Okay so the last chapter was obviously supposed to be right after Hiccup's first flight. But in this chapter I kinda added an extra flight before Astrid comes and ruins- I mean 'helps'… okay so I don't like her… anyway, just thought I'd add that so you know kinda what's going on. Oh and I also messed with the timing of Stoic's return… just so ya know.
I own everything! *Toothless growls* … and by everything I mean absoloodle nothingness!
It had been three days since the incident and three days of racing through the forest at top speed to beat Hiccup to and from the Crater. It had also been three days since Hiccup had tried getting Eden to talk which both relieved her and unnerved her at the same time.
On one hand, the fact that Hiccup wasn't pressing for her to speak made her think that maybe he had decided to drop it, or maybe even have forgotten about it. On the other, Eden was frightened that perhaps he was using her silence to his advantage by planning something for her later on. But Hiccup was not that person.
Seeing how Hiccup acted around Toothless and the green dragon, Eden was almost willing to change there in front of him right then and there.
Her wing was now properly bandaged with a canvas cloth (pretend the canvas was thin… it sounds cool) Hiccup had brought from the village (which thankfully disappeared and reappeared with her interchanging forms) and was already feeling much stronger.
Hiccup was circling the green dragon, assessing the damaged wing and by the look on his face, he was appalled by how quickly the wing had mended itself.
"There's barely any broken bone at all." He said to himself. Eden struggled to hold in a snicker at the boy's bewilderment. "How is this even possible? It should have taken weeks to heal this far." The boy ran his fingers through his hair in amazement and reached for the bandages that covered Eden's newly recovered wing.
Quickly pulling a knife out of his belt, Hiccup began slicing the cloth before slipping it off of the wing.
Cool air brushed the wing as it was no longer trapped inside the canvas and Eden unfurled it so that it caught more wind.
Hiccup stared blankly at the wing, completely dumbfounded. There was no way that the wing could have healed so quickly.
The green dragon opened its eyes and stared back at the wing, looking it over as if assessing it itself. Hiccup slowly walked over to the dragon, dragging the canvas cloth behind him. He brushed a hand lightly over the dragon, which was now spinning with glee.
It stopped spinning and looked at the boy before realizing what he wanted. The dragon let its wing fan out on the grass in front of Hiccup so he could see. Toothless stood behind him with a gleam of astonishment in his eyes.
Hiccup's eyes seemed as if they would pop out of his head at any given moment. He ran his fingers over the wing, the only remains of the once bloodied wound were nearly invisible scars and missing scales.
"Wow." Was all he could manage. He turned, leaving the green dragon to fawn over its newly healed appendage again.
"How is this even possible?" He whispered to himself. He sat himself down on a large rock and remembered the cloth in his hands. The boy looked down, the canvas was nearly completely soaked through with blood.
"The blood… the blood!" The dragons both turned to stare at Hiccup, the green more frightened than Toothless, who only seemed startled by the outburst. But the green dragon gawked at him like a fish out of water.
"H-how do you two feel like flying today?"
At this, both dragons smiled.
It was incredible. At first, Eden was hesitant about flying again, but Takara had made no move what-so-ever to attack. Despite a few cautious glares here and there, she seemed to be clueless on Eden's identity and made no appearances in the forest either. (I should have explained it earlier and I tried to show it with the whole 'shadow' thing, but in case you didn't already know, Takara is like Eden.)
Hiccup had strapped himself in on Toothless and attached the tailfin before gesturing for Eden to join them at the edge of the crater. She strode up to them, head held high and newly healed wing unfurled.
"Alright, just a bit over the water to see how the wing is healing and then we can come right back… okay?" Hiccup turned to Eden as if expecting her to answer, and to be truthful, she almost did but caught herself and just gave a reassuring nod.
Hiccup let out a sigh of disappointment before turning back to his own dragon. "Alright then. Let's go." Toothless, who had been fidgeting his feet with excitement, leapt into the air where his wings and fin caught air and sent him flying into the sky above.
Here we go. Eden thought. No turning back now. Still, the haunting thought of Takara finding her tapped at the back of her skull.
Ignoring the tapping, ignoring the worry, Eden leapt into the air herself, catching winds in her wings and allowing herself to be thrown higher into the sky where Hiccup and Toothless were circling around waiting for her.
Hiccup jumped back a bit as Eden burst into the sky, spinning with glee. She opened her eyes as soon as she could feel the clouds' misty coolness brushing her face and turned back to see Hiccup's shocked face. "Okay, well I guess the wing's healed." He half laughed.
Toothless gave her a playful glare as if to say 'Is that all you've got?'
Eden enjoyed the Night fury's presence. Although at first the two had gotten off on the wrong foot, he gave her a feeling of safety and comfort. He never spoke to her of tried to pry information from her. He basically just accepted her for who and what she was, and Eden was grateful for that.
