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9

Francis and Danny tip-toed towards the mysterious light glowing from beneath the princesses' door, keeping quiet in the hallway to be sure the girls had enough of a head start. After several minutes, Francis reached for his magic key and watched it shrink to the right size for the lock.

"Go, go go!" Danny said, wanting to burn rubber with the wheelbarrow holding the cake. Francis cautioned him to slow down at the top of the dark stairs to avoid destroying their bribe before they could deliver it.

The narrow steps proved tricky and Danny hands began to shake.

"Careful," Francis warned him.

"Easy for you to say. Why do I have to get this thing downstairs?"

"Because I'm holding the torch."

The flame licked a bit of web waving from the stone wall, and it blackened and fell to Danny's hand. In his eagerness to brush the tickling soot away, he jerked the barrow and nearly tilted the cake out over the edge. Its cherry topper rolled off, but thankfully was caught in the rocking scoop.

Francis gave Danny a mean side-eye. He called out hoarsely. "Rupret! Hey Rupret!

"Com-ing!" the dragon yodeled merrily.

They heard the slithering shift of his body before he set the lair lights ablaze with his mighty breath. The beast reclined on his tail, sucking a skewered boiled potato off of each of his talons.

"Gentlemen, how nice to see you again. And what's this?" he said, his tongue darting out in the direction of the cake. "A surprise for me? Oh, you shouldn't have!"

"Aw shucks," Danny said coyly. "We wanted to live, so it was nothing,"

Francis was all business. "Which way did they go?"

"Uh-uh-uh," Rupret tsked. "What do we say?"

"Pretty please don't burn us," Danny said. He found the cherry at the bottom of the barrow and plopped it back on top of the cake.

"Very well. Come on down then. That's it. Hang a left behind my hindquarters and untie the boat still docked by this stream. There's a very narrow exit through which the stream flows to the village. Let the boat take you to where the water is so shallow it first runs aground. That's as much as I can say as far as where it goes and where those silly gigglers went."

"Thank you, Rupret. Come on, Danny."

"Say, Rupes, you want to take this now, or do you want me to park?" Danny asked, struggling with his cart.

"I'll take it from here," the dragon said, clapping his hands greedily. He plucked his cake with pincer claws, placing it on the palm of his paw where it seemed no bigger than a tea biscuit.

As Danny caught up to Francis, who was already untying the boat, Rupret inspected his dessert and scowled when he found the dish rag.

"Hold it!" he bellowed, causing the rocks of the cave to tremble. "What. Is. This?"

"Oh, heh, heh," Danny chuckled nervously. "It's the surprise inside. A napkin for you."

The dragon's fierce grimace relaxed. "Well, you boys just thought of everything, didn't you?" He neatly tucked the rag under one of his neck scales and said distractedly, "Be back before the princesses are, or you'll be locked out."

And with that warning, Francis and Danny pushed off towards the cave's exit.

*****

The small boat ran aground just as the dragon said it would. With a little effort it might have continued further into the village, but Francis and Danny dragged it up the bank in a heavily wooded part of the countryside and rested it next to three others just like it. They could hear faint music coming through a cluster of trees, and several feet in that same direction they were able to see lights from the windows of a remote barn cottage.