YCH from the talented  bellator_tenebrae!

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"You're brave," the human elder said, sipping from his steaming bowl. "Not many dragons would come to a land of such bitter cold for anything, let alone to face certain death."
"You seem confident in your knowledge of dragons," I replied. "For someone from a land without them."

I couldn't call him wrong, though. I hadn't stopped stamping my feet since I entered the snowy village, just to keep the feeling in them. The steaming brew they had served me helped, each mouthful spreading its warmth through my body, but mere seconds later it had faded, and once again the cold clawed under my scales.

"I ventured far in my youth," he said. He set the bowl down, somehow keeping his own hands still and calm. "I met many of your kind. Though none who would willingly come this far north."
"You told me about a monster?" I said. The cold hasn't been so bad when I was in motion. Flying to the village had been easy, if unpleasant. The sooner I could be on the move again, the better.
"A frostwurm." He took my bowl and turned around. Behind him was an intricate carving of ice, in the form of one of the Divine Beasts - the Shark, cresting a wave. It surrounded a bowl that contained a seemingly endlesss supply of the brew. He filed my bowl and slid it back acros to me, and I lapped it up eagerly. "It was just tremors at first, but they were getting stronger every day. Not long ago, one of our hunters returned with a shard of ice embedded in his shoulder. He said the beast burst from the ice, and he was struck by a wayward shard. And he was lucky."

I sat back and curled my tail around my feet, trying to retain the brew's warmth for as long as I could. "So you need me to take care of it."
"If the hunter is to be believed, the beast is many times larger than even you. Our spears will barely graze it. Left alone, I fear it will overturn the entire village. I don't want it to get that far."
I nodded. "Then I'll take care of it. And don't worry about me. If this cold doesn't get to me..." I started stamping my feet again. "...then no wurm will."
"But the cold is getting to you. You're not great at hiding it."

The elder reached into his coat and took out a pendant, shining and red, a stark contrast to the ice and snow. "Breathe on this."
Without thinking to question it, I did as he commanded.
The elder turned his back to me and kneeled before the icy sculpture. He dipped the pendant into the large bowl and spoke some words in what I could only assume was his native tongue. I didn't understand the words, but his tone was reverent, and very deliberate. When he pulled it out of the liquid, it was glowing.
"A simple blessing," he said when he turned back to me, evidently reading my confusion. He approached and pressed the pendant against my chest, where it affixed itself to my armour.

Immediately, a sensation of warmth enveloped me. No longer was the bitter snow clawing under my scales; I was back in the comfort of the rainforest, wrapped in a sense of pleasant humidity.
"A mere touch of a dragon's breath, with the blessing of the Divine Shark, to ward off cold," he said. "You will be safe now. At least, from the ice." He gently laid his hand upon my shoulder and looked up at me. His welcoming smile faded, his face now pleading. "Save our village, warrior."

---

The hunting grounds were eerily quiet. I couldn't have expected the same sort of bustle in a frozen waste that I would have found in the forest, but hunting grounds were hunting grounds - surely there must have been something here to hunt. But everything was still and silent, like whatever creatures once were here had heard of the monster that prowled the land, and fled.

But worse than the lack of prey was the lack of predator. There were no traces of the frostwurm's trail, no rumblings beneath the ice. Ice which felt almost like pleasant soil beneath my feet, I noted, brushing a claw against the pendant on my chest.

I stood upon an icy cliff and gazed out at the sea. Perhaps it was out there somewhere, having exhausted the prey in this region, crossing the ocean to the next.

Or maybe it needed to be lured to the surface.

I opened my wings. This creature was sensitive enough to know when an arctic bunny hopped through the snow. A full grown dragon would bring it up in no time.

I jumped down from the cliff onto the snowy expanse, making no effort to disguise my presence. I swept my tail through the snow. I reared up on my hind legs, then brought my forefeet smashing down. I tucked in my wings and rolled around in the snow. It felt like fallen leaves sodden with warm spring dew.

I made such an uproar myself that I didn't feel the rumblings.

I heard the ice shatter apart and took wing a moment later. Time slowed as I saw the tremendous beast lunge at me. Had I not reacted, its great horn would have run me clean through. But I rolled in the air just in time for it to instead score a glancing blow against my pauldron. It didn't pierce the metal, but the sheer force of the strike knocked me through the air like a bug. I felt myself crash into the ice, barely gathering my senses in time to leap away from the wurm bearing down on me.

The wurm was vast, even only taking into account what I could see above the surface. I could have perched comfortably on its single horn. It was bizarre that such a beat could possibly have sustained itself on penguins, humans and snow foxes. A dragon must have seemed like an endless banquet.

I hovered around the wurm's head and summoned my fire. But when I went to exhale it, the arctic wind snatched it away. Of course. The enchanted talisman was keeping me warm, but it didn't change the frigid air around me. I backed away as the wurm leapt up towards me. As it came crashing down, I landed and took shelter behind a dune of snow to shield myself from the lethal shards of ice that went flying.

The beast was relentless, not that I could blame it. Having evidently grown weary of lunging at me, it now plunged through the ice in a straight line towards me, its three jaws stretched open like a terrible flower. I leapt up and beat my wings, landing on its head. But its tough hide was slick like ice, and my claws scrabbled to find purchase. I couldn't find a place to bite it, or slash at it; it took all my energy just to hold on. My tail blade snapped open and I hacked at the beast, but the weapon only bounced off.

I crawled forward on the beast's back and wrapped my claws around its horn, grasping tight. It rose, higher and higher into the air. I could see all around now. The vast expanse of the frozen lands. Ice pools, snow laden forests, glacial crevasses... the human village.

Which the wurm now sped toward.

Icy debris flew around me as the wurm ploughed through the land. I closed my eyes against the sting of the frigid air. I tried to smash my tail through the creature's hide, to slash it with my claws, but nothing worked. I looked up. The village was getting closer. Did the beast know? Or was it simply driving forward, happening to endanger the settlement in its mad dash?

I gathered my strength and tried to heave the wurm to the side, like a rider pulling on a horse's reins. I growled and strained, but even my great strength was nothing compared to this monster.

A shard of ice struck me in the chest, deflecting off my armour. I looked down, the talisman glinting in the daylight.

A mere touch of dragon's breath...

I let go of the horn, and the momentum of the beast's rampage sent me flying forward. I beat my wings wildly in an attempt to right myself, barely managing to right myself and land upright on the snow. Growling, I grabbed at the talisman and tore it off my chest. I leapt into the air, crushed the talisman in my claw, and hurled it through the air.

It landed square in between the wurm's jaws.

There was a crunching sound, then an explosion of fire.

The force sent me through the air, and without the protection of the amulet's warmth, the biting cold once more enshrouded me. The world spun around me, and I crashed into the snow. My legs went weak with cold, my wings numb. My chest have heaved as I drew in deep breaths. The world around me blurred and darkened. I saw vaguely human shapes gather around me.

"The village is safe," I gasped.