"Depending on exactly how you do it he will be delighted or hate you, I haven't extensively divined his reactions to give you a map in advance. This would require you to have a way to communicate directly with him, though."

"You can tell him that I would like to talk to him the next time he sends you one of those notes, I assume. He seems like a resourceful person. I'm sure he can find a way."

"I'm a little reluctant to distract him from what I'm hoping is singleminded zeal at retrieving me from this surprisingly roomy snake interior."

"Well, presently the only method I have of harassing him directly is that song you sang earlier, and I have no idea what it does."

"It harasses him. Kindly don't."

He giggles.

"He may be experiencing singleminded zeal, you see. 'S a thing."

"What previous examples have you witnessed?"

"Oh, he does it on and off. Phases in and out of it with the scoots. Became a wizard very young. That sort of thing."

"How much younger than usual did he become a wizard?"

"Usually it's adults who pick it up. He went to a kids' academy, just barely old enough for them, and did all ten tiers in three years and a bit, still too young to start at nearly all the schools there are."

"I think I might like this person."

"Maybe. I can recommend you to him when the usefulness of his zeal has expired."

"Sure. It's not like I don't have time."

"What do you do all - night, I guess - anyway, when you're not talking to stranded dragons?"

"Not much. It's a problem."

"Is there nothing to do here or are you just a dull sort of fellow?"

"The first thing."

"Ah, man. I could have landed anywhere - I'm assuming, since I don't see what recommends this particular graveyard in the eyes of snake monsters - and I landed someplace with no nightlife."

"There's a nightlife, it just consists largely of murder, which I find unexciting."

"I find murder highly exciting in an exclusively negative way."

"Then you really aren't going to like it in Sunnydale."

"Suppose not. Anywhere else it's less murdery that I could loiter for the duration?"

"Not overwhelmingly. It's a murdery sort of world."

"Have you considered the possibility that this is, in fact, a hell dimension, which is why it comes with a convenient side door to so many more?"