Ehrhart

The Palace Battle

Anastasia quickly stopped crying and drew her knife. Casper drew his knife, too, and Snow White balled her fists, as if that would help. Dopey took out his mining axe.

Fortunately, the dragon was small, maybe the size of two of the dwarves' cottage, and didn't have wings or breathe fire, which were the children's only advantages.

Dopey, oddly, was the first to charge, yelling, "DEAD!" and causing Anastasia to cringe, because the poor little man didn't have a broad enough vocabulary to know that the correct word for the situation was die.

The dragon tried to stomp on him, but Anastasia, Casper, and Snow joined the battle, fighting with all they had.

Anastasia stabbed the dragon's foot, and she reared up, then clawed the girl, creating a nasty wound on Anastasia's right arm. The girl yelped in pain, and Dopey ran to her side, covering for Anastasia while she tended to the wound as best she could.

Snow White attempted to climb onto the dragon's neck, clinging to her scales while she swung her head back and forth, trying to get the princess off. It worked, and Snow White slid across the floor, dazed but unhurt.

Casper, on the other hand, tried to keep himself always out of the dragon's line of sight, dashing first to her right and then to her left, then further to the left and leaping crazily into the air. He landed gracefully like a horseman on the Evil Queen's back.

He stabbed her there, and the Queen lowered her dragon body to the ground, then snatched up Dopey in her powerful jaws.

"Dopey!" Snow White cried, recovering and running for the trapped dwarf, who was screaming and grimacing with every turn of the dragon's head.

Anastasia realized that she wouldn't be able to stop the blood, and fought down the tears and the vomit that was once again pining to be released from her stomach.

"Her eye!" Anastasia said to Snow White as the princess barrelled past her.

The two words registered in all four of the kids' minds, and also in the dragon's, who was slowly becoming too weak to fight. The plan was ridiculous and insane. But it had to happen.

Dopey was slowly losing consciousness in the Queen-dragon's jaws, but he managed to weakly hurl his mining axe, which he had still been clutching in his right hand, toward Anastasia, who caught it and threw it to Snow White. Snow used the momentum gained from running to throw it as hard as a princess could at the dragon, and it made contact, hitting her square in the eye.

The Evil Queen let out a ferocious roar that shook the palace, and reared up once more.

Anastasia leaned back to throw her knife, but when the palace shook, it flew out of her hand and skidded far away. She only had a few seconds to make her throw while the dragon's chest was up in the air, and she shot a meaningful and desperate glance at Casper, who was struggling to stay balanced on the Queen's back. He threw his knife to her, and Anastasia had to run backwards to catch it. She ended up sliding on the floor, and with every last ounce of her strength, she threw it as hard as she could, and as it soared through the air, every second felt like an hour. Then, it made perfect contact with the dragon's heart, and stuck there.

The palace shook once more as the dragon spell wore off and the Evil Queen transformed back into a dying human, gushing blood on the floor.

Even perfect, innocent Snow White couldn't find the strength to forgive the Queen after all she'd done.