Gerald tried to groan but found something was jammed inside his mouth. He couldn't see either, even though he opened his eyes. All he could do was make pitiful murmuring sounds in the darkness.

What happened? He recalled being alone with Lady Tess, and she was starting to get undressed.

Oh no….did I fail to perform…..was the shame of my inadequacies, especially in the face of an alluring woman like Tess too much for my mind to handle? Or maybe … I did do my duty…but could only maintain it ….briefly….before I blacked out.

Gerald's questions swirled through his mind. He attempted to stand up but found he couldn't. While he couldn't exactly see, he felt his arms were tightly lashed together behind his back, while his legs were tied at the knees and ankles.

Wait….maybe it just got really crazy last night. Tess is a loony girl with her mood swings. Maybe things just got a little wild. Yeah…I bet Tess enjoys and likes to give out pain. She is a paladin after all, that's a really painful profession with all the monster fighting and everything. It wouldn't surprise me if she likes a little fighting in the sack as well. Wait….no….that's not what happened….I was hit in the head!

Panic struck.

I'm not in some strange paladin love shackles, I've been captured by goblins.

The realization sent Gerald in a frenzy as he thrashed about wildly. It didn't feel like he was on the ground, but felt he was suspended somehow. His sudden burst after squirming seemed to have the desired effect and he felt himself shake free from whatever was suspending him as he crashed painfully on the ground.

Gerald groaned into what he suspected as his gag.

"Oh, you're up," said the unmistakable voice of Lady Tessa. Or at least he hoped it was unmistakable. He wasn't good at singing but he had a good ear. He hoped the Paladin had somehow decided to make him her love slave rather than having been caught by goblins, and used as food or manual labour in their pits.

"Lmm Mmm Gm"

Silence….and then to his surprise his blindfold was removed.

Gerald found himself on the forest floor, and to his shock he was wearing a full suit of silver armor. He thought it would feel heavy, but it felt light, and even more surprising was that it was adorned with Griffins and roses, the kingdom's symbols. To his relief, Tess was standing before him and not some angry goblin jailer, though she looked odd since she was dressed only in her for hugging surcoat she was wearing earlier and what looked like his own patchwork sweater over that. There was no sign of Tig, Ceto, or Armondo.

"I'm so sorry….." apologized Tess. Gerald stared at her, and saw she wasn't bragging or being sarcastic, she seemed truly sorry for this turn of events. "You rescued me from the chasm, and probably saved me from the bugbears,…..and this is how I repay you. Shameful."

"Emm? Whmm gmmmm om? Whmm Imm tmmm um?"

Tess reached for Gerald's mouth. "I will undo your gag, but if you shout or scream, I will knock you out again. Understand?" she asked while patting her dagger. Though it didn't seem special, Gerald noticed a particularly big pommel on it, and guessed that was how it dispatched him the first time. Not that she would require any special weapons to do so, she probably could have done so with a big branch or even a rock.

Gerald nodded under the threat of the dagger's pommel and Tess first undid the gag as promised.

"I don't understand what's going on. Why am I your prisoner?"

Tess sighed. "The dragon needs a Prince, so I am giving him a Prince."

"But why? He doesn't even have the Prince. Or..or are you trading me for that other person…Sir Riddle."

"Ridley," corrected Tess. "And…and…its complicated."

Gerald couldn't believe his ears. He was going to be sacrificed to a dragon by some crazy woman, because it was…complicated.

"I'm sorry for all this, I just wanted to let you know it's nothing personal. Under other circumstances, it might have been different between us. We are not that different. We're cut from the same common stock," she said as she began to stuff the gag back into his mouth and secure it.

"Wait..wait….If I'm going to be offered to the dragon. I deserve to know why. Grant a dying man his last wish…" pleaded Gerald as what looked like a rolled up piece of saliva covered cloth was jammed into his mouth. He widened his eyes and made a pathetic mewling noise though he probably would have done anything at this point to delay the inevitable, but this seemed most appropriate given his dire situation.

Tess hesitated and stared at his eyes. Gerald saw his chance and attempted to make his eyes wider. The Lady Knight and Bard stared for a few seconds before she relented and removed the gag again.

"Thank you, thank you," said Gerald as he worked on a way to get her to release him. "If you explain to me why you are turning me over to the dragon, maybe I'll understand my fate better."

