"Wake up, sleepyhead," I heard one morning a couple weeks past our big Yule celebration now.
"Why?" I wondered with a yawn. "I thought you said we didn't have to worry about schedules much in winter."
"Because, the storms are gone, and even the sun looks to be coming out as it's rising at midmorning now. So your leg cast comes off today, and Substance has plans for you," my mate responded as she knelt beside me, already fully dressed for the day.
"Why does she tell you first, instead of me?" I queried, now stretching amid the quilts and bedding against the front wall of our house, where living rooms and windows would normally be in Outsider houses.
"Because you sleep late," a deep, familiar voice replied from near the fireplace at the centre of the house, "and I prefer talking in Dragon."
"Besides, Tor has been up and about for hours," Roana added, still kneeling beside me, but fortunately now offering me a steaming mug of morning tea. "He's even taken his family for a walk in the snow, and it is kind of embarrassing when the chief of the village is consistently the last to wake up in his own household."
"I've usually been the last to get up," I replied while sitting up in the bedding now and taking a first sip of tea, "no matter where I've lived, growing up, even with Melanie. Some call it a curse. Me? I've considered it both a curse and a blessing at times. But I suppose if you want to provide me with an alarm clock, even a wind-up one," I now sighed, "I'll start waking up like an Outsider again."
"Well, I don't know if we need to go that far," my mate decided as she rose to her feet. I smiled, knowing by now that I had merely to invoke the dreaded 'O' word, or 'U' word in Old Norse, which seemed to instinctively cause most any Dragon Berker to swerve the other way on a given topic. "But you did seem to respond fairly quickly when the phones rang that one morning at the lifeboat station," Roana then countered, heading back towards the cooking area where Tana was quietly working.
"Part of my training," I quipped, "alongside target practice with my NASA-issued handgun. Sound sleep to 'Yes sir!' in twenty seconds or less. But I was expecting to have a heart attack from it all by age forty. Thought I'd escaped from all that here though, and would be able to enjoy the restful and stress-free sleep my body could evidently use. What can I say? I'm just naturally a late sleeper."
"So I suppose I should go into labour in the afternoon if possible then several months from now," my mate replied, helping Tana now in the cooking area, "or would you prefer evening?"
"I'd prefer the lazy, quiet winter days I was promised by this blonde girl when I found myself working at chores or one thing or another from sun-up to sundown basically every day of the week on this island when the snows weren't here," I sighed, trying to enjoy my tea. "You even had to get me to slow down when I first woke up in this cast, remember, with talk of leisurely reading and discussing the Journal for days. Now you all want me to speed up again apparently."
"Árvekni had to go get Roald, most times," Substance now admitted, "for morning meetings. Just stopped there on way, by time I became Guardian."
"Really?" I remarked, feeling somewhat vindicated.
"You not so bad, Lannce," my dragon affirmed. "Is he?" Substance finished, now facing toward Roana across the house fire.
"No," Roana now smiled, "he's not. Want more tea, my love?" she then asked me.
"You sure there's time?" I teased with a raised eyebrow.
"There's time," she smiled, even coming back to me now with a small, steaming kettle of it. She proceeded to sit down next to me, refill my mug, lay the kettle aside, and then curl up against my bare chest as I extended an arm about her. Substance just turned her head, facing the fire again with a subtle smile, her lifeless eyes half closed.
I was still trying to get my head around this sudden shift in tone and pace as I glanced between my mate and my dragon, while also noticing Tana continuing to quietly chop food for the day's stew in the cooking area as her Zippleback was fetching frozen blocks of both meat and vegetables from our wooden pantry hatch to the outside, and thawing them for her with smooth coordination among its two green heads as well.
I looked at our dragons again. Substance, Rökkr and Spring were all lying on one side of the house fire, seeming to bask in its heat and glow like they would the sun.
Levellers, I thought. Dragons were indeed the great levellers and peacekeepers in this society—even likely the reason it had endured now for almost a thousand years. Just a few well-chosen words from Substance had turned Roana from, "Hurry up, let's go," to slowing down and curling up against me.
I kissed Roana's forehead nestled against me as I rubbed the couple layers of tunics she was wearing over her back and sides.
"I'm sorry," she quietly apologised, now meeting my next kiss with her own lips.
"I know I'm a lazy screw-up," I smiled.
"No . . . No," she replied as she now sat up to not only kiss me, but lay me back down amid our bedding. "No," she repeated a third time as she then slipped back under the quilts with me, slipping off her tunics and laying her entire self against me. "No," she repeated one more time as she kissed and embraced me.
"I'll wake up whenever you want if it's like this," I quietly breathed in compromise.
"Deal," my mate breathed as well amid our kisses as I now drew the quilts over our heads. I could feel Substance smiling at us from almost halfway across the house. Her pet and his mate had been deftly pacified once more, and she was likely enjoying whatever happy and even passionate vibes we were sending out, right along with us.
I no longer questioned it all. I was too preoccupied.
