The wind woke Caleb. Something about it was more present than he was used to. Heâd always loved the wind, but never before had it felt so⦠powerful.
He contemplated that. The wind didnât feel stronger than usual. It wasnât even the strongest gust he could recall feeling. It was at best a breeze, compared to the gales heâd experienced and seen knocking down trees. But despite the relative speed of the wind, he couldnât deny he felt power from it.
Caleb contemplated this longer than he was proud to admit before he realized he was upside down. He finally opened his eyes, and had he been contributing anything to himself staying aloft, he would have fallen. But lucky for him, a frost dragon held him by his legs and was flying him up the mountain.
The tops of trees passed far below, and it took every fiber of Calebâs will to stop himself from freaking out.
Iâm dead, he told himself.
But despite the thought, he assessed his situation. His legs hurt where the dragon held him in a vise grip, but he didnât feel like any bones were broken. The sack of ore hung from his belt still, swaying with the rhythmic beats of the dragon, striking him in the ribs repeatedly. With the way his rucksack flopped loosely against his back, most of the contents of the main compartment had to be gone.
Could be worse, he thought, suppressing a laugh so the dragon wouldnât realize he was awake.
It obviously could have been much worse: a broken leg would have seen any slim chance he had at surviving whatever was to come vanish.
For the second time he regretted leaving his spear.
Status, he thought.
ERROR
ERROR
â¦
Strength 9 (8 + 1)
ERROR
â¦
ERROR
Relief flooded him. He still had his hammer on him somewhere.
He examined the frost dragon. Heâd seen dead ones before, but never one this big. Typically the village went after the young ones. The system didnât differentiate between adolescent and adult frost dragons when it came to initializing people. This dragon was easily twice as large as the largest his village had ever slain.
A frost dragon was a serpentine dragon, with a long snakelike body. It had large wings that protruded a third of the way back from its head, and two clawed legs another third of the way back just before the tail began. As such, Caleb hung well out of sight of the dragonâs head up ahead. The best he could judge, the dragon was ten meters long, head to tail. He risked a movement, feeling at his belt, finding he still had his holstered hammer and knife.
At least heâd die with a weapon in hand when he landed.
As if the thought imposed itself on reality, the wind shifted and the dragon started to descend.
Theyâd been flying across the mountain, not up it, and now they flew downslope in a wide arc, coming onto a covered ridge. It only occurred to Caleb then as he saw the ground drop out hundreds of meters below him that the height hadnât bothered him at all. While Caleb wouldnât say he was terrified of heights, he respected a big fall. The times heâd looked over a cliff edge to the glacial valleys below his home, heâd felt a healthy clenching inside at the thought of the drop. But here, flying in the air with the ground far below him⦠it just felt right.
He did wish, however, that the situation around his first flight was slightly different.
His thoughts were once more interrupted as the dragon flew onto the covered ridge, flicking its legs ahead, sending Caleb sliding across the rocky ground.
Ow! Caleb screamed internally.
If the dragon thought him dead, he wasnât going to let it know otherwise.
âCharp!â The dragon let out a loud chirping noise, and then Caleb felt the wind buffet him as it took off immediately.
Caleb waited a moment, then opened his eyes. The light of the setting sun filled the mountainside cavern with a red light, by which Caleb could make out the gnawed bones of hundreds of victims.
âChirp?â A questing, much quieter and higher-pitched chirp came, followed by many more.
Caleb rolled over, looking behind him. There, three miniature frost dragons stared at him inquisitively, cocking their heads. He crept backwards on his butt, his legs still numb from his flight. One of the three infant dragonsâeach longer than Caleb was tallâapproached him, its tongue tasting the air.
Its eyes lit up and it picked up its pace.
Caleb reached to the side, grabbed the first thing he felt and threw it at the approaching dragonling. A fragment of a moose skull struck the dragon on the head and it pulled back, hissing snakelike at Caleb. He picked up his pace, plowing bones out of his way as he backed up to a wall. He risked a glance around to see there were rough craggy openings in the mountainside.
