Of course, just flying with a dragon was only the beginning.
Before I knew it, I was being put through drills with Substance, with Roana as my trainer. To both Substance and Roana, all this was old hat. But to me it was still a challenge, as I learned how to stay with my dragon through rolls and loops, flying through clumps of trees in simulated pursuit of trespassing outsiders, and learning how to reach down and grab objects while in flight—first out in the clear along the island's upper valley, and later in the woods running up the mountains on either side. I even was taught to grab and rescue people in the water when a dragon for whatever reason couldn't. I missed a few times at first, even dropping the target person back into the water . . . which of course was Roana. I eventually succeeded though.
I also learned how to balance on Substance out of the saddle in flight, as well as fasten and unfasten saddle straps and even make repairs to our saddle and straps, all in the air. Needless to say, I was fast losing my fear of flying, knowing that Substance was committed to keeping me safe, as much or even more than I was. This was no more clearly demonstrated to me than when we had to separate and rejoin during a vertical free-fall, as well as the first time I was called upon to just leap off Substance—without anything resembling a parachute.
"Do you trust your dragon?" Roana simply posed in the air near me seated on Rökkr, while I was on Substance.
Even I knew what the answer had to be as Substance just silently brushed my left hand with her ear.
I guess the remaining bulk of my old, fearful self perhaps died the moment I got up out of the saddle, crouching as I planted one foot on the saddle and the other foot on my dragon's back, looking behind and off to the left, and then pushing myself with my legs hard, leaping up and away so as not to injure my dragon's wing or tail in the air. I looked down, seeming to embrace death itself as I began to fall alone with thousands of feet to go below me.
I barely had time to get used to the idea and sensations of falling through the air by myself though, before a pair of large black forelegs scooped me up, and I was once again within the familiar companionship of Substance. The rest of my training now kicked in as I began to clamber up her legs and back into the saddle as Substance flapped her wings to level off and climb again.
"This calls for a celebration," Roana noted as she now drew next to me once more on Rökkr.
"No," I replied, feeling strangely somewhere between shaken and empty however. "I'd rather just . . ." I said as my voice dropped off. I didn't know what I wanted.
"It's okay, Lance," my mate now soothed near me in the air. "Let's go home. You've accomplished all you've needed to today."
Our dragons just banked together back over our island's mountains and down towards our valley again, as I looked behind me, swearing I had left a part of myself back there now, in the open sky.
I was given a quiet dinner, along with just peace and rest that night amid the understanding companionship of Roana and our dragons.
"When it changes," Roana said gently as she sat astride my back in her nightdress, giving me a deep massage on our floor bedding next to Substance and Rökkr after dinner, "a butterfly initially can't believe that it's not still a caterpillar. But somehow, its wings spread and it realizes and accepts what it has become."
"Substance tell you that?" I quietly wondered.
"Nope," she assured as she now lay herself down on top of my back, kissing my ear. "It's just me, loving you this time."
"I can be so difficult, can't I?" I smiled with a tear in my eye as I rolled over underneath Roana, taking her into my arms.
"It's one thing I love about you," she said with such wonderful, open acceptance as she now extended her arms around me as well.
I felt my spirit freely falling this time, as I fell even more deeply in love with my mate, and everything I was surrounded by.
The power of choice . . . to trust, even to fall. It was just as Roana had been telling me since the day I met her. I was changing. I had changed. Now, I could never look at a butterfly again without appreciating that I had been through just what they had.
I had gone from Hyse to Ýsa. I was that butterfly now . . . a Dragon Rider of Berk.
— — — — —
Before long, my mate and I, and our dragons, were rostered together among other Dragon Riders for periodic patrol duties—a vital task and honour that every Dragon Rider was expected to undertake as soon as they were able to. Our family made our first apprehension of a trespassing pair of kayakers within a week. They had landed at the one small beach there was on our island, and as many had done before them, they began climbing the rocks in an attempt to summit the mountains that hid us from view. Having been watched for sometime by our scouts, concealed in long-established observation posts, Roana and I and our dragons were dispatched from one post to intercept them as they climbed the mountainside.
Our dragons already knew what to do, but Roana gestured with hand signals anyway, indicating which climber Substance and I were to grab as other Dragon Riders silently descended to the beach beneath us to collect their boats and gear. The idea was for all Dragon Riders in a team to be in position to almost simultaneously grab all tresspassers in a party before any one of them could start running away and trying to hide.
Launching into a dive along the side of the mountain, Substance and I took aim at our assigned climber, as Rökkr and Roana aimed for theirs ahead of us. At the very last second, both our dragons banked, hugging the mountain slope as first one climber, and then the other were picked off the rocks and up into the air before they could even scream.
"It's alright," I assured the panicked woman climber Substance had grabbed with one paw beneath and behind me. As she screamed and yelled, the climber seemed to reach vainly for my boot in the stirrup, but Substance wouldn't let her get that close to me as she just stretched the leg holding the woman straighter underneath herself. Dragons had a responsibility to protect their riders in these situations.
