Beginning To Fly

Council with the Gods

My glass shattered on the floor.

Zephyr Haddock.

The name replayed in my mind a thousand times. I barely registered that tears were trickling down my face as I stared at her bright red hair blankly. And those blue eyes. I hadn't seen those eyes for millennia. I nearly choked on a sob as I remembered that she had same eyes as her mother.

A knock on the door had Zephyr running to it. When she returned there was a man about her age, well, her age the last time I'd seen her all those centuries ago. They stopped dead.

The man looked from Zephyr to me several times. But I could only stare at Zephyr. She looked no different than the day I lost her. I swallowed thickly as the initial shock faded into disbelief.

They were talking as a hand waved in front of my face. And it took all of my self-control not to reach out and hug her and never let go.

I shook my head to focus on everything around me even as my thoughts remained in turmoil.

"Zephyr?" I croaked, hardly daring to believe that I got my daughter back after all this time.

"Oh good, I thought that you might have dropped dead!" she said with a hint of sarcasm.

"I'm sorry," I told her, as the tears spilled down my face and it took all my strength to remain standing. To not fall to my knees and cry all my tears of joy.

She frowned. "Sorry? For what?" she demanded.

I couldn't reply.

The young man, Zephyr's friend, said, "I'm Hayden. Hayden Sequoia." He stuck his hand out.

I absently shook his hand and said, "Hiccup Haddock the Third."

There was a sharp inhale from Zephyr's direction. I frowned. My words rolled over in my head a couple of times before I realized the importance behind them.

And it was only due to my decades of experience and pure instincts that I managed to dodge her attack before I could even comprehend what was happening.

"How dare you!" she roared, following her previous attack with another.

"Zeph! Stop, please! It's really me!" I pleaded as I dodged each attack.

"How dare you! You aren't half the man my father was! You coward!" she growled in my face.

She shifted. A blink and I had shifted too. Hayden scrambled backwards, clearly not eager to get between two dragons.

Oh, my landlady was so going to kill me if Zephyr didn't kill me first.

"Wait!" I growled at her.

Her gaze trailed to my back leg. The missing limb was new... well new-er. She smirked at the advantage she had.

But before she could attack, I lifted my chin to reveal the long, jagged scar I had, that had ended my life for a second time.

She stared in confusion. The scar was deep, and if it had been anyone else, they'd be dead. I nearly sighed in relief as her gaze drifted to the very faint arrow wound at the base of my wing. A frown appeared on her face as she studied my face carefully.

I closed my eyes as I shifted back, the gesture showing a complete sense of trust.

I slowly opened my eyes, allowing the spark of lightning that arced across the space between us to settle under my skin.

I didn't flinch as I felt her familiar presence in my mind. All my memories from before she vanished off the face of the earth, resurfaced.

And then I showed her everything she had missed. By the end we were both staring at each other with tears in our eyes.