The Dragon is Dead!

"Well done!" Fred said to the two archers, very impressed by the accuracy of their shooting. "Thanks to you, my quest has been fulfilled. But now I must escort all of you, and of course the Princesses Astra and Exotica, to safety, before I can consider my task complete."

"But neither of the guards had any keys," one of the maidens pointed out. "I know that Exotica and Astra have been chained up for having been unco-operative, so how do you propose to release them?"

"According to the two princesses, now that the dragon is dead that shouldn't be a problem. Since the chains are no longer magically strengthened, I ought to be able to cut through them with my sword with little trouble." [42, 172]

"No need," said Astra, as she and Exotica walked into the hall. "Our chains crumbled away into dust, so we knew that you must have succeeded in killing the dragon and came to look for you."

"Velus and I took out those two guards, but it was actually the two maidens with the crossbows who killed the dragon with a couple of well- aimed bolts."

"Well done, Diana and Annie!" Exotica said. "Well, I suppose we had better get moving. The dragon had plenty more guards working for him, human and otherwise, and we want to be well away from here before they realise what has happened."

"Yes," Fred agreed. "We should be going. We will have several days journey ahead of us through rough country, in order to reach the nearest village so that we can get you clothes and supplies. This was always a sparsely populated region, and what few settlements there once were have mostly been abandoned because of the dragon."

He led the strange group through the caves to the exit. As well as himself and Velus, there were the following ten maidens, all of them naked except where noted:
Princess Astra of Aqualaria. She had persuaded Fred to lend her his dagger so that she would have a weapon. (Fred still had his sword, of course.)
Princess Exotica of Allaria. She was almost as tall as Astra, but far more slightly built. Her hair was dark.
Lady Diana Thessamer of Aqualaria, who was a cousin of Astra's. She carried a crossbow.
Lady Annie Oakley of Gana. She too had a crossbow.
Princess Imelda of Hespan. She had a sword.
Countess Maria of Oakridge, who came from one of the Western Kingdoms. She also had a sword.
Princess Helena from Califie. A petite girl, she wore one of the guards' shirts, which almost reached her knees.
Helena's twin sister, Princess Sophia. She wore the other shirt.
Lady Sara Ushiko from MalBoncton. Her skin was dark brown. She wore a pair of pants, and had a cloth wrapped round her hand where she was bleeding from a wound from a crossbow bolt.
Elena, Duchess of Belview, from Nom Malbra. She wore the other pair of pants.

They reached the exit from the caves without encountering anyone or anything, and began to make their way down the steep slopes of the foothills of the Shreken.

1. The day passed without incident, and they made camp for the night.
2. They ran into a group of half a dozen orcs.

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