Elmer frees the dragon and escapes Wild Island

Elmer frees the dragon and escapes Wild Island is the rescue that ends Baby Dragon’s captivity and carries Elmer and his new companion beyond the island’s reach. The escape succeeds not through the animals’ river-crossing system but through its comic collapse: while Elmer cuts the rope, the pursuers ride away on a line of Crocodiles distracted by Pink lollipops. Freedom arrives in two linked acts—severing the restraint and refusing to go back.

Causes and Stakes

Baby Dragon’s captivity began about four months before Old Alley Cat arrived on Wild Island. He had fallen from a low-flying cloud onto the riverbank, too young to fly well and unable to return because one wing was badly bruised. The animals treated his arrival as a solution to their inconvenience: they tied a big rope around his neck and waited for the wing to heal so he could ferry passengers across the river.

Once his wing recovered, the animals trained Baby Dragon to carry people and loads across the river, working him all day and sometimes all night. The account Old Alley Cat gave Elmer makes clear that this was not willing service. The loads were too heavy; complaints were answered by twisted wings and beatings; and Baby Dragon remained tied to a stake by a rope just long enough to cross the river. Old Alley Cat had promised to help him, but had not known how. The rope was exceptionally tough and knotted so densely that untying it would take days.

The river’s crossing apparatus makes the coercion visible. At the bank, Elmer finds a high flagpole with a rope running over to the far side, through a loop at the top, and down around a crank. A sign tells users to yank the crank to summon the dragon and to report disorderly conduct to Gorilla. Elmer understands the rope’s other end is around Baby Dragon’s neck. If Baby Dragon is on Elmer’s side, Gorilla can twist his wings until he flies back; if he is on the opposite bank, Gorilla can crank the rope until he risks choking or has to return. The mechanism offers no safe choice to its captive: it turns his body into the means by which the animals control his movement.

The Rescue Under Pressure

Elmer considers climbing the flagpole and crossing the rope hand over hand, but the pole is very high, the river is muddy, and he does not know what unfriendly creatures may be in the water. Calling Baby Dragon would risk alerting Gorilla. Before Elmer can commit to the dangerous crossing, a Crocodile speaks from the water and lures him with the promise of a swim and a craving for something sweet. The danger is immediate, but the Crocodiles’ appetite also provides the opening that makes Elmer’s plan possible.

As Elmer fixes the seventeenth lollipop for the last Crocodile, a Wild Boar cries out that the trail has led to the river and that the Crocodiles have made a bridge. Elmer leaps to the far bank, but a Wild Boar jumps onto the first Crocodile, leaving him little time. Baby Dragon recognizes that Elmer has come to rescue him, runs out of the bushes, and calls urgently for him to hurry because the pursuer is coming over the Crocodiles too.

Elmer goes straight to Baby Dragon with his very sharp jackknife and begins sawing through the neck rope. He tells Baby Dragon to stand still and reassures him that they will make it. The interruption is crucial: Baby Dragon’s calls express his fear and hope, but the cutting has to continue while the danger closes in. If Elmer cannot finish in time, he tells Baby Dragon they can fly across the river and he can complete the cut on the other side. Even in the rescue’s most pressured moment, escape is imagined as a shared effort rather than a return to the old crossing routine.

The Pursuers’ Reversal

The chase gathers force as Elmer works. Both Wild Boars, all Seven Tigers, two Lions, the Rhinoceros, Gorilla, and countless screeching animals are crossing on the Crocodiles while a substantial length of rope remains uncut. Baby Dragon keeps urging Elmer to hurry; Elmer again tells him to hold still. The contrast is stark: the pursuers move together across the river, while the rescue depends on the stillness of the one person Elmer is trying to free and the small, careful work of a knife against a massive rope.

Then the apparent advantage of the pursuing animals turns against them. The first Crocodile, having finished its lollipop, turns away from the bank and swims downriver. The second follows while still sucking its Pink lollipop, and the rest go after it one by one. Their appetites and notorious unreliability undo the bridge at the moment the animals depend on it. The pursuers are carried down the middle of the river in a line, still sucking lollipops, yelling and getting their feet wet. The scene overturns the river crossing’s purpose: a transport system meant to serve the animals’ convenience becomes a vehicle that removes them from the rescue.

Release and Flight

With the immediate pursuit diverted, Elmer finishes cutting the rope. Baby Dragon races in circles and tries to turn a somersault, his excitement marking the change from enforced immobility to movement on his own terms. Elmer is still in a hurry, but waits until Baby Dragon has calmed down enough for him to climb onto his back. Baby Dragon then takes the initiative in their departure, inviting Elmer aboard and asking where they will go.

Elmer chooses the beach for the night and says they will begin the long journey home the next day, directing Baby Dragon toward the shores of Island of Tangerina. The dragon rises above the dark jungle and muddy river, leaving below them the bellowing animals and the Crocodiles licking Pink lollipops. The journey home is not completed in this scene, but the immediate escape is: Elmer and Baby Dragon are airborne, beyond the river mechanism and the animals who controlled it.

Refusal to Return

As they pass over Ocean Rocks, a small, excited voice from Wild Island calls that the animals need their dragon. The cry exposes the old arrangement in its simplest terms: the animals still regard Baby Dragon as something their river crossing requires. Elmer and Baby Dragon know that nothing will make them return. Their escape therefore does more than interrupt the forced ferry service. It ends Baby Dragon’s participation in it and rejects the claim that the animals’ convenience gives them a right to his labor.

The ending pairs comic reversal with an unambiguous change in power. The pursuers’ noisy procession becomes a helpless ride downriver, while the once-tethered Baby Dragon carries Elmer away by choice. The destination remains ahead, but the decisive outcome is already secure: the rope has been cut, the captive has left Wild Island, and neither companion will go back.