This is miserable!

  Winter was flying through a storm that caught him off guard. He had kept watching the scavengers do whatever they were doing after they all almost died. They had cleverly kept a constant fire going and had a dragonflame cactus nearby at all times - it was clearly so that they could threaten him away again.

  Thankfully the scavengers didn't injure themselves like he worried they would - their experiments - Were they experiments? - were only with smaller portions of the cactus. He had no idea why they were doing it - it seems like scavenger behavior is just as undecipherable as before.

  Szzrack!

  A streak of lightning pulled him out of his thoughts as he swerved in a panic. His scales tingled with the charged air as he flew on. The wind fought his every wingbeat. The rain tried its hardest to pound him down onto the ground. Water pooled between his shoulder blades and slid down his scales to finish their falling journey.

  Winter was absolutely exhausted. He left the scavengers a few hours ago to hunt - now he had no idea where they were. The heavy rain had removed all scents - he couldn't track them like before. Every noise was overpowered by the downpour and wind. His sharp Icewing eyes weren't as useful because of how much he squinted to keep the rain out of his eyes. With the storm leaving his senses useless, he had to use his wits.

  A particularly strong gust of wind whipped by and threw him off course. He narrowly avoided colliding with the cliff face and righted himself.

  If I don't find someplace to wait out the storm... I'll either get struck by lightning or crash into a mountain.

  Winter scanned what little he could see of the area. No caves as of yet - the trees wouldn't offer any comfort from the wind or rain, so he couldn't find a grove either.

  The storm threw another strong gust of wind directly at Winter, making him nearly crash into the mountain next to him. He barely caught himself in time before he collided with the rock.

  I need to hurry and find somewhere to stay.

  Winter took another scan of the valley he was flying through. He spotted an opening in a mountain ahead.

  Thank the moons!

  Hopefully the cave would be large enough for him. He beelined his way towards the promise of escaping the raging storm. Each wingbeat was stronger now that he had a clear goal in mind. He could use his frostbreath to blockade the entrance, which would protect him from the angry elements.

  It was right there - right there in front of him, only a few wingbeats away - when everything went wrong. The storm made a last ditch effort to stop Winter - another strong gust of wind blew Winter off course. He was moving too fast towards the mountain to stop - and there's no way he'd be able to right his trajectory in time.

  Oh no!

  Winter panicked and twirled in the air to avoid hitting the mountain head first. He hurtled like a meteor into the rocky slope. His right side slammed into the hard landscape with an audible snap, despite the deafening rain. Sharp pain exploded in his wing with the harsh collision, but he couldn't focus on that now. He started sliding down the slope that was slick with water. Winter dug his serrated claws into whatever he could, barely managing to stop himself from tumbling down into the valley. There he crouched - he pulled himself back up and to the left towards the cave entrance, which thankfully was large enough for him.

  He dragged his exhausted body inside the rocky hole. He turned around and sealed the entrance with his frostbreath. He slumped to the ground, grateful to finally not be constantly pelted by rain and wind. The pain in his right wing came back to his attention, prompting him to glance at his side and assess the damage.

  Winter had successfully managed to avoid caving in his skull on the rock, but he didn't escape entirely uninjured - not with the speed he was going at. That, and the fact that he crash-landed. To Winter's horror he saw his wing bent at an awkward angle. It was broken, no doubt about it - he won't be able to fly for quite some time. The rest of his side was scraped and bruised from his rough landing, blue blood seeping through and dripping onto the floor. His scales throbbed from the dull pain, though Winter couldn't do anything about it.

  Winter stood up, his sight wavering a little, looking to distract himself from the unpleasant feelings. So he trudged deeper into the cave, lost in thought about the scavengers he's been watching. He was hoping to stay relatively close to them so as not to lose them in the storm he had spotted from a distance. The hunt disrupted all his plans - nothing was nearby, and Winter was forced to go much further than he would have liked just to find something to eat. Then he was rushing to find the scavengers before the storm erased all traces of them - at that Winter failed. He tried looking for them in the storm, just so he wouldn't lose track of them, but that plan clearly didn't turn out so well.

  I can find the scavengers after the storm. They should be easy to find on a sunny day, with their scent easy to pick up.

  I should have been more careful.

  He looked at the sealed entrance, cursing himself from being so careless and losing complete track of the scavengers.

  I wonder where they're hiding from the storm though - they probably don't like that weather, just like dragons.

  A flickering yellow light grabbed his attention, and Winter came up to a bend in the cave and poked his head around the corner. What he saw was a room with the exact same five scavengers, seemingly set up for the night. A small fire was going (How did they manage that?), and the scavengers had set up some very soaked fabrics on the ground, which Winter assumed was to sleep on.

  This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  The reaction when he rounded the corner was immediate.

  Two of the scavengers jumped up screaming and ran to the opposite wall. Two others backed away as quickly as they could with their eyes locked on Winter. The fifth was frozen in fear by the fire.

  Winter stood there for a moment, staring dumbfounded at the scene, he did not know what to do to diffuse the situation - he didn't want to scare the scavengers even more, but he needed to do something quick before they became really desperate and did something drastic.

  What do I do? Smile? Try and talk? No, that'd only scare them more since I'm a dragon...

  He settled on a small wave. Surely that was a common method of communication between their species, right? He raised his talon and waved it side to side with minimal movement.

  Only three of the scavengers showed any signs of calming down - and even then, only just. Two of the four stopped hyperventilating, and the one by the fire's eyes widened. It tilted its head curiously at Winter.

