While pretty much everything, and I mean everything, had now been decided—there was a sad duty to be attended to first.
Roana and I joined in as everyone else turned and went just beyond the village to the foot of the valley, at the top of some sea cliffs and rocky outcroppings, where a Night Fury was standing in front of Blóm and her mate, waiting for the rest of us.
"That other dragon is our Guardian of Memories," Roana quietly informed me as we approached. "By tradition, this guardian is always a Night Fury, preferably female as mothers traditionally passed this knowledge down to their offspring, although males sometimes accept this role. While Toothless became both Great Guardian and Guardian of Memories further along in the journal than what you say you've read so far, these two roles have been separated since his time. This guardian however is our main teacher, spiritual advisor, even something akin to a Jewish rabbi. She knows all our legends, spiritual traditions and stories. Chiefs have usually led our funerals, but this Chief and our Great Guardian have chosen to defer to her on spiritual matters, which funerals are, so she now leads our funerals instead. The three of them together though, sometimes with advice from others of us, make our most important decisions."
"Two dragon votes to one human?" I wondered as I looked on.
"We do not look at it that way," she replied. "Besides, their decisions are never less than three to nothing. They discuss an issue until they all agree on it. You need to start looking at the dragons as indistinguishable from us though. They are us. We are them. There is really only us here. The only them exists on the outside."
"I understand," I sighed with some reluctance, realizing I was going to have to make some mental adjustments along with my lifestyle changes now.
"Lance," Roana whispered in my ear though, "I love you."
Darn if she didn't make me crack a smile with that one.
"I love you, too, Roana," I quietly replied. The husband, the mate in me was already kicking in. I always answered 'I love you's.'
Everyone was assembled now, falling silent as the Guardian of Memories began . . . humming.
"This is how dragons pray," Roana quietly explained to me. "Human funerals have words, but dragon funerals, in part because of the still somewhat differing dialects among dragon species, usually do not. This singing of theirs is their universal language, one that we humans can easily share with them as well, even you."
I gently smiled again as Roana and I began humming, while I worked to find the pitch they were humming at. The humming among the assembled crowd of dragons and humans now began to assume an ethereal, harmonious quality. As he hummed as well, Blóm's mate now picked me out in the crowd, locking eyes with me and motioning with his head.
"He wants you to step forward, and join him in giving life to his mate," Roana explained to me.
"But I can't bring her back from the dead!" I quietly objected.
"That is not what you are being invited to do," Roana assured as she now escorted me out in front of the crowd. "Just follow my lead."
She led me until we stood beside Blóm's mate as he looked at us. Tears were falling from his eyes as he now broke from humming and murmured.
"He is thanking you," Roana conveyed.
"But I didn't really do anything, not for her," I sadly noted as I looked at him.
"Kneel down and tell him you will do something for her," Roana requested. "That is what he is thanking you for."
I slowly dropped to my knees before this Night Fury. I found myself beginning to shed a tear with him as I looked into his eyes.
"I am so sorry about your mate, about Blóm," I said to him as Roana grunted a translation in Night Fury. "I will do something for her."
He glanced at her before grunting back to me. "He is saying, 'Blóm wants you to save our kind,'" Roana conveyed. "'You were uncertain, having difficulty with your choice. We could see that . . . we all could.'"
"You could?" I wondered.
"Do not interrupt him," Roana quietly cautioned me before she resumed translating his grunts. "He says, 'She wanted you to stay. She allowed death to take her, to help you make your choice . . . so that you would stay, for all of us. If you can help us, that helps me to accept her death, to give it meaning and a reason.'"
I dropped my head with regret, even shame. The dragon though moved his snout gently forward under my head. I embraced him, fully . . . feeling harmony, forgiveness, even love, like I never had before. He murmured again as I held him.
"He invites you to formally meet his mate, as this was her final wish in this life," Roana interpreted. "He will give you a fish to lay in her open mouth, as he will also. This is called 'giving life', the giving of sustenance from one being to another, and was originally performed by dragon fathers as mothers had to stay and incubate eggs on their nests. That is still done, but it has grown to become the most reverent act among dragons, and between dragons and humans—in life, or in death."
