The goat, Axl could see, was well at home on this mountain terrain. It was eating happily the stubbly grass and heather, not caring about the wind, or that its left legs were poised so much lower than the right. The animal had a fierce tug -- as Axl had discovered all too well during their ascent -- and it had not been easy to find a way of safely tethering it while he and Beatrice took their rest. But he had spotted a dead tree root protruding from the slope, and had carefully bound the rope to it.

The goat was clearly visible from where they now sat. The two large rocks, leaning one towards the other like an old married couple, had been visible from some way down, but Axl had hoped to come across a shelter from the wind long before they reached them. Yet the bare hillside had offered nothing, and they had had to persevere up the little path, the goat tugging as impulsively as the fierce gusts. But when at last they reached the twin rocks, it was as if God had crafted for them this sanctuary, for while they could still hear the blasts around them, they felt only faint stirrings in the air. Even so, they sat close against one another, as if in imitation of the stones above them.

"Right enough, princess. I fear that young girl hid from us the true hardship of this task."

"We were halted before we could get far, princess."

"To my poor eyes, princess, they seem not to move at all. And even if they're soldiers, they're surely too far to bother us. It's those storm clouds to the west concern me more, for they'll bring mischief swifter than any soldiers in the distance."

A hand raised to the glare, Axl tried to discern what his wife was indicating, but eventually shook his head. "My eyes aren't as good as yours, princess. I see valley after valley where the mountains descend, but nothing remarkable."

"And now we climb uphill again."

"Here's all this country still below us, Axl. Didn't that river carry us down at all?"

"They're moving, Axl, and might be soldiers, the way they go in a long line."

"No doubt about it, Axl, she made it sound an easy stroll. But who'll blame her? Still a child and more cares than one her age should bear. Axl, look there. Down in that valley, do you see them?"

"There, Axl, follow my finger. Aren't those soldiers walking in a line?"

"I see them now, right enough. But surely they're not moving."

"Then why is it one doesn't fly into the air as we watch them?"

"I can see them more clearly, princess, now the sun peeks from behind the clouds. They're not soldiers or men at all, but a row of birds."

"You're right, husband, and I wonder how much further it is we're to go. That young girl wasn't honest, insisting it was but a simple stroll. Yet can we blame her? Her parents absent and her younger brothers to worry over. She must have been desperate to have us do her bidding."

"One may fly up yet, princess. And I for one won't blame that young lass, for isn't she in a black plight? And where would we have been without her help, soaked and shivering as we were when we first saw her? Besides, princess, as I remember it, it wasn't the girl alone keen to have this goat go up to the giant's cairn. Is it even an hour gone by you were as anxious?"

"What foolishness, Axl. If they're birds, how would we see them from here at all?"

"They're closer than you imagine, princess. Dark birds sat in a line, the way they do in the mountains."

The goat had been eating with equal appetite earlier that morning when they had first come upon the little stone cottage. The cottage had been easy to miss, hidden within a pocket of shadow at the foot of a looming cliff, and even when Beatrice had pointed it out to him, Axl had mistaken it for the entrance to a settlement not unlike their own, dug deep into the mountainside. Only as they had come closer had he realised it was an isolated structure, the walls and roof alike built from shards of dark grey rock. Water was falling from high above in a fine thread just in front of the cliffside, to collect in a pool not far from the cottage and trickle away where the land dipped out of view. A little way before the cottage, just now brightly illuminated by the morning sun, was a small fenced paddock, the sole occupant of which was the goat. As usual the animal had been eating busily, but broke off to stare in astonishment at Axl and Beatrice.

"I'm still as anxious for it, Axl. For wouldn't it be a fine thing if Querig were slain and this mist no more? It's just when I see that goat chewing the earth that way, it's hard to believe a foolish creature like that could ever do away with a great she-dragon."

She came splashing over the marshy grass towards them, her brothers close behind.

Their guilty countenances supported Beatrice's notion that they had been up to no good, but the girl -- a head taller than the two boys -- recovered quickly and smiled.

When they had gone past the goat and the children still were unaware of them, Axl called out as gently as he could: "God be with you," causing all three to spin round in alarm.

The children though had remained unaware of their approach. The girl and her two younger brothers were standing at the edge of a ditch, their backs to their visitors, preoccupied with something beneath their feet. Once, one of the small boys crouched down to throw something into the ditch, provoking the girl to pull him back by the arm.

