Jynx, at Blackshire Keep, receives visitors – three panicked villagers that claim that there's a three-headed dragon loose in the village! Jynx sends Born-in-Shame to "investigate", knowing that this is Scarlet's doing, and stays back to receive another surprise visitor: Lady Martinette, his estranged grandmother.

At first, Jynx seems inclined to send Martinette away, but at last he relents, allowing her to stay, so long as she does no harm to him or his friends. Then, in a gloomier mood, he heads off for Blackshire Village to see what's up with the dragon.