A sharp cough startled Fredric out from under the shroud of his dark memories.
"You are in actual fact, deep beneath... Antarctica, the South Pole," boasted the human whatever-he-was. "In part of the very same chamber that your kind entombed those with a radically different view of the world. How ironic don't you think?"
Fredric's control faded as a look of total and utter shock creased his cold and haggard face.
'The South Pole,' he thought to himself. 'But that's where... Troydenn, oh my God... please no... not that, anything but that.'
"You begin to understand now; I can sense it in you. But know this. What you see and what you can guess are just the tip of the iceberg. Your kind will pay for what they did here, pay with their lives and the lives of all the humans on the planet. Events are unfolding even as we speak. In a relatively short space of time, you could be one of only a handful of dragons left alive on the planet. A comforting thought, don't you agree?"
Fredric's face was a mixture of anger and puzzlement as he glared at the monster disguised as a human that stood before him.
"I sense you have a question... dragon."
In his anger and confusion, Fredric had given up on staying silent, instead deciding to press ahead in the hope of gaining as much information as possible.
"It just isn't possible that anyone could have survived this long in this... environment!" shouted Fredric.
"Ahhh... but we did survive and now, now it's time to fight back, to reclaim what's rightfully ours and bring scum like you to your knees."
Shaking his head in frustration, his matted, icy hair swaying from side to side as he did so, Fredric refused to believe what he'd just heard, hoping against hope that it was just a desperate ploy to somehow wrangle information out of him. But however hard he tried, he just couldn't see how. With pent up anger threatening to overwhelm him, he lost his cool and screamed at the beast in front of him.
"What part do you play in all of this? You're certainly not a dragon, so don't try and tell me that you were encased in this icy prison all those years ago. Also, if what you say is true, all the dragons here would either be dead, or so old that they would present little or no threat to the king, the council or the dragon domain."
It felt good to Fredric to vent some steam, so to speak, and he could tell by the murderous expression on the being's face that he had provoked a reaction. He just hoped that he hadn't gone too far and signed his own death warrant. Taking stock, he carefully reined in his temper, remembering how important it was to stay alive, while the human shaped whatever-he-was sneered in contempt at him.
"You can be very sure of one thing... dragon. Those that are left here are a very serious threat to everything on the planet. And best of all, your kind have no idea what's going on, and by the time they do... it will all be too late. The planet will be ours to do with as we please."
From a distance, the naga king looked on, but had managed to listen in on every single word, thanks to his excellent hearing.
Fredric, meanwhile, was only just starting to grasp the seriousness of what was going on. At first he thought the being was all bluster, trying to lure HIM into a trap. But the way the being was talking now... that was something different altogether. Not mad as such... Fredric was sure of that. And it wasn't so much what he said, although that in itself could send shivers down a being's spine, even in a place like this. No, it was the way he'd said those things, with purpose, truth and conviction. Over the course of his career he'd met and defeated enough mad men, women and dragons to distinguish between those deluded about their ideas and those with the power to follow through on what they said. Here was a purely evil being, his orders to put to death the human shaped dragon scientist proved that beyond any doubt, but the way he spoke and carried himself clinched it. Fredric knew a real threat when he saw one, and he was a hundred percent sure that the threat from this one was real enough, even though he only had one small part of the puzzle that formed the whole picture. From whatever madness was being plotted here, the entire dragon domain and the world itself faced a terrible danger, a danger that couldn't be allowed to go on unchecked. He had to escape... and soon.
"As for my part in all of this... let's just say that if I told you, you wouldn't believe me," bragged the human shaped imposter.
"Try me," prompted Fredric, desperate to find out anything that could be of use.
The human shaped whatever-he-was seemed to consider Fredric's request. Moments later, he responded.
"This... place," he said, waving his arm around to signify the whole cavern and beyond, "is all I ever really knew. You see I was born here, and grew up here."
Fredric's legs nearly buckled. It was all he could do to remain upright.
'Impossible,' he thought. 'It's just too damn cold, he must be lying.'
"You don't believe me... dragon, do you?" the human shaped being spat. "But you see... it's true. Look around you. This was my nursery, my school, my playground. It was all I knew. Oh I was told about the outside world. It was described to me in graphic detail, but it might as well have been a fairy story for all it was worth. I knew nothing but this frozen, desolate cavern. You think you've had it bad, decades here. That's nothing compared with my time here... NOTHING!" Scratching madly at the stubble occupying most of his face, thoughtful about whether to continue or not, the being eventually decided, much to Fredric's relief, to carry on.
"I was stuck here, the first of my kind, lonely, helpless and with no chance of escape. Until one day, one of his kind," the human shaped whatever-he-was gestured towards the naga king with his thumb, stopping to glare in the same direction, "one of his kind came out of the stream, just over there. Just exploring, or so he claimed, he was shocked to find a whole colony of dragons living under the ice. Ahhh what a day that was... the day we started to take back the planet," mused the human shape.
Fredric looked on in astonishment as his breath froze in front of his face.
"Luckily for us, they're not very intelligent creatures," continued his captor, referring to the nagas. "It took very little ingenuity to convince them to meet with us, spinning them a tale about what dastardly plans the dragon king and his council had for them. With this in mind, a meeting with their king was hastily arranged," recalled the being, turning and grinning in the direction of the naga king, who was listening to everything. "As soon as he arrived, we ambushed them, killed the rest of the contingent and captured their beloved king, and he's been here ever since. His loyal subjects do pretty much whatever we want, because if they don't, we'll send him back to them, a piece at a time."
Fredric caught the naga king's gaze out of the corner of one eye, knowing only too well that the king was biding his time, another one waiting for the right opportunity. The human shaped whatever-he-was continued, almost unable to stop boasting about his part in the wicked events of the past.
"Of course the first thing we got them to do was take a couple of us out of this frozen wasteland. It wasn't easy, but it's amazing how quickly they managed to come up with some magic to help us breathe and keep us dry and warm underwater, under the threat of violence towards their king. After that... well, a quick hop off this continent, up to America and Europe, enlisting a whole host of allies and Bob's your uncle. One ready-made army, fit to take back the planet. Even to this very day, the nagas still do our bidding, disguising themselves as humans, infiltrating every community on the planet. It has taken decades to get ourselves into a position to be able to bring our plan to fruition. But very shortly everything will start to take shape and the world that orbits the sun then, will be very different to how it is now."