The villagers look completely panicked. Most are holed up in their houses, and you get the impression that others have fled into the woods. Finding someone a little less shocked than most, you manage to get some information:
“Th-the beast is real! Huge, covered all over in scales like some giant goldfish! And it breathes fire! It burned down the Nonearby fort on the other side of the border! I thought it was just ru—ru—rumors, city folk nonsense, but it ain’t wrong! It’s gonna come and burn us all, every last one of us! It’s the end!!!!!”
Your interlocutor calms down a bit, then continues more calmly:
NovelBin is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.
“Yeah, just today, we saw the dragon. Flew right over our village, didn’t even notice us, then went and blew up that fort over there. I’d heard it kidnapped the princess, keeps her prisoner way at the other end of the country, but I didn’t buy it. Figured those folks think that just ’cause we live out here, we’ll swallow any old story…
They say the king’s hiring every merc he can find to put the beast down. If you’ve got the guts and the skills, you oughta try heading to Talipeca, the capital. They say it’s a real big city, and that’s where they’re recruiting. Head off away from the sun, toward the Westering.”
Armed with this information, you return to 130.