The Icy Quest

Chapter 27

As they walked further into the recesses of the mountain, Pagoniá squinted to see into the darkness beyond the faint light of Pozhar's flame. Although the outside archway into the tunnel had clearly been made by human hands, the interior of the tunnel looked more like a series of narrow caves than an actual constructed tunnel.

As Pagoniá's eyes adjusted to the dim lighting of the passageway, she began to make out the shapes of what looked like stalactites extending down from the ceiling and stalagmites reaching up from the floor of the caves. The side walls of the passageway were literally covered with them, making the walls look like they had been decorated with spectacular looking teeth while the center of the caves was empty and relatively clear of obstacles.

"I've always wondered how those are made," Pagoniá commented, pointing at a prominent group of stalactites and stalagmites. "They're fascinating."

"They're made by dripping water that leaves calcium deposits behind. Eventually the deposits build up enough to become visible," Pozhar explained.

"It's really cool how you know so much about so many things," Pagoniá acknowledged. "You're really smart."

"It's nothing," Pozhar said with a shrug. "I just remember almost everything I see or hear, so I pick up little bits of knowledge everywhere."

They continued walking in silence. After a while, Pagoniá started to notice a gradual downward slope to the passageway they were following.

"Do you know how far above sea level we started?" she asked, wrinkling her brows. "Because, uh, it looks like we're actually going downhill just slightly."

"Don't worry, we're at least twenty yards above sea level right now," Kryasavra assured her with a swing of her head. "And we'll be fine until we're at least one hundred yards below."

"Wait," Pozhar began, tilting his head and narrowing his eyes. "How can you tell?"

"As a dragon, I have kind of a natural inner barometer. I'm able to sense changes in atmospheric pressure that alert me to how high I am flying and tell me when I am getting into dangerous territory where there isn't enough oxygen to breathe," Kryasavra explained.

"I've never heard of anything like that before," Pozhar doubted, shaking his head. "Maybe it's just an ice dragon thing?"

"Maybe," Kryasavra conceded as she fluttered her wings gently to match her flying to their slow progress through the mountain.

"Look at all of those caves! I wonder where they go!" Tilepátheia exclaimed, examining all of the openings that branched off the main passageway they had been following. "I can only imagine what might be down there. We have to explore them!"

"I think we should stick to the straight path and postpone that adventure until we've found the weapon and defeated the fire people," Pagoniá suggested sarcastically, rolling her eyes. "We have a more important task right now, and it doesn't involve exploring and getting lost in a maze of caves."

The passageway ended abruptly as they reached a huge cavern with such a high ceiling that they couldn't actually detect it. There was a large, circular stone enclosure in the center of the massive opening. Scattered all over the floor of the cavern were deep grooves that looked as if they had been forcefully scored into the hard rock. As Pagoniá, Tilepátheia, and Pozhar made their way deeper into the cavern, Pozhar's flame chased away the darkness to reveal primitive paintings of dragons in flight decorating the wall nearest to them to their right. This wall also sported the same deep scratches as the floor, and it ended with an opening to a much larger cave than the one they had been following into the cavern. They could hear faint whistling noises emanating from this opening as well as feel intermittent gusts of air blowing into the cavern from it. There was also a faint light source coming from somewhere inside the opening. All the evidence suggested that the opening led to an exit out of the mountain.

Pagoniá, Tilepátheia, and Pozhar stood motionless in the midst of the cavern for a long moment as they each quietly took in the details of their surroundings. There was something about the atmosphere in the cavern that made it feel almost sacred.

"I think this is an ice dragon's lair!" Kryasavra exclaimed, pumping her wings rapidly. "That stone enclosure looks just like the nest in which I was hatched! And the paintings of the dragons on the wall resemble my mom."

"I've never thought to ask you about your family," Pagoniá realized, hanging her head. "I guess I never thought to wonder about where you came from when I thought you were just a lizard."

"It's okay. I don't have much of a story to tell. I hatched in an underground cave in the desert that looked very similar to this one," Kryasavra confided. "When I was only about a week old, my mom went out to hunt for food and never came back. Since I was old enough to feed myself, I left the cave and went looking for her. That's why I was out in the desert when you found me."

"Did you have any siblings?" Pagoniá asked. "Were there other ice dragons living nearby?

"No, I was very much alone. I didn't have any siblings," Kryasavra answered regretfully. "And my mom is the only ice dragon I have known. That's why it's so exciting to find evidence of ice dragons here."

"Oh no!" Pagoniá burst out, slapping her hand on her forehead. "I had no right to name you. You probably already had a name given to you by your mom."

"Actually, dragons choose their own names when they are around two weeks old," Pozhar interjected.

"Ooooh, you definitely messed that up, didn't you, Pagoniá," Tilepátheia taunted, laughing.

"I hadn't done that yet when you found me," Kryasavra indicated, smiling at Pagoniá. "You saved me the effort of trying to think of one."

Uncomfortable with the conversation, Pagoniá looked away from the rest of the group and intentionally changed the subject of their conversation.

"So this is what a dragon's lair looks like?" Pagoniá asked, steering them all back to the original topic. "I didn't know that they were this huge. And where did the scratches come from?"

"Well, dragons never stop growing, so given that they can live for centuries, they need a lot of space. They also need room for dragonets, which are what baby dragons are called, to learn to fly in," Kryasavra explained. "The scratches come from dragons scraping their tails against the floor or sharpening their claws on the wall. I saw my mom do that in our cave."

"Do you think whichever dragon lived in this cave had dragonets?" Pagoniá inquired curiously, looking around the cavern once again.

"Yes. These look too small to be made by a full-grown dragon," Kryasavra confirmed, jabbing her tail in the direction of some smaller scratches on the nearest wall.

"This is all thoroughly fascinating and everything, but if we're not going to get to do any exploring, we need to keep moving," Tilepátheia dictated, settling her hands on her hips. "I am super tired of being in this mountain."

They headed toward the perceived exit tunnel and were rewarded with bright sunlight and bitterly cold wind as they left the shelter of the mountain and stepped back into the elements. "That was awesome," Pagoniá declared with a slight bob of her head. "We cut a whole lot of time off our trip and got to see a dragon's lair as an added bonus."

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Cool dragon lair. And I need votes and comments!!!!!!