The Night Fury then half closed his eyes and began regurgitating as I moved back a little.
"Hold out your hands in front of his mouth," Roana advised as she knelt down next to me.
I did as she asked, and the dragon soon deposited a slimy, half-digested fish into my hands.
"Now lay it in Blóm's opened mouth," Roana coached. "And as you do so, say something to her . . . from your heart. She will hear."
I turned on my knees, with the fish in my hands, towards Flowers as I just preferred to think of her as. "Flowers," I sniffed, pausing for a moment. "I'm sorry you felt you had to die to get me to make up my mind. I'm sorry we didn't really meet in life. I wish we had. You should have just told me that way, by talking to me. But now . . . I will do everything I can to save your kind. I swear."
I gently laid the fish inside her open mouth, and then laid a hand on the side of her head for a moment, before moving aside.
"Stay where you are," Roana quietly suggested as we both remained on our knees. Flowers' mate then regurgitated another fish, laying that also in her mouth. He then grunted some more.
"He says, 'It is time to say goodbye to her body now, and to our child within her,'" my mate conveyed as we then rose together while the humming around us continued. "Lay a hand on his head in support as he fires a blast that will cremate her. Then, as her body burns, face upward and roar as we all will, heralding her journey to Spirit."
"I really don't want another of her kind to die like this," I said, turning to Roana as I laid a hand on the side of the male dragon's head.
"I know," she replied taking my other hand as the Night Fury then fired his blast.
As a Nightmare and Nadder reverently added their sustained fiery blasts upon Blóm's body from either side of the Guardian of Memories as well, both the Guardian and every other dragon and human in the crowd then turned their heads skyward and roared—just roared at the top of their lungs. As I lifted my head and roared as well, I felt a new presence within me . . . a primal, dragon presence. I was one of them, one of us, now.
As I looked down again after the roaring diminished, I saw there was nothing left of Flowers' body but an oblong mound of fine ashes that were already cooling.
"Take a small amount of her ashes in your hands," Roana suggested, "and help the winds set her free," as she proceeded to bend down and do that herself, with me following her. "Don't worry, they are not too hot at the edges here, just warm . . . like she was." We each gently scooped up some of Flowers' ashes in our cupped hands. I then watched as Roana tossed her handful of ashes high into the air as they then floated out beyond the cliff. I looked at the small mound of bone fragments and ash in my own hands as tears leaked out of my eyes.
"Let her go," Roana gently encouraged next to me.
I then flung my own handful of ashes high into the air as well. I could almost feel Flowers flying away towards the heavens as I watched her ashes hang and drift in the air now. I looked down at the powder residue that remained in my hands. As I was about to wipe them clean though, Roana stopped me, taking one of my ash-covered hands in her own.
"Let part of her remain with you for a while," she quietly encouraged. "It is what we do here in accepting the death of another . . . a symbol that they are both gone, but also with us still; that who they were has touched us."
I smiled at the beauty, and wisdom, of the ways of these people, even tribe, that I was becoming a part of now.
Flowers' mate joined in, gently touching his snout to some of her ashes, before blowing them into the air. Her other friends and well-wishers now gathered to do the same behind us. The male Night Fury then grunted and nodded, before spreading his wings and taking off into the sky himself.
"Where's he going?" I wondered as I looked up.
"I do not know," my mate replied as she looked up as well. "He didn't say. He just said, 'Thank you.'"
"So, what do we do now?" I asked, still somewhat absorbing all that had just happened as others began bidding farewell to Blóm, tossing or blowing small amounts of her ashes into the air while we turned and left.
"Normally, after a funeral, we do something the departed would want us to do," she responded, continuing to hold my ash-covered hand with one of hers as we walked now. "So, what do you think Blóm would want you to do?"
"Why was she called Blóm or Flowers?" I asked.
