Song of Tomorrow
The sun shone down on Dragon Island. It was summer and the dragonets were playing at the tide pools. Princess Avalon was teal green with purple horns, spines, and talons, and lavender eyes. She wore purple armor with a green maple leave on the head plate that doubled as her crown. She was a Whippertail; the last third of her tail had no bones just muscle. She could use her tail to grab things and use it as a whip. Her tail was covered in barbs that were smaller than a human eyelash and sharper than fishhooks. She had the body and legs of a wolf, a long muscular neck, a pair of horns on the back of her narrow lizard-like snout, and razor sharp teeth.
Apollo was Avalon's brother. He was blood red with gold horns, spines, talons, and eyes. His armor was a darker shad of red. His crown had a gold insignia of a dolphin leaping over a lyre, surrounded by a wreath. Both Avalon and Apollo were born with the gift of magic like their mother, Queen Aurora.
Eider was a dragon that had been orphaned shortly before he met Apollo and Avalon. He had foster parents, who looked after him until he was fully grown. He had grown close to them, but they couldn't replace his parents. Eider was shiny purple with black horns, talons, and spines. His eyes were amber gold. His armor was also amber gold. On his crown was an insignia of a king eider duck. He was a Whipfang. He had the same tail as Apollo and Avalon; and he had the black, poisonous teeth of a Blackfang. Avalon was next in line to be queen, and she picked Eider to be her future king.
The youngest dragonet was a very rare dragon. Her name was Black Widow. She was part Blackfang, and part Night Fury. She had the long legs, neck, black poisonous teeth, and snout of a Blackfang; and the body, tail, fins, sonar flaps, eyes, and glossy black scales of a Night Fury. She had many of the skills of a Night Fury as well including: speed, stealth, intelligence, sharp vision, retractable teeth, and echolocation. Her eyes were red and on her forehead was a red hourglass shape. Her armor was black with spider web engravings all over it. Her crown had an engraving of the eerie black spider that she was named after, with the red hourglass on it's abdomen. The only other dragon in the world that looked like her, was her father Tenor. He too was a Night Fury hybrid, or a Nightfang. Her mother was a yellow eyed Night Fury named Windwalker. She was the alpha of a squadron of dragons living on one of Draconia's volcanic islands.
The only human of the small group was Black Widow's rider, Edelweiss. She had a round face, emerald green eyes, black hair, tan skin, and large ears. She was seven years old. Her mother, Serenity rode Tenor and her father, Chris rode Windwalker. She had been born with dragon's blood in her veins, like her mother had. She was already learning to fight and to heal. She loved both her parents so much that she wanted to do both their trades, and this pleased them both.
The five of them became the best of friends from the moment they set eyes on one another. They had each other's backs and didn't leave anyone out of their activities. They were so close that they were inseparable, every challenge that came their way they took together.
They were currently running through the tide pools, Edelweiss rode on Black Widow. They were playing Catch the Grab, and Avalon currently had the crab. She ran as fast as she could, Eider hot on her heels. Suddenly Black Widow put on a burst of speed and passed Eider. She pulled right up alongside Avalon and snatched the crab, clutching it in her jaws. Black Widow turned around sharply and ran in the opposite direction. Edelweiss held on for dear life. All of a sudden Black Widow slipped on a slick patch of rock. Edelweiss was thrown from the saddle and landed in a pool, the crab got away and vanished. Black Widow got to her feet and shook the water off her scales as the others caught up.
"What happened?" asked Apollo, panting.
"I slipped," Black Widow said. "I must have taken a bad step." She hurried over to Edelweiss. She had landed in a shallow pool, just deep enough to break her fall. She sat up and coughed water out of her lungs. She pushed her soaked hair out of her eyes. Black Widow nudged her concerned.
"Are you okay?" she asked, worried. Edelweiss took a minuet to catch her breath before she answered.
"Yes," she panted. "Just got the wind knocked out of me." She slowly got to her feet, leaning on Black Widow for support.
"We should head for home," Apollo suggested.
"I'm not hurt," said Edelweiss.
"Oh, I know," Apollo said. "But it's almost high tide, and it'll get dark soon."
"You're right," Eider agreed, looking at the ocean. "We can save our parents a trip." Edelweiss got back on Black Widow, and they took off.
They flew back to the throne room where their elders were relaxing after a long day of fishing. Serenity had been mixing up remedies for her medical bag. They looked up from their conversation when Edelweiss and her friends landed. Edelweiss dismounted.
"You're all wet," Serenity said. Edelweiss went up to her mother.
"I fell in the water," she said. "It was an accident."
"They hang out at the tide pools," Chris pointed out. "It's almost impossible for them not to get wet."
"Are you cold?" Serenity asked.
"Yes, a bit," Edelweiss admitted. She crawled into her mother's lap and cuddled close to her. The other dragonets laid down beside their respective elders. Re had lit a fire, making the throne room feel warm and cozy.
"What are we doing tomorrow?" asked Avalon sleepily.
"We're going to Berk," said Aurora. "A few houses got destroyed yesterday by young dragons. Toothless is a good alpha, but he still has trouble controlling the young ones."
"We can go hang out at the Cove," Black Widow suggested. "Those vikings don't seem to be happy about having us around. We get in trouble for everything we do."
"There's not a whole lot of room in the village," Re said. "For running around, you might accidentally trip someone with a heavy load." At that moment Eider yawned.
"Sleep time I think," Re said with a small smile.
"But it's still daylight," Apollo protested.
"We all should turn in," said Aurora. "Night is about fall anyway."
"Can we sleepover again?" Avalon asked Tenor.
"Sure," Tenor said. He looked over at Serenity, Edelweiss had fallen asleep. Everyone but Re and Aurora got to their feet. Serenity held Edelweiss firmly as she got up from her chair. Tenor knelt down so Serenity could mount him without waking the sleeping child. She climbed onto his back and he stood up. Chris mounted Windwalker and they all took off. Aurora snuggled close to Re and they fell asleep.
Up in their room, Tenor and Windwalker landed on the balcony, followed by the dragonets. Tenor knelt down and Serenity carefully dismounted, still holding Edelweiss. The four dragonets followed her into Edelweiss's room, which was connected to her parents' room via Whispering Death tunnel.
The room was large and round. A large window looked out over the island and ocean. In the middle of the room was a king sized bed made of white metal. On the headboard was a large edelweiss flower; the petals made of white gold and the center made of regular gold. The bed spread had the same flower, surrounded by dragons. Hanging over the bed was an enormous white net, in the shape of a spider web. Black Widow slept in it; the web was large enough so she could still use it when she was fully grown. Some nights Black Widow slept on Edelweiss's bed when she had nightmares. At the foot of the bed was a trunk that contained a few toys (a red ball, a stuffed dragon toy, and a fake china tea set) and Edelweiss's clothes. Apart from that, the room was mostly empty.
Serenity quietly put Edelweiss in her bed and tucked her in. Black Widow flew onto her web. The other dragonets slept on the large window sill at the base of the window. When Edelweiss was tucked in Serenity kissed her good night then left the room. The dragonets made themselves comfortable. Normally they would sing a quiet song or two, since they loved to sing. But they were fast asleep before they could think up what to sing.