snob. It was almost enough for him to reconsider slaying the dragon, after all. But then he looked at the grey old thing, drooling happily as Jesse scratched it behind the ears, and he knew he couldn’t? wouldn’t? kill it. It would be like chopping a dear old lady’s head off whilst she was in the process of trying to give you a home-baked pie. The Game and the Gods be damned. There were limits, and Lex didn’t kill. He might cheat and lie and steal, but he didn’t go out and kill things for fun. That was the sort of thing the posh snobs he stole from did, and one of the reasons Lex found it so easy and guilt-free to take their stuff.
No, they would get the dragon out of here somehow. All right, so it seemed like an impossible task, considering the fact that they were deep underground in a mine that was practically falling down around them and the dragon was old and feeble, not to mention enormous? and most of the tunnels were quite narrow. But there had to be some way to do it. Lex thrived on seemingly-impossible tasks. The dragon had got in here somehow, after all. Now they were just going to have to get it out.
Lex looked up at the ceiling. It was so high that it might even go all the way back up to the surface. If the old dragon could find some last burst of energy from somewhere, then perhaps it could smash through the ceiling and fly out. But, given that it could barely walk, that seemed unlikely.
Lex was still trying to work out what to do when Jeremiah came rushing into the cavern from the opposite side. He was dusty and dishevelled, as if a few bits of ceiling might have fallen down on him along the way, but he was free of scorch marks, so had obviously managed to avoid being attacked by the fire-bunnies. Tess wasn’t with him and Lex assumed that, as with the second round, he had left her behind, out of harm’s way.
The nobleman’s sword was already in his hand and, when he saw the dragon, Jeremiah instantly charged towards it. The dragon turned ponderously and then began lolloping towards the nobleman, clearly pleased and excited at the appearance of a new human who might give him a scratch behind the ears, too.
Lex was utterly horrified. Not only was Jeremiah going to kill the dragon but he was going to win the Game, as well. It was the most awful worst-case scenario imaginable. The scene seemed to slide down into slow motion as Lex sought desperately for a way out of what was about to become a complete disaster. Then, suddenly, a plan came into his mind. A desperate, last-measure plan.
Lex swung his bag off his back and reached inside to get the Sword of Life. He would pierce the dragon’s skin with the blue blade, thereby giving back all the life stored within it. This would make Jeremiah think he’d lost, and would hopefully give the dragon enough strength to fly out of the mine, taking Lex and Jesse with it. There was no time to think about the fact that he would be giving years of life away to a dragon, rather than keeping them for himself.
Lex dropped the glow-canary and pulled the sword out of his bag. This caused one of the smoked trout to fall out on to the floor with a wet-sounding slap. There was no way the dragon could possibly have heard that sound. And yet, one moment it was thundering towards Jeremiah? who now looked quite pale with fear but was drawing back his sword regardless? and the next the dragon spun round on the spot as fast as its huge bulk would allow, an eager look in its almost-blind eyes. It turned back at the same time that Lex threw the sword, blue blade first.
It shot through the air, straight and fast, and buried itself in the dragon’s heart. Lex had never felt so awful or guilt-ridden in his life as he did when the dragon crumpled to the ground with a grunt. Jeremiah threw his own sword down in a rage, clearly believing that Lex had just succeeded in slaying the dragon. For a long, horrible moment, Lex thought so, too. Perhaps that wasn’t the real Sword of Life at all, but a mere replica. Perhaps he had just killed the dragon for real.
But then, slowly, its scales started to change colour. From pale grey, they deepened into an emerald green? all except a single stripe running down the dragon’s back, which remained grey. The three humans stared as the dragon stirred. It got back to its feet, shook itself once, and then lumbered on towards the smoked trout as if nothing had ever happened. It didn’t even seem to feel anything when Lex pulled the sword from its chest? and there was no wound left behind. The green scales just closed up over it. Meanwhile, the dragon gobbled up the trout will all the enthusiasm and excitement as if it had been the most delicious thing it’d ever tasted. Then it pranced about in front of Lex with all its new strength and vigour. Its eyes had lost their white sheen and were now a vibrant amber.