"Because she loved the flowers that grow around us here in spring and summer," Roana answered. "She could hardly pass a flower without looking at it and sniffing it. The children she grew up with came to nickname her that, and it just stuck. She happily took it as her name among us. She was one of the happiest, most optimistic dragons, even beings, that I have ever had the pleasure to know as a friend."
Tears welled up in my eyes again. "Why did such a happy dragon have to die?" I sadly wondered.
"To save you," Roana assured, laying an ash-covered hand over my heart, " . . . from the outside world. She wanted you not just to save her kind, but to know the life of happiness she enjoyed here."
"How do you know?" I asked.
"Because Blóm and I talked, while you and I were apart," she replied. "She assured me she knew that you would want me, and said that if she wasn't carrying the egg and child she was, that she would fly me back down herself and want to meet you. She made me promise to introduce you to her before the end of your first day here."
"You can't do that now though," I sadly noted. "And the way we met in life, with her in such pain . . ."
"Nu uh," Roana countered with a smile. "That wasn't what she wanted, or how she would want to meet you. More than anything, she wanted to welcome you here," she gestured with her arms spread wide and spinning around now, "to your new home. So, for Blóm . . . welcome home, Lance. She would want you to get a good look around, so let's go on a hike beyond the village, alright? You'll get to enjoy what she loved most in life that way . . . our flowers."
"Okay," I tearfully smiled as Roana took my hand once more.
"Look," she was soon pointing out, "Bluebells. These were Blóm's favourites, especially the deep purple and fragrant ones. Go ahead," Roana invited, "sniff them like she did." I smiled as we both bent down on our hands and knees to sniff the fragrant flowers.
I paused though as we sat up on our knees again, just looking at the flowers for a moment. "You ever take time to sniff flowers like this, back where you came from?" I heard beside me, noticing that even Rökkr was now sniffing the flowers as well beside us. I just quietly shook my head, closing my eyes.
"Blóm," I finally said. For a dragon, a being I'd hardly met . . . she was now having a profound effect on me as I looked at her favourite flowers again. I felt a kiss from Roana on my cheek as her arms warmly encircled me from the side. She was feeling it, too.
"Would you have felt this if she was still here?" I was then gently asked. I had to shake my head 'no' again. "This is why she left . . . her gift to you. So you would look at this place, and everyone here . . . and be changed, becoming who you were meant to be with us. I didn't want her to go. I tried so hard to save her. But I will accept what she is giving now . . . to both of us."
Roana now broke down in quiet tears as she held me tightly from the side, as I held her, tearing up as well. Finally, she looked up at me, and we kissed. So much had happened now. My heart, my entire being felt like it was in flux . . . like I was changing from a sad, lonely caterpillar of a man, into the butterfly of a mate, and a Berker as well.
"Come," Roana then invited after kissing me a second time. "There is still more you should see before the day is out."
"More?" I wondered.
"Come see," she smiled, drying her eyes and standing up again extending her hand to me.
"Roana . . ." I could barely say as she helped me back to my feet and I drew her close once more while Rökkr watched beside us.
"I love you, too," she smiled, before kissing me again and encouraging me to resume walking with her. I could only smile with fresh tears in my eyes as I held her tightly with one arm, kissing the side of her head in gratitude. The three of us then turned to go up the valley this time beyond the other end of the village. A crowd soon gathered around us again and proceeded to follow us up the valley.
"Roana, why are people still following us?" I asked as we now walked.
"Well . . ." she hesitantly confessed, "in addition to everything else, we are of historic importance to all of Berk, as we are breaking a separation that has existed since the time of Hiccup . . . and Ruffnut."
"No way," I said, remembering what Hiccup wrote in the journal about he and Ruffnut. "Their families have never intermarried before?"
"Not within our community here anyway, that we know of, at least among direct descendants within family lines," she explained. "It might be silly, really—but for a long time over the intervening centuries, our predecessors took the journal seriously . . . likely far too seriously. Ýsas and Johannsens must have certainly been interested in each other, but no one seemed to feel they were worthy to cross the divide that Hiccup and Ruffnut had come close to, but refused, for obvious reasons, to cross themselves. It was long viewed as almost a sacred divide here. The longer it lasted, the more people seemed to want it to continue. We . . . you and I . . . are basically bringing an end to something that has lasted almost a thousand years."