He was nearly to the first of these when the second dragon took its chance, lunging for Caleb. The fleeing blacksmith rolled to the side, just as the dragon leaped to cover the last distance. It landed with a disgruntled hiss, and now on his hands and knees, Caleb scrambled for the opening, making it to relative safety just before the dragonling recovered its footing.
The awkwardness of the dragonlingâs movements was Calebâs saving grace. As young as these creatures clearly were, they were fast. They were not, however, used to their speed. They slinked around on their bellies, using their wings and legs to push them along in quick bursts when to Calebâs eye, either committing to a slither or a crawl would be better.
Caleb squeezed into the crack, one just wide enough for him to fit through without turning sideways. He drew his hammer and turned around so his right hand was facing the opening. The crack went further back, but the light of the setting sun didnât reach far enough for him to see the end, and it grew narrower as it went. He tried hard not to think too hard about the tight space. For as much as Caleb loved the open air breezes of his mountain home, the confines of the caves that pocketed it gave him nightmares. Not due to any sort of traumatic childhood experience, no, he was simply pragmatic.
At least, that was what he told himself. People died in caves all the time. No one ever died from a strong breeze. And while this wasnât actually true, Caleb was unfamiliar with the weather patterns of the wider world beyond his mountain home.
So Caleb sought refuge in the opening of the crack, even if deeper in might have offered a better chance of survival. The creatures were serpentine, and narrower in body than Caleb, but their wings were wide and ungainly. What little control the dragonlings had over them, wasnât enough to fold them neatly against their bodies and allow them to advance deeper in. The first that tried to bite at Caleb received a glancing hammer blow to the face and lost a tooth for its efforts.
SCREEEE
The dragonling screeched in pain as it fell back. Its sibling climbed over it for its own attempt at the prey, and received a stronger, more head-on blow, though this one kept all of its teeth. It too leaped back to nurse its injury.
Caleb reflected on the meaty thud of his strikes. Heâd trained in weapons all his lifeâmostly spears, which he once more regretted leaving behind, as this would be the perfect time to use oneâbut heâd never swung one at a living creature full force and struck. He was long used to hammer swings against steel on his anvil, but using the tool for this purpose felt wrong.
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But he didnât let that discomfort stop him from defending himself.
The third of the three baby dragons was smarterâor at least benefiting from the two minutes of experience it now had watching its siblings in combatâand chose not to charge in.
Instead, it began making a horrible choking coughing sound, as if it were trying to work up some phlegm.
SCRUMB, SCRUUUMB, SCRUUUUUUUUM
With the last phlegmy gasp that despite the terror of the situation was really grossing Caleb out, the sound turned into the rattling tap of sleet falling on stone, and a white mist flew from its mouth, coating the cavern floor.
CHEEP!
The dragonling chirped in celebration and the other two joined in the excitement, though with less enthusiasm.
âImpietor take me,â Caleb cursed, and moved further back down the crack.
The dragonling dove headfirst into the crack like its siblings, and Caleb reversed his retreat to capitalize on the creatureâs blunder. Just as ice began to flow from the small mouth, Caleb brough his hammer down on the creature. It pulled back, narrowly dodging the blow, and the spray of ice went off to the side instead of straight at Caleb, though some of it still hit his arm.
Dressed against the elements as he was, the spray was only uncomfortable, not instantly causing frostbite as he knew the breath of adults was capable of doing.
Caleb fell back deeper now, just as the dragonling blew another frost breath into the crack. The air chilled, and Caleb shuddered. This was not the comforting cool breeze he enjoyed. But all the breath did was lower the temperature and coat the walls with ice, leaving Caleb unharmed.
He held his position, and the dragon eventually ran out of frost breath. He heard the others making horribly phlegmy sounds, trying to replicate the feat of their clutch mate, and eventually they each succeeded and in turn blew their supply out. After what felt like hours, the dragons merely sat outside the crack, chirping petulantly, having given up.
