Frozen fury

“Okay, so, I think I forgot,” said Akemi as they flew over the Sea of Dancing Sharks. “Why did all three of us have to go again?”

“Because apparently it's not safe for one dragon to fly there alone,” said Takara before Kazue managed to unclench her jaws. “We have to make sure Mahoko's core gets to the temple without shattering.”

It's like this air was made to humble me, thought Kazue as she clutched the large blue and brown egg between her forepaws, claws hooked into its stone-like grooves. For thinking this journey would be an easy one.

The chill oozed between her scales, and tiny icicles formed along the spiked edges of her unfurled wings and the tip of her snout, even as the perpetual heat in her veins fought against it.

“Is it because it's far away or something?” asked Akemi as she rode the wind currents below Kazue, to her right.

“That's one of the reasons,” explained their light grey sister, half camouflaged by the clouds further down on her left. “Once we've crossed this ocean, we'll still have to through the Lonely Forest and then the Sightless Plains before we can put her core in the Chamber of Souls.”

“But we can rest along the way, can't we?” Akemi sounded confused and borderline irritated, the way she used to whenever she was woken up early as a baby dragon. “If we go slowly, it shouldn't be too hard, should it?”

“The longer we take to get her reborn, the more memories she won't be able to restore,” said Kazue, her words quivering a little. “If she loses too many of them, she won't be able to do what she needs to do when she comes back.”

“And one of us will have to do it instead?” she asked, bending her neck back to peer up at her older sister.

“Seems like that's part of the deal,” replied Kazue. “Although I'd rather spend the rest of my life fleeing from them, instead of sorting out their issues.”

“Me too,” said the blue dragon, her vivid scales standing out the dull water beneath them.

“Me three,” added Takara. “It was bad enough spending half a day with them. If you drop that egg, Kazu, I'm falling into the sea with it.”

“But you don't like swimming?” Akemi's white eyes turned towards her.

“I don't think she plans to come back up once she dives in, Kemi,” snorted Kazue, her claws scraping against the egg containing their mother's soul.

I wonder if she can hear us from in there? she thought.

“Kara, don't say that!” exclaimed Akemi, offended but clearly not shocked. “If you do that, I'm going down there with you.”

Takara laughed, an ironically pleasant contrast to the roar of the relentless rumble of the waves. It had been a while since all three of them had been in the same part of the world. Perhaps a century or two. While she had a feeling that the other two had crossed paths and maybe even travelled together in that time, Kazue had started to forget the distinct details of her sisters' features and manners. Of the sound of their voices and the beat of their wings. Despite the acute and overwhelming tang of the water, traces of their scent calmed her rapid thoughts.

Unfortunately, neither their scent nor their words could do anything about the sinister iciness stiffening her joints and slowing the movement of her own wings. Even though they had been flying for the better part of a day, it was too soon to let Takara carry the core. She had to hold onto it until they reached the Lonely Forest at the very least.

“So how long do we have to get to the temple and bring Mahoko back?” asked Akemi.

“Five days, a week at most,” gritted out Kazue. “If we cover each place in a day and half, we should be able to make it.”

“Five days?” repeated the younger dragon. “How are we supposed to do it in that time? We won't be able to eat or anything.”

“We'll have to hunt on the go,” said Takara. “Speaking of which, why don't you go and catch us something, Kemi? Just don't stay in the water for too long.”

“Okay,” said Akemi cheerfully as she flattened her wings against her back and plunged down towards the sea like a streamline aquamarine stone.

“Hey, what if Yuuhi was telling the truth about those sharks?” asked Kazue.

The orange dragon's warning whirled inside her skull tornado-like.

“I'll look for her if she takes too long to come back up,” replied Takara, gliding upwards until they were flying alongside each other. “Do you want me to take the core now?”

“Huh? No, it's okay,” she answered quickly, flapping her wings harder. “You can take your turn once we're on the other side of this sea.”

“Or we can keep switching all the way there,” suggested her sister. “That way no one will have to carry it for that long.”

“Sounds like more trouble than it's worth,” she mumbled, right as her left wing faltered for a moment.

She veered sharply in the same direction and spun mid air to avoid barrelling into Takara, who glanced at her with questioning dusky pink eyes.

“Don't worry about it,” she said.

“Worried,” shot back the other dragon instantly. “What was that about?”

“I must have zoned out of something,” said Kazue, gulping as those same eyes scanned her from head to tail “I blame the scenery.”

“It's not bad but I know what you mean,” replied Takara. “We don't want to be flying over this at night, especially with Kemi.”

“Speaking of Ke–” Kazue grunted as her wing locked into place this time and she angled her body into a vaguely controlled downward spiral. “Ah flame it …”

“Kazu?” called out Takara, diving after her with her neck fully extended. “Are you okay?”

“It's my wing,” she said, raising her voice. “I think it's frozen.”

Although how it's managed to do that while moving is beyond me, she thought.

“Frozen? How?” Takara's jaws clamped over the front part of her motionless wing and she pulled the other dragon into a balanced position.

“I don't know.” Kazue tightened her grip on Mahoko's core as the assistance made her body jolt. “But it needs to stop. Here, take this for a moment.”