"Y-You speak English?" the climber then said with surprise in a French accent.
"Yes, you'll be fine," I assured. "You've just been intercepted in a forbidden reserve. You will be set down in a minute in our village, okay?" I wasn't supposed to tell captives what would happen next until after they got there. All Dragon Riders were instructed to speak basically this same message, even just in Old Norse, in casual, soothing tones to our captives as we flew with them. It helped to minimize the amount of struggling our dragons had to deal with in flight as they held onto interceptees. The woman now indeed seemed to relax in Substance's claws, even starting to enjoy the ride and views somewhat as we crested over the mountains and gently descended into the valley and village below.
Roana's pride and admiration of me was beyond words as we arrived in the village with our first apprehensions, who were detained out of the way by other villagers once the dragons set them down on the ground, as we then landed ourselves. I just stroked Substance in both relief and praise at a job well done.
"You want to do the whole thing?" my mate invited.
I smiled as I now removed one of several of my own syringes from my safety harness, along with the alcohol wipe and liquid bandage from a pouch in my harness as well.
"It is alright," I assured the female climber I had captured with Substance as I approached her while she was being restrained by two woman villagers. "You just cannot remember what you've seen here. We will drug you and you will wake up on the outside not remembering any of this. You're perfectly safe though."
"Z-Zis really exists?" she asked nervously as I prepared her bared arm with the wipe.
"Yes it does," I replied. "And for the dragons we protect here, it has to remain an absolute secret, alright?"
Strangely, the woman now calmly stretched out her arm for me to inject.
"I am a loveur of all animals," she said with her accent. "Please continue protecting zem."
I briefly smiled. "Thank you," I said as I injected her, "we will."
"Mon Dieu . . ." the woman said as the drugs swiftly took effect.
Part of me almost wished I hadn't had to inject her. I felt we could use the support of people like her on the outside. But then there would have to be all the security and orientation issues, along with a great change of life for her and her partner.
"You know, Roana," I said to my mate as I applied the liquid bandage to the now unconscious woman, "there ought to be a way we could offer tresspassers a chance to at least become Outside Berkers . . . supporters of ours, before we inject them. Once I had told her what we were doing here, and why, she willingly offered me her arm, and asked that we continue protecting the dragons."
"We do that occasionally," Roana replied. "But there is a difference between someone who admires what we do, and someone who is actually willing to do what it takes to help us do it. Do you think she might make a good Outside Berker?"
"What was her partner like?" I asked.
"He was first terrified," my mate replied, "and then pleading with me not to hurt his wife, to just take him."
"I don't know," I sighed now. "She might make a decent Outside Berker, but he might not."
"We have to be careful, and selective," she said, "with whom we allow to join us, in whatever way. You were just a special case—both a part of us we had lost, and a scientist we badly wanted. Since these two haven't been vetted by our Outside Guardians though, it's perhaps best we return them to their lives out there."
"Yeah," I sighed, "maybe you're right."
Substance now murmured at me. "She says, 'Your heart is in the right place,'" Roana conveyed, "'but these are not the right people. As a Guardian, I will let you know when I sense someone might be right to join us.'"
"Just like Rökkr did with me," I smiled at her.
Substance just nodded with a confirming smile in her eyes.
We then proceeded to load the trespassing couple back onto our dragons' backs in nets, and along with Dragon Riders on a Nadder and Nightmare, we soon took them and their kayak to the outside lifeboat station after sunset, taking advantage of the brief summer darkness.
Just another day's work in New Berk. It was all seeming downright normal to me now.
— — — — —
Soon, impressed with the rapid progress I had been making with Substance in the skies, Roana simply asked me another night as we landed back home after a more uneventful patrol, "Would you like to go further?"
"Should I ask why, or what that means?" I smiled.
"Just higher levels of training, including combat," she said.
"You think I can do that?" I queried.
"I wouldn't be asking if I didn't think you could," she forthrightly replied.
With Substance gently looking back at me, once again I leaped before I looked as I undertook full flight and combat training with my dragon. Roana, of course, was still my trainer. Thanks to Substance's wordless support, my confidence in the air quickly grew even more, and my dragon and I became adept, even renown, for our quick aerial manoeuvres. I lost any last fears of heights or falling. While Substance seemed to understand my every word in English, we mostly developed a silent way of communicating in flight, as most other Dragons and Riders did, through looks and with me making hand and leg presses on her neck. She would grunt and murmur in Dragon to me at times, and I would somehow get her gist.
As the summer wore on, the dragons seemed to be responding well to the calcium supplements. An egg was even safely laid by one Night Fury female. I was widely congratulated by others in the village for that, even though I felt I didn't have that much to do with it. I still had to devise a drug regimen to boost their protein counts though. That would take longer.
