The high road through the mountains.

You select a rocky path that leads eastward, into the heart of the Dragon's Spine mountain range. By mid-day you arrive at a stony plateau, formed by the shallow valleys between three of the mountain peaks, and through this plateau leads a road, which leads up from the elven city of Elohin; you can see the white walls of the city below you in the distance. You follow this road in the other direction, deeper into the mountains, until late evening, when you are overtaken by a covered wagon driven by two burly-looking men. With little idea where you will be able to sleep, you call out to the men and ask them for a lift. They stop the cart and call back to you.

" You don't want to be coming with us, miss. Not where we're headed."

" Why, where are you going?" you ask.

" We've been charged by the Elflord Cweryth with delivering his Tithes, miss."

" Taxes?" You don't really see the danger.

" I don't think she's heard of the Tithe, Pollock", one of the drivers says to the other, who snorts, bemused.

" You've never heard of the Maiden Tithe, miss? What the Elflord pays to keep Lord Yuurgas off his lands?" You shake your head.

" One in ten of the ****-girls, miss, every year. The prettiest ones, as well, and every one a virgin. We loads 'em up in the cart and we drops them off in the appropriate place, an' then we has to watch til he shows up to take them cos its our neck if any of them gets away, and then we turn the cart around and heads back to the city fast as we can."

" So Cweryth is afraid of this Yuurgas?" you ask.

" The Elflord would have to be mad not to be afraid of Lord Yuurgas, miss. Its for the good of the whole city the Maiden Tithe is payed on time and in full, for if Lord Yuurgas were to show up in person for to claim it he'd burn the city to the ground."

It seems odd to you that you've never heard of a lord this powerful and vindictive, particularly one who lives high in the mountains. " Whats the name of his castle?"

" Castle, miss? Lord Yuurgas don't need no castle, nor no army neither. Lord Yuurgas is a dragon."

A dragon! At once the word conjures up the darkest nightmares of your childhood, and the wildest flights of your imagination. "I should dearly love to see a dragon", you find yourself saying.

" Are you a virgin, miss?" The question is remarkably blunt, and forces you back into reality.

" Er, no, I'm not.", you say, recalling your recent experiences.

" Should be safe enough then. The dragon only eats them." As he says "them", the driver nods back at his wagon- and its occupants, you presume.

" As long as you don't get caught up in the Ravaging," puts in the other driver.