Lost and Found: Family

Morning Confrontations

Hanna yawned and blinked her eyes open. She could barely see, but soon detected a very small amount of light glimmering through the ice in the upper corner of her room. Judging from the angle and the amount of light, it was very early in the morning.

"Perfect," she wispered. She swung her feet out of bed and glanced towards the corner of her room nearest the entrance. Stonescale was sound asleep on his back, snoring profoundly. His bed of reeds was singed where his nose was, blackened by the continuous flow of smoke from his nostrils.

She walked towards the sleeping toad that was her dragon. "Stonester," she cooed, "time to get up!"

He rolled over. "I don't wanna! It's too early to start moving."

"Aw, but I wanted to go flying!" Hanna fake whined.

Stonescale opened one eye slowly and looked up at her.

"You know that gorgeous uninhabited island we saw yesterday? I was thinking we could go there and you could do some poses..."

The Hobblegrunt stretched out his leg. "Well, I have been in the mood..." he slowly stood up as his scales turned emerald green for excitement. "I've got it! You could draw the great Stonescale, standing boldly on the highest point on the island, the moon bowing down before him -"

"And the sun rising above him!" Hanna laughed while her dragon just glared at her. "Oh, lighten up! I was just joking! Now come on, we've got to be back here before mom wakes up or we'll have to skip breakfast!"

Hanna slung her fox skin vest on and slipped her feet into her boots. She grabbed her sketch pad and raced out of her room. Stonescale saw her red vest whisk around the corner before following groggily.

Soon, they were up in the air. Stonescale did a flip in the cool, crisp breeze. The wind under his wings had given him energy.

There was a swish from behind. The Hobblegrunt flipped around, but there was nothing there but dark sky. A high pitched whistle surrounded them, and Hanna saw something flash out of the corner of her eye. However, when she whipped around to be sure, there was nothing there.

Suddenly, the whistle got louder. They heard a small, scream-like noise before something bright purple seared across the sky and exploded.

"I see you morning flights well," a voice said in poor Dragonese. Hanna turned around and saw Hiccup, sitting atop Toothless.

"Oh great. Them. I should've known," Stonescale muttered, rolling his eyes.

"Really, again? I thought you were just cranky yesterday from lack of sleep or something," Toothless growled. "Apparently not."

"Toothless! That's enough!" Hiccup scolded his dragon.

"You're right that is enough! C'mon, Stonescale, you're too highly classified to be hanging around with these dropouts," Hanna turned Stonescale around and they began flying towards the uninhabited island.

"You're right! Those arrogant dragon droppings don't deserve to be living anywhere near us! They have no right to go showing off whenever they feel like it," Stonescale rumbled.

"And talk about mean! Every word out of that black dragon's mouth is an insult towards you!" Hanna exclaimed.

"I know!"

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Toothless was soaring just above the water, Hiccup rambling on his back.

"What is with her and that dragon?" He exclaimed angrily. Toothless warbled sympathetically. "I mean, it's like everything I say offends her! She can't stand us! We were getting along so well yesterday until Stonescale mumbled something and you began defending yourself."

"Sorry, - shouldn't have," Toothless cooed.

"No, what ever he said it was probably way out of line. You have a right to defend yourself," Hiccup paused. "What did he say, anyway?"

"- said, 'Yeah, good - a giant, ugly, black toad and a flea on - back.'"

"Wow. Why would he even say anything like that?"

" - think he thinks - show offs -,"

"What!? That's just shallow!" Hiccup said before flying off towards a near by island.

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"Okay, just a bit to your port... there!"
Hanna exclaimed as Stonescale raised his chest. She quickly began to sketch his torso.

"This is great!" He said. "Oh, and you can draw some Terrors bowing at my feet," he added as a flock of Terrible Terrors flew over their heads,

Hanna laughed. "We'll see." Then, the small stick she was using to draw snapped. "Awww, Stonescale?" She held the useless stick out. He bent down and blew a stream of fire at the tip of it. When he was done, the tip of the stick was blackened and ready for use. "Thanks."

As she kept drawing, more dragons flew overhead. "Man, this place is crawling with wild dragons!" Stonescale said.

"Yeah," Hanna agreed slowly. Suddenly, she heard noises coming from below the ridge they were on. Dragons were fleeing everywhere.

The noises below the ridge sounded a bit like what Hiccup sounded like when he spoke to Toothless. Except, these were a lot lower. She peered over the ridge. The early morning sun almost blinded her, but she was able to make out the burly figures of humans. She watched as they began loading weapons and setting up traps. Judging by the insignia on all of their crates, they must be from the Rockhead Tribe. A nearby tribe that killed dragons for sport.

"Vikings," she whispered. "Stonescale! Calm the dragons! We need to go get mom!"

Stonescale turned light blue and a soft humming came from his head. The dragons calmed. Stonescale was vibrating his crown fin to send out a message of calm. Then, he turned blood red and the hum got higher. The dragons became aggressive and were looking at the Vikings, ready to attack.

"Come on!" Hanna roared to her dragon before climbing onto him and taking off. The flew as fast as they could towards the sanctuary, the roars of the wild dragons fading behind them.