Drawn

“Are you there, God? It’s me … again!” I screamed into the howling wind. “It would be wonderful if you could send this storm back from wherever the heck it came from!”

I had been talking aloud now for some time to the diety, hoping beyond anything that he was listening, and perhaps feeling merciful this evening.

The trek up the mountain had been brutal, many had warned me not to try it alone. That many had attempted to reach the summit and yet had never returned. Likely, they still sat up there, above the freeze line, frozen solid.

Yet something drew me to it. Those three peaks were ungodly beautiful at night, crowned with stars and sporting a necklace of multicolored lights that danced through the sky. The tallest one saddled in the middle was immense. Though its majesty was immense it was also something completely… other.

I had spent most of the day clearing the tree line and now faced the tundra like peak that stretched high above me.

Then, after yelling at the sky I pause my climb. Sitting in the snow was normally always a pretty bad idea to begin with but when mixed with the biting cold and wind it was worse for sure. I had better make camp at some point to shelter from the storm. I had brought some meager materials in my pack to protect against the elements. Still, I would prefer to find some sort of natural outcrop to help shield from the wind.

I scan as far as I can see in the near whiteout conditions, hoping, no praying to see something up the scale of the mountain that could serve as a wind block. I absentmindedly rub my fingers against my thighs trying to regain feeling as sweat begins to stick my black hair to my neck.

I squint hard, shivering as my teeth begin to chatter with the lack of movement. A cavemouth in the distance has me thinking that perhaps I do have a direct link with God now.

Dredging as deeply into my reserves of energy as I can muster, I heave myself upward once more. The effort of that alone made me realize the level of weariness I was to expect once I actually stopped moving.

It took me quite some time to walk the roughly three-hundred yards to what I had assumed was the foot of the cave. Instead, I find a rocky outcrop, not wide enough to make camp unfortunately, with a near ten-foot cliff before it opened up into the cave further up. The air here was somehow warmer even without the absence of the wind, as if something inside the cave had altered it. A slight amount of steam seemed to rise from the upper lip of the cave giving me the idea of a natural hot spring or volcanic vent on the interior.

Let’s hope for the hot spring.

I once again attempt to rub feeling back to my aching fingers as I press them to my neck and brow for warmth. I unhook the snowshoes I had been wearing and shake the snow from them, but the warmth of the area seemed to be melting the remains, leaving my feet cold and now wet.

Fantastic.

With a huff of breath, I find the first placement for my fingers and right foot. With a deep breath I throw myself upward, catching the next purchase easily. I needed to dig deep now, just until I crested the top, then I could rest.

The more I rose up the wall the more my muscles began to fail. The fear of falling and hitting the outcrop below, not to mention the possibility of rolling down half this mountainside had me scrambling to reach the top.

Seconds before my strength fully receded, I threw my right leg above the crest of the miniature cliffside, dragging the rest of my body up. I rolled from my side to my back gasping heavily to replace the air that had somehow become incredibly hard to capture.

I stared up at the roof of the cave now. The mouth itself was larger than I had thought previously, roughly fifty to sixty feet in diameter. With steam licking up the top of the cave and dissipating in the roaring storm beyond. The initial opening room of the cave itself was rather large, able to fit a few of the little cottages in the village below inside.

The wind was nearly gone completely now, exactly what I was hoping for when I made the ridiculous decision to enter a cave. My fingers began to feel as if they were ablaze with the difference in temperature and my thighs seemed to be closer to the feeling of raw meat rather than live tissue.

Once I had finally caught my breath I sat up in an attempt to truly look at my surroundings to the best of my ability. Instead, I was met with a set of massive blue eyes approaching slowly from the distant inky black of the cave, reflecting the little light from the opening behind me.

Pure unbridled terror gripped me as the outline of a massive beast slowly entered my vision. First the head, bigger than any animal I had ever seen before sporting a massive maw filled with row after row of razor-sharp teeth that its pulled back lips revealed. Massive slits for nostrils sat above its mouth, rippling steam from them that rose to roof of the cave. Large horns, like that of a yearling deer sprouted from above the brow of it.

I tried to move, to run, anything I could but I remained locked in place as I threatened to release my bowels or upheave the contents of my stomach. I couldn’t stop staring at the monstrosity before me though.

Its long neck sported a pattern of snake-like scales the color of glacial ice that rested on massive shoulders leading to a slender body. Membranous wings sprouted from its back, taking up the space of the cavern as it spread them wide. They glistened with moisture, like glittering diamonds in the night.

It rose on its haunches then, straightening its spine and causing its head to rise like that of a snake coiled to strike. The movement displayed its massive claws, the length of swords, no doubt just as sharp. The growl it emitted was a mixture of thunderclaps and the deepest baying of a bull I could possibly imagine. The sound more guttural and unreal than anything possible as it stared at me with full menace in its eyes.

The paws of the beast were enough to flatten me alone, but this wasn’t my current fear. No, I was petrified as I beheld the beast’s mouth opening slightly and molten blue liquid dripped from it, stinging and hissing on the floor before me.

I shuddered then, my body beginning to shake uncontrollably as the inevitability of my death pressed down on me.

“God help me,” I whisper.

As if this were the confirmation the abomination before me was looking for, it slammed back down onto the cave floor sending shockwaves through the room as debris from the ceiling of the cave came crashing down. In the same motion its mouth opened wide, and I saw nothing but brilliant blue fire.