READ: Mountain Challenge 2
Dragon.
Aleyku’s legs continued to trot across the mouth of the pass, never ceasing movement, head turned skyward, forgetting his fear. He wondered what those alien thoughts would feel like once he’d sunk his fangs in their maker’s side. A part of him noted that no voice in his head answered his assessing thought.I’m no rabbit or elk to scare away,Aleyku thought ‘at’ the thing, gathering strength to reach the pure snow laying thick and white and cool just a few footfalls past his adversary.
My life comes with a cost. You hear, ‘dragon?’ Be off! Find another for your own, and mother Dragon won’t have to lick your wounds tonight!
It shrieked. Aleyku flattened his ears to his head as the cry of a thousand birds mixed with the roar of a mountain lion, shaking the mountain and the inside of his head. The dragon beat its wings again and Aleyku’s vision filled with red and gold as angry eyes swooped closer, eyes large enough for him to see all of his body reflecting back.
Varas fears nothing, retreats from no-one! Let alone a skinny bag of fur sneaking onto his mountain home!
Aleyku felt the world slow down, his senses becoming more acute as they always did during challenge or attack. He watched Varas the dragon throb backwards in the air, carried by the crack of his wings. The fanged cavern of its mouth widened in time with that first stroke, moving forward with the next to snap at Aleyku and a wide strip of ground beneath him --
-- but the jaw snapped closed with only dirt between its teeth when Aleyku leapt between Varas’s tree trunk-sized rear legs before it could complete its assault. Golden-yellow eyes wide with the thrill of the chase, he tore across the field towards the snow, feeling the ground shake as his opponent plowed into the earth where four wolf-paws had stood a heartbeat before.
You should fear your own clumsiness, Varas!Even as the first rush of battle began to wash from his muscles and he struggled with the deepening snow, Aleyku’s mind planned. He turned to run beside an outcropping of rock to prevent the dragon from flying over him. A part of his mind reeled: a flying creature that size! Pressing close to his shield of rock to race along the snow made the best use of his fleeing strength, let him choose the site of their next encounter.
A shadow blotted out the light above him, and Aleyku barked again in surprise as he dodged a spray of rocks loosed by the dragon’s violent landing on a ledge just above his head.
I’ll tear your tongue out for that! Varas called, the thought shrill, reminding Aleyku of a wolf cub’s breaking voice trying its first cry.
Some actions betrayed much about an opponent, no matter the skin they wore: Aleyku knew now that Varas was a youngling, unskilled in the use of his body as a weapon. He reveled in the knowledge. Perhaps this old wolf’s strength will fade, he thought, but not his cunning!
Aleyku barked over his shoulder.
Have to catch me first!
Varas leaped, farther and faster than Aleyku thought anything ever could. Claws dug into the snow inches from Aleyku, very nearly hitting their mark but with a last, painful burst of speed, he avoided death again. Almost, little dragon! Aleyku thought, wincing at the pain the evasive leap had cost him. Keep coming, and you’ll learn something about a fight!
The young dragon radiated anger and exhaustion: from the strained thoughts chasing after him, Aleyku judged it had never been made to fight for its victories before.
We are dragon! ... Immortal! ... In ...vincible!
Aleyku’s toes spread wider for balance in the snow and scanned the height of the few scrawny trees growing this high up the mountain. Pick your stand, Aleyku, or the dragon will do it for you. There! A small stand of trees dipped to barely half the height of the last stand he had passed, while ahead the trees stood taller again. He leapt from the protection of the rocks, galloping flat-out for the deeply buried trees. The air filled with flapping, and he knew his hunter followed.
What’s the matter, mighty dragon? Aleyku’s thoughts taunted his pursuer in time with his own gasping breaths. When the snow was deep enough, he spun again to race uphill, far out from his protective outcropping of rock. Do you tire of the chase? The only answer was a louder clap of wings, closer, ever closer. When his foot caught against rock under the snow, Aleyku spun and pushed himelf down onto the flat shelf hidden just beneath the whiteness.
The dragon landed badly, tumbling in even deeper snow than Aleyku had hoped for, and shrieked its surprise. Aleyku read murder in Varas’ eyes, the same look he had faced from other threats to his den ... and other challengers to his rule. A cloud dropped over his thoughts, and he forced his mind from that last challenge, the only battle he’d ever met and lost. Now was not the time.
The dragon’s wings heaved, its rancid and sulpherous breath fouling Aleyku’s nostrils. There were no cocky or angry thoughts invading his head now, just a struggle for breath the dragon matched. The dragon laid there, all four limbs sunk to half their length in the snow too close to Aleyku for comfort, both those tremendous catlike eyes locked on him.
Aleyku knew he couldn’t let his opponent rest.Are you stuck, Varas? Tired? Perhaps you are too fat to fly! he jeered, his tongue panting playfully in and out of his mouth.
Enjoy the chase while it ... lasts! Be thankful you did not choose a different ... mountain to die on. The voice grew stronger in the passage of moments. I am youngest, true, and you would not have lasted a second breath trespassing the lands of my brethren.
The thoughts grew sure again as they rattled in Aleyku’s skull. The wolf could not say the same as he watched, awestruck, as all sign of the effort the massive dragon had expelled in his chase disappeared. You’re welcome for the lesson, then, child, Aleyku panted, pushing his opponent to keeping him off-balance. Ask me tomorrow on my way back down, and perhaps I’ll give you another.
Varas reared up again, and Aleyku watched it sink even deeper in the snow when it struggled to free its front legs.You should have scampered after the other furry things as they left my mountain.When the Moon reaches its crest tomorrow, all this will be mine alone!
You’re sure you wouldn’t like a little more time to prepare? You haven’t used up all that pretty fire of yours chasing off those deadly rabbits, have you? Aleyku wished for a moment that he had scampered away with them, but locked his limbs to the ground, forcing his arguing body not to move in the face of the dragon’s gathering anger.
The thoughts grew painfully loud in his head. How dare you! Thick, black smoke billowed from the dragon’s scaled nostrils. I should roast your bones where you lay, animal!
Aleyku struggled to stay put, his body and mother Instinct fighting against the effort of his mind. How deep is it? he wondered, just managing not to turn the snow under him yellow as the dragon’s jaws snapped at him – just out of range! – and summoned the courage to offer a last taunt.Roast my bones, whelp? If you can melt the snow between us I’ll die of shock!
Do not doubt my flame, cur! Varas’s head shook from the strength of the breath he drew in and, with a roar that almost shook Aleyku’s eyes from his head, blew out again. A wall of fire grew between him and the dragon, and heat and steam blistered Aleyku’s snout before roiling into the sky. When the air cleared, he saw the dragon standing tall on his hind legs in a deep crater of crackling ice, collecting a second breath.
A pity this has to end, wolf, but tradition demands I hold this mountain empty in the palm of ... my ...
Thunder clapped the ground. The ice beneath the dragon shattered, large chunks falling into the deep dark space below. Aleyku jumped back as the dragon flung itself at the rocks under Aleyku’s feet, now blasted free of snow. The dragon missed, and tumbled into the chasm etched in the mountainside by the ice of other ages.
Woooolff!
Tail wagging, Aleyku stood and lapped at a pool of fresh water on the flame-blasted rocks. He panted happily as the wordless fury lashing at him from far below faded. Then, before starting back up the mountainside he lifted his hind leg above the chasm, very glad that he hadn’t turned the snow yellow before.