The village mating feast at Old Berk that Roana and I had been promised was continuing to be postponed however over the remaining mystery as to why we had been attacked, and just who had attacked us. Neither Chief Roald nor Árvekni wanted Roana or I to leave the village, even to see her uncle. And apparently, the United States, as well as my native Canada, were content to have me remain safe, and isolated, in New Berk, according to official but classified communiqués we received.
"This even confirms there was never any 'Code Blue' call-up for me, and that while my confidentiality agreement remains in force, I am no longer considered employed by either NASA or the United States Government, although I am welcome to reapply, and use my accumulated seniority," I said reading an official letter that had been delivered to me one evening as Roana and I were making dinner.
"That makes the whole incident seem suspect," Roana noted as we worked together in the cooking area.
"How?" I wondered, wanting to get her take on things, even though I had had to fill her in with all the details over recent weeks.
"From what you've shared with me, they were after you," she said. "But they didn't expect me or Rökkr, yet they knew about us. That would place them at likely a very high level in either NATO or Soviet military or intelligence services. To our knowledge, even the East Germans and most of the Warsaw Pact don't know about us here. You said that one agent knew about our protected territory and its approximate location . . ."
"You seem to know an awful lot about your treaty and Berk foreign relations," I noted, turning to her.
"I've been asked to translate between the elders and outsiders a few times, due to my English skills," she replied as she finished chopping vegetables. "It's nothing really."
"Really?" I asked, feeling my own suspicions here, and remembering the detailed argument her previous self had had with the two agents.
Roana sighed, looked down, and then turned to me. "I promised I wouldn't lie to you," she now said, "so it is more than that, but I cannot tell you as things are right now. Would you accept that from me?"
"Yes," I assured as we now loosely held each other in our arms.
"Thank you," she said with a kiss.
"I promised to trust you," I simply said to her as we embraced tightly, rocking a little together.
It felt good being that butterfly now.
— — — — —
Another day, another Dragon Rider patrol. Once again, Roana and I, along with a couple of others, were being dispatched from an observation post to intercept two more kayakers that had landed on our island and were climbing up the mountainside from that small beach.
"You know," I said to Roana as we were climbing aboard our dragons next to the mountaintop observation post, "we really should eliminate that beach. Just remove it. That seems to be the source of most of our trespassing problems around here."
"What capabilities do we have besides hand shovels?" she asked." And how would a construction project be explained to the outside in what's supposed to be a strict, even quarantined wilderness preserve? We wish kayaks had never been invented, or introduced in Europe. But they're a fact of life, and now so is this."
"Let's go," I sighed as our dragons now took us into the air.
Soon, we were flying amid some low cloud cover as we planned our interception. This would be trickier, as the two climbers were right together on the mountain face, not one above the other as was usually the case.
Roana now looked at me, gesturing first at herself, then pointing at the climbers and finally holding up two fingers. Substance and I both nodded. We would be approaching the climbers from where we were on their left side. Roana and Rökkr would go in first, picking up the second or climber on the right, with Substance and I following and then picking up the first. Glancing down at the beach, we saw only one white and green two-person kayak and no one else down there, so the other Dragon Riders could take their time in descending down to the beach and picking up the craft.
Roana now held up her left fist in the air, our readiness signal. I also put up my left fist as the other two riders in our team put up theirs. She then gestured forward with a sweep of her hand, and we were all off . . . Roana and I towards the hikers, and the other two Dragon Riders towards the beach. Among Dragon Rider teams, Night Furies and their riders were invariably assigned to pick up trespassers, as they could approach both swiftly and by stealth, and their shorter and blunter talons were less likely to inflict wounds on the people we were picking up than either Nadders, or certainly Nightmares with their long, sharp, sickle-like claws.
Once again, I followed Roana and Rökkr as we soared alongside the mountain, almost hugging its contours. Then oddly, the climbers just seemed to stop on an open section of slope, even spreading apart a little. The pick-up was now easier. I didn't have time to ponder that though as Roana and Rökkr smoothly banked against the mountainside, picking up their climber as Substance and I swooped in to pick up the first, before we all turned away, spiralling upwards in the air towards the top of the mountain.
The climber I was carrying seemed remarkably unafraid, not uttering a sound.
"It's alright," I said anyway, using my standard spiel, "you have just entered a forbidden reserve. We will be setting you down shortly."
"American?" he wondered in surprise with a heavy accent, looking up at me.
His accent surprised me, too. "Russian?" I asked him in reply without really looking at him while I was flying at the moment.
"We are defectors . . . friend Boris and I," he responded, still cool as a cucumber.
"What do you do here in the West?" I asked, deciding to engage him in light conversation, to my own amazement.
"We scientists," he said. "Biologists."
"Really?" I remarked, now quickly glancing at him but noticing he was wearing sunglasses. "I'm a biologist, too."
"What your name?" he asked.