"What can they be doing, Axl?" Beatrice said. "Mischief by the look of it, and the youngest of them still small enough to tumble in without meaning to."

"Elders! You're welcome! We prayed to God only last night to send you and here you've come to us! Welcome, welcome!"

"We're not mistaken, sir! We prayed to the God Jesus last night and now you've come! Please, elders, go inside our house, where a fire's still burning."

"You mistake us, child," Axl said. "We're just two lost travellers, cold and weary, our clothes wet from the river where we were attacked only lately by savage pixies. Would you call your mother or father to allow us warmth and the chance to dry ourselves beside a fire?"

"We accept your kindness gratefully, child," Axl said. "But tell us if the nearest village is far from here."

A shadow crossed the girl's face, and she exchanged looks with her brothers, now lined up beside her. Then she smiled again and said: "We're very high in the mountains here, sir. It's far to any village, so we'd ask you to stay here with us, and the warm fire and food we offer. You must be very weary, and I see how this wind makes you both shiver. So please, no more talk of going away. Go inside and rest, elders, for we've waited for you so long!"

"It's just us three now, mistress, so you can call me lady of the house! Please go inside and warm yourselves. You'll find food in the sack hanging from the beam, and there's wood beside the fire to add. Go inside, elders, and we'll not disturb your rest for a while yet, for we must see to the goat."

"But where are your parents, child?" Beatrice asked. "Weary as we are, we'd not intrude, and so wait for the lady or master of the house to call us through the door."

"Oh, it's nothing, mistress! Nothing at all! But here you're standing in this wind and your clothes wet! Won't you accept our hospitality, and rest yourselves beside our fire? See how even now its smoke rises from the roof!"

"There!" Axl took his weight from the rock and pointed. "A bird flown to the sky. Didn't I tell you, princess, those are birds standing in a line? Do you see it climbing in the sky?"

"What is it so interests you in that ditch there?" Beatrice asked suddenly.

Beatrice, who had risen to her feet a few moments before, now took a step beyond the sanctuary of their rocks, and Axl saw the wind immediately pull at her clothes.

"Soldiers or not, they move slowly on. The bird was never one of them."

"A bird, right enough," she said. "But it didn't rise from those figures yonder. It could be you still don't see what I point to, Axl. I mean there, on the further ridge, those dark shapes almost against the sky."

"I see them well enough, princess. But come back out of the wind."

"Come out of the wind, princess, and sit down. We must gather strength the best we can. Who knows how much further we must pull this goat?"

Beatrice came back to their shelter, holding close to herself the cloak borrowed from the children. "Axl," she said, as she seated herself again beside him, "do you really believe it? That before the great knights and warriors, it's a weary old couple like us, forbidden a candle in our own village, who may slay the she-dragon? And with this ill-tempered goat to aid us?"

"Who knows it'll be so, princess. Maybe it's all just a young girl's wishing and nothing more. But we were grateful for her hospitality, and so we shouldn't mind doing as she asks. And who knows she isn't right, and Querig will be slain this way."

"Didn't you say it yourself, princess? Our life together's like a tale with a happy end, no matter what turns it took on the way."

"Axl, tell me. If the she-dragon's really slain, and the mist starts to clear, Axl, do you ever fear what will then be revealed to us?"

"I said so before, Axl. Yet now it may even be we'll slay Querig with our own hands, there's a part of me fears the mist's fading. Can it be so with you, Axl?"

"What was it I said then, Axl?"

"Perhaps it is, princess. Perhaps it's always been so. But I fear most what you spoke of earlier. I mean as we rested beside the fire."

"You don't remember, princess?"

"If you've no memory of it, princess, then let it stay forgotten."

"Did we have some foolish quarrel? I've no memory of it now, except that I was near my wit's end from cold and want of rest."

"But I've felt something, Axl, ever since we left those children. It's as if you're holding yourself away from me as we walk, and not just on account of that tugging goat. Can it be we quarrelled earlier, though I've no memory of it?"

"I'd no intention to hold myself away from you, princess. Forgive me. If it's not the goat pulling this way and that, then it must be I'm still thinking of some foolishness that was said between us. Trust me, it's best forgotten."

He had got the fire blazing again in the centre of the floor, and all else inside the small cottage had fallen into shadow. Axl had been drying his clothes, holding each garment up to the flames, while Beatrice slept peacefully nearby in a nest of rugs. But then quite suddenly, she had sat up and looked around her.

