Uncanny Tales of Crush and Pound 12

by Christopher D. Carter

  “Where is your captain, young soldier?” she quickly asked.

  “He has gone forward to the mountain with Princess Beni,” Rodrick answered, and Queen Dowager’s visage darkened with the news.

  “Then there is no time to waste. We must find Beni and the escaped prisoners, and if need be, squash any resistance,” she commanded, and the soldiers all came to attention at her words. She looked at Rodrick and grinned a wicked smile. “What is your name and rank, good soldier?”

  “Sergeant-at-Arms Rodrick Portcullis, my Queen.”

  “Captain Rodrick Portcullis, you will follow my lead,” she said as she waved him closer with a flippant gesture of her hand. Pleased with the good fortune of his sudden promotion, Rodrick snapped the giants into formation, and they pressed in closer to her in a tight circle as she steeped her hands together in a spell. There was much ground to cover, but Queen Dowager was a powerful giantess when her will was fervent. A white globe of light enclosed the group, lifted them high above the walls of the smoldering castle, and shot out through the forest trails toward the mountain.

  **********

  Pound sidestepped around the outer edge of the elevator shaft to keep the abyss between himself and the giant velvet ant on the other side. The Queenmother craned her head forward and gazed at the Soul of the Mountain that rested in his arms through the complexity of her composite eyes, and all the while her antennae inspected the cabling that connected the elevator from the top of the ceiling to the bottom of the great mine chamber below.

  “Do you not find my true appearance pleasing, my companion?” she spoke through the clasping jaws, and Pound felt a queasiness in his stomach as he stood opposite the horrid creature.

  “I’m sorry I can’t hang out with you, Queenmother,” Pound answered. “You remind me too much of my aunt,” he jested and then leaped down the hole in the elevator shaft. The Queenmother gasped at the insanity until she understood that Pound had used his free arm to catch onto the cabling. With his legs wrapped tightly around the twisted steel, Pound slowly lurched down the open space to the open chamber of the mine below. She gurgled and her mandibles flinched back and forth until what must have been laughter began to echo against the walls, and Pound nervously looked up at her ever-growing face. Yet she was not moving; why was she growing? Gazing downward, he understood his mistake and her folly. The elevator was traveling up, and he was on the wrong cable. The other cable was descending with fury, and when he was within a few feet of the Queenmother’s level, he swung over and chanced a transfer. At first, his hands burned with the chafing of the steel cable’s frayed edges, but he gained purchase and descended with great speed down the elevator’s route. His injured wrist was swollen, and he relied heavily on his other arm and both legs for stability. With the cold, steel surface of the cable against the skin of his thighs, Pound wished that he still had his pants on and not the kilt that wrapped around his waist.

 

  “Hah!” he laughed at her as he descended quickly away, and Pound smiled to himself with the small victory. The cable thrummed like a banjo string with the pull of the machinery, and he felt an odd sensation running down his arm, though he was bound so tightly in place that he could not see the backside of his wrist. Twisting his head around, he noted the dark red blotch that gathered between the cable and his arm, and the hair on his arm was matted with the liquid. “Blood,” he thought to himself as his sturdy grip on the wire was loosened with the lubrication of his own bodily fluids, and he began to slide faster to his doom. There was nothing for it. Pound’s body had lost its adhesion to the cylindrical surface of the cable, and he plummeted toward the approaching elevator car.

  **********

  “Keep moving!” Crush yelled at the straggling crowd behind him. They were obviously tired from their long night marching, but the sound of the dragon’s rage reverberated through the tunnel, and it was only a matter of time before the beast forced his way inside. Crush had no doubt about the beast’s abilities; Scalus Mountain had collapsed in rubble around the serpent’s lair, and yet here he was. “He wants this tooth pretty badly,” he muttered to himself and shook his head in awe at the persistence.

  With Crush in the lead, the crowd came upon a single kilted guard within the tunnel, no doubt alerted by the sounds of their footsteps and the dragon’s tantrum. At first Crush thought that he may have to tackle him to get by, but the guard’s eyes were as large as saucers, astonished by the size and urgency of the crowd. The guard wisely stepped to the side of the corridor to let them pass.

