The 'Dragon Goddess'

Clarity

I was soon asked to perform my little trick to the A Team. Practice dummies with removable body parts are set up for me, so I know exactly what I'm going to do.

"Manoeuvre 3," I tell Citrine. She nods and flies upwards in a barrel roll, wings tucking in in anticipation for her descent. "Hold it..." I drag out the words. "Get in position... now!"

I leap off Citrine and move into a mid-air backflip while she loops around and over me. When I start to fall I land on her belly, so I tighten the grip my legs have on it and hold on with one hand, the other reaching for my sword.

We rocket after the dummies while Citrine levels out, leaving my hanging upside-down and my sword poised. As we fly over the dummies, I dangle my sword low enough that I slice their heads off and I pass each of them, just as Citrine and I would do in a real situation.

Once the last dummy has been decapitated, I withdraw my sword and perform a handspring to get back to the ground without landing head first and injuring myself. Citrine barrel rolls a few times to right herself before she lands next to me.

"That was so cool!" A little boy - who I've recently learned is called Gustav - cheers. "Get enough experience and you could be doing that yourself," I tell him, petting Citrine's neck. "Both dragon and rider need to be in sync to use most manoeuvres because otherwise it comes out sloppy or it fails and you could fall."

"She's right," Fishlegs backs me up. "Say if Artemis and Citrine were going to do this trick again but Artemis jumped too early on the flips, she'd fall and hit the ground before Citrine had the chance to catch her. You need to work with your dragons and not trust them to do everything for you both. As the rider, you have to take on just as much responsibility."

"Exactly what I mean," I nod, glad he gets it.

"Fishlegs, Heather, do you mind taking over for a minute?" Hiccup asks the pair. "Astrid and I need to talk with Artemis."

"Really? Why?" Heather asks. "Um..." Astrid and Hiccup look to each other for an excuse, so I quickly but in. "Did you really forget?" I sigh before addressing Heather. "They asked if I could make some kind of pact or something for an alliance with Berk. As the Chief Hiccup kind of has to do these things and obviously Astrid's more likely than not going to be there as well."

"Oh, sure," Heather nodded, seemingly buying it. "Let's go," Hiccup says, walking off with Astrid. Including me, four dragons follow.

We head deeper into the forest until we reach a clearing. It's much smaller than the one the others are in, but it'll do. Hiccup and Astrid turn to face me, their dragon partners beside them. "Make sure nobody follows us," I tell Citrine, who nods and vanished into thin air, ready to scout the area.

Once that's sorted, I look back to Hiccup and Astrid. "Toothless attacked Alpine," I speak first, glaring daggers at the Night Fury. "Alpine froze us in ice," Astrid retorts, folding her arms. "You were saying about telling somebody about the sanctuary," I redirect my glare to the humans.

Neither of them have anything to say about that, so I growl quietly in frustration. They look at me in shock, but just like last time I ignore it. "I trusted you both," I spit, my words laced with more venom than a Slitherwing. "And you both took advantage of my trust and tried to destroy almost everything I hold dear. I knew I made a mistake."

"Artemis, we would never-" "Never what?!" I growl again, cutting Hiccup off. "You said you wouldn't tell anyone! You gave me your word! You told me to trust you! But you lied to me and betrayed my trust! So tell me, what would you never do?! Huh?!"

"Somebody else knows about the sanctuary!" Astrid yelled out, causing me to stop in my tracks. "What?"

"We were at Auction Island and someone was offering a high price for a map to the Cursed Islands," Hiccup explained. "That's what the legends call your island because whenever you stop an attack it looks like the island itself is destroying whoever gets too close. The map was accurate. Anyone who follows it will find your island."

"We have the map," Astrid passes me a scroll of parchment. I unravel it and see that they're right; the map leads straight to my island. "Ugh, looks like I'll have to wipe more memories," I sigh. Lately I've been growing tired much faster, I'm not sure why, but the thought of yet another mission away from home really doesn't appeal to me right now.

"We thought that if we tell Heather or Fishlegs, we might be able to help," Hiccup said to me. "Then Alpine froze us and Toothless attacked. There's something else that's been bothering me, though..."

"Which is?" I question, though I already know the answer.

"The Stealthwing came out of nowhere and started defending Alpine," Astrid said. "She took three plasma blasts, then she just... froze. I don't know why Alpine would force her to let him get hurt, so it's not that he mind controlled her or anything."

Oh, Astrid. If only you knew.

"The Stealthwing?" I fake surprise. "I didn't know it was even there! It must've snuck in and out while I was busy or something. The patrols wouldn't have been bothered with a line dragon so they wouldn't have alerted anyone either. We get a lot of dragons that fly in, hang around for a while and then leave again."

"Hm... I wonder why she protected Alpine..." Hiccup muses. "Actually, I've been doing my research on Stealthwings," I say.

"Turns out they're extremely loyal dragons to those they see as worthy of their trust, though they also try to stay as secretive as possible. There aren't many left of their kind due to too much hunting, so they're almost extinct now, though not as rare as Night Furies. I think she saw Alpine as worthy of her loyalty and did her best to defend him."

"Where did you learn all of this?" Hiccup asked, amazed. "I asked a friend if they knew anything about them," I say, not technically lying. "That's pretty much all they could tell me, but they said they'll keep me updated on anything else they learn."