Fighting with fire

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

‘Jump!’ Lex shouted.

But jumping from a falling cart is actually harder than you might think. They therefore didn’t so much jump, as throw themselves over the edge towards a stretch of nearby track about ten feet below them. They smashed into it, causing it to move beneath their weight in a worrying sort of way, before it, thankfully, steadied. The cart, meanwhile, fell three hundred feet before it hit another piece of track and was smashed to bits.

Jesse, who was clinging to the track beside Lex, reached over and smacked the back of the thief’s head.

‘Ouch! What was that for?’ Lex demanded.

‘Dragging me into that cart!’ Jesse growled.

‘Oh, shut up. If I hadn’t, you’d have been eaten by the bunnies by now.’

‘Yeah, ’cos my position is so much better now, ain’t it?’

‘Well, I won’t save you again if you’re going to be that ungrateful,’ Lex replied. ‘Stop whining; it’s not that bad.’

He slowly got to his feet. His glow-canary had fallen a little further along the track, so he crept forwards and picked it up. The bird appeared to be unharmed and was still shining brightly, as were the other ones hanging from the ceiling.

‘Come on,’ Lex said. ‘We can walk to the other side.’

This was easier said than done, for they were at an incredible height and the track was narrow and had a tendency to shift beneath them. Lex forced himself to keep his eyes on the archway ahead and not to look down. Inch by slow inch, they finally made it to the other side. It didn’t do anything for their nerves that a large part of the track groaned, creaked and then collapsed almost as soon as they did so.

‘It’s probably rotten to the core, after all these years,’ Jesse said. ‘It’s a miracle we survived at all.’

‘But we did,’ Lex said briskly. He turned away from the cavern as he spoke, though, for it was quite horrible seeing nothing but air where the track you’d just been standing upon seconds ago had once stood. ‘Let’s finish looking for this dragon.’

‘What dragon?’ Jesse said. ‘I’d bet anything that you were right and there never was one. It was most likely them bunnies all along. A hundred years ago, there’d probably have only been ten or twenty of ’em but that’s more than enough to roast a man and pick the meat off his bones.’

‘You may be right,’ Lex replied. ‘I think you probably are. But I’m not taking any chances. I’m going to explore every square inch of this mine before I’m satisfied there’s no dragon.’

‘We’ll probably end up getting killed when a ceiling collapses on top of us,’ Jesse grumbled. ‘This place is gonna come caving in before too long.’

‘Let’s make sure we get in and out before that happens, then.’

They pressed on. Everywhere they went, they woke up more glow-canaries that lit their way. Fortunately, they had all been left behind when the workers decided to flee and so the way was illuminated for Lex and Jesse better than they had expected.

Lex had nurtured a faint hope that perhaps the fire-bunnies were all on the other side of the mine? that they were unable to cross the cavern with its great wooden roller coaster. This hope, however, turned out to be sadly, ridiculously, optimistic. The rabbits were everywhere. They could tell by the warrens and rabbit holes. Lex and Jesse fled past every rabbit hole, dreading that a rabbit head might suddenly pop up and roast their feet. In fact, this very nearly happened on one occasion. They missed the rabbit hole and didn’t even realise a rabbit was there until a blast of fire suddenly scorched the back of Lex’s legs. He yelled and jumped up in the air. When he looked back, sure enough there was a vicious fire-bunny glaring at him with a surprisingly angry expression on its face, considering the fact that it was the one that had almost barbecued Lex. The rabbit had burnt the back of his trousers but, thankfully, his legs were unharmed. Jesse threw a rock at it and it disappeared back into the tunnel.

‘What the heck is their problem?’ Lex said in exasperation.

‘Fire-bunnies hate everyone and everything,’ Jesse replied with a shrug. ‘Little monsters. Say, I sure as heck hope that there’s more than one way outta this place, ’cos I don’t fancy having to go back the way we came.’

Neither did Lex. Hordes of fire-bunnies aside, there was no guarantee that they could get back across that network of wooden railways without the whole damned thing collapsing beneath them. Besides which, without getting in a speeding, runaway cart again? an experience that even Lex was keen to avoid repeating? the whole journey would take much longer.

‘We oughta start lookin’ for a way outta here,’ Jesse said after about half an hour. ‘There’s been no sign of the others. Chances are they turned back long ago. We’ll end up getting ourselves killed and Jeremiah will win by default. You don’t want that, do you?’

‘Not particularly, no,’ Lex replied, aware of the fact that Jesse was attempting to manipulate him. ‘But I don’t want to be the twit who cut the third round short because he didn’t think the dragon existed when, in fact, it did the whole time. Jeremiah could be slaying it as we speak. We keep going.’

But for all Lex knew, Jesse was right. And, personally, Lex was feeling less and less sure that the dragon was real. He knew people, and he knew how easily they could get themselves wound up about nothing. One of the single most distinguishing features of a dragon was its ability to blow fire. And the fact that there were masses of fire-bunnies down here seemed too large a coincidence to ignore. But there was still the chance that the dragon was real, and Lex couldn’t possibly give up on the third round until he was absolutely certain that it was not.

As they went on, Jesse continued to whinge about the fact that they were wasting their time but he might just as well have been singing nursery rhymes for all the effect he was having on Lex.

Then they walked into another room and something happened to the canary. If either Lex or Jesse had been paying the birds any attention, they would have noticed that the light they shed was getting progressively brighter and more golden. When they stepped into the new room, a dazzling, sparkling light seemed to burst out of the bird, illuminating the entire cavern. They had finally found the gold. It glittered all around them in huge heaps of wealth. Lex had never seen so much in all his life. It was piled in great mounds up towards the ceiling, like particularly lovely stalactites. There was also a lake, so smooth and still that it seemed like a mirror. The gold piled up all around it and spilled into it. There was probably loads of the stuff beneath the surface, as well. The glow-canary Lex carried was the only one in this room. Presumably the workers had never got any further than this.

