D.K. Holmberg
Forest Dragon
1
The cold was biting, tearing through the upper slopes. The longer Jason was here, the more he began to question whether his sister would be able to tolerate the same cold that he could. For his part, he felt it as an overwhelming sensation that filled him, almost more than he once could bear; and yet, with his dragonskin clothing and his connection to the ice dragon, he was better able to handle it than he ever had been before.
“I don’t remember it ever being this cold,” Kayla said.
She let out a breath that steamed in the air. Her head was covered by a thick fur hat, and the black fur jacket should have kept her warm, but with as cold as it was, it was possible it wasn’t doing nearly as much as it needed to. Without the dragonskin jacket, Jason wasn’t sure if he would have been able to tolerate it as well.
“Father used to tell me—”
“Father used to tell you many things.” She smiled as she said it, though it looked forced. “What can you tell me?”
Jason had spent so much of his time thinking about what his father had taught him that he often neglected his own observations. His father’s lessons wouldn’t help when it came to the dragons. Not that Jason knew, at least.
Which meant it was up to him.
What did he know?
It’s cold. Too cold.
“I don’t remember this kind of cold either, which means something else is going on,” Jason said. He had no idea what it was.
He focused on the distant sense of the ice dragon. He had to be out there, and yet, Jason couldn’t find his location. If the dragon was involved in the unusual cold, then perhaps that would explain things.
Only, Jason hadn’t seen the dragon for the last few days. He was aware of the sense of the dragon, but he hadn’t spotted him. It left him worried, wondering whether something had happened, though with as much power as the dragon had, he had a hard time thinking anything could have happened to him.
Jason motioned for his sister to follow, and they made their way along the snowpack, winding quickly. She said nothing as she trailed behind him. Jason still didn’t know whether or not she was bothered or afraid of the dragon. He knew how he had reacted. He had been terrified when he’d first seen a dragon.
Kayla seemed to tolerate it much better.
There was something else about it, though. For her, it seemed almost as if the dragon gave her a sense of hope she hadn’t had for quite some time. It was a sense of purpose. Jason had gone with his sister many times, trudging up and down the face of the mountain, giving her the opportunity to see the dragon again. Most of the time, the dragon remained hidden. He’d revealed himself for Kayla, but he had gone into hiding again shortly afterward.
And now they were searching for any movement.
In the weeks that he’d been back, he continued to wait for Therin and the Dragon Souls to appear. With every passing day, he felt a growing certainty that something would change. And yet, he’d been able to fall back into a pattern, one where he could wander and roam, though no longer alone as he had been. He went with his sister, traveling with her and having company he’d never enjoyed before.
We aren’t hungry. That’s another change.
And because of that, a sense of relaxation flowed between them.
“I can’t believe you spent much time outside like this,” Kayla said.
“Most of the time, it wasn’t quite as cold as this,” Jason said.
“Most of the time?”
As she turned to him, a gust of wind caught her, sending her staggering back.
He reached for her, catching her arm before the wind sent her tumbling downslope. With enough initial force, she could slide quite a ways down the mountainside. Jason might have some way of using power, but he didn’t know what would happen to his sister if she were tumbled down the side of the mountain. He didn’t want to risk it.
“Most of the time,” he said.
They should return to the village. The cold was far more biting than usual, and the swirling snow made it difficult even for him to see much. He might have dragon sight, but Kayla did not. He might have the ability to notice heat and the difference in temperature, but with as cold as it was, there was no noticeable difference. It would take a significant change for him to be able to detect anything.
He was determined to continue his search, checking to ensure there was nothing else out here to be worried about. He wanted to be alerted if there were any signs of dragons.
It was a strange thing to be hunting for dragons rather than looking for food. For the most part, he’d spent his days searching for food, but now with the ice dragon, he no longer had to worry about that. The ice dragon helped, hunting alongside him and providing him with the necessary resources. Without that, he would have been forced to go in search of rabbits or squirrel, or try to find deer, but now he had plenty.
From what he had been able to determine, he and his family were the only ones.
The village suffered. It was why Reltash had tried stealing from him. The hunters had found it difficult even on the back face of the mountain, and many had gone hungry over the last few months. It wasn’t something that Jason had heard much about. For the most part, he stayed out of the village gossip. Typically, he hadn’t been a part of it because he hadn’t been a part of the village. Ever since his father’s death, there had been a wall between his family and the rest of the villagers. It wasn’t intentional—at least, Jason didn’t think it was—but most people found it hard to talk to him and his sister. And then with his mother being as sick as she was, that difficulty had been more pronounced.
“I don’t see anything,” Kayla said.
“I don’t either. I think it’s time for us to head back,” he said.
Kayla sighed. “I just want to…”
“What?”
“It’s hard. I understand I need to help Mother, but I can’t help but feel as if there’s other ways for me to be useful. There has to be more for me than just sitting around, waiting for her to wake. I feed her. I cook. And I trade for the necessary items in the house, but…”
Jason thought he understood. It was the reason she’d been so eager to go after the dragon. She had wanted a sense of purpose.
And it was different for him. He had felt a sense of purpose, though he hadn’t gone looking for it. It was as if the sense of purpose had come for him.
A steady rumbling built, and Jason frowned.
It reminded him of the dragon, but he didn’t think that was the case. He would have been aware of the ice dragon had it been near. And though he knew the dragons might come looking for him, he saw no sign of them, either.
His hand throbbed. He glanced down at the metal surrounding it. He found it difficult to keep a glove on it, almost as if the iron dragon pearl had formed its own sort of glove, but in cold like this, it began to ache in a way that it didn’t otherwise. It was stiffer, too.
He pushed on a hint of power, letting it roll through him, letting it fill the hand. In doing so, he was able to remove some of the stiffness. It took energy and effort on his part, but in order to lose that stiffness, he was willing to use it. Besides, it also connected him to the iron dragon, and in the time he’d been back in the village, he had lost sight of where the iron dragon was. He had no idea where he was hunting, and if he was even safe. It was different than what he felt with the ice dragon, where he had a vague sense of how to find him.
“What was that?” Kayla asked.
Jason shook his head. He tried to peer into the darkness, to penetrate the swirling snow, but his eyesight wasn’t that good. He focused on the power of the ice dragon, drawing it through him. If nothing else, he wondered if he could use it in order to better understand what he’d heard.