After that, Amos began hunting them in earnest. It wasn't obvious at first what was happening, why the air turned colder and the wind sharper. The boys were less sensitive to cold and privation that they had once been, and they turned in on themselves and to each other for warmth. They lit fires when they could, and slept in a heap when they couldn't. The further south they went, the more animal life they found, but the more they found it dead, encased in ice.

"It's Amos, isn't it," Cain said one evening. He was shivering and his skin was chapped red. "He's doing this to us."

"Yes," Eve agreed. "I think he must be."

"But why? Why not leave us alone? He has the north. He doesn't have to cover the whole world with ice."

Eve sighed and bowed her head.

Amos. Eve stared into the fire and considered it like she had never done before. She had always taken it for granted that she could summon fire from within, that she had warm blood and never stayed cold for long. How different things must have been for Amos. For the first time, she thought realistically about how he must have suffered as a young dragon in their homeland. Eden was situated in a tropical climate, she could remember that much. Other images came to mind, other faces: the seer who had taken her under her wing, the medicine woman who had tried again and again to "fix" Amos. She winced as she thought of his "treatments," which even she'd known at the time were cruel. She had done all she could to save him.

No. She had done all that had been easy. She could have-should have-done more.

She was brought back to present when she witnessed Cain whispering to Abel. Though she could not hear what they said, she locked eyes with Abel as he stared at her. Cain sat back and leaned forward to rub his hands near the flames. Although he was much stronger than he had been as a boy, the reaching cold still cut him.

"Cain?" she said. Her voice felt raw. A lingering effect from her encounter with Amos.

"Yes, Eve?" he replied. He did not quite meet her gaze.

"Tell me about your parents, please," she said, adding, "if it's not too hard for you."

"Well, I don't really remember them too well, truthfully," he answered. His eyes welled with tears. Perhaps she was pushing him too hard.

"What were they like, Abel? You knew them longer," she asked.

Abel was quiet for a long moment.

"They were . . . strong," he replied. "Why are you asking this now?"

"And did they fear anything?" she went on, ignoring his question.

"Sometimes. Sometimes they go away from us, away from the tribe." Eve waited as Abel tried to form the right words. "But they always kissed us before they left."

"Hmm, that must have been frightening, to be left alone," Eve mused.

"It was," Abel said, then coughed and swallowed hard. "But we were children, then. We aren't children anymore." He clearly looked uncomfortable and didn't want to say more.

What are you doing? Eve's conscious demanded. Have you no shame? Leave these poor boys alone!

"I want to tell you boys a story," Eve said. "Because I want to be honest with you."

"Okay! Is it a good story, Eve?" Cain cried. His eyes were glowing with excitement. "Is there a happy ending?"

"I hope so. I hope there will be," she said, and smiled slightly. "Do you know why the dragons are gone?"

"You mean, other than you and Amos?" Cain asked.

"We don't, Eve," Abel said quietly.

"Well, once, a long time ago, there were four types of dragons. These were known as the elemental dragons. First, there were the earth dragons, who were able to manipulate the earth and live underground. They were skilled in medicine because they could grow their own plants and herbs."

"What happened to them, Eve?" Cain said.

"I'll get there. Next there were the air dragons. They lived in the clouds high above the earth. They were the best fliers. They created wind and subsisted on the rain in the atmosphere. And then there were the fire dragons. They were able to create fire from their breath and had warm blood pumping through their bodies. They lived off of vegetation from the earth dragons and were in harmony with the other elemental dragons."

"That's you, right?" Cain interrupted.

"Yes, that's me."

"What about Amos?" Cain asked.

Eve sighed. "Amos is an ice dragon. Ice dragons were originally water dragons. They lived underwater in all of the seas of the world. They kept to themselves and ate fallen dragons, like air dragons when they dropped dead from the sky. Anyway, once a water dragon from the north named Nephilim went down to the underworld and was inspired by the death he saw there. He rallied his tribe, and they began to use their powers to transform water into ice to paralyze water creatures and eat them. This upset the balance in the water. Nephilim gained more and more followers as he promised the water dragons immortality."

