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He picked up the slab of meat and bit into it lustily, tearing off a large piece that he began to chew with gusto. The enthusiasm rapidly dimmed and it took many seconds of chewing before, with a mighty gulp, he swallowed it down. His face twisted but he raised his cup and shouted, ‘Excellent!’ before swilling the meat down with his mead.

'I think it might be a good idea to avoid the dragon meat, the Doctor whispered to Bathsheba.

'I don't think he liked it much,' she agreed.

'The dragon interests me though,' the Doctor said, rubbing his chin. 'I'd like to have a closer look at it sometime.' He leaned to one side where the Firbolg Ferllu was sitting. Tell me, Ferllu, why do you have a Troifran numeral on your flank?'

'A what, Doctor?'

'The mark on your flank, what is it'

'The humans call it a witch mark. It is something all of the peoples of Tír na n-Óg have in common.'

'Except the humans?'

'Yes.'

The Doctor nodded and turned his attention to the food in front of him. 'Bathsheba, you haven't eaten much.'

'I do not like the fare,' she whispered.

'Well, pass it over to me.' He took her plate and turned to Ferllu. 'Ferllu, some more food for you.’

'Oh Doctor, I cannot take any more from you.’

'Don't worry, we're all quite sated here.

'Well in that case ... ' Ferllu accepted the plate and attacked the food greedily.

'I think some work on the appetite centres might be required,’ the Doctor murmured to himself.

'What was that, Doctor?' Stuart asked.

'Nothing, just a footnote to myself. I think as soon as this is over we should set off to Goibhnie.'

'Right you are.'

'And you, Bathsheba, will stay here with Daffyr.'

'What?' Her eyes suddenly brimmed with tears. 'You can’t leave me - not when I am so close to Goibhnie. I won't let you.’

'My dear, we can't take you with us. It will be terribly dangerous,' Stuart advised her.

'But I've come all this way, and Goibhnie will be able to mend my arm. Gabby told me about how he healed a sheep once. I must come with you.'

'Bathsheba,' the Doctor spoke quietly, 'if you are sure that you want to come with us then I won't stand in your way. But Stuart is right, we are risking our lives. According to the Tuatha, it was Goibhnie who unleashed the demons on Tír na n-Óg. He may not be the benevolent person you believe him to be.’

But Bathsheba did believe in Goibhnie. For all of her life, short though it was, the tales she had heard of Goibhnie told only of how good he was. Nothing would shake her belief in the god who could untwist and restore the useless muscles in her arm and expel any badness in her.

'I will come.'

'Very well.'

'Doctor, I'm not sure ... ' began Stuart, but he was interrupted by Daffyr.

'And now,' he roared, 'a drink to our guests from Earth.’ He threw back his head and started to pour a jug of mead down his throat. The assembled Firbolg cheered him on as the flow of mead turned from a flood to a trickle. Suddenly, most of it was blown into the air as Daffyr came up spluttering. He laughed uproariously and then threw the jug into the fire.

Making quiet farewells to Ferllu, the Doctor, Stuart and Bathsheba left the singing and dancing that the feast had developed into, and made their way to the farmhouse. The dragon's head lay on the kitchen table, glaring mawkishly at the blank wall. Bathsheba looked away from it in disgust - liquid was seeping from the severed stump of its neck.

'Ah, just what I wanted to see,' the Doctor said. 'I have my doubts about this dragon.' He gave a cursory glance to its eyes and teeth, but then turned his attention to the exposed deep tissues of the neck.

'Stuart, what do you think of this?' He pointed to the surface of the vertebra.

'Well, it's not quite the usual shape for a cervical vertebral bone. '

'Something much more fundamental than that.'

Stuart looked closer. 'It seems ridiculous to say it, but it looks as though it's made of metal.' He peered even closer and then scraped away some of the tissue. 'And the intervertebral disc appears to be composed of some sort of plasticized fibre.'

'You're quite right,'