Possibly, this was because of the huge dragon sprawled on top of a great heap of gold in the middle of the room.

Apart from its massive size, it was not at all what Lex had expected. It was snoring contentedly, for one thing. And, although it may once have been a greenish colour, now it was mostly grey. Its scales seemed to have changed colour with age. Sound asleep, it was completely unaware of the humans’ presence. Lex saw now why Lady Luck had thought he could win. Lex may have been no fighter but even he was capable of stabbing something that was asleep… Or was he? Was he really that despicable that he would slaughter a geriatric dragon in its sleep, just so that he could win a Game?

‘It did kill all those people,’ he said, in a feeble effort to convince himself.

‘Did it?’ Jesse asked. ‘Seems to me it was probably those nasty little fire-bunnies all along.’

Lex walked through the gold to get closer to the dragon. He was a few metres away when the thing woke up. It slowly lifted its head and looked sleepily towards Lex with white eyes. The dragon was almost completely blind, so it must have been its sense of smell that made it move towards Lex. It got up slowly, ponderously, as if its limbs ached, and then it slithered inelegantly off the pile of gold. When it got to the floor, it crumpled on to its front legs and its long neck and head smacked on to the ground in a really pathetic way. Slowly, it picked itself back up and shuffled over towards Lex.

Lex stood completely still. He thought he should probably be terrified and running, or else reaching for his sword and screaming. But it was difficult to feel afraid of something that seemed so distinctly unthreatening. It did not look at all like a creature poised to attack. Indeed, it was so old that it seemed to be all it could do to walk. When it reached Lex, it thumped down to the floor in front of him. The dragon’s head was as big as Lex. When it opened its mouth in a yawn, Lex saw that it had hardly any teeth left in its head. And yet its breath was the most foul that Lex had ever smelled? a sort of grim mixture of stagnant water and very old fish. Rotten, dead fish, possibly.

‘Eww!’ Lex exclaimed in horror.

Even worse, a second later, the dragon licked him, dragging its huge tongue up the front of Lex’s shirt, practically soaking him in dragon saliva in the process. Then, drooling happily, it bent its lizardy head and rubbed itself affectionately against Lex’s shoulder.

‘Oh my Gods,’ Jesse whispered, moving closer to them. ‘It’s tame.’

He reached out a hand and ran it along the dragon’s head. The monster pressed into the caress happily. It seemed to revel in being touched and spoken to. At one point, it even rolled over on to its back as if wanting them to rub its belly.

‘There’s no way this beast ever killed anyone,’ Jesse said.

‘No,’ Lex replied.

Clearly the things that had terrorised the mines had been those blasted fire-bunnies, after all.

‘You raise a hand against this dragon and I’ll knock your head off,’ Jesse said calmly.

‘You don’t get to tell me what to do,’ Lex replied, without heat. ‘I will spare this dragon because it pleases me to.’

Lex knew the rules of the Game meant that he must kill the dragon, or at least try to. But Lex had always turned his nose up at rules? even if they were set by the Gods. Besides, why kill a dragon when you could own one, instead? If Lex could find some way of taking the dragon with him from the mine, he would prevent Jeremiah from winning. Then Lex would be the proud owner of what was quite possibly the last dragon left alive on the entire Globe. Just think how impressive that would be!

The only problem was that, now the points had been wiped clean for the third round, there would be no victor in the Game. Lex might draw with Jeremiah by default, or the Gods might even disqualify him. Both were equally unpleasant pills to swallow. Lex might just as well lose altogether than share the limelight with that insufferable 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 the dragon, there was nothing to stop them from climbing up it after their prey, just as the humans had done. There must have been close to a thousand fire-bunnies in the room by now but, clearly lacking a single aggressive bone in its body, the dragon seemed quite unconcerned by all the rabbits swarming towards it, and it was quite clear that it wasn’t even thinking of attacking them. Which meant they had to try to escape. But getting a dragon to fly upwards is not as easy as getting a horse to trot forwards, as Jeremiah was already finding out. Sitting at the back, clinging on to Jesse, the nobleman was shrieking, ‘Fly, you stupid beast, fly!’

Which, unsurprisingly, had no effect on the dragon whatsoever. But Lex knew something that would. He opened his bag and fumbled desperately for the last remaining trout, as well as the fishing rod he had spotted in there earlier. Finally, he got them both. The rabbits were climbing up the dragon as Lex hooked the fish on the end of the line and then threw it up into the air as far as he could.

The dragon spread its wings instantly, and Lex, Jesse and Jeremiah were forced to cling on desperately as the huge thing beat its great wings, causing ripples to run along the surface of the lake. Slowly, it rose up into the air, quite oblivious to the trails of fire the little rabbits were shooting at it below.

Doggedly following the trout Lex dangled before it, the dragon swooped upwards towards the roof of the cavern. Lex risked one last glance back at the frantic, maddened rabbits beneath them and? only for a moment? thought he caught, just out of the corner of his eye, a brief glimpse of what looked just like a giant waving fox. But, when he moved his gaze to get a better look, there was no giant fox down there. Just more and more furious rabbits.

Lex had to look back towards the ceiling then because the screams of the other two were distracting him. As Lex had hoped, the dragon did not slow down when it reached the top, but merely went right on through, head first. The dragon’s great bulk was more than enough to shatter the earthy ceiling and they burst out of the mine in a shower of dirt and stones and into the bright, sparkling sunlight beyond.