Since it was my first time walking, It was really hard since my legs had almost no strength. My legs were hurting like hell, even though I hadn't walked that much. The wall helped me support my balance a lot.
"Please. Help."
I tried to alternate between crawling and walking and found this was more convenient for me than crawling or walking the whole way. The more I walked the easier it became. The deeper I go, the colder it gets. There was a point that I wanted to turn back because of the cold. The only thing I had on was a diaper and a shirt.
No wonder we had a fire built up when we went to sleep.
The only thing I could see ahead was more and more cave walls. It looked like there was no end to this walk, but the voice was getting louder and louder which meant that I was getting closer.
"Over here, little one."
Wow, it sounded like whoever it was knew that I was a baby. I sat down. What if I was walking towards something dangerous? I should have definitely thought of that earlier.
"Please."
I don't know why I felt like the voice was not threatening. Maybe I was overthinking everything. Before the voice did ask to help her child, so there must be something wrong with her child. Should I try talking to the voice?
"Why hewp?" I couldn't believe I still couldn't talk that clear. I got embarrassed as I thought more about what I had just said.
"My child. Please help her."
She said that before, but when she said it right now she sounded even more desperate. It made me wonder what was actually happening to her child. I decided to keep on going towards the voice. It took fifteen minutes to get there. The end result was that it was a dead end. Why did the voice take me to a dead-end? I scanned the place. There was ice building up everywhere and it was coldest here.
"Come through."
Wait, what? Did she say to 'come through', but it was a dead-end?"
"Come through the wall, please. Hurry."
I went closer to the wall and closely examined it. It didn't look see-through. My body was shivering from the extreme cold. I breathed hot air into my hands to keep myself warm. My legs and arms were slowly going numb from the cold. I needed to get this over with this fast.
I went to touch the wall, but it never touched it instead it went through. It was like the wall was sucking me in. I walked in just to be blasted with immense cold air.
"Human child, please come closer to me, so you will not freeze up." My body moved on its own. My eyes quickly adjust to the darkness of the cave.
I froze up when I saw what was in front of me. A huge dragon. It was huge and beautiful. I thought dragons didn't exist. She was a black dragon with gold designs. Her wings were big and were wrapped around her, probably to keep herself warm. Her tail was long and had webbed extensions on the end of her tail. Her yellow eyes met mine. Her eyes were gentle and caring like my mom's, so I wasn't really scared of her.
Her tail gently moved towards me but stopped every few seconds so she didn't startle me. When her tail was close enough, she wrapped it around me and picked me up. The closer she brought me to her, the warmer I felt.
Soon she had put me under her wing, which was the warmest place. The dragon's head came under her wing. She still had those gentle eyes.
"Hello human child, thank you for coming."
Her voice still had a sad tone to it.
How can I talk to her? I still didn't have my teeth yet, so it would be hard to talk to her.
"You can talk to me through your mind. I do not mind."
Wow. I guess I could try.
'Is this working?'
"Yes."
'My name is Alexander, but you can call me Alex for short.'
"Well. Hello, Alex. I am Ariella."
I gave her a smile as a small greeting.
"You know Alex, only a pure and noble mind and heart can get through that wall. I am happy that someone like you finally came before I died."
'What do you mean?'
"This cave was a place to protect me and imprison me because I'm the last of its kind. Once the human that trapped me in here died, this cave became unbearably cold. What you see now isn't my physical body? I died two hundred years ago. It is my soul that is keeping my child and you safe right now, but my soul won't last anymore."
'Where is your child?'
"Right next to you."
I started to look for another black dragon but nothing. The only thing I found was a huge white stone with gold and blue swirls on it.
'I don't see your child.'
"It's the white egg with gold and blue designs on it."
'Wait, you mean it didn't hatch.'
"It's not time for her to hatch. She was the only one who survived for two hundred years. The rest of my children died from the incoming cold. So please protect her."
'I will try, but I am only a baby.'
"You may be a baby, but I sense a huge amount of power from inside of you at such an early age. I am about to give you something. But once I give it to you, my soul will dissipate immediately, so get out of this little prison as soon as you can."
Just as she said that I grabbed the egg. The egg was half the size of me and it was warm. I put my ear next to the egg. I could hear some movement.
'How long do you have?'
"At most, a few more minutes. I wish I could hear my baby say 'mom' just once." I looked back at her. She was crying. She looked at me. "Do you think you can do me a favor?"
'I'll do what I can.'
"Can you call me mom in my daughter's place?" She was getting teary and her voice was starting to break. I could tell she really wanted me to say it.
She gave me a nudge with her nose. Something pricked when she nudged me.
"You have to go know."
I watched her body start to dissipate little by little.
"Now go, Alex. Please, take care of my daughter. Also, thank you." She was genuine. I should probably do something for her.
'Mom.'
At first, she was shocked, then she smiled.
"Now go."
The egg was a little heavy. Once I left Ariella's wing, the cold air hit me. The cold air was making it difficult to breathe. I rolled the egg as fast as I could. I rushed and I could feel myself freezing up and the egg was getting cold. Once we got out, I collapsed. I reached out to the egg and started to hug it. I must have fallen asleep because I don't remember what happened. But I heard someone calling out my name.