When two dragons are sent into the distant reaches of space to find survivors of a mysterious signal, they might get into a bit of trouble themselves. At least all of those long months of lazing around and eating may have prepared them for what they find...

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Her grip tightened on his shoulders. “You have to promise me,” she said in her most serious tone.

The dark gray dragon before her rolled his eyes. “Why would I make a promise I can’t keep?”

She scowled. “Don’t be immature.”

He let out the longest sigh he could muster as he stared down at the pale pink dragon. “Fiiiine. I won’t kill your mate.”

“Or cause him any bodily harm,” she reminded him, her scaly brows furrowed.

“Well, now you’re asking for too much.”

“Rangavar!” She gave him a playful shove, finally releasing his shoulders. “I mean it!”

He defensively held up his paws. “Okay! Alright. He’ll make it back alive. And in one piece,” he added hastily at her stern stare.

She crossed her arms, her soft white wings folding behind her. “Good enough, I suppose.”

Rangavar cast a glance back at the ship, where Lyra’s mate was already on board. “Now, just give me a sec before I go climb into a confined space with him for several months.”

It was her turn to roll her eyes. “I’m going to go say goodbye to him first anyway. Go, finish up what you need to before I see you two off.”

When she’d disappeared onto the upsettingly small spacecraft, Rangavar finally turned away and went to make a few goodbyes of his own. Even though the trip would likely last less than a few months at most, it felt like kind of a big deal. A distress signal from the deepest corners of the galaxy that had supposedly never been occupied? Spooky.

“You have a lot on your mind,” Rangavar’s sister greeted him as he walked into the small building nearby. He refused to call it a hangar. A building that housed a single ship was a shed at best.

“I can tell you’re still mad about the ship size.” She was standing at the window, where she’d been looking out across the field. Of course she could tell he was mad. Her species of dragon picked up the emotions of everyone around them.

“I’m more mad about the crew size, Ayla,” he sighed.

She frowned. “There’s only two of you.”

“When one of the dragons is him, that’s too many.”

Ayla smirked a bit and gave him a playful punch in the shoulder. “Well, Zag can drive and you can’t, so I guess there’s nothing you can do about it.”

He wrinkled his snout. “It’s easy for you to find this funny when you’re not the one who’s going to be dealing with him for months.”

“Just… try to get along.”

She was clearly trying to sound encouraging. Rangavar wasn’t feeling very encouraged. “That’s the problem.” He hadn’t quite forgivem the other dragon for forcing him into employment all that time ago. And for being a terrible boss, at that. Rangavar pushed away the unpleasant memory. “And Lyra knows that, so I don’t see why she can’t just come herself.”

“Zag is a legitimate representative whether we like it or not,” Ayla pointed out.

Rangavar knew she was right. He also knew she wasn’t happy about it either, but couldn’t do anything about it, like him. “Why can’t I send a representative, then?”

“You don’t have one.”

Yeah, that was a good point. Rangavar frowned. “What if I just… find one?”

“You’re leaving in less than an hour.”

He sighed. “I wish I’d had more time to plan this trip in advance. The distress signal could have been sent like a bajillion years ago, so what’s one or two more? Why do we have to rush to make contact?”

She gave him a sympathetic look. Rangavar’s own species of dragon could also sense emotion, and he knew that she genuinely felt bad about the situation, despite all the joking.

Pretty much resigned to his fate, he glanced around. It didn’t look like anyone else was here. “I also wanted to say goodbye to your mate before I go.”

Ayla gave him a wry, half-smile. “Sorry, he couldn’t make it.”

Nothing was going right today. “Alright.”

“Hey, when you see him in a few months, you can tell him about whatever you and Zag discover out there.” They began to walk towards the door together as she showed him out. “You know he’ll talk for hours about that sort of stuff.”

When they stepped outside, Rangavar once again felt reluctant to approach the ship. But there was no more putting it off. Across the small, flat lot, he saw Lyra exiting it. Everyone seemed ready.

Ayla gave him another gentle push towards the vehicle, her palm between his dark gray wings, which were a deeper shade than his scales. “You’ll be fiiiiine.”

Rangavar stifled another sigh and finally began walking towards the ship.

When he’d climbed in and slid the door shut behind him, he pointedly ignored the aura he could sense at the opposite side of the room.

“Are you ready?”

Well, Rangavar couldn’t ignore him forever. Their living quarters were far too small for that. He turned to face the pale gray dragon, who was leaning slightly against the main control panel as he watched Rangavar pull the door’s latch into a closed position. His cream-colored wings were folded along his back, the black claws of his wings visible from behind his shoulders. He didn’t seem passive aggressive or anything, and his emotions weren’t negative.

