“This is valuable to you?”
Jason stared down at it. “I need it to hunt.”
“There are other ways to hunt.”
“Not for me. And yes. It’s valuable to me.” He wondered how the dragon hunted. He’d seen the dragon using his spikes, shooting ice from them, and had to wonder if there was some other way he would hunt rather than just flying and dropping down toward his prey. “My father gave it to me. Taught me to use it. Without it, my family will be hungry.”
Even with it, his family might end up going hungry. If someone was stealing from them, he didn’t know if he would have any way of ensuring they had enough. That was what it came down to, after all. He needed to find some way for his sister and mother to have full bellies. It was more than that, though. He needed to ensure his mother and sister had hope.
Doing so was difficult. Mostly because Jason wasn’t sure how or whether he had hope. Not anymore, not after having lost his bow and having someone steal from them, taking the things he had hunted for.
The dragon pulled itself out of the water and shook itself dry. Jason braced for ice to target him, but it never came. Instead, it seemed almost as if the water disappeared, turning to a faint trace of steam before fading.
“Come.”
Jason frowned, but the dragon nudged him with his head and guided him toward the end of the cave. Faster than Jason could even think, the dragon forced his head underneath him, tossing Jason to his back. And then they glided free of the cave.
The dragon soared above the surface of the snow, keeping low, gliding just above it, and it took a moment for Jason to realize it wasn’t so much that the dragon was gliding above the surface as he was skiing down it. The dragon moved quickly, using wings and claws in order to stay above the surface, wings arched back from his enormous body. Strangely, it wasn’t nearly as frigid as he would’ve expected, and as he clung to the dragon’s back, he felt no sense of danger.
And he wasn’t cold.
Truthfully, in the time since uncovering the dragon, Jason had not felt cold at all. There was something protective about the dragon, and since he’d reached the massive creature, since he had made that connection, a bond of sorts had formed between them. It allowed Jason not only to better understand the dragon, but to tolerate the temperature.
He held on tightly. He didn’t say anything, but the wind whistled around him, stealing his breath and making it so he wouldn’t even be able to say anything if it were necessary. He remembered sitting atop the dragon with Henry, the way the heat radiated from the creature, almost unpleasantly so. With this dragon, there was none of that sense. There was only the wind and the snow and the cold. None of it was unpleasant.
And then the dragon stretched its wings.
Within a moment, they took to the air, gliding above the ground. Jason braced, wondering where the dragon might take him, but he didn’t have an opportunity to think about that for very long. The dragon arched down, massive jaw open, and he snapped.
As they banked, twisting off to the side, Jason realized the dragon had grabbed a deer. There was a herd of them, dozens of deer, and they scattered.
The movement seemed to entice the dragon, and with a shake of his tail, two more fell. The dragon dropped, spreading his enormous legs, and grabbed each of the fallen deer before banking and heading back up the slope.
Within another moment, they were slowing, and then descended once again back to the snow. As they did, they glided up the slope, reaching the stream. The dragon tucked his wings away and then flowed into the cave, dropping once more.
When the dragon lowered his head, Jason climbed off, knowing that was expected of him. The dragon turned, meeting his eyes with an icy stare.
“What was that about?” Jason asked.
“Another way to hunt.”
Jason looked down at the deer, understanding what the dragon was getting at. Two of them would feed his family for a long time.
Tears formed in his eyes, and he didn’t know what to say.
5
After binding the deer, letting them bleed out, the blood dripping into the stream, Jason dragged them off to the side of the cave. It was a precious gift, and it was one that would allow his family to survive. Though they might not thrive, at least it was something more than he currently had. Knowing there was someone who had stolen from them, he would have to find some way of keeping these deer safe.
He turned toward the dragon. He’d been willing to help Jason. It was his turn to do the same.
“You said you could feel the others,” he said.
The dragon rumbled softly, moving back toward the water and almost lowering himself before changing his mind. “I can feel the other hatch mates.”
“Do you know where they are?”
“It’s difficult for me to determine. There is an awareness of them, but anything more than that is difficult.” The dragon curled up along the side of the cave, resting his enormous head on the ground. When he did, he was able to look into Jason’s eyes more easily, the icy blue meeting his own, and a surge of energy came off the dragon again, radiating from him like it had done before.
“What happens if they’re alone?”
“Dragons can hunt alone,” the dragon said.
“I understand the dragons can hunt alone, but will something happen to them?”
He thought about his sister and his mother and the way they were helpless without him searching for food on their behalf. Would they become hopeless as well?
Even if they didn’t, he thought there was something he would need to do. This was something he could do. The dragon needed him, and more than that, he needed the dragon. If it took little more than a few moments for the dragon to bring down the deer, he wouldn’t have to worry. He wouldn’t have to scramble for food, and he wouldn’t have to worry about where their next meal would come from. He could bring his sister hope.
More than that, he could ensure his family thrived. Maybe his mother would return, her mind reawakening. In time, she could become the same woman she had been before, and perhaps she could resume working in her hut, healing others and not needing him to hunt quite as much.
All of that depended upon his ability to provide what she needed while she was recovering. And all of that required that he find some way of helping his sister. She needed hope almost more than his mother did.
“I can’t tell,” the dragon said.
Jason got to his feet and faced the dragon. “The Dragon Souls will search for them. If they find them, they will try to use them.”
“You have seen this?”
He shook his head. “I don’t know enough about the Dragon Souls to be confident of how they will use the dragons. I have very little experience with them. The only thing I know is that I’ve faced a man who has incredible power, and he would use it to try to control the dragons.”
“Dragons are meant to be free.”
Jason inhaled deeply. As he looked at the dragon, he couldn’t help but feel the same way. It was a strange sensation, especially after having lived for the last year fearing the dragons, thinking he hated them, that he wanted nothing more than to destroy anything that might be tied to the dragons; and yet here he was, wanting to offer his assistance to this dragon, to do whatever he could to help the creature.
And how could he not?
Looking at the dragon, speaking to the dragon, he understood more than he ever had before.
“How are you connected to the hatch mates?”
“They are dragons.”
“I understand, but are they family?”