The Dream of Shadows

Chapter 8

            "How much longer is this going to take?" Hayden shouted from atop Draek, high above the village that was supposed to be on their way to the Ice Keep.

"We are making good time silver rider, won't be much longer now," Klarack yelled back. Dy'slin gave a short, faltering roar that summoned the other white dragons to the air.

"I thought we were going to be on our way to the Ice Keep yesterday, how much longer? We need to get to the other tribes before they get to the keep." Cass asked as she and Shaylin flew to where Hayden and Klarack were.

"We should be able to get on our way this afternoon; these things take time but trust me they are moving fast for Frost Fangs. Normally we wouldn't leave for another five or six days. We will beat the other villages there, trust me." Klarack waved to them as he spoke, making it seem that their delay was of no consequence.

Four other white dragons and their riders flew from other parts of the village and converged on Klarack. He turned to face his fellow Frost Fangs leaving Hayden and Cass to fly back to their own group.

Draek and Shaylin proceeded to glide down to where the others were waiting to be off. They had been packed up and ready to go since the previous day when they had first learned of the summons by the Metallic Riders. They had assumed that they would be taking off almost immediately to begin their trek across the Frozen Tundra.

This had proved not to be the case. The Frost Fangs had insisted that it was bad luck to take a trip like this in the middle of the day. They said that one must finish the day that they had started and begin the journey the next day, dedicating the entire day to the task.

Hayden and the others didn't understand what the point of that was, but they had learned that there was no convincing the Frost Fangs of any other way. As it turned out dedicating an entire day to their journey entailed them painstakingly going through every item they owned and trying to figure out what to take with them and what to leave behind. They would carefully go over each piece of leather and each tool by hand, usually asking second opinions of those who lived closest to them as to which to leave and which to bring with them.

It was becoming more and more apparent as the sun moved further across the sky that they were most likely not going to be traveling anytime soon.

Hayden undid his straps and slipped off of Draek's back, landing knee deep in a patch of snow, as soon as Draek had hit the ground.

"I take it we are not about to leave?" Rimney asked. Farius was curled around where she was sitting and as she stood up, one large blue eye opened. All the dragons were surviving in the frozen land, but it was obvious that they preferred the heat to the cold. Their movements were not as smooth or precise as normal and most even wore frost on their scales. Farius seemed to be faring far worse than the others. He appeared to be more of a frozen dragon than a blue dragon. His scales were even peeling off in places like dried skin.

"Not yet, Klarack said soon, and the Frost Fangs seem to be moving, but it doesn't look like they are in any hurry to leave yet," Cass answered.

"We can't sit here and wait forever," Rimney said under her breath. She looked back at her blue dragon as she spoke.

"If we leave without them, we wouldn't be able to find the Ice Keep easily, and if we did make it in time we would have to go through convincing each village just as we had with this one," Hayden complained. He hated their situation just as much as the others did, but he didn't know a way out of it.