The ingrained 'national security' side of me would normally have been hesitant to reveal my name to any Russian. I had even been supplied with several alternate names by NASA which I could give if the occasion needed that would check out, while also triggering investigations of anyone checking them out in the process. But since I was about to drug this trespasser anyway, I figured what the heck.
"I'm Doctor Lance Hyse," I said.
"The Lance Hyse? From NASA?" he replied as he reached under his vest with his free arm.
I now tensed up a little, fearing a weapon. Substance seemed to glance back as well, eyeing our captive with suspicion.
"Just itch," he said, seeming to notice my expression and seeking to reassure me. "But you and your work are famous, even in Russia," he then admired.
The way he said that made me glad I was about to drug him upon landing.
"Really," I now responded with less enthusiasm and more caution.
"Yes," he replied as we crested the mountains and now began our descent into the valley. "Your papers on inbreeding—required reading among agricultural planners, even at space bureau. That why we valuable defectors here. Boris and I know much. You here in Norway officially, on work?"
"No," I said, now wanting to end this conversation and wishing I'd given him one of my alternate names. "What are you doing here?" I asked however.
"We on vacation in Norway," he replied. I had fully expected that answer from him. "Great scenery, yes?" he went on as we thankfully now set him down in the village.
Substance now gave some final flaps of her wings as she set herself and I down upon the grassy commons. I quickly dismounted her this time, while still remembering to briefly pat her in thanks and appreciation.
"Halda aftur af honum. Halda aftur af þeim bátum," I then said coolly in Norse, looking at the other villagers, but gesturing with my eyes towards both our captives.
"Lance, what is it?" Roana now asked as she looked at me after dismounting, as additional villagers now moved to restrain and hold our two interceptees.
Without saying anything, I just proceeded to walk up to the man I had been talking with in the air and removed his sunglasses. To my shock, he was one of the men who had confronted Roana and I in my cabin back at the Drager Vertshus, claiming to be a NASA Security agent.
For an instant, I felt the icy grip of fear seize not only my stomach, but my entire being. Then my basic NASA intelligence training kicked in. I also remembered where I was, and even who I was now. But I needed to confer.
Without betraying any outward emotion, or even glancing at the other climber, "My apologies," I said to him. "I thought you were someone else. Excuse me, I need to go get some alcohol wipes, along with the drugs we will be using," I covered, even though a couple of syringes were visible on my harness.
I then spun around, briefly touching Roana, subtly motioning for her to follow me, and even motioning with my head for Substance to join us, as I literally began jogging around the side of a house, appearing to get what I said I was.
As soon as we were a little distance away and out of sight of the intruders, "Roana, Substance," I said calmly and quietly to them, "those are the men who tried to grab me back at the inn."
"But you said the men were American," Roana reminded me. "My interceptee is Russian."
"Rökkr," I then said as he joined us as well. "Return via a different way and tell me if those are the two men who confronted us at the inn," I requested.
Rökkr nodded, and then went around the far side of the house to eye the men carefully, before returning to us again.
"He's saying, 'Yes, those are the men,'" Roana confirmed to my paradoxical relief as he quietly nodded and murmured. "Wait," she now said, "does that mean . . . ?"
"They're likely Soviet agents," I said. "Definitely not American, and they are after me."
"So why aren't they presenting themselves as American, maintaining their cover?" she wondered.
"Because then I would recognize them for sure," I replied. "They probably expect that I'll recognize them now. But they've likely come to confirm that I'm here, probably with a device of some kind that will record they've found me, despite the drugs."
Substance now barked, calling the other two elders to join us as well. Once Árvekni and Chief Roald arrived alongside us, the three of them started rapidly grunting among them in Dragon.
Árvekni finally grunted at Roana and I. "He's saying, 'Drug them, and search them for any cameras or recording devices,'" Roana relayed, translating his instructions as she looked at him. "'Then take them to the Lifeboat Station and call Oslo to have these men picked up by Norwegian intelligence. We cannot keep them here. Do not let them know you are onto them. The Norwegians and our Outside Guardians must find out what their plans are. And you, Lance, are to be assigned Dragon Rider guards day and night now, including Substance.'"
"Já, Verndari. Yes, Guardian," I accepted as a Dragon Rider as Roana answered the same in Norse with me. I couldn't think of a better plan at the moment anyway.
"'Go,'" Roana now conveyed from Árvekni as we broke and emerged from behind the house again.
"It's been nice talking with you, friend," I now said, putting on a relaxed demeanour as Roana and I returned to our captives.
"Yevgeny," he interjected, correcting me.
"Yevgeny," I accepted. "But it's time to return you and your comrade, Boris, to the outside. We just have to drug you. You'll sleep well and won't remember a thing about this when you wake up."
"Of course, Comrade Doctor Lance," he accepted, putting up absolutely no resistance when one of the villagers holding him now stretched out the man's arm. His calm reply and willing cooperation further unnerved me.
