The dragon’s eyes glowed yellow-white against scales the color of drying blood. Something else chilled Caleb as he watched those glittering orbs. Unlike Tavia or Shaw's eyes, there was no lively intelligence in them.

A squint brought up no Character Sheet, nothing to indicate anything but animalistic rage.

This would be a fight to the death, with no quarter given.

With a final wrench of cracking timber, the dragon tore its way through the too-small passageway. Then it clambered out on deck, making the ketch sway dangerously underfoot. To Caleb’s horror, the creature was practically as long as a city bus from its nose to the scaly tip of its tail.

It had a long neck and a tapered snout crammed full of serrated teeth. A pair of jet-black horns jutted forward from the skull. Sulfurous vapor billowed out of the nostrils like a pair of active hot springs. Mastodon-thick limbs ended in triple sets of wickedly sharp claws.

Caleb didn’t see wings furled up against the creature’s back. But it sported a series of jagged spinal scales that would’ve sent a stegosaurus slinking away in shame. Since it had emerged from the aft passageway, it faced the ship’s stern.

The few remaining Myrkur sailors aft of the mast scattered.

Tavia continued to back up step by step, not taking her eyes off the creature. Meanwhile, the crewmen that had made up her boarding party did their best to get out of the way. One man had to drag himself away on one leg, as the other dripped blood from a serious wound in his thigh.

The dragon took notice. It pistoned its neck out to snap the man in half. Tavia blocked the strike with a swipe of her horn. Caleb heard a hair-frying crack! as magic flashed between the contact of unicorn horn and dragon scale.

The creature let out a chuff of surprise, then struck again. Tavia leapt nimbly to one side, avoiding the bite. But she was running out of room to maneuver.

Caleb pulled out his remaining pistol and then ran to the larboard side of the forward deck. He braced his arms along the railing to steady his gun. He let out a breath.

Come on, he thought fiercely. Turn this way, dammit! I just need one shot to get that thing’s attention!

The dragon followed Tavia as she kept its gaze on her. Meanwhile, two other Arrenmar had dashed over to grab their companion and carry him out of the way. Finally, it lunged at her, taking a chunk out of the aft stairway with its teeth.

Once again, she gracefully side-stepped the strike. Then she pivoted on her front hooves to swing her rear around. With a sharp thwock! she planted her hind hooves against the dragon’s skull with a vicious kick.

In response, the creature’s head rocked back with a throaty grunt. It turned just enough for Caleb to do what he’d been planning. He held his breath and squeezed his firearm’s trigger.

A crack! as the weapon discharged.

The dragon let out a bellow of pain. Caleb spotted a sizeable scuff mark that the ball from his pistol had left in the clear scale that protected the reptile’s eye. It glared at him hatefully as it turned in his direction.

That pistol shot didn’t do more than give it a good poke in the eye. But it sure as hell got its attention. Too much attention, I think.

The creature planted its feet firmly as it focused on the human that had hurt it. Its chest and abdomen heaved. Then the chuffing sound of a locomotive’s steam engine coming up to speed came from its throat. Fresh black smoke curled up in tendrils from the thing’s nostrils.

Caleb’s gut turned to ice as he realized what was coming next.

Lir and Danu protect us...that thing’s going to breathe fire!

A predator’s cry cut the heavens as Shaw swooped down from the clouds. He stooped like a falcon targeting its prey. Then he slashed at the dragon with a criiing! of talon on hardened scale.

Moving faster than anything so large was supposed to, the dragon slashed back with its whiplike tail. It caught Shaw across the chest, knocking him for a mid-air loop. The griffin let out an angry squawk and dove in again.

Shaw landed heavily on the nape of the dragon’s neck, avoiding the sharp spinal scales. The griffin dug into the thing’s flesh with his hind claws, while also grabbing its horns with his leonine forepaws.

“Thou art a willful sort of beast,” Shaw snarled. “But thy strength is not a match for a smarter foe!”

The dragon flailed its arms, trying and failing to reach the griffin perched on its back. The locomotive sound emanating from its throat grew louder and louder, an unstoppable flood of sound. Smoke and steam whistled from its nostrils now, as if from some hellish coal-fired kettle.

“Get out of there, Shaw!” Caleb shouted, though he wasn’t sure the griffin would hear him. “That thing’s about to breathe fire!”

Instead, Shaw heaved with his arms, yanking the dragon’s skull back by its horns. It reared, stubby arms still flailing as its maw opened. A cone of fire belched forth, filling the air with sulfurous vapor that smelled like rotting eggs and freshly struck matches.

