What's next?

Friend or faux

"What are you?"

"I'm a dragon!"

"You’re bloody not!" Susan insisted indignantly. The character in front of her in fact appeared to be a female gnome or dwarf, sitting on a seat atop a metal contraption which did at least resemble a dragon, including a skeletal metal head linked to a fuel pipe, which gave off a trail of smoke.

"Okay, I'm not exactly one myself, per se." The dwarfish girl admitted, pulling levers and tugging on ropes so that her seat swivelled in Susan's direction and lowered her down to eye level. "But you are not a dragon-hunter, with blood or without."

"I didn't want to come in this cave." Susan attempted to shrug, but found this near-impossible while keeping her arms wrapped around her naked body. "I was rather ****. But what are you doing in here?"

"Keeping that lot away from my treasure." The girl replied. She pointed over her shoulder, to a horde of gold and jewels stood against the cave wall. "I found it, it's mine, and you're not having it."

"I don’t want it." Susan replied, "I just want to go home."

"Well, I can't promise you home," the girl said thoughtfully, "but I can certainly send you somewhere."

With that, she grabbed at a rope hanging from the wall and pulled it hard. Susan found herself flying upwards as a section of cave floor sprang upwards and threw her out of the roof.