  As they turned the last corner past an empty guard shack, they entered the vast open chamber of the mine. The workers that had been toiling in the ground that morning looked up in surprise at the arrival of the shaggy group of prisoners, and the guards that stood by with whips were quickly overtaken and disarmed. Crush stood out in the great open room and held the dragon’s tooth above his head as he announced his return.

  “Sean!! We’re back!!” he yelled, and his voice echoed emptily throughout the chamber. Crush waited for a few seconds, yet there was no reply. “Sean!!” he yelled again and waited. Scanning the many levels of the walls, he saw only freed men, restrained guards, and baffled miners.

  “Where is he?” he asked himself. Then he noticed the cargo elevator that lifted from the floor and traveled upward. The door was open, the light was on inside of the lifting car, and if he squinted his eyes, Crush could see something moving inside of the elevator. It was a hand, and it was waving side-to-side hurriedly in front of a familiar face.

  “Sean?” Crush said again in disbelief. “What the crap is he doing?” The dwarf was up to something, but Crush was in the dark as to what he was doing.

  The open chamber of the mine stretched upward into the elevator shaft that rose high above, and Sean peeked his head out to look up and gaze at the falling body high above. With a snap of his fingers, he disappeared, and instant later the dwarf was back inside the elevator with a visitor in his arms, a human. It was a man, and he was clearly startled to find himself inside the elevator with the dwarf. The elevator continued its travel upward, and before his captive could get his bearings, the elevator stopped. The door opened, and the Queenmother, the giant velvet ant of terror slammed her legs against the doors and shoved her head into the box to snatch the men with her mandibles. Sean snapped his fingers once again, and the dwarf and the human vaporized together just as the Queenmother’s jaws snapped shut in the space where they had been. From Pound’s perspective, the elevator that surrounded them and the giant ant’s jaws disappeared from existence, and he was surprised and pleased as his emotion mixed all into one frightful exhilaration. An instant later, their surroundings changed, and they appeared at the bottom of the elevator shaft. The human stood quickly to his feet, and Crush recognized him; it was Pound! With the tooth cradled carefully in his arm, Crush went running across the floor of the mine to join Pound and the dwarf where they stood together.

  Pound caught the sudden movement out of the corner of his eye when Crush came galloping to meet them, and he immediately went into a fighting stance with the Soul of the Mountain cradled in his arms. When he recognized his old friend, his shoulders relaxed, and the intensity of the moment fell from his visage.

  “Pound, old buddy! You came back!!” Crush exclaimed as he slugged him in the shoulder. “And you’re wearing a dress.”

  “It’s a kilt, you big pussy cat,” Pound replied with a smile. It had been several days since they had parted company, and neither one knew whether they would see the other again. The words he wanted to utter hung on his lips, and before he could say anything more, the ground shook violently with the dragon’s demolition. Pound spread his feet and steadied himself, and Crush then noticed the blood flowing down his friend’s arms and hands. A frown of concern passed across his face, and he was just about to ask about his injuries when Sean interrupted.

  “Tis good, you both are here,” Sea
n said as he scratched at his chin. “One of you brought the dragon’s tooth, and the other brought the Soul of the Mountain. Fine work, indeed my friends.”

  “Yeah, about the dragon’s tooth. It was still in the dragon’s mouth when I found it,” Crush explained. “It would have been nice to know that before I met the dragon, don’t you think? What exactly will it do to help us anyway?” he asked the little guy inquisitively.

  “It will bring the dragon, of course,” the dwarf explained. Crush’s face immediately turned red, and he brought up his free hand to point his index finger into the face of the little fellow.

  “Do you mean to say, I traveled across this hell of a world so that I could bring back a dragon to kill us all?!! Are you mad?!!” Crush yelled as he bent down to stare face-to-face with the dwarf.

  “Yes. Saying that I am mad is the pot calling the kettle onyx, my friend. It would help you to take a few deep breaths,” Sean said as he patted Crush’s bloated red cheeks.

  “The least you could have done was tell me that’s what you wanted!” Crush replied with great irritation. He liked having a full understanding of a mission when it was given to him, and he certainly did not expect to be toyed with by the dwarf.

