Land Where Dragons Rule

Ch. 2: Lair of the Ice Dragon



As soon as Doomageddon released Frogg’s ankle, the entire world around him changed.  With a snort, the hellhound teleported back to the lair, leaving Doktor Frogg to be engulfed by the Event Horizon.
The Event Horizon is not really any place or time, but rather a chaotic part of the gap between dimensions.  The gaps between the various dimensions are divided into two distinct parts, each accessible from the others, yet cleanly divided.  These two parts are known as the Minov Boundary Sea and the Event Horizon.  The Minov Sea is a tranquil void where dimensional travelers often end up due to various equipment malfunctions.  The Event Horizon is completely different.  It is a chaotic melding of all dimensions that can only be accessed by pan dimensional hellhounds or by entering a crack in the Minov Boundary Sea.  It is a maddening place in which very few beings can stay sane for any period of time.  In fact, one could almost compare it to the depths of hell.
When Doomageddon released Frogg, he was suddenly exposed to all of the fury of the Event Horizon.  It seemed to the unfortunate Doktor that the world itself had suddenly and inexplicably exploded.  Colors kaleidoscoped around him, and alien landscapes came and went in flashes faster then the blink of an eye.  Accompanying the constantly changing landscapes were thousands of feelings, each changing with the world in which it was spawned.  Frogg felt as though he were burning, freezing, drowning, falling, suffocating, and a multitude of other sensations, both pleasant and painful.  He opened his mouth to scream, but the sound was dragged from him and scattered over thousands of worlds.  He closed his eyes, yet nothing could block out the assault.  He could still see the searing lights and gaping darkness. There was no escape.  His mind was slowly but surely slipping toward insanity.  The one constant in the Event Horizon was that nothing remained the same for more then a second or two.  This held true even for time and Frogg himself.  Apart from the physical and mental torment he was experiencing, his body was twisting and contorting in unimaginable ways.  He was aging both forward and reverse, and the physical result was something incomprehensible to anyone other then those who have experienced it.
All at once the torment ended and everything went black.  Some time later, Frogg awakened.  He lay, completely motionless, on a hard surface.  His mind slowly recovered from the exposure to the Event Horizon.  In reality, he had only been in there a few seconds before he was ejected into one of the dimensions, but due to time fluctuations, he had spent an eternity and yet no time at all in that hellish existence.
Slowly, Frogg regained the ability to think, and with it came control over his senses.  Had he not been so accustomed to pain, he would never have recovered.  With a tremendous effort, the disoriented Doktor opened his eyes.  When he did so, all he saw was deep black peppered with countless stars.  For a moment, he wondered if he was dead, but the thought was quickly dismissed as he became aware of the cold, hard surface he was laying on.
He attempted to move, but found that he was temporarily paralyzed from the neck down.  He waited… watched… and waited…
All at once, a tingly sensation rushed down his neck and through his arms and he found that he could move his upper body.  As quickly as possible, he raised his torso off of the ground and began to examine himself and his surroundings.  Frogg soon found out that he had left the Event Horizon completely unscathed.
Frogg’s attention was quickly diverted to his surroundings.  From what he could see, he was somewhere close to the top of either a very steep mountain or a cliff face.  It was hard to be sure from his position.  Beyond the edge of the cliff, he could see a heavily forested valley thousands of feet below.  The valley ran for several miles before abruptly ending in a massive cliff that appeared to encircle the structure on which he was sitting.  All of Frogg’s limited knowledge of topography and geography told him that he was on the raised center of an insanely large impact crater.  The mountain that he was on was likely an extinct volcano crated when the object that made the crater pierced through the planet’s crust.
As soon as he was capable of standing, Frogg got to his feet and turned around.  He came face to face with the yawning entrance of what was perhaps the largest cave he had ever seen.  On either side of the cave ran a path, one of which led up the mountain, the other led down.  He almost immediately decided that he would not try either path until there was enough light to navigate to the bottom of the mountain.  
Quietly, Frogg edged his way to the mouth of the cave and peered inside.  His instincts screamed at him to run, until he noticed that there was a soft glow emanating from the cave’s depths.  Against his better judgments, he quietly stepped into the moist darkness of the cave.  At first all he could see was the typical darkness found only underground, but soon he realized that the glowing he had earlier witnessed was beginning to surround him.  Upon further inspection, he found that there were actually crystals of all shapes and sized that covered the walls and roof of the cave in faintly glowing patches.  There were also many crystal clusters on the ground, but they were far sparser compared to the other parts of the cave.
