Far, far north, where many people wouldn’t dare tread, lay a frozen land. Ten kilometers north of the Resolute Bay Observatory, some of the few brave souls who would dare the elements, have set up a camp, all in the name of science.
For these few men and women, every day included not only the pain of surviving this harsh climate, but also hard work. A small team of three scientists, five laborers, and a guide, toiled in the ice, trying to uncover the past and to prove, once and for all, if there ever was a creature known as a Dragon.
Michelle Higgins, the lead researcher, and head of the expedition, was responsible for the lives of everyone she brought with her. She was convinced that the data she had collected to lead her here, was viable, and her career was on the line. They had been digging for weeks already and found only solid ice, but she was sure of her work.
“Michelle! You’ve got to see this!”
“Dave, if it’s another frozen fish, I swear I’ll make you eat it raw.” She said. Michelle set her coffee on the table and followed him outside the tent, and into the freezing snow. Their camp has been moved to the bottom of the quarry site they had created over the past month, and they were now facing a huge wall of ice, in which they were still digging.
“We did what you said, and started digging straight into the cliff.” Dave said. He led her to a cave and pulled his flashlight from his parka. Once inside, she saw dancing lights at the other end, where they found two laborers still cleaning up the mess.
“We thought we hit pay dirt, but we thought you should take a look before we broke open the champagne.” Dave said. Michelle approached the glass surface of the ice and peered inside.
At first, only a faint shape could be seen suspended in the ice, but Dave shone his flashlight across the glistening surface, and the red scales shone in their brilliance.
“Is it a dinosaur?” she asked.
“I’m not the scientist, ma’am, but I’ve never heard of a red dinosaur like that. It has wings.” He said.
“It is! This is what we’ve been looking for!” she exclaimed happily. Smiles began to spread across everyone’s faces. Inside the wall of ice, lay a sleeping red dragon.
Two days later, the specimen was extracted from the wall, and now lay covered in a sheet, just outside the main tent, still encased in a block of ice. The cover was off more than it was on, however, because it was their trophy, and every trophy deserves an audience. Michelle found herself just staring at it rather than making observations and working on a way to safely extract it from the ice, and preserve it intact. But still, her sense of accomplishment was hampered by a sense of pity for the creature, and how it ended up encased in ice.
Her research first began five years ago, just as she finished university, and mostly consisted of mythological stories of dragons, knights, King Arthur, and the like. She read old books of dragon slaying knights, rampaging, fire breathing beasts, and even damsels in distress. What started as a study of literary works in a single genre became a full blown obsession with dragons. This obsession led to a feasibility study on the existence of the mythical beasts, and her research has led her to this frozen Canadian land. Now she stands staring at the fruits of her labor, and oddly, it’s staring back at her through six inches of ice.
“Hey.” Dave said, appearing next to her with a hot cup of coffee, “You gonna stare at that thing all day?”
“This thing is proof that dragons exist!” she said, “Aren’t you excited?”
“Not really. I was kind of hoping that a beast that could burn you alive and eat the charred flesh off your bones was just something in a fairytale.” He said.
“Then why did you join this expedition?” she asked.
“I need the money.” He said, “I have a daughter going through university this year.”
“What university?” she asked. Behind her, a small chunk of ice fell off the specimen and skipped across the ground.
“We live in central Ontario.” He said, “It’s a little town called Nakina. She’s going to school in Toronto
“University of Toronto
“Art, but I believe she said she was taking a minor in mythological literature.” He said, “She’s a nut over these things as well.”
“Won’t you have the stories to tell her….” She said, turning around, and putting her back to the block of ice. Dave sneezed, and the ice cracked at the same moment, going unheard by the two standing next to it.
“I can’t wait to get out of this frozen hell!” he moaned, wiping his nose. He pulled back the door to the tent and allowed Michelle to go in first, before entering himself.
That night, she couldn’t sleep. She stared at the wall of her tent, bundled in her thermal suit and sleeping bag, and all she could think about was the cargo helicopter coming the next morning to extract her and her team, along with their prize. She rolled over and noticed that Dave was still sitting in the same spot as before, with the poker cards still at his feet, and rifle resting on his shoulder. His eyes were fixed on the door, and he wasn’t asleep.
“Dave, what’s wrong?” she whispered across the room. Dave didn’t move.
“I have a bad feeling.” He said, “I don’t trust that thing.”
“What are you talking about? That thing is dead! It’s frozen in a block of ice, for God sakes!” she said.
“You think its dead?” he asked. “Come over here then.” Michelle crawled out of bed and pulled on her parka to join him across the tent. He was staring out the crack in the door of the tent, at the block of ice outside which sparkled in the moonlight. The odd thing about it was that the dragon’s eyes were glowing.
“Oh come on! That’s the moon reflecting off its eyes!” she said, unable to believe that something frozen for thousands of years could possibly be alive. Yet she stopped accusing him of being wrong, when there was a sudden crash, and the block of ice shattered into pieces.
The whole team had woken up with the loud crash, and had begun dressing in a mad panic to see what had happened, but Michelle was the first person out the door. She stood over the remains of the ice, and was too shocked to move. Before her very eyes, the dragon was lying at her feet, and it was breathing.
She heard the click of a gun and saw Dave raise the rifle to his shoulder, but she pulled it down and knelt by the half dead creature. Her hand slowly inched forward as she reached for it, and her hand connected with its head. She felt the cold, bony scales of its crown, the strong horns, and eyed the fangs in its mouth, all the while wearing a huge smile.
In a flash, the dragon opened its yellow eyes and stared at her. She gasped and pulled away, but even then the beast didn’t move. Instead it watched her intently. Now that it was out of the ice, she saw it to be quite large, about four meters long with a wingspan of about eight meters. Her eyes lit up as they both stared at each other, and the gun began to shake in Dave’s hands.
“Michelle, don’t get close to it!” he snapped. The dragon looked at him, and then eyed the gun. As if it understood what a gun actually meant, it stood on shaky legs and tried to get away, but it was clearly too weak to move.
“Dave put that thing away!” she cried, “You’re scaring it!” The gun wavered but didn’t lower.
With a hiss, the dragon backed away and a puff of smoke came out of its nose. For the first time it showed its size, straightening up to its full height. It was as big as an elephant, but a lot more menacing. Michelle backed away and the gun was raised again.
The other laborers had grabbed anything they could get their hands on to use as a weapon, and were closing around behind the beast, ready to jump and tie it up at a moments notice.
No one was sure who exactly the first to act was, but someone yelled, a gunshot was heard, and the dragon roared in pain, sending a spray of fire behind it, setting the two laborers aflame. With a flap of its wings, the dragon shot upwards into the air and flew off into the snow filled sky, leaving behind bloodstained snow.
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