Well, I'm honestly glad to see the reactions from the last chapter. You guys weren't expecting that, were you? Sure I'm betting many of you were hoping that Baldr and Edgar would get their comeuppance, but did you expect Shimmer would die too? It would have been easy to make it so Shimmer didn't die, but the reality is, the heroes don't always make it even when they win.

But, there's always a silver lining, isn't there?


Shimmer was gone. No matter how many times they played it over in their heads, they could barely believe that the Changewing was dead. They had taken her body back to the Haven, Flynn's home and where they first met, as Voltage just managed to carry her body and the two riders. Flynn's village was initially alarmed at the sight of a Skrill flying for their village, but Flynn explained to them – in as little words as possible – that he had succeeded in training a dragon, a brave and beautiful dragon that gave her life to save his. Sigrid did think of the possibility of the Stormchasers coming after her again – if not for her earlier "crimes" but at least for Baldr's death – but she decided not to run anymore. If they came, she would fight. But after all the damage they caused before escaping and the chances of them recapturing and "training" their dragons, it didn't seem likely that they would find her. The Tinkerers would need time to adjust, but Flynn didn't care about that now.

"What do you want to do with her?" Sigrid asked, as a white sheet was placed over Shimmer's body.

"I want to bury her," he answered.

"Y-you don't want to give her a ship funeral?" she asked.

"Vikings take their ships to Valhalla; Shimmer can fly. She doesn't need a ship," he responded plainly.

"O-ok, where do you want to bury her?" she asked. It felt strange to bury the dead when their traditions were to cremate them at sea. But then again, Sigrid was certainly one talk when it came to breaking tradition.

Flynn thought for a moment before answering, "Where we first met." The pair traveled deep into the woods as Voltage pulled a wooden carriage with Shimmer's body. He was careful to move slowly, worrying that he would tip over the cart if he went too fast or a wheel bumped over a root or rock. "This is the place," he said as they came to an open clearing in the woods. "I was sitting right over there," he pointed, "and she came out from this tree. I remember how scared at was, but she didn't attack me. She just looked at me with those big, bright golden eyes. She only copied everything I did. I thought it was so cute," he laughed, recalling the memory fondly.

"Should we get started?" Sigrid asked, pulling out the shovels from the carriage.

"No, I want to do it myself," he said, taking a shovel from her.

"Flynn…" she said in concern.

"Please, I want to be able to do this for her on my own! All my life I've had people helping me with everything. If I can't do this one thing on my own for my dragon, then what good am I? d" he pleaded as his voice nearly cracked. Sigrid could see him fighting back the tears, so she conceded and sat off to the side with the rest of their dragons as they watched Flynn struggle to dig the grave for hours. By the time he finished, it was sundown and his hands were so sore and covered in blisters. Voltage slowly lowered the wooden board that Shimmer was placed on into the grave as Flynn and Sigrid stood next to the grave. When Voltage finished lowering her body, he took his place behind them.

"Do-do you want to say something?" Sigrid asked meekly.

Flynn sniffled and nodded before clearing his throat. "I uh, I never thought in a million years that I'd meet a dragon. And then you came into my life, a beautiful, curious little dragon. You're my best friend Shimmer," he whispered as tears streamed down his face. "When I met you, I was looking for ways to help my tribe. And meeting you made me realize that we can live peacefully with dragons. You brought me hope, Shimmer. You were my hope!" Flynn began to break down, weeping uncontrollably before barely managing to recompose himself. "I love you Shimmer and you'll always be in my heart, always." He tearfully reached down and grabbed a handful of dirt before lightly sprinkling it over the white sheet that covered Shimmer's body. Flynn took the shovel in his hands again, this time, filling the grave he dug, again on his own. He refused to let Sigrid and their dragons help and even shooed Smog and Milo when they tried to help while he wasn't looking. As much as they wanted to help him, for they too cared for and loved Shimmer, they knew that this was important to Flynn that he do it on his own.

Weeks passed after Flynn buried Shimmer and since then, Sigrid moved into his house in the Tinkerer's village. The villagers started getting used to Voltage and after a few free rides, began expressing interest in training their own dragons. In response to this, the village elder called for a dragon training academy of their own and named Sigrid it's headmaster, to teach the village how to train dragons and care for them. Construction began immediately, along with stables for dragons, with Sigrid overseeing the operation. They had based their decision not only on the fact that Sigrid had more hands on experience with training a species of dragon known for it's violence, but also because Flynn didn't seem like he'd be up for the task. Though Sigrid embraced her new role, she couldn't help but worry about Flynn, who barely came out of his house since Shimmer's death. His workshop, which sat right next to his house, was already beginning to gather dust from the neglect.

"Flynn, it's been weeks, you need to get out of the house and do something!" she insisted, walking into his room without even bothering to knock and opened the shutters to let in some light and fresh air. When he didn't answer, she sat next to him on his bed and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Velius," she said, calling him by his first name - a rarity in itself and a sign that she was being serious, "please, we're all worried about you: me, Milo, Volt and Smog, even the whole village. There's only so many times I can tell them that you still need time after every time they ask how you're doing. At least, come down to your workshop or something. Shimmer wouldn't want you to live like this! I know that I can't possibly know what you're going through but think about what she'd want for you. Wouldn't Shimmer want you to be happy?"

