Eventually Frosti's eyes adjusted to the darkness. Perhaps there was no such thing as "too dark for dragon eyes". Even though she could see again, there was not a lot to see in the first 5 minutes she walked.
There were a lot of pockets dug out in the side of the caves. Some by water that had long since dried up. These largest caves were big. Big enough for Frosti's parents, perhaps. There were many caverns made by rats, much too small to explore. Fewer by creatures much larger than a rat; which were only twice her size: she could reach up and touch the ceiling in these smaller caves if she wanted.
One hole in the wall caught Frosti's attention. There were fresh claw marks all around it. All of the other pockets looked like they hadn't been touched in years, but this one had the distinct pattern of dragonet claws carving through the dusty stone.
Frosti must have been smaller than whoever came by earlier. One of her brothers, most definitely. There hadn't been a ton of time to compare sizes earlier, but her family members were probably the only people living in this whole mountain.
She was able to squeeze in without too much trouble. Inside she was greeted by an arrangement of gold coins. Six of which sat in the remains of a perfect circle. Two scattered by the claw marks reaching in through the hole. And two stains on the ground where her brothers must have been able to reach and steal the rest away.
Frosti wandered away from the hole, pressing forward despite how hard it was getting to see. She kicked something hard and light. In the center of the arrangement was a massive gemstone! She pounced on it before it could roll away, gathered up the remaining coins, and pulled them out of the hole one by one.
This was the most exciting thing! Treasure! These eight golden coins were probably worth thousands of gold coins, and she was now the richest dragon in the mountain! Nothing would stop her from carrying her treasure everywhere she went.
It did not take long before she got bored of hauling her stash. It was impossible to handle this many loose treasures without traveling back and forth to pick up each one individually.
Frosti made up her mind to bury them for now, just a little closer to the high shelf where her mother slept. When the time was right, and she had a hoard of her own to really keep them, she could come back to retrieve this most valuable treasure.
She quickly foung a patch of dirt big enough to hide the coins, but just had to keep the gemstone. It proved as shiny as she was; so would be a shame to bury its brilliance! Frosti most certainly felt that getting buried would not be a pleasant experience.
Frosti stopped exploring the dried riverbeds after the third one in a row proved fruitless. Apparently water was too cheap to deposit more golden riches for a curious dragonet. On the other hand, whatever creature had dug these burrows seemed very interesting.
Most of the burrows were long and straight, branching off symmetrically and flowing down the mountain in a neat and tidy pattern. On occasion, the straight walls would give way to a blob of frenzied digging. Whatever was here before was long gone like the riverbeds.
Much more enticing were the burrows that looked to be nests. Technically there was nothing precious here, but it was a lot harder to piece together exactly what kinds of things happened in such a place. They were much more structured than her own hatching cave. Each row had many square rooms, with a window and door apiece.
There was enough room to squeeze her head inside, if she dropped her treasure. With four limbs meant for walking, carrying the gemstone in her mouth was more comfortable than tucking it under a shoulder and limping around on three legs. She tucked it into a little corner where others could not see, and turned back to the row of homes.
She popped her head inside. It was a little tight. Frosti was greeted by a table and a bed of feathers, alongside a narrower hallway that proved impossible to look beyond. Whatever else was in these creature's homes would have to be a secret for another day.
It was a little disappointing how little there was to be discovered. Frosti's imagination ran wild. Were rats capable of civilization? They were so small now! They must have been cursed by the gods for their rat-like crimes against dragons of all kinds!
Getting her head out proved more difficult that pressing it inside the tiny hovel. The sides of Frosti's head caught on the window, preventing her from escaping! She shifted posture, pressing her hands up against the walls to push even harder; but it felt like her scales would rip off.
Neither was there a lot of options inside the hovel. Frosti's arms were stuck outside, and there wasn't enough room to grab the table and swing it around. She leaned in to try and take another look down the hallway. Around her shoulders, the stone that encompassed the wall shifted.
So the wall wasn't exactly strong. Maybe she just had a delicate head.
