FanStory.com - Ol' Silver and Red, ch 11by Wayne Fowler

In the last part, Ohmie rigged a method of steering Ol’ Silver and Red. After May mended his tail, they managed to fly him as well as anyone could ride a horse. Ohmie allowed Prince Shauconnery to man the ‘driver’s’ seat upon their return o the castle.

Chapter 11

Recovery of the gold and jewels was no simple chore. It meant coaxing Ol’ Silver and Red out of his lair again, once Waynard allowed him to go home, which he didn’t until the flying beast had transported two miles of rope and about a million wooden crates and barrels up to the crevice opening on the mountain top. There was barely enough room for all the boxes and barrels.

Given his head, Ol’ Silver and Red made it down the shaft and through the tunnel to the top of his pile of wealth in less time than it took Waynard to loop a rope around the same rock they’d anchored to the last time.

Of course, Ol’ Silver and Red was blind, causing him to blast his torch at every noise or scent, though aromas needed to be smoke-thick in order for the olfactory-challenged animal to detect.

Ohmie lost all the hair on his head before finally tricking Ol’ Silver and Red into flaming the wrong direction while he stole behind the frustrated dragon. Throwing rocks to hinterlands didn’t work. Ol’ Silver and Red was able to hear quite well with his eyes effectively blinded. He heard the waves of air as Ohmie whipped his throwing arm, sending tongues of fire to scorch and singe off arm hair and blister the backs of his hands. Ohmie had to employ old ventriloquist’s voice projection tricks to slither around and behind Ol’ Silver and Red. The dragon was conquered, but not tamed.

Once again, catgut cord and bladder balloons affixed to the sleeping dragon’s ankles offered a fair chance at getting the riches out of the mountain. Hauling the loot up the shaft and then down the mountain would take several lifetimes using traditional methods. Enlisting the dragon to voluntarily give over his wealth seemed to the four to be more than they could reasonably expect of any creature: animal, or human.

No, they would not ask Ol’ Silver and Red to help in handing over the nest of treasure. But they would enlist him to string their make-shift circuitous loop-line. Using every length of rope they’d brought, the young men looped around every column, which was a converged stalactite and stalagmite, creating a floor-to-ceiling column. With all the ropes connected, and each end fastened to the dragon’s ankles, they had a continuous loop from one dragon ankle to the other running the length of the cave and all the way to the pool of water, looped around several columns.

Before they’d ever ventured from the castle, Ohmie and Blado practiced with the ropes strung around a set of trees, like a rope fence encompassing trees in more or less a straight line. Harnessing a team of horses, the young men proved, in theory, that the connected ropes could continuously loop the trees.

At the last moment, Ohmie untied the catgut cords, dismissing it and the balloons as too risky. As Ol’ Silver and Red would run to the pool, according to their plan, the cords would break at the first resistance as the rope burned around the columns. Since they might not have such an opportunity a second time, the risk was to be all on Ol’ Silver and Red. If the ropes were not long enough, he could drown in the watery tunnel from pool to lake. Not only did the four not want Ol’ Silver and Red to drown, they would also lose the gold. Ohmie and Blado hoped the miles of rope would be sufficient.

It took more time, but it was well worth every stressful moment. Fortunately, the beast of burden slept.

The young men staged barrels of water beside each column. Ohmie’s job was to douse the heating columns with the water as Ol’ Silver and Red’s tether rope tightened around it. Their concern was two-fold: one, that the rope not burn in half, and two, that the rope slide around the moistened columns as fast as Ol’ Silver and Red raced down the tunnel cave. It wouldn’t do to break Ol’ Silver and Red’s legs anymore than it would to break the rope.

Blado shattered glass jars as he had so many weeks past, waking the slumbering giant. Blind and startled, Ol’ Silver and Red missed the tunnel from the cavern, slamming into the cave wall just beside the tunnel entrance, shaking it off. He made it on his second try. Then, tangling in the rope, he tumbled onto his snout. Furious, he belched flame as best he was able down the chute, scorching off all the loose fibers of the hemp rope.

Ohmie’s column broke the instant the rope tensed around it. Ohmie’s heart leaped into his throat. He ran to the second column, soaking it long before the whip-sawing rope began to ensnare it. It too broke, the rope sailing through the fracture following after Ol’ Silver and Red. Again, Ohmie frantically raced to the next column – this time too late. It was broken even before Ohmie reached it. The next column was made of more sturdy stuff, holding firm, even though a channel was quickly etched into it, making a groove for the rope. Ohmie labored furiously, dousing the warming rope from the barrel of water. Before long, the barrel was empty, and the rope began to burn against the column as it glowed from the friction.

Unable to keep the rope from smoking, and afraid it would burn in two, Ohmie kicked at the rope-burned groove as hard as he could, breaking the column down. The rope loop raced to the next column, breaking it upon contact. Ohmie was soaking the next column just as the rope began circling. It had to hold, since it was the very last column encircled. Blado began to douse the column, as well, after jump-roping Ol’ Silver and Red’s leash.

Suddenly the rope stilled, completely stopping its encircling of the column. Either Ol’ Silver and Red had stopped in the watery tunnel, perhaps returning to finally eat them, or he had reached the lake. Three miles of rope played down the waterway. Only about thirty feet lay above the pool. That meant that it was a mile-and-a-half to the lake’s surface, presuming that that was where Ol’ Silver and Red stopped.

Princess May watched for Ol’ Silver and Red in the area she’d seen him rise the last time. She did not see any bladder balloons. She and Prince Shauconnery paddled a make-shift canoe out onto the lake, hoping Ol’ Silver and Red would not be of a mind to kill and eat them upon his appearance. Fortunately, Ol' Silver and Red bobbed to the surface belly up, gently rolling upright. Emboldened by having ridden, driven even, the great silver and red dragon, Prince Shauconnery dove from the boat, severely tipping it and nearly spilling his sister, the Princess.

The water was dark and shadowy beneath the brute. Prince Shauconnery knew he’d not have another chance with the rolling and thrashing dragon. He finally managed to snag one of the ropes, electing to pull it to the surface rather than chance drowning while trying to untie it underwater.

Princess May knew that both rope ends were tied to the dragon’s ankles that the men, for whatever reason, had elected against the cords and balloons. She watched carefully as Ol’ Silver and Red bobbed on the water’s surface. After maneuvering her vessel a distance from the dragon, the rope firmly in her grip, she gently tugged on the end attached to one of the dragon’s legs, matching his rocking motion. Soon her opportunity came. Just as Ol’ Silver and Red rolled precipitously, banking hard against the water, she yanked with all her might, tipping him completely over. Prince Shauconnery cut the end tied to one ankle as Princess May cut her end. Ol’ Silver and Red was free of the binds, and they had their loop intact.