"You think we're worthy?" I asked, half joking, but half serious as well, looking at her as we walked arm in arm.
"Oh yeah," she confidently assured, before kissing me again.
"You're my mate," I said in wonder as we ended our kiss.
"Uh huh," she smiled.
"Wow," I could only say, keeping an arm around her now as we looked forward and began walking through the grass up the valley again.
We soon paused at the World War II battle memorial. Whereas in the past, I hadn't paid much attention to various memorials and monuments I'd encountered, I was looking at this reminder of a sad event differently now. The villagers were honoured that I knelt and prayed in front of it, joined by Roana. I could tell she was very proud of me when we got up again.
"That opponents, who fought and killed each other, could now rest in peace together . . . and by doing so, bring healing and harmony to the living," I told her, "that's something. I just felt I had to thank them, all of them."
One woman close to my age now approached me and began speaking in Old Norse with what I now presumed was the heavy Berker accent.
"This is Helga Roffenstein, daughter of a Nazi pilot," Roana explained. "She thanks you for pausing at this memorial, because both her father, and her maternal grandfather and several uncles and aunts died in that battle, fighting on opposite sides. Her mother was killed in the crossfire, trying to stop the bloodshed among her own family. Their family's dragon, a young male Night Fury, saved Helga's life, shielding her from both bullets and blasts . . . before killing her father directly with a blast."
I just moved to embrace this woman. I felt Roana lay a hand in warm approval on my back as I did, and also felt a Night Fury come and nudge against me. But I sensed it wasn't Rökkr.
"This is Frelsari or 'Saviour', Helga's dragon companion," Roana introduced as the Night Fury now looked at me.
I felt the need now to just lower myself to my knees and bow slowly and deeply towards the dragon, silently honouring him and the incredibly difficult thing he had done. When I looked at him again, Frelsari just slowly blinked his eyes and subtly nodded in grateful acknowledgment.
"Despite his young age at the time, Frelsari was offered the position of Great Guardian, even Chief, after the battle," Roana quietly explained to me, "the highest positions and honours anyone can have among us. But he refused both titles, saying that Helga would be his life and life's work. Neither he nor Helga have ever wanted to bond with anyone else besides each other. But they have both had children independently with others, choosing to bring them into their family after birth or hatching with the other parents' consent."
I now noticed a young girl draw close to Helga as a young Night Fury joined them in front of me as well.
"A family," I quietly recognized.
"Yes, a family," Roana confirmed as she drew beside me. "And a very close one among us."
The love emanating among the four of them was more palpable than anything I had ever felt from a family before.
"Few if any would understand this on the outside," I quietly said, glancing at Roana.
"This is why we are here," she gently replied as we both looked at them again. "Hann dáist at ykkr," she then said to the blended family before adding to me, "I just told them that you admire them."
"Yes, I do," I quietly confirmed as I nodded at Helga again, knowing she couldn't understand any words I might say. Her own tears now said it all though. There was a quiet but warm silence around us as this happened.
"You are of Berk," Roana said in deep admiration herself as she turned towards me, laying a hand on my heart.
I just nodded in acceptance. This was my home, and these were my people now.
— — — — —
Roana and I then walked a little further, before I paused in front of the far older Dragon Island memorial stone nearby as well to read its centuries old inscriptions, which had crystallized everyone's purpose and mission here. As I touched it, I felt what seemed like the souls of a thousand dragons, and the hundreds of soldiers that had killed them only to be killed themselves, all with a surprising forcefulness. I touched my forehead to the tall, weathered stone, and quietly wept . . . even though I had not yet read the story in the journal. I felt it, I felt it all.
I also felt Roana embracing me from behind and laying her head against my shoulder, as well as a number of other hands and snouts now touching me as well. I turned and took Roana back into my arms. She kissed my neck, my jaw, and finally my lips as I kissed her back. Not a word needed to be said between us in that moment as I held her tightly and buried my face against her hair.
