Azalea spent hours watching the sea crash against the cliffs. I liked her a lot. She wasn't spectacularly beautiful, but she had a petite grace when she walked and a simple, plain sort of prettiness, like how someone might find beauty in an empty grain field, swishing softly. When she held her hand up as if she wanted to join the flocks of wild dragons, she swayed with some invisible music, swirling around, her long skirt catching her legs as she twirled in the grass. Azalea smiled and laughed as a wave's mist floated down and caught on her face, tiny droplets landing in her eyelashes.
For a few precious moments, Azalea was part of another world, one far away from here, where she could fly with dragons and dine with kings, dance with gods and laugh at any joke. She was mystical as she danced, and then, collapsing on the grass, she panted out a few breaths. I quickly ducked behind a large rock and ran back to The Edge. Freya was messing with me. I couldn't love Azalea, right? RIGHT??? I heard the stones that make up the path crunch as Azalea made her way back.
"Oh, hi Hiccup" She smiles.
"H-Hey" I stutter
"Why are you out here?" She asks
"I was talking a walk" I lie-not-lying. I was taking a walk, then I found Azalea on the cliff. Oh, wow, her eyelashes are pretty
"I was too. How's Toothless doing?" She wonders
"He's fine, I think. Probably a bit cooped up" I say. She smiles softly at some distant thought. The training dome comes into sight, where Astrid is hacking apart a straw dummy. Azalea runs ahead and Hookfang swoops down, letting her grab his new, smaller saddle to swing her leg over and ride him up and around. Snotlout was grumbling about how Hookfang was being rude and blatantly refusing to let him ride.
As the sun sank downward, Azalea dismounted Hookfang and then realised she didn't have a place to stay, before Toothless grabbed her, ran back to his stone slab and curled up around her. She smiled, stroking his neck.
"He's protective" She sighs "Too protective" She tries to wriggle out, and when she takes three steps away, he lets out a low, sad call that makes her return.
"What did he say?" I ask
"He likes my company and it eases the nightmares" She hums softly to him, and he grumbles in return. Azalea giggles softly "He's not going to let me out until he wakes up tomorrow"
"Which will be two minutes before we leave" I grumble. Toothless opens one green eye and clicks out a response. Azalea bursts into a fit of laughter and refuses to translate. I wander upstairs and into my bed. Why is Toothless so protective of her?
When I woke up the next morning, Azalea was asleep, her head drooping softly onto Toothless's neck. He was purring in his sleep, and I grabbed the two dragon eyes. We would destroy them. Toothless flicks open an eye, and pulls himself up, taking care not to drop Azalea. He coos at me when I walk closer to him, then points at her.
"I can't talk to you like she can, Toothless," I say. He huffs, then in a long, swift movement, he lays himself down around her so that his tail and head form a perfect oval, where Azalea lies. He's trying to say something, but I can't put it together.
"Hiccup?" Astrid pokes the door open "Are you ready to go?"
I shake out of a daze of thought "Yeah, I'm ready. Just waiting for Toothless to wake up" I lied. I was waiting for Azalea to wake up. Toothless flicked open his eyes again and poked Azalea until she was awake. Astrid slid from the room as softly as she came as Azalea opened her eyes.
"Hi Hiccup" She smiles and pushes herself up "When are we leaving?" She asks
"As soon as everyone is in the air and ready to leave" I answer
"I was holding everyone up, wasn't I?" She simplified
"Snotlout is unresponsive right now" I say "Something about Hookfang being rude?" A laugh lights up her face, a ray of sunshine
"That's probably my fault" She stands up and strokes Toothless, whispering something that makes him instantly alert, bouncing around, eager to move. The rays of sunshine on her face get even brighter as we run outside, Toothless needing to get into the air. I oblige, and we soar up and around, Azalea watching from below. Hookfang eventually comes to her from the stables, and she jumps onto his back, joining us.
With the two eyes destroyed, we start our flight back to Berk. Hookfang had grudgingly let Snotlout back onto him, Azalea sitting in the saddle while he clung to her. Unsurprisingly, Azalea and Astrid were quite close friends by the halfway point, where we stopped to let the dragons drink water and rest.
"Okay, okay. What's black and white and red all over?" Azalea raises her eyebrows as she starts the joke
"I don't know?" I say
"A sunburnt penguin" Azalea manages a straight face as everyone else comes to giggles "Okay, I have a more serious note to discuss, so can someone please gag the twins?" Smiles come around. Azalea stands up and fiddles with two strings. She walks over to a large cliffside and smiles at us as she takes a step backwards. Everyone rushed forward, only to see a large something moving very quickly upwards...Azalea. With two long wings sprouting out from her back, she gives them a few gentle flaps, sending rushes of air over us. All the dragons give happy squawks
"Wow" I whisper
"This is what I meant by more serious matters!" She laughs and swoops downward. I look at her wings and see the tiny tears and scars among the purple tendon. She lands with a few hurried steps and folds her wings back
"You can fly," I think "you're even more the dragon than we thought"
YOU ARE READING
The Whisperer
FanfictionAzalea is...Special. She is worshipped by her community as the dragon whisperer, the girl who can speak to the feared killers. Azalea's home is safe, she has what she needs, a community and a family that is safe from the dragons because she tells th...
