Otto and the Dragon

Chapter 7: Silence!

Otto awoke to being placed none too gently on the ground and the sounds of growling, snarling, and of large heavy objects hitting the ground.

He opened his eyes, and in the blur between dream and consciousness, he saw one large half-troll grab the other two half-trolls, who were grappling and rolling around fighting, and pull them away from each other.

“Stop!” demanded the lead half-troll, holding his two squirming underlings as far apart as his arms could get them. “What is going on!” he yelled, peering back and forth between the two squirming figures. He held them by the backs of their shirts and being about a foot taller than either of them, managed to elevate them off the ground so that they were both just standing on their tiptoes.

“Bud is over there muttering to himself and then he turns and calls me a loud-mouthed tree fairy!” said the half-troll on the left.

“Berk, you’re crazy!” answered Bud, the half-troll on the right. “I was minding my own business, but you were over there talking crazy! I just wanted you to shut up!”

“Lies!” yelled Bud. “Ben, you were right here,” Bud looked at Ben, the leader. “Didn’t you hear the crazy talk?! He kept going on about how it wasn’t safe and the fairy folk were going to get us.”

“That wasn’t me,” Berk yelled, struggling to get his hands on Bud. “That was you!”

“Silence!” Ben demanded. Then he looked over at Steve, who had taken three steps back towards the trees. “Where do you think you are going? Get back over here!” Steve took three steps forward.

“He said...” one half troll began.

“Silence!” Ben interrupted. 

Ben and Berk were silent.

“Excuse me,” said Steve.

Ben ignored the ogre and addressed Berk, “Were you talking about fairies?”

“No!” insisted Berk while Bud answered “yes!” just as enthusiastically.

“What was he saying about the Fairies?” Ben asked Bud.

“That’s it’s dark and the fairies are watching and no one knows what happened to Bob,” said Bud.

“I said no such thing!” insisted Berk.

“What did you say?” asked Ben.

“I didn’t say anything!” said Berk. “Well, not until I told ‘em to shut his trap.”

“Did not...” started Bud but Ben interrupted. “So you both heard it,” said Ben very slowly and he looked around the forest and then over at the ogre. Steve was a good two feet taller than either of the smaller half-trolls and appeared distracted and confused by the goings on more than anything.

“Did you hear anything?” Ben asked Steve. “What?” said the ogre, coming out of his thoughts. “Hear anything? Oh, I don’t know. They both seemed to be bickering back and forth between themselves but I couldn’t make anything out. Besides, my stomach started rumbling,...” but Ben shook his head, cutting off any further explanation. 

Ben said “hmmm,” and looked around the small group again. He was looking at Steve thoughtfully, but then seemed to dismiss whatever he was thinking.

“I don’t care who said what,” Ben said as he looked back and forth between Bud and Berk. “But I don’t want anyone saying anything from here on!”

“But,” started Bud

“Nothin’!” the leader yelled. Both creatures stopped squirming and simply glared at each other. The leader looked up to see Steve trying to casually slip off into the trees again. (How he expected to get out of his ropes, no one knows.) The leader dropped the two half trolls, which apparently caught them by surprise because they hit the ground with a thud, and in three quick strides the leader had grabbed the rope wrapped around Steve’s chest, as well as some of the shirt underneath.

Ben pulled the ogre toward him, forcing Steve to lean forward and lowering Steve’s eyes down to the half-troll’s level. “And that goes for you, too,” Ben growled in a low voice. The leader glared with suspicion at this very unogrelike creature. “I don’t know what you are. I don’t even know if I should bother with you. But I don’t want to hear another word out of you either, do you hear?!”

Steve nodded his understanding, which was difficult because Steve’s head was fairly large and Ben had pulled him in so close that the simple act of nodding threatened to head butt the already enraged half-troll.

The leader released Steve with a push.

“Are we settled then?!” the leader demanded.

“Yes, Ben” both of his followers said. Steve simply nodded his assent. Then Steve raised both hands, which were tied together, and his arms were immobile above the elbow because of the rope around his chest.

“What?” Ben snapped.

“Can we stop for a break?” Steve asked. “I’m about ready to fall asleep on my feet.”

Ben looked at the ogre for several minutes in silence and considered. Finally he said, “No.”

Ben turned, picked up Otto and slung the boy over his shoulder and motioned for Bud, Bert, and Steve to start walking. The two half-trolls marched in front with Steve between them and Ben followed behind. Otto was just beginning to doze off again when he heard a loud thump. Again he was unceremoniously deposited on the ground. Otto squirmed and twisted until he could see what was going on.

In the middle of the road lay the ogre, flat on his face, snoring.

“He wasn’t kidding,” said Bud.

Ben looked at his subordinate and tried to say something, but he was so furious that all that came out was a series of spits and growls. Then Ben turned to the sleeping ogre and started kicking and hitting the sleeping monster. His minions joined in. After several minutes of strenuous kicking and punching and pinching and pulling, the half-trolls stopped and stood over the ogre panting. Nothing. The ogre continued snoring. 

“Well, he certainly sleeps like an ogre,” said one of them.

That almost sent Ben into another fit, but he stopped himself. In short curt commands, he had Bud and Berk turn the ogre over. Then they reworked the ropes so that the ogre’s arms were outside the rope, rather than inside. Ben slung Otto back over his shoulder and walked in front, while Bud and Berk followed behind, dragging Steve by the rope tied around his middle. Lifting his head, Otto could see the two half-trolls huffing and puffing to pull the ogre along as Steve snored blissfully.

“He tried to warn them,” Otto thought.

As Otto was watching, Tyrol appeared, standing in the middle of the Ogre’s stomach. The dragon stretched first his arms and wings, then a quick shake and stretch of each hind leg. Then he turned around three times, curled up in a ball in the middle of Steve’s stomach, and fell fast asleep