Three knights stood impatiently outside of a large cave.  Earlier in the day, there had been a dozen of them, but now their ranks had dwindled down to three.
"Looks like we better send in someone else," said Kenrick, the leader of the group.
"Not me!" said Randal fearfully, "I'm not going after any dragon!"
"Aw, quit your whining," said Aylmer, "There's no dragon in that cave!"
"How do you know?" argued Randal, "How do you explain that none of our friends have returned from there?"
"It's a big cave," said Aylmer simply, "They're just exploring."
"Well, it's getting late," said Kenrick, noting the sun's position in the sky, "If you're so certain that there's no dragon, then you can go next, Aylmer."
"Yes sir!" said Aylmer with a salute.  With that, he marched into the cave.  Minutes passed.  The minutes soon became hours, and the sun was beginning to set when Kenrick spoke again.
"Looks like it's your turn," he said to Randal.  Randal gulped.
"Yes sir," he mumbled weakly, and forced himself to walk forward.  When he stepped into the cave, he was momentarily blinded by the darkness.  As his eyes began to adjust, he realized that the cave was not large at all.
"Where could they have gone?" he wondered aloud.  Then, he noticed that there was a small opening in the back wall.  There was just enough room for a human to crawl through.  Randal squeezed himself through the hole, and soon found himself in another large room.  This one was also empty, except for a large dragon in the center.

The sun sank below the horizon, and Kenrick smiled.
"Well, Dragon, it appears that I've almost paid off my debt to you for sparing my life."  He took out a small notebook and added eleven marks to a tally.
"Five more and you'll have had the hundred people that I promised to you."  He took out another notebook, and turned to a page labeled "Reports".  He wrote:

"After six days of investigating, I have failed to uncover any solid evidence that a dragon resides in the Northern Cave.  Eleven more suspicious fatalities today.  I will conclude my week-long study tomorrow."

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