Day had dawned over the castle of Tantagel. As the sun flooded over the hills, and through the windows of the castle, and roosters crowed from their coops, Sir Grygamore awoke from his sleep, turning uneasily in bed, his thick beard tickling his chest under his shirt as he sat up. As his eyes grew accustomed to the sunlight, he searched the horizon for any glint of the armour of his comrades in the distance, returning from their quest. They had been sent to quell another attack by the dragons upon the border villages of a foreign land. Sir Grygamore was confident of their success; Sir Dynas and Sir Lucas had been his close friends since childhood, playing the usual games of setting fire to girls' hair, and he had grown with them into early adulthood. He had fought alongside them against dragons before, and though they were his dear friends, and though he had no wish to hear of their death, he had sent them to lead the party to fight the dragons. Now he looked impendingly towards the sun, shielding his eyes from its blinding brightness, but still seeing no telltale flashes in the distance. He sighed, slumped his shoulders a bit, more from just waking up than from disappointment (since he didn't worry about his friends' success), and walked slowly to the door of his chamber, opening the door on its hinges, and stepping outside to join his knights for breakfast, and maybe later in the day he would hear from a messenger on the return of his knights...

At about 3 hours after noontime, he was pacing about the portcullis, when he heard shouts and cheers from within the castle. He ran quickly down the rocky steps, into the procession hall to see what was going on. He was about to inquire a knight when he turned around, to see that the drawbridge was opening. As it lowered, he saw the bloody and dirty faces of Sir Dynas and Sir Lucas, followed by the other knights who had been sent with them. Their horses trotted wearily into the hall, carrying their also wearied knights, who gazed ahead with almost oblivious expressions, until the people began to shout and cheer again, at which point they smiled slightly, more awares of their surroundings, and dismounted. Sir Grygamore stepped forwards, taking Sir Lucas' hand in his own.

"Lucas! Grand to see you again! You must tell us all about it! So, I see you have conquered the dragons again." Grygamore smiled proudly, slapping Sir Lucas lightly on the back.

"Aye, we left not one of them standing-not a single on of them" Lucas gave the first sign of a grin, then faltered, and continued, "but it would have been much easier had not we been abandoned."

"Abandoned?" Sir Grygamore peered at his friend tentatively.

"The knights from Lancaster, who knew full well we were supposed to be fighting dragons, didn't even come. One of those damned things almost got his tooth up my throat, and had we not fought as well as we did, we would nay have returned."

"The king sent an official delegation to them... I can't see why they didn't come. Perhaps they had bad weather and had to return to port?"

"Perhaps, but it's doubtful -- in fact, some of my knights think that they saw the Lancastrians. I would think it a delusion if it were after the struggle, but even I thought I saw their armour glint and the purple Lancastrian vergescue upon their shields, from the distance. Sir Dynas claims to have seen them better than I had, and he said it looked as if they were avoiding us."

Sir Grygamore looked at Sir Dynas, asking vaguely desperately "Is that true?"

"Aye, 'tis so. I saw them myself, and there are nay other lands with the style of arms as the Lancastrians, and I know 'twas them, and they weren't heading for us. Rather, away."

Grygamore looked at the floor, scratching his beard, then looked back up to his two men, giving what he could of a grim smile.

"That is terrible, but you have returned safely, and as for the Lancastrians, I shall request the king to send another messenger to ask why they didn't aid us, when in fact it Was their own land they were supposed to defend. But for now, Dynan, we have honours to give." He turned to the king, and declared, "They have defeated the dragons, not a single one left standing." He left out the fact that the Lancastrians had not shown up -- he could discuss that to the king later.

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