"Did he succeed?" Cain asked, curious at the turn in the story.

"Not quite," Eve said. "The other dragons bound together to stop him and were forced to imprison the ice dragons in the tropics, in the bowels a place called Eden. This was mostly the realm of the fire dragons, though others lived there, too. For a long time, the ice dragons suffered, and they ultimately perished tens of thousands of years ago. But one day a dragon named Amos was born of fire dragons. But he was not a fire dragon or even a water dragon; he was a dragon whose element was purely ice. The first and last one the world has ever seen, and ultimately the one destined to bring about its doom."

"Why is he so evil?" Abel asked. "He hates everyone. Was he always that way?"

Eve sighed and drew up her legs, staring into the fire.

"Amos once had a wife who was killed by a human-or possibly, as some call him, a fallen angel-named Lucifer. His wife was a human, someone who loved Amos in spite of his genetic defect. But Lucifer seized her from him and brought her down to the underworld. He did horrible things to her because he thought it would destroy Amos and cripple him. It did, I guess, but in a way that made his heart and mind twisted and warped with anger and hatred. He went on a one-dragon mission to destroy everything in the world."

"How do we stop him, Eve? I mean, Abel and I are getting stronger. Do you think we could kill him and take back the world?" Cain asked, his voice growing increasingly more urgent with each word. "I'm sure we could!"

Eve smiled at his suggestion. If only. "Amos does have a weakness, one that I am trying to find out. I am the last fire dragon, and I believe that will help. There is something that connects us, and I need to find it to stop him. I think that the key to defeating Amos is somewhere in our childhood home, in Eden. And we have to go there," Eve said.

"Where is it?" Abel asked.

"South. Far south of here," Eve answered. "That is . . ." Her brow furrowed. "I think it is. My memories aren't what they once were, but I do know that Eden was tropical. I'm sure it's to the south. It must be."

The boys didn't look convinced. "So is that where Mom and Dad said we should go?" Cain asked, half to Abel and half to Eve.

"Maybe," Abel replied. He pushed off the ground and retreated into the forest.

"Where's he going?" Cain said.

"Probably just to take a walk. We've been cooped up over here by the fire for a long time now," Eve replied, though secretly she suspected it had to do with teenage sulking.

***

After Abel came back and the boys fell asleep, Eve reached out to Amos with her mind, reached out as she hadn't done in many long years. Her powers of projection weren't as strong as his, but she could still communicate with him telepathically, when she needed to.

In her mind's eye, she saw Amos whip around to face her. Without any salutation, he demanded, "Eve, why do you insist on fighting?"

"Fighting?" Eve asked lightly. "I've done nothing but run. I only want to protect my own, Amos."

In her mind, Amos shook his head. "Don't lie to me, fire dragon. You resist the cold. You resist my ice. Stop it. Let me finish this."

"There's no reason-"

"There's every reason! There's the best reason! But you never understood that, did you Eve? Never understood love or loss or-"

"Shut up! Shut up! Amos, can't you see you're destroying everything? The land is turning to ice. That is loss. That is destroying love."

Eve recoiled as Amos wormed further into her mind, extracting images of the boys, of Abel and of Cain. She could feel him marveling over the images, turning them around and around, repulsed and revolted. "So this is why," he said quietly. "To protect them. You've taken to caring for humans. You revolt me, Eve. How could you?"

Eve struggled to get control back over the situation. She had contacted him. How had it all turned around so quickly?

Because he was waiting for you.

"Stop this," Eve begged. "Stop this, once and for all."

"I intend to," Amos replied icily. "And you can't stop me." With a single movement, he ripped himself out of her mind.

Eve's eyes flew open, and she lay on the ground, gasping.

***

It only got worse after that: the ice, the storms. Except from then on, Eve would always hear Amos's voice in her dreams, always hear his bitter despair, always hear his hatred. It only got harder to resist, but resist she did.

She didn't tell the boys about the dreams; she didn't want to worry them. But she told them the rest, because some day, they'd need to know.