The Icy Quest

Chapter 29

Tilepátheia shed her multiple layers of coats. "It's so much warmer here!" she rejoiced. "Even the cave wasn't this warm!"

"I have to agree with you just this once," Pozhar said with a grin. "What should we do now?"

"Pozhar, you go find edible plants," Tilepátheia ordered. "Kryasavra, you should try to catch some fish. I know you're small, but you can at least try."

"Actually, I think my second growth spurt might be starting," commented Kryasavra. "I won't be small for much longer."

Turning to look, Pagoniá saw that the dragon was right. Kryasavra was getting visibly larger by the second, seeming to stretch out her scales to the point where they no longer looked connected to each other.

"How long has it been since your first one?" she asked, wrinkling her brow. "It feels like it has been less than a day."

"There is only about twelve hours between growth spurts," Pozhar explained. "It makes sense that the second one would start around now."

"How long does it last?" Pagoniá inquired, intently watching the changes happening to Kryasavra's body.

"Well, she should continue to grow like this for a few hours. After we go to bed, she will shed her epidermis, you know, her outer layer of skin, a few times to accommodate her rapid growth. She should be full adult size shortly before we wake up in the morning," Pozhar clarified with his finger on his chin and his head tilted up toward the sky as if he was reading a textbook in his mind.

"While that's all true, I'd really appreciate it if you would stop talking about me like I'm not here," Kryasavra requested, flicking her tail.

"Oh, I'm sorry," Pagoniá apologized.

"It's okay. I understand. It has to still be weird for you to talk to a non-human," Kryasavra acknowledged candidly.

"Back on task!" Tilepátheia demanded with her hands on her hips. "Kryasavra, fish. Pozhar, get some plants we can eat. Pagoniá, do something useful. The food isn't going to come to us."

"Okay, okay," Pozhar agreed with a sigh, walking away to take a closer look at the vegetation and trees growing near the lake where he had previously spotted carrot and potato plants.

"Now that I've gained some size, I should have an easier time catching some fish," Kryasavra declared. "But what are you going to do while everyone else is working?" she asked, looking directly at Tilepátheia.

In response, Tilepátheia made what sounded like an unintelligible growling noise. Kryasavra looked about as astonished as she could with her limited facial expressions.

"How did you learn Dragon?" Kryasavra asked, shaking her head back and forth in bewilderment.

"That was Dragon?" Pagoniá practically shouted. "How did you learn to speak Dragon?" Turning to Kryasavra, she asked "What did Tilepátheia say?"

"I paid attention," Tilepátheia answered matter-of-factly before Kryasavra had a chance to reply. "And I said, 'I'm going to practice my Dragon.'"

"How did you pay attention in a way that helped you learn?" Pagoniá inquired, scrunching up her face.

"I can hear both the translation and what Kryasavra is actually saying," Tilepátheia reminded them. "I just figured out which growl meant what word, and voilà! I now speak some Dragon."

"Maybe you could teach me while Kryasavra catches fish?" Pagoniá proposed. "I would really like to learn."

"I'm not sure I can take any more surprises, so I'm gonna go catch fish now," Kryasavra declared, flying off.

"Well, can you teach me?" Pagoniá repeated, looking intently at Tilepátheia.

"I guess so," Tilepátheia reluctantly agreed. "To start with, 'Growr' means 'okay.'"

"Gror," Pagoniá enunciated.

Tilepátheia shook her head. "No, 'Gr-ow-r,'" she corrected, sounding out each syllable.

"Gr-ow-r," Pagoniá articulated again, wrinkling her brow.

"Yes, better," Tilepátheia declared with a nod of her head. Pagoniá had learned a few more words before Pozhar reappeared with his collection of edible plants, fruits, and vegetables. He walked slowly toward them, trying to balance the pile of food in his arms. It was a mix of carrots, potatoes, lettuce, plums, apples, and other foods. When a potato fell to the ground, he cautiously stooped down to pick it up, causing a few other potatoes to tumble out of his arms.

"You're doomed," Pagoniá joked. "You can't win."

"Yep. I'm doomed," Pozhar agreed, sitting down and allowing his pile to spill out of his arms onto the ground. "The plants around here are amazing. I could identify a lot of varieties I've seen before, mostly cold-weather crops. But there were also several exotic ones that I have never seen, even in a book."

Moments later, Kryasvra flew over them with eight silver fish, each about six inches long, clutched in her talons. She was now the size of a very large dog, and she was still growing in front of their eyes.

"You should roast these," she told Pozhar, dropping all but one of the fish in a heap next to him. She settled lightly onto the ground a few feet away with a final pump of her wings. Then she promptly devoured her remaining fish and curled up into a ball.

"I'm going to take a nap. Growing is exhausting," she informed them, her eyes already sinking closed.

One by one Pozhar picked up a fish and laid it across his open palms. He then created a carefully controlled fireball all around the fish to roast the meat to perfection. Twenty minutes later, all the fish were cooked.

"I can't believe I'm saying this, but it's really nice to have a fire person with us," Tilepátheia commented. "These fish are good."

"They're delicious," Pagoniá agreed, picking the meat off the bones and popping it into her mouth, savoring each juicy bite.

After finishing up a quick meal of fish, an apple, and some lettuce, she stood up and wandered over to the spring, scouting the area for a sheltered place to sleep for the night. Finding no obvious solution, she returned to Pozhar and Tilepátheia, who were still enjoying their food.

"It's too warm for me to make an ice shelter that won't melt this close to the hot spring," Pagoniá stated. "Do you guys have any thoughts on where we should sleep tonight?"

"Why don't we camp under the apple trees," Tilepátheia suggested with a wave of her hand. "They will provide some protection from the wind, and if we wake up hungry, we can just grab an apple."

Taking her suggestion, Pagoniá found a smooth patch of ground underneath one of the apple trees and spread out her sleeping bag. Laying down, she curled up and fell asleep almost instantly.

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Tomorrow, they will ride Kryasavra to the weapon. You are running out of time to vote and comment.