Been a while since I updated. I don't really have an excuse. Just Netflix. And school. So here it goes.
I knew what species her dragon would be since before I started writing, and I've been very excited for when he finally appears. I was originally going to name him Bear, but recently I got a new idea that sadly doesn't show up in this chapter. If you guys don't know what he is by the end of this chapter, I'll tell you in the beginning of the next one.
Thanks to everyone who reviewed, 10/10
And ShugoYuuki123 asked if there will be any time skips in the near future. We have a few months between this chapter and the last one, and I do plan on skipping a few years coming up later, until she's thirteen or fourteen or something. Much later in the story it's just gonna follow the Race to the Edge timeline.
In the next month, Agnar and Magnus had made enough gold selling dragons that they could easily buy or build six new ships and still have some leftover. They had upgraded their ship to include four new special cages designed to withstand a dragon's strength and firepower. Raegan was even bought a new bed in her tiny closet of a room, as a sort of reward for bringing in all the money. She didn't thank them.
In three months, they were chased away from port after port because of their 'false advertising.'
Raegan could tame and befriend any dragon she was faced with, but no one else knew how to treat them after they were sold so the reptiles would rebel, attack their owners, and fly off. A waste of money. Agnar seemed fine with this, as long as he got his moneys worth and fled before anyone could catch on.
At six months on the ship, Raegan didn't even really have to talk to other humans anymore. Magnus was still a sort of designated handler. She knew enough of the language now that she didn't need to ask for clarification. The only time she needed to make a sound would be to calm down a stressed dragon so they could be trained.
Magnus let her stay down in the cages, where it was her job to keep the dragons calm and collected so they could be auctioned off the next time they reached a port.
Raegan was sitting in the cage of a purple and orange Nadder (Magnus had made sure to teach her the 'proper' names of the dragons) she had lovingly named Prim after the little sister from the Hunger Games. She had never read the books, they were far too complicated for her, but she had seen the first movie and liked the different names of the characters. She even had a Changewing in the cage next to it that she called Rue, and a young Hobblegrunt she was calling Katniss was across the walkway.
She easily slid her hands over Prim's tail like she knew the girl liked. Her mind wandered as she massaged the dragon.
It was winter again.
Raegan felt a stab in her chest when she realized she had missed her ninth birthday. She still missed her mother, but she found great comfort as she leaned against Prim's side as though she were a pillow. The heat and the cooing was enough to ease her into a sort of nap.
Raegan loved her dragons. She spent all of her time below deck with them while the men of the ship caught new ones and stuffed them into the spare cages. It didn't take long for Agnar to realize that it would be relatively simple for his crew to just start taking the dragons they caught alive instead of killing them for dinner or exotic foods to sell at different ports.
Raegan was torn over her feelings about that.
She loved all of the ones that were forcefully taken from their homes, but she couldn't save them from their fate. She couldn't do much but what she was told.
A coward.
She loved them as they were taken from her and sold. And she remembered all of them as unique and individual creatures with thoughts and feelings and aspirations and families. And she missed them and mourned them when they vanished from her comforting hold or were killed for being "difficult".
Raegan spent most of her time on autopilot, taking care of her dragons, feeding them, sleeping with them.
She'd recently moved her bed down so she could always stay with them, which did wonders for the cold she was constantly feeling from the drastic drop in the temperature now that the days were shorter. Their heated scales varied depending on species. Hobblegrunts and Nadders felt about the same. Terrible Terrors were warmer. Monstrous Nightmares were the hottest.
Even after everything she had learned in her months with them she missed the comfort of her Hotburple. The nightmares began leaving her be on those spar days when she was so exhausted and overworked that her mind couldn't help but shut off the grief and gave her the familiar feelings of her first dragon guardian.
Some days, she woke up with the elder's smell at the forefront of her mind.
It was spring. Over six months with them and Agnar and Magnus began trusting her a little more. She was allowed to go to the deck, even if she never chose to. She was allowed to walk on land when they docked without much of an escort.
