Friends to Foes, Foes to Friends

Chapter 6

Maple woke up to the rest of the group hastily packing up. The fire had gone out. He could see a little light coming from the hole in the ceiling, signaling that it was just about sunrise.

I'm still alive?

Maple looked towards the dragon. It was still asleep - but that wouldn't be forever. So he joined the group in packing everything up. He stuffed the backpacks with their supplies, not bothering to stay organized like all the other times.

The dragon had shifted in its sleep during the night - they were able to safely squeeze between it and the wall without waking it up. Maple held his breath as he passed the white scales and spikes of the beast, it almost made a spiky wall. Its loud rasps terrified him. He could reach out and touch the dragon right now - if he was crazy enough.

Once the group was free from the dragon, they hoofed their way back to the entrance. No one wanted to be near that thing when it woke up. They quickly made their way through the winding tunnel towards the entrance - until everything went wrong.

As they approached the end of the corridor, they could see a muffled blue light bleeding down the walls. They slowed down as they reached a white and blue barrier of solid ice.

"No, no, no, no, no!" Lake panicked. "Granite! When you explored the cave last night-"

"This was the only entrance." Granite interrupted. "We can't leave."

"Crap. That's why the dragon didn't kill us last night - it knew we couldn't escape." Copperhead cursed. "The bastard trapped us. Saved us for its damn morning meal."

Maple's eyes were wide as he stared at the icy wall. He knew that ice dragons have an ice breath - but to use it like this?

Did I doom us all by not advocating to kill it last night? Was it just being efficient with its prey? He looked back toward the cave they slept in. What if they are actually smart, but only use it to hunt?

"Break it! Granite, Alpine, try and break it with your swords!" Lake ordered. The two guards drew their blades and began hitting the artificial barrier with the pommels. Small chips flew with each noisy strike. Maple glanced behind him, hoping that the dragon was still asleep and wouldn't wake up from the sound.

Progress was slow - the ice was surprisingly strong too - a few minutes only yielded a small divot barely large enough for a child's fist to fit into, and it didn't even pierce the other side.

We won't make it in time. Maple realized. The dragon will wake up and... and...

A series of growls sounded from behind him. Everyone whirled around to see the dragon had woken up and made its way to the entrance as well.

"This is it." Copperhead breathed. "This is where we die, isn't it?"

The dragon stared at them for a short moment, then proceeded to walk towards them, the humans frozen in fear. What should they do - what could they do? Even if they escaped the dragon now into the tunnels, it could just keep hunting them in the caves until they were too exhausted to run or were cornered.

So everyone was confused when the dragon skirted around them to the side and made its way towards the ice wall.

What?

The dragon turned around, looked at them, then slammed its tail into the ice, shattering it into pieces and clearing the path for them. It stared back at them expectantly, then turned and sauntered into the morning air.

Everyone stood there stunned at what just happened, wind blowing into their faces.

"Did it just...help us?" Alpine asked.