Roy was, believe it or not, glad now that he'd brought Chandra. Who knew that of all her available skills, the one he hadn't been aware of -- a fondness and empathy for big dumb animals -- was also the most valuable one?

On the downside, this shifted her one notch further on the spectrum of "Elan vs. Not Elan", which was kind of depressing.

"This is... not typical of dragonkind in my personal experience," Roy said, trying to wipe drool off his head with what little dignity remained to him. "On the other hand, the last dragon I had to deal with was a figurehead empress, the one before that was undead, and the one before THAT was trying to kill us all, so this may in fact be a step up."