Time slipped away as we returned the head to the commission organization. Afterward, we wandered through the village, our minds set on exploration, eager to uncover new knowledge and keep moving forward.
We stocked up on sturdy, nondescript clothing, garments that concealed our forms, leaving only our masked faces exposed. After a final meal of hearth-cooked food, we readied our gear, the weight of our mission settling over us. When darkness draped the village, we slipped into the night, leaving behind the flickering lanterns and hushed whispers. Our path led deep into the forest, tracing the same ominous route the slain dragon had once taken.
The cold bit deep as snow began blanketing the forest, its icy teeth gnawing at our exposed masks. Flakes settled on our layered clothing like spectral hands, but we pressed forward, our breath curling in frost-laden plumes.
We arrived at the scarred battleground where the dragon had fallen, the snow already working to erase the evidence of that violent encounter.
"I'll summon it here," she announced, her voice cutting through the frozen silence.
She raised her hands. The air shimmered like heat haze in reverse, a fractured mosaic of ice particles coalescing in the space before us. The reconstruction pulsed with eerie light, shards of frozen energy snapping together like a three-dimensional puzzle. Then, with a final crystalline chime, the Arctic dragon materialized - the same spectral beast I'd seen haunting her shadow.
Its ice-veined wings unfolded with a sound like glaciers calving, frost cascading from its form in a slow-motion avalanche. The creature's breath rolled across the clearing, turning the falling snow into a swirling constellation of ice diamonds.
Before I could protest, her hands seized my shoulders - fingers biting through layers of cloth as she spun me with unnatural strength. My boots scraped across frozen earth before suddenly meeting empty air. The world tilted violently as she hauled me onto the dragon's broad, icy back.
"Hold tight or enjoy the fall!" Her laughter cut through the roaring wind as the beast lurched beneath us. My stomach dropped faster than the disappearing ground as frigid scales shifted under my grip, each plate like polished glacier stone. The dragon's wings cracked like twin sheets of breaking ice as we shot upward, stealing my breath along with the last remnants of solid earth.
Snow-filled winds screamed past, tearing at my hood. I instinctively pressed against her back, feeling the strange warmth radiating through her winter gear even as frost crystallized on my eyelashes. Below us, the forest became a swirling mosaic of white and shadow.The world dissolved into white fury. I couldn't see, couldn't breathe, as the storm's frozen claws raked at my body, trying to pry me from the dragon's back. My fingers numbed against its icy ridges, my muscles screaming as I clung like a burr to steel. Every gust was a hammer blow, every lurch of the dragon's flight threatening to send me spiraling into the abyss below.
We carved through the tempest, the dragon's wings heaving against the gale. Time lost meaning, there was only the fight to hold on, the burning in my arms, and the relentless, howling dark. The cold seeped into my bones, whispering promises of surrender, but I gritted my teeth and pressed harder against her back, my body a shield against the storm's wrath.
Somewhere beyond the chaos, I heard her laugh, bright and sharp as breaking ice, as if the wind's violence was nothing more than a summer breeze.
The storm's wrath bled away into the night, leaving behind a sky so clear it seemed polished. Above us, the moon hung massive and luminous, a great silver eye staring down at the world. Its light poured over the landscape, turning the snow below into a glittering sea of crushed diamonds.
And then, the shadows came alive.
Beneath the dragon's wings, the land stretched in monochrome splendor, black forests edged in silver, frozen rivers like ribbons of mercury, and snowfields so bright they hurt to behold. The storm's fury had scrubbed the air clean, leaving it sharp enough to cut. Every breath tasted of ice and pine, every gust of wind carrying the whisper of far-off, unseen things.
And there she was, untouched, unshaken, her skin glowing faintly in the moonlight as if she, too, were part of its radiance. Where I had fought for every gasp, she had breathed the tempest like it was her birthright. Now, as the dragon soared effortlessly through the still night, she tilted her face up to that impossible moon, her smile a secret shared with the sky itself.
The world below us was a study in contrasts, deep, velvety blacks and stark, luminous whites, a landscape painted in the hush between breaths. The trees stood like ink strokes against the snow, their branches clawing at the stars. The wind, no longer a howling beast, now sang a low, thrumming note, the kind that lingers in your bones long after the sound is gone.
"Beautiful, isn't it?" she murmured, her voice carrying the same quiet power as the moonlight.
I couldn't answer. The sheer vastness of the night pressed against me, the moon so close I swore I could reach up and graze its cold surface. It was terrifying. It was perfect.
