Page 8 of Escaping my Dragon

“Five years.”

I arched a brow. “Long posting. Don’t you miss home?”

He shrugged. “This is my home until the next mission.”

“What about family and friends?” A query that pinched his lips.

“I was orphaned as a child. Joined the military at eighteen.” An answer without answering.

Rather than push, I went on a different tangent. “Have you ever encountered anything weird, or something that couldn’t be explained during your time at the South Pole?”

“No.”

“Really? No strange lights in the sky? Hidden caverns with temperature spikes? Aliens? Creatures that shouldn’t exist?”

He rolled his eyes. “The Antarctic is a frozen wasteland. Nothing but the hardiest of animals live out here.”

“And humans.”

“With lots of support. McMurdo Station might have up to a thousand people during the months where we get continuous daylight, but once the period of darkness starts, we go down to a skeleton crew and most only do one rotation because it’s harsh.”

“Gets cold, does it?”

“Bitterly cold, which makes it difficult for supplies to get flown in, but the lack of sunlight is what folks struggle the most with. After weeks of not seeing the sun, the mind starts to play tricks.”

“When you say the mind plays tricks, what do you mean?”

“You’ll start to hear things, especially when the wind blows. Some swear the singing of the snow and ice is actually voices. Others begin to hallucinate or suffer from nightmares.”

“I take it you’ve never been affected?”

“We all experience it to some measure. Unlike the others, though, I know the dreams aren’t real.”

“And what do you dream of, Captain?” A teasing query that I didn’t expect him to answer.

To my surprise, he replied. “Of an ancient being asleep since the dawn of mankind.”

Chapter Three

The captain left me after his unexpected, and almost poetic comment about an ancient being frozen in time. Obviously screwing with me since I didn’t take him for the fanciful type. Then again, who knew what ran through his head after enduring several long and dark winters. Seasonal depression was real. I’d done an episode on it.

We landed in Antarctica—not something I ever thought I’d experience in my lifetime—without mishap and emerged into sunshine, despite the late hour. It led to Vernon joking, “Guess we don’t need to worry about vampires.”

“No duh,” Joslyn riposted. “They tend to gravitate to the Yukon and Alaska. More people to chomp on.”

I sighed. “Joslyn, you were with me when we visited and debunked that claim.” No mysterious deaths or loads of missing people. No puncture wounds on any of the population. I even opened my window at night and loudly yelled an invite to any vampires lurking—to Vernon’s entertainment when he listened to the recordings the next day.

“Vampires haven’t lived this long by being dumb. When they heard about your investigation, they obviously behaved,” was Joslyn’s pert reply.

Just went to show you, sometimes evidence wasn’t enough. Some people wanted to believe.

I stepped down the ramp, leaving the heat of the airplane, the cold air fogging up my glasses just as I set foot for the first time in Antarctica. Immediately, I felt the ground shake. A slight tremor that didn’t seem to be causing any panic, given I didn’t hear anyone yell.

Joslyn joined me on the ground, chirping, “Did you feel that?”

“Yeah.” I took off my glasses and rubbed the fog from them before putting them back on for a glance around. “I’m thinking it must be a normal occurrence because no one is running for cover.”

“Ice quake. Happens all the time,” the captain stated as he joined us. His statement slightly reassured.