On Love's Wings ~ A Snotlout Jorgenson Fanfiction

Chapter 1 ~ Chance Encounters

                                                                                   Brenna POV

A soft breeze ruffled my hair, sending it flying behind me as I stood at the edge of a crumbling sea stack, balancing precariously on the thin ledge jetting outward over the swift water flowing below. A smile spread across my face as I turned my back to the wind, feeling the force of it pushing against me while I held my arms out wide, embracing the sunlight as it shone brightly on my pale skin. Energy seemed to pulse within me, and I allowed myself to fall backward, directly into the updraft. The wind billowed around me as I sank through the cool clouds below. The rushing water lapped at the rocks harshly, eroding the mineral away over time, and leaving behind only a smooth surface that I couldn't grab onto even if I had wanted to. I could hear the ocean waves growing louder even as the wind roared in my ears, and yet there was a fog of deafening silence in my mind all the same.

An enormous dark shadow was cast above me, blocking out the light of the sun hitting my face. I opened my eyes to see a gigantic aqua reptile gaining on me, outstretched wings folding tightly against its body to enhance the creature's already superior speed. The tiger striped scales shimmered in the sunlight like glitter, and the large lavender eyes of the beast gleamed with mischief. A dragon. My dragon. My Monstrous Nightmare, Nightwing. I smiled as her strong jaws closed gently on my body, stopping me from falling further due to her strong grip on my abdomen. She growled playfully at me, before I abruptly found myself thrown high into the air once again, this time twisting my torso in order to get into her saddle. "I always know you will catch me when I fall, girl." I murmured, stroking the scales on her cheek. She snorted in response, used to these training exercises. The primary one we had been focusing on for the past week had been agility. Our favorite test was when I would climb to the highest part of a sea stack or cliff, and then leap, testing her reflexes as she drove through the sky to grab me as I plummeted toward the sea or earth. I trusted my dragon, and I knew she would always have my back, just as I had hers.

I took a deep breath and grasped the ebony horns protruding from her head. "But I found more marigold." I added, withdrawing the orange flower from my bag and holding it within her line of sight. She rumbled in acknowledgment and shook her head, signaling her disinterest in the concept. I frowned at her aloofness for a moment, before smirking as I decided on where we should go next that would make her happy and let her relax after a tough day of training. "Let's go to our clearing, girl." I told her, patting her head. This time she purred excitedly and flapped her wings harder, eager to get to our new destination. She accelerated upward, turning left and heading in the direction of her favorite place in the entire archipelago. Berk didn't have many extraordinarily beautiful spots on the island, but Nightwing and I had found a serene glade deep within the forest one morning while exploring the uncharted landscapes of our home. Hidden behind a curtain of tall, thick trees was a round clearing of waist high emerald grass with a clear sapphire pond in the center. I had taken the liberty to name it Freya's Garden, and Nightwing and I often came here to relax on days when we had nothing else to do. It had been a long day and my duties as healer in training were finished for the afternoon. My aunt Gothi was teaching me to take her place as tribe healer, and my main job this day had been to collect some herbs we were running low on supply of, including marigold and poppy seed. A routine run, just like every other day in the life of a healer's apprentice. After completing my chores, Nightwing and I went to train together, so the clearing would be a good place for some quiet time alone to relax before heading back home.

The sun was still high in the air by the time that we landed and I slid off her neck, stretching the muscles in my sore legs We strode across the grass and sat down beside the lake, watching the breeze skate over the glossy surface, startling small schools of fish as they swam back and forth through the freshwater in front of us. Nightwing shuffled closer to me, covering me with her wing and pulling my form against her side in a show of affection as she closed her eyes to take a nap.