173 The Eve of Battle

"Are you sure it will wake up in time?" Arran looked anxiously at the unconscious goat in the middle of the valley.

Snowcloud nodded, her expression calm and confident. "It will wake up shortly before the dragon arrives, and when it does, it will be dazed enough that the dragon has an easy time catching it."

Arran had captured the goat a few hours earlier, snatching it off the side of a cliff half a dozen miles from the valley. The chase had been more difficult than he cared to admit — the goat navigated the cliff side with surprising ease and agility — but in the end, he had managed to catch it alive.

And it was necessary that the goat was alive for the plan to work. While the dragon might decide to eat a dead goat if they just left it in the valley, the dragon might just as well ignore it entirely, or so Crassus said.