I Guess I'm a Dragon Now (Part 1)

Escape, Day One

Slowly opening his eyes, Ergen stayed as quiet as he could as he stood onto his shaking feet and looked at the entrance to the small burrow he'd made for himself in a large snowbank. The events from the day before were still sending chaotic images in his mind, and no matter how many times he tried, he just couldn't stop seeing the snake eat his mother while the scene replayed again and again in his mind. She'd been close to death's door and had still come out and fought for him... she had truly cared about her hatchling, and Ergen felt horrible for her loss.

Slowly, Ergen headed towards the entrance of the burrow and poked his head outside, slowly viewing the surroundings as the morning light reflected on the snow around him. There was no sign of danger, but he had to be careful regardless. There was no safe place to run back to anymore, he was completely alone, and he needed to escape this place that had so many dangerous monsters inside of it. Though thankfully he did know one thing at least, the fact that he needed to travel around the lake that he was still beside so that he could swim down river.

Hoping that the river would eventually lead to some kind of ocean, Ergen thought that perhaps a lower elevation would lead to a decrease in the size of the monsters that he would have to hunt. Though, he would have to make it to the river first, which was the first obstacle that he would have to go through as it seemed that many monsters came to the lake for water. It was a prime hunting ground for the larger predators, and Ergen was slightly thankful that the giant eel inside the center of the lake had just eaten and didn't need to feed for a while. Though he knew for sure that he wasn't going back into the lake any time soon.

Jumping out of the burrow once he was sure that there were no predators nearby, Ergen started moving from tree to tree, staying in cover so that he could hide from anything larger than him. And it was good that he did as a large colony of what looked like insects had gathered on the icy shore of the lake, making it seem as if the ground were actually brown where they were as there were so many of the small creatures that Ergen couldn't even see the snow beneath them. And even more surprisingly, while each of the creatures seemed to be no larger than perhaps a small dog, there were thousands of them crawling all over each other and Ergen thought that it was best to avoid them as he saw a group of the creatures carrying something massive through the trees and towards their nest. They were all pouring out of a gigantic hole in the ground that Ergen thought looked almost exactly like an ant hill, though it was the largest that he'd ever seen.

Looking as the massive burden that a large group of the insects were carrying, Ergen stepped backwards in shock as he finally realized what the creature was. Half covered in some strange type of webbing, the colossal cat that he'd seen just days before was currently being drug along the snow, letting out a low pitched howl as the insects swarmed over it. Whether it was poisoned or not, Ergen didn't know, but the creature offered no resistance as it was carried to the nest before it eventually reached the nest's opening and disappeared inside, making the ground shake slightly as it hit the floor of whatever was inside of the nest.

Unfortunately for Ergen, he'd been watching the insects for to long before he turned around to see that several of the creatures were running at him through the snow, and he immediately started sprinting away only to realize that there were several more groups of them attempting to cut off his escape before he turned and started heading deeper into the forest. He completely abandoned his plan of attempting to find a river, and now he was running for his life yet again as the bugs swarmed behind him with apparently the entire colony gathering for the chase.

All of the creatures ran through the forest after Ergen, creating slight clicking noises with their many feet and making Ergen feel as if he were being chased by a swarm of giant fire ants or something. Though, much to his horror, these creatures weren't ants and appeared to have the ability to jump into the air. And several did this now as they tried to jump both onto Ergen's back and in front of him. Thankfully he managed to avoid all of those that had been attempting to jump on his back, though the ones that managed to get ahead of him were beginning to block his movements before the unexpected happened. From the treetops, several enormous spiders dropped and fall onto the insects, making them scream before the spiders carried them back up into the trees where several massive webs could be seen. Just like there were thousands of the insects chasing Ergen, now there were hundreds of the giant spiders that were picking them off. And soon a small war broke out in between the two forces  before Ergen thankfully exited the forest and chanced upon a small creek that was running downhill. It wasn't a river, but he took it at the moment as he continued to run, unsure if he was still being chased or not.

Eventually, Ergen ran out of stamina and found a large pond that the creek poured into, and he dived into it now, thinking that it would hopefully conceal him from any large predators. The pool didn't seem large enough to house any predators itself, and Ergen was thankfully correct about this as there only seemed to be a few large fish inside of the pool. Quickly, he caught on in his jaws with his hunger winning out against his exhaustion, and he quickly ate the fish before floating still in the pool and relaxing. He already felt better thanks to actually having eaten, though when he resurface to continue his travelling, he stuck his head above the water to see that the worst-case-scenario had happened.

Completely surrounding him, the insects from before had returned, making loud shrieking noises as they searched the area for him. Thankfully, none of them seemed to be willing to enter the water, so Ergen was safe for the moment. However, he was completely surrounded, and he looked around for any options other than staying in the pond until they left before he finally found one. Not far down the slope, the creek that he'd followed ended up thankfully returning to the river which he guessed came from the lake from before. It would be over five hundred feet of sprinting if he attempted it, though as Ergen looked on, he didn't want to risk it. After all, why risk himself if he could stay in place and simply wait for the insects to leave? He had water, he had fish for food, and he had all of the time in the world. However, by the time that Ergen woke up inside of the pond the next morning, he found that his plan hadn't worked.