One Night - Night at the Museum

Twenty-Three: That's Not a Dragon!

"Get back," Larry hissed, and everyone scrambled to hide behind either side of the door.

"A dragon," said Lancelot, an excited glint in his eye.

"No, it's not a dragon," Larry corrected him. "It's a Xiangliu, a mythical snake demon," he said, reading off of the information plaque.

"Hmm, well it looks like a dragon and I say we kill it."

"What, no, it's asleep," argued Larry.

Lancelot considered this. "Hmm, you're right, it's not very sporting to kill it while it's asleep. Let's wake it up, then kill it. I shall go first and I shall take the boy." He nodded to Nick.

"What?!" cried Nick, clearly not fond of this idea.

"What, no!" objected Larry. "You're not going to take the boy!"

"And why not?" questioned the knight.

"Because, he's a boy." Nick rolled his eyes at his dad's words. He also looked like he didn't appreciate being talked about and argued over like this.

"Larry, there comes a time in every man's life when he must slay his own dragon," argued Lancelot.

"Yeah well not this kid, all right? He's not going to slay the dragon. Now we're going to go around it, and we're going to go now otherwise we'll lose the signal." With that, he gestured for the others to follow him and they crept into the exhibit.

Suddenly, Ahk stumbled as the tablet glowed green again, resulting in further corrosion. Larry caught Ahk before he fell, but Teddy, now entranced, began shouting, speaking to no one in particular. This woke the creature, turning its many - nine - heads on them.

"Shh!" Larry cried, but Teddy only continued to shout. Sac froze, and Attila was now screaming due to the menacing creature before them.

"Fantastic!" cried Lancelot. "It's awake, now we can kill it!" He withdrew his sword and began swinging away at the stone heads.

"Nick - duck!" Nat grabbed Nick's hand and pulled him down, avoiding a swing of one of the creature's heads.  Another head, however, wrapped itself around her ankle. She screamed as it dragged her away.

"Nat!"

Then, she let out another great scream as the creature let go, sending her flying up into the air, threatening to crash down to the floor...

Instead, she had a rather safe landing – right into the arms of Sir Lancelot.

"Stand back, Lady Natasha!" cried Lancelot, setting the shaken Nat on her feet and leaping in front of her. He drew two swords, handing one to Nick.

"You don't happen to have another one of those do you?" Nat asked.

"No, what for?"

Larry had other plans. "Nat!" He tossed her an extra flashlight.

"Never mind, I'm covered," she told the knight, and began using the flashlight to defend herself. 

"CLEAR!" Everyone ducked down as Larry jumped in - literally - with a defibrillator that was on the wall near the front of the exhibit. He landed on top of the creature, giving it a shock.  It collapsed to the floor with an echoing crash. 

Everyone took a moment to breathe. All their friends who had been affected by the tablet seemed alright now, unaware of what had happened. 

"Hey you guys were awesome. You make a great team," Nick said to his dad and Nat.

"Yeah, you were great," Larry said.

"Thanks." She twirled the flashlight around before handing it back to him. "I learned from the best."

"You fought bravely, fair lady," said Lancelot. "Never in my time have I seen a maiden fight a dragon."

"Well, welcome to the twenty-first century," Nat told him. 

"You, as well, fought bravely, sire," said Lancelot, now turning to Nick and placing a hand on his shoulder. "One day I promise you we shall drink dragon's blood from the victor's cup."

"Oh, well I'm good with just, like, soda or water too."

"From now on, you must choose your own path," the knight stated knowingly. "And let no other man tell you otherwise." They clasped arms. Larry sighed as he watched them, yanking his flashlight from the jaws of one of the Xiangliu's heads. Then he picked up his now crushed phone.

"How are we going to find them now?" asked Ahk, echoing everyone's thoughts.

"Lawrence," Teddy said, suddenly alarmed. "I fear we've turned a corner – I'm becoming wax again, son. We're becoming less useful by the minute."

"Alright," Larry decided. "We keep looking for them later. We've got to get to Egypt, now."

"Wait, shouldn't we keep looking for Jed and Octavius?" protested Nick. "Isn't it better if we're all together, not spread out throughout the museum?"

"Nick is right, a true knight never strays from his duties," agreed Lancelot.

Larry was clearly fed up with him. "Yeah well if we don't get to Egypt soon, we're not going to save anybody." And with that, he continued on, not wishing to argue any further.  

(Thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed this chapter! :))