text: "Oh, it's you," says the girl. "Well, it's too late to take the deal now. I've already found my own place." You curse yourself for not making the connection sooner. You've seen many more humans enter the forest since she did, demanding to know, "Where is she? Who has her?" (Of course, most of them ended up peppered with elven arrows.) You should have connected the searchers with this girl, who is evidently a high rank among her people. "And don't even think about trying to take over this tower. This is my turf." You almost laugh at the idea that this is her turf. She left "her turf" for these woods. This is your turf, not hers. Still, you can wait. You fly off and forget about the girl. After all, she'll expire in a few decades.
  
  A few weeks later...
  
  It's a rainy day, which you particularily enjoy because you get to watch the humans tromp through the Eckbel bog, their boots getting stuck in the mud. You could watch them for hours... but suddenly something catches your attention. The smell of sulfur. You turn and see an imp, a sort of servant devil. You bite its head off, and immediately spit it out in disgust. It dissipates in a wisp of smoke. You're immediately on high alert. There's only one place where that creature could come from.
  
  Within minutes, you're at the tower, looking inside and discovering a portal. The girl is gone. Of course. She opens a portal, and it has to be to the Nine Hells. You fly in to get a closer look and realize the wards are down, permitting you to enter the tower. Unfortunately, that's hardly your main concern. You don't want some devil coming through and deciding to conquer the world. You start looking for the mechanism to close the portal. After a few minutes of frantic searching, you find it. You're about to turn it off when you notice something. They took the girl. They didn't kill her. That must mean she has something they want. And devils are not one for unnecessary actions. They would not risk an appearance on Midsta for nothing.
  
  So, you have a gamble. You could close the portal, leaving the girl trapped but preventing any more devils from crossing through. Or you could enter, and see what they want with the girl. It's bound to be a risky play, for someone could shut the portal behind you, leaving you trapped. Still, if they don't expect you, you might have the upper hand...
  
  > enter the portal.
  You take a deep breath and enter. Immediately the heat hits you. Fireballs rocket from the sky in the distance. You hope none of them hit you. You see four imps carrying the girl and another demon coming to meet them. They're on a ridge of a deep chasm, but you can fly, so it shouldn't be a problem.
  
  Immediately after you fly into the chasm, there are problems. There's a downdraft leading deeper into the chasm. You're not anxious to find out where it leads, but you also don't want to attract attention. Which is rather hard when you're not in your element. And no, fire and brimstone is not your element. "What do we have here?" The devil is speaking the common tongue, so even though he's not looking at you, you know he's saying it for your benefit. He runs a clawed finger against her neck, and for a moment you think he's going to slit her throat. Then you see him lift up the girl's necklace. It's on an iron chain, but the jewel itself is black and translucent. He's about to snap the necklace off the chain. What does he want it for?
  
  > let him take it.
  You watch as he snaps the iron chain. Immediately, a thousand things happen at once:
  
  The intelligence in the devil's eyes fades.
  
  The girl's eyes start glowing and she begins to levitate.
  
  A squadron of imps heads in your direction.
  
  And the portal starts closing.
  
  You realize with a start that the gem the girl was wearing would have suppressed magic, so if you took it... you're not sure what would have happened. You've never seen a dragon without their magic.
  
  The girl's hair is floating above her head and her hands are starting to glow. You might as well just leave her here, but you need her magic to open the portal if it closes again. You dive toward the demons surrounding the girl, unleashing a burst of toxic gas. It paralyses them and you shove them into the void as they fall, but it tires you way more than it should. You snatch the girl in your claws and you can feel the magic rippling from her. It's stronger than you've seen in any human, but you don't have time to worry about it now. You try to evade the imps coming at you from all directions as you make your way to the portal. The opening grows ever-smaller.
  
  Spells are hurling at you from every direction. Most do no damage and only a few actually hurt. Still, it slows you down. You're almost to the portal when you touch down and immediately, you're surrounded. You plow through a few ranks of imps. You're hoping to be gone by the time more powerful demons arrive. The portal dwindles ever-smaller the closer you get and you realize you're not going to make it. That's what you're counting on the girl for.
  
  She exceeds your expectations. She lifts her hand, and a shockwave rolls through the ground, causing hundreds of imps to fall. She gestures her other hand, and the portal reopens. She enters, and you follow. You are not staying in this infernal plane a second longer.
  
  You both collapse on the floor of the tower, breathing heavily. The initial rush of magic seems to have faded, and now you're left with a semi-unconscious girl and a portal mechanism. You had the good sense to close the portal before you collapsed on the floor, because there's no way you could have gotten back up to close it now. You lay there for a few minutes, just breathing and waiting. Eventually you manage to get up and inspect the girl. She has some powerful magic, and you're not sure how you feel about that...
  
  "So, the dragon discovered that the girl had much more power than she thought..." The kids looked up, expecting more. "That's it, I guess," finished the traveler.
  
  "But what sort of power?"
  
  "What does unconscious mean?"
  
  "Can you tell us another story?" The kids bombarded the traveler with questions.
  
  "It's getting late. We should let the traveler get some rest." suggested one of the parents.
  
  "Aww," the kids complained.
  
  "Don't worry. It's not like this story is what actually happened."
  
  "Really?" one of the children asked.
  
  "No," the traveler replied. "It's just what could have happened." Though most of the village went to bed long after that, the traveler stayed up, thinking to herself as she rubbed the green scales on the back of her neck.