As Tom and Hannah struggled to dodge Bat-Terry's furious claws, they heard a very lion-like roar from Dave. Though it was entirely inhuman, it still had a detectable trace of rage, not triumph. Hannah dared to take her eyes off the bat's wild lashing to confirm her fear; Dave stood hunched over the board, leering silently for a moment. Then his head rose and his eyes jabbed at Terry's bat form.
The lion pounced, streaking his claws through the bat's unprotected backside. It made another deafening screech and turned its back to Tom and Hannah. Tom strafed the bat left and right, trying to figure out how to help Dave even though he had no claws or any other way of hurting it. Dave noticed his attempts to find a way back into the fight and growled. "Don't help me, roll your dice so we can get on with it!"
Tom didn't need to be told twice. He galloped the short distance to the board and grabbed the red dice from the ground. He saw Dave's white dice lying on the ground, turning up 1 and 3. Tom rolled and got 7. "Lucky me," he muttered, then moved Dave's token to the locked door his own figure had been sitting in front of for some time. The door didn't disappear as it had the previous times, however. "Dave! Tell the game you want to use your key!"
But Dave didn't hear him, for at the same instant he had just sent Terry's bat body crashing through the den's French doors and into the hallway. As Dave tore across the room, Tom shouted again. The lion didn't look back as he answered. "Fine!" He leaped over the shattered glass from the door's windows. "I use my key on the locked door!" He landed on the humanoid bat's chest and continued clawing his face. "Open it!"
Tom looked back at the door just in time to see it disappear. Dave's golden key which had been lying on the floor just off of the game board vanished as well. He moved Dave through the new pathway and noticed he landed an ordinary card space. His furry hand grabbed the top card of the pile and tried to read it as loudly as he could over the sound of two maniacal beasts tearing each other apart in the hallway.
You've fought so bravely, come so far,
You'll never fail at what you are.
And so it seems your battle's won.
Though not the game; that soon will come.
Terry's bat-like form immediately fell lifeless onto the floor. Dave sniffed it with his large nose, waiting for its eyes to open and the fight to resume, but instead watched the body fade out like it was dissolving in thin air. Dave examined his own body now, noticing numerous cuts and blood stains in his fur. He began licking a cut on his right foreleg as Tom noticed the human Terry waking up.
"Are you okay?" Tom asked. Terry looked around as if he had just woken up after a full night's rest. His eyes were foggy and he tried to sit up. When he realized he was naked, he blushed and tried to sit rather awkwardly with his legs trying to hide his manhood.
"I guess so," he said. He looked up at the centaur-ape-man, then over to the corner where the giant frog that had been Sue was calmly sitting. "Though I was really hoping this was just a dream."
"We're working on it," Hannah said. "It's Tom's turn now, so he's got a chance to win now that the door's open."
As Tom bent over to retrieve the white dice, he heard Dave stroll back into the room.
"No hard feelings?" he said gruffly. Tom wondered if there was any sense of sincerity at all to the question.
"For what? Being a jerk?" Terry asked. The lion shook his head and sat back down in his place at the board, continuing to lick a paw clean of blood. Terry finally noticed the signs of battle, and opened his mouth to ask Tom what had happened, but Tom shook his hairy head.
"You really don't want to know," he said before tossing the dice.