By then, the sun had set, and Caleb had lost his ability to see anything. Heâd had torches in his bag, but theyâd fallen out along with his travel rations in his upended flight here. So he sat, trying to take a break as he pushed back the thoughts of dread and doom that tried to creep in.
***
A familiar clatter of falling stones accompanied by a metallic clang woke Caleb from the sleep heâd not intended to take. The sound of smaller stones scattering and hitting the cavernâs walls followed. The frost dragonlingsâwhoâd also fallen asleepâwoke too at the noise.
Caleb looked out the crack. The sun had begun to rise, illuminating the opposite wall of the cavern nest and the iron salamander that had just fallen into the nest from above.
It scented the air and turned its head toward Caleb, only then noticing the frost dragons, which it very clearly hadnât smelled.
So, it canât smell creatures?
Caleb realized something, then reached for his belt pouch.
The ore!
He opened the drawstring sack and pulled out one of the ore fragments. He lifted it up, and the iron salamander saw it. Its eyes grew wide and its tongue lolled out of its mouth briefly at the sight of it before the threatening chirps of the frost dragons took back its attention.
It growled back at them, its mouth beginning to glow red with its inner heat.
The chirping intensified and became more frantic as the heat gathered in the salamanderâs throat, the cornered human forgotten.
Caleb took the chance. Hammer in hand, he ran out of the crack and jumped on the back of the nearest dragon, bringing his weapon down in a mighty swing on the spine right where the wings met the body. There was a sickening crunch as his hammer destroyed the dragonâs spine, but Caleb was distracted by the cold sensation from the dragon that rapidly sapped his body heat.
All three dragons had begun to build up their ice breath before Calebâs surprise attack. The one he landed on didnât die, but coughed out its breath in a diffuse cloud. While the upper third of its body coiled in painfully on itself, the rear two-thirds stayed limp. Its siblings jumped away from the death throes of their fallen brother, and oneâwho Caleb mentally dubbed Dummyâlost control of its breath, breathing onto the head of the injured one. The last was the one Caleb knew to be the cannier of the trioâand so he dubbed it Cannyâand this one only allowed itself to be distracted for a moment before turning back to the iron salamander and unleashing its breath on it.
The cold of the dragonâs spine led to Calebâs salvation. As soon as heâd completed his attack, he rolled off and behind the freezing body lest he receive frostbite, as heâd already felt it through his thick fur-lined pants. Because of this, the frost breath that hit his victim narrowly missed him as the body of the dragon shielded him.
The iron salamander had covered the distance as soon as Caleb had moved, and it latched onto Dummyâs neck. Its metallic teeth sunk into the thin juvenile scales, and the heat of the salamanderâs mouth meeting the cold of the dragonâs neck caused the surrounding scales to shatter as they went from superchilled to superheated. The salamander didnât come out of this unscathed, as many of its own teeth shattered, not able to maintain the force of the bite when cold. Both creatures tried to jump away from each other, but the dragon wasnât in much condition to jump.
Canny had allowed Dummy to act as a distraction as it waited for its chance to strike and breathed frost on the iron beast as soon as it disengaged. The cold breath billowed over the salamander, crystalizing parts of the black surface of its body.
Caleb took advantage of the new conflict to get on his feet and land another blow on his first target higher up on its back. When Dummy recoiled from the salamander, it had forgotten all about Calebâlending more credence to the nameâand Caleb closed in on it, braining it with his hammer. The blow knocked the creature down, and from the amount of cool blue liquid that drained from its skull, freezing water out of the air as it bled out, Caleb was fairly certain heâd gotten his chance at an initialization.
The salamander and Canny squared off against each other, but Caleb could tell the salamander hadnât been unaffected by the frost. It moved lethargically, as if lifting each leg took an effort. The fire within its throat had dimmed. As Canny inhaled, preparing another breath, Caleb did something stupid.
âAAAHHHHH!â he screamed, running at the dragon.
