Jake’s face prickled as if it had been stung by an enormous wasp. Blood was still running down his cheek and dripping onto his old school shirt. But there was no time to tend to his wound now.

Around him people fought and weapons clashed. Again. He still had no idea what was going on. The woman in the robe had called him “the heir” and said that he needed to come with her and her friends. That was fine by him—anything to get him away from these black soldiers, from the treacherous Methistema who had betrayed him and turned out to want to kill him along. He couldn’t believe he had been so taken in by her. She had seemed so friendly, so kind, so attractive...and then in an instant she had tried to murder him! He had been about to leave with the white warriors but then one of their number had switched to the other side and the black soldiers had taken advantage of their surprise to attack again.

Jake ran this way and that, trying to protect himself. The black soldiers kept leaping at him to try to kill him only to be stopped at the last moment by one of the white warriors. There were far more of the black soldiers, but thankfully the white warriors were always in the right place at the right time.

This wasn’t even the largest of his problems, however. Worst of all, one of the soldiers, their commander, had just turned himself into a dragon.

A dragon.

How was that even possible? His armour seeming to blend and merge with his body, with a horrifying crunching noise he had shapeshifted into an enormous black beast with two large wings, vicious horns, a spiny ridge down his back, long sharp claws and a hideous snout set in a smile filled with row upon row of jagged teeth.

Once the metamorphosis was complete, everyone, black- and white-clad alike, stopped what they were doing and looked up at the dragon in awe.

Two eyes that seemed to glow with hatred fixed on Jake.

The deepest voice of all spoke. “You. Look what you have forced me into. You should count it a privilege to see me in this beautiful form. Enjoy your death, ‘heir’.”

The dragon inhaled.

The black soldiers scattered, knowing what was coming next.

Jake could not move. He found himself frozen with terror to the spot in front of the monster.

Only the white-robed woman now came to stand in front of the dragon.

“You will not destroy him too, Khilliarkos!” she said.

The dragon exhaled with a roar. A torrent of orange fire erupted from his mouth, engulfing the woman and billowing around the sides of her. From where she stood, she stopped it from hitting Jake.

But it hit her head-on. Nevertheless, somehow, water seemed to rise up out of her robe, forming a protective curtain of liquid that enveloped her entirely. The flames streamed to either side of the woman, and where they met with the water they hissed as steam rose up into the air.

The fire subsided. The woman collapsed to the floor. Apparently the effort of blocking the jet of fire had exhausted her.

“It got Katey!” Chloe shouted in utter horror. “It breathed fire on her!”

A cry of grief ripped out of Hotzeh. “MURDERER!” he shouted. He had not seen what had happened, only heard Chloe’s cry. But he knew where the dragon was. The old man ran headlong towards the dragon, swinging his staff around, but it heard him and merely turned to smack him aside with a clawed hand. Hotzeh flew across the square to where he landed on the cobbles, unconscious, a trickle of blood seeping from his crown.

The dragon turned back to Jake. He was staring down at the woman who had just saved his life, still in shock.

“Come on!” said Chloe, as she grabbed his hand and ran with him.

Chloe was more afraid than she had ever been in her life, even more so than when she had been trapped in the tunnel with Hannah. Hotzeh had been knocked aside, out of action. Katehtheuna had been taken out by the dragon’s breath. And Hannah had betrayed and abandoned them. But something within her still held on. Something within her was not going to give up. Something within her was still fighting. It was down to her now. In her weakness and helplessness, she found a strength that she did not know that she had.

She ran with Jake, dodging this way and that. With her gift, she saw where the dragon was going to breathe fire at them next, where it was going to slash at them with its terrible claws, where it was going to bite at them with its gigantic mouth, where it was going to sweep at them with its spiked tail. She darted backwards and forwards, dragging Jake with her, spinning and changing direction unpredictably. It only breathed fire after long pauses without doing so, which made her guess that it could not do it continuously, that it had to regather itself before it did it again. Now she dived under the dragon’s belly, pulling them underneath it and through its legs in order to dodge out of the way of a double-armed strike.