  “The important thing, my friend, is that you did return.” Sean then looked over at Pound, reached out, and gently touched his arms. Tiny sprinkles of light filled the air around the wounds, and Pound felt a prickly tingling race through his arms and hands at the dwarf’s touch. Pound then raised his hands and looked them over carefully. The open wounds had closed, and the bleeding had ceased. His injured wrist had also stopped throbbing, and the swelling had dissipated. He could move his hand and fingers with no pain or tightness, almost as if the fall had never occurred.

  “Now that’s a nice trick, little guy,” Pound said in amazement at the dwarf’s abilities. “Thanks for breaking my fall. I thought I was a goner,” he added and then addressed Crush. “I know you’re upset, but we could use one of these guys around the office. Are you sure you want to hold a grudge on this little guy?”

  “Not really, but if you haven’t noticed, the mountain is falling apart because a dragon is pounding his way in,” Crush retorted as the ground shook with the violence of the dragon’s relentless attack on the cavern. “That beast will dig his way inside in a few minutes at this rate.”

  “The dragon’s not the only one to worry about,” Pound said as Prince Argentine strode out into the great hall surrounded by twenty of his finest soldiers. None of the freed prisoners cared to step foot within the dispute between Argentine and Crush and Pound, and soon the heroes were surrounded by shiny, golden spearheads. “Any ideas?”

  “You could teleport us out, couldn’t you?” Crush warily asked the dwarf.

  “The time for hiding is over,” the little fellow replied as he checked a phantom watch on the back of his wrist. They could see nothing except fine hair on his forearm, but Sean seemed to be able to glean some useful information from it. He looked up at the gathering crowd of soldiers, and he issued a warning. “You all are a very brave and hearty group, no doubt. But let me warn you that you have ten seconds to clear out of here before the dragon arrives.” The soldiers grew wide-eyed as the ground quaked and the ceiling shook, and Argentine’s army scattered like roaches at the flick of a light. Soon Argentine stood alone and unguarded amidst the crowd of freed prisoners, and with all eyes on him, he suddenly felt naked in front of the angry mob. He was saved from certain capture by the disintegration of the stone ceiling on one side of the enormous chamber, and daylight found its way to the dusty floor of the mine. Blinded momentarily by the sudden surge of radiance, everyone in the room cupped their hands over their stunned eyes to protect them from the swift change in ambient lighting. The shadow of the dragon then hove into view, and Crush, Pound, and Sean stood in awe of the great beast.

  **********

  Swallowing her fear, Beni called upon the last of her magical strength to bolster the protective shell that surrounded Captain Colere, Simon, and herself, and she strode out purposefully toward the dragon’s backside. The creature had dug a new tunnel into the mountainside until he had reached a fissure within the mine, and Beni could only guess that if she did not act now, Crush’s life would be taken from him in the same manner that her father’s life had been seized from him so few years ago. They ran at a sprint to hurriedly reach the dragon, and with her sword already drawn, Beni sliced the keen blade across the scales of the serpent’s crusty backside. Her blade swung true while it reached out through her protective shield of magic, and one of the dragon’s mighty wings fell to the ground with a thud. Stunned by the sudden attack, the dragon turned his head to face Beni, and he hissed his displeasure at her interference. To her credit, Beni did not hesitate, and she swung the sword again, but this time, the dragon was prepared. He caught the blade in his claws, opened his mouth wide as his belly turned bright red, and then breathed a storm of fire directly on the blade. The temperature of the sword escalated rapidly, and Beni was forced to release her grip on the scorching blade. The dragon yanked it from her hands, and with a wild swing of his body, he flung the weapon into the forest at the edge of the field. Unarmed, Beni stood opposite the beast, and she wondered just then if she should have thought her actions through more carefully before she acted. Her magical energy was ebbing, and the creature’s attack had only just begun. Before, she had been worried about Crush. But now, who was going to saving her?

  The dragon hesitated only long enough to summon fire, and he belched a white-hot flame that covered the protective shell from her head to the ground.

