By the time the sun was up, Lynx was nearly upon the mountain range.
Didn’t I promise myself I’d never do this? Damara thought, disenchanted as she fought to keep her balance.
Flying on Lynx bareback was no easy task, let alone without any ropes to secure her. The dragon’s flight pattern was erratic as though he were a gigantic, scaly bat.
We need to be on the lookout for the tree and Chasm, she determined.
He’s bound to be close.
Ivory startled her by mimicking the hoof beats of a galloping horse in her ear. Damara hadn’t really thought of the wyvern when she first decided to leave with Lynx.
Don’t give us away with those random imitations of yours, she willed the creature. You’ll get us all killed if Chasm hears you.
No…Lynx could kill Chasm. He’s bigger…and he breathes fire…
At last, they reached the mountains. With brisk air rushing into her face, Damara stared down at the white scene below. All the peaks and saddles and valleys had been covered with a fresh layer of snow, making everything look blank.
“Lynx!” she called over the wind. “Let’s land for a moment.”
The dragon must have heard her, for he glided down to a powdery plateau and stuck a landing. A puff of white kicked up in response, making Damara shiver as she slid from Lynx’s back. He turned to face her, cocking his head.
“I need to find out where we are,” she told him. Treading to the edge of the plateau, she gazed out at the jagged mountains surrounding them. Nothing looked familiar.
Alright, well, where are we in relation to the valley Chasm took me to? Are we in between there and the place where the Wystilian army killed off the rogues? Or are we close to where the mudslide was, at the Golden Dragon’s old hideout? It would make sense if the tree was near there, wouldn’t it?
As she contemplated this, Damara could hear Lynx playing around in the snow behind her. Clouds of white drifted over her, nipping the back of her neck and making it hard for her to think.
“Will you stop?” she snapped, turning to see him chasing his own tail.
He broke out of his circle but teetered dizzily towards her, his eyes ticking back and forth as they fought to adjust.
“Hey, watch it!” she yelled at him when he nearly bumped into her. “You’ll send me right down the slope!”
The dragon regained his balance and now grinned at her.
“If you can’t bear to stay still, then keep searching while I figure out our location,” Damara said. “We’re looking for a big, glowing tree. Go fly around that tall mountain and see if you can spot it.” She pointed with her arm outstretched.
“Go fly around that tall mountain and see if you can spot it,” Ivory imitated her.
Whoa, Damara thought, both surprised and amused. I sound so commanding.
“Good. That’s two out of three.” she declared, the corners of her lips playing upwards. “Which makes your opinion worthless, Lynx.”
The dragon’s jaws gaped open and she could see him forming words on his tongue, but still no sound came out. He made a sour face, huffing flames at his feet as if to pout.
Damara smirked. “You should eat moths more often.”
Lynx flippantly blew sparks in her face. She couldn’t help but laugh, pushing his muzzle away. The beast was unmovable, though, when he nosed her into the snow, snorting hot air from his nostrils.
“Hey, let me up!” she protested, scrambling out from under him. She could tell Lynx was just playing, but Chasm had stood over her like that far too many times before. Merely thinking about it put a twinge in her limbs.
Damara took a moment to let her discomfort fade. The snow around her sparkled, crisp and colorless, while a frosty breeze rustled her hair.
“Will you please take a look around that mountain?” she asked him nicely this time. “We can set off together again once I know where we are.”
Lynx barely even nodded before he took to the frigid air, creating another cloud of white as he beat his wings to fly.
Where are we? Damara asked herself yet again.
“Mock dragons,” she cursed, kicking snow off the plateau to watch it blend in with the rest of the white farther down the slope.
She looked up as a lively burst of flame caught her eye. It was Lynx, flying back her way.
“What are you doing?” she demanded, straightening herself up. Spotting a bat dangling dead from his jaws, she accused, “You’ve been hunting?”
“Well!” the dragon exclaimed with his newly found voice, dropping the creature in the snow as he landed. “I caught it for you, but I’ll gladly eat it myself.” He opened his mouth to devour the bat, but Damara stopped him.
“Fine. I’m sorry,” she said, picking the creature up by its leathery wing. “I just thought you were fooling off.”
Lynx snorted. “Oh, I see. I can hunt for you- but catching food for myself would be fooling off, now would it?”
He has a point, she knew, but smiled and replied, “Exactly.”
