The Dragon Slayer

The ticking clock springs to life as a lanky pale woman, Katri, begins to dig herself up from a pile of blankets and pelts to try to survive the cold. Her first breath fogs as it leaves her mouth – a sign she still lived and hoped.

She gets up to stand hunched down to not hit her head on the roof of the collapsed room, the only haven she has left. She struggles to reach for a small steaming cup she left the nights before on the edge of the small dwelling. Under it there rests a small stone that glows like soft amber flames, it seems like the sole source of color in the small cave that seems almost pitch-black if it wasn't for a small beam of light that peaks through the "roof".

As she drinks the water slowly, trying to not burn her tongue. After that, Katri takes a small knife and places it in her pocket before putting on a pair of thick winter gloves that have been modified with thick fur from long-dead beasts.

The woman takes one more deep breath before standing up and pushing on the roof above her, finding a delicate spot to break through. As the snow then fills the crevice, Katri peeks to look for dangers – there are only ruins to beneath a veil of pure snow to be seen. The storm must have covered the rest..., Katri knew that that meant there would be possible dangers now hidden away. Her only blessing in this wicked land of beasts and storms was being in the eye of the later.

She walks up the pile of snow she just dug herself out of to look at the clear surroundings, a storm blocked her view of the surrounding hills and forests. She could only make out the silhouette of a tower that made the city notable at a glance. It seemed abandoned, and in no way would she make her way there on a chance it hadn't been looted or abandoned. Instead, she made her way to the former harbor.

North-east, avoiding the soon-to-collapse buildings that could hold supplies. It was relatively easy to traverse the city to reach her destination, most of it was built on a slope as you would move towards the harbor, so Katri could just slide down on broken-off pieces of metal and shields that the beasts made. She dared not think what might have pushed the lumbering monsters away from this place – If she could.

She soon reached the harbor, the waters were frozen solid and the boats that would normally dot the place were either smashed apart or frozen solid just beneath the surface of the lake. She took a look at some of the still remaining ships, despite their state they could still hold something for her to use.

Katri slowly chipped and smashed her way through the icy surface of a sunken ship, crawling her way inside. The more she looked, the more she realized how truly devastating that day was – the water bellow the surface was frozen solid far more thoroughly than she had imagined. She hadn't much time, so she believed and so she acted, pulling out any piece of metal she could pull out of the ship.

"Knives, forks and spoons..."

"Knives, forks and spoons..."

"Knives, forks and ONE spoon..."

Katri searched through the junk and rubble until the final boat gave her nothing new. She took a defeated sigh and lay in the depths of that wrecked ship. If nothing else, she had shelter for another day as the sky slowly turned into the raging storm of ice and snow. She wasted another day, something that repeated itself for as long as the world had been brought to chaos – For as long as she had brought her loneliness upon herself through sheer idiocy.

It was just a few months ago when the world turned to snow, when she decided to try to act tough in the face of it all. When she thought she could face a towering beast without fear, one that dripped poison and death from its mouth with every breath. Since that day she has not seen another of her kind in the wasteland, that day made her a lone survivor of the city she lived in.

Katri shook herself awake from the thoughts and cold. She looked through the blasted cracks of the ship to see the dark storm billowing outside. The sound was deafening, but it did keep her safe from the giants that may stalk those who would try to move in the storm. No simple bullets pierced their hide or skin, no simple wall could stop them from moving forward and no simple person could kill them. They would continue to hunt any forms of life they found and will sleep to wait for some.

But now there was something different that lacked the lumbering stomping of a tribe of giants, without the snarling and barfing. Katri could only hear the voice of a true terror that lurked the storms. She heard the air vibrate, the hollow ruin of a ship she rested in nearly splintered from its movement. The putrid smell of brine and rot as a beast the size of a train slithered and crawled its way outside her haven.

A threatening roar sounded in the cold night as Katri curled-up and went into the deepest part of the busted ship, everything above the frozen surface of the lake was swept away in a single swing of a tail. At a glance Katri recognized the scales covered in fur, the blackened eyes and razor-sharp claws. A beast that swallowed cities of people and could melt a mountain, a dragon.

As the woman who had so far avoided the beast through sheer luck looked on with hollowed-out eyes, the thunder and lighting raged around the scene for the dragon was not the one who would rule all others. As such, it was merely a pest to greater being...