That didn’t make Rangavar feel better. “As ready as I will be, I guess,” he grumbled. There was no point pretending to be happy about it when the other dragon could sense all of his emotions anyway. Zag was the same species of dragon as Rangavar; they were both Darkals, forced to know what the other was feeling whenever they were in telepathic range. Which pretty much included the entire area of the ship, of course. Just one more thing for Rangavar to deal with over the course of their trip; they couldn’t get away from each other. It’ll definitely feel like more than a few months.

He took a seat on one of the benches along the wall in the small room, while Zag slid into the seat in front of the control panel. At least Zag could make himself useful by knowing what he was doing. The pale gray dragon leaned back in the chair as he pulled the seatbelt taught over the round curve of his belly. It was actually pretty difficult for their species to gain weight, since their bodies converted calories into magic, but the other Darkal somehow managed to eat enough to counteract the effect.

Unlike other Darkals, Zag was rather on the heavy side, soft adipose padding his body, and a distinct spare tire wrapping around his front side. It bulged in front of him more fully when he leaned back in the chair, and he sucked in his breath to draw the small band of the seatbelt around his middle. His soft rolls creased beneath the pressure, but fortunately, it wasn’t an overly difficult fight; he was most definitely chubby, but not by an extraordinary amount.

Rangavar clicked his own seatbelt over his more slender hips and let out a sigh as he mentally and emotionally prepared himself for the longest journey ever.


~


“What do you think we’ll find?”

Rangavar arched his back and stretched his arms over his head. He’d been sitting on the floor for too long. “Could be anything. Could be nothing.”

Zag was lying on his frontside across the floor, head resting on his pudgy palm as he flicked a different chess piece into place. The two of them had known they’d have no internet or communication whatsoever as they drifted away from civilization, and Zag had been thoughtful enough to bring board games to pass the time. He’d also brought books for himself, of course, although he obviously knew Rangavar wouldn’t be interested in those. “Do you think we’ll find anyone… alive? We have no idea what their ‘emergency’ is. Or, uh, was. What if it’s just a hollow ship floating through space?”

“If we find an empty ship, it makes our job easier,” Rangavar pointed out. Not that he wanted the other crew to have experienced bad luck or anything, but they still had no idea how long they’d been out there. “We might be able to recover data from files on board, but then we can just turn off the distress beacon and go home.”

Zag was quiet, his eyes following Rangavar’s paw as the darker gray dragon moved a different piece into a new place. Rangavar let go. “Checkmate.”

Zag sighed.

Rangavar begrudgingly admired Zag for a number of talents; chess was not one of them. “Let’s do something else.” He honestly wouldn’t mind a break from the other dragon anyway. As expected, he’d quickly grown sick of Zag’s company as the months dragged on. Well, more-sick of his company, which he hadn’t wanted in the first place. Forced together, though, they’d developed a weird sort of truce for the moment. Although it still didn’t mean Rangavar wanted to spend more time doing anything with him than he had to.

The pale dragon flattened his ears. “It’s not my fault you’re like, a chess-expert.” He slowly pushed himself up off the floor. While lying down, his chubby belly had been pressed out on either side of him, but now it hung over his lap as he sat back. As they’d gotten pretty much no exercise in the past few months, and Zag had a habit of eating while bored, Rangavar was pretty sure the other dragon was looking even chubbier as of late.

Not that Rangavar could really say anything. He hadn’t exactly been getting exercise either, or expending much energy at all. His own middle seemed suspiciously softer.

Speaking of which. “I might take a nap,” he told the other dragon as he got to his feet. It was another way to pass the time.

Zag frowned. “The signal was really strong this morning. I think we might find the source soon, are you sure you want to sleep through it?”

Rangavar had to genuinely think for a moment. He wasn’t really interested in their little mission, but still didn’t want to miss anything that happened, either. Despite their unfortunate living arrangement, he was curious about what they might find. Not to mention, he needed something to break up the monotony of eating, sleeping, and kicking Zag’s ass at chess.

While the other dragon picked up the board game, Rangavar wandered over to the window in front of the control panel, looking out into the blackness. A couple of far-off stars speckled the inky depths, but otherwise, the only notable mass within sight was a large world coming up ahead of them. It was directly in their path.

Wait. Rangavar frowned. What if that world is—

“What if that world is the end of the path,” said Zag in wonder, coming up on Rangavar’s left to stare out the window with him, apparently oblivious to the interruption.

