I Guess I'm a Dragon Now (Part 1)

Fairy Troubles

If Ergen could speak, he would currently be apologizing to Rae as he finally reached the point where they'd been attacked on the mountain, only to find her shivering in the snow where she'd fallen off of his head. Thankfully the blizzard now seemed to be ending, though that didn't mean that it still wasn't still snowing as the fairy slowly rose out of the snow to take shelter underneath of his folded wings. Even though the light around her was still golden, Ergen was sure that the fairy herself was completely blue, and now he felt guilty about taking the time to eat the fenrir. Though in his defense, he hadn't eaten for days while inside of the grove, and hiking up the mountains had been hard work.

"D-d-o-n't e-ever leave m-me like that ag-again." Rae's small and shaking voice could be heard from Ergen's back before he sniffed the air once again to try and find his quarry. Snorting as he found various scents, Ergen found the smell of something familiar in the air, though it wasn't the scent that he wanted as the smell of bad body odor assaulted his nose. He didn't smell the leafy smell that he'd been following up until this point, but regardless, he knew that this smell would lead them back to the same creatures that had apparently taken Rae's friend.

Finding a destination, Ergen continued along the peaks of the mountain range before he finally found a path leading down to the bottom of one of the many canyons. It seemed the only place for miles in which sheer cliffs didn't block their progress, and it seemed to be in the general direction in which the frost trolls were so it didn't seem like a coincidence to him.

Eventually, the storm disappeared completely and Rae warmed up enough so that she could come out from underneath Ergen's wings. They were currently walking alongside a frozen riverbed, and as Ergen followed the smell of the frost trolls, more and more smells began to be recognizable as he smelled smoke as well as their waste facilities. It was entirely obvious that they were approaching a settlement of some kind, though now that they were getting close, Ergen wondered just what he was planning on doing when they finally reached the frost trolls. He doubted that they would let Rea's friend go willingly, and he knew better than to underestimate them as well. Especially if they had magic like the humans did.

His behavior with the orcs had seemed way to reckless for Ergen's liking, even if charging through his enemies was best way to break through their magic barriers. His frost breath would deal with most opponents instantly, however seeing as these were called frost trolls, Ergen wasn't sure if they would be resistant to his attacks or not. And those were only the problems with their magic, as Ergen had a strong dislike of the idea of either getting stabbed by spears or pierced by arrows.

"Should we think of a plan? You know, just in case they've taken her to one of their villages?" Rae suggested, and Ergen cursed his inability to speak on again as he pondered the matter. Obviously they would have to wait until the night in order to attack or the village would be gathered and ready for him before they even got near it. And then there was was always the possibility of meeting a patrol on their way, which would completely spoil their element of surprise before they even grew close.

After stopping, Ergen clawed a picture of a half moon in the snow in hopes that Rae would understand a picture at least. And thankfully Rae investigated what he was doing as she walked across the top of his head to peer down at his drawing.

"What is that? A half-eaten cookie?" Rae asked, and Ergen grunted in annoyance before drawing a circle with six lines facing horizontal to the circle all around it, indicating the sun. And after drawing the sun, he drew a large slash between them, hopefully indicating that he was talking about the day/night cycle.

"You want... light baked into a cookie?" Rae asked curiously, and Ergen suddenly had an urge to swat the fly that had landed on his head. "Oh, I get it! You want to wait until it's night time!"

'Finally...' Ergen said in exasperation in his mind before he started moving off of the riverbank and towards a small nook in the canyon's side. It seemed to be just his size as he climbed into it, and it also seemed to be out of view of the rest of the canyon which seemed perfect for them. Though it wasn't entirely perfect as one of the bushes that called the nook home was covered in thorns that seemed adept at getting behind Ergen's scales. And thus he spent the rest of the day there, hiding uncomfortably from any prying eyes until day turned to night and he was able to get out of the nook. Though when he did, he was tempted to turn around and freeze that bush that had poked him again and again as his skin was already itching fiercely because of it.

No matter how much the thorns had irked him, Ergen stayed quiet as the sound of beating drums echoed throughout the canyon. And as he heard them, he started looking for a way to the tops of the mountains as he guessed that he'd be spotted almost immediately if he approached their settlement from such a narrow space. Thankfully he soon found a path up, though he had to climb to do it. And even though he had to climb, he at least he discovered that his claws worked well for the activity as he was grabbing onto surfaces that no smaller creature would be able to. And he was lucky that he was able to as the settlement turned out to be right around the next bend, and Ergen started regretting ever agreeing to the fairy's request when he saw it. The frost troll's 'village' was actually more like a city with hundreds of dwellings both built over the frozen river as well as on the canyon sides themselves. At least fifty long rope bridges connected each side, and each had torches moving along them as they were clearly manned by lookouts. Though, most of the city seemed to to be active even at night as Ergen guessed that they were having a celebration of some kind. A large section in the center of the city had been kept clear of any of the primitive and fur covered structures, and this was where all of the frost trolls were gathering now as what seemed like thousands of the creatures stood around a tall altar.

"There's so many..." Rae's voice sounded full of despair as both she and Ergen looked out over the horde. However, even though it seemed hopeless at first, they arrived just in time to see the other side of the village suddenly erupt in several fiery explosions. The sound of men shouting and swords clashing could be heard even above the drums in the center of the city, and now that Ergen looked, he saw what looked like several groups of shadowy figures storming the far side of the city. They all seemed to be human from what Ergen could make out, but other than that, they were to far away for him to make out anymore details.

"There! Sheera's tied to the altar in the center of the city!" Rea pointed out, and Ergen quickly looked at it to see that there really was an elven woman hanging from bound hands at the top of the wooden altar. The frost trolls appeared to have covered the unconscious woman's bare stomach in some kind of paint, and Ergen thought that they might have been about to sacrifice her to their gods until all of the horde in the center of the city began to rush to the side that was being attacked. Whoever the attacking forces were, Ergen didn't care as their timing couldn't have been better. And now the only thing left for him to do was to sneak into the city himself while hopefully being unnoticed. Though, that was easier said than done as dragons really weren't known for their subtlety.