"But how can I possibly be happy when my dragon is dead? How Sigrid?" he shouted.

"I don't know, Flynn," Sigrid shouted back before speaking tenderly once more, "but I know that with time, all wounds heal. Just, come outside for a little bit, please?" she begged.

"Ok," he sighed, dragging himself off his bed and out the house to his workshop.

"So, what sort of things would you do here?" Sigrid asked, examining all the different tools he had hanging on the wall and sheets of notes scattered across the workbench.

"Studying some of the plant life around the island, maybe make some tools or plan out ways to help the villager's do their work faster and easier."

"You really wanted to help out your tribe, huh?" she asked.

"Yeah," he answered, uninterested in his own workshop at this point.

"And all my tribe ever did was try to kill me," she muttered. "Hey, when did you find a Stone of Good Fortune?"

"What are you talking about?" Flynn asked, coming over to her.

"A Stone of Good Fortune. There's one in your satchel," she said, pulling out the bright, rainbow colored, glowing stone from the satchel that sat on his workbench since they buried Shimmer. "I thought they were a lot smaller," she commented, holding the large stone in both her hands. "Whoa!" Sigrid dropped the stone onto the workbench.

"What happened?" Flynn asked.

"It moved! I felt it move!" she cried, pointing at the stone.

"It's smoking… why is it smoking?" Flynn asked, moving his face closer to the stone to examine it. All of a sudden, Voltage ran up to them and wrapped his wings around their bodies as the stone exploded. The force of the explosion was so forceful that it pushed them right out of Flynn's workshop. Voltage landed on his back while Sigrid and Flynn lay on top of him. "What was that?" Flynn shouted.

"Ok, the last time I heard, Stones of Good Fortune don't explode! Why did that explode!" Sigrid exclaimed, climbing off of Voltage as he stood back up. As the dust settled from the explosion, Flynn crept back into his workshop, as Smog and Milo followed, curiously exploring the wrecked workshop.

"That's because it wasn't a Stone of Good Fortune," Flynn said, coming to a stop.

"What was it then?" Sigrid asked, walking up to him as he bent down to the ground.

Sigrid gasped as the dust settled and on the ground sat a large, round Changewing hatchling. The hatchling had the same bright red coloration, yellow wings and eyes, dark teal on the ends of her wings and feet, just like Shimmer. The hatchling yawned widely, allowing the pair to make out the small baby teeth. Flynn reached down to the Changewing and picked the hatchling up just under it's front legs. "It was a Changewing egg," Flynn realized. The Changewing smiled and giggled, chirping happily as it tried to reach for Flynn's face.

"He's beautiful…" Sigrid admired.

"She," Flynn corrected. "Female Changewings have wider abdomens and longer tendrils than males." As he spoke, Flynn's eyes remained locked to the little hatchling, which was still playfully trying to touch Flynn's face. When Flynn brought the Changewing closer to him, she placed her front claws on either side of his cheeks before licking his nose. In an instant, Flynn broke down once more, but this time, the tears he shed were tears of joy. He brought the Changewing into his chest and hugged her tightly, but not tight enough to crush the newborn, who purred affectionately as it nuzzled deeper into Flynn's arms before falling asleep.

"Shimmer must have laid it before you guys came to save us," Sigrid noted.

"But, why didn't she tell me about it?" he wondered, careful not to wake the little baby.

"Changewings tend to be very secretive about their eggs. They like to hide them in the safest place they can find before they hatch. Shimmer must have felt that the safest place for her egg was with you," Sigrid smiled. "What are you going to call her?" she asked, as Voltage and Smog came up behind her, carefully sniffing and examining the baby while Milo tried to get a look at the baby dragon, jumping in hopes of catching a glimpse.

"I'll call her Fortuna, my 'good fortune'," he said, smiling for the first time since he lost his dragon, for the little hatchling truly was something of good fortune.


So? What'dya think of that? Once D-Sniper and I decided that we wanted to kill off Shimmer, we knew right away how to introduce a new dragon for him: Shimmer's hatchling and we saw it playing out exactly like that. Now, I don't know anything about Changewing egg stages beyond what the TV series showed us, but I think those Changewing eggs we saw were a tad too small, at least compared to the other dragon eggs we saw in the series and Gift of the Night Fury. So, I made this "stone of good fortune" bigger and figured it explodes like other eggs (unless the series is going to say otherwise)

Fortuna is latin for "fortune" and is also the name of the Roman goddess of fortune and personification of luck. Fortuna's name is a reference to the fact that Changewing eggs largely resemble "Stones of Good Fortune". Initially, we were going to call her Shimmer II, but Fortuna popped into my head while writing and we liked that better.

So I guess the only chapters left now are for some SigridxFlynn action and maybe another dragon to have his own hatchlings ;) Unless you guys have some suggestions!