“Jump!” she shouted, and she and Jake leapt into the air to avoid being obliterated by its tail as it whirled round in response.

“Hold still, you worms!” cried the dragon.

It got more and more angry as it pursued them, accidentally taking out several of the Shulite soldiers with missed jets of fire and swipes of its claws. Or it may have been on purpose, Chloe wasn’t sure.

She could avoid its attacks with her gift, fighting defensively, but she did not know how much longer she would be able to keep this up. She needed to take the offensive and counterattack, but she still found she could not do this. Offense was Hannah’s speciality. But Hannah wasn’t here anymore. It was up to her. She had to be the one to do it.

She tried to quiet and calm her mind in order to ‘see’ a weak spot on the dragon that she could attack, to look for an opening with her gift. But each time a picture started to form in her mind’s eye, she would see another attack coming from the dragon and would have to leap out of the way of that with Jake instead. She couldn’t do it! She needed more time; she needed to get an advantage over the dragon somehow!

All of a sudden there was a metallic clanging sound from behind the beast. It gave a grunt of irritation and looked around.

George, back to his true human self, freed by Katetheuna, was standing with his Shulite helmet off, facing the dragon. He slashed at its body again and again with his scythe, which he had retrieved, but the blade only glanced off of the monster’s scales. “Impudent whelp!” said the dragon. “Do you think that just because you have flirted with a dead Larakian and taken your helmet off you belong any less to me? Your life is mine! You have no power over me!”

“Shut up!” said George. “I’m not listening to your lies any more, Khilliarkos! I’ve switched to the other side! I will fight with the Larakians now!”

“Then you will die with the Larakians too!”

The dragon drew its neck back and then lanced its head forward to devour George in its jaws. George looked up into its wide open mouth, into the glowing furnace at the back of its throat. He hoped to heaven that the dragon still needed some time to prepare before its next eruption of flame. His every bodily instinct told him to move, to dive out of the way, but he had had another idea from somewhere. Summoning courage from a source he could not yet name, he forced himself to remain where he was. The dragon’s terrible teeth surrounded him and started to slam shut, its forked tongue flicking forward.

George swung with his scythe at the dragon’s tongue. He caught the end of it, slicing the forked tip off completely.

A scream of pain issued from somewhere inside the dragon’s chest. It yanked its head up in reflex, flinging black blood from its mouth. As it did so, it caught George’s leg in its jaws, flinging him upwards. He flipped around in the air, losing his grip on his scythe, which shot off away from him, and came back down to land on the dragon’s snout. He flailed about as the dragon thrashed its head around in pain, grabbing onto it and holding on for dear life.

“Vermin! Filth! Traitor!” shouted the dragon.

“I’ve had enough of your lies and your name-calling!” said George.

A new reservoir of courage had opened up inside George. He clambered to the edge of the dragon’s snout and reached around its mouth. Here its snout was just thin enough for him to get both of his arms all the way around it. He grabbed hold of one of his hands with the other to make a seal. Then, with a strength he had never known before, he clamped the dragon’s mouth shut, so it was unable to speak or breathe out fire anymore.

“Rrrrrrrrrrrr!” The dragon made an enraged sound of frustration. George felt extreme heat underneath him, but his armour seemed to protect him. A few snakes of flame escaped from the dragon’s nostrils, but they didn’t harm George. Black blood still leaked from the sides of its mouth.

“Get it now, while it can’t breathe fire on you!” George yelled.

What he did not see was that while this was happening Chloe and Jake had been running away for cover. But the dragon still had the use of its eyes and it spotted this out of the corner of one of them. It twisted its head round with a muffled roar and lashed out at Chloe and Jake as fast as it could before they could get away over one of the bridges. Chloe saw it coming, but could not quite react fast enough. The two of them were knocked apart and sent sprawling in different directions. Chloe would no longer be able to guide Jake with her gift in order to protect him. He was weaponless, defenceless. The dragon lifted its head up again.

