Part 1

He knew immediately when he woke. It was so cold that his skin burned in little bursts. He could feel a layer of frost crackling under his nose and on his eyelids as he fought his body. He gasped, the sharp pain of frozen air entering his lungs drove him into full wakefulness. How did I get here? He wondered. He couldn’t tell how long he’d been out, but it couldn’t have been long - he wouldn’t have woken if it had been long. But what had roused him?

Something pawed at his back. It was warm. Suddenly, uncomfortably warm. He turned very slowly. It was a baby dragon.

His frozen mind fought to make sense of this new puzzling piece of information. He was nearly frozen, half-dead, in the snow, with a baby dragon at his back, prodding his quilted coat and melting the snow to slush around them. How had he gotten here?