Chapter 36
Heading Home
One problem with being somewhere far north is that there's never any real indication of when you're supposed to get up, what with the sun being up all night during summer. Add to that sleeping somewhere where no one knew you well enough to risk trying to wake you up, and time tends to sweep past until it's very late. That's why I ended up sleeping until nearly 10:00 in the morning, and still woke up a little groggy and cranky, but more than ready to leave. Cindy called ahead to notify my family I was heading out, and she also gave me a map with a couple of locations marked where there were people willing to take me in for a night along the way. Shortly thereafter, I finally waved goodbye, smirking as I watched Malin get carted off to a helicopter so he could be taken to the "nearest" facility, and took off, Wind Fury style.
Talk about a huge land! Alaska is nearly as wide across as half the continental United States put together, and Denali is nearly at the center. It took me nearly three hours to reach the coast travelling at the speed of sound, even going in a straight line. Once I did, there still wasn't even the slightest sign of human inhabitance, nothing but rocky fjords and pristine forest along the coastline. Though Alaska is huge, you certainly couldn't deny its rugged beauty.
The rest of the day found me taking the trip far easier, gliding along the fjords, watching as reindeer and bears went about their lives below and seals and even whales played off the coast. That was yet another plus about being able to take a dragon's path home: the so-called bird's-eye view is stunning. Being a dragon also means being able to hunt easily, and though I had never liked fish before, the past few months had found me gaining an increasing taste for it, especially fresh-from-the-ocean fish, and so meals were easy to find, if still unpleasant to prepare, and keep from roasting to ashes.
By nightfall, I began seeing larger towns and coastal settlements, along the coast of British Columbia, and only a little ways further I finally found myself crossing back into US territory, Washington bays and fords coming into view and the characteristic shape of Puget Sound and Seattle along the coast spreading out below me. I banked inland, gliding over rooftops and yards, searching for the sign of a place to stay. The rangers had dealt with the issue the night before, and after a few minutes I spotted it: a small house near the edge of Seattle with a bright ring of lighted traffic cones on the front yard. Gliding down, I landed carefully on the walkway and morphed back to my normal self.
KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK!
A few seconds later, the door opened, and in its place stood a young couple, a brunette woman and a tall, blond-haired policeman, still in uniform. "You must be the boy they called us about," the man said, gesturing inside. "Come in, take a seat."
I followed them into the house and into the kitchen, where I took a seat at the table. After all that had transpired, I was glad to be able to sit down, and to a meal that wasn't Pacific salmon. The couple introduced themselves as Rachel and Stephen, or Steve. "We're very sorry to hear about all you went through," Rachel said apologetically "Are you really that, uh, how do I put this: are you that dragon boy we heard about on the news a while ago, from Colorado?" I smiled knowingly and nodded, holding my hand out palm facing down, and watched in amusement as their faces lit up in surprise as grayish scales raced up my arm from my fingertips.
The usual round of curious questions came afterward, but after all the couple was providing me for the night I was happy to answer most of them. We sat down and had a dinner of baked chicken and potatoes, and then I went to sleep on the bed in their guest room, trying to ready myself for the next day.
Indeed, the next day was a great deal more exhausting, as I had to travel down a far more populated coast, and would have to cross the first of multiple mountain ranges, the imposing Sierra Nevada. I was going to try and skirt around the biggest cities to try and keep attention to a minimum, but this is the West coast we're talking about, with California and all of its residents and tourists. As expected, near any developed area, I drew crowds out of their houses and workplaces as I cruised near cities and towns large and small, especially once I crossed into California. By mid-afternoon I had traveled almost as far south as I needed to go, and banked inland, heading out across the arid deserts of inland California, the infamous Mojave. The summer sun was not merciful, and though dragons are relatively immune to extreme temperature swings it wasn't pleasant, so I used the massive thermals rising up off the desert floor to soar up to extreme altitudes, matching some of the lower aircrafts and clouds. Below me, the heat of the desert caused the land to shimmer, and nothing alive was visible, save for a bush or two. Talk about lonely.