He snorted again, seemingly appreciative of her new found sense of humor.
“Did you see anything?” Damara asked.
“Snow,” he answered. “Did you figure out where we are?”
“No.” Damara was embarrassed to reply.
“Well, are you going to eat that bat or not?”
“Not raw,” Damara laughed lightly. “Here, will you cook it for me?” She tossed the carcass on the ground in front of Lynx. “Just don’t burn it too much.”
The dragon made a game of blasting short bursts of flame at the dead creature, then pawed it over to do the same to the other side. He danced around it like a pup bopping a turtle- except this pup was huge and scaly with fire coming out of his mouth.
“Alright, that’s enough!” she laughed, stopping his fun. The bat was smoking hot and she shoved a layer of snow over it to cool it down.
“You’re burying it?!” Lynx griped.
“I’m going to eat it. Calm down.” Damara shook her head at his fussing.
She pulled the bat out from under the snow, digging under its skin to get to the meat. It was a little too burnt even for her taste, but she ate it gratefully.
“Hey, careful!” she scolded Ivory as the wyvern snapped up bits of meat offered to her. “You’ll choke or bite my fingers off. Maybe both.”
Having eaten all that she could, Damara threw the remains into the air and Lynx snapped them up in an instant. Ivory’s claws poked through her dress as she placed the wyvern under her cloak. She winced, wondering if it was worth doing Ivory the favor or if monigons didn’t even get cold.
“Alright,” she sighed. “Let’s get back to searching.”
Lynx perked up and let her mount his back once more. In no time they were in the air, soaring over the mountains. The wind made Damara’s eyes water and she wondered how she’d ever be able to spot the tree with her vision so blurry.
Then, in the corner of her eye, something shone bright yellow.
“There it is!” she exclaimed, prodding Lynx in the throat. He craned his neck to see where she was pointing and descended. Damara could barely contain her excitement as they neared the tree. It looked like a crown atop the mountain peak, glitzing in the morning light.
The moment Lynx’s feet hit the icy ground, she slipped off his back, gazing up at the magnificent tree. It was just as she remembered it- a dark gnarled trunk which split into branches that splayed out into long thin twigs. And on those twigs glimmered thousands of little winged seeds.
Golden seeds.
Damara stood back in awe.
Lynx, however, didn’t seem to care at all. He just circled the base of the tree, pawing out snow from between its arched roots. “This is a human’s job,” he complained, looking up at her. “You’re the one with hands.”
But Damara was too distracted. Mesmerized, even.
“Do you not see this?” she asked him, motioning to the tree with great emphasis. “There’s gold- growing on a tre
e!”
Lynx cocked his head at her gestures, grinning as he mocked the movement of her arms with his wings.
Forget it, she thought. Just like in her dream, she felt welcomed in by the metallic glow of the tree.
I’m going to climb it, she decided.
Stepping up onto frosty roots, she found plenty of handholds on the tree’s knotted trunk. Effortlessly scaling up the tree, it wasn’t long before Damara found herself in the thick of its branches. She settled in the sturdy crook of two of them, dazzled by the sight.
Countless seeds hung around her like ornaments, an enchanting spectacle.
Her fingers delicately pinched the thin, gold wing of one. She plucked it with caution, wincing as it caused a number of seed-laden twigs to tremble around it.
“Amazing,” she breathed.
The seed was finely detailed, seemingly stitched with leaf-like veins over its flimsy curved wing. She was perplexed by how light it was, expecting anything made of metal, precious or not, to have some weight to it.
Another seed whirled down and landed in Damara’s hair. She picked it out, slipping the wings of both between the blade of her dagger and its sheath.
I have to show these to someone. Someone who can admire them.
Suddenly, a slew of snapping sounds erupted in front of her and she stared in alarm as Lynx began forcing his way through the twigs. A shower of gold rained beneath him, each loosed seed spiraling through the air. Numerous sticks fell to the ground, their dull brown color stark against the white of the snow.
“What are you doing?!” Damara shouted at him, glaring with a mixture of contempt and disbelief.
“The question is,” the dragon replied, “what are you doing?” He stared into her eyes with unsettling inquiry, his legs spread wide apart for the support of many branches.
“I’m appreciating this beautiful creation,” she fumed. “But you couldn’t recognize beauty even if it lashed you in the face, could you? You don’t even realize what harm you’re doing to this tree!”
