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Once again, the dragons swooped toward hi his li into a sticky golden sludge Gold dripped froons were flying down at hiain He snapped at theold

Then, for the first ti and wicked life, he felt fear -- dark, hot fear Brought to bay, he looked around hio to escape the fire eating at his armor? He felt hotter all the ti hiet to the water Back to the water

Nettlebrand stared at the tunnel dohich he had coo, when he was still Nettlebrand the Golden One, Nettlebrand the invincible But the silver dragons were circling in front of the entrance with blue fire still leaping fro his precious ar, he tried to raise his paws, but they were stuck in the golden puddles spreading out around him And deep inside him, Nettlebrand felt his heart crack

White vapor, da, the chill escaped his body until he collapsed like a punctured balloon The icy vapor drifted through the cavern, hanging like clouds above the stone dragons

Firedrake and Maia stopped and hoveredcold in the cave, very cold Shivering, Ben and Sorrel pressed close to each other, narrowing their eyes as they looked down But the mists hid Nettlebrand from them, and there was little left of him to be seen now, only a hunched shadow

Cautiously Firedrake and Maia flen through the chillyBen’s face with cold There was no sound except for the buzzing of Lola’s plane so

"There!" whispered Burr-Burr-Chan as Maia and Firedrake landed on the ground, which was now covered with old "There he is"

53 The Dwarf’s Request

Nettlebrand’s ar like a cast-off snake skin Snowflakes hissed as they melted on its surface Greenish fumes drifted out past the teeth in the uished lamps

Stepping carefully, the two dragons waded through the liquid gold to see as left of their enemy Lola whirred past them and landed on the molten arleg put his head out froazed incredulously at what had once been hisout onto one wing "Nothing but tin, that creature Like one of the huold, which was still war, wide-eyed, peered out of the cockpit "It’ll show itself now!" he whispered

"What will show itself?" Lola sat on the side of the wing, dangling her legs

But the ho at Nettlebrand’s open

"What are you waiting for, Twigleg?" asked Firedrake, slowly co closer "Nettlebrand is dead"

The homunculus looked at him

"Were the ravens dead?" he asked "No They turned back into what they’d been all along What kind of creature did the alcheive him life, because he couldn’t really create life He could only borrow it fro creature?" Sorrel shifted unco’s about to crawl out of there?" She pulled at the straps "Come on, Firedrake, we can watch this froon did not ?" he asked

"Oh, there aren’t ht a war his eyes off Nettlebrand’s muzzle