Riders Unbroken

8

I awoke the next morning with a cool breeze blowing through my open window. Birds chirped musically on the rooftop, and I could hear the dragons' snoring from outside. I stood up, and slipped out of the night gown Alice had let me borrow, and into the clothes I had worn the day before. I walked towards the door, and opened it.

Immediatly the aroma of fresh meat entered my nosrils, and not just any meat. It smelled exactly like the stuff Darman and Arven had made for me the other day. Tallhorn. I walked down the hall, and glanced at the still dusty pictures. Mable greeted me with a smile as I entered the living room.

"Morning Alia," she whispered.

"Good morning," I said back, and she nodded and began digging through her runepouch. "I thought mage's didn't need runes to do magic."

"Oh, we don't," she told me, "I just like to study them, and learn their meaning. Do you know what this means?" She held out a sign that looked like an F, except that the two pieces sticking outward were angled up.

"My father told me that one," I said, "its actually the only one he ever taught me. He gave it to my aunt after he left. It means family."

"Yes," she stated, "its not the most powerful, but it may very well be the most important."

"Morning, Alia," Grayson said as he walked past me. He had a towel in his hands, and was drying off his hair. His shirt had splotches of moisture on them from not drying himself all the way.

"Umm," I began, "I'll take one when I get back to Berk."

"Suit yourself," he told me, and smiled. I smiled back,

"When do we leave?" I asked.

He rubbed his chin, "sometime after we eat. How good is your dragon at seeing in the dark?"

"Terrific," I said, "she uses sound to see when she cant use her eyes. Her father taught her how."

"That's good," he stated "she'll need that, where we're going the two of us wont be able to see good. Spike's not to good at it either."

"Okay, I'll go saddle up-" I began, but he put up his hand.

"Eat," he said, "you'll need that to."

"Sounds good," I nodded, and went into the kitchen. I found Alice in there putting together some kind of scramble. It looked like there was eggs, patatoes, peppers, and hopefully the meat I saw in there was a bit of Tallhorn. She saw me come in, and glanced at me.

"Plates are in the coubards, siverware in the drawer by the sink," she told me.

"Thanks," I told her, and grabbed a fork and plate. I stood next to her, and she picked up the pot. She poured about a quarter of a platefull onto my dish. I walked back into the living room after I was done, and sat on the couch. I took a bite off the scramble and immediatly I was in heaven. It was tallhorn!

I finished the meal in about two minutes, and went back into the kitchen to wash my dish. Then I went outside to see Dawn, and put on her saddle for the flight ahead. She greeted me with a nudge in the side, and I grabbed her saddle from where it sat on a stump next to her.

"How long is the flight to Drag-valkar?" I asked Grayson as he did the same for Spike.

He didn't even look at me, but laughed, "depends. How fast is your dragon?"

"Funny," I said, and went back to strapping up Dawn's saddle. "We'll show him, wont we girl."

Did he just call me slow? She asked, and I smiled. I could tell she had grown mad, lets just say you never call a Fury slow. I mean, they are called the "unholy offspring of lightning and death itself."