For Alice, it was more difficult to follow the dragon through the forest with a large mecha.
No matter how much she hurried, the forest trees were too clumped together to get through them in a straight path. "Can you give me ideas of how to communicate with this dragon?" Alice asked Henry on the radio as he and Amari followed her from a distance of one mile. "They're in a level of simplicity: all you need to do is talk to it. Or make other types of artificial sound. Don't move abruptly and approach her slowly. That way you can show yourself as an ally and not a threat." Henry radioed Alice.
"Right. I'll keep that in mind." Alice said as she continued to pilot her mecha through the forest.
A while later, she heard the sound of wings flapping in the distance. Alice looked up and scanned her surroundings.
Sure enough, she spotted the light fury land a few meters in front of her. 'Ok, Alice. Just follow Henry's instructions and you will be fine.' Alice thought to herself. The light fury, now on the ground, started walking towards another section of the forest while keeping an eye on the mecha.
Alice followed behind a few meters away while walking carefully until she was walking besides it(not too close, of course. Also, she wondered if the dragon was female or not).
This seemed to work when the dragon didn't not run or stop. It, surprisingly, continued to walk alongside her. The light fury let out a mixture between a growl and a purr as its pupils dilated. "Yes, that's right. I'm a friend. You look very beautiful, for a fierce—" Alice said, still walking while looking at the dragon, when her mecha's visor slammed into a tree trunk. "Scheibe!" Alice cursed to herself, clutching her head. Henry was heard trying to smother a giggle, and Alice warned him by saying "Tell anyone, and I will break your fingers" before continuing her walk.
The light fury went missing for a while afterwards, but later reappeared above in a tree branch. It let out a sort of noise that sounded like "ruuuurrr", almost as if it were saying that it was impressed that Alice was still following it. Alice, in reply, tried tilting her mecha's visor to the side and made a whirring noise with her flight pack. The dragon let out an exited chirp before launching itself into the air. It let out a loud thrill as it flew off and looked below to Alice. "Now it wants me to follow towards another place. Catch up to me a soon as possible. Now it's getting interesting for me." Alice radioed Henry, and she piloted her mecha as quickly as possible.
"Wait, slow down! At least slow down so I can follow you!" Alice shouted up into the sky as she avoided tripping over fallen trunks. The light fury replied with a screech as it flew further away from her. Alice was so busy following that she almost tripped off the cliff edge.
She had reached the beach.
The light fury glided down and landed gracefully on the sand below. Alice straightened her mecha's posture up in hopes of looking confident. This failed immediately when she tried to climb down with grappling wires as her mecha landed visor-first onto the sand. This time Henry wasn't near there to see that failure. Alice straightened up again as she once again faced the white dragon. The dragon simply sat in the sand and stared at her, which seemed kind of comforting.
Alice spotted Henry and Amari position themselves in the radar a mile away from her, then looked back at the light fury. It lifted its chin up and let out a different type of croon, as if it were asking her a question.
'Is it asking me to show what I'm capable for?' Alice thought. The light fury raised her wings and then flew above in a circle, only to land gracefully down once again. Not sure what it expects her to do, Alice tried imitating what the white dragon did by deploying the wings of the flight unit and closing them afterwards. The dragon didn't seem impressed though as it began licking its paws/talons.
Alice tried different attempts after that, which none of them seemed to get anywhere. The reason why she didn't want to ask the dragon at that moment was because she thought either it wouldn't understand her or it may get annoyed and leave.
When Alice tried slowly approaching the light fury, it growled and boxed one of her mecha's legs before flying off to a nearby branch to hang upside down and cover itself with its wings. That was something similar that both had, and Alice wondered if they weren't so different after all.
'No. I'm not giving up yet. What else should I do to gain its trust?' Alice thought to herself. At that moment, as if he read her mind, Henry suggested "Try drawing. Amari was interested by drawing when I first met her" on the radio.
Alice went over to the edge of the forest and used her mecha's arms to grab a wood trunk, the equivalent of a drawing stick. She used it to start drawing a sort of pattern on the sand near where the light fury was hanging. Halfway through, Alice noticed the dragon peeking through her wings and...slowly getting admired at what the mecha was doing on the sand. With the drawing nearly complete, the white dragon came down from its perch to observe the work more closely.
"Rawrrr?" the light fury meowed as she looked from the drawing to Alice's mecha. "That's right. It's a drawing for you." Alice said, making her mecha produce a proud beeping noise for a reply before moving on to add the finishing touches to the masterpiece:
A large flower pattern.
Once finished, Alice stepped away from the drawing so that the dragon could have a better view. The light fury sat down and admired the flower drawing with awe twinkling in its eyes. Then it slowly sauntered over to Alice, and she carefully placed the trunk down while letting it get close to her. The dragon seemed surprised by this gesture, and seemed to go from tense to calm now. Alice looked down at the light fury, and made her mecha slowly crouch a bit. Then she held out a mechanized hand at the dragon. The white dragon looked up at Alice's mecha for a moment before gently nuzzling one metal finger.
"Nice going. You've gained her trust. Now it's time to show your real self." Henry observed. "Wait..."her"? How do you know it's female?" Alice asked after a bit of doubt. "Her behavior shows that. Now go outside carefully." Henry said. "Understood." Alice said.
She opened the cockpit and slowly stepped outside to stand on the entrance. The light fury, a bit surprised by this, stepped back a little. Alice climbed down and landed on the sand near the dragon. After a bit of hesitation, she took off her pilot helmet and let her hair down. The light fury let out a curious croon before stepping forward. Alice stepped back a little, unsure if she was able to approach her. But, with a bit of courage, she stepped forward, put out her hand towards the light fury, and closed her eyes with nervousness. The dragon made her decision by coming close and placing her snout in Alice's hand. She jolted in surprise as she felt the texture of the scales. They were small like sandpaper, but smooth as polished pebbles.
When Alice opened her eyes, the light fury went closer and nuzzled her jacked with her head and body while purring. This simple act of trust sealed Alice's confidence.
"Congratulations. You've caught a light fury.......I'm just making a Pocket Monsters joke." Henry said on Alice's earpiece as she began to pet the light fury on her neck. "Sure thing. Thanks for the support." Alice said.
"And finally, to connect both of you, she will bite you in the arm." Henry said after a moment.
"Wait, what?" Alice asked.
CHOMP!
Alice's scream of pain was muffled to whoever was far away by the distance to hear.
YOU ARE READING
How To Train Your Dragon 4: Near Horizon
Fanfiction"There were dragons when I was a boy. Some say they crawled back into the sea leaving not a bone or a fang to remember them. Others say they were nothing but folk tales to begin with. But maybe one day, a time may come where the dragons will return...