The vikings seemed to have forgotten that she wasn't just some dumb little kid. Left her to her own devices, mostly catching the dragons on their own and thrusting them into her care before setting off to another market. All she had to do was feed them and clean the stalls and make sure they didn't attack the audience at the auctions.
They didn't realize the mistake they had made until it was too late.
It started as usual as ever. She only had one dragon with her, a Tide Glider named Percy. He was long and thin, needy enough that he required a refill of water every few hours (his natural habitat was the ocean). Skittish to the vikings that sometimes walked through the cages, but he didn't attack them.
That would have been a nightmare. He was one of the species of dragons that spit acid.
She couldn't do much but spend her time with him, running her hands over his glossy blue wings and rubbing his belly. It had taken him several months to get used to her; the only reason Agnar had allowed him to stay for so long was because of his rarity and the myths behind his species. She was a little bored without other dragons to coo at, but she was doing her best to just avoid talking to Magnus and Agnar. She only left the room to 'use the facilities' and eat.
Raegan was ashamed at how excited she was when they finally delivered another do her. For all intents and purposes, she was a captive here as well. She craved attention from the other wild animals on her level.
She felt even worse when the anxious beast thrashed his body this and that and tried to get the tight ropes undone from around his form. Agnar gave her a triumphant look, as if to say, 'look, another beast conquered!'
She didn't react to him at all. Ignoring him as though she wasn't even aware he existed.
The only creatures that listened to her were the dragons. The only creatures she trusted and loved.
Even ones who didn't yet trust her.
He was a sandy brown color, pale and almost white on his belly and dark like the bark of trees on his sharp back. He was a species she had never seen before. Not that it was very easy just this moment when he was thrashing every which way and trying to detach the muzzle from his flat snout. His long and thin tail swung around the cage. The wings jerking against the straps holding him together would grow to be strong and powerful in the years to come. She could tell he was a predator to be reckoned with.
The cheering vikings left soon after, sending a few spare taunts at their most recent conquest. Banging on the bars and sneering before they sauntered out.
Raegan got to work immediately.
She made soothing sounds quietly as she approached, but didn't enter the cage just yet.
It would be too dangerous right now, she had to wait until he calmed down enough to focus on her.
"Shh," She calmed him slowly. His movements began to still and his pale purple eyes dashed around the room several times before landing on her. Percy was watching intently from across the hall. Silent as a mouse. "It's okay, buddy. You're okay."
He gave a whine from deep in his throat which tore at her insides.
She opened the door to slip inside.
Her experience drew her to make eye-contact. Her months of working with them over and over let her know which species needed what and which techniques worked across the board. His pupils grew a little less threatening as she reached out her hand to pet him. He let her touch him without much complaint, now. She's experienced far more aggressive dragons in her time here, and the newcomer here was young and tired. He was too exhausted to put up a fight against someone like her. Her whole body was speaking comforting words to him.
Raegan took the time to study him as she took off the binds and buckles keeping him tied down.
At first glance he looked like he was covered in fur, she was pretty surprised when she felt cold scales under her hand as she eased his neck to rest on the floor. She undid the bind on his mouth and was amazed at the sight of his breath turning the air in front of his nose to mist. He was freezing!
He didn't have any horns, it looked like, but a few of his sharper teeth poked up from his lips even when he closed them. She gave him an affectionate rub as he ducked his large head into her side. He was shaking.
The groups that went out searching often kept dragons for up to two weeks at a time. There was no telling how long this one had been under their vituperative care.
It took her longer than she'd care to admit to realize that he was only a few years old. A child in dragon years, like her. Small, scared. Separated from his kind.
She didn't know really anything about dragon families and how long the mothers took care of their young; maybe he was already old enough to take care of himself. She couldn't know a difference.
That was hopeful thinking.
She knew better than to rely on that now.
Raegan didn't speak again for quite some time, just curled up with her new companion as her mind wandered over everything she'd helped the vikings do. They both missed their homes. They both missed their parents. They were both just children.
Raegan worked on autopilot as she gently placed his dozing head onto the ground again and crawled down his body to unlatch his wings and set them free. She didn't have a distinct thought for the rest of the day.
