When Eyla went to the docks the next day, she was in a good mood. And she was still in a good mood when she left the docks to walk home again with no hampers to bring back to her mother.

But it was very close her good mood was ruined. On her way back to the house, she passed Ben who was practicing archery with his little brother Albin. He was eight years old and not much like Ben at all, and Eyla hoped he never would be.

She could hear, and feel, the arrow passing her ear, touching the hair, but not scratching the ear.

"Sorry!" she heard Albin call.

She could hear in his voice that he was genuinely sorry, and that he never meant to hurt her. But if it had been Ben who shot the arrow, she wouldn`t be so sure. He was good enough to aim that close to her ear, without actually hitting it.

"Do you really think it`s a good idea", she said and turned around, "to be in the middle of the village practicing archery, instead of outside the village at the targets? Someone can get seriously hurt". She tried to sound calm, but there was a tone of anger in her voice.

"But no one has gotten hurt", Ben said innocently, but she saw the glimmer in his eyes.

"Maybe we should go", Albin said. "I don`t want to hit anyone."

Ben glared at her, then he put his hands on Albin`s shoulders and steered him towards the targets. That could have ruined her good mood, but since it was an accident, and it was Albin, it didn`t.

Back at the house, she helped her mother bring out the things she needed to fix the hampers. Sigrid hadn`t had the time to fix the hampers Eyla brought back yesterday, so she was going to do that now. It was also time to make some new hampers.

"You seem to be in a good modd", Sigrid said after a while when they were working on the hampers.

"Yeah, I am… But it was almost ruined by Ben."

"What did he do now?"

"Practicing archery with Albin, in the middle of the village", Eyla said. "He almost hit me by accident."

"That doesn`t sound like a good idea, he`s just starting to learn. I hope Albin doesn`t turn out like Ben."

"Me too. One Ben is enough."

"What put you in a good mood?" Sigrid asked. "It`s been a while since I saw you smile."

"I m…"

I met a dragon, and then I met another dragon and his rider and now they are my friends, and they are going to teach me about riding dragons. No, she couldn`t say that. A part of her wanted to tell her mother about the young man and the dragons, but she couldn`t. She would tell her father, and neither of them would understand.

"I`m just in a good mood for once", Eyla said, not able to think of a better answer.

But her mother seemed to settle with that. But she looked at Eyla for a few seconds to see if she would say more, and Eyla didn`t look at her. She didn`t like lying to her mother. She wasn`t really lying though, she just wasn`t telling the truth. Which was pretty much the same thing.


Eyla went to the woods later in the afternoon. When she came to the cliff, it didn`t take long before the blue dragon came and they spent some time together before Hiccup and Toothless came. She had thought about a name for the dragon. She couldn`t just call it "the dragon" or "the blue dragon". She looked at the dragon who was lying in front of her. She saw the shifting in the yellow eyes. Sometimes it was almost like a storm. Storm. Yeah, she could call it Storm.

"Storm, she said and stood up."

The dragon raised his head and let out a puff of smoke.

"You like that?" Eyla asked.

He nudged her on the cheek.

"Storm it is then", Eyla said and smiled.

A while after that, Hiccup and Toothless came. Hiccup said he had something for her and showed her the saddle. She was surprised, but thought it looked great. She wondered if he didn`t need the dragons measurements, and he said he`d taken them when she wasn`t looking. So that`s why her notebook was missing a page.

"I forgot to ask what you call your dragon", Hiccup said.

"I just named him Storm", Eyla said. "The shiftings in his eyes."

Hiccup smiled, thinking about Stormfly. But they were nothing alike, at least in appearance. He liked the name, it seemed to fit the dragon.

He put the saddle on the blue dragon and it fit perfectly. The dragon turned around a little at first, trying to look at it, but gave up. He didn`t seemed bothered by it though. When Eyla had tried the saddle, Hiccup jumped up on Toothless and both dragons took off. Hiccup showed her the basics. How she could tell the dragon where she wanted it to go, how to turn. Since her dragon wasn`t injured, like Toothless had been, it was a lot easier for them than it had been for Hiccup and Toothless the first times they were flying.

