Into the Dragon's Lair

(Part 2)
The young boy's breath came in rhythmic pumps as he crouched behind the fallen log. He watched as the warm air formed steam and drifted skywards, disappearing a short distance into the air.

Eventually his lungs recovered from the run and Sterling managed to quiet his breathing, trying to make his location less obvious. The lightly falling snow covered his tracks, making his trail more difficult to follow; all he needed to do was not give away his current location.

Nearby in the forest a tree cracked and fell to earth. Sterling cringed, thinking his position was compromised. He waited several moments, expecting to be discovered, but gave a quiet sigh of relief when the arctic landscape around him remained still. Thus he leaned back against the tree, thinking himself safe.

It was then that the log he crouched behind was lifted into the air and tossed aside. A powerful force slammed into his back, driving him face first into the snow. He lay there, unable to move, as his attacker lowered her head next to his own, her hot breath blowing into his face.

A warm, wet tongue snaked out of her mouth and ran itself along the boy's cheek, sending a shiver down Sterling's spine.

"You're mine now, little human." A powerful but obviously feminine voice said in his ear.

The two were still for a long moment, the predator rejoicing in her catch as Sterling mourned over his capture. But then it was too much to contain and both burst into laughter.

"You're not half bad for someone who has never been hunted by a dragon before." Embyr said, taking her clawed hand off of her friend's back and letting him turn over. Sterling turned to stare up into two bright red, cat-like eyes surrounded by a mask of black scales. Though she hunched over him, the dragon was still over two stories tall; at full height, Embyr stood at over fifty feet from head to toes.

"There's something I'm missing." The human said, leaning back casually and looking up at his friend. She smiled back. "Perhaps... or perhaps I just have more practice. It's not like you're hunted every day, but I don't rely on my mother to bring home meals."

"True... and maybe it's that you take this game more seriously than I do." Sterling reasoned wiping the trail of drool Embyr had left on his face. She smirked at him, a twinkle in her eye.

"You should. I mean, I didn't have to stop there." "True enough," "I'm just kidding! Take a joke!" Embyr said, lightly nudging her friend on the arm with a claw.

"Ok, ok, I can take a joke... but I still want a rematch!" Sterling said, jumping to his feet. "You already lost best two-out-of-three." The dragon said, rising to her feet and cracking her knuckles in anticipation of the hunt. "Best three-out-of-five then. I'm like a shadow in the trees, you just got lucky!" The last word came out as a sneeze, and Sterling pulled his thin jacket closer around him before wiping his nose.

Embyr looked to him with a concerned expression, noticing his nose had taken on a reddish shade and his cheeks were somewhat flushed.

"You're catching a cold, human." She said. Sterling shook his head and waved his hand, dismissing his friend's concern.

"You're just scared you'll lose." "The game isn't worth you getting sick. Go on home, from the looks of things the snow will only get worse; you've come out to see me for two weeks in a row, you can have a couple of days off with the weather this bad." "Come on, Embyr, one more - ACHOO! - game. Let me prove a weak little human can evade a big, mean, hungry dragon."

Embyr smiled and gave in.

"Alright... but I won't say 'hungry.' Your mean dragon just ate two humans that didn't know how to hide." "But this human is smarter!" "We'll see..."

She moved off towards the glade where the pair had first met, a location several hundred yards to the south of the sight of their last game. Sterling waited until she was out of sight before moving off at a quick pace west, trying to stifle his noisy nose. He could hide and cover his tracks, and after going through all that trouble, the last thing he wanted was for his cold to give him away.

As usual in the "hunting game," Sterling had fifteen minutes to hide before Embyr, the "hungry dragon," came looking for him. They had started the game about a week before, when Embyr declared they knew each other well enough for both to realize that it was just a game. They had now started "hunting" several times each day; and, though both thoroughly enjoyed their newfound pastime, Sterling was yet to deny his friend a "meal."

The snow began falling harder just as the human reasoned his hiding time was up and he quickly ducked down under a tangle of fallen logs, trying to make himself as small and unnoticeable as possible. His jacket, brown in color, blended in nicely with the dead debris in which he hid, and he quickly attempted to cover all exposed skin with it in order both to conceal himself and ward off the cold.

Within minutes the snow cut off visibility for more than a few yards; and though the human was able to stifle his sneezing, it was unavoidable that the temperature was dropping.

Finally it became too much to bear and Sterling decided to call off the game.

"E-Em..." he said, meaning to shout. Panic struck the boy then when he realized his body was freezing up; he could barely move and, more importantly, couldn't even call for help.

"Embyr..." he tried again, but the name came out more of a raspy whisper than any true call for help.
He was powerless against the cold.

He sat there for nearly ten minutes, shivering and knowing that his hopes for survival were fast diminishing. He gave up as snow began to cover him; his only hope was that Embyr wouldn't be found and blamed for his death when, in the spring thaw, his body turned up.

