It wasn’t just him who had heard it. Kayla was aware of the rumbling as well, which suggested that if nothing else, it was real.
It didn’t come again.
He hesitated, but then he started forward again, up the face of the mountain. He hadn’t been lying when he’d told Kayla it was time for them to return. They’d visited the cave, found the ice dragon gone, and had wandered along the stream long enough to search for anything else, but there was nothing else out. A storm was coming, and the wind and cold swirled around them. Kayla’s lips were growing bluer, which told Jason that she wasn’t nearly as tolerant of the cold as she pretended. She was strong and had grown up out here, the same as him, but she didn’t have the same resistance that he did.
As they headed up the slope, the rumbling sounded again.
Jason hesitated.
He listened, trying to understand.
Gradually, the rumbling intensified, picking up speed.
Rumbling in the mountains can be only two things. Storms or…
“Avalanche,” he whispered.
Kayla looked over, her eyes going wide.
If there was an avalanche, neither of them should be out in the open. He glanced back down the slope. It was too hard to see, but they would need to make it to the cave. It was the only place he could think of that would offer any protection, and yet, he didn’t know if they could get there quickly enough.
He sent out a summons to the ice dragon. He pushed through his connection to the dragon, using the sense of the cold, using that sense of the dragon within him. In doing so, he could feel the energy rolling away from him, and he tried to grab it, to do anything in order to call to the dragon, but there was no response.
The sense of the avalanche continued to intensify.
Jason looked around. They had to find protection.
On this part of the mountain, there was no shelter from the elements. It was them and the wind. Nothing more. The only protection they had was the cave, and that was far enough away that they weren’t going to be able to reach it.
Jason focused on the heat he could summon. Thankfully, he was wearing his dragonskin, and he was warm enough. He used the summoned heat, letting it flow through him, and he pushed out through the iron dragon glove.
It exploded from him and formed a hole in the snow.
He grabbed Kayla, pulling her into the hole, and hunkered down.
With the shelter around them, he looked out at the swirling wind. It was a makeshift cave, and as soon as the avalanche flowed over them, they would be trapped. It was possible the snow would fill the new cave that he’d formed, and it was possible they might not survive, but he thought he could push outward, using the power from the iron dragon to perhaps blow the snow away.
The avalanche reached them.
It did so quickly, snow at first dribbling over the edge of his new cave, and when it struck the barrier he had formed with the iron dragon’s energy, it steamed.
More and more snow collapsed on them, and as it did, it formed a burst of moisture around them. Jason held on to power, and he pushed against the avalanche. He’d never tried anything quite like this, and he didn’t know if he had enough power to do so. With his connection to the iron dragon, it was possible to hold on a little bit longer. He needed to hold out as the avalanche crashed around him, and if he could, he might be able to maintain protection for him and his sister.
The snow cascaded, filling the inside of the cave. Kayla cried out.
Jason drew on more power. It flowed outward from him, a surge of heat.
The rumbling thundered around him. It reminded him of the dragon battle, the cacophony of noise that came as the dragons were thundering around him, the way they’d clawed at each other, tearing at each other, and yet this was all the work of nature.
It seemed to go on forever. He had last felt an avalanche like this farther down the slope; he couldn’t remember the last time he’d noticed one this high in the mountain. It was unusual, and mostly because his people did a good job of trying to trigger avalanches higher up so that they didn’t get caught beneath them. There was always quite a bit of snow in the upper reaches of the mountain, but never so much that they should be trapped.
He held on, gripping his sister, his arms wrapped around her as the snow continued to crash around them. He squeezed, afraid of letting go. The longer that he held her, the more he felt that he needed to draw more power. The problem was he didn’t know if he possessed more power. He was drawing everything he could through the iron dragon, gripping the glove tightly, squeezing it and letting power flow through him. Jason added a hint of energy coming from the ice dragon, and even that wasn’t enough.
The snow filled the inside of the cave.
They had enough air, and with the pressure that he formed, they were safe.
With the weather being what it was, the wind whistling around them, this avalanche was different. It was tied to the storm. Perhaps the cold had made the snow unstable.
His sister cried out again and they huddled together, neither saying anything as the storm continued to rage around them, the cascade of snow falling, and he held on to power, no longer pulling with nearly as much.
His breath was shaky.
How long would they be able to withstand the ongoing trembling? How deep would the avalanche cover them?
Those were the thoughts that filled his mind. He waited, counting the moments as the rumbling persisted, waiting for that time when it would finally end.
And then it was done.
He sat there, shivering, but not because of the cold. With dragonskin, he was rarely cold.
“Is it over?” Kayla asked.
Jason took a shaky breath. “I think so.”
“I’ve never felt anything like that before.”
“I haven’t either.”
“Had you not…” Her gaze drifted to his hand. She had questions about it, but he had never answered them before. He had never wanted to.
“I did what I was able to do,” he said.
They waited for a few moments, and then began to dig.
Jason pushed through the snow, using heat through the iron dragon glove, letting it flow outward from him. It struck the snow, melting it around his hand, making it easier to dig. The snow filtered around them, falling, and Kayla cried out.
Jason hesitated, looking back. The snow was surrounding her.
He needed to try something different. They had to dig out of here, and he had no idea how deep the snow was, and yet, each time he disturbed the snow, it swirled around her with even more force.
It was almost as if he wasn’t going to be able to dig them out.
“Hold on to me,” he said.
“Jason?”
“Just hold on to me.”
She grabbed his waist.
He thought about telling her to use his legs, but decided that wasn’t going to work either. She was scared, and grabbed on to him tightly. He wasn’t going to tell her how to hold. Instead, he began to dig. He used power, drawing from the iron dragon, but also through the ice dragon, letting that strength fill him, and he pushed at the snow, exploding outward.
He had expected it to blast outward, the same way he had experienced the power exploding other things, and yet the snow seemed compacted, and it absorbed his explosion. He tried everything he could, and yet there was no way to push past the snow.
He sat back. “I can’t get us out.”
Kayla whimpered.
There were plenty of people in the village who had been caught in avalanches over the years. The stories of them were many, and just as many were the search parties that went out from the village, looking for anyone who might be lost, and yet, he doubted anyone would come for them. They had gone out early enough, and they had gone in a direction that few others would travel. It would be difficult for anyone to find them, and he knew better than to expect anyone to come for them.