Hiccup switched one of the gears to the tailfin with his foot and both he and the black dragon shot up into the clouds, creating a tunnel of blue sky through the white puffs. Eden followed through. The clouds blocked out all sight, everywhere she looked all was white. But she could hear the flapping of Toothelss' wings and the clicking of the gears and was able to maneuver her way about the clouds.
Finally emerging from the mist, Eden found herself soaring over water. The sea hung only fifty feet below her and large eroded rocks protruded out of the waters, interrupting the calm sea with ripples and crashing waves upon their bases.
Hiccup clicked the gears and he and Toothless drifted in and out of the masses of sea stones. Eden looked down in astonishment at how quickly the two were going, weaving through jutting rocks without a care in the world. The way the two had adapted to each other, needing each other, was what amazed her the most.
Eden stopped the flapping of her massive wings and let herself fall before opening them further and soaring mere feet above the breaking waves. The sea sent a cool salty mist into her lungs which she breathed in and savored the taste of. Every once in a while, she would dip her wings into the water allowing them to break the surface of the water and splashing water through the air.
She could feel the other two behind her and turned to smile at her friends, but they weren't there, instead, diving at full speed toward her, was the shadow.
Eden tried to flap her wings and get to the dense clouds, but found herself gasping for air before being pushed into the raging waters by the other dragon.
Icy water filled her ears and nose and obscured her vision with salt. The only way she knew she had stopped moving deeper was the fact that she hit the sandy bottom with a soft thud.
Her lungs began to burn under the pressure and longed for air. A silvery-black claw pressed against her throat while another dug into her wrist with intensifying pain. Eden did the first thing that she could think to do. She kicked. She could feel claws against thick skin. The shadow flinched, raising her claw for a moment, giving Eden the perfect chance for stage two. She used the little amount of air left in her lungs to connect gasses and spark together and blew the flame through the fire, sending boiling water and bubbles into her attackers face.
The dragon fell from Eden's figure. She took her chance, planting her two back feet firmly on the sandy bottom, Eden pushed as hard as she could to the surface, gasping for air as soon as she broke free of the cold.
"There!" Eden could hear Hiccup say. Toothless soared over to where she hovered over the sea, but she didn't dare take her eyes off of the dark waters.
"What was that?" Hiccup said.
Suddenly, an eruption of cold came behind them. Eden turned as the shadow burst out of the water. Its eyes settled on Eden and glowed red with anger, her belly black with blood.
Eden turned and fled for the clouds.
"EDEN!" It shrieked behind her.
As soon as she was far enough in the clouds, Eden stopped. Hovering in the midst of pure white blindness, she closed her eyes and waited for the sound of frantically flapping wings.
That was the shadow's problem. She let rage overtake her actions, often sending her into a frenzy.
One of her ears twitched to the right. She was close. The sound of flapping quickly became louder. Eden opened her eyes just as a black tail sliced through the mist, missing Eden by mere inches. "You want me Takara!" She shouted towards the dark figure in the cloud. "Come get me!"
The shadow's head whipped towards her, glowing red eyes (I know, cliché) penetrated the thick mist, before charging straight at Eden.
Anticipating the move, Eden simply folded her wings and let herself fall. She opened them again after creating a safe yet fairly close distance between the two dragons. She searched through the mist for any dark shapes before settling on the tip of one of the jutting sea stones poking into the clouds.
Eden shot straight up, making as much noise as possible before hearing the sound of flapping behind her. Angling herself with a sudden turn, she whipped past the shadow, back down to the sea. She listened again to make sure Takara was still following; she was and fairly close too.
Wondering how far she had flown up, Eden searched for the stone again. It showed as a light gray splotch in the mist. Eden dove faster towards it, the shadow literally right on her tail. The rock was fifty… thirty… ten… Eden pulled up and missed the rock by mere inches. The shadow on the other hand, so caught up with the chase rammed head first into the stone, breaking off the tip in a crumbled mess and fell, tumbling down the side and landing in a small crevice where she lay unconscious.
Eden smiled to herself before dropping back down into the clear air where Hiccup and Toothless were both staring at the shadow with shock clearly written in their eyes. Hiccup turned to Eden, who was taking shaky breaths of both adrenaline and exhaustion.
"Let's go back shall we?" Hiccup said, breaking the silence that hung in the air. Both Eden and Toothless nodded at this.
After the three had landed, Eden decided to inspect her wrist. Golden blood dripped prominently from the claw wounds and it stung with every movement she made in the area.
"Eden?" Hiccup came from behind her. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah just a scratch that's al- oh no." Her stomach dropped and her eyes widened with fright. Her head turned shakily to the boy standing next to her.
"I knew you could talk." He said as-a-matter-of-factly
Whew! Done! How'd you like the revelation? Don't worry the whole Eden-is-Vesta thing will come soon along with an explanation for who Takara/shadow is and how she fits in and also for what exactly they are. If you have any guesses though I would love to hear them. Please review!