We then visited the Founders' memorial stone, commemorating Hiccup, Astrid, Toothless and Fury. To see a tangible reminder of those I had read about in the journal, it was something. Plus to me, they were family. That I was descended from this family, across the span of almost a thousand years . . . it just awed me. How could I have thought of living anywhere else, even earlier today?
Several dragons of differing species then approached me, murmuring.
"They invite you to follow them," Roana conveyed enigmatically.
Not knowing what to expect, I did, as she walked with me and the other villagers followed. Soon, we came to the mouths of a couple caves at the base of a mountainside that had wisps of steam gently coming out of them.
"These caves are where dragons who are not bonded with humans live—the other half of our village, if you will," Roana noted, as one of the dragons, a two-headed Zippleback motioned inside with one of its heads. "He's inviting you inside to take a look," she conveyed.
"They certainly live differently in here," I remarked as I stepped around some boulders at the entrance. "Much more crowded," I added, seeing dragons of various types covering most every surface in the cave.
"Well, despite legends, dragons don't have much of a need for possessions," Roana smiled, looking on with me, "and they certainly don't need to hoard gold or treasure. That was spread by outsiders to further encourage the hunting and killing of dragons. Besides, remember they're cold-blooded reptiles who need warmth. Unlike us, a dragon here will never know what it feels like to be alone or abandoned. They actually feel somewhat sorry for us that we live isolated in houses the way we do, and will invite a human who is feeling sad to stay with them at times, although any of us are always welcome. A few humans have even lived here for a while, but find they like things like chests to store clothes in, as well as places to cook and bathe and the like. Anyone who lives here though lives as the dragons do, with nothing more than nests, and touching each other basically all the time. It is regarded as a high calling among the dragons however to spread the companionship and even love they take for granted here, and choose to bond with humans and live in human houses. That is why those of us who bond with a dragon companion normally sleep beside them, because they give up this to live with us."
"Will I take a dragon companion of my own? Be expected to?" I wondered, looking around.
"That will be your choice, and the dragon's, in time," she softly answered.
"Why are you whispering?" I quietly wondered, turning to her.
"Because, your dragon companion could also be Rökkr's mate," she continued as I glanced, noticing that Rökkr was just a few feet behind us, looking our way. "Such a thing is complicated though, and has to be approached and handled carefully, for all concerned."
"I can see that," I sighed, looking around again. But then I felt moved to go to Rökkr. "Rökkr," I asked as I knelt down next to his head, "do you miss this?"
Roana laughed behind me as Rökkr murmured. "He says, 'I was hatched in a human house,'" she translated, "'as generations of my family have been for countless moons.'"
"Wait, you mean . . ." I wondered.
"'I am a son of Toothless and Fury,'" he confirmed through Roana translating, "'by Miracle's line. All of my kind are of Toothless and Fury to some extent. It is both an honour, but also the source of our problem. It is why we need you . . . Lance.'"
"I understand," I replied as I looked to one side, realizing the size of the task in front of me now—the work that would likely consume the rest of my life. "All these other dragons, too," I noted as I looked around the cave again. "Every single one can likely easily trace a common lineage to every other of its species."
"Not today, my love," my Roana assured me, knowingly reaching to rub my shoulders as Rökkr nudged me as well.
"I can see why you all need me though," I noted, "even needed to trap me here."
Rökkr murmured as he nudged and looked at me. "He says, 'Companionship and love,'" Roana conveyed for him, "'should never be looked at as traps. Otherwise, my line has been enslaved for a thousand years . . . and we certainly have not been.'"
"You know," I sighed, looking at him, " . . . you're right."
Roana smiled, offering me a hand as I stood up again and we briefly embraced. But then, as I turned to leave, a strange thing happened. Every single dragon around me in the cave was now bowing its head.
"They know who I am, too, right?" I guessed with a sigh as I looked around a final time.
"They also know you cannot speak their language and dialects," Roana noted, "but that you can understand their appreciation for you and your choice to join us when they express it like this."