  **********

  The Queenmother peered down from the balcony of the elevator shaft, and she watched the ongoing destruction below with great interest. She had known the dragon well as a youth, and she had dreaded the day when he made his return to the mountain. That day had arrived, and she was ill-prepared for the consequences that may come as a result. The dragon had been driven mad that fateful day they had fought together against the giants, and she knew that if he recognized her, then chances were good that he would blame her for his condition in life.

  But the Queenmother lusted for power, and the Soul of the Mountain had been taken from her. Dragon or no, she would take back the artifact that had been stolen from her. She bounded over the edge of the chasm, and though she had no wings, she glided on the hot winds of the dragon’s breath toward the humans below. If the guards were afraid of the dragon, that was no concern of hers. She would steal back the gift that had been nicked from her bedroom by Pound.

  With all eight legs spread confidently open, she gracefully landed unnoticed on the hard cavern floor behind Crush, Pound, and Sean as the severed dragon’s wing fell to the ground.

  **********

  With the dragon momentarily distracted with his injuries, Sean reached out and grabbed the Soul of the Mountain from Pound’s hands, and he closed his eyes to murmur some ancient chant under his breath. Immediately, the dragon ceased his destruction and froze into place where he stood. There was a crackling of the stones along the surface of the ground, and from every direction, the loose rocks that littered the floor began to tremble and roll toward the dragon’s feet.

  “That’s bizarre! It’s like watching a movie rewind,” Pound commented as the tiny stones and boulders rolled uphill to cover the dragon’s body. Crush and Pound watched the battle of the giants come to an abrupt end, and they were astonished by the power that Sean and the Soul of the Mountain displayed over the dragon. Beni held her protective shell intact, but she clearly was relieved at the dragon’s sudden immobility. The stones kept rolling up the serpent’s body to cover his skin in a granite casing, and soon, only his head remained uncovered.

  Then they heard Sean cry out from behind them in pain, and when they snapped their heads around, they witnessed the unraveling of their salvation. The Queenmother had opened her jaws wide, and she had snatched Sean’s hea
d between the pincers. As she held him secure in her vise-like grip, she seized the Soul of the Mountain from his hands.

  “How dare you lay hands on royal property, dwarf!!” she declared as the magic created by the talisman was broken. With the dissolution of the enchantment, the spell that had immobilized the dragon was now gone, and the stones tumbled from his scaly skin as the serpent’s mind awoke and shook off the dwarf’s control. “It is mine!!” she shouted.

  Suddenly a gunshot rang out from the ledge above, and the giant ant froze in her motions as if time had come to a halt. Blood slowly poured from the Queenmother’s abdomen onto the ground, and from behind a loose boulder, Calvin Smith stepped out into the daylight. The Queenmother’s jaws opened, and she dropped the dwarf to the ground along with the Soul of the Mountain. The dragon then reached out a claw and took the Queenmother, his old friend and now wounded villain, into his arms, and a sense of mercy passed across the serpent’s face as he looked upon her agony.

 

  “Your days of kidnapping are over,” Calvin said aloud as he lowered the pistol to his side. The old man had risked his life to get back to the mines and to help his friends in any way that he could, and he had saved Sean from certain death at the Queenmother’s jaws. He had also enraged her allies with his actions, and they were not happy with him at the moment. Prince Argentine bolted from behind a hidden crevice in the chamber, rushed the old man where he stood, and wrestled him to the ground. There was another gunshot, and Calvin’s body lay still with Prince Argentine on top. The dragon’s rage grew as he held the Queenmother in his claw, and his belly grew white hot as he looked on at the struggle between Prince Argentine and the old man who had shot his friend. The beast cared nothing for either man, and his mind was set on vengeance. He roared in fire and wrath at the two men, and the dragon engulfed them in flames.

  “NO!!!” Crush cried out in anguish over the old man’s death, and his cry drew unhealthy attention from the great creature of fire. The dragon turned on him, and his eyes squinted to focus on Crush. He was prepared to deep fry the cat-man where he stood. Frightened for his life, Pound kept his head, and he quickly picked up the child of stone from the ground. Dragon fire roiled in the belly of the beast, and the dragon opened his mouth to draw in a great breath of morning air. Sensing danger, Pound hastily spat out the magical words which the dwarf had recited just moments earlier.