“Oh, I do,” he said, carelessly whipping the branches with his tail to watch countless seeds twirl out from them.
“How dare you!” Damara tried to maintain her balance as she jumped up to face him.
Lynx merely smirked at her. “If I didn’t know better, I’d have thought you accepted the firesap. Scream any louder and maybe Chasm will come say hello.”
Chasm! At last, Lynx’s words got through to her. She shut her mouth, crouching back down as she peered past thousands of seeds in fear of seeing Chasm suddenly appear. What have I done?!
There were a few moments in which not even Lynx made a sound.
Nothing happened.
But now Damara’s head was clear of the golden seeds’ charm and she remembered what they were there for. Embarrassed, she tucked her hair behind her ears.
“The eggs must be here,” she said. “I’m sure of it.”
She leapt down from the tree and he followed, breaking a few more branches on the way. More gold and wood scattered onto the snow already churned by Lynx’s foreclaws.
At the foot of the duchess’ tree…Damara anxiously knelt before the tree trunk. Her hands slipped into the pure white, digging out frigid clumps from between the tree’s roots.
Could a dragon’s clutch even survive under the snow? She began to worry as she determined there were no eggs in the place where she dug. Moving to the right, she started searching another gap in the tree’s many roots.
Behind her, Lynx tossed his head like a horse.
“I know it’s here,” she told him, though doubt seeped into her heart like the cold numbing her pink fingers. “I dreamt it.”
Scoop, scoop, nothing. Scoop, scoop, nothing. Once, she felt something hard and round but found that it was only a rock.
Where is it?! With frenzied, aching cold hands, Damara dug all around the tree, between all the roots, all the way down to the ground. But there was no clutch. Only dirt and rock and wood.
“What?!” she cried, fingernails torn and bleeding from her efforts. “No!”
She stared at the ground, hands resting uselessly in the snow.
“I don’t understand,” she whispered. “Where else could it be?”
Twisting around to see Lynx, their eyes met. It shocked her how smarmy he looked even now, as though everything was as it should be.
“Don’t you see?” Damara said, tears nearly spilling onto her cheeks. “It isn’t here! I was wrong.”
With a swish of his tail, he nodded. “That you were.”
“Don’t you care at all?” she questioned him. “I don’t have any idea where the clutch is! Aren’t you angry?”
Lynx laughed. “I wasn’t counting on you to be right. All I suggested was that we search for the clutch ourselves. You were the one so set on finding this lousy tree.”
“Oh, so you’re going to chastise me now?” Damara prickled with indignation. “Well sorry for trying to solve the mystery. Clearly I need to step back and let you make sense of it all.”
“My, aren’t you touchy!” Lynx scoffed.
“Will you shut up?!” she snapped. “Do you make a point of being bothersome?”
“Oh, as if you’re a delight to be around,” he snickered.
She opened her mouth to object, then realized the harsh truth in his words. Oh no, she feared. I’m not like Lynx, am I? That’s not how people see me, is it?!
He smirked at her, a twinkle in his eye.
Maybe I need to calm down and think things over…
Alright, so we need to find the clutch.
I heard Iris say it was at the foot of the duchess’ tree, but it’s not here.
Could I have misinterpreted her? I can’t imagine that she’d refer to anyone else but the Golden Dragon as a duchess. Perhaps the Golden Dragon favored a different tree. Unless…
“Hey!” An idea struck her. “What if Iris meant the foot of the mountain of the duchess’ tree? That would make sense, wouldn’t it? Better to lay a clutch at the bottom of a mountain than the top, isn’t it?”
“Don’t ask me,” Lynx defended himself. “I wouldn’t know a single thing about laying a clutch!”
Damara gave a small smile. “Neither would I.”
Walking to the edge of the peak, she peered down the mountainside.
It’s so steep, she thought. But that makes it clear where the true base of the mountain is.
“Alright,” she said, rubbing her freezing hands together. “Why don’t we split up? You search down there and I’ll search the other side.”
“Fine,” he sighed.
Damara squinted up at the sky. “Come find me when the sun is directly above our heads. Or if not, I’ll meet you back up here.”
Lynx agreed, then leapt to slide down the slope on all fours, head and tail held high, wings propped open. Damara laughed a little to herself as she watched, almost thinking it looked fun.