I proceeded to take out what I needed from my harness. Yevgeny just calmly watched me as I sterilized the injection point on his arm with a wipe and then injected him with a syringe without another word being said between us. He collapsed in the grip of two other Dragon Riders as I quickly swabbed the liquid bandage on his arm with the bottletop applicator, and then, before the bandage was even dry, I began searching him. There was nothing out of the ordinary as my hands probed through his pockets, under the vest he was wearing, even down his pantlegs. I went through his wallet, pressed and rumpled his clothing in case there were any devices sewn into them—all to no avail. I searched his companion with the same result.
Finally, I went over to the two men's kayak. I poured through their belongings, opened the craft's storage hatches, even poked my head inside the kayak as I felt around it with a hand, as Roana helped me as well.
Again nothing.
"It's alright," Roana assured as I pulled back from the kayak and rested on my knees.
"Are you trying to reassure yourself as much as me?" I wondered.
"We've found nothing on them, so there can't be anything to worry about," she replied. "We've handled Russians before, probably even Russian spies. As I've probably told you, they know we're here anyway from their satellites, as well as us helping the Allies during World War Two. They will not be able to take away any knowledge here though that they can't already gain with their satellites."
"Something just doesn't feel right," I replied.
"It's probably your Top Secret clearance talking," she encouraged. "How often do you meet Russians?"
"Very rarely, and only under very controlled circumstances on the outside normally," I replied.
"Well, we have the best controls and protection anyone could ask for here," she encouraged. "We have dragons, and you're a Dragon Rider. We're on guard against invasion from the outside, and everyone who needs to already knows that."
I looked at her with a bit of residual scepticism.
"Let's step up your training some more though," she invited. "So guys like this really won't bother you."
My sceptical look at her continued, albeit with a slight smile as well now.
"Come on," Roana suggested, "let's get these two off to the lifeboat station."
"Alright," I accepted, laying my concerns aside for the moment.
— — — — —
Soon, our Dragon Rider team was flying the two men and their kayak to the lifeboat station amid rain and low clouds that concealed us well during our brief journey. Once we arrived at the modern but unassuming station perched at the edge of a dense forest atop a boat ramp, we passed our concern to the lifeboaters there. Roana even talked on what was apparently a secure phone to contacts in Oslo.
"We are instructed to give these men a second dose of drugs," she said to me as she hung up the phone in the station Livbåtfører or Coxswain's office. "Norwegian intelligence will be sending a military helicopter to pick them up and fly them to Oslo for further questioning in the guise of a hospital setting. I've also been instructed to recommend to our elders that we increase Dragon Rider patrols, based largely on your presence here, and your impressions that I conveyed. It seems you have admirers in Oslo as well, Lance."
Substance murmured and nodded next to me.
"Well, we already have her agreement," Roana conveyed, glancing at her.
"Hopefully I'm not paranoid," I sighed.
"Just cautious, like a dragon," she smiled, kissing me. "Let's go home."
— — — — —
Soon, we were home again, passing two Dragons and Riders who were already guarding the front door of our house as we entered.
"Halló," I casually said to them in passing as we went through the door.
The man and woman and the two Nadders standing either side of them nodded politely, but never took their eyes off the rest of the village landscape, even skies, in front of our house. They were on duty, and their stoicism rivalled that of the famed guards of Buckingham Palace in London.
It left me kind of hoping I would never draw guard duty now as a Dragon Rider.
But no sooner were we inside than Roana and Rökkr were turning to go right back out again.
"Rökkr and I have to go meet with Árvekni and some of the other Dragon Riders," she said to me, "to brief them on what I was told on the phone at the rescue station. Substance has to come as well, but you cannot, okay?"
I looked with some suspicion at her, and then at Substance, but Substance gave me that look, like, Do you trust your mate or not?
"Okay," I simply smiled. "Dinner will be ready for you three when you come back. "While I know what the dragons will be wanting, what would you like?"
"Surprise me," she decided. "And thank you, Lance. I appreciate your trust here."
"It's what we do in Berk," I smiled as we briefly kissed.
— — — — —
When the three of them returned a couple hours later, Roana didn't elaborate further about what the three of them had been doing, and I felt I didn't need to know. I loved and trusted my mate, and I now welcomed opportunities like this to show her how much I did.
After I gave her a Mutton au Gratin dinner, with sliced sautéed potatoes in a goat cheese sauce no less, along with the dragons' usual raw fish, my mate made sure I was nicely rewarded for my good behaviour as well.
"Mmmmm . . . you're spoiling me," I sighed as I reclined against her in the bathtub.
"Uh huh," she agreed. "Shaving you, too," she added as she slowly and carefully drew that knifeblade along my jawline, carefull to leave my goatee alone though.
"I'll never want an electric razor again," I blissfully smiled with my eyes closed.
"Especially as electric razors can't do this," she said as she finished with the knife and began running her hands across me in the warm water.
"That's it," I replied, now turning in the tub towards her.
