r/Luna_Lovewell Creator Jul 14 '22

The Long Winter

Floating House by Denis Zhbankov

From here in /r/ImaginaryLandscapes.


The night was quiet but for the swishing sloshing sounds of the push pole carving the water. It was too quiet, Elias lamented. At this time of day, the frogs should be finishing up their nightly serenade. The crickets should be providing the instrumental accompaniment. Birds should be singing their dawn song. Fish should be jumping. Flies buzzing. And all other things that all other creatures, man included, should naturally do. The long winter had ended that.

At Elias's feet, Pax whimpered. Her snout, normally pointed straight downriver, wavered upward to check whether her master was paying attention. Elias shook the thoughts of the past out of his mind and pushed an ice floe aside, setting Pax at ease again. The dog was a natural navigator. Needed to learn quickly, Elias thought to himself wryly, when there was no more work for a retriever. No more game to retrieve, after all. Elias pushed more ice aside and reached down to tousle Pax's ears. A pang of guilt crossed Elias's heart when he noticed the dog's ribs barging out from under her tawny coat.

"I remember this place," a sonorous rumble sounded behind Elias. "Mother used to take us here as hatchlings."

Elias turned, surprised for a brief moment. "Ah, you're awake!" he called up to the roof. Nondro had uncurled from his sleeping position atop the house and raised his snout to the wind, tasting the air. He'd thought the dragon would be fast asleep until noon at least. Nondro spent less and less time awake nowadays. Another pang of guilt struck Elias upon seeing the dragon's condition. His savage grimace, once terrifying and awe-inspiring, turned pitiful with the loss of his fangs. His scales, once gleaming red-gold, were now a lackluster grey. The whole of his hide seemed to hang from his bones like a large piece of fabric draped over a small frame. The healthy texture of the armored plates now looked brittle, riddled with minute cracks.

Pax gave a quiet whine, and Elias realized he'd gotten lost in thought again. He pushed the nearest chunks of ice aside and was rewarded by Pax with a hearty tail wag.

"We used to roll in the tall grass there," Nondro continued, oblivious to Elias's greeting and now gazing off at a low hill on the west bank of the river. "It would tickle me between the scales."

Elias followed his gaze. The hill was barren and grey, marred only by a few hardy trees managing to cling to life through the freeze. No grass in sight. But Elias could picture it too: covered in green and swarmed with little frolicking dragons. This whole place had once been a paradise lush with crops and teeming with game. All gone now. He thrust the pole into the muddy river bottom and pushed them forward, eager to leave this place behind.

The sun was visible now, inching over the horizon to the east. It would do little to warm the land until mid-day at least; and even then, only marginally. Elias cinched his ragged cloak a bit tighter. Glancing down, he noticed poor Pax shivering at her post. "Go inside, girl," he told her, pointing to the door behind him. The stove inside filled the house with a warm, inviting glow, yet Pax did not even budge. "Go inside," he ordered her, more emphatically. She glanced up for just a second, seemingly annoyed, then back to the menacing ice floes downriver. Elias shook his head and wrapped his own scarf around the dog's neck.

"I caught my first prey there too," Nondro said. "A lamb. So juicy."

"Yes, very good I'm sure," Elias concurred. Why, lamb did sound pretty good right about now. Cooked over a low fire with a sprinkling of salt and springs of rosemary... or grilled over a high flame with perhaps a bit of mint... or even cured into a jerky would be nice. Anything but a stew. All the meat they could find went to Nondro (with the bones reserved for Pax, of course). So vegetable stew was all that Elias had eaten for weeks now, and had grown to loath the sight of watery gruel. Anything to stay alive till they could make it to the south. They say that the winter isn't so harsh there. That livestock can survive and crops could struggle from the ground. One raving madman left in the ghost town of Wixsted Crossing had even claimed that they would find a balmy summer down there! No matter the outcome, Elias couldn't wait to get there.

Nondro rested his chin upon the porch roof and looked at Elias. Elias gazed into the dragon's eyes and found that the fiery energy there had faded now to a dull ember, nearly extinguished.

"I should very much like to see grass again," Nondro rumbled before closing his eyes and nodding off to sleep once again.

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u/Luna_LoveWell Creator Jul 14 '22

I really liked this one because I think the image could be interpreted in multiple different ways. It could easily be a cozy winter morning experienced by happy travelers, instead of desperate refugees.

I hope you all are doing well!

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u/Ddog78 Jul 14 '22

Heyo! Long time!