Evening came, and with it the heat abated, so I slowly fell to lower altitudes and began to skim over the foothills. The Sierra Nevada loomed high in front of me, promising a very exhilarating flight through valleys and canyons soon to come. However, as I began to enter the mountains, I came to a worrying conclusion: I was not yet anywhere near my next stop, and wouldn't reach it until well after midnight. I wasn't going to last that long, either, having been relying on thermals and gliding most of the day so as not to wear out. Though Furies are fast, they're not machines, and even travelling as the fastest species I wore out eventually. Instead of trying to press on, as I reached the first of the higher peaks I glided down into the valley to search for a relatively safe place to sleep for the night, changing from Wind Fury to Night Fury as light waned.
A shallow overhang was the closest thing I could find before it got too late, carved into the base of a cliff along the edge of the valley, and overlooking a small pond down below. It wasn't really off the ground at all, but it was somewhat concealed, not noticeable unless you looked right at it. I landed and peered inside, the Night Fury's nocturnal vision aiding me as I made sure I wasn't sharing the hideout with anyone or anything. Satisfied I was the only one, I crept in, sweeping a small pile of leaves in with me as a makeshift bed. I stayed as Night Fury as I curled up, since I didn't want to take any risk of being caught off guard out in the forest by any other animal bigger than my human self. I didn't think there was too much in the way of animals that would mess with a night-going dragon, though, and within 5 minutes, I was asleep.
AAAAWWWWWOOOOOOO! AAAAWWWOOOOO! YIP!YIP!YIP!YIP!
Mother Nature has an absolutely horrible sense of humor. I jolted awake as the howls and cries echoed up from lower down in the valley, putting me on edge. I perked my ears up and peered out into the night, my eyes straining to spot anything in the dark recesses of the trees below. Though I was a Night Fury, and therefore had nocturnal vision to rival that of any owl, there was no moon out that night with the clouds rolling in, and so at first I couldn't spot anything. My ears, however, picked up the sound of rustling leaves and fast, paced padding through the forest. Whatever they were, they were getting closer, and having heard howls like that before on documentaries, I had a pretty good idea of what they were too.
There! A group of shadows appeared, sliding out of the trees and darting along the edge of the far side of the pond nearby. They slowed at the water's edge and started to drink.
"Didn't know there were wolves this far south here," I whispered quietly to myself. Quietly, I got up and carefully moved the leaves and twigs at the edge of the overhang into a line across the opening, taking care to pick up the piles and drop them with the least amount of sound as possible. Nonetheless, I managed to crack a twig here and there, and caught the wolves' attention. As their heads swung my way, I lowered myself to the ground and backed further into the overhang, opening my mouth and laying down a layer of liquid fuel on the leaves and branches, the same substance Nightmares produced in order to combust themselves. Then, I froze.
RRRRR!RRRRRRRRRRRRR!
The wolves weren't being very quiet as they neared my hiding spot, not making any use of the sparse cover as they climbed the hill. It wouldn't have really mattered, though, as I watched them all the way up, my luminescent green eyes the only thing to give me away. They fanned out and circled the hole, growling and sniffing the air, trying to figure out what I was. At this point there was no doubting they saw me, as they were only about 20 feet away, and even as dark as it was, if I could now see them as if it were daylight, they could at least make me out under the ledge. I hissed lowly and bared my teeth, the hiss forming into a deep growl as I picked myself up off the ground. It worked, the growl and my size keeping them wary and at bay, but not for long. Soon, the lead wolf advanced forward, snarling. Out of the corner of my eye I spotted another one racing up from the side, hoping to catch me by surprise. Instead I flared my wings, breathed in, and….
RRROOOOOOOOAAAAARRRRRR!
A Night Fury yelling at full blast is nowhere near as impressive as a Thunderdrum's, but the screeching roar still shook the area, shaking rocks loose from the hillside and reverberating down the valley, echoing for miles. The wolf pack shrank back, edging down the hill a ways and not knowing what to make of my act. However, they hadn't seen me attack or do anything seriously defensive, and so began to advance forward again.