She laughed, soft and knowing. "The night isn't empty. It's full."
The dragon's talons scraped against cobblestones as we landed in a deserted market square, the hour too late for witnesses. Moonlight painted the surrounding buildings in shades of pewter and bone as we set out to find shelter.
We found the landlord in a perfectly average apartment complex, beige walls, faint smell of lemon cleaner, the kind of place that usually didn't ask questions.
He was middle-aged, wearing a faded polo shirt, but his eyes locked onto us with unsettling focus. "How many days?"
"A week," I said. Shizuka stood slightly behind me, her presence quiet but impossible to ignore.
The landlord tapped his pen against the lease papers. "Thirty-five thousand Rd." His tone left no room for negotiation, at odds with his ordinary surroundings.
Shizuka tilted her head just slightly. The pen stopped tapping.
The deal was sealed. We secured a week's stay in a room so plain it felt temporary by design - four blank walls, a single bulb dangling from the ceiling, and nicely cleaned windows.
Morning came. The sunlight through the grimy panes did nothing to warm the space.
We wandered through the town's winding streets, the hum of distant chatter filling the air. I opened my mouth, "Hey…", but when Shizuka turned to me, her sharp gaze made the words die in my throat. "Never mind," I muttered, looking away.
A few steps later, Shizuka slowed. Her fingers twitched at her side.
"There's a weird presence," she said, voice low. Her eyes scanned the crowd, lingering too long on empty alleys and darkened windows. "You notice it too… right?"
"Yeah, I don't know what it is either. Let's just move." We quickened our pace, letting the uneasy feeling fade behind us.
The sudden "Hello!" made us both start. A man stood uncomfortably close, his grin too wide, clutching some unknown object in his hands - another street vendor, or something far less ordinary.
The man smiled, but it didn't reach his eyes, something about the way his teeth showed just a little too much. He unclasped his palm, revealing necklaces and bracelets coiled like sleeping snakes. The designs were... wrong in ways I couldn't name. Symbols twisted where they should've been straight; edges looked sharper than metal had any right to be.
"Would you like to try some?" he asked, tilting his hand so the pieces caught the light. The shadows they cast didn't match their shapes.
Shizuka shot me a look I couldn't decipher, somewhere between warning and dread. Then she turned to the man, her voice flat: "Ah, sorry. No thanks."
The words were polite, but everything else about her screamed tension. Her fingers had curled into loose fists. Even the air around us felt heavier, charged with something unsaid.
Shizuka turned to me, her voice a blade in the dark: "Let's go."
We moved to leave, only for the vendor to step in our path. His outstretched hand now looked less like an offer and more like a barricade.
"Please buy some."
The vendor's grin stayed frozen, but his voice turned vinegar-sharp."Special price. Just for you." His fingers twitched toward Shizuka's wrist - whether to force a bracelet on her or something worse, I couldn't tell.
Shizuka didn't blink. "I said we don't want to." Her voice could've flash-frozen hell. That look in her eyes - the one that made even seasoned fighters reconsider - was locked on him like a targeting system.
"Please, I really need some money..." The vendor's voice oozed false desperation, but his eyes, those damn eyes, were smiling. Not the kind that reached the rest of his face. A predator's grin, sharp and hungry.
Shizuka noticed it before I could process the danger. Her grip locked around my wrist like a steel cable. "Move."
No hesitation. She yanked me forward so hard my shoulder protested. My legs caught up mid-stumble, and suddenly we were sprinting, dodging through alleys, weaving past stalls, Shizuka's boots pounding the pavement beside me.
"Keep an eye out!" she barked, cutting left down a narrow passage. I followed, pulse hammering, but not before catching a glimpse of the vendor's silhouette standing unnaturally still—watching—as the crowd swallowed us whole.
We ducked into a cramped alleyway, pressing against the damp brick wall as our breaths came in sharp gasps. The vendor was gone, vanished like smoke.
"That damn vendor," Shizuka muttered, her voice icy. She narrowed her eyes, scanning the empty street. "Even if I use my tracking ability right now... I wouldn't be able to detect him." A muscle twitched in her jaw. "That's... weird."
We crouched behind a stack of crates, the alley reeking of rotting wood and wet concrete. My pulse hadn't slowed.
"That bastard didn't use magic," Shizuka hissed. "Not at first." Her fingers flexed like she wanted to strangle the air. "He let us sense him just enough, played weak until we got close."
A cold realization settled in my gut. The vendor hadn't hidden his presence.
He'd controlled it.