Wyvern

by PegasusKlondike

Close Encounter

Her wounds were healing well, the only problem with these southern climes was the bugs. Yes, sometimes it got just warm enough to have swarms of black flies storm the tundra, but only in the summer months when the wyverns migrated to the farthest northern reaches of the tundra and even became pseudo-aquatic to stay cool. But here the bugs just would not quit!

The brood queen nipped at her flank, where another huge fly had found a seam in her armor and caused insufferable irritation. Even in the ice cave they found a way in to bother her wounds. Shaking her hide, the queen stood up and sprayed her ice breath through a concentration of the flies. That ought to teach 'em.

She hadn't yet laid her eggs, but she still prepared thoroughly. Going to the back of her cave she sprayed the wall with her breath, shaping the ice into a bowl. A few more layers and it would be complete. But she still needed to sustain herself. Though wyverns were normally diurnal, the brood queen had to adjust her schedule a bit to accommodate the burning sun. Only when the cloud cover was thick enough could she go out to hunt. It was that, or give a try to becoming nocturnal. Which was fairly easy considering how thick the prey was around here.

Creeping to the entrance of her cave, the queen poked her horned head out. Not feeling the burn of sunlight and smelling fresh meat around, she gathered her wings about her and took off. Flying high above her newly conquered territory, she spied something familiar from the tundra, a throng of mammoths feeding in a forest clearing.

Banking into a steep dive, the queen aimed her claws at the back of a large bull. Landing hard on the animal's back she succeeded in driving the massive creature to the ground, snapping its spine with her aerial assault. Standing atop her kill, she flared her wings and roared at the rest of the herd. The mammoths bellowed in racial fear of the draconic creature, trumpeting loudly to try and scare her off.

The queen lashed out with her venomous tail, striking one mammoth after another with deadly venom. The herd finally ran off, tearing down trees in their rout. Four dead mammoths lay at her feet, too much for her to eat in one sitting, indeed too much to probably eat in a week.

To lighten her load, the queen set about gorging herself on meat. Only able to finish half the carcass, the queen grabbed it in her claws and flew it back to her cave. Dropping it in the ice, she turned back to get some more. It took two hours to make the several trips to stash her kills. She would have to eat all these, the deadly venom had killed the mammoths, and baby wyverns always preferred fresh blood.

Though full to bursting, the queen left her cave and set about hunting again. In this land of perpetual plenty, it was almost a crime not to thin the herd a little more. Going to furthest reaches of her new territory, she spied what looked like boxes on wheels, pulled by more of those delicious ponies. But something caught her eye, the flickering yellow and orange that set the queen to instinctive rage.

**********************************************

Something was pounding on Klondike's skull, a rhythmic pulse that would come in trios before settling again. He rolled in his bed, sans the sheets because of his mysterious problem. He grabbed his pillow, pulling it over his ears.

Too much to drink last night, he decided.

"KLONDIKE! WAKE UP IN THERE!" somepony shouted from the front door. The pegasus sat bolt upright, looking at his clock he scrambled out of bed, having overslept by two and a half hours. The pounding came again, though his head was indeed foggy and painful, it was knocks at the door instead of his throbbing head. Cantering down the stairs he opened the door to see one of the Company goons standing outside.

"Sorry, library is closed for the day, come back tomorrow." he said while rubbing his eyes.

The goon stamped a hoof, "You have an appointment with the boss, if you didn't remember!"

Oh Buck! That's what I'm late for!

He scrambled past the company tough, running for the offices. Down by the riverside near the docks, the offices were simple. Like everything else in Windshear they had safety against the cold in mind. A solitary sign swung on rusty hinges over the door, bearing the triple mountain peak symbol of the North Enterprise Co.

Klondike knocked softly on the door.

A gruff voice shouted from the other side. "If it's that worthless bookie Klondike out there, get your ass inside!"

He pushed open the door, inside it was fairly dark. Behind a large paper covered desk sat the head of the field branch of the North Enterprise Co., a mahogany unicorn named Tweed Suit. His goons all went about calling Boss Tweed. Tweed chomped on a Mexicolt cigar, using his magic to sort through papers.

"You're two hours late Klondike! Where's that error report I told you to get filled out and mailed by this morning?"

"In my out pile Mr. Suit. I'll get it in the manifest for the next cargo ship to Moosehead."

"You better, chicken wings." Tweed rifled through some more papers, "This order form says that you want three hundred books shipped up with the next steamer, what's the deal with that?"

Klondike shifted on his hooves, believing the answer should be obvious. "They're for Obsidian sir, we're starting to run out of books that he hasn't read."

Tweed snorted, conceding that Klondike did seem to know the dragon's tastes better than anypony else. "Princesses damn that wyrm, if he wasn't around I'd have you working the shaft just like everypony else. But since you're two hours late, I've got a job I need you to do."

"What is it sir?"

"Our warehouses report that the caravan from Yellowblade is late, you need to go out there and see what is holding them up."

Klondike raised an eyebrow, "Why me?"

"Because you are a worthless accountant that is stinking up my office with his booze ridden breath. And you can fly. Now hop to it Klondike. And I guess you can take the rest of the day off after you're back."

