The Icy Quest

Chapter 26

Pagoniá awoke to sunlight filtering through the translucent sides of the ice shelter she had created to sleep in last night. She normally wasn't an early riser, but this morning she was wide awake. Glancing around the shelter, she noted that Pozhar and Tilepátheia were still fast asleep, as was obvious from the gentle sounds of their deep breathing. Kryasavra, on the other hand, was not. Her whole body appeared to be wiggling with excitement, which was an odd look for a creature that resembled a lizard.

"Good morning!" Kryasavra chirped. "I was waiting for you to get up! Look at my new wings!" Although her tiny size had not changed, Kryasavra did indeed have wings where there had only been raised bumps the night before. She whirled around to give Pagoniá a better look at her new appendages. Unlike the fire dragon's large, bulky wings, Kryasavra's were more streamlined, fit for steering in the fierce gales of Antarctica. They were also covered in shimmery scales that caught the light and cast sparkles all over the shelter.

"They're beautiful," Pagoniá admired, her eyes widening. "I didn't know that the growth spurt was that fast. You literally grew them overnight!"

"Yeah," Kryasavra agreed. "I can't wait to try them out."

"Is it morning already?" Pozhar groaned, rolling over in his sleeping bag. "I was having a wonderful dream."

"Good morning," Pagoniá greeted Pozhar. "Can you heat up some biscuits for breakfast? I'm hungry."

"Sure," Pozhar agreed, sitting up and rummaging in one of the bags looking for the leftover biscuits. "But this is the last of the biscuits. We're going to need to catch some fish or something some time soon because our supply of food is quickly running out, and we still have a ways to go before we reach our destination."

"Darn! I'm going to miss eating biscuits," Pagoniá moaned. "By the way, which way are we headed now?"

"That way," Pozhar informed her, pointing at the mountain looming off in the distance directly out the front entrance of the shelter.

"What did he say?" Kryasavra asked, swishing her tail. "I wish I could understand human language. It is so frustrating to watch everyone's lips moving and not understand what is being said."

Pagoniá relayed the conversation to Kryasavra. Tilepátheia sat up and stretched with a huge yawn just as she was finishing.

"I have an idea," Tilepátheia announced, crossing her arms and appearing to stare off into the distance for a moment.

"What?" Pagoniá asked curiously.

Without answering,Tilepátheia tilted her head down toward her chest and closed her eyes for what seemed like an eternity. Finally, she opened her eyes again and looked back up.

"That was harder than I thought it would be," she declared with a sigh.

"I understood what you just said!" Kryasavra exclaimed excitedly, looking at Tilepátheia. "What did you just do?"

"I tied a kind of mental knot among all of our minds. So whatever Pagoniá hears you saying is automatically transmitted to me and Pozhar, and whatever we say is transmitted through Pagoniá to you," Tilepátheia explained. "It was exhausting but worth it. The whole having to translate thing was extremely annoying."

"That's amazing," Pagoniá declared, shaking her head. "I had no idea you could do all these things with your powers."

"I'm awesome. What can I say?" Tilepátheia responded with a laugh. She crawled to the entrance of the ice shelter and peeked her head outside. "Incidentally, can you make a new sled?"

"Of course," Pagoniá affirmed. "But why? What's wrong with the other one?"

"Nothing, except for the fact that it is MIA. I'm guessing it would be easier for you to make a new one than for us to figure out where in the world the old one went," Tilepátheia explained, rolling her eyes.