"Are they inhabited, your caves? And Nottingham, too, I suppose. Isolation is dreadfully dull, and knights are always filling. Cows and sheep, too, provided no one screams when you carry them off. High-pitched voices hurt my head."

Norman curls his tail around his haunches, extending his tongue to very delicately take the first of the offered pastries.

He swallows before speaking again.

"As for dragon-diving, it's a sport of Countesses, not kings. I fly very high, and then I drop you, and then I catch you before you hit the ground. It does wonders for my claw-eye coordination, I must say."