Klondike nodded his head, "Thank you Mr. Suit." He turned and left the office, wanting to get his caravan assignment out of the way as quickly as possible. He took off flying in the direction the caravans took when taking the long overland route to Yellowblade.

***********************************************************

It had been a few hours, nothing but trees and the occasional stream or animal path breaking the monotony. Off to Klondike's left lay the Dragonspine Mountains, the great barrier that basically was the end of all maps. Sometimes he wondered what lay on the other side, Old Spin claimed to have been over there once, but that was another thing nopony believed about him.

He had traveled at least thirty miles in the two hours he had been flying, still no sign of that caravan. Klondike dropped lower along the road, scanning for any recent sign of the caravan coming through. Just the oldest signs from previous travelers.

"They must already be in Windshear, damn Tweed..."

A light rain began to flick down on Klondike's back; he knew that they always started light, then got heavy. Thunder rolled in the distance.

"Wait, that wasn't thunder." He strained hard to hear the noise again, but through the rain and wind he couldn't hear a thing. Shaking his head in disbelief, he turned to fly back to Windshear, more willing to face Boss Tweed's anger rather than stick around when this storm hit. It came again, sounding less like thunder and more like...a roar.

Klondike took to the skies, seeking out the source, knowing that whatever it was, it was attacking the ponies that worked that caravan. He poured on every ounce of speed, pinpointing the source of the noise farther down the road. He expected smoke, he expected fire and the smoldering ruins of a supply ridden caravan. But what he saw boggled his mind.

He landed next to the untouched wagons, looking for any sign of the wagoners. The wagons were in a semi circle around the remnants of a campfire. But the campfire itself was an aberration of physics; the fire had frozen solid, like the very heat and smoke itself had succumb to frostbite.

"Hello?" he shouted. "Is anypony here?" Klondike took an apprehensive step forward, his hoof stepped in something that made a squish. Recoiling, his mouth gaped in horror as he beheld the blood covered ground, chunks of flesh scattered like something had eaten a very messy meal. Whatever he stepped in had stuck to his hoof, lifting his hoof he looked at a piece of violet fur... with a partial cutie mark on it.

Eyes wide in fear, Klondike shook off the blood coated crime scene, turning away he wanted to vomit. But his face came directly into the face of another pony. Klondike yelped and fell on his haunches, backpedaling to avoid a heart attack. The other pony did not move, though he was posed in a posture of terror. Wisps of frosted air fell from the pony, his mane frozen the way it had stood, not even blowing in the wind.

The more Klondike looked the more he saw of the carnage: bloodstains littered the ground, chucks of dirt were displaced by gigantic claw marks, and the very atmosphere seemed chilled by the frozen carnage.

He was paralyzed by fear of what could have done this, could it have been a dragon? A wendigo? A renegade tribe of trolls? Or something far, far worse?

He snapped out of his catatonic state, he heard something in the wind, like sails on a ship flapping in a gale. In terror he scrambled under a wagon, hoping whatever it was wouldn't get too thorough looking for prey. The ground shook as whatever it was landed. Klondike peeked out and saw a huge pair of clawed feet, large enough to grab hold of just about any creature in Snowreach. In front of the feet a large wing levered on the ground, balancing the great bulk of the creature on a single joint in the powerful wing.

It walked towards the wagon, Klondike held his breath, stifling his fearful whimpering. As it got closer Klondike saw more of the beast, and more of it offended every sense. A wave of the putrid scent of death rolled off the monster, its muzzle appeared next to the wagon, sniffing for something. Its breath was not hot; no, this monster redefined what Klondike thought of Tartarus, no longer did it contain fire and rivers of blood. Such a place must be frozen and filled with millions of such evil creatures.

Klondike was on the verge of running when the beast nudged the wagon with its muzzle, rocking his hiding place. But if he ran he would assuredly be eaten or frozen into a statue like those forsaken souls that had worked this caravan. The creature grumbled, not finding anything worth investigating. The massive feet turned away from the wagon, and approached the frozen statue of a pony. Klondike heard a sickening snap, then the creature began to beat its huge wings, forcing itself to take off. Convinced he was relatively safe, he crept out from under the wagon.

With revulsion he saw four hooves still frozen to the dirt, the frozen body having been torn off at the ankles by whatever that beast was. "I have to warn everypony." he said out loud. But when he turned he saw the beast still not too far away, he got a good look at this demon from the frigid depths of Hell itself. It was like a dragon, but unlike any dragon he had ever seen in a book or in real life.

Instead of front legs, the wings were the front legs. A pair of horns sat atop the head, one broken off at the top. The body of the creature was serpentine, the neck seeming like it went all the way to the tail without stopping, with the back legs and wings just kind of tossed on. That tail seemed too long, being as long as the body and half that again, Klondike guessed it could be some kind of whip like weapon, the tip seemed solid and possibly swollen.

Biologically this thing was fascinating, but to Klondike it was a monster, plain and simple. The beast flapped those massive wings, heading back towards the Dragonspine Mountains to the north. Without thinking twice about it, Klondike himself took off, but back westwards to Windshear. Boss Tweed would not be happy about the caravan, but neither could he ignore the fact that some unknown monster had destroyed it utterly.