"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Ayla froze her body stiff as she sent the thought out to Trev. The large Nightfury gliding next to her shot her a glance.
"Worry wart." Came Trev's reply. Ayla huffed and shook her head, feeling her heartbeat speed up as the ship came into view. They were on a mission. A mission that was one in a long series, bringing them closer to their goal.
The warm spring sunlight felt wonderful on Ayla's back as she deftly glided in the stream of air flowing off Trev's wings. It had been a long, harsh winter cooped up in a tiny cave with Trev. They couldn't fly very well in the winter, preferring to go into a type of hibernation mode to save from having to hunt the scare prey that came with the arrival of the snow and ice.
They had been hot on the tail of something, or rather, someone, when the season change came along and extinguished their excitement with mounds of snow taller than a fully grown Deadly Nadder.
Trev hummed and looked over his shoulder at her. Ayla nodded and peeled away, beating her sleek wings into a headwind that sprung up with the change of direction. No words were needed to understand her partner. They had the whole thing planned out and rehearsed, as to avoid any deathly errors or lapses in judgement.
Ayla could feel the pressure building deep inside her abdomen, in what she assumed was her liver. She shook her head to clear the cloudy vision brought on by the separation and set her sights on the sheer cliff side. The agreed upon meeting place.
Behind her, the signature scream of a Nightfury dive whistled from Trev's tail fins. A sharp blast and splintering of wood were the next sounds to travel out across the vast open sea. Ayla sped up and soon stood on two feet on top of the towering wall of rock. She quickly pulled on the clothes she had laid there earlier that morning and waited for Trev's arrival and his cargo.
Her vision swam and the pressure moved from her liver to her head in this new form. Just barely, through the rivers that flowed through the images she saw, a black dot was growing larger and larger, until it encompassed her entire field of vision.
Then, as if with the snap of fingers, the river and the pressure was gone. Ayla snatched up her blade from its hilt on the dirt beside her and Trev made a sloppy landing due to the extra weight he had clutched to his chest.
A man, clearly of Nord origins, was quite literally quaking in his boots. Trev shook his body and bared his teeth at the man when he stood and started to back away. He stopped with a spooked look, then found Ayla.
"Run lass!" He waved her away, wild terror in his eyes.
Ayla smiled and shook her head. "Are you from Berk?" She asked.
The man looked dumbfounded. "Aye, I am." He said warily, glancing at the Nightfury flanking him.
"Is it true that you have a dragon that looks like him living there?" Ayla gestured to Trev.
The Nord man looked between both of them. "What are you some kind of mad woman?" He asked. His long beard rustled in the strong wind rolling off the sea.
"Answer the question." Ayla brandished the knife. Her voice came out harsher than she intended.
"I don't know if I should be-"
Trev growled.
"Aye! We do." He conceded.
Ayla nodded in satisfaction. "Thank you. That's all we need from you." She turned and walked down the slope of the cliff face, leaving Trev to do with the man.
"Woah! Lass! What is he going to-" The man's question was cut off by a burly scream and Ayla's familiar cloudy vision returned as Trev flew off.
AN_
Hello! Welcome to the prologue of Wings that Change!
To clarify, yes, Ayla can change back and froth between a human form and that of a Nightfury. Normally, I don't like stories like this, but once I started writing one, I had a blast!
This is just the prologue... The regular chapters are between 3,000-6,000 words. :)
Thanks for checking out Wings that Change, hope to see you back here!
-Birch66724