Sir Largely Combustible, knight and adventurer from the kingdom of Not Really That Far Away rode his noble steed, a black charger called Cherry Tree. His was a dangerous quest, one that involved a princess, rescue and mortal peril. It had started one day during one of King Rotund's regular gatherings: The court wizard had had made mention during one of his rambling stories of a princess in a tower surrounded by lava, guarded by a dragon with fame and fortune going to her rescuer. That evening, Largely had cornered the wizard and pressed the him for the princess's location. The wizard didn't know, but knew how to find out so an evenings scrying was instigated. The scrying had worked and thus Largely knew where to find the damsel in distress and the following day had set out on his daring mission. In his his mind it was simple: Damsel, tower, dragon and one brave knight: He'd be back in a week with a new wife and a ton of cash.
He never asked Cherry Tree's opinion, which was all very well because the horse wasn't impressed with any of this. He knew his master well and knew exactly what to expect: he'd rush in and rescue the dame, get her home, they'd be all dewy-eyed for a fortnight, then he'd get bored, ditch her and go on another moronic quest to rescue another airhead from some ridiculous situation, or she would realise he was a completely self-centered narcissistic berk and thus be the one doing the ditching.
After 2 day's ride Combusible knew he was close when a hint of brimstone hit his nose. When he got closer, the heat coming from the obligatory pit of lava was also a bit of a giveaway. Sitting on a plateau in its centre was the castle with one rather rickety way in. He dismounted Cherry Tree and made his way to the rope bridge. "Oh well, let's go slay a dragon." He muttered to himself.
He was unaware that for the last 10 minutes a pair of eyes had been on him: Watching him from her tower window was Fiona. "My my. Hello good sir knight," she said to herself, "would thou rescue me or would thou becomest toast?"
He crept into the castle and gently drew his sword. "Where are you Princess? Where are you dragon?" He whispered. As he slowly made his way along a corridor he looked up at a huge statue of a dragon on its hind legs. "I'm glad you're just a carving." He said. He was quite surprised when it lowered its head. He was even more surprised when it hit him full in the face with a fireball. Fiona sighed when she heard the sound of a knight being incinerated. "I guess you're toast. Very badly burned toast." She shook her head sadly and went back to her self defence book.
Dragon smirked to herself and went back to her lair and put another tally mark on her wall.
After about an hour of hanging around, Cherry Tree was getting bored, so he found a place where he could see the castle. He watched as the dragon lazily flew up, flaming into the sky and guessed correctly that his master wasn't returning and trotted off in search of grass.