The fountain of flame shot skyward. It sluiced across the ketch’s two masts, setting the sails ablaze with a massive FWOOMPH! Sparks flew from the oil-stained canvas, landing on the Spitfire’s mainsail and causing it to smolder.

Instantly, the Arrenmar and the Myrkur broke away from their standoff. The Sea Vipers ran as a group towards the forward mast. The ketch’s sailors hurriedly attempted to lower the sail to put it out before the flammable canvas vaporized.

The crew of the Spitfire retreated back to their ship, carrying or dragging their wounded off as they did so. Sienna bellowed orders to fill buckets with water as soon as she stepped back onto the sloop’s deck. Only Tavia remained on the afterdeck, watching the griffin’s ongoing fight with the dragon.

Shaw continued to wrestle with the dragon. He tugging its horns to the side again and again. Like a rodeo cowboy, he bulldogged it around towards the edge of the ketch facing the open ocean.

“Thou art a firedrake?” the griffin hissed. “Then thy downfall shall be quick!”

One of the creature’s hind feet slipped on the slick deck. It roared once again as it flailed to regain its balance. In doing so, it thrashed its telephone-pole sized tail about. The scaly appendage smashed its way through most of the Sea Vipers, crushing them or flinging them off into the sea with distant splashes.

Shaw extended his wings and began to beat them rapidly. The additional force tugged the dragon further off balance. It teetered on the ketch’s larboard deck, almost going over into the water. In its desperation, it lashed out and caught the aft mast in one triple-clawed hand.

Caleb tucked away his spent pistol and dashed down the steps to the main deck. He avoided or leaped over debris and bodies as he headed aft. Flaming bits of canvas and rope rained down around him, smoking as they landed on the deck.

He skidded to a stop before the aft mast and pulled out his cutlass. Tavia joined him, her horn bright and gleaming with magical energy. They looked towards the hand grasping the mast.

Then at each other.

“I think we’d best help Shaw finish this,” Caleb remarked. “He’d like it if we shared the glory.”

“Oh, I think that’s a fair assessment,” Tavia agreed.

Together, the unicorn and the corsair captain hacked at the dragon’s claws. Sparks flew from Caleb’s sword with a bright schling! A second hair-frying crack! cut the air as magic flashed between the mare’s horn and reptile scale.

With a despairing wail, the dragon’s grip came loose in torrent of oil-black blood. A final heave, and Shaw furled his wings even as the two went overboard together, head over heels. With a massive SPLASH that doused the deck of the Taipan, the two disappeared below the waves.

Tavia and Caleb ran to the ragged, claw-stripped side of the ship and looked down. They saw nothing but churning white water below. Seconds ticked by.

“You don’t suppose–” Tavia began.

Suddenly, Shaw burst from the water as if shot from a cannon. His fur and feathers threw off water as he heaved himself aloft. The griffin circled the two locked ships, looking on as the Spitfire crew finally tugged down the mainsail down. Sienna and others stamped out the flames that had finally caught on the upper half.

Shaw landed next to his two friends, his fur and feathers still dripping seawater. However, Caleb detected the barest trace of a smile on the drake’s stern eagle face.

“That was amazing,” Caleb said to him, and Tavia nodded in agreement. “You look...well, you look happy.”

“Aye, ‘tis an accurate description of my mood,” Shaw acknowledged, in bluff good cheer. “‘Twas a worthy match for a griffin.”

Caleb glanced at his sword for a moment. The edge looked as if it had been gnawed on. Black pits smoked in the metal where the dragon’s blood had dripped on it. Still he kept it out and free at his side as he walked determinedly over to the remaining Sea Vipers.

Most of the Myrkur’s sailors remained sprawled out unconscious or injured. The few left on their feet gathered around Captain Campion. The man still grasped his jeweled captain’s cutlass, but his uniform was smudged with soot and spotted with blood from a wound he’d taken across one forearm.

He looked up, his expression inscrutable as Caleb approached.

“Your trap failed,” Caleb said. “And your crew is beaten. Surrender your ship.”

Campion nodded resignedly.

“The Taipan surrenders,” he croaked, in a parched voice. “My crew, and the ship, what is left of both of them, is yours.”

A triple set of announcements popped up in Caleb’s quest window. He moved them aside without reading them yet. He had to be here now, in the moment.

Campion winced in pain from his arm wound. But he managed to turn his sword around and offer it hilt-first to his victorious adversary.

Caleb sheathed his battered blade and took the captain’s cutlass. From across the way on the Spitfire, he heard a cheer from his crew as they watched the Myrkur leader surrender.

Hurrah! Hurrah for Captain Ledger!

For the first time since he’d arrived, gasping and naked in this world, Caleb Ledger felt fiercely glad that he’d been transported to Jaladri.