Ech was awakened by the rising sun in the window. The light beamed on her face and she woke. She yawned and looked over to Astrid's bed. Astrid was still sound asleep, ever so peacefully. Suddenly a large blue head peered through the window, Stormfly. She made a small croaking sound, which was loud enough to make Astrid wake up. She stood up and smiled at her dragon, the dragon seemed to have smiled back as well.
Astrid jumped out of bed and came to Ech.
"Did you sleep well?"
"Yeah, thank you again Astrid."
"No problem. We should go get ready, today we have to head to the woods."
"The woods?"
"Yes, we need to get some more food and firewood."
"Sounds simple enough. Are we going now?"
"After we eat, c'mon" Astrid headed o the main room with Ech behind her. She grabbed two pieces of bread and covered with honey, she handed one to Ech. Ech took a bite out of the bread, the honey was very sweet and very delectable. She finished the rest and smacked her lips.
Astrid also finished hers and exited her house. Stormfly was right outside waiting for her. She nudged her trainer affectionately.
"All right Stormfly, we need to go to the woods. Let's go Ech." She jumped on her dragon and helped Ech off. As soon as she was on Stormfly took off like a rocket and launched herself to the woods.
The woods looked like other woods except it had large pieces of land jutting out and standing over 300ft above them. Sea water ran through the forest and throughout the island it looked like.
Stormfly skillfully landed in the forest and crouched to the ground so her trainer and friend could get off easier. As soon as they were off she stood up and stretched her large, blue wings.
"Your Stormfly really is beautiful Astrid. I'm jealous."
"You will get a dragon yourself soon Ech." Replied Astrid reassuringly.
Astrid went down to a shrub with red berries in it. She pulled out a small pouch from her pocket and started placing the berries in it. Ech went to a similar shrub with red berries and carefully picked them. She pulled out a small bag, which was given to her by Astrid when they left the house.
The two girls continued to gather berries for a few hours. While the girls Stormfly was taking a nap under the shade of the trees. It was high noon and the two had gathered a multitude of delicious berries. Astrid got to her feet and turned towards Ech.
"There are some different type of berries and some wild hog down there, it's always good to have extra meat. Can you stay here and gather some more berries?" She asked.
"Of course Astrid, you go on ahead, you taking Stormfly with you?"
"Yeah, it is quicker. Will you be fine by yourself?"
"Yes, I will. Thank you for your concern though."
Astrid smiled and nodded. She then whistled and Stormfly abruptly stood up and glided down to her master. Astrid jumped on top of her dragons back and Stormfly positioned herself to take flight.
"Make sure you be safe to Astrid."
Astrid waved goodbye and took off to the sky. Within moments she was gone leaving Ech to herself to the silent whispers of the forest.
Ech relaxed on the ground and stared up at the sky.
"The sky here is no different from where I am from. Blue and white puffy clouds and at night, full of glittering stars." Ech said to herself. She took a deep breath and sighed heavily. Did her old friends miss her or are they glad she is gone? No one really liked Ech, for a reason she knew not. She never had parents, she did however had a caretaker. Her grandma Chessille, although she be long dead, pondering in her grave what her young Ech is up to.
Time rolled by slowly as Ech thought about her grandma and home. She did miss it, but she felt more at home with the people of Berk. Suddenly, a faint, but accurate smell of chocolate pass by her nose. Ech raised her head and turned her head to where the smell was coming from.
"Chocolate? I don't think Cocoa is possible to grow here… Is it?"
Regardless of whether it was or not Ech decided to follow the smell. Although the scent was faint, the source was not far. It came from four, long green trees, but for some reason the trees looked like it had scales.
"Wait… Scales?" Ech slowly backed away from the tree as it started to move. The body of the trees lowered revealing four heads. Each had long eyelashes and long curved back fangs. The heads shared one body, like the two headed Zippleback.
The heads surrounded Ech, each taking their turn to sniff the new creature. Ech, who was both to afraid and astonished to move. This was a new dragon to her, although she has only seen five other dragons.
One head came right to Ech and circled around her body with its long neck. It did not constrict her though. Once the dragon did so it uncoiled itself and placed its head among its brothers. The heads looked at one other and slowly moved them, as if a nod.
Ech looks at the dragon. Its faint chocolate smell and forest green scales. Somehow it looked familiar to her. She did not know why.
The green dragon reared its heads and saw Stormfly in the air. It quickly turned around and flew away with its small wings. Astrid and Stormfly soon appeared landing next to Ech.
"Ech are you all right? Stormfly was warning me and we turned around to see if you were all right."
"Yes, I am fine. But, I think I just met a new dragon."
Astrid paused a moment then smiled.
"That's great! What did it look like?"
"I'll tell you as we head back, we don't want to be late."
Astrid nodded and pulled Ech on to Stormfly's back.
"We will go back now. Stormfly, home."
The Deadly Nadder produced a small roar and lifted to the air, heading back to Berk.