Eyla surprised herself a little, with not feeling afraid to be in the air on the dragon again. Maybe because Hiccup was there to help her and guide her through it. She enjoyed it, she really started to like riding the dragon, despite her fear of heights. When they landed, she couldn`t wait for the next time Hiccup would visit and show her more.


On their way home, Hiccup and Toothless spent a few hours on the beach on that island they had stayed at before, to get some sleep before they continued. When they arrived on Berk, still quite early in the morning, it felt like it only took two seconds before Astrid and Valka were standing in front of them.

"Where have you been?" Valka asked, both demanding and worried. "You never tell anyone where you`re going, and you`ve barely been here in the last couple of days. As the chief, you can`t just leave."

"I uh… There`s this girl…" Hiccup began.

"What girl?" Astrid asked.

"Something happened?" Valka asked. "Someone`s hurt? Or you just met someone?" Valka was getting curious.

"Uh..." Hiccup said.

The lack of jealousy in Astrid`s voice and Valka looking at him interested, somehow made him nervous. Astrid crossed her arms and looked at him with amusement, and Valka had a little smile on her lips.

"I uh… I uh… "Hiccup scratched the back of his head. "I… uh… I met… I met this girl. I think…" He threw a glance at Astrid and then looked at Valka. "I think she`s like us."

What he didn`t say was, "I think she`s like me".

Astrid knew that by "I think she`s like us" Hiccup didn`t mean like them, like the dragon riders on Berk. He meant "like us" as in "you and me", him and Valka, Astrid loved her dragon Stormfly. She loved riding the dragon and all the possibilities riding dragons gave them. But Valka and Hiccup were in a league of their own. And she was okay with that.

"Tell me more", Valka said. "I want to know everything."

Hiccup started walking and Toothless followed him.

"Just give me three hours", he said.

"But we have things to talk about", Valka said.

"Hiccup?" Astrid said.

Hiccup held up his hand, but didn`t look at them.

"Three hours. Please."

As soon as he lay down in the bed, he fell asleep. After only a few hours of sleep, he was really tired. He needed some sleep before he did anything else.

When he woke up, both Valka and Astrid were standing next to the bed looking at him.

"Now talk", Astrid said.

"Can you at least let me get out of bed first?"

"Come Astrid", Valka said. "We`ll wait downstairs."

When Hiccup and Toothless came downstairs, Astrid and Valka sat there waiting. When they saw him, they both looked up impatiently, but didn`t say anything. Hiccup sat down on a bench.

"So, a couple of days ago, I met this girl", Hiccup said. "I was flying with Toothless, just having fun."

"When you were gone all day", Astrid said.

"We saw a girl on a cliff pillar, so we landed, and scared her half to death, and asked her how she got up there."

"How did she get up there?" Astrid asked.

"She climbed." Hiccup smiled. "But she didn`t think about how to get down."

"Then why did she climb up there in the first place?"

"Something about getting over her fear of heights. Anyway, she`s been told dragons are dangerous, so I´m guessing they have been attacked. She believed dragons are dangerous until she met this blue dragon and us. I´ve never seen that dragon before, but it`s beautiful."

"What kind of dragon is it?"

"Didn`t I just say I´ve never seen one before?"

"What does the girl call it?" Astrid asked.

"A blue dragon."

"Go on", Valka said.

"She was afraid of dragons, but at the same time she has this way… The first time we met, when she was leaving, she reached out to touch Toothless and then it was like she realized what she was doing. And sometimes when we`ve met, it`s like she forgot Toothless was a dangerous dragon, before she realized she was patting a dragon. And when she met this blue dragon she felt something. She said that when they first touched it was like the time stood still. She felt a connection. It comes so natural for her, and she doesn`t even know."

"Then she also has the soul of a dragon", Valka said.

Okay. Astrid did feel a sting of jealousy. But a new dragon, and a new rider. That was interesting.


A/N: I have quite many views on this story and I appreciate that. I hope everyone likes it. I would appreciate if everyone who likes my story could favorite, follow or review, so I know that you like it.