“What did I tell you about staying out of my head,” Rangavar growled with his lip half-curled.

“Sorry! Sorry.” Zag looked away, his cheeks a bit darker with embarrassment. He hugged the boxed up board game more tightly to his pudgy chest, the edge of it resting on the upper curve of his belly.

The two telepathic dragons had definitely spent too much time together. Rangavar sighed. “Stop… looking. At what I’m thinking.”

“You know neither of us can help it. When one of us lets our guard down.”

Rangavar rolled his eyes. “If we do end up having to land, I’m taking a good, long break from you.”

The other dragon was quiet a long moment, refusing to look at him. Rangavar realized that probably came out meaner than he’d intended. He awkwardly poked at a few things on the control panel, unsure what to say.

“Please don’t touch those.”

Rangavar quickly pulled his paw away, but suddenly, Zag frowned at where his finger had been a moment ago. “Hey, the screen says we’re coming up on the signal. It has to be from here.” He glanced back up at the window. “We’ll have to land after all.”

Rangavar stifled a groan. Preparation for landing was a lot more effort than neutralizing space debris.

“It won’t be that bad,” Zag assured him. “I mean, you literally can’t help, so I’ll be the one doing all the work.”

Okay, that was fair. Rangavar watched curiously as Zag pushed some buttons and stuff with his pudgy fingers, wondering what the screens said.

“Just surface viability and stuff,” Zag said absently. He didn’t seem to notice he was in Rangavar’s head again, completely on accident, so Rangavar let it go. “Familiar gravity, atmosphere is breathable, no major weather events. The temperature is abysmal, though. We’re not really near any stars. The surface is covered in ice.”

“Is it survivable, then?” Rangavar was feeling less and less confident that they’d find anyone when they finally reached the signal.

Zag shrugged. “If the core is warm enough, and there’s plant life adapted here that dragons find edible, it’s possible.”

Their chances didn’t seem very high. “Alright.”

Rangavar moved into the other seat in front of the control panel. He knew he couldn’t help, but still wanted to stare out the window as they descended. He grabbed at the seatbelt, easily clicking it shut, although he supposed it did seem to stretch slightly farther than last time. He wasn’t sure if he was imagining it.

Meanwhile, Zag was experiencing the problem more obviously, letting out the seatbelt several times before it had lengthened enough to accommodate his new girth. Not that he was massive by any means, but to their species, the sight of the potbelly steadily growing on Zag’s middle was enough to make Rangavar raise a brow as he watched the other dragon struggle to strap in.

Zag’s face was flushed a bit darker as he finally sucked in enough to pull it across his body. Not that Rangavar wouldn’t have been able to sense the embarrassment anyway. He turned his gaze toward the front of the ship again, trying to ignore the huffing dragon at his side.

In Zag’s capable paws, the ship finally began descending towards their destination, neither of them sure what they might find.

All was going well until they entered the atmosphere, the aircraft shuddering slightly. Zag adjusted some things on the control panel.

“What was that?”

The ship evened out. “I think the air pressure dipped,” Zag explained, trying not to sound uncertain. Rangavar could tell anyway. “I guess at this height, due to the nature of the cold atmosphere, it makes sense that any temperature difference could make our descent unstable.”

“Is that supposed to make me feel better?” Rangavar asked as his clenched paws tightened on the armrests of the seat.

Zag tore his eyes away from the control panel for a moment to frown at him. “Is that what you wanted?”

Rangavar rolled his eyes. Sometimes Zag was too literal. When facing forward again, Rangavar noticed that there were thin lines of ice forming over the glass. “We haven’t even landed yet and I hate it here.”

“Hang on.” Zag sounded slightly strained. Rangavar turned to glance at him again just as the ship shuddered and dipped sharply toward the ground. They fell through the sky in a downward position for what felt like a thousand years, although it was really less than a moment or two.

“Zag! What the hell!”

“Shut up for a second, I’m focusing.” The ship evened out again, although the slight shaking running through the frame didn’t stop entirely. If something actually was wrong with the ship, though, Zag didn’t mention it. Not that Rangavar felt very confident.

He tried to take a few deep breaths and pry his claws from the sides of the seat as he watched Zag maneuver them downwards, although his movements became increasingly jerky from inconsistent air currents as the terrain below began coming into sight. The aircraft suddenly tilted forward again more sharply than either of the dragons expected.

