"Somewhere inside you, the little dragon must be desperate to get out and beat me senseless," mocked the human shaped whatever-he-was, trying to provoke a response.
Focused on his breathing, Fredric tried using what little of his dragon abilities he could access to see if he could fathom anything at all about this mysterious visitor, now that he was standing right in front of him. It wasn't quite instantaneous like it used to be when he was free and at the height of his powers, but his dormant dragon senses awoke at his request, reaching out towards the being in front of him, searching for anything, anything at all. Fredric locked gazes with the stranger across the two feet or so that separated them.
In essence what Fredric was doing would go unnoticed by most dragons, and should certainly not be very taxing. But because of the environment and his incarceration, this simple little action was taking its toll. His muscles burned, his head ached, even more than it did constantly. Still he ploughed on, determined to gain what little insight he could into what was going on, thinking of all the time he'd spent there, all the brutality, everything he'd missed in the dragon domain, and how he'd let down his friend the king. All this had the desired effect, spurring his efforts on, washing away some of the tiredness. Through the haze, he caught the tiniest glimpse of something familiar, but for the life of him he couldn't work out what it was.
Shaking his head, and grinning just a little, the human guise in front of him quipped,
"Ohhh... you're good... yes, much better than I'd anticipated. Did you find anything?"
Fredric let his dragon talents drift back down to the place inside him where the cold normally forced them to reside. Sweat trickled down his forehead and his long, matted hair from the exhaustion of using just a fraction of his powers. Reeling a bit from the fact that the human shaped whatever-he-was could tell that he'd been using his abilities, he knew that no ordinary dragon would have been able to do that, if that's even what he was.
"For someone who's been locked up for so long, you still show a tremendous amount of courage and guile. It's a real shame you couldn't join us. More like you would enhance our forces beyond measure. Unfortunately I sense you'd rather die than take up arms against your kin. Am I right?"
Inside, Fredric was deeply shocked by what he'd just heard, however he remained motionless. Not a flicker of recognition crossed his face.
"I thought so," guessed the human shaped whatever-he-was. "We never did find out what it was you did for your kind. All this time and we still have no idea. I have my suspicions of course, but I don't think there's any way that I could get you to tell me the truth. You'd rather die of course, something that can be arranged, by the way."
Fredric puffed out his well honed chest just slightly in a gesture of defiance. Long ago he'd faced up to the fact that he might just die in here without any of his friends or family ever knowing what had happened to him. That's why he was able to take the beatings and the torture, thinking of himself as dead, but never giving up hope that one singular opportunity might present itself to earn back his life.
His captor chuckled as he slowly limped around him, again staying just out of range. Although depleted of dragon magic due to the severe cold, he knew that the prisoner was more than capable of inflicting serious damage with just his physical strength if need be.
"I do respect your bravery and courage. Part of me really does wish it could be different. You're the sort of warrior I would pride myself in fighting alongside."
Fredric gave no reaction at all.
'There's something about this being that's very dangerous,' he thought. 'And boy, do I know dangerous.'
"Why do you continue, dragon?" asked the human guise in front of him. "Why do you exercise your muscles? Why do you plot and scheme? Why, oh why, do you continue to believe escape or rescue is even possible? Please enlighten me... dragon?"
Every atom in Fredric's body wanted to break free from the chains and snap the human shaped whatever-he-was in half at the way he said 'dragon,' wiping the smug grin off his sneaky looking face forever.
"Ahhhh... you want to hurt me... I can feel how angry you are... dragon."
Still he didn't react.
"I admire your restraint. I don't think I would be able to control myself as you do if our roles were reversed. Perhaps a little reward is in order, particularly in light of the fact that you're not going anywhere any time soon."
Fredric wasn't quite sure what the human shaped whatever-he-was was playing at, but he was pretty sure it was a game of some sort and was determined to remain vigilant against some sort of information trap.
"Do you know where you are?"
Fredric remained totally silent.
"Come now dragon, why so coy? You won't be giving away any information to me. Why not just answer my question? Do you know where you are?"
Against his better judgement, Fredric responded.
"No," he whispered.
"There, that wasn't so bad was it?"
Fredric had no idea where on earth they were. Oh he could guess, and he had, countless times, but it was just that... a guess, figuring probably in or around the Arctic Circle somewhere, or maybe deep beneath the Alps in Europe. Realistically though, he could be anywhere in the world where it was cold.
'At least if he's going to reveal where we are, it might help if I ever do manage to escape,' he thought, still more than a little weary of whatever the being in front of him was up to. It was then that his mind shot back decades to the mission he'd been sent on by his friend, the king. In Germany, with two of his trusty comrades, they'd been tasked to retrieve something that had been taken from them. It should have been relatively easy really, certainly with all their dragon powers. But right from the start, little things started to go wrong. Equipment failed... odd in itself. The phones in the hotel they shared would ring for no apparent reason, and when answered, no one would be on the other end, it just cut off. Strange noises emanated from the other rooms, and there was just something odd about some of the members of staff there, not least the manager who always seemed to have his eye on them. One of his comrades had expressed doubts, urging him to call off the mission, but stubbornly he'd refused to listen, putting it all down to coincidence and an active imagination on the part of all three of them. As it turned out, he couldn't have been more wrong. They'd walked into a trap, a trap that had been planned specifically for them, or for dragons at least. In an attempt to fight, his two comrades had been killed, cut down by machine gun fire, not three feet from where he'd stood. Despite overwhelming odds, he'd almost got away, but something, or someone, had surprised him from behind, something he wouldn't have believed possible, and from what little he could remember, had rendered him unconscious.
Looking back now, it was all more than a little hazy, particularly in light of the length of time he'd been stuck in here. But one thing was for sure, and he'd had decades to go over and over it in his mind, whatever it was that had surprised him, he hadn't sensed it... not even a little. A being of some sort had sneaked up on him just when he'd thought he'd escaped, and had knocked him out, without him ever getting a sniff of anyone ever being there. To this day, he still couldn't explain what had happened that night. All that he remembered after that was waking up in this frozen hellhole, and the rest as they say is... history.