It was a Tuesday in March. Not like those other Tuesdays in March. This one was dreary, droll, and dreadful. It was wet was the short of it. And as such the armor that one wore as he trekked up a mountain weighed very heavily on the man.

The man? In this instance was named Toby. Tobias Weatherhillman. He had considerations of himself as that rather capable warrior. There was the incident in Derby, where he brought back the horses to town after they were caught bullying a man in Bynum. There was the incident in Bynum, where he helped a young man stand up to some wild horses. There was the incident in Halstondale, where the town was being overrun by a gang of ants looking to steal the town's wine. And the incident in the Vale where he successfully quelled one of the forces of evil.

All thing's considered, he might be what you'd call top a 5 warrior of the land.

But Toby had designs on a greater, more legitimate, standing. For, you see, Toby wanted to get into the knighthood racket. Knights were notorious for their ability to ransack a town and their decorum about it to boot. Knights got paid as well. Of course "paid" here is explicitly the derivation dependent on how one viewed the acquisition of money.

As Tobias Weatherhillman arrived at the hill overlooking Rareton, he happened upon an unearthed grave of a charred and headless body, and a weeping dragon. He cried out to the dragon, "Oi, you there, dragon! What's got you blue?"

The dragon, replied, in a weep and wail.

Toby, again, called out from behind his rock, "Dragon, why weep you for the headless maiden? Did you know her in life?"

The dragon looked up and around for the sound of the voice, but could not see clearly with the amount of tears in it's eyes. Finally, it noticed a scurry of leafs shuffling pointing at a nearby boulder, and a young man cosplaying as a knight, hopping up and down, to track it's attention.

"What do you want, Toby?"

"I heard about Lucinda; came to pay my respects. Here, this is for you, and your mother." Toby threw the dragon a pouch of leaf parts.

"What happened here?"

"It was the princess. She's loose in Briar. Princess Bella charred Lucinda when she and her friends went down there to gather sickle sallow and honey willow. When Bella saw Lucinda and her friends stealing from the patch, well, you see."

"What happened to her friends?"

"They made it back."

"And Lucinda?"

They both watched as the wind flapped the sheet Lucinda's body was wrapped in...