She spent her days gaining his trust and earning the relationship she forged with all of her charges. Percy sang out softly to them at night as the orphans cried together.
Their shared experience couldn't be communicated, the two of them; but Raegan knew about him and she could only assume he felt the connection as well.
Two sides of the same coin.
Raegan couldn't bare the thought of it happening to another child. Someone else like her.
She lived her life on autopilot, doing as she was told. She turned away whenever a viking raised their hand up to grab something off of a high shelf, as though any moment she would be beaten. But then she would turn around and try to comfort her wards.
She beat the thought inside her head.
You haven't even tried.
Could it even be worse than this?
But for weeks she did nothing.
Then she heard the news from Agnar.
"Be arriving in port soon," He told her offhandedly, polishing the gold helmet he'd gotten himself from a more recent trip. "Get the new one ready."
She left without a word, returning to her stables and directly into her little brother's cage.
She didn't even know what she was actually planning until she searched through the stores of the ship for food to pack and blankets to keep later that evening. She lived her life on autopilot, acting without thought came second nature.
She paused as she stuffed a few fish into a bag she could sling over her shoulder and hang by her waist.
It was late night before she knew it. She could barely see her hands in front of her as she gathered bread for her escape.
I'm leaving.
She stood silently in the dark room by herself for several seconds. Then she moved on. Her face was blank. Her heart empty. She hesitated a few seconds as she turned to walk through the door, then grabbed a long rope settled on one of the barrels. When she got back to the pens, she eased her way inside of the young, frosty dragon's so she could wrap the rope around him.
It looked like he was very streamlined and didn't have anything jutting out that she could hold onto. The dragon coo'd at her but remained passive enough that she could wrap it up.
I guess the last few hours of cuddling made him trust her a little more.
Just by eyeballing him, it looked like he could carry her weight just fine. Percy was never one for long bouts of physical contact, and Raegan never even considered riding him out of there. She gestured for him to follow her, shushing him as she did so, and left the door open.
It only took a few minutes to open up the other cage and wake Percy from his peaceful snooze. She mostly just planned on the vikings being too confused to catch her on the way out. Who could expect her to do something like this? She opened up the door, and lead the two dragons out.
The rooms and hallways were mostly black or just lit with a dim lantern. Percy groaned lightly as he looked around, and Raegan felt the frosty dragon shivering behind her. Not from cold, he didn't seem to have it in him; but he seemed nervous enough. Understandably.
They ran into no one until they got to the foot of the stairs leading to the dock.
As soon as they made it upstairs, she was shouted at. Mostly confused, annoyed, angry voices.
Raegan froze for a few seconds, then scrambled over and hopped on the younger dragon's back. She hadn't flown in several months, half a year, but she could still nudge him in the correct direction to try and get him to take off. He did without much complaint. The stomping feet of enormous and intimidating vikings influenced all three to flee with haste.
She could feel Percy following them behind while she tried to get a good hold on the younger dragon. The vikings didn't stand a chance to catch them. They all had disappeared in the sky in a matter of seconds.
She kept a tight hold on the ropes she'd tied to the dragon, and her other hand held the straps of her bag in front of her.
This was a huge difference from riding Greenie. His body was streamlined, narrow head, built for speed. But still growing, a child really without the grace of someone who can carry someone without being hindered. She experimented with leaning different directions to make him bank. She heard Percy follow them this way and that.
Her new dragon friend followed her lead without much complaint, it just took a few minutes of coordinating to work it out properly. He was willing, but would grow tired quickly if she pushed him too hard.
Her one mild complaint was that it was a little chillier than she was used to. She didn't gain any warmth from the dragon she was riding like with Greenie or Bee. It looked like this kind of dragon was naturally cooler, blending in with the cold feeling of the winter around them.
Raegan just ignored her blue fingers for the hours she flew until they finally came across an island.
Her only immediate plan was to find some place to rest for the night and then work to find her Bee.
A Mexican magician is doing a magic trick.
He tells everyone that he's going to disappear on the count of three.
so he starts counting.
"Uno. . . dos. . ." and then he disappears without a tres.