The Quest for Fire - Frozen Past - Chapter Twenty

An icy wind whistled through Zoltar’s ears as he followed the tracks leading off into the distance. He had to follow them. What other choice did he have? He couldn’t just stand around and hope that they’d come back. He’d already waited the whole day for that.

Felistia had agreed to stay behind with Shriken, on the off chance that Shiraku and Emerald returned while he was gone.

The night felt thick, like the darkness had closed its wings around him, trapping him in a claustrophobic cocoon of worries.

Snow swirled around his paws as he trudged on. He’d already been following the trail for a good five minutes or so. It was slow progress on foot, but he dare not take to the air for fear that he might lose it in the growing blizzard.

He’d now reached the edge of the dead tree woods, the tracks winding through the warped shadows cast by the branches. The wind moaned, snatching at the blacken boughs.

Why would Shiraku and Emerald have come this way?

Zoltar felt a shudder run down his back. It felt like he was the only living creature for miles. Everything seemed so lifeless. He stared down at the snow, now grey as ash in the dim light. He couldn’t help, but feel a pain of sadness.

If it wasn’t for the cold, he could be back in the Shadow Lands, those first few weeks after the eruption. The sky had been black for days, soot and smoke choking the air. The few survivors had spent most of their time huddled in the caves furthest for the volcano, only coming out in the hopes of finding a ray of light breaking through the veil of smoke. It was months before the sun was able to penetrate through the smog. Even now, it was only a dim reminder of what had been.

Zoltar shook his wings, try to rid his mind of the memory. He had to focus.

Up ahead was a clearing of sorts. Trees were still scattered throughout, but nowhere near as dense as before. Zoltar followed the tracks towards the opening. Maybe Shiraku and Emerald had stopped here for the night.

He looked down at the marks in the snow again, but this time something was wrong. There were too many prints. Before there had been the continuous two dragon tracks next to each other, but now there was overlap, like they’d gone over their tracks again. Or someone was following them.

A wave of cold dread swept over Zoltar. He examined the pawprints closer, try to not let the mounting panic take hold of him. Yes, he was right, there were two more tracks besides Shiraku’s and Emerald’s. He realized with another surge of fear that the prints from the new comers where larger that his friends marks. These were big dragons.

Abandoning all caution, Zoltar raced towards the opening in the trees. Maybe they’d be there? Maybe the other dragons had just be curious and had gone on their way without harming them?

All hope was lost when he reached the middle of the clearing. The earth was churned up, dirt thrown across the snow from deep scratches in the ground. A few dark red patches stained the perfect white of the ice. No tracks led away from the scuffle apart from the ones Zoltar had followed in.

Zoltar spun in a circle, his heart beats pounding against his skull like a drum. What had happened? Where were they?

His vision was beginning to spin as he dug through the snow, searching for bodies. No. What was he doing? The snow wasn’t deep enough to hide a dragon. Besides he would be able to smell them. The air was clean apart from the faint scent of iron drifting from the scattered blood patches.

He forced himself to stop, take a deep breath or two and think about the situation. Panicking wasn’t going to help.

After a moment to push down the frantic urge to dash around and dig up the whole area, Zoltar took another look at the clearing. Yes, there were some blood marks, but they were small and not enough to be from a fatal wound. There were no bodies and no tracks leading away from area, so they were alive, at least long enough to put plenty of distance between them and the clearing.

Zoltar felt another swell of fear surge up through his chest. What if they were lying dead somewhere, far away from here. What if it had been the Ice Talons that had got hold of them? Would they have been taken to Shiler? Would she have questioned them?

It was very unusual to see two dragons from different tribes together. Not to mention that Shiraku, being a Sea Talon was a long way from her tribe. Would she think that they were linked to him and Felistia? Surely she wouldn’t keep them in her prison? They’d freeze to death in hours.

Catching what he was doing, Zoltar had to physically stamp his foot, squishing down his tornado of thoughts. He was making assumptions. The best thing to do would be to look through the snow, see if he could find some evidence. Maybe the attackers had left a scent trail strong enough for him to recognize or a chipped scale, something.

…

Slowly, methodically, he sifted through the snow, sweeping his claws through it in the hope of catching something.

It had become clear very soon that there were no scent trails. His previous guess at the tracks being made the previous day was obviously wrong. These had to be a few days old for there to be no scent trail around a scuffle like this.

It felt like he’d been searching for half the night and Zoltar was beginning to wonder if he should go back and get Felistia to help him, when his claws struck an object. At first he thought it was another stone, but when he brought it up to examine, he found that it was a scale. A bright gold scale.

He stared at it for a moment, confused. It was obviously not Shiraku’s. Her scales were turquoise. It couldn’t be Emerald either. It would be a translucent grey if it was. An Ice Talon was out of the question now as well. None of them had gold scales.

Zoltar racked his brain. What dragon in Megalonia had gold scales? He couldn’t for the life of him bring to mind any.

Maybe Felistia will know? He hoped so as he spread his wings and leapt into the night air.

The wind was still blowing, but it wasn’t strong. Not like the two blizzards he’d encountered in the Ice Kingdom. Come to think of it, the frozen feeling had begun to recede throughout the day. He still had prickling in his paws, but could feel enough to sense the bruising along his scales from knocking in the ice repeatedly. The scrapes should heal soon though.

In the meantime, hopefully Felistia would be able to help him figure out what happened to Shiraku and Emerald.

The panicky feeling was still there, but Zoltar kept it at bay. If his friends needed his help, he had to stay calm. Felistia should be able to help him. Maybe even Shriken would know something about this scale. They had to know something. They just had too.