Dealing with the dragon

....Blatifagus drew back to lunge against Sir Rolande, but both he and Tindri were faster. He brought forth Ebharing and slashes, catching the dragon across the right wing. Black blood gushed forward, scattering across the ground with a hiss. Tindri dove for cover to hide before starting to invoke a spell to protect herself from fire damage. The dragon, now almost blind with fury, roared and its head charged against Sir Rolande. He saw its teeth and the gaping maw, the tongue, in great detail. His doom was approaching.

But just before he was eaten, he was roughly pushed aside and into the cave wall from behind. The dragon's mouth closed around Arn Dimbrink. The dragon held the hapless knight tightly around his torso.

The dragon froze, its eyes rolling with surprise and...despair? As Sir Rolande and Tindri watched, it spat the knight out and started crying for Tindri to help. In his agitation, he switched to elvish and implored Tindri to save Arn.

Meanwhile, Sir Rolande watched in awe as it seems like the dragon blood on the sword was slowly sucked into it. The sword started shivering in his hand, and guided his hand to attack the dragon again. He couldn't help himself and took a step towards the great worm, who turned towards him and snarled that he should drop that pointy stick before he hurt himself.

He struggled for a moment, unsure if the dragon would eat him if he complied, but the sword kept moving him towards the monster, and so he tried to put it down. The sword resisted, but through an effort of will, he managed, finally, to put it against the wall and let go of the handle, though he stayed close by in case Blatifagus would attack again.

But the dragon was too busy with Arn, and watched anxiously as Tindri set about to treat him. Using her herbs and magic, she soon stabilized him and healed many of his wounds.

When Arn woke up, he was confused at first, and then removed his helmet, showing why he slurred: it was a nightmare of burn wounds, with half his face melted away. He started speaking quickly with the dragon, too quickly for Tindri and Sir Rolande to understand what they were saying in Trakorian.

After a few minutes, their heated exchange ended, and Arn explained, slowly now, that there would be no more fighting with the dragon. While Albrich and Rowri - having heard the roar from upstairs - joined them to watch the strange scene incredulously, Arn took out his knife and cut away a part of his flesh, which Blatifagus ate, and handed the dragon a sack with something moving in it. It was the tip of the dragon's tail, and Blatifagus ate that, too.

Having concluded this agreement with Arn, the dragon turned to Sir Rolande's company and explained that he would help them against the Shagulites first, as a reward for their saving Arn, and that he would afterwards help Arn on his quest. As the group now started discussing their next step, Tindri used her magic to heal the dragon's wing, which he greatly appreciated and instantly he became very polite and courteous towards her.

The group decided that Arn and Blatifagus should join them when they would meet the giants in ten days' time and gave them the location. Arn was frustrated by this, but agreed.

This turn of events also made it much easier to get the mercury to Perrima and the cliff crawler. It was now dawn, and the guards were back in their barracks. They tried to arrest the group for trespassing at first, but when Blatifagus emerged from the cave, they backed down immediately. Thus it was that after a very long night of hard work and dangers, they could finally fill their cart with mercury barrels and start the journey back to Arhem.