Not too far from the island of Berk is the non-human-habited island of Terra Muerte. This island is not known to many humans – those who have actually lived to tell about it – and is home to hundreds of breeds of dragons, many undiscovered and unheard of by human and dragon alike. One of these breeds – given many names but we'll stick with one – is what we call a Godsend. Those who saw it never lived to tell about it. Named for their pearly scales and their tactics of attacking their prey from above, they were often mistaken for angels at a distance thus earning the title Godsend.
On a more specific note, the two dragons we're going to focus on are Whisper, a silent flyer Godsend with incredibly powerful wings, and her older but smaller and weak-at-birth brother Sonto. Mating is hectic on that island, natural selection and all that. Strong runners, strong fighters, strong hunters. Who wouldn't want a strong flyer? But that was the problem. Whisper not only had strong wings but also a strong will. Mating and love were the last things on her mind, but all the eligible males on the island seemed to only think about her mating life.
"I want to leave," Whisper said.
"Why?" Sonto asked, knowing why but not seeing the point.
"It's… it's all these males!" Exasperation was leaking – more like flooding – into her voice.
"Males are everywhere you go, and all of them will want to mate."
"I know."
"And you can't avoid love."
"That's where you're wrong. I can avoid it."
"But you can't escape it."
"I can try." With an eye roll, a head shake, a small smile, and an understanding only a brother could give, he heaved a sigh and said, "Let's go."
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Whisper must have thought of a million profanities as she flew through the storm. Rain clouding her vision, the wind trying to rip her wings off and send her into a downward spiral, and the added weight of her brother, whom she carried after he gave out from exhaustion, something she was so close to doing. She was determined not to fall into the raging black below. A flash of lighting and the sharp, awkwardly shaped and jagged rocks below and a thin strip of beach on the horizon and a forest maybe one or two miles behind it. Whisper beat her wings faster, fighting the wind with everything she had. The second she was over land her wings gave out, and the most she could do was glide and try to land safely. When she was close enough, she let her brother drop on to the grains of sand below while her momentum flung her into the trees with loud cracks, one sounding like a bone or two instead of tree branches and one she knew was her own once she hit the ground. She lay there, immobile and helpless, drained, and worried for Sonto. She knew it was no use, but she tried to move anyway, her pain and exhaustion keeping her down.
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What was that smell? She recognized it, but what was it? Her growling stomach recognized it. She opened one eye and took in her unfamiliar surroundings before spotting the fish in front of her. She opened her other eye and tried to move forward, but shocks of pain in her hind right leg and right wing said no.
"It's over here! This way!" Whisper heard the shouts, and somewhat understood what they said. Then she saw them. Two-legged creatures like the ones who had come to Terra Muerte and attacked the dragons residing there. She'd lost her mother to creatures such as these. Behind them emerged a dragon she'd not seen before and behind it emerged a nadder. She'd seen tons of deadly nadders before but nothing like the green-eyed, black dragon that strolled so casually behind the two-leggeds.
"It's not eating. You think it doesn't like fish?"
"I don't think it can move. You think it broke something else? From the looks of those trees it bulldozed, it might have."
Hiccup and Astrid moved forward towards Whisper, earning a warning growl from her, not that she could do anything about it.
"We won't hurt you," Hiccup cautioned. Toothless let out a noise of uncertainty, not quite sure about this dragon. Despite her pain, she'd rather risk an even worse injury than trust these creatures. Using her one good wing, she propelled herself up to a low tree branch.
"Quite a set of wings," Astrid commented, "Only one that actually works and she still managed to get up in the air." Whisper's pupils were narrowed to slits in fear more than hostility.
"Maybe we can coax it down with more fish," Astrid suggested.
"I'm still trying to figure out what it is."
"What should we name it?"
"We don't even know if it's a boy or a girl yet."
Toothless detected it before Astrid, Hiccup, or Scratch, Astrid's nadder, did as a tiny dragon similar to Whisper made its way through the forest in search of its sister. Toothless and Scratch made defensive positions in front of their owners and Whisper, seeing this looked to see what had caused their attention to shift. That coaxed her down. Just like that, Whisper was on the forest floor once more trying to make herself look terrifying and bigger than she was even with her lopsided stance and crumpled wing.
"Don't touch him," Whisper growled out, not that Hiccup or Astrid could understand.
"Whisper," her brother said, sounding as if he were scolding a dragonling, "Whisper," he said more harshly. "Stand down." Despite herself, she did as her brother had said, seeming to deflate in pride and ferocity. Sonto stepped around her, not looking intimidated at all by two dragons, which then let their guard down.
"We don't want any trouble. My sister and I were leaving our home in search for a new one. We aren't hostile, but she has a personal grudge against the two-legged creatures, one I've learned to let go."
"Dragons on this island have been at peace with humans, or two-leggeds as you call them, for over a year," Scratch spoke, eyeing Whisper.
"You're welcome here so long as you don't cause any trouble," Toothless added.
"Can you behave, Whisper?" Sonto asked. Whisper rolled her big gold-green eyes, but nodded. She was truly curious as to how the two species maintained a peace when all she'd known from these… humans was death.
"Now, take it easy," Hiccup urged, a rope, that had been slung over him from shoulder to hip, in his hand as he walked closer to Whisper.
"What are doing? Get away from me!" Whisper reared up.
"Whoa! Whoa! Easy, easy!" Astrid gently stroked her nose once she was on the ground again. She didn't notice the rope leash around her neck until Hiccup gave it a gentle tug. Whisper grumbled under her breath as she reluctantly followed them to the village. She wasn't sure what to make of the shelters for dragons or the giant food bowl of fish, or the large hut they led her into where she saw dragons with some weird, white thing sticking to their sides or wrapping around their limbs and the looks said dragons gave her.