READ: Mountain Challenge 4
Aleyku almost laughed, wondering what lesson the youngling would remember.You will miss me, Varas? From what you have said, that’s not very like a dragon.
I shall not forget the night I was bested by a wolf,it promised. Yet, the world is what it is.
Aleyku blinked away the water in his eyes, choked away the desire to beg the Dragon for a little more time as it leapt to its feet and paced away.His head never left the precious jewel in the sky as the dragon’s breath came quicker and his wings once again beat in preparation.The world is the world, and we are each born what we must be, Varas’s thoughts entered Aleyku’s mind reverently, as if at prayer.
Aleyku shook his head, teasing the thought apart.You are wrong,Aleyka decided, the world is not unchanging: ice thaws, rivers change their course ... perhaps even the rabbits down the mountain will one day see a dragon learn new ways.Only the Moon remains unchanged,Aleyka thought inwardly.
It could not be,Varas rumbled, drawing himself up to its full height, breathing deep.It would be seen as weakness, another of my brethren would issue challenge and the rabbits would just have to run again.
Aleyku cocked his head, surrendering in his last moments oto the curiosity of a younger wolf, and feeling a shadow of his once-joyful smile twist his lips.But wouldn’t that be something to see? A dragon defending a land not stripped bare, but full of rabbits and elk. Perhaps even wolf. I would like to see the look on your challenger’s face, Varas, with all of that standing in league with a dragon.
Enough,the dragon said.It cannot be.Steel found its way into the thoughts washing over Aleyku.It is past time.
Anticipation gripped Aleyku and he stood, eyes locked on the Moon. He felt a hope stir that perhaps even in death there would be yet more to discover, new fields to run, perhaps not alone. Perhaps in death, he mused,even the Moon knows change.
The dragon reared itself back. Its claws splayed wide, its jaws open in fearful readiness, as Aleyku began to howl.
Aleyku’s call to the Moon was steeped in the joys and victories of his life. It told of a pup named Aleyku pouncing at a butterfly, then racing back to his mother’s side, proud of the pounce, though its quarry had floated safely away. It spoke of the first time he caught scent of Chetan, his first-born. It spoke of the scars collected as leader of his pack, defending all he knew and loved. It spoke of a life well lived, of a wolf now waiting – calmly, if not accepting – for his end.
The cold world listened to Aleyku’s howl, and was changed again.
Aleyku felt the ground shiver beneath him, even before he had breathed the last of his call. Mildly curious as he waited for a death blow, Aleyku’s eyes left the Moon and trailed down the intruding peak below it: the white face seemed to melt before his eyes. Masses of ice and snow shifted from their millenia-long perch on the mountaintop and fell, crashing into more ice and snow and setting it, too, loose.
Aleyku watched the growing wall of white surge down towards him, struck by the enormity and absurdity of the onslaught.
The dragon’s voice was gone. In its place awe, and terror rolled through Aleyku’s mind. As the bombarding ice raced to meet the two, surely the fastest thing he had ever seen, Aleyku cocked his head back over his shoulder, tongue lolling.Think you can outrun that? I can’t.
No! Your life is mine to take!
The dragon’s claws reached for him, racing against the cataclysm brought to life by his howl as it swallowed them both.