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Despite her initial bad impression, the woman is surprisingly talkative.
“Yeah, gotta be mad t’come into our kingdom these days. Worse yet if you’re comin’ from the South, where it’s warmer an’ everyone’s rich… leastwise that’s what folks say. Ain’t many pass through now. An’ now it’s worse still, what with that big ol’ dragon. Flies the skies an’ eats the cattle. Folks say it burns villages too, mostly foreigners’, so s’pose it don’t matter none. See, we got a princess – lil’ Gina – got took by the dragon. Dunno why dragons do that. All I know, plenty o’ knights, even sell-swords, gone an’ got ’emselves killed goin’ after it. The dragon, mind — not Gina. So now the king pays the beast wi’ our taxes, an’ it leaves us be. ’Cept if you got cattle, or you’re dumb ’nough t’go face it. Still, only sure way t’make a name ’round here is t’put the monster down. An’ they say there’s lot of treasure with it. That’s where my good-for-nothing husband went, by the way. Off t’fight it… yeah, right: more like t’nick a bit o’ the loot. He’s dead now, an’ good. Got what the mad fool deserved.”
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When you finally manage to escape the torrent of words, return to page 18.