DRAGON STOMP A KNIGHT

by Mr.Snail

"One thing that has always annoyed me about stories in which a knight must fight a dragon in order to rescue a princess, is that the knight always manages to kill the dragon, which strikes me as being a little unlikely. Anyway, I felt it neccessary to write a story with a more satisfying end"

    The winding tunnels seemed to have no end. Water trickled off the stone walls in places, and the darkness was almost complete, but the air was distinctly hot. Bouron, knight of the Second Legion
of the Order of the Crown raised the visor on his helmet and wiped the sweat off his forhead,  the stifling heat. The tunnel was gradually going deeper and deeper underground, but that was not
cause of the temperature, for the long tunnels belonged to a synister creature that had been plundering the kingdom for months and terrorising the inhabitants. two days ago, the creature had captured the king's daughter and she had not been seen since. Immediately Bouron and four other knights had set out to rescue her in the hopes that she was still alive. Bouron was the only survivor of that party. The other four had perished on the long and dangerous journey to the caves. He had no particular plan, having assumed that the tunnel entrance would lead him to the Princess, where he would devise a plan to thwart the dragon and rescue her.
    His thoughts were interrupted by a long, deep hissing noise, like the breathing of something huge. Gradually the tunnel grew lighter, lit by an unseen light at the end. As he aproached the light, the sound grew louder and the heat increased, until he found himself at the mouth of an enourmous cavern, more than a hundred paces long and of equal width. Sure enough, there was the princess, lying on a high ledge in the walls of the cavern where, no doubt, the dragon had placed her to prevent her escape. Unfortunately, there also was the dragon, asleep, guarding the princess. Bouron had never seen the dragon before -it had always come at night- And he had never before seen such an amazing creature. Bouron guessed, from the sleeping giant, that it was al least ten times his own height, and probably had many times his own strength. It's clawed feet were, he noticed, larger than he was. he hoped to goodness that it wouldn't wake up. Gathering his courage, he stepped into the cavern, being as silent as possible, and started to make his way towards the princess. Suddenly a thought struck him - how the hell was he going to get the princess down from the ledge? - It was almost thirty feet above him. Cursing his own stupidity, he darted a quick look back at the dragon. His heart froze. The dragon's eyes were open, and looking directly at him! He found it difficult to turn away from the two piercing, yellow eyes that seemed to look into him.
    Bouron turned and ran, but as he got to the tunnel a hard blow knocked him over, and a clawed, reptillian hand gripped him and pulled him back, kicking and shouting, into the cave. Bouron had the sense to unsheath his sword and swung it with all his might back at the scaly hand which was holding him. With a hiss of pain and fury, the dragon dropped Bouron, who hit the floor of the cave hard. It raised itself to full height, and looked down at the little knight who had dared to prick him. the dragon smiled mockingly, knowing that the knight had little chance against him. Bouron got up quickly, and swingling the sword abowe his head, charged directly at the dragon, striking him at the base of his tail. The blow was hard, but the dragon's hide was tougher than Bouron had expected, and the sword bounced off, harmlessly. Bouron stared, horrified. The dragon lunged forward, snapping his huge jaws at the knight, who just managed to dive out of the way, and rise again, shaking. As he did, the dragon's tail lashed out, knocking the knight flying. Bouron hit the wall of the cave, and slid down to the ground. He caught a glimpse of a huge, scaly foot descending on him, and before he could rise, the dragon had him pinned down and helpless, under his foot.
    Bouron struggled wildly, but the dragon's foot held him fast, covering him up completely. Bouron could feel, even through his armour, the ball of the dragon's foot on his chest, whilst the heel flattened his legs and the three toes covered his face and hooked over his shoulders. He could hardly breathe.He was at the dragon's mercy.If the dragon chose to, it could crush Bouron effortlessly, his armour would be less than useless. But the dragon didn't crush him. Instead, he shifted his toes slightly, revealing the little knight's face. A malevolent smile crossed the reptillian lips, and his eyes fell on the princess, who was not stirring. Bouron feared that she was dead.
    Satisfied that the knight was helpless, but could see clearly, the dragon turned his attention to the princess. He reached out and with the effortless strength of a dragon, lowered his clawed hand over the princess and picked her up. Suddenly awake and aware, the princess began screaming, and then caught sight of Bouron, pinned down helplessly beneath the dragon's foot. Bouron struggled, but the dragon pushed his foot down harder, until he lay motionless, gasping for breath.
    The dragon picked up the princess by the head, between his thumb and finger, and opened his great jaws. Bouron shouted and struggled, but again was crushed into silence. The princess screamed harder, and the dragon raised her into the air above his head, tossed her up like a doll, and effortlessly caught her in his jaws. She struggled between the dragon's jaws, but the dragon shook her violently untill she hung limp. Bouron shouted out, this time the dragon ignored him and swallowed the princess whole.
    Enjoying the feel of the defeated knight's body under his foot, and the look of disbelief on the little face, the dragon flexed his toes in pleasure. This snapped Bouron back to his senses, and he reached out for his sword, but it was just out of reach. The dragon laughed at the knight stretching out from under his foot, unable to move. Then, the dragon slowly lifted his foot off Bouron, who tried to rise, but only succeeding in falling to his knees, and began to crawl away. Now the dragon really laughed, it was a cruel, deep, rumbling sound, like thunder. before Bouron had got two paces, the dragon carefully placed his foot on him again, and applied a little pressure, pressing him into the floor of the cave and causing him to cry out in pain. The dragon repeated this several times, allowing the knight to crawl a little way, thinking he was going to get away, only to press him back onto the floor under his mighty foot. Finally, the dragon lifted his foot off the beaten knight, who was too exhausted to move again. The dragon sat down, and lowered his hand onto the knight. Bouron felt the four, strong, reptillian fingers grip him around the chest, and lift him off the ground. The dragon then placed Bouron against the sole of his upturned foot, and held him there with one clawed hand. Bouron could feel the warm, heavy paw press him into the scales of his sole, but could do nothing about it, but moan, feebly.
    After a while, the dragon removed his foot from the face of the knight, and lay him back on the ground. He raised himself to full height, towering over the crippled knight, and again placed one foot on the little body, covering Bouron up. The dragon gradually increased the pressure he was exerting on the knight, Bouron felt several bones crack. The dragon flexed his toes, then shifted all his weight onto the foot that held Bouron to the ground. There was a muffled crunch, and then the dragon, satisfied that he had made an example to the world,walked off casually, leaving a little pile of bloodied flesh and mangled armour in one bloodstained footprint.