Cowl
“Come on, Caine!” he shouted, cheering on his oldest brother. “You can do this!”
The eldest of the ice dragon brothers grunted from where he knelt on the ground, both hands plunged into the packed snow underfoot. Veins popped against his forehead, the skin red and tight as he strained with effort.
In the distance snow and ice flowed under Caine’s control, reshaping itself, rising up from the ground. Nearby, an entire castle made of ice sat silently on the side of the mountain, evidence of Ivore’s efforts. The middle brother lay panting, exhausted and out of energy. Despite the cold outside, beads of sweat dripped down his face, dropping to the snow with a brief sizzle of steam as they flash-froze.
Caine meanwhile continued with his construct. The ice swirled around itself, forming tree-trunk like beams, rising up from between the two peaks. Cowl had no idea what his brother was trying to form, but whatever it was, it was huge. He could see snow moving under Caine’s command the entire way between the mountains. It rose up from the ground, twisting and turning into dozens, then hundreds of beams.
He watched in awe of his brother’s power. “Ivore, come look at this.” He beckoned to his middle brother, reaching out blindly with one hand to pull him to his knees so he could witness the spectacle in front of them.
“What…What’s he building?” Ivore spoke in heaving gasps, completely and utterly spent from his own effort. Cowl doubted he could do much more than ward off the cold at this point. Forming a snowball was probably beyond Ivore’s reach for at least another few minutes.
Caine groaned suddenly and fell to both knees, but he shook off Cowl’s offer of assistance. “No, I’ve…got…it.” His voice was strained, tight and focused.
Backing off, he gave his brother space to work, not wanting to interrupt the masterpiece.
“I think it’s a bridge,” Cowl said as the structure began to take shape. “He’s building a bridge between the two mountains. Incredible.”
His brothers were two of the strongest dragons Cowl knew. He’d only met two others in his nearly two centuries of life, so that might not be saying much, but it didn’t matter. He looked up to both of them. One day he would be as strong as them. One day they would nod and say “Good job, Cowl. We’re proud of you.”
It was his biggest dream. Maybe today would be the start of that. The feat he had planned was unlike anything he’d tried before. It wouldn’t be on the same page as the ice bridge Caine was creating. He wasn’t that strong, but it would be more than he’d ever tried before. More than they suspected he was capable of. Cowl was going to impress them today.
Finally Caine gasped and keeled over, the last plank in his ice bridge falling into place. The structure wavered, and then settled into a stillness, standing up to the wind that swept through the upper peaks that the brothers called home.
All of them stared in awe at the construct. It was unbelievable. Caine was just so skilled, he thought.
“Well?” Ivore asked, still weak, but able to speak without needing to take a breath. “What you got, Cowl?”
“I’m not sure how to top that.” He shook his head, still staring at what Caine had completed. “But I’ve got something in mind. Let’s see if you think it’s as impressive as I do.”
The two older brothers exchanged looks. Cowl didn’t need to see it to know what it was. They were trying not to roll their eyes. Nothing Cowl could do was going to top the ice bridge, they thought. Why even bother? Well, they might be right. But maybe not.
Rolling up the sleeves of his long tunic, he flexed and curled all his fingers several times, drawing in power to himself. Taking a deep breath, he dropped to his knees and plunged his hands deep into the snow. Unlike his brothers, he kept his fingers spread wide, instead of clamped into fists. Control was going to be key here.
He looked up at the peak of the mountain upon which they stood. Past Ivore’s castle, and to the very snowcapped top. That was where he would need to focus. Reaching out, he felt the snow around them, felt the immense power of it all, sitting calmly atop the mountainside.
Questing north, he felt the snow and ice around the peak, feeling it respond to his command. Ice and snow were the domain of the white dragons. Of Cowl. He could make it dance and swirl to his command, and today he did just that.
The very tip of the mountain shivered and then began to move. Slowly at first, then picking up speed, the snow on the rocky point swirled around in a circle. Bit by bit Cowl worked his way down the peak, until the top twenty feet of snow on the peak was moving around in a circle, like water about to go down the drain.
Feeling confident, he added another ten feet.
Then fifty.
“Cowl?”
He shook off his brother’s question. This was his show today. Nobody else’s.
One hundred feet.
One fifty.
He felt the first strain now as his mind was pushed, but it wasn’t enough to stop him. Fully two hundred feet down from the peak, the snow was moving around and around in a circle, swirling around the circumference of the mountain. Cowl smiled to himself. Now for the real show.
Stabbing his hands further into the snow, he sent power coursing through his moving snow. Sending it up.
Snow rolled up the mountain to the peak, and kept going. It started with a foot at a time, but he swiftly jumped to five, and then ten feet at a time. The snow leapt upward, still spinning in a circle, until it was fully inverted. The mountainside lay bare, brown and gray rock exposed for the first time in decades if not longer. Above the tip of the mountain hung the snow, like an hourglass that wasn’t draining.
The strain by now was immense, and he struggled to keep it moving around. Pain hammered nails into his skull, lances of agony thundering deep into him as he used more power than he ever had before.
“Cowl,” Ivore said warningly. “Are you okay?”
“Fine.” But it came out through gritted teeth, his voice taut.
Now for the hard part. Putting the snow back.
Like his brothers, he was grunting and groaning with the strain at this point. Slowly the snow drifted downward. His limbs were shaking now, and he could feel warm liquid trickling from his nose. He was bleeding. But it was worth it. Both brothers were silent, impressed by his efforts.
The last of the snow slipped down and into place. Cowl groaned in pain and fell over, wiping his nose to see that indeed he was bleeding.
“Are you okay?” Ivore stood above him.
“Yeah. Will be.”
Ivore looked like he was about to say more, but a low rumble from up the mountain caught their attention. All three brothers looked up the slope.
Caine spoke slowly, still exhausted himself. “Cowl, did you remember to reinforce the snow below where you took it from, so that it wouldn’t collapse after expanding once the pressure from the cap was lifted and then dropped back into place?”
“Uh.”
Shit. He’d not thought of that at all.
The rumble intensified, and snow began to slide down the mountain. A lot of snow. The entire two hundred feet he’d lifted free had broken loose, exerting pressure on the snow below it, and now thousands of tons of snow was hurtling down toward them. All three brothers were still exhausted from their efforts, none of them possessing the strength necessary to fend off an avalanche of this strength.
“BALL!” Caine snapped, taking charge. He hauled Ivore to his feet and the two of them collapsed atop Cowl.
He felt their powers awaken, and contributed to it what he could, weak as he still was. Snow rose up around them, filling the gaps between their bodies and encasing them in a solid globe. They poured energy and strength into it, the sphere expanding continually.
Above them Cowl watched the avalanche crash into Ivore’s castle, the ice structure simply disintegrating under the force. Snow rose up to obscure his view as he and his brothers worked frantically to protect themselves. They might be ice dragons, but nature would always be stronger than they were, and this was no exception.
The roar grew to deafening proportions, and he braced himself for the impact, sending out a mental apology that he knew his brothers would never hear.
The avalanche picked up their snow globe and hurled it downhill with a thunderous crash.
After that, Cowl only knew darkness as they were buried under thousands of tons of ice, rock, and snow. They were too weak to extricate themselves now. Sleep first, and then recover. Then they could work together to move the snow aside to reach the surface. Yes, sleep was exactly what he needed.
He closed his eyes, ready to awaken in a few hours.