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Boulder watched as his friend leaped from the mouth of the dragon and landed on the beast’s back. Then the great wings began to rise as the beast writhed in pain at the loss of its only tooth, and Boulder felt the jaws press down harder like a vise on his extended arms and legs. Though far from home, Boulder called on the strength of the mountain, and with a grim determination, he gripped the dragon’s lips in his fists and squeezed the soft tissue beneath into a pulp. The dragon roared in anger and turned its head toward the fleeing human. In Boulder’s flexed position inside of the dragon’s mouth, he could see Crush and the magical pendant that was strapped across his back, and he felt the heat of the dragon’s anger quicken. There would be another burst of dragon flame, and there was nothing he could do to stop it. If he were to let go of the dragon’s mouth, the beast would gain full control once again and breathe the fire of death on his friends. If he held the mouth open, the dragon would still breathe the fire, but it would be divided into two streams of molten spit by the man of stone that obstructed the pathway.
“Better the second than the first,” he thought and closed his rocky eyelids as the lava streamed from the gut of the foul beast. Boulder’s body glowed bright red as the spit projected outward in a spewing mess, covering the ground between the dragon and its target. When Boulder opened his eyes, he saw the green glow of the pendant permeate the hot liquid that covered its shell, and then he saw Crush fling the pendant to the ground and disappear around the corner into the dark. Relieved, Boulder twirled up out of the mouth of the dragon, around the scaly beak, and planted his feet firmly on the dragon’s nose. To save his friends from any further harm, he was determined to gain the focus of the dragon and to distract the beast for as long as possible. He then grabbed the scaly eyelashes of the rocky eyelids, and he raised them to full height. He now stood between the eyes of the beast and faced down the dragon. The pupils of the eyes narrowed and crossed to look at the Old Man of the Mountain that stood on the bridge of his nose, and the dragon cleared its throat with a cough. The dragon then bellowed in anger at the blurry man of stone, and he cursed Boulder for his interference.
“I was a happy lizard once, but you made me what I am. A volcanic beast of misery and foul temper,” the dragon cursed. “And now you steal my last tooth.”
“You may have been a happy lizard at one time, but you brought your fate upon yourself, creature,” Boulder said as he bent the eyelids back even further. “Let us go free,” Boulder reasoned with the open eyes of the dragon, and the irises tremored.
“Never!!!” the beast thundered and shook its head in a flurry of anger. Boulder let one eyelid go and withdrew a fist, and then he pounded it into the iris of the dragon’s other eye. The dragon thundered and howled in pain, and the beast lowered its head and neck into a coil like a spring. Then the coil thrust upward, and the dragon’s head crashed into the ceiling of the cave with a boom. The mountain groaned in distress as Boulder lay pummeled on the nose of the beast. The dragon slammed its head into the ceiling again and again with the man of stone pinched between the head and the rock above, and the ceiling began to crumble with the repeated smashing. When the dragon was certain that Boulder would cause him no more harm, he dashed the Old Man of the Mountain into the corner of the cave and seethed in fury at the human that had escaped.
“I am coming for you, little man!!!” he roared and slithered out of the chamber as the rocks began to fall. In the corner Boulder lay upside down in a contorted heap against the wall, and a smile spread across his face as the ceiling crumbled down into the chamber.