“Watch out!” Chloe shouted.

Jake realised what was about to happen and rolled out of the way. The dragon slammed its head down onto the paved square floor where he had just been in an attempt both to crush him and to shake George off of his face. It left a big dent in the ground where it made impact. George let out a gasp of pain, but held on tight.

As Jake rolled over, he felt something hard tucked into the pocket of his now tattered coat. He suddenly realised what it was—To’phoro’s knife, the weapon that the gang leader had given to him all that time ago! He had not thought to use it until now.

Jake stood up and took the knife out of his jacket pocket. This would be the first time that he had ever used a knife like this for a good reason. The dragon seemed to hesitate for a moment. It seemed to have stunned itself by slamming its head into the ground.

Jake seized the moment. He ran at the dragon, jumped onto its snout, climbed up it and stabbed his knife into its nearest, black, massive eye.

For a moment the knife stuck in the eye, going in deep. Then Jake pulled it out and landed back on the ground.

“Aarrrrrrrrgggggggghhhhh!”

The dragon let out a roar through its clenched teeth like the tortured screams of a thousand men. Its jaws came apart very slightly, but still George held on tight. He did not let go of the dragon or let it open its mouth completely.

“Yes! That’s it!” cried George.

The dragon thrashed around again in pain, trying once more to throw George off. New blood leaked from its one closed eye socket as well as from the sides of its mouth. It spat some furious words through its shut jaws.

“I will…rrr…mmmmassssacre…you…rrrr…all!”

When George didn’t come off, it fixed Jake with its remaining good eye and made for him again. Jake and the dragon fell into a dance, the dragon inhibited by its clamped-shut mouth and injured eye, Jake darting about to avoid its clumsy assaults and trying to strike at it again with his knife. Neither of them could get an advantage over the other.

As all of this was happening, Chloe stood just a little way away. The thief boys and the Shulties who were still alive did not dare to come any closer, so she had a moment to gather herself. She was concentrating on her breathing. She was trying to quiet her mind. Just one opening. That was all she needed. She just needed to see what the dragon’s weakness was, to take the advantage and to go on the offensive. But she found it so hard. Why did she find it so difficult to do this? All she was supposed to do was to let her mind go calm and then look for whatever the One True King wanted to show her in her imagination. She took a deep, long breath.

Just then, to her surprise, a little picture of a valentine’s day card popped into Chloe’s head. It had a romantic red heart on it made of two symmetrical semi-circular wiggles that came together at a point.

What was she thinking? This wasn’t the time for being sentimental, for romance! All that made her think of was her crush on Johnny back home. Johnny who was probably miles and miles away from her here. Johnny whom had she had almost, but not completely, forgotten about. The only other thing it made her think of was her parents and Hannah, whom she loved very much, and how Hannah had betrayed her and left her to fight this dragon and its minions by herself. That nearly made her cry. What a stupid thing to come into her head now! What could the One True King possibly be trying to show her by this picture? That he loved her? That roses were red and violets were blue? What use was all that now?

Chloe suddenly realised another thing that the picture could mean.

Of course! It was so obvious!

She re-drew her sword and extended it. She circled the dragon as it duelled with Jake and his knife, trying to stay out of its one-eyed line of sight, until it she was on the side where its bad eye was. Then she ran at it. Just before she reached the dragon, with her gift she saw it spin round to strike at Jake with its claws, which would send them crashing through her path. So she ducked and rolled on the ground. The dragon did what she had seen it do a moment before, its claws tearing around through the air and forcing Jake to jump to one side, then gliding right past just where she would have been.

Chloe came up and found herself right underneath the dragon. Its scales seemed softer here, and hidden in between and slightly to the right of two red-hot glowing circles she now noticed another, smaller, red circle that seemed to be bulging rhythmically under the dragon’s hide.

Chloe thrust her sword upwards into the dragon’s heart.

