When the towns had decided to catch the Great Serpent in a net the Guardian told them that it would be best if they resolved their rivalry before going forwards with their plan.
To this end he suggested two solutions, one, that the name of the towns became joined to form a single town, or, two, that they could simply call the lake by a new name agreed by both towns over which they would take common ownership. In the end, after much talk on both sides and the loss of several more goats, the Two Towns decided to call the Lake a new name and together, rid themselves of their unwanted serpent. This having been decided upon, it was not so hard to bring everyone together to work upon the great net in which they intended to catch the serpent and despatch it.
The day of the Serpent Hunt came, the great net had been stretched across the top of the lake, where the river ran into it, and, with a great effort and coordination on both sides of the lake, the townsfolk began to draw the net down the lake towards the waterfall at the far end of the lake. At first all went well, the net moved down the lake without a hitch and the waters were calm and serene, but, as they reached the middle of the lake, the serpent, which had been lying on the bottom, was scared out into the main body of the water, thrashing about, trying to find a way around the approaching net.
The ropes of the net creaked and the net was swept this way and that as the waters boiled. Then, as the net neared the last quarter of the lake, there was a strong pulling on the ropes and the rope holders had to take care not to be swept into the water. It was clear that something very large was entangled in the net. Now it was time to close the trap and they pulled all the guiding ropes to one side of the lake and proceeded to try and haul the serpent out onto dry land. With a mighty effort and with most of the populations of both towns heaving and straining on the net together, they managed to pull the great serpent, strongly bound by the net and writhing its coils this way and that, out of the water.
Now that it was time to attempt to despatch the intruder to their new lake, it was discovered that no one was very keen to go near the animal, sharp sword in hand or not. This, then, may have been the undoing of the whole plan as the serpent would have eventually wriggled free, but the Guardian had had the foresight to request the presence of another member of the Guardians who was a member of the Knights Exemplar called Vivainne. Now she came forward in full armour, with her great sword in two hands. She approached the serpent without fear and , with one blow, severed its head clean off.
A cheer rose from the crowd of towns people gathered there and they began to gather all the fish that had been caught up with the serpent. That evening there was a great feast on the Field of the Serpent to celebrate the Two Towns new friendship and to thank the Guardian and the Knight Exemplar. From that time on, both towns shared the rights to the fishing of the lake and a regular ferry was used to trade between the towns. The road through the towns became busy with traffic which brought commerce to both settlements.
Each year a great Festival of the Serpent was held in memory of the day the towns came together to overcome the Serpent of the Lake and the local Inn was renamed The Knight and Serpent for many years afterwards.
The Guardians of the Cave 