Rest tonight, reconnaissance tomorrow

Introductions to the group went fairly smoothly. Mr. Adventure, whose actual name was apparently Daxon, did a poor job of hiding his disappointment at my appearance. Clearly he was hoping two grateful and gorgeous sisters would be fawning over him when the job was done. The more experienced members of the party, Grizzly, Jonar, and his sidekick, were clearly relieved that I looked more or less capable. Grizzly refused to give his name at any point, while Jonar's companion never said a word at all.

In any case, they all seemed willing to let me be the one in charge. A bit odd, given I was certainly younger than most of them and a woman to boot, but it probably helped that they had a good understanding of my motivations. Since I was here to rescue my "sister", and I had already forfeited my share of any loot, I could be trusted not to make a plan that would intentionally jeopardize the others.

I had already allowed myself some time before the meeting to gather some intelligence from the locals - largely because I didn't want the others asking questions that might expose the lie I told to get them here. I shared my findings with the group: while the dragon had been spotted occasionally flying over the mountain, it had not been seen coming to or leaving the area, so it apparently spent all of it's time there. This was a problem since it was apparently territorial. It generally avoided showing itself, however, preferring to strike only at solitary individuals or small unarmed groups. When the villagers attempted larger scouting parties the dragon repelled them with fire from a distance.

With this in mind it seemed necessary to split the party into pairs while searching for it's lair. The dragon would be **** to split it's attention between us, and the only way it could effectively defend it's lair while maintaining it's cautious behavior would be to focus on whichever party was nearest to the entrance, thus helping us narrow down the location. We would repeat this as many times as necessary to find the lair, narrowing our search area each time. Meanwhile we would avoid any direct confrontation with the dragon if at all possible.

"But we're short on daylight now," I concluded, "and some of you have traveled a long way today, so for now we'll make camp here. After the first day of scouting, we can return here to camp again and review the next step." I didn't want to plan too far ahead in such a situation, as I was sure neither of the dragon's behavior nor that of my new companions.

I had stored some basic supplies and provisions to share if necessary, which was good because Daxon and Lyra, the apprentice, were ill prepared for camping in the woods. Before long Jonar and his companion retired to the privacy of the tent they had apparently brought along. I had gotten a bit more of a chance to observe them. While they didn't talk much, the two seemed very friendly with each other, surprisingly so given that one was clearly subordinate to the other. I got the sense that Jonar's follower really looked up to him, in a worship-the-ground-he-walks-on sort of way. Jonar, for his part, seemed protective of his shy follower. Whenever anyone asked the companion a question Jonar would step in and answer on his behalf, despite rarely answering questions posed to him directly.

Grizzly silently volunteered for lookout duty as soon as he had scarfed down his food, leaving me with Daxon and Lyra by the fire. Daxon, in his typical flirtatious habit, made the mistake of asking Lyra to tell more about herself and her studies. Once he had done that she seemingly forgot anyone else was present for a while, despite his heroic attempts to get her attention. Eventually he realized Lyra was oblivious to his seduction attempts, so he shifted his attention to me. Flattered as I was, of course, to be his **** second choice, I turned him down as quickly as I could while remaining polite. After all, he almost certainly wouldn't want to get in my pants if he knew what was in them.

As we were preparing to turn in for the night, I was startled by a series of grunting noises coming from close at hand. It took me a moment to realize the sounds were coming from inside of Jonar's tent. Apparently they were companions in more ways than one. I glanced around at the others to see if they were hearing what I was. Daxon, it seemed, was trying his best to pretend that he wasn't. Lyra gave me a suggestive wink, then giggled to herself softly.

In the morning, I'll probably be expected to decide how we split into pairs. I don't dare attempt to separate Jonar from his... lover, apparently. Which means I have to pair up with Daxon, Lyra, or Grizzly and put the other two together.