I suppose I’d better get started, too, she decided, turning to hike down the other side, away from the grand tree. Its golden seeds sprinkled the peak like confetti and Damara had to remind herself to focus on finding the clutch.
Descending the slope, she eased her way around questionable breaks in the deep snow, hopping over a rocky ledge, slipping a little ways down. Eventually, she reached the base of the mountain where an icy valley met her feet.
Now, if I were a haughty female dragon named Iris, she asked herself, looking left and right, where would I lay my clutch?
No answer came to her. Already she was beginning to feel doubtful. With a half-hearted scoop of her hands, she removed some snow here and there, finding nothing but more snow. I can’t dig up the entire valley, she complained inwardly.
Maybe Lynx could melt all the snow away with his fire, she thought, only partly kidding. Are dragon eggs fireproof?
She checked under the clefts of rock and knots of tree roots, increasingly discouraged as she realized she wasn’t even sure what a dragon’s clutch
looked like. She envisioned it as a nest full of giant chicken eggs.
They could be lava red, she fantasized, trekking farther along the mountain base. And so hot to the touch that they’d burn my hands…
Damara tugged her hood on. Now I sound like Faren.
Wouldn’t it make more sense if the eggs were like that snake’s clutch I once stumbled across? Leathery and jammed together?
Do I even know where I’m going? I’m not even searching anymore!
She halted in her feverous hike, allowing herself to relax. She looked to the tree standing on the mountain top. Other peaks rose higher behind it. She could no longer see the glint of gold on its branches.
Distracted, she pulled the winged seeds from her belt, then stared at them in amazement.
They had lost their polished gold sheen. Now they just looked like normal seeds, brown and papery.
She flicked their wings, bent them, squeezed them. Nothing stood out about them anymore. They were just seeds.
Magic? Damara was baffled. It was all a trick?
And I thought they were something worth showing off!
It reminded her how she once thought of Chasm in the same way- amazing, perfect, full of promise for a brighter future…
I was a fool! She shredded the seeds’ wings in spite and balled them up in her fist.
Slowly, her hand released, letting the mangled seeds fall onto the snow. She hoped they would freeze and never grow. She didn’t want the tree to spawn any saplings like itself.
No more foolishness, she promised herself. I won’t fall for any more tricks from now on.
Looking up at the sun, she realized it was time to meet back up with Lynx.
It doesn’t look like he’ll be coming to find me like I asked…Guess I have to climb up to the peak…
How nice it must be to have wings, she thought longingly as she hiked the steep, snowy slope leading up to the tree. The air was thin and she had to stop to catch her breath, again and again.
At last, she reached the top, leaning a hand against the gnarled tree trunk as she panted. Now that she was near, the seeds were glimmering gold again and she scoffed at their fraudulence.
Maybe I can see where Lynx is. Walking to the edge of a cliff, a magnificent view of the valleys dipped before her. Maybe he found the eggs and is waiting for me to come help him move them!
Despite her hopes, she could not see Lynx at the bottom of the mountain.
Could he have flown off for some reason? Damara’s eyes raked the scene for movement. A couple of birds soared in the distance and she stared at them, confused.
Such long tails. What kind of bird are they?
One pumped its wings and she froze. The edges of their wings were jagged like a bat’s and they appeared to have four legs.
Dragons!
She followed them anxiously with her eyes, trying to think of who they could possibly be. She could see them just well enough to discern the colors of their hides, one reddish, the other black.
Rogues?! she worried, crouching low to the ground. How’d they survive Wystil’s attack?
The pair swooped to land and she gaped, seeing a third dragon already standing there.
Lynx! Even if she hadn’t seen the marine green hue of his shape, she’d have recognized him by his peculiar posture.
The couple stood facing Lynx, likely conversing with him. Damara feared they might suddenly attack him, but neither did. Still, she saw no hint of friendliness in their body language.
Does Lynx know them? Is he asking them about the clutch?
Would they want to hurt the clutch?
Eyes widening, she recalled Rosefinch’s words about the rogues she once ran with. Is it missing because they ate it?!
Damara gasped, flattening herself with her chin in the snow as she thought she saw them turn to stare in her direction. She knew how keen dragons’ eyes were.
Crawl out of view, she told herself. It was tricky trying not to lift her body as she wriggled to scoot backwards, but she managed. The moment she thought she was obscured, she got up on hands and knees to scramble behind the gnarled tree.
What if they attack Lynx? What could I even do?