Frosti heard snickering behind her.
"Got stuck, princess?"
"No, I just-"
Frostbite came barreling into her side, smashing through the hovel and landing on top of her inside the remaining rubble.
Frosti pushed him off, "I'm just exploring. I could have gotten out on my own!"
"You looked pretty stuck, I saw you pulling at that wall for a minute at least!"
There was no reason to argue if he wasn't going to believe her anyway, "did you find anything interesting down here?"
Frostbite called Snowfall over as well, "we found these!" each of them held up a coin, exactly the same as the eight Frosti had buried.
Snowfall seemed especially pleased with his, "a symbol of our brotherhood, and not killing each other. That's what Frostbite said: give me one of those coins or I'll kill you."
"Did you find anything?" Frostbite asked.
Frosti hesitated, "Not yet," she did not want to share. Her secret buried treasure was her secret. Of course she might be happy to show and tell about the rest of the coins and the gemstone, but something about Frostbite's demeanor didn't exactly scream "I won't steal your precious things."
She suddenly wished she had buried the gemstone with the rest of the coins. Then Frostbite turned for the very corner where it rested.
"You're a terrible liar Frosti," Frostbite exclaimed through carrying the gem in his mouth. He turned to leave, "I heard the mountain rumbling earlier, so I think dad is back with my victory dinner! Either way, I don't have time to hang out with my treasure-less siblings."
"How? How did you know?"
"Your big dumb ears tell me exactly what you're thinking."
What? Frosti looked to Snowfall. His ears peeked out from the sides of his head. Same with Frostbite's. All four of the ears she could see were sleek and humble, and a little round on the tips.
Snowfall followed, but he was watching Frosti carefully, barely moving faster than a crawl. Perhaps he was apologetic?
"They did kind of give you away..."
Perhaps not.
Snowfall didn't hang around for a response, leaving Frosti with only the company of trickling water.
That was the most interesting noise in the caverns. Frosti had no appetite for rats. She didn't exactly want to get in a fight with Frostbite... Considering what he did to two of the three other brothers, so their scampering was marked as the least interesting thing to follow.
Actually, she hadn't seen the third brother since he escaped. How many caves were down here that he could evade everyone for nearly a whole day? Originally Frosti had picked different numbers for them, but dying definitely earned the original "third brother" an uncontested fourth place finish.
Frosti scouted another ten caves before finding the stream. Each of them was painfully boring. No secret treasure holes. No secret societies of rats or any other creature to speak of. River-caves with no rivers were just the worst.
It took some time, but Frosti found the calmest place along the cavern stream to drink. It was an underground pond with a long peninsula jutting almost to the center. If she sat at the end and didn't turn around, it felt like she was on a lonely hidden island.
The cavern water was cold and refreshing. This part of the caves was peacefully quiet, perfect for a midday break.
Frosti looked at the water's surface again. A drop fell from her chin, but as the water settled she got to see herself for the first time. A pointed muzzle and lithe frame greeted her in the water. Sky blue scales all over. Her neck and belly were turquoise. Her hands and feet faded to a slate blue.
At her shoulders, small bulges where her wings would eventually burst free from under her skin. They were still growing, tucked away in safety beneath a hatchling's first scales. She imagined herself with deep blue wings the way her hands were. Then imagined if they were the same size as her mom's. Too big!
And on either side of her head, massive fins which were almost perfectly white. Nowhere near as bright as her eyes. Those practically glowed purple in the darkness. But they were big. She wiggled them. It was unusual how different they were from her brother's. Too big.
She slapped the surface of the water to make those fins disappear, but the rest of her image disappeared with them. Something bolted behind her. First, it jumped. When it landed and regained its balance, it started to flee.
Whatever it was moved remarkably fast. It didn't sound small, but the silhouette was not easy to make out across the water.
Frosti took off after the motion. It had almost snuck up on her and she wasn't about to let anyone get away with that. The warmth of the stone in the deep caverns was a lot more comfortable to run across than the frigid ice on the shelf. Frosti took off with ease and ran nimbly along the shoreline.
