Yep, my eyes are certainly not deceiving me here. That is a real, bonefide dragon. And it’s standing right outside the castle that I’m currently hiding inside of.

I’m not alone either. There’s the two princesses with me, with the younger one holding on for dear life to the elder. Meanwhile, there’s a couple of the soldiers that were left back here to aid in keeping this place up. It looks like the king’s going to really get his money’s worth on them right now. The more gruff older looking one is named Bill, while the younger one is Will. Despite the similar names, no they are not related.

“It’s looking pretty bad out there.” Bill states the obvious. “Has anyone seen the others?” He’s talking about the other two soldiers we’ve lost track of. Phil and Till. I have no clue why they all have similar names, but that’s not really the most important thing to worry about.

“When the dragon landed, I saw them run off in the other direction.” Will answers him. As long as they’re safe, I’ll feel good about that. I doubt anyone here is crazy enough to face off this beast with our limited numbers. Still though, how are we going to get out of this situation with our lives?

“Pepper, is papa okay?” Salt asks her sister. What’s that supposed to mean, he’s been gone for nearly a week before this thing just decided to pay us a visit. Unless…

“Hey, Pepper.” I kind of interrupt their conversation. “Who were you talking about, when you said that someone was supposed to take care of… That?”

“It was supposed to be a secret.” She said. Well, a secret to keep from me specifically. I don’t see what everyone was so worried about with not telling me. “Dad and Saffron. They were supposed to be hunting the storm dragon down.”

What?! I can’t believe that this mission was apparently something to do with killing a dragon. And that explains what’s been up with this weather, given the name of this thing. I can feel the power of the beast, specifically the sparks that are hitting the stone walls. Not from any actions that it’s doing, but just from it just existing and standing right there.

I don’t think I need to ask why they were hunting this thing. Judging from the way it’s searching out the castle, even if it’s far to big to get inside the hallways. This beast seems to be looking for something specific. That must mean it’s a lot smarter than just some random animal, and it’s certainly up to no good as it lets out a ferocious roar. In doing so, the clouds above us are blown away, giving the first sunlight I’ve seen in a while.

“We’ll be okay if we stay in here.” Bill says, doing his best to observe the situation with a cool head.

“But what about Papa?” Salt asks once more, since no one has yet to answer the question. It also makes me worried for Saffron’s well being.

“Don’t worry.” Pepper responds with a shaky voice. “It’ll take more than some dumb dragon to take him out.” Right, and I know how strong my girlfriend is. Surely there’s no way they’d get dropped so easily. All of us just need to stay strong steady in these dire circumstances.

“Right.” I back her up to try and maintain everyone’s morale. But it’s getting harder on all of us as the epic beast unleashes some of its power. A spell that creates a small earthquake, causing the ground beneath us to shake heavily.

“This isn’t looking good.” Will comments on our situation. “At this rate, it’ll bring down the entire place down!” He’s not wrong, as I see a few of the stone work crumbling around us.

“Then perhaps one of us should find a way to distract it.” Bill suggests. “I could try and get it to follow me out of this castle.”

“Are you mad? That’s one good way to find the ending to your life.” Will complained, but the older man grabbed in show of authority.

“I made a vow to protect the royal family. Even if it costs me my life. I’ve already failed before, I won’t make the same mistakes.”

“Please don’t do it mister.” Salt speaks up. “I really like all of you… I don’t want anyone else to die.”

I don’t really know these guys well enough to understand their motivations. However, I certainly don’t want anyone sacrificing their lives. Not if I can help it.

“How about instead of distracting it, we injure it?” Everyone’s looking at me crazy, but I really need them to hear me out.

That monster certainly is powerful, but it’s not invincible. Surely, if I can find a way to give it a nasty wound, then it won’t be able to cause as much destruction as it’s doing to do now. Of course, it won’t be easy. After all, Saffron and king seemed to have failed on that task. But we don’t need to be super powerful to succeed. All we need is a good strategy, and a little luck to do what we gotta do to buy some time.

“It’s gotta have a weak spot, right? If we hit it there hard enough, then we can do some real damage to it.” I was thinking somewhere like clipping its wing, or maybe getting a good jab to the neck or eyes. “Does anyone here have a clue what that might be?”

“The tail.” Bill answers me.

“Great, but how do you know that?”

“You can tell from the way it moves.” He explains to me the way it carries itself. The tail was wrapped around the body. Even though this castle courtyard wasn’t that big, it certainly had enough room for it to stretch itself out. Though without proper confirmation, I’m worried that he could be wrong. There’s gotta be more than simple observation.

“The tail is indeed the weakness.” Will follows up with more proof. “Its magical power comes from there. That’s been what we’ve uncovered while researching to hunt it.”

All right, we’ll pin our hopes on cutting that tail off. But even if that’s what we want to do. What plan could work to cut something like that off of it? A sword might, but you’d have to get pretty close. I’ve got light magic, which should also help being a bit of a wild card to aid us where Saffron might’ve failed.

“You got ice magic, don’t you Pepper?” I figure that the one of us that’s been training so much would be the most prepared for all this.

“I won’t be needing it as long as I got my blade.” That’s her response to me, which is really sidestepping the question.

“Okay, but you do got some ice magic, right? Or is it some other element? I’m just asking so I can try and come up with a plan here.”

“Please don’t worry about it.” Bill stops me from inquiring further. He then leaned into my ear to whisper something else away from the others. “We’ll talk about it in private later, but let’s just work without that magic all right?”

“I got you.” I respond to him. “First things first, we need to regroup with the others. We’re going to need everything we got if we’re going to succeed.”

That is, if our everything is enough to succeed in the first place.