"I was thinking of a night long ago, husband. When you were gone, leaving me in a lonely bed, wondering to myself if you'd ever come back to me."

"Is the fire too hot for you, princess?"

"Won't you believe me, princess? This is the work of those pixies still working mischief between us."

For a moment she continued to look bewildered, then wearily lowered herself back down onto the rugs. Her eyes though remained open and Axl was about to repeat his question when she had said quietly:

"Princess, though we escaped those pixies on the river, I fear some spell still lingers on you to give you such dreams."

"No dream, husband. Just a memory or two returning. The night as dark as any, and there I was, alone in our bed, knowing all the while you were gone to another younger and fairer."

"You may be right, Axl. And if they were true memories, they're of long ago. Even so…" She became silent, so that Axl thought she had dozed off again. But then she said: "Even so, husband, they're remembrances to make me shrink from you. When we've finished resting here, and we're on our path again, let me walk a little way in front and you behind. Let's go on our way like that, husband, for I'll not welcome your step beside me now."

"It would be the saddest thing to me, princess. To walk separately from you, when the ground will let us go as we always did."

He said nothing to this at first. Then he lowered the garment away from the fire and turned to look at her. Her eyes were closed again, yet he was sure she had not fallen asleep. When Axl finally found his voice, it had come out as no more than a whisper.

Beatrice gave no indication of having heard, and within moments her breathing had grown long and even. He had then put on his newly warmed clothes and lain down on a blanket not far from his wife, but without touching her. An overwhelming tiredness swept over him, and yet he saw again the pixies swarming in the water before him, and the hoe he had swung through the air landing in their midst, and he remembered the noise as of children playing in the distance, and how he had fought, almost like a warrior with fury in his voice. And now she had said what she had. A picture came into his mind, clear and vivid, of himself and Beatrice on a mountain road, large grey skies above them, she walking several steps before him, and a great melancholy welled up within him. There they went, an elderly couple, heads bowed, five, six paces apart.

He awoke to find the fire smouldering, and Beatrice on her feet, peering out through one of the small gaps in the stone that constituted the windows of an abode such as this. Thoughts of their last exchange returned to him, but Beatrice turned, her features caught in a triangle of sunlight, and said in a cheerful voice:

"I thought to wake you before, Axl, seeing the morning grow outside. But then I kept thinking of the soaking you got in the river and that you needed more than a brief nod or two."

"I'm feeling much better, Axl. Rest was all I needed."

"I've been watching these children, Axl. Even now they stand by that same ditch as when we first came upon them. They've something down there draws them and it's some mischief, I'll wager, for they often glance back the way they think some adult will discover and scold them. Where can their people be, Axl?"

Only when he did not reply did she ask: "What is it, Axl? Why look at me like that?"

"I'm just gazing at you in relief and happiness, princess."

"I see that now. Then let's soon be on our way, for as you say, the morning's grown while we slept."

"It's not our concern, and besides, they seem well enough fed and clothed. Let's say our farewells and be gone."

"Axl, can it be you and I were quarrelling earlier? I feel something came between us."

"Nothing we can't put aside, princess. Though we may speak of it before the day's finished, who knows? But let's be on our way before hunger and cold overtake us again."

When they emerged into the chilly sunshine, Axl saw patches of ice on the grass, a large sky and mountains fading into the distance. The goat was eating over in its enclosure, a muddy upturned bucket near its feet.

"Dear elders!" She started to come quickly away from the ditch, pulling her brothers with her. "I hope you found our home comfortable, humble though it is!"

"We did, child, and we're most grateful to you. Now we're well rested and ready to be on our way. But what's become of your people that they leave you alone?"

The three children were still beside the ditch, looking down into it, their backs to the cottage, and appeared to be quarrelling. The girl was the first to realise Axl and Beatrice were approaching, and even as she spun around her face broke into a bright smile.

"It's just our goat, mistress. It was once our best goat, but it died."

"Go look if you will, sir," the girl said, and letting go of her brothers, she stepped to one side.

The girl exchanged glances with her brothers, who had taken up positions on either side of her. Then she said, a little hesitantly: "We manage by ourselves, sir," and put an arm around each of the boys.

"And what is it down in that ditch draws you so?" Beatrice asked.

"How did your goat come to die, child?" Axl asked gently. "The other there looks well enough."

The children exchanged more glances, and a decision seemed to pass among them.

