Donovan awoke with a splitting headache and a nasty taste in his mouth. The angle of the sunlight through the little room's single window told him that noon had come and gone, though not by much. "Ugh, by this time I should know better." He sat up, glad that at least he had managed to make it back to his room before collapsing. Or had he? There was a dim recollection of that girl standing over him before everything went blank. With a groan, he crawled out of bed and began to dress. Just as he was about to go down to see if any breakfast was left at this late hour, there was a knock at the door.

Opening it, he found himself looking at the golden haired inkeep's daughter.

"Sir? I have a message for you."

"Huh?" He said brightly.

"Here." And she held out her hand. Donovan gasped. Lying in the center of the girl's palm was single dragon scale. Dragon scale is as hard as the finest steel, and more resistant to heat. It's lightweight as well, and when forged with common steel by the correct methods, it can be made into a substance called dragon steel that is harder than any other metal, as well as being lighter and less brittle. Because dragon scale is so rare, and also light, it is worth ten times its weight in gold.

The scale resting on Serali's hand was perhaps twice the width of his thumb, but it was worth as much as all the funds he had come here with.

"Take it." she said.

"Where did you get that?"

"From the dragon."

"What?"

"She wants to meet with you. This is in promise of more if you'll come."

Suddenly something that the girl had said last night leaped out at him. He had been too drunk to notice it at the time, but now it was crystal clear in his mind. The girl had called the dragon "she" But no one had yet seen the thing close enough to know that.

"You know this dragon?"

"You could say that, I suppose. We're... friends of a sort. And she would like to be friends with you, or at least reach a truce."

He shook his head, amazed, and then regretted it as the world seemed to spin around him.

"You can tell your friend," he said after everything stopped moving, "that I'll be glad to meet her, but later, please. I'm not feeling too well right now."

The girl grinned. "I'll bet not, after how much you put away last night." She turned and walked down the short hallway to the stairs. "I'll tell her. Come to the needle's eye this afternoon and she'll be there."