FInally, Sam was near the top! The boy wiped the sweat off his brow and looked around. He was certainly high up, with the thin air and bright light shining on him. Still, despite the angle he was standing on, when he looked up, he saw that there was still much more needed to climb before making it to the top. As much as he hated to do so, he needed to quit. There was no way he would make it the top and back in time, much less with a dragon egg in tow.
Welp, may as well take a look around. Sam decided as he entered the first cave he saw. It didn't take long to find a sleeping air dragon, it's eggs grouped up nearby. Sam excitedly closed in on them, taking a moment to consider which he would pick. He failed to notice the dragon's mate, who was currently glaring daggers at the human. It was his growl than made Sam notice his presence.
Oh...crap
Sam's shoulders sagged at the dragon took a large breath, before sending a powerful gust of wind, launching Sam out the cave and into the air.
Welp, this is how I die.
Some god had mercy on him, however, as instead of crashing into stone and shattering his body, he landed on something slightly softer and only had the wind knocked out of him.
Sam shook his head, looking behind himself to see what he landed on...and saw nothing.
Weird
Below him, however, was something visible. Dragon eggs. They were a soft yellow, and were surprisingly smooth for dragon eggs. Sam wondered briefly were their parents were, but decided that he didn't want to repeat the air dragon incident. A sound made him pause, however. Snoring? Odd. It was likely something else, so Sam needed to hurry. He leaped off the eggs...only to trip over something and faceplant into the floor.
The snoring stopped, and he heard movement. The space around the eggs was suddenly taken by a quetzalcoatl, curled around her eggs and refracting the light around her as a way to remain hidden while sleeping.
Sam realized that these dragons were a lot more calmer than the ones below. It made sense, since not as many human make it up here as the ones near the bottom. Quite a nice bit of trivia, but the long, dangerous dragon was the bigger issue. Said dragon was standing tall and staring at Sam, perplexed, and a little tense. Suddenly, one of its eggs, the biggest one, rolled over down the mountain. The quetzalcoatl quickly moved its tail, hoping to catch it, but Sam was quicker, leaping towards the egg and taking the it with him.
"Sorry!" he apologized "I had to!"
The dragon screeched, now hostile and followed. Sam was foolishly hoping his momentum would allow his escape, but the quetzalcoatl was faster, and taking him by the shirt, took to the air. She moved erratically, shaking Sam back and forth, trying to make him let go of her egg. Sam almost considered it, but letting go would likely make her let go of him, and he wouldn't survive his height.
The he realized he didn't have the egg anymore.
Somewhere between the shaking, he HAD actually let go of the egg, sending it down to the floor. Both him and the quetzalcoatl were still, both not expecting for Sam to let go so easily, before taking action.
Sam quickly took out his weapon, and cut the back of his shirt, setting him free, and falling. He purposely streamlined himself to catch up with the egg, and held on for dear life. As he fell, he passed through smoke, and realized he was falling above the base of the mountain, where all the volcanoes were.. He heard a screech from above, and prepared himself.
Sure enough, the quetzalcoatl dived after Sam and her egg, brushing through the smoke and swerving before hitting the floor. As Sam fell, he curled up, and once he landed on her back, rolled along her and landed on the floor, hurt but not dead.
He heard the quetzalcoatl roar, and flap her wings harder. Suddenly, the already hard-to-breathe air was much more life-threatening. The dragon was blowing the toxic air from the volcanoes down! Sam held his breath, and pushed on. There was an advantage to this, however. The ash cloak was covering him, making him impossible to see or smell for the quetzalcoatl.
Sam held his breath as long as he could, but still couldn't make the whole trip holding it, and was soon sent into a coughing fit. He couldn't even see, so it was amazing how by sheer luck he made it through the smoke cloud, and into the snow belonging to the bottom of the mountain.
Sam looked behind him, hoping the quetzalcoatl failed to see him. It looked like she did, as she stopped flapping and was instead in the smoke cloud, searching. He could see her flying up to take a breath every now and then.
Sam felt a little guilty, since she was obviously very caring for her eggs. Maybe he'll have his dragon to visit his mom someday.
Sam looked over himself. His shirt was ruined, and was basically entirely black, save for the red blood a few of his scars gave him. Sam coughed again, and trudged on, beyond exhausted.