It was a good day when nothing bothered to attack Sparrow on the road – and it was even better now that she was traveling to an area she hadn't been to before. The trip would open up all kinds of opportunities once she finally wasn't obligated to babysit Prince Reginald.

Presently, all Sparrow could gather from the Maoxa kingdom was that it was very mountainous, and that she had absolutely no problem in hiking up the mountain at night. Reginald, however, was very far behind, though she could still hear his labored breathing and occasional curses as he tripped. She rolled her eyes and waited for him to catch up.

"Can we slow down for a moment?" he gasped and put his hands on his knees. "I don't think I can take much more of this."

"You can't take much more? What about Princess Pomegranate? The dragon could be torching her by now."

Reginald blinked. "...The duck never said anything about her being kidnapped by the dragon."

"Trust me, she's been kidnapped by the dragon."

"How could you possibly know that?"

"Because," Sparrow answered with absolute confidence, "That is how it is done. Which makes our job much easier, anyway."

"How so?" Reginald grunted as they continued up the mountain.

"Instead of having to travel all the way to the castle to let the princess know that we are here to slay the dragon, we can skip right ahead to the fun part."

"Oh, yes," he said weakly. "Fun part. Do we have a strategy, at the very least?"

Sparrow turned to him, looking mildly surprised. "My, my, it looks like you're finally learning to ask the right questions. As an answer to your question; yes, I do have a strategy."

Reginald perked up considerably. "Yes?"

She pointed to her sword. "Just remember, the pointy end goes into the other guy."

Reginald gaped. "You can't be serious."

"Heh."

"You are serious."

Sparrow shrugged. "I've fought a lot of things in my lifetime. A dragon was not one of them. Mostly they were just flying rocks and men who seemed to be made of rocks."

"In all seriousness though," Reginald said, trying again. Because, really, his wellbeing was a serious topic, at least to him. "Do you have any sort of plan?"

"Keep in mind here that the princess is our first priority. That will be your assignment. If the dragon wakes up, I'll take care of it."

Reginald, for a moment, felt a little slighted – that maybe he should be the one to slay the dragon. That was how it was supposed to go, wasn't it? The prince slays the dragon saves the day marries the princess and has lots of screaming brats and dies of boring old age after pissing off a few civilians with taxes. But Reginald wasn't a knight, or even that impressive of a prince.

"I'm not a very good leader," he admitted to Sparrow, to himself.

"I know that," she said. "But you're not a very bad one, either."

Reginald was quiet the rest of the way up; eventually, Sparrow motioned for him to move slowly and watch his step. They were approaching a large cave. The inside was so dark they weren't able to see more than a few feet in, and what little moonlight they had didn't help much.

Sparrow noticed the prince's worried expression and gave him a pat on the shoulder. "I glow in the dark," she said, meaning to reassure him, and then motioned for him to follow her in.

Reginald was about to ask what the hell that meant, thought better of the glare he would receive as a result, and did as he was told, hand moving towards his scabbard.

'The pointy end goes into the other guy...'