Lilith and Linden consult a warlock

Meanwhile, on the other side of the village, Linden and Lilith were knocking on the door of a certain residence. At long last it opened and a thin, dark-haired man looked outside with an expression on his face that reminded Linden of a weasel. Or a fox.

"Erastus Rayne?" asked Linden.

"Who's asking?" asked the man.

"We're from the Dark Brotherhood of the Wolf, the Ram and the Stag," said Lilith. "We would like to hire you to help you deal with a certain problem involving a witch and a dragon slayer. Apparently the witch took it upon herself to turn the Slayer into a dragon and our employers would prefer that we find a way to discourage that kind of behavior. Can you help?"

"Hmm," said Erastus. "Dragons are almost indestructible. Only one being is harder to destroy than a dragon and he's not in the country at the moment. Perhaps you two should go see the mad wizard Lex Luthor. He's an expert at battling almost indestructible beings."

"Luthor is not available at the moment and anyway, we would prefer to deal with you," said Linden. "We will pay you well for your trouble."

"Hmm," said Erastus. "Okay. I know of a solution. Come inside and we'll discuss it."

Linden and Lilith smiled. Apparently this task was going to be easier than they had feared.

"Of course, one of you is going to have to get undressed," said Erastus.

"Undressed?" asked Lilith. "Why?"

"Because the only thing that can defeat a dragon most times is another dragon," said Erastus. "Sure dragon slayers get lucky from time to time, but if you want to really defeat a dragon in a surefire way, you need to get a dragon."

"So get a dragon," said Linden.

"On this short notice?" asked Erastus. "No way. I'm going to have to make a dragon -- which means one of you will have to undress so that you can get transformed. And since one of you is obviously handicapped and the transformation spell won't work on the handicapped, that means that it's the girl who gets to be the dragon."

"It figures," said Lilith as she rolled her eyes.