For a moment, they both sat there, staring at each other. Then they both lunged. The Duke lunged for the crossbow—but Cindy lunged for the control globe, stabbing more glyphs. Just as the Duke reached his weapon, a slit opened in the air beneath him, and he fell into it.

In the cave outside, the Duke fell out of a slit in the air to land in front of a very startled dragon. “Oh, my,” said the dragon. “Didn’t I eat you already?”

Cindy brought up a dragon’s-eye view of the cave, with crosshairs. She centered them over the Duke and stabbed “Fire.” The dragon belched a gout of flame that set the Duke’s hair and shirt on fire—another shock to the dragon, who had not lit so much as a candle in years.

“Oh, my goodness! I’m terribly sorry—I have no idea what came over me!”

The Duke staggered for the entrance to the cave, beating at his hair and shirt. “You haven’t heard the last of me, Cindy!” he snarled.

The dragon blinked. “But my name is Lionel.”

Cindy sighed in relief, and went off to find the showers.