Takara let go of her wing and whirled until she was belly-up in the sky, moving as gracefully as the cherry blossoms that danced along her flanks. She latched onto the egg and Kazue made sure she had a secure hold on it before relinquishing her own. She waited until her sister had successfully righted herself, then let the air currents carry her awkwardly towards the water.

Akemi emerged from the waves with a mouthful of sharks hanging by their tails and shot past her, leaving behind a stifled question as she headed back to Takara. Their eldest sister flew further away before she released a stream of fire, twisting and turning until the hot air encompassed her like an eggshell warmed by their mother's stomach. She couldn't remember ever experiencing that exact sensation personally but the heat was enough to thaw out her wing joint along with the rest of her scales. She continued to breathe fire as she faced the sky and propelled herself back up to rejoin her siblings.

“You're lucky I can see the forest from here,” said Takara as soon as she reached them. “And don't even think about asking for the core.”

Kazue choked on a laugh as her flames died away, residual red sparks floating off before extinguishing.

“Wah sa fih?” offered Akemi as brightly as she could through the slippery shark tails captured between her teeth.

~~~

“It must have been because of some kind of magical barrier,” insisted Kazue as they sat in a circle and ate the sharks Akemi caught for them. “It doesn't make sense for something that's moving to freeze so fast otherwise. Especially when that thing's part of a dragon like me.”

“Why didn't you tell us sooner?” Takara hadn't stopped sounding unimpressed even after they landed in the Lonely Forest.

“I didn't think it'd be that much of a problem,” she admitted. “I've never been anywhere as cold as there before.”

“I don't think there is anywhere else that cold,” said Akemi after swallowing a chunk of fresh shark flesh. “Or with so much food. It's like all the sharks swam away here.”

“Thanks for the feast, Kemi,” said Kazue, nuzzling her sister's face. “And thanks for catching me, Kara. I'll let you know if anything weird starts happening again, even it doesn't seem that bad.”

“You're a weird thing that happens again,” muttered her second youngest sister but a smile outlined her words like the moonlight upon her small spinal spikes.

“You're welcome,” replied Akemi, curling up beside Takara. “Do you think we're going to make it to the temple in time?

“We should do if we sleep now,” replied the latter.

Even though Kazue hadn't blown a fire for them to sleep next to, out of fear of burning the whole forest down, the darkness seemed warm as it pressed in around them. Which had initially been a welcome change after the chill of the ocean they had flown over, but was now rapidly losing its appeal.

“I'll take first watch,” she said, curling her tail around the egg and drawing it right up against her side.

“Watch? What for?” Akemi's head shot back up before it could rest upon Takara's side.

“Just to keep an eye on the core,” she explained. “I doubt there's anything strong enough here to give us a hard time but we can't risk anything happening to the egg.”

“Oh okay.” The littlest dragon settled down, squirming around until she was comfortable. “Does Mahoko have to come back with all of her memories?”

Kazue caught Takara's eye, an alarmed pink twinkle in the shadows.

“Why?” she asked softly, touching her nose to the blue dragon's head. “Don't you want her to?”

“I don't know.” Akemi sighed. “I just thought it might be better if she forgot she was our mother this time.”

“I don't think we get to choose which memories stay or leave,” said Kazue carefully as she positioned herself on a comfier and more grassy part of the clearing. “As long as she can keep leading, that's all I care about.”

Akemi hummed drowsily in response and fell asleep soon after, not long before Takara also succumbed to the temptation of unconsciousness. Kazue watched the moon for a long time that night.

~~~

When she woke up again, Takara and Akemi were gone.

The black dragon stood up instantly and her great heart forgot to beat as something rolled against the side of her foreleg. Fortunately she identified it as Mahoko's egg before she could react instinctively and crush it underfoot.

Where did they go? she wondered, listening carefully and struggling to see through a thin moss green fog that turned her humid surroundings into earthy toned slices. The Sea of Dancing Sharks didn't surprised us with anything weird besides the cold. We might have expected too much from the Lonely Forest because of it.

She hazily recalled Takara taking over her watch shortly before dawn, halfway through what would have been Akemi's shift if their little sister hadn't been a flinching scaly ball, held tight in the arms of slumber, at the time.

They wouldn't have left me, would they? she thought and doubt slipped into her mind faster than the shark meat had slid into her stomach the night before. Why would they do that? Was something after them?

The fog overhead limited her vision of the rainforest-like canopy of interlinked branches but the idea that she had slept through an attack on her sisters made the blood bubble in her veins more than usual. She grabbed the core and rocked back onto her hind legs before launching herself skyward.

Leaves trailed across her huge body and boughs broke against the force of her wings briefly, and then she was free of the fog. The early morning sun dazzled her but she shook head and realised that her sisters were still lost beneath the off coloured veil. They wouldn't be able to see her any more than she could see them.

Accepting the death of the great dragon who had brought her into the world centuries ago was one thing. Losing the other two pieces of her soul was completely different and she wouldn't stand for it. She breathed in until her ribs felt like they would snap.

Yet when she roared, the sound seemed to come from the depths of her heart instead.