The dragon leaped back, flapping its wings in a sudden thus-far-unshown level of coordination. While the flap saved the dragon from Caleb, its wings sent it much further back than it anticipated and it landed dangerously close to the edge. It breathed out its frost at the salamander, but it was too far to be effective. The iron salamander followed after the retreating dragon and together they cornered it.
The night before, the dragon had only had three breaths in it before it had to rest, and Caleb was relying heavily on the assumption that this hadnât changed as he advanced slowly with the iron salamander, cornering the dragon on the edge. It whipped at them with its neck, and Caleb stopped short, but the iron salamander wasnât so deterred. It walked towards the dragon, its head ridges high as it tried to look imposing. The dragon bit at it, but its snow-white teeth found no purchase on the wide head, the salamander not even flinching at the attack. The iron creature reached the body of the dragon, lowered its larger head, and heaved, pushing it out of its nest.
The dragon clawed at the edge with its rear legs to find purchase, but the iron creature was far, far heavier than the slender dragon, and Caleb saw the horror in its eyes as it realized its inevitable doom. At the last moment, it stopped fighting the push, and flapped its wings back, leaving the nest of its own accord. Caleb ran over to the edge and saw it fall rather ungracefully to the ground, but slow enough that the fall didnât kill it outright.
As soon as the final threat was gone, the salamander collapsed onto its hindquarters and its posture relaxed. Caleb too moved over to a large rock and sat, the adrenaline of the brief battle already gone, leaving him exhausted. After a moment, both seemed to remember the other and they turned to each other.
âUhhh,â Caleb began. âThank you?â
The iron salamander tilted its head to the side, his head ridges retracting somehow. Its tongue once more lolled out and its eyes went to Calebâs waist.
âOhâ¦â he said, knowing what it wanted.
His hand went to the sack protectively, but then he reconsidered.
âI sort of owe you, I suppose,â he said, hating to admit it.
He took one of the ore fragments outâthe smaller oneâand tossed it to the creature.
It pounced on the rock, covering it with both foreclaws, and then went down to bite it. It shied back when its broken teeth met the ore and let out a whimper.
âOh! Youâre hurt!â Caleb said, recalling the reaction to the dragonâs neck.
The creature ignored Caleb, and sat, closing its eyes in focus. After a moment of concerted effort, it opened its eyes and mouth wide, revealing a row of new teeth. Not just new, but improved. The old teeth had been jagged, crude, multifaceted things, worse than the first things Caleb had ever tried to forge. The new teeth gleamed, like polished steelâa familiar steel.
All ore had some level of magic in it; everything did, after all. While none of it could hold a candle to ore from the bowels of the earth or the sky above, the types of steel the ores of the world could produce were as varied as the types of treesâor at least so Caleb had been told, as heâd never travelled far enough away to see a much of either one. But he did believe there was a wide variety of ores, as the steel that the villagers forged from the land around their ice volcano home had a blue tinge to it and was sold to the empire for use in crafting cold-aspected items.
The new teeth of the salamander not only had the polished finish of the half-completed blade heâd thrown it in the pit, but the same telltale light-blue sheen.
The iron salamander was oblivious to Calebâs wonderâand then restrained horrorâas it began to happily chomp down on the rare ore. When it was done, it sniffed the air, and then went toward the crack.
âWhere are you going?â Caleb asked it, feeling a fool for talking to the creature.
It stopped, looking back at him, cocking its head again. When Caleb didnât say anything, it moved on into the crack.
âWait!â Caleb shouted. âYou canâtââ
He stopped, feeling a shift in the wind. He spun around and scanned the sky, and the salamander followed his gaze. In the distance, the mother frost dragon was returning.
âOn second thought, the crack looks great!â Caleb said. He scanned the room for something heâd seen before and tried to put out of his mind.
The remnants of other dead humans. He ran over to a ripped rucksack next to a half-gnawed human skull and grabbed a bundle of unused torches, then followed the creature into the crack that had already saved his life once. He only hoped that whatever magic ore the iron salamander was after was deep, deep within.