“There’s too much ice forming on the hull,” Zag explained through gritted teeth as he tried pulling them back upright. It didn’t look like that was about to happen. “It’s putting extra weight on the front of the ship. There’s too much strain, the landing’s gonna be a bit rough.”

“How rough?” They weren’t exactly picking up speed, but the ground was rapidly approaching. Rangavar found himself gripping the armrests again and pushing himself back farther into the seat as it came closer and closer and—


~


Cold. It was so cold.

That was the first thing Zag was aware of before opening his eyes. When he did finally open them a crack, he saw that he was still strapped into his seat, although everything was now still and quiet, greatly in contrast to the last several moments he could remember. Slowly rolling his head back, he watched his warm breath steam the air.

Warmth. That was what he needed.

He realized that the ship must have shut down entirely if it wasn’t producing any heat. The thought made him nervous, but they could restart it manually if they had to. As such a small ship, it wasn’t very complex. He turned to Rangavar to ask his opinion, ignoring a slight pain in his neck, but saw the other dragon slumped forward against his seatbelt with his head down. Apparently, the impact had knocked both of them out. Zag leaned back and groaned.

No. He didn’t have time to waste. They had to restart the ship before any lingering heat dissipated entirely. As it was, Zag’s paws felt stiff as he groped around for the buckle of his seatbelt, twitching his fingers a few times to wake them up. He realized that the belt had been pulled taut during the crash, and he had to slide both paws under his chubby belly to feel for it. Vaugh, when had he gotten this fat? He was certain he hadn’t been this fat when they’d left.

He shook his head. He needed to focus. He pushed at the soft flab with his fingers as he tried to unbuckle, but it was jammed. He ended up picking at the belt with one of his sharp, black claws instead, until he managed to saw through it, the strained belt flying apart when it snapped. It didn’t matter; he had bigger things to worry about right now. They’d fix it when they could be certain about not freezing to death.

The thought made him shiver. Or was the cold making him shiver? Either way, he hadn’t lived this long just to meet his fate by being snuffed out by some ice and snow.

Pushing himself out of the chair, he stumbled forward a step and caught his paws against the control panel. It was icy to the touch. There was even ice already forming inside the ship? How long had he been knocked out?

He quickly turned to help Rangavar, who was still taking the world’s most inconvenient nap. Zag grabbed his shoulders and pushed him upright against the chair, although his head lolled. Zag switched his strategy to none-too-gently patting the side of Rangavar’s face until the other dragon finally shifted a bit and groaned. “You have to help me start the ship.”

“What?” Rangavar’s emotions were mostly muddled and confused.

Zag only answered by quickly pulling at Rangavar’s seatbelt next, which was also jammed, although at least it was much easier to get to than Zag’s. He wasn’t sure whether or not Rangavar had gotten any pudgier like him, but at least his belly wasn’t folding over his lap to absorb the buckle.

After a moment of becoming more alert, Rangavar was able to stand, frowning at the ice forming on the control panel. “Is that—”

“Yeah.” Zag began picking his way towards the back of the ship where there was a removable panel in the floor he could open to inspect the internal components for damage. He was so focused on trying not to slip across the icy floor for several steps that he almost missed the fact that the metal around them was crumpled slightly. It was entirely possible that the ship was no longer airtight. It would explain the cold.

Shit.

“What do we do?” Rangavar asked, picking up the other dragon’s mood.

For a moment, Zag was at a loss. What could they do? “I’m going to take a look from outside,” he finally settled on.

“Won’t opening the door let the last of our almost-not-freezing air out?” Rangavar crossed his arms a bit. At first Zag thought it might be sarcasm, but then saw the other dragon draw his wings in tighter and shiver. Of course, Rangavar didn’t have nearly as much blubber as Zag. He’d be feeling the effects of the cold first. Zag found himself actually hoping Rangavar had gained weight; in this situation, it was definitely better to have a bit of padding.

“Well if there’s nothing we can do from in here, we’ll be wasting heat just by wasting time,” Zag pointed out.

Rangavar sighed, a puff of warm steam coming from his nose.

Zag braced himself for a moment before finally yanking open the metal door of the ship. Fortunately, it slid open easily, unaffected by the damaged hull. Unfortunately, a blast of freezing air suddenly slapped him in the face. He drew in his pudgy wings more tightly as he stepped off onto the ground.

Well, that was already a problem. The glowing pad beneath the ship that was supposed to make it hover was completely out. The entire thing was on the ground already.

“What’s wrong?” Rangavar gingerly crept up to the door next, peeking out at the bleak landscape. He didn’t seem surprised or anything by what he saw. Beneath a dim sky and a thin, icy film across the ground, Zag was knee-deep in a layer of accumulated snow, with solid, icy ground to walk on underneath. Zag could tell because his paws had sunk straight through to it.

