FanStory.com - Ol' Silver and Red, ch 13by Wayne Fowler

In the last part Ohmie, Blado, May, and Shauconnery liberated as much of Ol’ Silver and Red’s bounty as practical. Rescuing a floating barrel, May crossed an ancient bridge, unaware that the troll, Bruke, lived below. Bruke captured May, knocking her unconscious.

Chapter 13

May’s “sja-aug” scream carried across the lake, bouncing off the mountain’s sheer cliff walls. It carried to Ol’ Silver and Red who perked his ears, awakened from his listlessness by a distant memory.

Ol’ Silver and Red’s given name just happened to be Sjaug, given him as a kit by a wizard named Merlin. It was Merlin that taught him to appreciate jewels, starting with a King’s crown. And it was Merlin who’d sealed him inside the mountain. He’d remained sealed until he dared the long, watery tunnel into the lake. Before the first attempt, he had no idea whether it went anywhere, or narrowed to a tight channel that would trap and kill him. Ol’ Silver and Red was anxious to rekindle the acquaintance. He would like very much to set Merlin ablaze.

As fast as a dragon could fly, he flew to the sound’s source, reaching the bridge just as the troll pulled limp and unconscious Princess May to the surface. Had it not been for the rocky bridge, Ol’ Silver and Red’s flame would have toasted Princess May. The troll stepped out from under the stony cover, holding Princess May toward the dragon just as the flame ebbed.

That was the moment Princess May came to. Seeing in whose arms she was bound, she began to fight – tooth and toenail. The troll’s attention was momentarily diverted from the dragon. Too late, he turned back to Ol’ Silver and Red. Bruke, unable to do anything but look into the dragon’s mouth at the teeth that bit off his head.

Princess May slithered from the dying troll’s arms into the river that flowed beneath the bridge to safety. Ol’ Silver and Red spat out the foul, nasty troll head, and flew off, much more timidly, toward the relative protection of the mountain, spitting vile troll parts along the way.

Back to the treasure pile, Princess May and Prince Shauconnery busied themselves cutting pine boughs to cover the hoard of jewelry that had mounded over the accumulated containers until they could no longer be seen, completely inundated by coin, brooch, and glittering danglements.

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There was a final matter unresolved for Ohmie and Blado, namely, Ol’ Silver and Red. Climbing down from the mountain, Ohmie and Blado heard first, and then saw him in a canyon between steep ridges between the lake and the mountain range. His growl was a low, menacing rumble, something of a cross between a lion and an elephant. All vegetation within a hundred feet of him was burnt to ash. They left him alone, blinded by his drooping eyelids circling a lone fir tree as children might a mulberry bush.

The two discussed killing methods and options on their way to the Prince and Princess, settling the matter just as they caught sight of the others. Prince Shauconnery whooped a welcome and Princess May dashed full bore, heaven-bent-for-leather, and intent on rewarding her Ohmie with kisses not soon forgotten.

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Quarter shares. Prince Waynard, Ohmie, insisted, acting more in his official capacity. He and Blado could have filched and purloined all of it, justifiably stealing away with every coin and jewel, but they were not that sort of people. They had honor, and honor begged honorable behavior. Which in this case demanded they consider where the wealth first came from, whose land it was found on, whose help assisted in the capture and collection, and what was to be done with the rest of Ol’ Silver and Red’s life, however long dragons live.

Blado restored his father’s nobility, increasing his domain by purchasing the mountain range housing Ol’ Silver and Red’s cavernous lair. Who could have known that the granite held veins of silver, copper, and lutetium? Prince Shauconnery took his share home to his father’s Kingdom, which would one day be his own. Princess May did as well. King Herb awarded the better part of her share as her dowry for the day she and Waynard married – the happiest day of their lives up until then when each next day was happier than the previous.

Near the lake, on land given by Blado, Waynard and May built themselves a modest home, large enough to house a family of five kids. Just down the lane they founded and christened a university they called Ockshford where they employed teachers of the highest caliber to study the universe and train men and women commissioned to open schools and teach the children of the land their numbers and letters.

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One day Prince Waynard and his new brother-in-law, Prince Shauconnery hiked out to where Ol’ Silver and Red had last been sited. Waynard and Blado agreed that Prince Shauconnery, eventually to be King Shauconnery, should be able to take credit for having subdued the dragon. But how could they kill the beast after he’d saved Princess May? And after having snatched all his treasure? Especially since he hadn’t hurt anyone – at least to their knowledge. Clearly, they could not. The damage he’d caused to the castle window, or hole in the castle wall, had long since been repaired. And the cost was far less than they’d taken from the dragon.

And he had saved Princess May’s life, whether purposefully or unintentionally.

No, they couldn’t kill Ol’ Silver and Red.

Sneaking up behind him, Waynard, acting more like Ohmie than his princehood, and Prince Shauconnery cautiously crept up his back to the knife handle and the attached reigns. Ohmie was certain the dragon was not surprised by their arrival, or unaware of their mounting. The silver and red dragon’s modest startlement at Ohmie’s flick of his ear seemed to be faked.

Ohmie gave him his sight. Once Ol’ Silver and Red finished with his aerobatic temper tantrum, Ohmie set a course for the crevice cave opening near the top of the mountain. Once landed nearby and Prince Shauconnery safely dismounted, Ohmie carefully tied one eyelid at a three-quarter droop, allowing bare minimal dragon sight.

It took a moment to realize he’d been released, but once understood, their dragon friend shot skyward, arcing downward and into his lair-leading shaft. But not before shooting a torching, singeing, furnace blast at the two humans. Prince Shauconnery, in front with his sword, raised all the while as if in a victor’s pose took the brunt, his clothes falling to the ground in an ash pile, his skin permanently reddened.

With a hundred Chinese celebration blasting poppers, Ohmie closed the crevice opening, crashing house-size boulders down the shaft. Should Ol’ Silver and Red ever leave the safety of his lair again, he’d not be returning to it.

No one ever saw him again, though there were mysterious losses of jewelry and consistent reports throughout the land of unexplained, char-broiled animal carcasses. Ol’ Silver and Red was charged with the crimes, but more and more over the spanning generations, grew less and less tangibly believed in.

P.S.

One day, 657 years later, a grinding, rock-chewing, cave-making machine’s rumble inched its way through a certain mountain, clearing a path for a brand new four-lane highway. The crunching noise traveled through the granite to a cavernous cavern, where a certain silver and red dragon fired up his eyes within his long-since-healed eyelids.

Chapters next?

For those of you who’ve read this little novella (nearly 20K words), the tale is concluded. However, it occurred to me that there might be more to the Ohmie, May, Blado and Ol’ Silver and Red band of friends.

There could be an invasion from the hinterlands. Or an invasion of space aliens. There might be a swarm of evil dragons who maraud the countryside every three or four hundred years killing livestock and people just for the fun of it.

Ohmie might train Ol’ Silver and Red in the art of heavy construction, laying impossibly heavy girders and beams.

Ohmie and May might convince Ol’ Silver and Red to fly them on worldwide adventures.

I would like to develop Ohmie and May’s love for one another, but that might not be appropriate. I don’t think I would enjoy Frodo in a passionate love affair in the middle of his quest (possibly fatal) in dealing with the ring of power. The deviation from thrilling action to the throes of passion might be too jarring. It might work for a romance novel to introduce a harrowing action scene, but maybe not an action thriller where Rambo goes all kissy-face stupid.

I don’t expect to produce a chapter a week, but if I did, do any of you have an idea in which direction an audience might find entertaining?