Jason took a deep breath and started into the town. He passed a couple of widely spaced buildings. The snow was not nearly as deep here as it was higher up the mountain. His boots crunched in the snow nonetheless, and the longer he made his way, the more he felt the snow beneath him shifting. It was unlike anything he was accustomed to in the higher reaches of the mountain.
He followed the trail into the village, making his way between a series of buildings, and searched for anyone who might be out in the growing darkness.
There was nobody.
So far, he had encountered nothing. The more that he traveled, the more he thought there would be someone here, but he didn’t find anyone.
Could everybody be in for the night?
In his village, it was uncommon to come across people out at night. Jason enjoyed the crispness of the evening air and the rarity of stars twinkling overhead. Others feared the snow and storms that came each night.
When he had come here before, he had done so with his father, and they had visited a market, but he saw no sign of the market now.
Perhaps it was closed for the evening.
As he wandered through the street, he didn’t find any place to go.
The rumbling came again.
It was close, but more than that, there was something about it that tugged on an awareness within him.
It wasn’t the dragon. The ice dragon wasn’t going to approach the town of Varmin without Jason summoning him, which meant it was something else. He paused as he reached the southern edge of the town. He still hadn’t encountered anyone else, though there were plenty of homes with lights glowing within.
There was a part of him that was tempted to knock on doors, to ask questions, but that wasn’t going to get him any answers.
Instead, what he needed was to find a place to settle for the night. In the morning he could venture out, and he could ask the questions he wanted. It would be easier in the daylight rather than the growing darkness. At night like this, he would only raise suspicion.
It would be easier to find others who would recognize he came from the village. There was no harm in revealing that fact, and more than that, he thought it would be beneficial. He might be able to uncover more information that way than he would otherwise.
Where would he settle for the night?
That was his big question. When he had slipped down the mountainside and ended up in the town, he’d had some idea of what to do. He’d traded for the dragon pearl, using that to get money to stay someplace.
He wasn’t about to trade the dragon pearl now. He understood its value, and there was more than that to it. He had no interest in losing his connection to the ice dragon, the only thing that would help him find his way back up to his village.
He was empty-handed. Which meant he was going to have to sleep out in the night. With his bearskin coat, he had protection. With the connection to the dragon, he wasn’t about to freeze, and if it came down to it, he thought he could use the power through the dragon pearl, though he wondered if doing so would draw the dragon to him.
Shelter.
He wandered, finding a towering pine forest growing near the southern border of the town. The trees were narrow and stretched like fingers toward the sky, covered by fragrant pine needles. He wandered between them and decided that he could stay here. If nothing else, the forest would offer a certain protection, and at least there was less wind here. As far as he could tell, no snow was blowing in, so he wouldn’t have to worry about that, either.
Weaving through the trees, he looked for one that might offer him more protection than the rest. Maybe he could find some fallen branches and create a hut for the night.
More than just that, he could start a small fire.
Jason smiled to himself. It had been a long time since he had used wood for a fire.
With the dragon pearl, it would be an easy enough thing to start the fire. He thought the dragon would understand that, and hopefully it wouldn’t draw his attention, summoning him.
Nothing his father had ever told him would help him here.
Jason began to gather the fallen branches that he found. Some of them were little more than strips of needles, and others were larger, and after he had wandered for an hour, he had a sizable pile. He dragged them toward a clearing within the trees. While the pine trees might provide some protection, the fire would offer protection of a different sort.
Jason leaned over, using the dragon pearl, and summoned warmth.
It was a different sensation than when he had drawn through the dragon, trying to use cold. In this case, he was focusing on the warmth within himself, and pulling that out. He thought he was able to do so, that he had enough strength, and in doing so, he could feel the connection to the dragon.
Heat rushed out of him, and it flowed into the dried branches, catching fire. The flames burst upward, tearing through the kindling, and within a few minutes, he had a warm and glowing fire.
Jason sat back, staring at it. He didn’t have enough knowledge of how to control fire like this. It was possible he might lose control, but out here where he was, as long as he kept the flame confined within the snow, he thought he would be able to prevent anything worse from happening.
Heat built, crackling through the branches, and he sat in front of it, enjoying that warmth. There was something comforting about it, in a way that he had rarely known comfort, and Jason relaxed.
He started to drift, letting that warmth caress him. There was no reason he couldn’t sleep. He hadn’t seen anyone in Varmin, and once coming to the forest, he hadn’t encountered anyone here either, so he didn’t think he would be disturbed.
As he drifted, he heard a rumbling again.
This forced Jason to sit up. He looked around. It was closer than it had been. When he had detected the rumbling before, he hadn’t known where it was or what it indicated, but now that he was here, he couldn’t help but think the rumbling came from something nearby.
Getting to his feet, he held on to the dragon pearl, glancing over at the fire. It had burned down a little bit but was still blazing quite brightly, smoke drifting from it and spiraling up into the night sky before disappearing on the wind gusting over the treetops.
Jason backed up, getting near the border of the trees, and he focused on everything around him. He wasn’t sure what he might be able to uncover, only that there seemed to be a sense of energy, though that might just be him.
As he focused, he couldn’t help but think there was more to it. There was power.
The rumbling came again.
As soon as it did, the power disappeared.
What was he detecting?
Maybe it was nothing, but he couldn’t help but feel as if the rumbling were similar to the cannons fired off at the festival—or similar to a dragon.
He had come here looking for evidence of the dragons, and of hatch mates, but he hadn’t really expected to find something so soon.
He focused on the sense of power. Now that it was gone, he wasn’t sure there would be any way to locate its origin, but he tried to think through it, concentrating on what he could uncover. There had to be some aspect to it he could detect and trail after.
Slowly, that sense of power began to build again.
This time, Jason closed his eyes, and he drew on a trickle of energy through the dragon pearl. He used the warmth, thinking the cold summons might be a different way of calling to the dragon. And he had used the cold summons before; that had been when the dragon responded, and at this point, he didn’t want the dragon to appear. It was possible that whatever was out there, whatever power existed, might be dangerous.