The chubby dragon shook his head. “No power. Like, literally none.”

He and Rangavar shared a long look before Zag finally broke his gaze to cast it out over the surrounding landscape. Nothing but flat ground covered in snow and ice beneath a dim, dusky sky. Not a drop of heat anywhere. None. Not even a hint.

“We’re too out in the open. What if we head that way?” Rangavar pointed in the direction of some tall, jutting rocks standing up from the snow a ways away. “If we can find a cave or something, we can huddle out of the wind. The solid rock might provide more shelter than the really thin walls of the ship out in the open, if they’re letting cold air in anyway.”

“If we make it that far.” It was true that the idea was more appealing than standing in the middle of a flat icy plain as far as the eye could see and freezing to death, though.

Rangavar hopped down. He sank through the crunchy layer of surface ice into the snow up to his knees as well. “I’m willing to try, at least until we find a way to warm ourselves, or the weather lessens a bit—if it gets warmer midday, or something.” He shrugged. “Then we can come back and work on getting the hell out of here.”

Zag nodded. It seemed more reasonable than standing here shivering.

As they began walking towards the distant, rockier area, Rangavar said, “I think I can take a guess at what the distress signal was for.”

“They probably got stranded here in the cold, like we are,” said Zag helpfully.

“…Yeah.”

After a pause, Zag got the distinct impression that he’d missed some sarcasm, but was quickly more worried about the way his legs were numbing as they trudged through the thick layer of snow. It certainly didn’t help when it started falling from the sky as well.

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” Rangavar grumbled beneath his breath, although he was shaking hard enough that it was almost difficult to understand him.

“We’re getting closer,” said Zag, pointing ahead with one frozen finger. He wasn’t sure how much closer exactly; the rocky formation still looked pretty distant. He realized he had no idea how long they’d been walking. A while, now. He also realized he had no idea how much longer they had to go. Maybe the flat landscape had caused them to misjudge how close the rocks really were.

Still, he pushed on, the fat that coated his frame insulating him slightly. He had doubts that Rangavar’s body was generating nearly as much heat, but the other dragon was pressing on without complaining.

That only lasted a few more steps before Rangavar slowed to a stop, stumbling forward slightly into the snow. “I’m… I…”

He was radiating exhaustion, but Zag grabbed at his arm. It was almost as cold to the touch as the ice around them. “Hey, we can’t stop. We have to keep going.” He pulled to help the other dragon up, but wasn’t feeling too energetic himself.

When Rangavar slumped more deeply into the snow, he wrapped his wings around himself tighter. “You know, maybe we’ll get used to the cold. Maybe it’s… Maybe we should rest a moment.”

“Maybe you’re experiencing hypothermia.”

Rangavar suddenly shook his head. “No, I feel…” Zag could sense his brain fighting to work. “Just tired.”

Suddenly, Zag realized he probably needed a break too. They could resume their trek later, right? That seemed like a good and reasonable idea. He slowly dropped into the snow next to the other dragon, pressing his pudgy side into Rangavar for warmth. His instincts were screaming at him to keep going, but… “Do you think we should just stay here?” Somewhere buried in Zag’s brain, he knew that choice didn’t make any sense. They were out in the open, only slightly sunk into the snow.

It took a moment for Zag to realize he hadn’t gotten a response. Rangavar was leaning on him, and he’d stopped shivering. Zag was pretty sure that wasn’t a good sign. He turned slightly and helped the other dragon lie down in the tiny crater they’d created, wondering if he’d warm up by curling up tightly. Why did he have to be so skinny? No wonder he was freezing cold. Zag wondered if he could use his own blubber to insulate the two of them, slowly leaning down until he was stretched across the other dragon’s chest. At least Rangavar was too out of it to mind.

Zag had been hoping that he could maybe share some of Rangavar’s body heat as well, but there was none to be found. Coming here was the worst idea ever. He realized he was starting to feel a bit drowsy too. The logical side of his brain told him not to fall asleep. But he didn’t want to take orders from that side of his brain right now.

An indeterminate amount of time later, he felt himself shift a little, although it took a few times to realize something was prodding his shoulder. He turned his head slightly, although his muscles were clenched and stiff all over. A figure was standing over them. While Zag tried to make sense of that, it turned its head and called out, “Come look! I found someone in the snow!”

That was pretty much the last thing Zag took in as his consciousness finally gave up.