Airo forged on, trying to find a way out of the maze he was in. The avalanche had thrown him into a network of steep canyons. The walls on either side were sheer cliffs, rock eroded for aeons by the thick glaciers that encased it now like translucent armor.

He had no success attempting to reactivate the power armor. He managed to make a crude hood and wrappings using cut pieces from the flexpack. The synthetic fabric adequately prevented the heat from escaping, yet despite this his head was completely numb after an hour. Even inert, the power armor insulated the rest of his body, and he was sure he would avoid frostbite, if only barely.

The canyons twisted around, and often forked in many directions. Airo came upon dead ends several times, losing an hour in each case to backtrack. Despite that, his mood was somewhat improved; the canyons were completely unknown to him, which meant he may have finally escaped the deus-forsaken extraspatial trap of the mountain range.

The whole time, she trailed him like a shadow. Airo easily spotted the black form of the dragonet amid the icy bends, yet she kept her distance, so he ignored her. Every so often he would hear her quietly whimpering, and his stride would slow down involuntarily. This annoyed him, and each time he reached out for his anger to give him resolve.

Remember how Zenassa died. Remember what she became because of them, he told himself as he picked up the pace again.

Sunlight shifted as the hours passed, first leaving the canyons, then fading altogether. He walked in circles, the ravines and ledges becoming a featureless mass of snow and ice. He dreaded he might have escaped one infinite maze only to have entered another. Nighttime slowly settled, and with the coming dark he finally admitted to himself he was lost. He stopped to rest on a nearby boulder, and gazed grimly at the ground.

The silence was broken by the scrabbling of claws on ice, and a dark shape approached him in the glittering gloom of the glaciers.

"I know a way out of here," Veralla said quietly. "Please, just take me with you. I do not want to be alone."

Airo lifted his head and glowered at her.

"Are you lying in an attempt to follow you?" he asked coldly.

"No! No! I... I searched around, while you were going inside one of the closed paths, and found a trail leading to a large plain."

At that, Airo's frown deepened. "How did you know the canyon had a dead end? You flew over it?"

The dragonet ducked her head under his gaze. "No," she said. "I cannot fly. I tried, but..." she flapped her tiny wings in mute demonstration.

Airo suspected as much yet he wasn't satisfied. "Then how?"

"The path sounded differently as I passed by," she said with an earnest expression.

Airo watched her for a long time. "Lead," he said at last.

The dragonet bobbed her head, and guided him through the canyons. He noticed how well she navigated in the dark, and did his best to keep the pace, resisting the temptation to turn on a flashlight or some other illumination. They walked in silence for a couple of hours. The temperature started to drop, and Airo felt his head throbbing with dull pain, and his body also began to cool, despite the passive insulation of the power armor. He looked around for a shelter to spend the night, and saw a shallow cave in the cliff wall, when Veralla spoke.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

"Over there," she said.

He turned in the indicated direction, and saw the canyon path descending into white depths. He rematerialized a flashlight from the virtualizer, and turned it on. The cone of bright light revealed the opening expanse of a wide, flat plain.

What was more, it was again a completely new area; Airo was certain of that.

"Well done," he said levelly.

The dragonet beamed. "Thank you!" She then became anxious again. "Can I stay with you now?"

He sighed in quiet exasperation. "You may," he said.

"Oh, thank you, thank you!" Veralla fluttered her wings in happiness. "Can I... have some more food? I am still very hungry."

They camped in the shallow cave he had spotted nearby. As he settled down, he gave the dragonet several more carbo-protein packs, removing the packaging this time. He then took one and forced himself to eat it; he had lost his appetite days ago.

The dragonet had curled on the ground a little farther away than his place. Her breathing was quickened, and despite her happy expression, it was evident she was in distress.

Airo peered intently at her, and only now noticed she was shivering.

He pulled off his gauntlet and checked the temperature with the grid-caster. Too cold. His own head was suffering from early signs of frostbite.

He hauled to his feet and set out to start a fire.

He browsed the virtualizer's contents, and saw there was everything he needed among the inventory. He rematerialized the necessary tools and supplies, and soon a large fire was radiating joyful warmth in the dark cave.

"Come here," Airo called gruffly to Veralla.

The dragonet rose at once and padded closer. She settled down beside the fire, her shaking body encircling the blazing flames. Airo sat on the other side of the fire, thinking.

He didn't do it for her. He needed the heat. And no matter how advanced civilization became, no matter how distant stars it reached, few things could match that mystical, reassuring quality fire had in its simplest and purest form.

He certainly didn't do it for her.

Had he?

"Eat," he said, and rematerialized a dozen more carbo-protein packs for the dragonet. She lifted her head. "What about you?" she asked cautiously. She had seen his meager dinner.

"None of your skyline," he snapped irritably.

She didn't ask again, and quietly gulped the plain meal. She murmured in thanks, her body relaxed by the warmth, and closed her eyes. Within a minute, she was asleep.

Airo gazed absently at the fire, knowing sleep wouldn’t come early tonight for an altogether different reason than in the previous days.

***

He awoke to the sound of insistent beeping. He needed several seconds to recall where he was. Pale light was streaming through the cave's entrance. Across the fire's smoldering remains, Veralla hrrr-ed sleepily, the sound she made something between a hiss, a growl, and a purr, and began to stir. He stared at the dragonet's shifting form with bitter dismay.

The beeping continued. It was the grid-caster. Airo looked at its interface, wondering what had triggered such automatic reaction.

The information on the display made him jump.

His grid-caster had picked up a distress signal.

A signal. Which meant other people. Civilization.

Airo's body surged with energy, the physical and mental fatigue accumulated over the weeks forgotten. Pausing briefly to gather his gear, Airo dashed outside the cave, his sudden retreat startling the dragonet.

"Do not leave me!" she pleaded after him.

"Then come!" he barked over his shoulder without further delay.

The dragonet leapt after him, and soon the two of them were running across the vast plain he had seen the night before. The morning winds were strong, kicking up snow and obscuring the horizon. The cold stabbed fiercely at Airo's face, yet he didn't slow down. He glanced every few seconds at the grid-caster. The signal strength was increasing, and its source was somewhere close, several kilometers away at most. He rushed ever forward, the dragonet beside him barely keeping up the pace as she ran on all fours through the deep snow.

After an hour, his tempo faltered. Struggling for breath, each gulp of air searing his throat with icefire, he slowed down, barely able to walk.

"Why are we running?" the dragonet asked with effort. She was panting beside him, and was shivering again.

"The signal... I have to get to it," Airo managed, stubbornly walking on. He felt on the verge of his stamina, the arctic winds choking him, the inert power armor weighing him down. Fortunately, according to the grid-caster the signal was no more than a kilometer away.

They stumbled across the plain for several more minutes. Without warning, the winds began to die down, and the mist of snow dispersed. Airo squinted at the horizon, and then he saw it.

In the distance, the battered shape of a crashed starship loomed amidst the plains.