They might even find more reason to hurt him if they know he’s with me.
Despite the trunk behind her, Damara anticipated she might still be visible. She crept down the slope in front of her, putting the mountain peak between her and the dragons. There was a cleft of snow for her to go around, descending the thickly powdered slant until she reached a rocky cliff. There she sat, trying to make out a route for her to follow should she find the desperate need to run. It made her uneasy to see how the mountainside dropped steep below her.
I might not be able to keep my footing, sprinting down that slope. And if I tripped…nothing would be there to stop me from tumbling all the way…
As she thought further, she knew fleeing would be futile.
There was no such thing as outrunning a dragon. Dragons had wings. Even when grounded, they were extremely fast.
Maybe there’s no reason to worry. Lynx looked at ease with them.
Everything’s probably fine. Damara tried to calm her nerves. Just because I don’t know those dragons doesn’t mean they’re dangerous. Well, every dragon is dangerous, but they might have good intentions.
“Ow!” Ivory startled Damara. She curiously looked at the wyvern tucked under her cloak. The voice had sounded like that of a boy.
“Hey!” Ivory laughed after a pause. “Damara, come look at this!”
Damara’s eyes widened with shock, the thin mountain air taken from her lungs.
That voice…
She began to tremble. It was her brother’s, clearly young, like the time they lived with the dragons. She waited without breathing, willing Ivory to speak some more.
Silence.
Tears stung Damara’s eyes as she recalled Xander’s face. She prayed that he was still alive. She prayed that she could see him again, when all was well.
I want to go home.
How foolish I was to have ever left…I need to tell him I’m sorry.
But not yet. Damara’s face hardened with determination.
I’m going to earn my place back home.
Then, like a condor in flight, a dark shape appeared in the cloudy sky overhead, sailing far above Damara’s head. She frightfully reeled back to keep it in sight, trying to make out who it was. The dragon passed over her and she twisted around to see it land on the high ledge of snow.
Unable to hold the beast’s weight, the ledge collapsed. Large clumps of ice fell down to the steep white slope below, causing a fracture in the perfect curve.
Damara gasped as great plumes billowed and an immense body of snow came rushing towards her. The sound of it was like thunder in the earth.
She tried to jump down to the shelter of her rocky overhang, but slipped down a ways. Her feet planted themselves only in time for her to turn and watch as the avalanche came, swallowing her whole.
Light! Dark! Light! Dark!
Damara could do nothing as she tumbled inside the roving bulk of snow and ice. It felt like drowning in the river, except this was more violent, more sickening than she could have ever imagined.
This is it, Damara believed, giving in to the thrashing, mindless mass. I am going to die.
Then, like a battle drawing to an end, the avalanche slouched to a halt.
From constant rotation to sudden stillness, Damara felt the snow compact around her, trapping her.
Her eyesight wavered. She found little room to breathe. Ice pressed up against her teeth. Snow restricted her entire body from moving.
All she could do was surrender to the deep darkness of her own mind.
All she could do was lose herself to nothingness.
. . .
A light flickered inside Damara’s head.
A tiny flame.
A torch, in fact, held by a boy who led a small redheaded girl away, into the d
ark nothingness that engulfed everything else.
Wait! Damara tried to run after them, but she couldn’t tell if she even had a body.
One way or another, her vision followed after the children- or child, as the girl had disappeared.
Where is Faren? Damara asked the boy, who turned to her, still holding the torch. A chill overtook her, became her, drew some unnamed memory from the depths of her mind.
The boy gazed at her with wisdom in his eyes.
Faren is with her family now, the boy answered, growing into a man whose face was all too familiar to her.
Xander? Damara was stunned by love, or fear.
Sister, come home.
The vision of her brother began to fade, overtaken by the light of the torch that spread outwards, revealing to her the world.
She was awake.
The torch light, she slowly came to realize, was actually the sun, shrouded by grey overcast but still shining, a bright spot in the sky. Damara ached all over. She was lying on her back, now on top of the snow, rather than buried within it.
Snowflakes tested her eyes and she blinked, trying to clear them. It took her a moment to realize the shadow looming over her was something living.
Damara’s chest constricted as she made out the being’s features- teeth bared, narrowed eyes, flaring nostrils, gathered creases around the muzzle.
This was a dragon. Oak grey. Battle-scarred.
Chasm.
Chapter 28