Beatrice fell in step beside him as he went towards the ditch. Before they were halfway there, Axl stopped and said in a whisper: "Let me go alone first, princess."

"Do you think I never saw a dead goat before, Axl?"

"Even so, princess. Wait here a moment."

The ditch was as deep as a man's height. The sun, now shining almost directly into it, should have made it easier to discern what was before him, but instead created confusing shadows, and where there was puddle and ice, a myriad of dazzling surfaces. The goat appeared to have been of monstrous proportions, and now lay in several dismembered pieces. Over there, a hind leg; there the neck and head -- the latter wearing a serene expression. It took a little longer to identify the soft upturned belly of the animal, because pressed into it was a giant hand emerging from the dark mud. Only then did he see that much of what initially he had taken to be of the dead goat belonged to a second creature entangled with it. That mound there was a shoulder; that a stiffened knee. Then he saw movement and realised the thing in the ditch was still alive.

"Don't come forward, princess. It's no sight to raise your spirits. Some poor ogre, I'd suppose, dying a slow death, and maybe these children have foolishly thrown it a goat, thinking it might recover itself with eating."

"What do you see, Axl?"

Even as he spoke, a large hairless head revolved slowly in the slime, a gaping eye moving with it. Then the mud sucked greedily and the head vanished.

"We didn't feed the ogre, sir," the girl's voice said behind him. "We know never to feed an ogre, but to bar ourselves inside at their coming. And so we did with this one, sir, and we watched from our window while he pulled down our fence and took our best goat. Then he sat down just there, sir, where you are now, his legs dangling over like he's an infant, and happily eating the goat raw, the way ogres will. We knew not to unbar the door, and the sun getting lower, and the ogre still eating our goat, but we could see he's getting weaker, sir. Then at last he stands up, holding what's left of the goat, then he falls down, first to his knees, then onto his side. Next thing he rolls into the ditch, goat and all, and it's two days he's been down there and still not dead."

"Why did you do such a thing, child?"

"Not diseased, sir, poisoned! We'd been feeding it more than a full week just the way Bronwen taught us. Six times each day with the leaves."

"Let's come away, child," Axl said. "This is no sight for you or your brothers. But what is it made this poor ogre so sick? Can it be your goat was diseased?"

"A moment, child," Axl said. "Are you saying you fed the goat deliberately to fill it with poison?"

"Why, sir, to make the goat poisonous for the she-dragon. This poor ogre wasn't to know that and so he poisoned himself. But it's not our fault, sir, because he shouldn't have been marauding the way he was!"

"Poison for the she-dragon, sir, but Bronwen said it wouldn't harm any of us. So how could we know the poison might harm an ogre? We weren't to blame, sir, and meant no wickedness!"

"No one will ever blame you, child. Yet tell me, why were you wishing to prepare poison for Querig, for I take it this is the she-dragon you talk of?"

"Oh, sir! We said our prayers morning and night and often in the day too. And when you came this morning, we knew God had sent you. So please say you'll help us, for we're just poor children forgotten by our parents! Will you take that goat there, the only one left to us now, and go with it up that path to the giant's cairn? It's an easy walk, sir, less than half a day there and back, and I'd do it myself but can't leave these young ones alone. We've fed this goat just the way we did the one eaten by the ogre, and this with three more days' leaves in it. If only you'd take it to the giant's cairn and leave it tethered there for the she-dragon, sir, and it's but an easy stroll. Please say you'll do it, elders, for we're fearing nothing else will bring our dear mother and father back to us."

"At last you speak of them," Beatrice said. "What's to be done to bring your parents back to you?"

"Didn't we just tell you, mistress? If you'd only take the goat up to the giant's cairn, where it's well known food's regularly left for the she-dragon. Then who knows, she'll perish the same way that poor ogre has, and he was a strong-looking one before his meal! We'd always been afraid before of Bronwen because of her wise arts, but when she saw we were here alone, forgotten by our own parents, she took pity on us. So please help us, elders, for who knows when anyone else will come this way? We're afraid to show ourselves to soldiers or strange men who pass, but you're the ones we prayed for to the God Jesus."

"But what is it young children like you can know of this world," asked Axl, "that you believe a poisonous goat will bring your parents back to you?"

