Slaying the Dragon

"Well I suppose that if it really is magic then it might be worth it. And I suppose that it was easy for you to forget that my dress and sword were really a Memote."[1285]

"Only one way to find out if the ring is really magic," Fred said, slipping it onto his finger. He promptly vanished. "Wow, it did work," came his voice from what now appeared to be empty space.

"Good. How about giving it to me to put on, to spare my blushes? Or you could wish that it should turn back into the dress and sword."

"But being invisible will greatly improve my chances of killing the dragon, should it wake up. You can have the ring once the beast is dead."

"Very well. Get on with slaying it then."

So Fred walked up to the sleeping dragon and thrust his sword deep into its vulnerable under-belly, where there were no protective scales. A spout of almost black blood emerged, and Fred hurriedly stepped back to avoid being drenched by it, leaving his sword still in the wound.

The beast writhed in agony for a short while, but before long its struggles stopped, as the flow of blood eased to a trickle. The wyrm was dead. Fred stepped forward once more, and pulled his sword from the wound. But its blade was ruined, corroded by the dragon's acidic blood. Fred dropped it in disgust.

"Well done, Fred!" Astra said. "Now please give me the ring."

1. So Fred removed the ring, reappearing in the process, and gave it to Astra.
2. But Fred said: "No, the Precious is mine!"
3. Fred shimmered back into view, even though the ring was still on his finger. A drop of the dragon's blood had fallen on it, and had damaged it so that it no longer worked. Nor could it any longer be wished into anything else.
4. Fred removed the ring. But as he made to hand it to Astra, it slipped from his fingers, rolled across the cave floor, and disappeared down a fissure.

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