New player - lots of stuff to learn

[Gribs]

Hi all, I just bought KB + expansions today after playing the demo a while last night. So here is my first silly question (searched and couldn't find an answer). It has to do with my first (!) training quest where you have to save the "princess". I tried this quest once and killed the dragon but it killed a whole mess of my troops. So I thought perhaps I should rethink the process and decided I would try a second time. I realized as I ran in that I could run away from the dragon, grab the "princess" and leave without a fight. Is this the "right" way to do the quest or am I missing some experience. Richard says something about having to run away from the dragon so I get the impression it was intended that I run away rather than get half of my army fried.

Thanks! I am hoping this game will hold my interest for a while. I tend to get into games and play for a long time or drop them after about two days. This one appears to be a long time player