Tess nodded and sat next to Gerald. "My story…I am not Lady Tessa of Westholding. Well…I am and I'm not. I'm not a noble born woman as everyone thinks I am. I'm simply Tess of Goldcrown, daughter of Lawrence the baker."

Gerald had heard of Goldcrown, a small mountain region to the south. It was famed for its mountain mead, confections, and its buxom beauties…that is until goblins raided it years ago.

"My town was attacked two decades past in the goblin uprising. The Silver Guard came and paid the goblins bloody vengeance, but it was too late for my family. The goblins had killed them, everyone. Father, mother, aunts, uncles, cousins...everyone I held dear was slain. In the aftermath Sir Beauregard took me in as a servant to his household. I was thankful for him, for the life he spared me and the opportunities that he gave me, but it wasn't until I was ten that life truly opened its doors for me."

"Sir Beauregard brought a boy to his manor to train underneath him, and even though I was just a maid then we got along famously. Young Aaron. We were the same age and we became best of friends, and Sir Beauregard saw this. He even allowed me to practice with Aaron in the arts of knighthood. Swordsmanship, equestrian, archery, even etiquette were introduced to me."

"Despite my eagerness to excel as a knight, I was not the most able student. I was an above average warrior at best. Despite this, Aaron insisted that I joined him, when we moved to falconry, heavy armor training, two handed weapons, sword and board, and other more serious combat training. "

"It wasn't until we were fourteen, that I noticed something wasn't right. I always assumed Aaron bathed and slept separately because he was a Prince and deserved better, but at that point he …I discovered the truth…"

Gerald brighten up even though he was still bound. "He was a girl! I knew it! I knew it! Err…nevermind me…continue with your story…"

"Aye…he was actually the Princess Aaron, and you were correct. King Gustav had concealed the birth of his daughter from the wizard Zerd. He cheated the wizard from his prize and only the Silver Guard and myself were privy to that information."

"While I had discovered his..her secret…Sir Beauregard trusted me. I was a daughter to him and he was a father to me. Even when the Prince was coming of age, and people were questioning his lack of interest in girls, Beauregard trusted me. Though I am not skilled enough to be a member of the Silver Guard on martial skill alone, I was recruited to be used as a ruse to fool the public. I was pretty enough I guess, and skilled enough with the blade that it wasn't too hard to fool the masses in thinking a beautiful paladin caught Sir Aaron's eye and was now the newest member of the Silver Guard. I was the window dressing to distract and confuse the public."

"As you probably have guessed, I am not even a paladin. Sir Frederick summoned his mount and allowed me to ride it to continue the deception. I am not sure how that fits into his paladin code, but I guess the Prince's safety trumps the part about being honest. "

"Err…" interrupted Gerald. "This couldn't last forever could it? Someone was going to find out, and if that happens that Zerd guy would find out."

Tess sighed. "Aye. King Gustav wasn't known as the Mad King for nothing. His plans were not the best laid out. His initial plan was that he hoped the wizard would simply die of old age, since he was already an old man when he struck the bargain, but…well you know how wizards are, they find ways to beat the laws of nature. While scant news of Zerd is heard in the kingdom, he is said to be still alive somewhere...waiting for his Princess."

Gerald wasn't sure who was in the right here. The mad wizard that made a ridiculous demand and was being cheated by the King. Or the mad King that had also agreed to the bargain in the first place and was saving his daughter from the lecherous clutches of some ancient finger waggler. In his opinion there was no right or wrong side, but if made to choose he would pick the King. While both were considered mad, the King's decisions seemed less selfish in motivation than the wizard's.

"I suppose our lie would have been revealed, but until that time we did a lot of good in the Kingdom and beyond. Tutored by Sir Frederick and Sir Beau, the Prince blossomed into a real hero. While I could barely defeat a bugbear by myself, I've seen the Prince battle a dozen of the creatures and come out victorious. We rode from one end to the kingdom to another and had even battled a Green dragon previously at the Willowwhisper woods."

Gerald thought it odd that Tess was still referring Princess Aaron as Prince Aaron, but he guessed that habits die hard. When you lived a lie all your life, it wouldn't be easy to simply drop it.

