OathBlade (Wattys2015)

55. What Lies Beyond The Snowfields*

Stifling heat and darkness surrounded Elery as she opened her eyes. She was resting on her side, sword just within reach, with her head resting on something she could not identify. As she sat up her head bumped something above her and she reached up to feel around. That which covered her was smooth and warm, easily yielding under her fingertips when she poked at it. It was like a living blanket which sealed out even the faintest light from the moss around them.

She groaned and pushed. The material raised slightly, giving her room to sit up, but could not be removed completely. As her palms explored the covering she heard a low rumble from beside her.

"That tickles, Princess."

"Isandel?" She looked around. "Where are you? Where am I?"

The covering lifted. It was his wing, stretched up and around his forearm and head. He lay curled in a ball with her sitting near his arm. "Good morning. If we can be sure such is the correct time of day."

"I'd not expected to wake up like this," she admitted.

"I woke to you mumbling in your sleep. I understood very little, but your pleading against being alone was quite clear."

Her cheeks heated and she stood. "I cannot recall my dream, but I suppose that isn't new." She picked up her sword. "I thank you for your concern, however."

"You needn't thank me. Your persistent whining was simply too annoying to endure."

She snorted. "You could have moved away, fool dragon."

"And miss a chance to cuddle?" he purred. "Oh Princess, you should know me better."

She sighed and opened one of the packs to retrieve some bread and jerky. The others were all sluggishly moving about, none seeming to have roused enough to be vocal.

Cylphi sat with her own pack, digging through the contents as if searching for something lost, while Vydel and Dakkan ate strips of jerky beside Gaidel's brothers. They'd retaken their seryn forms to eat, which raised a question Elery hadn't immediately considered.

"Can the food you eat in this form sustain your dragon form?"

"It will be enough," one said. "Of course, we will need to hunt large game upon leaving the tunnel."

"We ate well before leaving Suthri," the older said. "With a fair store of fat we can postpone large meals for weeks at a time."

"There hardly seems to be a speck of fat on any of you," Cylphi said.

Isandel chuckled as he transformed. "We simply pack it away more efficiently than your kind. Not often will you find a fat dragon." He let his hair weave a loose robe around himself as he knelt to rummage through a bag.

"You've never met the dragons of the far north, then," the third brother said with a laugh. "Fattest of our kind I've ever seen."

"I fathom you would pack away a few pounds in the thick of everlasting winter," Vydel said.

"I've only ever seen painted canvases and image crystals of the northern world," Elery said. "Vast fields of snow, thick-needled trees and bushes, ice spires twisting up toward the sky...I'd fancied traveling there as a child to see the sheets of ice and Morthfire Glacier. Stories of it claim that at sunset the last dying rays shine through and the ice becomes a fire crystal. The northern countries protect it fiercely."

"Is it so important?" Vydel asked.

"Some attempt to break it apart for water," Cylphi replied as she broke a loaf of hard bread. "The landlocked water surrounding Lyewryn is Leria's largest source of water. Most northern cities are forced to collect snow or tap the frozen lakes. During times lacking in snowfall, water becomes a hard commodity to obtain."