  Well, that worked somewhat. Gesturing and body language was the only way to communicate with them. How do I make myself look as non-threatening as possible?

  He knew scavengers were afraid of dragons being near - that usually means they were about to get eaten, at least before the law protecting them - so he backed over to the other side of the room from the scavengers and sat down. The two scavengers still in a panic seemed to calm down to a jittery nervousness. They all still eyed Winter with fear in their eyes.

  Now what?

  He could try and talk with them, but they would only hear growling, which would probably reset all of his progress. It seemed like they were about to go to sleep anyways - speaking of which, he was exhausted himself.

  I suppose going to sleep isn't a bad idea - it should also help them calm down, since I'll appear non-threatening.

  He would try to communicate with the scavengers in the morning. After a night of him not doing anything to scare them, they should be more open. Winter laid down in his spot near the entrance, careful to move slowly so as not to startle the scavengers and to not injure himself further by doing a wrong move.

  He figured - alright, he hoped - the scavengers wouldn't try to kill him in his sleep, but just in case he positioned himself so that his underbelly and head were towards the wall as he curled up. The spikes along his spine should stop them from trying anything. Winter closed his eyes and slowly fell into a sleep filled with dreams of how he would communicate with the scavengers in the morning.

  *****

  Maple's heart had been pounding wildly as soon as the dragon had appeared.

  This is where I finally die? ran through his head the whole time. I thought I'd get to see more first. You know, live.

  However, the dragon had acted... strangely. It had waved at them, walked to the other side of the cave, and laid down. And now it was slowly falling asleep with its back turned at them. Maple eyed the blue spikes lining its back with wide open eyes and finally noticed that the scales were white.

  I can't believe it - the same one? It really is stalking us. Why? How the hell do we survive a dragon actively hunting us?

  But now he wasn't so sure about it hunting them - not anymore - if that was the case, wouldn't it have killed them just now? They didn't have an explosive cactus at the ready - and even if they did, it was probably too soaked to ignite fast enough should the dragon do something.. He had just caught them off guard, the perfect opportunity for a predatory creature, so why didn't it attack? Was it simply because its hunger had been satisfied before it came in here? Or was there something else?

  No one said anything. No one moved a muscle. For a while they all stayed where they were absolutely silent, until it was clear the dragon was asleep - Maple could tell by the now rhythmic rise and fall in the body. Its breathing was even and slow.

  "What- what happens now?" Maple whispered with a trembling voice.

  "It's asleep - we need to get out of here while we can." Lake breathed.

  "How?" Granite asked. "It's practically blocking the entrance - I'm not getting near that thing."

  "We can squeeze by." Lake argued. "Just don't touch it."

  "No - those spikes will impale anyone trying to squeeze by." Alpine butted in. "There's not enough room between it and the wall to do it safely."

  "So what then?

  "We can kill it." Copperhead said with a greedy glint in his eyes.

  "Are you serious!?" Lake almost shouted. Everyone shushed him and fearfully glanced at the dragon with wide eyes. But the pattern in its breathing didn't change. "We can't fatally wound it." Lake continued quietly. "We would need to stab it in the eyes, and its head is conveniently behind the rest of its body. We'll only wake it up and it'll kill us in a heartbeat."

  "What about the exploding cactus?" Granite offered.

  "We're in a cave." Lake countered. "That would blow us up into oblivion and the whole cave would fall on us if we survive."

  "So what? We're trapped, waiting for it to kill us when it wakes up?" Granite interjected. "I'm with Copperhead. We either try to kill it now or die trying now, or die later."

  "We don't need to kill it." Maple pointed out. "I'm not sure it's trying to kill us."

  "Bullshit." Copperhead snarled. "It's a dragon."

  "A dragon that hasn't killed us when it had many opportunities to," Maple countered. "It's been following us since the Indestructible City, right?"

  "It's a predator waiting for the right moment." Copperhead stated.

  "Maple's right though," Alpine said. "How many of these 'right moments' did the dragon have? Especially this one."

  Lake was silent as the sides argued. The dragon's behavior was unusual... almost docile. Maybe everything will be fine.

  "We're taking a gamble. If we leave now, we'll be out in the storm, and you all know how dangerous the mountains are." He piped in. "It hasn't killed us yet - hopefully we can leave in the morning after the storm. Preferably while it's still asleep, so prepare for an early morning."

  "Fine." Copperhead spat. "Gamble with our lives. It seems like that's all humanity can do anyways."

  Ultimately, they finished setting up for the night, and with a clear nervousness on everyone's face, they went to sleep.

  Alpine stayed up for the first watch beside an explosive cactus drying by the fire - but far enough away to not be ignited of course. Everyone else uneasily made their way to their sleeping arrangements. Maple laid down, eyeing the dragon with incredulous eyes, it was the first time he could really see one from close. Of course they had the earlier interaction, but he couldn't see much by then.

  Now, despite the night, he could see the many back scales and spikes of the ice dragon in front of him. Its back was rising and falling as it peacefully breathed, unbothered by their presence. It somehow managed to curl itself against the wall of the cave, looking almost as if it was trying to leave the most room possible.

  He was scared, but a dragon was such an exalting creature. Maple couldn't stop thinking about what will happen when he wakes up - if he wakes up.

  I hope I'm right. I hope, I hope, I really hope I'm right about the dragon and that it won't kill us.

  Maple laid for a while, his fear keeping him awake. Only later did drowsiness finally assault him and he drifted off into an uneasy sleep.