"Uh huh," she agreed as I took her into a passionate kiss.
— — — — —
Over subsequent days, in the afternoons and evenings after our day work, Roana proceeded to step up my flight and combat training with Substance—teaching me how to fight now, both on and off my dragon. Even though they didn't participate, I was conscious of the two Dragons and Riders who were always watching us from a distance whenever we were outside our house. Needless to say, we and our dragons were pulled by Árvekni from regular Dragon Rider patrols, and I wasn't about to disagree. Substance continued her own translated guidance sessions of me with Roana's help as well.
But Roana drilled me on how to fight with a sword, bow and arrow, and even to my amazement, standard-issue Norwegian military sidearms and submachine guns.
"This is getting a bit heavy-duty, isn't it?" I said hesitantly when she presented me with a submachine gun for the first time however at a firing area hidden in the forest of a neighbouring island.
"Only a few of us know how to use such weapons to defend our people," she answered. "We decided to accept this knowledge from the outside after the Nazi massacre in our village during World War Two, but we almost never use it, or these horrible guns, which we only have a few of. Do you wish to stop your training though? You are free to do so at any time."
"No," I decided, looking at my mate and reading in her eyes that she was hoping I would go all the way in this with her. I then shouldered the weapon and took aim at a nearby practice target sheet.
"No, hold it like this," she instructed, moving close beside me, "and aim like so," she demonstrated as she repositioned the gun and my arms holding it. "Even though this gun fires rapidly, we make every shot count. Outsiders may fire randomly and recklessly with these things, but we do not."
— — — — —
Roana continued to train me harder and harder, putting Substance and I through increasingly complicated manoeuvres and exercises each evening now. I was standing on Substance in flight, weapons in hand, and even jumping between dragons. That was still scary. But I knew that at least I had both of them to catch me if needed . . . which I did a few times at first.
In later drills, Substance and I were even diving through the flames of other dragons, with Substance carrying me close against her body, her wings wrapped protectively around me. Then came perhaps the most challenging drill of all.
"Lance, Subtance," Roana said as we flew alongside her and Rökkr, "this time, you are to simulate an emergency recovery and crash landing."
I glanced at Substance. She seemed somewhat uncomfortable with this now, which for her was unusual.
"Ready?" I now asked her.
Substance just gave me a quick glance back, and a clear nod, before facing forward again and bracing herself for the drill.
Thousands of feet in the air, I once again leapt off my dragon without a parachute or anything else that I could save myself with. Amazingly, I had become used to doing this now, even learning how to control and steer myself as I fell. It was the closest humans could come to flying by themselves like dragons.
Soon, I felt Substance surround me with her legs as we both plummeted through the air. We both smoothly rotated my body so I lay flat against her, with my arms wrapped around her forelegs just below the shoulders to avoid me slipping out of her grasp. Now was the most nerve-wracking part. All I could do was just wait for the 'wham' of hitting the ground. I felt Substance's legs tighten even further around me, especially around my head. I couldn't see a thing as my dragon held me. I had to trust her completely.
Suddenly, we hit the ground, with my dragon cushioning the shock of impact as much as she could for me. Finally after rolling and scraping along the ground several times, we came to a stop.
But Substance wasn't relaxing the grip of her legs and wings around me. She wasn't letting go.
"You alright, Substance?" I asked as I tried to emerge from her protective cocoon. "I'm fine," I assured, as I tried to reach my hands to give a reassuring pat on her neck that I was okay. Substance then began moaning gently, but I couldn't understand why.
"What is it?" I gently asked with concern now.
I heard Roana now grunt in Dragon, standing near us, having landed with Rökkr. I felt Substance nod her head once in response as she continued to hold me tightly.
"You want to know?" I now heard Roana say to me.
"Yeah," I replied from within Substance's wings still enfolded tightly around me. "I do."
"She lost her previous rider," my mate said, "like this. A man she came to love very deeply. They were struck by lightning while in the air on patrol together in a thunderstorm. They were both stunned and he fell off, despite his harness. She dove after him, but he impaled on a tree branch before she could reach him. She managed to grab him though as they both fell the rest of the way among the trees to the ground. But he died as she held him, probably just like she's holding you now."
That hit even me hard.
"She then retreated to being a wild dragon," Roana continued, "living in the caves, even off by herself for a long time. But she didn't like being alone, not after knowing love as she had. She decided she wanted to spend her life . . . loving. If it couldn't be her rider, it would be the entire village. She loved knowledge and sharing and learning. The previous Guardian of Memories saw all that, befriending Substance and taking her on as her apprentice and successor."
"Before you came," my mate noted, "Substance was settled in her life. She once had decided that she wouldn't take another rider. As a Guardian, she was somewhat insulated from anyone expecting her to. But you, Lance, your arrival, your needs, and what you represented were enough to convince her to volunteer and risk entering into another lifelong bond as Dragon and Rider. This crash landing drill has likely brought it all back for her. I'm sorry, Lance . . . to both you and her. I wasn't thinking about this when I had you both do it."