The dragon let out a paroxysmal roar and its jaws came apart at last, blood splattering out from them. This time George did lose his grip. He careered off, landing in a heap nearby.

The dragon flailed around, its mouth now open, roaring horribly, spraying blood and weakening flames into the air. Chloe’s sword still stuck out of its chest from the small groove in between its scales where she had found a way to its heart.

It let out a final, horrible dying cry, then fell over in a heap on its back.

It went still as death.

The dragon was defeated.

Then, slowly, the dragon began to shrink and contract. The huge arms, the wings, the snout and claws and body folded up and shrank with a creaking noise into the form of a man, a man in spiked, black armour, lying on his back with a sword protruding from his chest, dead.

“My God, I think you did it…” George said as he propped himself up on one arm.

“Yeah,” said Jake. “You got it!” He collapsed to the ground in exhaustion.

The Shulites, their commander defeated, all fled. They ran off in a panic, took to the skies and left Ubal.

Dawn arrived. Gradually, the sun came out. It lit up the world to reveal three exhausted children, a dead man in black armour, another man and a woman lying on their backs, a small handful of young boys looking flabbergasted, and…a cluster of even more flabbergasted citizens. The noise and commotion had woken up many of the inhabitants of Ubal. They had come out from their houses to see what was happening and witnessed the end of the battle. Now they stood in a ring around this sombre scene at the perimeter of the square, looking on with open mouths, pale faces and awestruck stares.

Hotzeh stirred and let out a groan. He sat up and rubbed his head. Then all of a sudden he said “Katetheuna!” His voice was desperate and full of grief.

With an immense effort Chloe got up and walked over to him as quickly as she could.

“She’s here, Hotzeh…” She took the old man by the hand and led him over to where Katetheuna lay.

“My sister…my sister…” said Hotzeh. He knelt down next to her and found her cheek with his hands. “There is still some breath left in her!” he said.

Chloe knelt down next to Katheuna beside him. Jake and George got up and came over too, along with the other boys. They, along with the Ubal citizens, kept a respectful distance as they observed this solemn moment in silence.

“Sister,” said Hotzeh. “We will save you yet!”

Katetheuna opened her eyes and looked at Hotzeh. They were glassy and didn’t seem to focus. It looked as if she was seeing into a different world.

“Thank you, my brother… Let us return…to our home.”

The citizens of Ubal still looked on, completely perplexed as to what this battle had been about, where the terrible dragon had come from, and what cause this woman had died in the name of. What in Mashal had just taken place? Had it all been real? Had it really happened?

When Chloe noticed them, she said “Um…Hotzeh…there are lots of people looking at us…”

“Are there?”

At this, Hotzeh stood up. Then he spoke in a loud voice, blinking water away from his blind eyes.

“People of Ubal! Dahmans! You have seen a great many things today, things terrible and wonderful. Some of you will disbelieve them afterwards, and others will not believe your reports and you will grow to join them. But others of you will not be able to forget what you have seen here today. For those that are among you who are of this mind, know that you are not living in a neutral land! Your life is more than sleeping and eating and working and resting and surviving! You are living in the midst of a battlefield, in the middle of a battle between two vast kingdoms that are warring for your very selves. One of them would seek to enslave you, to oppress and destroy you, to drag you off to their Kingdom of Shul. The other would see you free, would see you loved, would see you become more than you ever dreamed you could become, in the Kingdom of Larakia, ruled by the One True King. For there is a One True King, who made you and loves you and knows you by name. For those of you who believe my words and who would seek him, who would seek the Kingdom of Larakia, the way to it will be revealed to you. Only continue to seek, and you will find the path to get there. We must leave you now.”

With this, Hotzeh said to Chloe, Jake, To’phoro and George, “Grab on to me.” They took hold of his arms outstretched, and at that moment it seemed to the people of Ubal that all of a sudden there was a bright flash, a violent rush of wind, and the man, the woman, the girl and the three boys all vanished from sight.