The Whisperer

Part 2

I coughed more bitter seawater. It was only a dream that the ship had been wrecked, right? Then why was I encrusted with salt, coughing seawater? I opened my eyes and saw I was high above the water, held by black claws. The ship had been destroyed, and now I was headed who knows where by a strange dragon

"Why do you think they're from, bud?" A voice echoes through my clogged ears

"I don't know" The dragon growled. I felt the wing movement shift as the dragon began its descent. I closed my eyes again as I am put on the ground, and I let blackness claim me. 

"Scale-kin" A nudge "Scale-kin" I open my eyes and see a great big black snout in front of me, two large, inquisitive green eyes. I reach up and touch him, his ebony scales pliable with the added weight of my fingers

"Hello" I whisper with my long unused voice, crackling like ancient parchment "Scale-kin" I murmur. I try to observe where I am. I know I am near a fire, but otherwise, my salt-coated ears and dry eyes knew nothing. This dragon in front of me was the only living thing in a mile, according to my senses. I reached up and touched his snout again. He was delightfully warm in a cold world. He lay down beside me and plopped his head onto my chest. 

"Scale-kin, what happened?"  He asked

"My ship was wrecked by other Scale-kin. Then I was lost at sea" I stroked his ears as he purred with comfort. I bet his rider didn't know he liked being stroked on his ears. My eyes cleared a bit more, and I took in a ceiling far above me. I could hear a rumbling of lightning outside, and the creaking of wet wood. This dragon in front of me was my only companion right now. And I was grateful for his warmth. He kept his head on my chest as he settled, and we both fell asleep.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I looked up from my work as a  bolt of lightning struck the top of the mountain. I knew Toothless got spooked sometimes, so I walked down the steps and looked at his normal spot, the slab of a round stone. It was vacant of the Night Fury. I looked around and saw the few scales that he had shed as we came in earlier, they had been stepped on by Toothless again. I made my way over to the clubhouse, where we had left the girl. There he was, curled up beside her, his head on her chest. His eyelid opened, but the second film stayed shut for a minute before it slid open too. He let out a soft hum, then lay back down, closing his eyes. He didn't want to move or do anything but be near the girl he had risked both our lives to save. She sighed in her sleep, and Toothless opened his eyes again, nudging her head back onto the pillow, then closed his eyes once more. He was showing more care toward this girl than he did Astrid, and that was saying something.

"Why?" I pondered "Why her?" When Toothless did not respond, I returned to my own house and my work. What was up with Toothless?

The next few days were tense. Toothless did nothing but stay with the girl, who slept through everything, even the Twins banging pots around her head. Every time someone approached, Toothless acted hostile, then reverted to his normal state. By the third day, Toothless didn't even let me near her, only Astrid was allowed within five feet. His eyes are almost always slit now. I came in the fourth morning and saw the girl standing up, looking at the map I had pinned to the wall of the clubhouse. She was using Toothless as support, and he was wide-eyed as she traced the island I had drawn, then down onto an area I never mapped 

"It isn't here" She murmured. Toothless cooed, and she turned to him "I know. Thank you" She speaks right to Toothless. She looks a lot like Astrid, with the same air of someone able to hold their own

"Uh, Hello," I said. I was an intruder in their conversation

Her dark eyes turn to me "Hello" Her eyes pierce right into mine as if she was staring into my soul. "I'm guessing you ride...Toothless, was it?" She speaks to him again. Toothless gives a nod "Toothless. You ride Toothless"

"You can talk to him?" I ask

"Yes," She shrugs "I have never met a Night Fury before. Many others, never a Night Fury" She turns back to the map and touches the boards beneath it "My family lived on an island to the south. Three or four days sail from here" She traced a shape with her finger "I was a prize for the community. I could convince the attacking dragons to leave and hunt elsewhere. The chief had a grand idea: for us to sail around to other communities and talk to the nests of dragons everywhere, convincing them to not attack Vikings"

"That seems like a good plan" I added

"It was. Until the Gods forsake the island and it was incinerated. Every last blade of grass was consumed by the fires. We fled to another island, but before my boat reached it, the dragons who burnt my home ripped the boat to shreds. I am the last survivor." She let her hand fall on Toothless's head, who purred softly at her touch. She took off her left bracer and showed me the insignia inscribed inside. Like the one I have for Berk because my dad is the chief. Hers is a person, dragons making a rim along the outside, in a pattern like they were all attacking each other. The girl stands against a background of a village.

"They made the insignia based on you," I said, reading the tiny inscription along the edges "Jenta Som Holder Dragene Unna. The Girl Who Keeps The Dragons Away. That fits" I toss it back to her, and she slides it back onto her arm. Then her eyes go wide

"So. Many. Dragons" She beamed "Everywhere"