Chapter 11
Back on Berk Ruby and the rest of the Draconians were watching the smoke from the volcano billow into the sky. The Berkians were watching it as well. The ash cloud had reached as far as Berk, but it had very little effect on the village. All they got was an ashfall. They also felt the tremors from the eruption. Hiccup turned to Toothless.
"That is one pissed off volcano," he said. He then saw the Draconians looking in the direction of the Dragon Island with hopeless expressions on their faces. Edelweiss began crying in her seat, terrified by the eruption. Astrid went over and got her out of the baby seat.
"No sign of the others?" Stormfly asked.
"No," Ruby said. "It's possible we have just lost our King and Queen, and our good Dragon Healer." Hearing this all the dragons bowed their heads in respect. But then the all heard a loud series of triumphant roars. They all looked up to see four dragons flying towards the plaza, and Re, Aurora, Tenor, and Windwalker landed before them covered in ash.
"Mama, Daddy!" cried Black Window. She ran to her parents as Chris and Serenity dismounted. Avalon and Apollo ran to their parents, Eider stayed next to Ruby and Harmony. Edelweiss struggled to get down. Astrid set her on the ground and she walked over to Serenity and Chris. Serenity picked her up.
"How in the name of Odin did you get out of that?" asked Hiccup.
"Those two," Re said, looking at his son and daughter-in-law. They both blushed and smiled.
"What happened to Valkyrie and Rufus?" asked Valka.
"Ah," said Re solemnly. "They got a little bit too close to the volcano and it shot a lava bomb at them, I'm sorry." Everyone looked shocked at this news.
"I guess things go back to normal then?" said Hiccup. "But you're summer island just got destroyed."
"No it didn't," said Re. "Don't you know anything about volcanoes? It did't destroy the island, it made it bigger. All that lava will harden into rock and that makes the island a little bit bigger. The rooms in the castle are preserved."
"Oh, wow," said Astrid. "The island grows bigger?"
"That's right," Re said. "In fact it's growing as we speak." He looked back at the black cloud coming from Dragon Island.
"But in the meantime we should head home, let the volcano blow off steam, and come back next summer," said Aurora. "We've dealt with volcanoes before; quite that violent though."
So Serenity and Chris mounted their dragons, Edelweiss was put back into the baby seat on Ruby's saddle. They bid farewell to the good citizens of Berk, and took off. Harmony shook the ash out of her feathers. They flew in formation, and headed back to Draconia. It took a while to clear the ash clouds. But two hours later they saw blue sky and sunshine.
"How is it you guys didn't suffocate?" asked Windwalkers. "There must have been a lot of smoke in that throne room, and almost no oxygen.
"Sleeping saves oxygen," said Aurora. "And we were lulled to sleep by Serenity's beautiful song."
"What song?" asked Chris, looking over at Serenity. She smiled.
"A song that talks about the hope tomorrow brings," she said. "Draco sang it to me once, it was very inspiring."
"I'm so glad that's over," Tenor said, changing the subject. "And things are back to normal."
"And all it took was fire and ashes," said Serenity.
"Just like I saw in my vision," said Aurora. "The one of the Phoenix. I saw it rise out of the mountain in fire, then turned to ash. Then from the ashes the Phoenix was reborn with white feathers. That's obviously us now; the same, but a little bit better." They all smiled.
"Anyway," said Re. "Will you sing that song again Serenity? I wish to hear it again." Serenity sang the song again. The song that had pulled Re, Aurora, and Tenor through the darkness. They listened to the song as they headed for home, just as it started to snow.