“Wait, guys!” says Mabel. “Can’t you see he’s in pain?” She turns to the dragon and approaches it. “Be still, dragon friend. Let Mabel heal you with her words.”

“Do…do you mean it?” asks the dragon.

“Don’t worry about me. Let’s talk about you,” says Mabel.

The dragon smiles and lies down as Mabel pulls out a notepad. “Okay, well I guess it all started in elementary school,” says the dragon. “The other dragons always picked me last for dragon ball….”

An hour passes and the dragon and Mabel are holding each other, with the dragon crying into her shoulder.

Dipper and Blendin roll their eyes and flip gold coins in a corner to pass the time.

“So I told him, ‘I don’t want to incinerate people for food,’” the dragon says to Mabel. “‘I wanna go to art school, Dad!’” He wipes a tear from his eye. “And he said, ‘Well then, you must not be my son. ’Cause no son of mine would be an artist. Do you know how hard it is to find a job? You’ll probably end up writing children’s books instead!’”

“And how did that make you feel?” asks Mabel.

“It made me feel small! And…and unloved!” cries the dragon.

“There, there, Connerheart the Dragon. It’s okay. But it’s time to seize the future! Which means you’ve gotta let go of the past. You can trust me. I’m a time-traveling twelve-year-old girl.”

Connerheart smiles. “Mabel, this was the most productive conversation I’ve ever had in my life. I don’t even wanna eat your bones anymore. Is there anything I can do to repay you?”

“Well, we’re trying to get a key from the king, and he said he’d give it to us if we brought him back the goblet you stole,” says Mabel.

“This old thing?” asks Connerheart, pulling a goblet out from under a dwarf’s skeleton. “It’s all yours! You know, the treasure in here isn’t even real gold. It’s just wooden coins and items painted gold. It makes for a rather fanciful aesthetic, if I can say so myself. But I digress. You should probably know that you’ve been lied to!”

“What?” asks Mabel.

“This was never even the king’s goblet. He’s just been sending people here for years to ‘get it back’ as a distraction. It’s how he gets rid of unwanted trespassers.”

Dipper and Blendin drop their coins, mouths agape.

“The king probably offered you one of three challenges, didn’t he?” says the dragon.

Everyone gasps.

“He did, I knew it!” says the dragon. “Always with the challenges.”

“Okay, maybe, on second thought,” says Mabel, “how about you fly us to the castle and help give that king a talking to!”

“Ho-ho, you mean vengeance?” says the dragon. “But how can you seize the future if you’re still holding on to vengeful feelings?” He smiles.

“THE FUTURE IS VENGEANCE,” says Mabel.

“Are you sure?” asks Dipper.

“YES, I’M SURE I WANT VENGEANCE!” says Mabel.

TO BE VENGEFUL: GO HERE NOT TO BE VENGEFUL: GO HERE