Freezing Wings

Chapter 15

Most of us had expected for us to be in a frozen tundra, completely isolated from civilization, maybe somewhere in Alaska or Siberia. From what I could tell, we could be in either or the northern part of Canada, and we seemed to be in the early fall months. It was cold enough to drive off anyone with common sense, but not enough to be uninhabitable.

I was kidnapped in December, but I didn't know how long I had been in my egg. For all I knew, I might have been in there for years and just not known it. None of us knew how long I had been there. Lucas said that I had been moved to the cage across from him only two weeks before I had hatched, and to grow to nine feet in an egg over the course of two weeks was very unlikely.

I was most likely to have been in an incubator beforehand then just moved to the cage when they thought I was close to hatching. As a byproduct of this, I couldn't tell exactly what the month or date was, but from the scene from before, there hadn't been any real advancements in weaponry. The soldiers were using the exact same thing that I had seen them using in documentaries and pictures.

We went into the deep of the forest, opting not to fly. We didn't know if the spaceship from before would come back, or whether or not it would work on us now that we were above buground.

Lucas picked through the underbrush and waded through the snow, jumping over logs and dodging around trees. The local wildlife didn't seem to be affected from the overwhelming stench but instead ran from our hulking figures, the sound of fleeing birds and small forest creatures resounding out. An elk that was standing not far from a boulder that we passed suddenly fled, running like the wind.

Every prey creature in the vicinity took off, along with the few predators there were. I saw wolves, bears and foxes break the tree-line, ignoring each other and running for their lives. 'We're not that scary....Are we?'

I followed them with my eyes for as far as I could before the foliage got too thick. I turned back to the front, watching Lucas walk along under me. As much as I wanted to get off and feel the snow under my claws, or to run, or even, to fly, I didn't.

I would just cause him to worry and probably end up making my situation worse or even hurting myself. It would be better for me to just lay on his back like the delicate flower I was and let him do as he pleased. It wasn't as if he was doing something to hurt me anyway, so I might as well heed his request and not push myself.

It took him a good forty minutes of picking and choosing his way through for us to finally reach the face of the mountain. Looking up at it from the base, it looked so much bigger than before. From afar, it looked only about five thousand feet tall or so, but up close, it looked at least three times that amount.

The peak was completely covered in ice and snow, stretching high and proud into the sky, a thick layer of permanently frozen water adding another twenty feet to the rock. The incline started out gentle before going almost vertical in the span of about ten feet, stone ledges carved into the side like a Galactus-size version of Wolverine had a conniption on the side of the mountain.

They crisscrossed the stone, a thirty plus foot gap in-between each slash, as well as varying deepness and tilt. Some where perfectly horizontal, others were tilted, and a few were even vertical. Some parts were completely empty, the stone as flat and reflective as a mirror. It was pretty much every rookie rock climbers nightmare.

However, the moment we saw it, dozens of reptilian eyes lit up. To others, this would be a chaotic and intimidating climb, but for us, it was perfect. As soon as everyone made it out of the forest, Lucas jumped up, digging his claws into the side of the rock. I was prepared this time and only had to tighten my grip and get a bit closer, ready to go vertical.

We seemed to set everyone off as they all followed, one after another climbing up behind us. It was like the scene in Happy Feet, but with climbing and we weren't pushed. It was a very weird feeling, the murmur of near silent dragons behind us and the shifting of muscles under my wings while I just sat there, trying not to fall off.

The sound of stretching rock wasn't exactly one you heard everyday, caused by his claws piercing the rock and it bending to allow his passage. One didn't exactly hear it, it was more like a vibration in the bones, and was very peculiar.

It took Lucas only about five minutes to reach above the tree line, but he didn't stop to take one of the ledges. Instead, he kept going, leaving those for the rest. I glanced down at him but didn't say anything, whatever he chose was fine, we weren't going to stay there anyway.

Even after the rest of the group had found a ledge that they were satisfied with, nearly 50 dragons strong, he kept going, straight past a bunch of good ones.

He finally stopped just below a cliff, hauling us up and onto the edge, revealing at least four hundred square yards of open space, much more than any of the others that we had passed. The others had to squeeze onto narrow ledges with barely fifteen square feet of space, yet he had found this gem.

I looked down at Lucas, a string of respect wrapping around my heart. Climbing all the way up here wasn't exactly the easiest thing to do. We were now at least fifteen hundred feet up, the closest dragon to us at least fifty feet straight down.

The surface was completely vertical near us, so he had to climb all the way up using pure strength, gravity giving him no flack. To climb up here by himself would probably be only a minor inconvenience, but he had been dragging me along too, adding another 1000+ pounds to his load. To get up here, he had pushed himself, and my heart warmed a bit.