The Peter Pan Brigade - Update

The passage stretched on and on, with no turns or breaks, no door or openings. Just the same cold stone walls, the same old thick dust.

"This isn't the right way," Ilar Dwyn remarked, looking around nervously. "We should have taken the right hand passage."

"Funny, I don't remember you saying anything about it at the time," Siren Jade snapped irritably.

"We should go back," Ilar Dwyn insisted. She thought she heard something - the scrabbling sound of claws on stone - but she couldn't see anything ahead of them.

"All right, then! We'll go back!" Siren Jade snapped, coming to an abrupt halt and turning around suddenly. Truthfully, she'd been thinking that they were in the wrong passage for quite a while, but hadn't been willing to admit it. However, when they turned around, they found a horrible thing. The passage behind them, the passage they'd been tramping through, scuffing up loose dust for what seemed like hours, was gone. All they saw was a blank wall, right behind them.

"What... ? What's going on? Where's the corridor?" Siren Jade asked, her voice coming out even higher than usual.

Instead of answering, Ilar Dwyn made an odd gulping noise. She tapped Siren Jade's arm and when Siren looked at her companion, she found her looking the other direction entirely, an expression of fear on her face. Siren turned around slowly. Spread out in front of them, filling the corridor from wall to wall and extending back several rows, was an army of spriggans, all carrying knives even bigger than they were. One spriggan or even ten was no problem for a well-grown hatchling and it was an odd dragon indeed who hadn't hunted them as a youngster, but there were enough standing there to bring down both the young dragons with no trouble whatsoever.

"How's your flame?" Ilar Dwyn asked out of the side of her mouth. It came out more like 'oos ur lame' but Siren understood.

She took in a deep breath, working to switch to her other set of lungs but at the sight of her preparations, the spriggans in front sprang to attack. A long high note sounded and they were flung back by a sudden gust of wind.

Siren Jade blinked with surprise, then traced the sound to Ilar Dwyn, singing her magic into being. Even as she recognised that, the note broke and Ilar drew in a ragged gasp of air. The spriggans yelled and moved forward. Siren Jade recollected herself and moved in to the attack, huffing and puffing until a stream of fire swept through the passage.

When she was out of breath, she fell back and Ilar stepped forward. More of the ugly little stick things flew into the air, striking the walls with satisfactory crunching noises.

"At least they can't get behind us," Ilar remarked. Reminded, Siren glanced back.

"Ummm..."

"Oh no! The passage ...?"

"Open."

"Then let's run!"

The two little dragons spun around and made a dash for it. With nothing to push them back, the spriggans surged forward, the fastest among them grabbing hold of the dragons' tails and pulling themselves up further, slashing with their wicked sharp blades.

Suddenly, a blue flash appeared, striking sideways and a loud voice commanded, "You idiots! Turn and fight. Turn and fight. If you run, you're lost. Now fight!"

It was Aminta Paladin , striking right, left, forward and back, wreaking havoc among their hungry adversaries. Shamed, Siren Jade and Ilar Dwyn both turned and lent their powers to the fight and in next to no time, the way was clear.

Aminta Paladin wasted no time scolding the two and she bullied Ilar Dwyn into opening a portal back to the mundane Na Gurnaidh, ordering them to remain on that side of the veil or else. Neither dragon knew exactly what 'or else' entailed, but they were tired and thirsty and bleeding and they really didn't want to find out. So they went.

Aminta gave a small snort of satisfaction. Three down, seven to go.

Ten Little Dragons counting rhyme