That caused me to stop. I turned back, looking around at what must have been hundreds, perhaps over a thousand dragons, all trying to express something to me together. I decided to bend at the waist and bow low back to them as well. There was dead silence now, seemingly for minutes.
"You have made a thousand friends today," Roana gently said as I finally stood up again and she drew close to me, "just because of who you are, and what you did, right now."
I could only look at her, feeling deeply moved.
— — — — —
Soon, Roana and I were leading a veritable parade as dragons from the caves joined the rest of the village, and we all hiked up to the open top of a small mountain vista. We could have flown there I suppose, but I just wasn't thinking 'dragon' yet.
We all enjoyed the view of the valley and the setting sun to the west. After a while, Rökkr gently barked at Roana and I, gesturing with his head off towards the village.
"Rökkr would like to fly you and I home," Roana translated, "if you would not mind."
"How could I refuse family?" I warmly asked, truly embracing the spirit of my new home and life now.
Both Roana and Rökkr seemed equally moved at my words, as the dragon closed his eyes and nudged against me while my mate embraced me from the other side.
"This is home," I now tearfully sighed. "This. Is. Home." I openly accepted it all now, and allowed myself to be filled in ways I had never experienced before.
"Come," Roana finally said, wiping another tear from her eye as she took my hand. "Fly with us."
I gladly went with her to mount Rökkr . . . until I noticed something was missing.
"Do not worry," she added as she noticed my expression, "Rökkr will be extra careful with us since he is not wearing his saddle. Just grip his neck tightly with your legs, hold onto me, and he will keep us balanced on top of him."
"I haven't even ridden a pony bareback," I noted with reservation as I reluctantly settled in behind Roana on Rökkr's neck.
"Trust your family," she assured as she looked back at me.
I smiled and nodded as I gripped both her and Rökkr tightly. "Go," I said.
With my one word, the dragon spread his magnificent black wings into the wind around us and gently lifted us all into the air. The edge of the mountaintop silently fell away beneath us, and I tried not to be scared stiff as there was less than ever before between me, and a very long drop to the ground now far below.
Rökkr gently banked us all, following subtle currents and eddies in the air as he now meandered with us over the valley.
"It is alright," Roana assured. "See? Even though we tilt and bank, Rökkr is keeping us perfectly balanced. He will not let us fall."
"This is like hang-gliding," I began to allow myself to admire, allowing my leg and arm grips to relax . . . just a little.
"I have done hang-gliding," she said. "Did it in college. This is better. You are flying with a living, thinking being—not just a metal and nylon thing."
I briefly looked behind me to see the sky now filled with other dragons and riders taking to the air as well, also enjoying a sunset glide.
"It is moments, experiences, like this," Roana noted as she looked around with me, "that make everything worthwhile for us here."
"And no one else gets to see or experience this," I admired, feeling deeply privileged at this spectacle now.
"We drug them if they do," Roana smiled, "or it is a deep, dark secret in some satellite control centre."
I now allowed myself to be just overwhelmed at the serenity and harmony of it all as we continued to bank and glide silently with the winds, surrounded by a bright red sky and deep green and grey mountains.
"I am not going to be missing anything now," I said. "I have found heaven here."
"It is why I returned," Roana agreed. "You were the only thing missing for me."
I just brushed Roana's thick blonde back braid to one side and proceeded to deeply kiss her neck. My arms firmly enfolded her as I loosened the grip of my legs around Rökkr's neck somewhat.
"This is my dream . . . coming true," Roana breathed as I could sense her closing her eyes. I was making love to her in the air as the dragon flew on with us. She then turned her head and kissed me forcefully as she reached and gripped the back of my own head with her hand. I no longer held myself back as I kissed her, gripping her torso and free arm more tightly. It was suddenly the most passionate experience I had ever known. I barely even noticed as Rökkr pulled us through a complete vertical loop with Roana and I still securely seated on his neck.
"I am soaring with you," I whispered as I continued to kiss and almost inhale her, "in more ways than one."
"I know," she softly replied.