Freezing Wings

Chapter 18

My stomach fluttered, the now familiar feeling of weightlessness still making me giddy. I remembered the first time I had flown, about three weeks after we had escaped. It felt the same now, seven years later, as it did then.

The combination of cold wind and lack of solid ground beneath me was sort of freeing. The world seemed to stop as I went high in the sky, the only thing being the whistle of wind in my ears and the ground far below.

The flight was unfortunately short, and in less than two minutes of leisurely gliding along, the north shore came into view. A pair of Kymari were standing near the edge, gazing out onto the ice. I flew over both of them, skirting their far left and over towards the mountain. I was on my way towards the cliff to find a good spot where I could take a nap in peace before dusk.

The two saw me, watching closely as I made my way around them. I glanced at them before I sped up again, soon leaving their line of sight and into the forest.

I landed at the base of the mountain, in a place hidden behind a pile of boulders. Behind them there was a tunnel, blocked by a particularly big boulder. I moved it out of the way and entered the tunnel, rolling it back in place behind me and walking through a series of twists and turns until I finally reached another boulder. I moved that out of the way as well and climbed into a stairwell, crawling up the stairs and out into the commons. This was our sort of way of making sure we didn't get any sort of unwanted guests trying to peek into our caves.

We had practically turned the inside of the mountain into a neighborhood, numerous caves and hallways connecting everyone like an interstate. About a year after we had broken out people started settling down and hooking up, starting families.

Our kind mated for life and had up to two children for each pairing, and although we had lost many from blunders while adjusting to our new life, our population kept going up, from 40 to near 100 and rising quickly[1].

[( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)]

We had dug out a space nearly ten times the size of an aircraft carrier for us to live in, excluding the personal caves, and were still working on expanding. None of us, whether it was the original fifty or the young generation, liked compact spaces.

It was kind of ironic, us hating small spaces and cages, yet having no problem living underground. Although I had been miserable underground in the facility without sun, living in a spacious cave where I got even less light that before was perfectly fine.

There were hundreds of staircases connecting everyone, caves branching off from the hallways. Most just had a doorway with nothing impeding the flow of traffic. The ones that had a boulder blocking the way were usually someone's work room or bedroom, unless it was a mated couple, then it was usually the entire home.

Glowing crystals lined the hallways and illuminated every crevice. A pair of fledgelings were lounging on a precipice forty feet above my head, using their flame to keep cool. The inside of the mountain was kept at a chilly negative fifty degrees Celsius, well below the outside temperatures. Our species was specialized towards the freezing tundra, and we only started really feeling it near absolute zero, something that couldn't be achieved on earth naturally.

The stairs that I was walking on were carved in by a dragon named Jess, one of the first hatched in the new generation. Most of the entrances to the caves were accessed by flight, either too high up or too difficult to get to on foot. But she was terrified of flying, so she had to find another way to get to her cave. She and her mate had taken a year to create a way for her to get around, a system of stairs that turned into a long term project. Although they had reached to nearly every place accessible, they were still doing it, just so she could get around to everyone without being terrified.

They had finished the first set in a week nearly six years prior, yet was still getting gifts for it. Their cave was decked out with the largest collection of gems and sculptures that I had ever seen in my life. And she deserved every single one of them, it was a huge help. Young dragonets who couldn't fly yet and were too heavy to carry easily were now able to get around. Whenever we got old, if we got old, we would be able to move around like normal.

I walked through the commons and to one of the back hallways, on my way to the back of the mountain. My cave was the closest to the top, taking up the entire inside of the peak and the highest any of the caves. There was no space to make another a floor above mine, and I had specifically made it that way.