Sterling closed his eyes and succumbed to the cold, letting the icy grip of nature swell in his being.
It was then the debris around him moved, being thrown back to reveal the fading human.

"Oh god..." Embyr moaned, scooping her friend into the palm of her hand and holding him closer to her face, her keen ears listening for the telltale signs of breath.

"You... found... me..." Sterling managed.

His friend smiled, appearing as though she might cry.

"Yeah," she said "you're great at covering your tracks and hiding... but you can never get rid of that adorable smell of yours. It's what brought me to you in the first place..." she continued speaking but her words began to jumble together, making them incoherent. Moments later, the human faded from consciousness.

Sterling was unconscious for some time, awakening briefly once to see that he was flying, clutched in Embyr's gentle hands several hundred feet above the forest canopy. Beneath him a herd of deer scattered in every direction at the sight of the dragon that bore him, and moments later they passed over what appeared to be a large muddy spot of ground. Embyr said something about an underground hot spring that fueled the mud flats but Sterling only caught the idea of what she said, since he was already fast fading from the world again...

When the human fully awoke he found himself delirious and cold. He lay with his eyes open for a long time, feeling rough stone against his back and trying desperately to remember where he was. Then the bits and pieces of his flight above the forest flooded back to him and he shot up into a sitting position, looking around him in a panic.
The stony walls of a deep cave surrounded him. He couldn't have put the cave's position on any map since, looking out of the entrance, he could see no landscape. Only the white of the blizzard around him presented itself.

"Shhhh," Embyr softly insisted, placing a claw on her friend's chest and easing him back so his back rested against her. She was warm to the touch, her draconic "inner fire" bringing warmth slowly back into Sterling's frozen body.
"Where are we?" He finally managed after several minutes, looking up to the caring dragon. "My home... not how I wanted to show you where I live, but it was necessary. You were dying." She said, wrapping her tail around him to try and bestow as much warmth as possible to the human's body.

"You saved me..." he said in awe. Two weeks before he expected this creature to kill him... and now she had saved his life.

"Well," she said, looking out of the cave entrance into the swirling blizzard beyond "maybe not. I haven't seen a storm like this in decades; it will be a rough one. The temperatures will drop lower when night falls... too low for your body to survive, even with me here for warmth." "Oh..."

"But, then again, there might be a way to save you." "You seem hesitant." Sterling said, noting that the usual twinkle in his friend's eyes was gone. She looked down at him and gave a weak smile.

"Do you trust me?" "I trust you with my life - I owe you that much." "Thank you... I will need all the trust I can get for this." "For what? What are you doing Embyr?"

The tail that had curled itself around Sterling tightened, immobilizing him. The dragon moved her friend closer to her face so that her hot breath pushed back his sandy hair each time she exhaled, bringing with it the faint scent of deer.

Her mouth cracked open slightly at first, then widened so that her maw was clearly visible. Quickly it became evident what she was planning.

"Embyr! EMBYR!" Sterling yelled, struggling against her muscular tail. The dragon's tongue snaked out of her mouth, slowly replacing the tail that entangled the young boy.

"Sowwy," she said before drawing the boy into her mouth and closing her jaws behind him, cutting off any escape.
"Embyr!" Sterling screamed, kicking and punching at her teeth. After several minutes he realized his struggling was pointless, that the dragon had full control over the situation.

"Rewax," came a command from the back of her throat. "What?" "Rewax, you'we gonna be oway."

It took Sterling a moment to realize she was telling him to relax.

"It's easy to relax when you're best friend is EATING YOU!" "Nowt eating siwwy. Just kweeping you warm."
"Oh..." Sterling said, a bit embarrassed, and as he realized she had made no move to harm him and that it was, in fact, several degrees warmer inside the dragon's mouth.

"Sowwy I swared you." "Sorry I didn't trust you..." "It's oway. Now go to sweep, you'we gonna be fine." "Thanks Embyr..."

The dragon felt the human squirm on her tongue as he adjusted himself in his unexpected quarters. He squirming continued for a long time before finally, after about an hour, Sterling lay still.

Guilt began to spread through Embyr as she watched the snow swirl outside. She had kept firewood in her lair for just such an occasion, enough to warm a village of humans; but she couldn't resist such an opportunity.

She had to face the facts: she liked the way her friend tasted.

Several hours passed, during which time the storm reached its peak and began to die down. The dragon diligently lay awake, ensuring her friend would last through the night.

Finally, less than two hours before dawn, Embyr gently removed the sleeping Sterling from her maw. Placing him by her side to keep him warm she used her tail to move several articles of firewood from her stockpile, building a large mound before lighting it with a blast of flame from the same life-giving maw that had housed Sterling for the last several hours.

Hoping the encounter wouldn't scar their friendship; the dragon once again curled her tail around her friend and lay beside the roaring fire, waiting anxiously for his reaction at dawn.