Fight the dragon!
From Create Your Own Story
Katya freezes in fear as the dragon flies her away. However, the flight doesn't last any more than a minute. She finds herself back in the emerald forest and the dragon drops her onto the forest floor.
"Oof!" she exclaims. "What do you want from me?"
The dragon just stares at her unblinkingly with his huge, red eyes and slowly licks his lips.
"Y-you want to eat me?" Katya's own eyes widen in fear.
The dragon lunges forwards and quick as a flash, grabs her in his huge paw. Katya writhes and the dragon slowly purrs, "Resistance is futile."
"It doesn't mean I won't die trying!" Katya exclaims, continuing to wriggle around in his iron grip.
"Oh, how very valiant, Princess," the dragon purrs back, leaning his ginormous scaly head towards her.
Katya sees this as an opportunity to escape and punches him in the eye, causing him to drop her. The dragon lets out an almighty roar and blows a huge tongue of fire towards her. Because she landed on her knees, Katya didn't get a good head-start on her ferocious opponent and she crawls away as fast as she can. She starts sweating like mad, feeling the hot steam from his breath behind her.
She continues crawling through the forest, not caring if she gets lost, only worrying about escaping the dragon. It is no easy feat, as the dragon is hot on her trail, flying above her. After a good few minutes, Katya ends up in a very different place to where she started. She is still in the forest, but the trees around her are sad looking stumps. There are no beautiful flowers or woodland creatures. Katya slowly walks around in confusion, never having visited this part of the forest, after all, her father never took her too far into the forest. She slowly stands up and looks around, trying to find her way back home. Suddenly, out of the corner of her eye, she sees a flash of green. Is it one of the emerald trees in the familiar part of the forest? She starts to run towards it, but then freezes when she sees a large, open green eye. Oh no, she'd fallen right into the dragon's trap!
Katya punches it in the eye again and then tries to run, but it pounces on her before she can go two steps. She wriggles again, but this time, since the dragon is pinning her down with its full weight, it does nothing. Then, she suddenly remembers something. The stomach is a fragile spot! Grunting, but trying to be quiet, she manages to roll around, so that she's lying on her back. The dragon doesn't notice her change of position until she scratches him savagely in the stomach. Her sudden attack surprised him so much that he jumped right off her. Taking the chance and not caring if she gets lost, she runs through the middle pathway of the barren trees around her as fast as she can, hiking her long skirts above her knees. The dragon whimpers in the distance and rubs its stomach. Katya continues to run and gradually notices her surroundings getting brighter and brighter. She is in the emerald forest again!
She finds a thick, sturdy oak tree and leans against it, breathless from exhaustion. She sits by the oak tree and slowly looks around her surroundings to check the dragon isn't hiding behind the trees near her.
"Yup, no dragon. I'm alright.", the young princess mutters and she slowly walks out of the forest towards the castle. But the sound of whooshing air stops her in her tracks.
"I hope its just the wind.", she mutters and continues walking. Trees start falling down slowly in the forest, far from where she is, but she figures that it's only a matter of time before the trees nearby crush her. So, she once again hikes her skirts above her knees and runs back to the castle.
She opens the castle door and slams it shut, breathing heavily. But this reaction isn't from being tired from her run, it's from the huge fright the dragon gave her.
Unbeknownst to her, the dragon is walking around the now destroyed forest, looking for her. Since only the thick, sturdy oak tree Katya hid behind is standing, the dragon realises Katya isn't in the forest. He sits by the tree and slides a massive paw slowly down its trunk. He bites off a tiny bit of bark, leaving a heart-shaped hole in the middle of the trunk. This lone, marked tree is a symbol that the princess is still well and truly alive, but will never forget this experience.
