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"Now you say that, no we would not." Jerrard answers with a curt tone,

Turning to the Elves he looks at them sternly, "You appear to have two choices, either you help us fight the dragon, or you will have to face us. The Captain here will not surrender his Cargo without a fight, and we have agreed to aid him." Jerrard places his hand on his sword hilt.

The Dimernesti tense, readying their weapons and spells. Their leader says, "We will not fight the dragon as long as our children are at risk. We will fight to the death to protect them. Can you say the same about your treasure, human?"

"This is not protecting your children," Imani says with a sigh. She understands the need to protect children all too well as that is what she thought she was doing with her son. Now she is only buying time until she can come back to him. He was safe for the time being, even though she knew Khur could easily corrupt him. "All of you are just doing what you are told to do probably without any reassurances that your children are still alive. Suddenly, you find people that might be able to help you, but in return you expect us to do it all ourselves. If we are going to do this, we are going to need your people to help us. Otherwise, this is not a possible feat to accomplish. This will have to be a team effort on both of our parts for it to work."

Babushka gives Imaran an icy stare, then turns away.

"Why do we have to fight?" Locky asks, jumping off the platform and stepping between her companions and the Elves.

"If you help us, I will help the Children." She says, offering her hand.

"What is it you ask of us?" the leader asks the kender, tired of dealing with such vagueness. "And what help you can offer our children?"

"Yes, what can we do to help your children" Babushka says. "How can we fight a dragon? The Captain says he won't help. Fire is the only thing I can think of, since we can't lure the dragon on land. There simply is no land near here. You say the dragon's lair cannot be attacked from the rear either. What options do we have?

As Jerrard has stated, the four of us have been taken on board to help the crew fight to protect the cargo. Our preferred solution would be to free your children and drive the dragon away, kill it if we must. This way, all ships cruising these waters would be safe again, if what you say is true. But we surely will not tackle the dragon alone, that would just get us killed and wouldn't help anyone. So if we get no aid in fighting the dragon, we will do what we were hired for and fight to protect the cargo. That might work this time, but at the next passage, the problem would be there again. Your choice."

After a short pause, Babushka adds:

"Do we have a small boat here, like those that are used to bring cargo and people to the shore where there is no harbor deep enough? Maybe we could use that to lure the dragon away, making it believe we try to get the most valuable cargo away. Instead, the boat is filled with fighters and flasks of oil that we could throw or shoot at the dragon once it comes out?"

"This vessel does have a skiff for those purposes, aye," Imaran says. "If you're willing to pay for it, we can leave you here in it to fight your dragon."

Babushka turns to the Dimernesti leader again. "So the dragon expects you to come back with treasure soon, doesn't it? What will happen of you don't? Will it come here to see what's going on?"

"Yes, I imagine it will come looking for us if we don't return," the leader says. "Although whether it will eat our children first is uncertain."

"You didn't ask us to help, I know, we offered, we are like that you know, especially us Clerics." Bowing gently to the Elves she smiles "Allow us to help, I hate to see such injustice."

"I have an idea, if anyone wants to listen." Locky interjects, "Remember in the Caverns, and in the caves Jerrard made me invisible?" She looks at her friends, her blue eyes flashing in the sun.

"So I was thinking, I get Invisible, check on the children, with your help of course, I can't breathe underwater." She looks to the Elves. "I look for another cave, a way to get them free, and when they are, we drive the Dragon out into the open sea. Where Jerrard and the others prepare to attack it using oil and spells."

"What do you all think?" She asks.

"That might help" is Babushka's short answer.

The leader Dimernesti beckons over the woman wearing the silver medallion and another one, a scrawny male wearing tattered white stripes of clothing. The three speak softly amongst each other in the Dimernesti tongue for a few moments.

Finally, the leader readdresses the party. "What you propose is incredibly dangerous, but if you were to do this and free our children, we would have no qualms with facing the dragon ourselves."

"Dangerous how?" Locky asks, "Its just going in the sea to say hello to some children. Do they speak common?" Hand on her head she ponders for a moment.

"At least a couple of them can, yes," the leader says. "But even invisible, diving into the dragon's lair alone...not even I could admit to having that kind of bravery."