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He hoped – harder than he’d ever hoped anything in his life – that she’d taken to the air and found somewhere safer to hide, or rejoined the others. But he knew that she wouldn’t have done that.

Struggling to breathe, he watched as James slowly, ever so slowly, lowered his massive head, the smell of his fetid breath hitting Robb like a wave.

Get it together, he told himself as his lungs stuttered and heaved, doing their utmost to start working again.

A sudden intense force slammed him back, and it was a long moment before he realized that James had basically stomped him into the ground. Was stomping him into the ground, one enormous hoof grinding itself mercilessly into Robb’s midsection, while another one held his leg in place.

Pain lanced through Robb as he tried to kick out against the boar with his free leg, but it was no good – he was pinned, and in a world of agony. He couldn’t even shift, given that the boar’s weight would probably hurt the dingo even more than it was hurting Robb.

And it was hurting Robb a lot.

Think, Robb, he told himself – but it was getting more and more difficult.

Go for the weak spot, growled the dingo.

The weak spot, Robb thought.

But how do I do that?

The boar’s head was so enormous that he would struggle to reach the eyes. He couldn’t move his leg without making the pain in his stomach unbearable.

But I think I can reach…

Not stopping to think twice, he reached up and jammed his fingers right into the boar’s left nostril, digging in with his nails and twisting viciously into the sensitive flesh of the boar’s snout.

The boar let out an ear-piercingly shrill squeal, shaking its head, but Robb didn’t let up – he shoved his fingers deeper, clawing at the cavernous nostril, and finally the boar took a step back to dislodge his grip, still tossing its head. Robb took the moment’s opportunity the boar afforded him to roll out from underneath, shifting into his dingo form as he did so.

The dingo panted as it caught its breath. It wanted to lash out, but it knew that it had to make use of every second available for its healing to kick in. Sure, Robb had managed to deal a bit of hurt to James, but in the end, a sore nose really didn’t compare to potential internal bleeding.

Shaking its head rapidly and chuffing through its nose, the boar paused to regain its bearings, before turning its attention back to Robb.

Robb was pretty sure that a boar shouldn’t be able to grin, but James certainly seemed to be giving it his best shot, tusks and all.

Robb felt his hackles going up, a growl coming up from his throat. There was no way in hell that he was going to let James walk all over him.

The boar pawed at the ground in a slow, leisurely fashion. It wasn’t the action of an animal gone berserk – it was the action of someone who was drawing out the tension, and enjoying every moment of it.

Making all of this considerably worse was that Robb had crash-landed in one of the maze’s dead ends. The only way out was either to go past James and follow the maze to wherever it went, or to try to get back through the hole that James had torn in the hedge.

Robb considered these options, and found them lacking.

But I guess I’ve got to play the hand I was dealt.

The boar chose that moment to start making its charge, and Robb supposed that he had to make his choice pretty quick smart.

I have a plan, said the dingo. Trust me.

Robb nodded. Lead the way.

The one advantage that Robb could detect was that James hadn’t had much space to get a run-up – he relied on momentum to do a lot of the damage, and as things currently stood, he wouldn’t be moving at full speed when he hit Robb.

It gave Robb the opportunity to react.

The moment before the boar reached him he leapt into the air, making good use of the dingo’s superior jumping abilities – but instead of attacking James head-on, which probably would’ve just ended in Robb injuring himself further, he shifted in mid-air, his human foot landing squarely on the top of the boar’s enormous head and pushing down with more weight than James would’ve expected.

Straining with the effort, Robb pushed himself forward against the boar’s momentum, springing off its back and tumbling to the ground behind it.

It wasn’t his most dignified maneuver of all time, but he would take it.