Flix gave a sly smile, “Well, I have some ideas involving both of you, but they won’t help us against the dragon”. Alan rubbed his chin and tried to think of something useful, rather than the sort of things Flix had in mind, which wasn’t easy. However, the increasing pyrotechnics outside helped his concentration. “It would help if we knew what the crystal was made of. Maybe if we knew that we would have some clue of the structure of the crystal; there might be a line of weakness, some way to break the crystal. Also crystalline structures have a resonance. If it’s in the audible frequency range, there’s the remote possibility of shattering it with a loud, sustained sound – you know, like an opera singer breaking a glass.”