bodacious adj. 1: outright, unmistakable, 2: remarkable, noteworthy, 3: sexy, voluptuous
Sejuani reigned up, surveying the frozen peaks. The wind whipped her hair into her eyes and bit at her skin, but she had long since learned to ignore such trivial things.
Bristle rumbled beneath her. He could sense the beast.
The mountains in this area of the Freljord housed many things, mostly mindless beasts that did not concern her. She had been wrestling wolves for meat since she'd been weaned. But what she hunted today was no mere beast.
Through the swirling snow, she spotted the cave. The jagged ice around the entrance told her this was her prey.
"Forward Bristle!"
He surged forward, trampling through the deep snow as if it were nothing.
Sejuani dismounted at the mouth of the cavern and peered inside. A deep rattling sound echoed from the depths.
Whistling for Bristle to stand guard, she entered the cave.
She had no trouble seeing as she maneuvered the tunnels, the pale blue moss covering the cave's walls lighting her path with its sickly glow. Her flail scraped the stone, carving a thin trail of darkness in the light.
As she descended farther into the mountain, the air around her grew colder, and colder still. It had been a long time since the cold had bit at her like this, in a way she could not ignore. This unnatural cold…well, at least she had a better idea of what she'd be facing. And likely just a bit ahead, where she could see an even brighter light reflecting off the ice.
Her quarry waited for her as she entered the cavern. She could almost be up on the surface once more, the light here perfectly mimicking the clear grey days she was so familiar with on the Tundra. Even more strangely, the light seemed to emanate from the frozen stalactites hanging, some over a hundred feet long, from the ceiling. A number were so massive their tips hung within her reach, disconnected columns to support the roof of the cavern high above.
Sejuani whipped her flail over her head, slamming the jagged icy head into the cavern's floor with an echoing boom. "Fasligar!" she shouted, pounding the ground twice more with her flail. "Come out and face me!"
"No need to yell," a smooth voice called from above. Her eyes snapped upward, and caught a glimpse of it form slithering between the hanging ice. Its scaly face appeared a foot above hers, and it grinned down with a wide mouth full of sharp teeth. "To what do I owe the pleasure?"
Sejuani sneered. "Spare me your games, serpent. You attacked my men while they slept and handed their corpses to the Ice Witch for her dark purposes."
"I am a dragon," Fasligar asserted, slithering out of sight again and letting itself down to the ground in front of her. "I do what I please to you humans, and there is nothing you can do about it."
On even footing, the serpent rose twice her height above her. Sejuani stared it down. "I can, and I will. I invoke my ancient rights, to be avenged against you."
The dragon quaked, its rattling laugh echoing through the cavern. "Do you? Splendid! A woman of history. If you wish to join your frozen comrades, who am I to stop you?"
Fasligar blew on a low-hanging stalactite, its breath crystalizing into ice that crept slowly and steadily toward the ground. "We will start when the ice touches the ground."
They took their places across the cavern from each other. Fasligar looked massive even at this distance, its long, green, scaly form strong and undulating, and massive claws each big enough to grasp Bristle with room to spare. This would not be an easy fight, but Sejuani had never gone in search of an easy fight.
The ice crept ever so slowly toward the ground. She stared at it intently. Closer…almost there…
She caught the movement in the corner of her eye, throwing herself to the side before she could even think. The dragon crashed down on the ground where she had been, sending frozen chunks of rock flying in every direction. Sejuani righted herself next to the iced stalactite just as the ice touched the ground. Her eyes narrowed.
"A cheater even during a duel?" she shouted at the monster, even as she leaped into motion, backing her flail with the force of her entire body. "Trickery will not spare you from this fate!"
The creature slithered out of the way, her flail catching only air and stone. "Brute of a human though you might be, you are no more my match than a mite is a match for a bear." It grazed her arm in a backhanded swipe, and knocked her back with its tail.
Sejuani turned in the air, twisting her flail to catch the dragon's claw in the chain and yanking. The thing roared as it was pulled forward. Landing hard, Sejuani pulled harder.
Fasligar struggled for a moment before hurling itself at her. Dropping her flail, Sejuani dove to the side, her boot clearing the claws a split second before they clamped shut. She rolled to her feet and turned just in time to see icy breath hit the base of her boots, freezing them to the ground.
Sejuani tried to lift her leg, but her boots would not move. Encased in ice and frozen to the ground and the low stalactite beside her, they would not be going anywhere any time soon. Her flail lay abandoned by the wall of the cavern, and Fasligar's scales shone in the dull light as he slithered forward. "Ready to meet that fate yet, little human?"
Sejuani simply stared into its yellow eyes defiantly. The ice crept higher on her boots.
Its face inches from hers, the monster licked its lips. Its musty breath formed into ice on her eyelashes. "Well?"
"Only cowards hide behind words like fate," she hissed, "the truly fated live it." Then she grabbed its scaly face and slammed it into rock beside her.
The dragon reeled back, blood pouring from its nostril and broken teeth. Yanking her feet from her frozen boots with a scream, Sejuani ran and reclaimed her flail. She slammed it into the ground with a battle roar and charged back in.
How long had the battle gone on? Sejuani's mind leapt to the grand stories of man versus monster, where they battled for three days and three nights without pause. It certainly felt like it had gone on that long, though the more practical part of herself said it had more likely not even been an hour. Still, her body burned under her armor, and froze under the air. Each ragged breath seared her throat. Her feet bled, the blood sticking to the frozen ground. But she could tell her opponent slowed too.
Sejuani threw herself at the beast, grabbing it around its midsection and scrambling to its back. The dragon writhed, and slammed itself into an icicle, breaking it off and sending it crashing to the ground. Sejuani held on, grasping the wyrm with her legs as she would riding Bristle, grabbed the thing's front legs, and yanked them backwards.
Getting to her feet, Sejuani dragged the squirming creature a few feet back, lining up her shot. Keeping its claws grasped behind its back even as it thrashed against her, Sejuani snatched her bola from her belt and hurled it upward with all her might.
The sharp crack cut through the din created by the flailing dragon. The floor rumbled, and several smaller icicles dislodged from the ceiling and crashed to the ground. Fasligar froze for a moment, yellow eyes wide, before renewing its struggling.
Sejuani held it firm.
The massive stalactite fell towards them, slowly at first, then faster. Much as the dragon struggled, she had chosen her missile too well; there was no way for it to escape. The spear of ice and stone pierced the serpent, pinning it to the ground and driving clean through its body in a crash.
Fasligar screamed, the shrill noise clawing at her ear and skull. Sejuani grit her teeth and redoubled her grip until his struggles ceased.
Panting, Sejuani stumbled back from the unmoving dragon. She was feeling unsteady, and still bled from her many cuts. She could not feel her feet, but stayed upright by simply refusing to fall.
Collecting her boots, she stared at the impaled serpent. Dizzy as she was, something didn't seem right.
She stomped back to corpse, and swung her flail. The thing's eyes flashed open, and its head moved, but not fast enough to escape the chunk of ice from smashing it to a pulp.
Blood leaked from under her flail, freezing quickly against the ground. "Nothing but deceptions from your kind," she muttered.
She would send her Winter's Claw to collect the useful parts. For now, she simply needed to get back to Bristle so she could sleep. That she might be able to do for three days and three nights, she thought with a smile.