Frogg suddenly froze where he was standing.  He was not alone.  When he concentrated, he could hear the slow steady breaths of what could only be a creature many times his size.  His gaze steadily climbed up the cave and abruptly stopped.  From atop a massive crystal cluster, a gigantic creature was staring at him with gleaming ruby colored eyes.  Other then the slitted cat-like eyes, all he could make out was the silhouette of the creature.
Out of nowhere, all of the crystals started glowing with an intense light, somewhat like that of a thousand rainbow fluorescent light bulbs.  Frogg was temporarily blinded, but when his vision cleared, he realized that the creature was gone.  He heard a loud thump and turned around, his body shaking like a leaf and his face white as parchment.  There behind him was the creature, and as soon as the thought registered, he let out an extremely loud scream.
The creature’s details were now visible, and it was now apparent that it was a dragon.  It stood on four legs, and appeared to be around fourteen feet tall.  From nose to tail, Frogg estimated that the dragon was around fifty feet long.  Its body was covered in glittering blue scales, and its fingers and toes ended in extremely sharp talons.
Frogg stumbled backwards, but the dragon blocked the only path to the cave’s entrance.  The dragon slowly stepped forward, its blade-ended tail swishing slowly behind it.  Quietly, it lowered it head until it was at eye level with Frogg.  The terrified Doktor could feel its strangely cold breath as it sniffed at him.  Part of him wondered why it hadn’t eaten him, and also why its breath was so cold.  If this thing were an actual dragon, which judging by its large purple wings and impressive number of horns it was, then shouldn’t it have hot breath?
Suddenly the dragon pulled back and surprised him by asking something in what sounded like Japanese.  It had a rather feminine voice, and Doktor Frogg gave the rather accurate guess that it was female.  When it got no response to its inquiry, it changed languages.  “Se hablo èspanol?” she asked, a confused expression crossing her face.
Frogg shook his head, his fear being quickly replaced by a combination of confusion and fascination.  The dragon gave an irritated sigh and changed languages. “Parlez vous française?”
This time, the dragon’s inquiry hit home in a language that he somewhat understood.  In a shaky voice, he responded, “Errr… Non… Je ne suis pas française. Je parle anglaise.”
The dragon suddenly started laughing. “I should have known!” she exclaimed when she got control of herself, “Welcome to the land of Arc, or more precisely, the only civilized area in the land of Arc.”
“Hold on a second!” stammered Frogg, “You’re a dragon, right? Shouldn’t you have either eaten and/or incinerated me by now?”
“Hey now!” the dragon protested while stamping a foot on the ground, “Just because I’m a dragon doesn’t mean that I like to eat people.  Besides, I’m an ice dragon.  I prefer to chase down and freeze nonsentient beings.”
“That’s… err… pleasant…?” remarked a now thoroughly disturbed Frogg.
“So who are you?” asked the dragon, who had noticed Frogg’s discomfort and decided to change tactics, “You’re surely not from this backwater dimension. I can tell that just from the way you are dressed.”
“Well,” responded a rather flustered Frogg, “My name is Doktor Frogg, and to tell you the truth, I am not sure how to explain where I am from.  All I can say is that I was thrown into the Event Horizon and this is where I ended up.”
“That’s pretty interesting,” said the dragon with a loud yawn, “but I think it would be best if we discussed it in the morning.  By the way, my name is Nefarious Antiomorph, owner and protector of this cave and all of its inhabitants.”
“How many other dragons live here?” asked Frogg in a voice slightly louder then a whisper.  The idea of meeting more of a species that wasn’t even supposed to exist was really making Frogg nervous.
“I’m the only full time dragon here,” said Nefarious with a sigh, “There are not that many dragons who visit this cave, and besides, most of the inhabitants are either mad scientists or rare creatures from other dimensions.  In fact, this cave seems to be a hotspot for dimensional travelers.”
“Dimensional hotspot?” questioned Frogg, “I’m afraid I don’t quite understand.”
The dragon suddenly unleashed another tremendous yawn before replying, “Honestly, I don’t quite understand it either, but I know someone who does.  You’ll meet him in the morning, I promise.”
As she spoke, the dragon began to work her way up to a high ledge.  As soon as she made it, she began digging around in a large crevice that was apparently used as a storage space.  Nefarious reemerged moments later with several blankets and a pillow made from deer hide.  With a silent grace, she leapt down from the ledge and landed in front of Frogg. “There is a space over there amongst that large cluster of crystals,” she explained while handing Frogg the blankets and indicating a nearby crystal cluster, “that you can sleep in without getting trampled by everyone else when they wake up in the morning.”
Frogg quietly took the supplies, thanked the dragon, and sauntered over to the indicated spot.  The aforementioned patch of ground was nearly hidden by the crystals, yet it was more then ample space for a man of Frogg’s stature.  Wrapped in the warm embrace of the blankets, as well as the cool night air, Frogg quickly fell into a restful sleep.

End Ch. 2