This wasn't a surprise to me, as the year had been dry in the area, and not much prey was to be had, so these wolves were likely to try anything. I gave another ear-shattering shriek as a warning, but they weren't deterred. I bared my teeth and finally went to the last resort, releasing a stream of white-hot fire and aiming it at the line of fuel across the opening. Thanks to the Nightmare fuel, it burst into flames and cut off the entire opening with 6-foot high flames. It wouldn't last long, with nothing but leaves to burn and the liquid fuel only lasting a few seconds, but it had the intended effect. The wolves began yelping and snarling at the flames, not exactly afraid of it but plenty smart not to try and get close with the waves of heat radiating out. I waited until they had backed far enough away, then burst through the fire, trails of flames and embers following me in great clouds and scattering the pack even more. I turned around to make sure I wasn't starting a forest fire (it had been dry that spring, like I said earlier), and once sure the fire was dying out, I lifted upward and skimmed across the valley, leaving the bewildered wolf pack behind to figure out what they had just dealt with. A conversation with Toothless came to mind as I searched for another, safer spot for the night: while dragons were the top predators in their world, and with intelligence to match ours, wolves were formidable rivals even there. If a pack managed to wound a dragon, taking out a wing or other part used for flight, sooner or later the dragon would empty of fire, and it would be no more dangerous than an angry bear, another animal that occasionally falls to wolf packs.
Eventually, I found another, higher-up ledge on a cliff further to the northeast, and settled there. This time, the only thing that could reach me would be birds, and they were a bit more wary of larger flying reptiles. I don't know how the pack would have reacted to another encounter had I been stuck near the valley floor again, but whatever the case, I didn't hear or see them for the rest of the night.
Did you know that one of the worst places for a dragon to try and fly over is Las Vegas? Not only is it still in the middle of the Mojave desert, but flying over that tourist trap is ever so annoyingly attention-getting. When I saw the city appear in front of me as I cleared the foothills on the other side of the Sierras the next morning, two things happened: first, I realized I had strayed a bit and was way too far south and needed to veer northward again. Second, after a couple minutes of approaching the northern end of the city, a news helicopter began following me across the Nevada desert. My nerves were too thin for me to just outpace them, so once I was past the edges of the city, I turned to face the chopper and gave a warning roar, and a piercing glare. The news people got the message: I wasn't in the mood to play their games. At all.
I made it to central Utah by mid-afternoon, having crossed over another mountain range and passing over Arches National Monument, and as evening came, I was in the heart of the Rocky Mountains. I was grateful that this third night would be the last I'd be spending away from home, and thankfully, it was spent with a very kind family in a town near the center of the Rockies called Glenwood Springs. The two younger, boisterous boys were a bit of a headache, especially being fans of HTTYD and recognizing my favorite dragon form, but I'll live. After all, I have to deal with Holly every day, so I can survive anyone else. As they say, beggars can't be choosy.
Astrid, Hiccup, and Toothless had had a very restless four nights, each of them camping out in Hawken's back yard and trying to stay awake as long as possible in case Hawken happened to return in the middle of the night. Denise had been getting phone calls every day giving her reports of where Hawken was staying that night, and the night before no one had really slept when the call came in saying he hadn't made a stop anywhere. They had ended up taking shifts, one staying awake or staying at the house to watch while the other two slept or went to get food or supplies from the village, so as not to be a burden to Denise or Sam. Astrid had been doing a little better, what with getting along with Holly and finding things to do with her, keeping both their minds off the missing person.
But a week after Hawken had actually disappeared, and after four nights of sleeping in shifts, the stress was taking its toll and by noon on the next day, only Toothless was awake, and even then only barely, one eye half open and watching the sky somewhat lazily. Holly was inside snoozing, having spent the night before trying to keep from getting depressed again by substituting Hiccup for Hawken in her teasing, and both of the Vikings were laying sprawled out on a blanket and tarp in the grass, right next to each other and deep in dreamland.
Hiccup had been dreaming about running through the forest, looking for his friends out in the woods in an odd game of hide-and-seek, when suddenly, the earth began trembling! Okay, so actually it was Toothless practically rolling him and Astrid off the blanket, but it had the same effect: the two lovebirds woke up rather suddenly.