"We all need to heal," I said with understanding as I now was able to reach and fully embrace my dragon with my arms around her neck. "Substance," I assured, "I know about old wounds and deep hurts. I'm here for you, and will hold you for as long as you want me to. I love you, Substance . . . I love you."
Roana tearfully smiled as she knelt down and laid an understanding hand on Substance's large head as well. I then felt Substance hold me even tighter against her. Rain started falling, and Substance started to release me as she looked up into the darkening skies.
"No," I gently said as I continued to hold her though, moving up to rest my head on her large neck next to the saddle girth and her strap of office. "You're not done healing with me yet," I sensed.
I felt the dragon tighten her grip around me again as she lowered her large head against my shoulder and closed her eyes, and we all began to get wet in the rain.
Even dragons needed to heal from losses and lost loves.
— — — — —
Eventually we all got up and flew home. We quietly ate a light supper together on the floor in our house as usual, but food wasn't what we really needed right now.
"Let's go to bed," Roana suggested.
Soon, the four of us were relaxing in our family bedding near the fire together. Substance began gently grunting to me, looking down, almost like she was confessing something.
"She says that her previous rider called her Hjarta, or 'Heart' . . . his Heart," Roana translated. I laid a hand on Substance as she looked at me with one eye, while she lay nestled between Roana and I, and Rökkr. "She and her rider were ones among us who came to see more in each other than they did in anyone else, which sometimes happens."
"I've met Helga and Frelsari," I noted in agreement, "the first day I was here."
"Hjarta and her rider were even closer," my mate continued. "She says they didn't want to marry or mate among their own kind, just be with each other, for life . . . a life that was cut short."
I just reached to embrace Substance's head as she continued murmuring with her eyes now closed.
"She says this between all of us now is as it should be," Roana conveyed. "But she loved him."
"You knew a deep love, Hjarta," I said to her, " . . . one that you carry with you still. We are lucky to have that, and you, in this family."
Substance murmured again, now looking at me with her eyes open.
"She says that name is sacred to her," Roana translated, "and asks that only he call her that, which he still does, in her meditations and dreams."
"I understand, Substance," I replied. "I will always respect that now, I promise."
Substance just curled even more tightly around Roana and I, laying her head on the quilt across my lap as we all bedded down now for sleep.
"Substance picked the right man . . . both times," Roana sighed as she nestled close behind me. "And so did I."
"My two loves," I gently said, reaching to kiss both my dragon and then my mate. Substance now smiled as she looked at me with half-opened eyes as Roana seriously kissed my ear. I just closed my eyes, accepting this duality in love. Before I knew it, we were peacefully fading off to sleep together.
— — — — —
The training continued though. But it included more than just riding and fighting on dragons.
"So, this is the treaty," I admired, pulling a leather folio secured with a clasp from one shelf in Substance's archives in the hillside bunker one afternoon, as my dragon looked on beside Roana and I.
"Our signed copy of it," my mate confirmed. "Listen, I have some vet work to follow up on with a Gronkle up at the dragon caves now, but read this, and memorize its provisions. That should be easy for you as the text is in Norse, Bokmål, and English."
"This is part of my training, too?" I wondered as she gave me a peck on the cheek and was already turning to go.
"Yes," she simply replied as she now proceeded to depart without giving me the chance to ask why. "I will be asking you questions on it tomorrow. Just don't take the original here out of the archives. But could you make dinner at home afterwards?" she added, slipping out the door. "Rökkr and I will be a while up at the caves. Love you."
"Love you, too," I sighed, now looking back at the folio I was holding.
Substance then nudged me, and turned to depart as well.
"You have work to do, too, eh?" I half smiled.
My dragon just nodded with a grunt and now left as well.
"Say hi to the guards watching me outside," I quipped.
Now alone in the archives, I used this as an excuse to sit myself down on a stool at Hiccup's drafting table—something I'd been wanting to do anyway. Glancing briefly at Toothless' and Fury's rigs on the nearby wall, and feeling intensely surrounded by my own heritage, I opened the folio in front of me, and began reading.
"Just as Roana was telling those agents," I remarked aloud to myself as I studied the provisions subsection by subsection. Reading the treaty's English text instead of the Norse almost felt like cheating, but my recent training had been intense, and I was feeling like I deserved a break here.
— — — — —
Next came combat drills, on that other island . . . sometimes with live gunfire! At times Roana and Rökkr would train and fight beside Substance and I—other times, they were our opponents.
One night, I was on an exercise alone in the woods on the other island in the dark, this time without Substance at my side. Suddenly, I sensed someone behind me. I swiftly pivoted and pinned my attacker to the ground, knocking the syringe from their hand, narrowly avoiding getting quietly attacked and drugged.
