When we landed, I provided the illusion I rode with Snotlout. Stoik greeted Hiccup, and I slid away into the woods very quickly. I'm not a fan of crowds, especially when I can't escape. So I find a secluded spot, a few minutes away from the village, and sit down on a rock, letting my wings trail onto the ground behind me as I think. A soft mist of water falls onto the woods, and I open my wings, bringing them upward to feel the gentle breath of the rain, a cold relief after a long flight. A few minutes later, I start crying. I can remember this place. It used to be my home.
A large flock of dragons were pillaging, snatching sheep and torching homes. I let out a sob, and try to waddle out on my toddler legs. My mother is there, scooping me up, running out of the house as the roof collapses. I cry harder, and a big, owl-like dragon sees us, stopping to stare into my mother's eyes before it flees toward the chief's house. My mother puts me down near a water trough and runs to kill a downed Nadder. When she leaves me, I wail harder, drawing more dragons to me. They hesitate, then scoop me up in their claws and take off. I cry and cry until the memories stop with a hasty landing on an island, where my "Parents" found me.
"Azalea?" Someone calls. I duck behind the rock and try to hide my wings, then puff out a sigh of relief when's Hiccup
"Hi" I pop my head up from the rock, "I thought you were tied up with your father"
"I managed to slip away. I always do" He sits down next to me "I hate being the chief's son sometimes" He drags his hand down his face
"I was too, you know. For a few years. But I was expected to marry and bring a good strong warrior into the bloodline" I made an imitation of a gruff voice, trying to sound like my chief. Hiccup laughs at my bad imitation, then does his own of his father I laugh at it. Eventually, I forget my wings are still open until he touches them, running his fingers down the scars in the tissue
"Where did these come from?" he asks
"Tearing it trying to fly, a few stray knives, and a couple of crash landings" I shiver at his touch. The tissue was still tender, even after years. I shake the residue of the rain off, then extended them to their full glory, all twelve feet of black bone and scales, royal purple and lilac tissues, creating a hood of protection over Hiccup and me as the rain pelts down harder.
"We should go back!" Hiccup shouts over the noise
"Good idea!" We start running, reaching the village in a few minutes, just as the rain reaches its peak. Astrid is waiting beneath her home's roof, her eyes scanning periodically over the surrounding area. A sense of relief comes over her as we run out of the woods, a mad dash for cover other than my wings.
"Hi!" he shouts, and we diverge toward Hiccup's hut. When we arrive, I bid him goodbye and dash back into the woods, hoping to find a wild dragon or two. I find nothing, and so I curl up around myself inside a small divot on a stone cliff, my wings making a shield from the cold air.
"Scale-kin?" a terrible terror squeaks
"Scale-kin, I bid you a warm welcome" I whisper
"Why are you here all alone?" He squeals
"I have nowhere else to go" I shrug and invite him to curl up with me.
I wake up with four terrible terrors all snoring in a pile on my lap. I should have anticipated this. Where there is one, there are many. My wings are tingling painfully, stiff from a night of being crunched in a ball. I shift the dragons off my lap and onto the cave floor, shaking the stiffness from my wings. I look around and decide to fly around a bit and find my bearings. As the sun rises behind me, I whoop in delight as I soar above the cloud line, dipping into the fluffy masses of water, and watching the town blink to life. I choose a small dead end to land in, nearly skimming my wings on the close buildings. I wander around, and eventually find Hiccup with a grubby man who's missing a hand, working in a smith shop of some sort
"Hiccup!" I say. He looks up from his diagram and breaks into a wide, mischievous grin.
"Azalea! Where did you run off to last night?" He asks
"A cave in the woods" I shrug "I like sleeping like that, outside without any walls holding you back." I smile and walk in as I tuck my wings away. I peer at his diagrams, mostly for Toothless's saddle and tail. I rub the charcoal sketches of the dragon and grab a long ashy stick to add something
"lysets og dødens barn" He says "The child of lighting and death" I quickly smudge and redo a few lines in one of the sketches. I can't do math, but I can draw. I end up redoing all of his work capturing Toothless from different angles as he works at some sort of fitting for the tail
"What do you think about this?" I hold up a picture of Toothless napping, like what he was doing in the sunshine outside.
"It looks just like him" He looks at it, rearing his head from the fire-coated rod. His head flicks back to the napping dragon. I smile and put down the paper, walking over to Toothless, and sitting next to him, I stroke his head. He purrs in his sleep and shifts to accommodate me. I let my fingers come to a stop on his snout, where near-invisible scars are hidden by scales.
BẠN ĐANG ĐỌC
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...
