wed.

CHAPTER XI.

_The Battle_.

It was an awul sight to behold! When the Remora heard the name of the
Firedrake, his hated enemy, he slipped with wonderful speed from the
cleft of the mountain into the valley. On and on and on he poured over
rock and tree, as if a frozen river could slide downhill; on and on, till
there were miles of him stretching along the valley--miles of the smooth-
ribbed, icy creature, crawling and slipping forwards. The green trees
dropped their leaves as he advanced; the birds fell down dead from the
sky, slain by his frosty breath! But, fast as the Remora stole forward,
the Firedrake came quicker yet, flying and clashing his fiery wings. At
last they were within striking distance; and the Firedrake, stooping from
the air, dashed with his burning horns and flaming feet slap into the
body of the Remora.

Then there rose a steam so dreadful, such a white yet fiery vapour of
heat, that no one who had not the prince's magic glass could have seen
what happened. With horrible grunts and roars the Firedrake tried to
burn his way right through the flat body of the Remora, and to chase him
to his cleft in the rock. But the Remora, hissing terribly, and visibly
melting away in places, yet held his ground; and the prince could see his
cold white folds climbing slowly up the hoofs of the Firedrake--up and
up, till they reached his knees, and the great burning beast roared like
a hundred bulls with the pain. Then up the Firedrake leaped, and
hovering on his fiery wings, he lighted in the midst of the Remora's
back, and dashed into it with his horns. But the flat, cruel head
writhed backwards, and, slowly bending over on itself, the wounded Remora
slid greedily to fasten again on the limbs of the Firedrake.

Meanwhile, the prince, safe on his hill, was lunching on the loaf and the
cold tongue he had brought with him.

"Go it, Remora! Go it, Firedrake! you're gaining. Give it him, Remora!"
he shouted in the wildest excitement.

Nobody had ever seen such a battle; he had it all to himself, and he
never enjoyed anything more. He hated the Remora so much, that he almost
wished the Firedrake could beat it; for the Firedrake was the more
natural beast of the pair. Still, he was alarmed when he saw that the
vast flat body of the Remora was now slowly coiling backwards, backwards,
into the cleft below the hill; while a thick wet mist showed how cruelly
it had suffered. But the Firedrak