The running figure led her down a series of tunnels, some almost vertical. She was running so fast it was impossible to get a clear view of whatever she was chasing. The chase was exhilarating!
Frosti burst into a large, round room. For almost the entirety of her descent, each room was darker than the last, but this room was unusually well lit. It was only a few body lengths across, but the ceiling towered above; out of sight. What little water diverted this direction from the stream traveled straight to the center of the room. The ground sloped towards a hole, which the water trickled off. Pushing up through the hole was a crystalline pillar.
It was obvious there was no other way out along the walls, so she guarded the way back to the surface. The air down here felt heavy, pressing on her ears and eyes uncomfortably. How deep had they gone? The heavy air made it easier to catch her breath down here, at least.
Standing firmly in the only escape route, she looked up. There was no sky light. This light was coming from below. Frosti approached the hole in the center of the room. It would have made the perfect escape had it not been for the massive purple crystal peeking up through the floor, blocking most of the hole.
The crystal was the source of the light, she realized. Frosti peered down the hole. Everything down there seemed to glow! Crystals and mushrooms and mosses, all bio-luminescent, lined every possible rock face.
Her curiosity got the better of her. Despite her wariness about the figure she was chasing, she poked her head down into the underworld; there was just enough room to get her ears out, too.
Half of the view was blocked by the crystal in the center of this cave. It came from the ground some 100 meters below, and stood over a pit of smaller crystals which looked just purple, and just as sharp.
The view over here was all the same glowing flora for as far as the eye could see. It was incredible! Were these glowing gems treasure? Or was their abundance a sign of being worthless? Maybe she should keep this place a secret.
Frosti started working her way around the hole to look at whatever might be on the other side of the crystal. There was more room on this side, maybe even enough to get all the way inside. A blessing, considering her head was still precariously pressed between the edge of the ground and the crystal.
The view on the other side of the crystal was dominated by a massive structure. The walls were lined with wooden houses, very similar to the stone ones Frosti had explored prior; but unlike the stone village, these were bustling with activity! It was impossible to tell what exactly was bustling down there though; they were all too far away.
This must be the secret home of the rat-people, Frosti thought, now that I know where you are, your secrets are mine to discover!
Frosti kept circling the hole very quietly, looking for a way down. When she got back to where she started, she pulled her head back out to find another way in.
She was greeted by a pair of cool grey eyes, standing back in the darkness. It was impossible to discern their body from the stone behind them, leaving only a pair of eyes floating. Staring.
It was absurd how well they blended in, Frosti crossed behind the crystal that lined the center of the room; pining for a better look at the figure. She expected to see the eyes still staring from afar, but they were gone, replaced with the clickety-clack of claws on crystal. She dived to catch the tail. It slipped down through the hole like a rogue spaghetti, and slipped free of her just as her claws crashed into the ground.
The ground shuddered when her weight crashed against it. Thinking quickly, Frosti jumped in place. The ground wasn't very thick at the center of this cave, she just had to break into this magical place and meet this mysterious friend!
Unfortunately, she was right. The stone gave way under her feet, cracking at once and depositing her onto the side of the crystal pillar. It caught her, but did not stop her from sliding; falling rapidly to the underworld floor. She looked up at the pair of eyes. Now, they were well lit.
Her brother watched her. The one who escaped Frostbite. The eyes were his, and they were watching her fall to the spiked crystals so far below. He had jumped onto the roof of a large, flat mushroom. Clearly prepared for the environment as if he had explored it since the day he was born.
Frosti writhed around to flip onto her belly as she fell along the edge of the pillar. Falling into the spiked pit below would be... Unpleasant. She reached out for one of the ridges. It shattered under the strain, taking a part of her claw with it. Yeouch.
One last try. She was still close enough to reach the pillar, much of her fall was really more of a very fast slide. There was an underground lake not far from the crystalline field. A much preferable landing. Frosti waited for the ridges of the crystal to scoop her up again.
She jumped.