Fat Dragon Xibochard surrendered. It had no choice.
It simply couldn't beat the leggy Shadow Bear Tibbers belonging to that troublesome little girl, and it didn't want to be beaten to death by her, either. So, besides swallowing its pride and immediately admitting defeat, agreeing to submit and serve her, what else could it do?
Sure, Paladin Henck had said Xibochard was a legendary and famous dragon smith, with an extraordinary background and all that. But whatever it had been called before, now it had only one name: "Fat Orange"!
That's right, Fat Orange!
Because as soon as Annie saw it, she'd instinctively thought of those enormous, chubby orange cats. They were just like that dragon, round and fat, with stubby limbs and practically no neck.
In short!
From the moment Tibbers defeated it and forced it to surrender, the dragon Xibochard was no longer a free, working dragon. Instead, it had become a pet "Fat Orange" belonging to Her Majesty Queen Annie. As long as it kept working, it would of course stay "fat" and amuse its owner.
The only shame was that after Edgin and the others got the helmet, they were still shaken and didn't want to linger in the ruins of the floating city of Dolundbud, which had been almost completely reduced to rubble. Instead, they hurried to the nearest exit and returned to the surface.
Now, their group of six and one bear were resting by the sea, not far from the Sword Coast.
Night was about to fall. After two days of exhausting work, they planned to make do with a night's rest here, then head to Neverwinter first thing in the morning to deal with Forge.
The reason there were only six people and one bear was, of course, that the dragon "Fat