My attacker head-butted me with surprising force though. I fought through the throbbing pain in my nose however, leaping and tackling my opponent as they tried to escape. I pinned this attacker face down and brought one of their arms up hard and high behind their back, just short of where it would dislocate or break.
"I surrender!" Roana said with me pressing the side of her head against the dirt. I released her and let her up. "Good," she then praised as she now sat up beside me. "You didn't give me a way of counter-attacking you this time. But you should have continued and drugged me without hesitation before I had a chance to surrender," she said. "So you get only a 'B' grade on this exercise. I would have woken up in just a couple hours. These are just half-doses. I've been defeated and drugged in these exercises before. Besides, as we both know, I've had a lot worse than this."
"You are one hard core warrior," I admired to her as we sat together in the nighttime forest now. "But I haven't exactly been noticing other Dragon Riders going through quite all this. Sure, I've seen others go through basic training, but what is all this really?"
"Do you trust me?" Roana simply replied.
Now my growing dragon nature inside me kicked in. I knew what my answer should be. "I love you, Roana . . . and all that it means," I readily replied. "Forgive me for asking."
"You are dragon now, my Lance," she admired. "A committed guardian and mate . . . what we truly aspire to be here."
"I am," I replied with total clarity.
"Good," she accepted.
"Just 'good'?" I queried.
She now simply looked at me with a subtle, inviting smile.
I then just rolled her back onto the dirt, leaves and twigs of the forest we were in, and took her, without word or question. Life was simple and straightforward here, but yet oh so deeply rewarding and satisfying.
This was what being Vikings, Berkers, Dragon Riders and mates together was all about.
— — — — —
Then, on another dark, rainy evening, Roana made Rökkr ready to go again.
"Have fun, you two," I said as I started cleaning up after dinner, thinking they were going off to another one of their meetings.
"No, you are coming with us this time," she replied. "Get dressed and tack Substance up."
I just gave her a look of astonishment.
"Now . . . please?" she requested.
Soon, we were flying. The rain had abated and the clouds had moved on. It was now a moonless but starry night as we descended to a mountaintop of another island. A circle of torches, and a number of other Dragon Riders were already there.
I was almost ready to ask Roana what was going on, but I decided out of love, respect and trust towards her not to.
We landed among the others. I noticed Árvekni and Chief Roald were there as well. Roana then dismounted from Rökkr. She walked over and said a few words quietly to the two elders and several others, before they nodded and handed her something.
"Lance," she called to me, " . . . step forward with your dragon companion."
I dismounted and then did so in silence, with Substance beside me. Roana then stood in front of me with Rökkr at her own side, now holding what appeared to be a thick leather sash in both her hands before me . . . the same as she was wearing.
"Lance," my mate said, "our people and dragons came here a thousand years ago to live free . . . to both hide, and fight, for that freedom. We have not lasted as a people this long just by chance or luck. While all of us pledged to defend ourselves and our way of life with our lives, some of us have chosen to dedicate ourselves more deeply to that sacred calling . . . learning, perfecting, and sharing the arts of true guardianship. I have been such a guardian of our people for some time, as has Substance beside you with her previous rider. It has been the real desire of both her and I, and among my own deepest prayers, that you come to share in that calling with us. Not everyone can or does however.
"But Lance, you have accepted the training, you have resisted even your own nature," she continued. "You have accepted and blended the ways of a dragon with your own. So, you are now Dreki Riddari or 'Dragon Knight'," my mate proudly informed me as she presented me with the sash which carried both a ceremonial knife and several memory drug syringes. "This is a rank and title known only to others who also possess it. To everyone else, we are Dreki Reitmatur, Dragon Riders. This sash and knife may be worn within the village, and will mark you among our people as a Rider of distinction, a commander among Riders, but they will not know you are a Knight, nor how much you have trained. You and your dragon are now among the best of warriors though, able to fight any foe as one, capture any trespasser, even go up against foreign elite forces, and most importantly for Berk, to know when not to. Our secrecy and stealth is our strength. Our people and their future now rest with you. Fyrir því drekar."
"Fyrir því drekar," I repeated.
"Fyrir því drekar!" the other Dragon Knights proclaimed around us.
"You are my mate," Roana now quietly admired. "An equal I had not dared to dream of. But you're getting a shave again tonight when we get home."
I just smiled at her. "I knew you'd been up to something interesting at these meetings, Dreki Riddari," I then said, putting an arm around her. "But this explains everything else . . . knowing the treaty, how you knew to rescue me from those agents out of that cabin, and more, doesn't it?"
"Our training and practices here gave me the ability to get us out of that jam as you've told me I did," she smiled. "But I was your guardian from the moment I met you."
"Somehow, I knew you were," I admired.
"My Lance . . . my Dragon Knight," she sighed as she held an arm around me, while the other Dragon Knights now welcomed me into their ranks.
I now turned and gave her a passionate kiss. To me, that was my real reward for all I had just been put through.