Chapter 3

Straight away, I tell Robyn to stay in the van and drive around the chimera, shooting from the back, with the doors at the side open. I run straight towards the beast, as Robyn shoots her first arrow she is surprisingly accurate and hits a paw just above my head, coming in for a swipe. The chimera recoils in agony, and can no longer put any weight on that paw.

Suddenly, the chimera rears up on its hind legs and I put my sword through the hole in the shield and crouch into the foetal position, under the shield. I stay there, coiled up under my shield for what feels like an eternity, before I feel a huge weight on my sword, followed by a far lighter shove on my shield. I grip my sword and shield more tightly than ever, wishing I had brought another set.

As the Chimera lifts its paw up, I can just see blood dripping down the hilt of my sword, and I know what happened. The Chimera tried to stomp me, but my sword stabbed its paw, going almost all the way to the hilt, and the chimera recoiled. Immediately, I knew I was a sitting duck for a wave of fire or something like that, so I pulled my sword out from the hole in my shield and ran, looking all the time for Robyn, to no avail.

"Tom! Help me!" I looked up and saw Robyn in the Chimera's paw, the arrow still stuck in its paw. Without permission from my brain, by feet decide that climbing is the best option. I put my sword and shield on my back and dive onto the Chimera's Paw. At this point, I realise that I will need something to get a better grip with so I pull out my sword and stab it straight into the Chimera's leg. Pure determination keeps me going until I get up the leg and onto the body.

I slide down the back of the Chimera until I get to the snakes head and stab it with all my might. When I realise that I won't be able to shop it off any time soon, I climb up the snake with my sword at wait. I'd seen it in a gallery. The Chimera was strange because it couldn't eat with the lions head, only breath fire. The Goat's head had no taste for mean, so the Snake's head would eat things out of the lion's paw.

As the snake head jerked forward, I embedded my sword up to the hilt in the jaw of the snake, before letting go and dropping onto the Chimera's paw with Robyn. I knew we were safe not, as the goats head couldn't reach to the paw, and the lions head wouldn't breathe fire on us for fear of burning its own paw! Still, I got to work, freeing Robyn from the claws of the Chimera. Robyn had her bow in one hand, which was free, but her other arm was trapped, so she couldn't use her bow, and I only had my shield and helmet. Instead, we swapped armour – I gave her my shield and helmet and I got her bow and arrows.

I immediately got to work, knocking an arrow and fired right into the Chimera's nose. Meanwhile, Robyn used the sharp edge of my shield to slice the Chimera's paw. Finally, it lets go of us, and we fall to the ground. I've been training for this moment since before I could remember, so I take the fall with my stride, doing my best to shield Robyn but not doing well enough. That just leaves me.

I grab Robyn's bow and shoot his hind paw. Then, finally, I grab my shield and use it for its second purpose – to be thrown – and throw it at the Chimera's chest. The shot goes perfectly, plunging a coin-shaped hole through its body and turning the thing to dust.

As I approach the wreckage, I see that it has left me a trophy and, by the looks of it, a trophy for Robyn, too! I retrieve all of Robyn's arrows and my sword and shield, before taking the two huge lion's teeth stuck roots up, into the soft ground, littered with some sort of grey snow – the remains of the Chimera.

As I climbed into the back of the van, Argus drove off as fast as possible, putting some distance between us and the resting place of the Chimera. After about half a minute of racing down the road, Argus stops and helps me to feed Robyn some ambrosia and revive her a little after the fall. "Get some rest." Suggests Argus, "It'll be a long journey home."