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Lightmoon 8, 2604 R.M. — Dry Lake, No Man’s Land
DERITH SYLVARADO STARED across the now watery expanse. His desire to do a good deed and fill the dry basin had taken a nasty turn for the worse. “Silver,” Searin called. He was clenching his fist. Silver had never seen Searin so mad. “You’ve done it this time, you moron. What did I tell you about your little act of heroism? ‘Beware the Dry Lake’, remember?” However heartfelt an apology he might have offered the night before, he seemed on the verge of tearing Silver apart now.
Silver frowned, “There has to be a way across.” He scanned frantically for a bridge or a sandbar or any other way to the island in the distance. Unable to see any possible path, he turned around to see if they were still being followed. The Lukar soldiers were now visible pinpoints in the distance.
“How? You filled a lake of who knows how many square miles when the map told you explicitly to do the opposite of that.”
Silver frowned. “Could you figure out a way to get us over there?” he asked hopefully.
Searin shook his head and held up three fingers. “Yes, Silver, I could. I already have a plan to get me to safety, but there’s three things wrong with it.” He pointed at Niri. “One, the Runt can’t swim. Besides the fact that the water would burn his dead Unit, the stupid Deaf Losers thought it wasn’t an important thing to learn.” He gave Niri a face of sheer hatred. “Two,” he pointed at Que-Que, “The bunny can’t carry anything, and I doubt he can fly that far on his own.” He turned his deep eyes on Silver. “And three,” he pointed at Silver’s face, then directed his hand to the mark.
Silver was shocked. “What did I do?” he asked huffily.
Searin closed his eyes. “You can’t touch water, remember? Plus, you’ve proven yourself completely incompetent at carrying things on your back. What are you going to do? Turn into a frog and hop across?” He made a winking face, albeit maliciously.
Silver sat on the ground. His brain itched trying to think of any way out of this mess he had gotten himself and his friends into. “I’m sorry,” he sighed. “I... was just trying... to be nice. That dragon idea...” Just then, a spark lit in his mind.
The Lukar chanting could be heard as a subtle murmur in the distance.
He jumped onto his feet. Niri confronted him. What are you doing? he probed.
I figure a dragon got us into this, so another will have to get us out. He grew a pair of wings and flattened out into a square-headed lizard with long, thick claws and flat teeth, the form of the mighty Pluto Dragon, the dragon of ice with sparkling lavender scales.
He flew over the water and stretched his wings. Nothing happened. He dove down and touched the water with his claw. The water burned him slightly but nothing happened. He flapped his short wings. The effort created a small gale but no other effect.
What are you attempting to accomplish? Niri thought.
Freezing the lake, he replied, only somewhat confidently. The Pluto Dragon is the master of ice, right? It should be able to freeze this lake over solid enough to walk on it!
The Pluto Dragon, Silver would come to realize, was the least understood of all elemental dragons. It was known for causing terrible blizzards and snowy winds. As many others, Silver assumed its very presence caused things to freeze over. By the time he realized that was false, the Lukar chanting was fully audible.
Embarrassed he was unable to figure out his own power, Silver tried to breathe out ice like he had fire and water. Nothing happened. He thought about every combination of stomach and throat he could need to conduct a beam of ice from his mouth, yet the water still never froze over.
“Quill du drek ud his fronds!” the Lukar men shouted.
Silver hung in the air, feeling defeated in every way. Perhaps if you were to inhale? Niri suggested.
That’s so stupid! What would that... Instantly, he understood the physics of the ice dragon. Rather than breathing out cold, it absorbed heat. At once, something he had long supposed, that cold was a force unto itself, became clear: that it was nothing more than the absence of heat. Oh! Hey, I have an idea! I’ll try breathing in!
You are a genius, Derith. Niri rolled his amethyst eyes.
Silver drew in a large breath.
“Quill du drek ud his fronds!”
The air above the water cooled.
“Quill du drek ud his fronds!”
The water began to harden and expand.
“Quill du drek ud his fronds!”
The water froze solid. Searin stepped onto the ice and found it hard enough to stand on. He beckoned to the other two to follow. Silver’s companions began to run again. The heavily armored Lukar slipped and slid on the ice. Two crashed into each other as they ran. Their helmets cracked, and pieces of their armor flew in all directions. The Lukar could not swim, and they sank like stones to the bottom, drifting to their deaths.
The remaining Lukar chose to walk instead of run, fearing he would slip off the pathway if he went too fast. Searin, Niri, and Que-Que continued their sprint across the ice Silver was making.
The horizon revealed a long strip of blue and green on the other side. If we can just reach that island, Niri thought to Silver, we can escape into the forest.
The island was almost in reach when the last remaining Lukar had disappeared out of sight. The ice bridge soon came to an end. They arrived in a lush, green forest. The air was moist and humid in the aftermath of a summer thunderstorm that had graced the land earlier that day. Silver and his friends looked around the forest with eager interest. It seemed an entirely different world. Silver regained natural form again, and they slipped into the trees to rest. They had sat for almost half an hour by a comforting fire when a long whip flew out of nowhere.
