Against All Odds
Against all odds, I am alive…yet intense cold seeps out of the ground into my bones, and the heat of drying blood coats my face. My throat clenches, tongue dry, as I take a struggling breath. Immediately, a bolt of pain lances through my chest. The weapon lodged somewhere in my abdomen shifts, and I grimace, weakly clawing at the ground. In the distance, I hear the bellows of my fellow soldiers who have not yet fallen. How did I get here…? It all happened so fast.

I close my eyes and think back to base camp. My friends, my commander, my warm sleeping place… Images of the battle to follow then parade unbeckoned through my mind, ending with me collapsing to the ground, and the glint of light off a silver poleax. When my eyes open again, I’m not sure how long it has been. The distant battle cries seem fainter. Above me, dark clouds are roiling, their murky forms swirling across the sky like angry drakes. I blink, trying to force my eyes to focus. Faces drift in and out of the clouds, looking down at where I lay like a broken sparrow. I must be dying, I realize. Clouds don’t have faces. Do they?

Lighting begins to dance in the growing storm. The fleeting bolts of light connect from one dark cloud to another, like an electrified spiderweb. I vaguely wonder if a spider hides somewhere in that web, waiting for its prey. I’m not sure how long I lay there before a particularly bright flash of light forces me to squint, leaving colorful afterimages burned into my vision. As the spots start to fade, a dark figure slinks at the corner of my vision. …Spider…?

The shadowy figure comes closer, its edges blurry and shape indistinct. Dark vapor twists around its insubstantial body until eyes appear, two ovals of bright blue light, sparks leaping from their corners. I can feel the crackle of its energy dance across my scales.

“Do you want to save them?”

The creature’s voice slinks into my mind reminiscent of the way it slinks across the ground, dark but strangely energized. It eyes sear into me, unblinking.

“They are going to die.”

“Who?” I croak, my voice breaking. My mouth tastes like rusty metal and my tongue feels too big.

“Your comrades,” it hisses. “They still live…most of them…for now. But they will die. You seem to have a strong soul to languish here for so long. I can give you a second chance.” The sparks from its eyes increase in volume, turning into arcs of crackling electricity.