"We didn't think this mission would be any different, but ….we were so wrong. Besides the dragon, we were assaulted by poison mist, bolts of lightning, and even a horde of giants, and goblins to finish us off. Sir Frederick and Prince Aaron had enchanted us against flames, but they circumvented our defenses with other elemental attacks. It was only Sir Markham's quick thinking that prevented all of us from being captured. Sir Frederick gave his life so that we could escape, but even that wasn't enough to prevent everyone else from dying."

Gerald wanted to hug her, or at least comfort her with a pat on the back, but the bindings to his limb remained tight. He attempted to wiggle and squeeze his way out of them, but Tess knew her knots well.

"While I should be warning the kingdom with Tig and her motley crew, the Silver Guard was not made for the defense of Westholding, the Silver Guard was made to protect the Prince. I may not be the most skilled or even the bravest of my order, but I wasn't chosen merely for my looks. I was chosen for my loyalty, first and foremost. If there is any chance I can rescue the Prince, I must take it. Even if that means sacrificing my self, or sacrificing those around me."

Gerald had ceased his useless struggles and listened to Tessa intently. He did not like the way this was sounding.

"I assume that when the dragon captured Prince Aaron it discovered his true nature and guessed that he was me, since I am the only woman in the Order. I must take advantage of that, and offer up a 'Prince' in return for the real Prince. The exchange at the tower might be a trap, or the Prince might already be dead, but I'm willing to take that risk."

"err…actually I'm the one taking the risk," said Gerald in a small voice.

"I understand this, and if we succeed in saving the Prince, I'll find the finest bards in the kingdom to sing of your heroism," she said as she lowered her head to his and kissed him gently on the head. He breathed in her lilac scent, probably for the last time. As he looked at her, he thought she was so beautiful, so tragic...and that he was so dead. She then returned the gag in its place, and tied it off around his head, before hefting him over his shoulder. Despite her slim frame, she was surprisingly strong. Though she struggled with his weight, she did manage to reach the old tower after about ten more minutes of hiking and stumbling through the dark woods.

Gerald on the other hand was stunned into silence. It wasn't that he was going to be given over to a dragon, it was because she belittled his skill as a bard. Finest bards in the land? He was the finest bard in the land, how was she going to get a dead man to write his own songs. The slight irritated him to no end, but he was powerless to do anything but fume even as she tossed him before the tower.

"Here he is! Prince Aaron as promised. The coward did not want to face you to save his own men, so I had to …persuade... him to act heroically," shouted Tess. Her demure voice was gone and she was back to her strong warrior voice. Gerald marveled at how easily she shifted her personality, she would have made a great actor if she wasn't a crazy betraying bitch.

A great dragon seemed to appear out of nowhere and balanced itself atop the crumbling tower. Gerald wasn't sure if the structure could hold the beast's weight, but then he wasn't sure how much the dragon weighed anyways. Given that it could fly, it might not weight that much compared to its body size. Regardless of the physics of it, a small goblin wearing furs with a gnarled staff hobbled its way towards Tess and her prisoner from the base of the tower. GREEN EYES!

The goblin shaman reached Tess and jabbed Gerald a few times. It seemed dubious at first, but grinned when he saw the heraldry of the silver armor. While Gerald hadn't notice till now, the goblin also examined his hands and jabbed its grubby hands at rings that he hadn't worn before, and examined his neck and seemed pleased at amulets he did not recall donning.

"Him only hooman man before….dress like peasant…to hide…..coward…." croaked Greeneyes.

The dragon seemed satisfied and flapped its wings."I am a man of my word," screeched the dragon. "Take your friends and go. I will meet you on the battlefield soon enough."

A knight with battered and tarnished armor appeared, carrying another knight in his arms. He hobbled towards Tess. From Gerald's angle the other unconscious knight looked like the Prince he was familiar with, a youthful lad with short hair and tuffs of beard and side burns, but as they got closer he saw her breast plate had been ripped off, revealing a small but fine pair of breasts.

"Sir..Sir Beauregard didn't make it," said the beaten man, who he assumed was Sir Ridley,as he lowered his head.

"I ..I know…." Said Tess as he helped the man carry the woman away.

It was all very touching, and Gerald might have shed a tear except the shadows around him began to move.

"Hmm tmm Prmmmm. Imm nmm tmm Prmmmmm. Hmm tmm Prmmmm," protested Gerald as a bugbear stepped out of the shadows and grabbed him with his large furry hands.