongue and drew a slimy, S-shaped kiss across Caleb’s face.

“Feh!” he gagged, as he tried to wipe away the stickiness. “All right, I’m here! Get off me!”

The dragon obligingly jumped down, her claws making tiny taks on the stone floor.

She was covered from head to toe in glossy sunflower-yellow scales, with an intelligent face that reminded him in parts of a dog or a fawn. Twin horns sprouted from her head, and a pair of sleek golden wings lay furled on her back. She gazed up at him adoringly with bright blue eyes and waggled her long tail in sheer delight.

Caleb got up, coughing. He spat into a dark corner and looked around. He’d pried his way into a large dungeon cell, dimly lit and free of all furniture save an age-rotted wooden bench. More iron bars lined the perimeter of the cell, and at the far end of the room, an arched passageway led up to the next level.

“All right, dragon,” he said. “Thanks for the help. But if I’m going to get you home, we’re going to have to get past the bars in here, and then Liliana Nevin.”

“My name’s not ‘dragon’, Sir Knight.” The creature’s deerlike ears perked up indignantly as she added, “Didn’t...well, didn’t King Nevin tell you?”

“Ah, no.”

“Hmph. I guess that was too much to hope for. All he cares about is that I do my job.” She sniffed a little at that. “Well, I care that you know my name! And my name is Daffodil, Sir Knight.”

To Caleb’s astonishment, a brand new character screen popped up when he squinted at her. It resembled the type of sheet that belonged to Tavia or Shaw.

Name: Daffodil Class: Rogue Alignment: True Neutral Alloy Dragon-Specific Specialties: Unique to Species (100) Rogue Sub-Specialties: Sneak Attack, Evasion, Stroke of Luck Existing Buff / Debuffs: Impulsive Nature. (Effects variable) Potential Buff / Debuffs: Vulnerable to Intimidation, Ennui. (Effects variable)

Okay, that’s interesting. Daffodil’s an ‘alloy dragon’, whatever that means. And information about her kind is damned expensive, to boot.

He cleared his throat before speaking.

“Daffodil?” Caleb scratched his chin. “That’s not the kind of name I’d expect for a dragon. Then again, you’re the first dragon I’ve met who I could actually talk to, so I suppose it’s par for course in this world. And I’m not a knight, either.”

“Not a knight?” Daffodil looked puzzled. “What are you, then?”

“I’m a corsair.” She still looked confused, so he added, “You know, a pirate.”

Her eyes lit up as the word finally registered in her mind.

“That’s even more amazing! You sail the seas, get to do what you want, go where you want! That’s so unlike my life here!”

“It’s not quite like that, but it’ll do. I’m Caleb Ledger, but you can call me Caleb in private. Among my crew, it’s Captain Ledger. Or just ‘Captain’.”

“Caleb.” The dragon chewed the name over. “Or Captain Ledger. I like it!”

“Good for you. Now, as for getting out of here–”

“Oh, that’s nothing.”

Daffodil made her sinuous way over to the bars at the far end of the cell. With four quick snaps of her jaws, she bit through a pair. The bars fell away with a clang.

Caleb stared at her. “If you could do that at any time, why are you still in here?”

Daffodil looked abashed at that.

“I was bored, okay? I don’t get to do anything at the castle!”

“Uh huh. And when Lili went berserk, you figured that going along with her kidnapping was the best bet for some excitement, right?”

“It seemed like a good idea at the time, letting her take me. I mean, if I don’t want someone to find me, it’s not like I can’t do something about it. I’m aces over kings at hiding!”

Daffodil’s scales changed colors. She shifted from daisy-yellow to waves of red-and-blue stripes in the blink of an eye. She followed that up with a spangle of purple stars, and finally, a shade of gray that perfectly matched the floor’s gray flagstones before turning yellow again.

Caleb could only stare. His eyes flicked back to one line on her Character Sheet.

Alloy Dragon-Specific Specialties: Unique to Species (100)

I don’t have the money to know what all of her abilities are, but that definitely counts as one. A useful one for a rogue, at that.

“See?” Daffodil said, as she returned to her base yellow color. “And no one knows I can do that but me. And now you, of course.”

“Yeah, that’s impressive. But I’ve been tasked with bringing you and Lili back, no matter what. Her father King Nevin was pretty insistent on that.”

“Oh, I hope you don’t have to hurt her!” The dragon’s mood, so sunny a moment ago, vanished like the sun behind a rain cloud. “And now you might even have to hurt poor Lili to get me out of here. How could I have been so stupid!”

She began to wail. Caleb paused to rub his temples before a headache started.

I don’t know how old Daffodil is, but she does seem awfully childlike. And with that name...could Lili have named this little dragon? If they know each other, maybe that can give me an advantage.

“Hey, no need to cry,” Caleb said gently. “I don’t want to hurt Lili either, if I can help it. But she’s got this lightning and fireball special going. How can I get close to her?”

“Close?” Daffodil stopped her crying and looked up at him. “What do you mean?”

He pulled out the ring Nevin had given him. “I need to get this on her. That’s how close.”

“Well...you could just try talking to her.”

“Talking? She just tried to roast me like a side of beef! Are you serious?”

“Sure I am! Her father never tried it, he was too busy giving her orders, like he does to me.”

Daffodil let out a little puff of steam as she made a ‘harrumph’.

“That’s a great idea, actually.” He knelt to talk to Daffodil on her level. “What has Lili ever wanted to talk to her father about?”

A smile blossomed on his face as Daffodil told him what he needed to know.

“All right,” Caleb finally said. “I’ve got an idea to get both of us out of here without harming her.”

“You think so?”

“If Lir and Danu are feeling generous today, sure.” The dragon placed her little clawed forepaws on one of his knees as she listened to him. “And I’ll need your help. Here’s what we’re going to do...”