"It's what Bronwen told us, sir, and though she's a terrible old woman, she never lies. She said it's the she-dragon lives over us here made our parents forget us. And even though we often make our mother angry with our mischief, Bronwen says the day she remembers us again, she'll hurry back and hold us one by one like this." The girl suddenly clutched an invisible child to her breast, her eyes closing, and rocked gently for a moment. Then opening her eyes again, she went on: "But for now the she-dragon's cast some spell to make our parents forget us, so they'll not come home. Bronwen says the she-dragon's a curse not just to us but to everyone and the sooner she perishes the better. So we worked hard, sir, feeding both goats exactly as she said, six times each day. Please do as we ask, or we won't ever see our mother and father again. All we ask is you tether the goat at the giant's cairn then go your way."

"But, sir, it was God himself sent you to us! And it's but a short stroll, and not even a steep path from here."

Beatrice started to speak, but Axl said over her quickly: "I'm sorry, child. We wish we could help you, but to climb higher into these hills is now beyond us. We're elderly, and as you see, weary from days of hard travel. We've no choice but to hurry on our way before further misfortune takes us."

Taking his wife's arm, Axl led her away from the children. He did not look back until they had passed the goat's pen, and then he saw the children still standing there, three abreast, watching silently, the towering cliffs behind them. Axl waved encouragingly, but something like shame -- and perhaps the trace of some distant memory, a memory of another such departure -- made him increase his pace.

"Don't go, elders! It wasn't our fault the ogre was poisoned."

"Dear child," Axl said, "our hearts go out to you, and we'll raise help at the next village. But we're too weak to do what you ask, and surely others will pass this way soon, happy to take the goat for you. It's beyond us old ones, but we'll pray for your parents' return and that God will keep you safe always."

"Don't look back to them, princess, for you only taunt their hopes. We'll not go back to their goat, but down into this valley, a fire and what food kind strangers may give us."

But before they had gone far -- the marshy ground had started to descend and the valleys to open before them -- Beatrice tugged his arm to slow them.

"I didn't wish to talk across you before those children, husband," she said. "But is it really beyond us to do as they ask?"

"They're in no immediate peril, princess, and we have our own worries. How goes your pain now?"

"But think on what it is they ask, Axl." Beatrice had now brought them to a halt. "Will a chance like this ever come our way again? Think on it! We stumble to this spot so near Querig's lair. And these children offer a poisonous goat by which even the two of us, old and weak though we are, might bring down the she-dragon! Think on it, Axl! If Querig falls, the mist will fast begin to clear. Who's to say those children aren't right and God himself didn't bring us this way?"

"My pain's no worse. Axl, look how those children stand as we left them, watching as we grow ever smaller in their sight. Can't we at least pause beside this stone and talk further on it? Let's not hasten away carelessly."

"We're not to face her, Axl, only to tether the goat and flee. It may be days before Querig comes to the spot, and we'll by then be safe at our son's village. Axl, don't we want returned to us our memories of this long life lived together? Or will we become like strangers met one night in a shelter? Come, husband, say we'll turn back and do as those children bid us."

Axl remained silent for a moment, fighting the urge to look back towards the stone cottage. "There's no telling that goat will bring any harm at all to Querig," he said eventually. "A hapless ogre's one thing. This she-dragon's a creature to scatter an army. And can it be wise for two elderly fools like us to wander so near her lair?"

So here they were, climbing still higher, the winds growing stronger. For the moment, the twin rocks provided good shelter, but they could not stay like this for ever. Axl wondered yet again if he had been foolish to give in.

"Princess," he said eventually. "Suppose we really do this thing. Suppose God allows us to succeed, and we bring down the she-dragon. I'd like you then to promise me something."

She was sitting close beside him now, though her eyes were still on the distance and the line of tiny figures.

"What is it you ask, Axl?"

"A queer mood you're in, Axl. But who knows how much further it is till the giant's cairn? Let's not spend any more time sitting between these great stones. Those children were anxious when we left, and they'll be awaiting our return."

"It's simply this, princess. Should Querig really die and the mist begin to clear. Should memories return, and among them of times I disappointed you. Or yet of dark deeds I may once have done to make you look at me and see no longer the man you do now. Promise me this at least. Promise, princess, you'll not forget what you feel in your heart for me at this moment. For what good's a memory's returning from the mist if it's only to push away another? Will you promise me, princess? Promise to keep what you feel for me this moment always in your heart, no matter what you see once the mist's gone."

"I'll promise it, Axl, and no hardship to do so."

"Words can't tell how it comforts me to hear you say it, princess."