‘You idiot!’ Jeremiah crowed smugly. ‘You stabbed it with the wrong blade!’
‘No,’ Lex replied, ‘I didn’t.’
‘The challenge of this round is to kill it, not give it back more life!’
Sword in hand once again, Jeremiah was striding back towards the dragon with a purposeful air Lex didn’t like the look of one bit. He and Jesse both stepped in front of the dragon? not that that made much difference, for the beast was far too big to be shielded by humans? but the gesture was startling enough that it temporarily stopped Jeremiah in his tracks, just the same.
‘Get out of the way!’ the nobleman said. ‘That thing’s a killing machine. It’ll have both your fool heads off in a minute!’
‘Oh, don’t be such a galloping twit!’ Lex snapped. ‘Can’t you see it’s tame? It probably never hurt a human in its life!’
Even now that it was no longer old and drooling, the dragon did look quite absurdly friendly. Especially now that it was nuzzling the back of Lex’s head with its snout. Not to be deterred, however, Jeremiah said, ‘What about all those mining deaths, then? They closed the mine down and left all that gold here just because they felt like it, did they?’
‘No, it was the fire-bunnies.’
‘Fire what? What the heck are you talking about?’
Lex stared at him. ‘Surely you’ve seen them? This mine is full of hundreds and hundreds of fire-breathing rabbits!’
‘Oh, that’s rich, even for you!’ Jeremiah sneered. ‘Surely you can’t expect me to fall for that! Just how stupid do you think I am? Fire-breathing rabbits! I never heard anything so ridiculous in all my life! You’re making it up to throw me off my guard, and then you’re going to slay that dragon yourself and win the Game!’
Lex glared at him. ‘If I was going to make something up, believe me, I would come up with something much more convincing than fire-bunnies! They’re far too ludicrous to be made up! I’m telling the truth! Just look at my burnt trousers!’
‘Nothing you say is going to convince me,’ Jeremiah said firmly. ‘Now, stand aside or risk getting your head chopped off!’
Then the idiot drew back his sword arm and prepared to throw…
But then there was a familiar rumbling sound. Lex and Jesse exchanged a horrified look, whilst Jeremiah stood staring around stupidly.
‘What’s that noise?’ he asked.
‘The bunnies are coming,’ Lex replied.
From the sound of it, there were even more of them this time than there had been last time. Their stampede was causing bits of dust and gravel to fall from the walls and the ceiling, and the water of the lake to ripple. There were only two entrances into the cavern. Lex had entered through one, Jeremiah through the other. At almost the exact same moment, hordes of ferocious fire-bunnies poured in from both entrances. Their eyes were angry, red and bloodshot; they were slavering from the mouth and blowing fire through their nostrils. Jeremiah screamed and Lex couldn’t blame him. That was not the way bunnies were supposed to look at all.
They were surrounded. Trapped. There was no way out of the cavern with still more bunnies pouring in from both entrances towards them where they stood in the centre of the room.
Presumably, the dragon was safe from the rabbits. After all, they’d had more than a hundred years to eat it and hadn’t done so. Possibly they could not bite through its scales. But, unless they got out of this room, and quickly too, the three humans were all going to be eaten alive.
Lex looked at the dragon and the bunnies and the ceiling? his mind working faster than it had ever worked before. And? suddenly? he knew what he had to do.
‘On to the dragon!’ he shouted. ‘Now!’
Then he grabbed his bag and the glow-canary, turned on the spot, and dragged himself up on to the dragon’s back, gripping scales the size of dinner plates to climb the animal like he would a rock wall. He sat down right behind the dragon’s neck. Jesse quickly followed and so did Jeremiah. The dragon seemed quite happy to have the three humans sitting on its back and, indeed, the beast was so large that it probably didn’t even feel their weight. But that alone did not make them safe. Already, the rabbits were swarming towards them and, once they reached