"Toothless, bud, w-what's going on?" Hiccup groaned. Toothless "barked" and looked off toward the mountains in the west, or what you could see past the houses. Hiccup wasn't paying attention, still trying to rub the sleep out of his eyes, but Astrid glanced that way, squinted, and then gasped. "What?" Hiccup said groggily. She nudged him onto his feet and pointed. In the distance, just coming down over the last of the foothills, was a small slightly off-white dot. At that distance it could have been taken for a large bird or maybe a small airplane, but the distance-to-size ratio suggested it couldn't be the former. Plus, not many small planes move very fast, and the dot was moving at a speed that was phenomenal: in just the minute or so they were watching, it had quickly crossed nearly a quarter of the distance. Astrid's eyes widened, and she jumped up and bolted for the house. Pulling the sliding door open and ignoring the dogs barking at the sudden intrusion, she screamed, "HE'S HERE!"
I shot like a bullet down over the foothills of the Front Range, staying up relatively high so as not to damage anything below (I was moving at supersonic speeds, and the shock wave I was producing would have blown out windows like tissue paper if I was any lower) and blasted across the plains. As my house finally came into view, I flared my wings to reduce speeds and began dropping down toward the neighborhood and aiming for my yard. To my surprise, Hiccup, Astrid and Toothless were standing there in my back yard next to my mom and sister. As I slowed down to prepare to land, I never got the chance to touch ground on my own, as Toothless jumped up and tackled me into the grass, covering my face in dragon spit.
"AUGH! Toothless! Toothless stop, please! Get off me already!" I squirmed as Toothless licked my face over and over, not caring if he was pinning me down to do so. I pushed him off and shrank back to my normal self, only to get pushed over by Toothless again.
::Who took you? Did you take care of them? If not I'll get rid of them myself if they ever show up here again!:: Toothless continued to ramble on, still licking me as I glared at the four laughing people in front of me. "Yes, yes, just stand there and laugh at me getting drowned in slobber," I griped. "Glad you think it's funny." "Alright, Toothless get off," Hiccup said. ::What? Oh, fine,:: Toothless grumbled as he stepped away, retreating over near Hiccup. I stood up and burnt the spit off my face, then turned to see everyone. Holly ran up to me and hugged me, then Astrid sauntered up next to me.
WHAM!
"Owwww! What was that for?!" I yelled as I rubbed my arm where she punched me. For a girl nearly as thin as I was, she had some serious strength. I mean, even to the dragon boy here she has a mean punch. "That was for scaring all of us half to death," she snapped, moving a strand of hair out of her eyes. "What?!" I snapped back. "You think it was my fault I got kidnapped? Oh, don't you dare think of kissing-" I was cut off as Astrid joined Holly in giving me a killer hug.
"And that's for getting back here safely," she said when she let go. "And to clarify, I only kiss Hiccup." She gestured to him, and I finally had an excuse to smile as Hiccup turned red.
Next, my mom walked up to me, tears in her eyes as she hugged me almost as fiercely as Holly and Astrid had (though Holly still hadn't let go; even when happy to see me she's a pain). "I'm glad you made it home safely," she said as she stood back a touch. "We were very worried when we got a call two nights ago that you hadn't shown up anywhere. Did anything happen to you?" I laughed. "Yeah, I got to sleep in the woods. Come on, I'm half dragon, it takes a lot to keep me down. I mean, not even a power-hungry psycho-maniac was able to keep me locked up, you think a night in the forest will be that bad?" I stepped back as my mom finished her hug fully.
"One thing, though," I said as we all turned to go inside and sit down. "What?" they all asked. I smiled. "Let's try and keep the adventures and excitement to a minimum for at least a week or two, alright?" Everyone laughed in agreement as we stepped inside. A few minutes later my dad made it home, and we all sat down for a day of just relaxation and reunion, retelling what I had experienced, and just laughing and telling jokes and playing games the rest of the night.
It was good to be back home.
A/N- And there it is, the end of Book 1! Hope everyone enjoyed reading it, and stay with me as we move on to the next installment of the series: Expanding Horizons. New adventures, new dangers, and more happenings that will reverberate with us throughout the rest of the series. Say tuned, the Two Worlds Collide series is far from over!