— — — — —
Eventually we dressed before Roana, Rökkr, Spring, Substance and I trekked outdoors into the now bright sunshine and across the snowy commons along an already dragon-cleared path to the bunker and its clinic. That Substance asked to be tacked up in her saddle and strap of office, and convey me across to the bunker, did give me pause. But after my very pleasant morning so far, I knew I owed her one. She probably had already factored that in as well.
Once inside the clinic, Roana helped me move onto the exam table and shed the pants with oversized legs that Tana had made for me to wear outdoors to accommodate my cast. Then, employing a small electric saw, Roana proceded to carefully slice open the cast my right leg had worn for two and a half months, careful to cut below the heart and 'I Love You' she had written on my cast in red felt pen when she had first applied it all.
"We're saving this part," she said as she sawed the rest of the way around the heart and words in a long oval.
Once my leg was freed from the cast though, "Owww!" I grimaced, beginning to straighten and stretch it for the first time as I lay back, propped up on my elbows on the stainless steel-clad examination table.
"Hold still," my mate cautioned as she ran the fingers of both hands carefully along my shinbone. "Okay, it's healed," she concluded.
"You don't need an X-ray?" I wondered.
"I'm a Berk healer," she simply replied.
"Not just a vet?" I queried.
"Healer," she reiterated, looking into my eyes now. "Lance," she then sighed, "as you probably know, I've been making rounds most mornings, among human patients as well, while you've slept in . . ."
"Ran has become obstacle," Substance interjected, summarizing, "to harmony here. We will ask him to leave, to live in Barony."
"Don't I have something to say about it as chief?" I wondered.
"Recommendation then," Substance corrected. "He not bond with dragon. He disturbs and complains. He not belong here. Roana and FSK medic can care for human villagers."
"Ever since I came here, and ever since I became chief," I said looking down, still propped up on my elbows upon the exam table, "I have believed that we can make a place for anyone here. We did it for Alexi, despite my own reservations initially; and now we've done it for Miles as well. Throwing Ran off the island would feel like quitting on him, giving up. That's something I didn't think we did here, Substance."
"He bond with dragon then," my Night Fury replied, "or he leave."
"A master to control and correct this pet?" I let slip.
For the first time, Substance narrowed her vacant eyes towards me, but said nothing.
"I'm sorry," I apologised. "That was out of line."
"We're equals here," Roana noted, "but we are tied together. Ran has never been tied in, as the rest of us have."
"But you, or your past self when I first came here," I qualified, "told me that there were a number of villagers who weren't bonded with dragons here, including your parents—just like there were a good number of dragons who weren't bonded with villagers."
"But my parents had left for the Outside shortly after I started college," my mate countered. "Our norm here is that unless a human bonds with a dragon, we prefer they not remain on the island, especially now that we are better connected with the Barony. Interaction with the Outside was much rarer when I was growing up though, and my parents entertained dragons frequently in our house, making sure I had dragon friends . . . otherwise even my family would have been invited to leave. I think they stayed, or were permitted to stay, mainly for me—to offer me a future here. I can remember them resisting bonding with dragons themselves, but I don't know or remember why."
"But there are a good number of unbonded dragons, aren't there?" I posed. "Hundreds of them, from what I can see. Why can't we have unbonded humans in the village?"
"Fyrir því drekar, Lance," Roana replied. "That's why every human is here. We do not have room or resources for those that aren't. Dragons cannot live on the Outside, but humans easily can. While in Germany, the baroness and I talked a lot. She told me there is a healthy list of recruits that are willing to come here, and bond with dragons. There isn't a doctor among them right now, but there could be in future, and she can make a priority of it if we want. Ran has been using us to hide from life however, even from himself. Having almost married him, I know him. His only valid reason for staying here—she died in the battle. Things weren't working out between them anyway, from what I could see last summer. They weren't living with the decisiveness of Berkers here, just dating without committing—much like his ancestor, Snotlout, was said to have done in the Journal during part of his life with my ancestor, Ruffnut."
"This seems a little different from what your old self told me when she was introducing me to this place," I noted. "You were all about freedom of choice in living arrangements back then."
"I wasn't in tribal leadership then, was I?" she countered. "Things look a little different when you're the one having to hold everything and everyone here together."
"You were a tribal emissary, knight, and the island vet when I met you," I replied. "But this seems personal with you, apparently in more ways than one."
"We have all to think about," Substance reminded me, "not just one. Disharmony cannot be tolerated here. He is not here fffyyrrr—for the dragons," she stammered, trying to say our core credo in its original Norse, "and he is not well-liked, or relied on, by human community either. He is hiding among us, as Roana say. Leading is hard, Lannce . . . but harmony, and dragons, must come first."
"We can't tolerate diversity, or embrace an outcast and his quirks, eh?" I wondered. "Even though he's known this island as his home his entire life, except for his outside schooling and training."
"He bond with dragon, embrace ways of a dragon," Substance reiterated, " . . . or he leave."
"I agree," Roana added.
"I think you should recuse yourself from this decision or vote," I quietly noted.
"Rökkr?" my mate then swiftly countered, turning towards him.
Near her, Rökkr began grunting in a complex series of vocalizations while he looked sternly at me as I still sat semi-reclining on the exam table. I waited for a translation, but none was coming.
"Little translation here," I hinted.
"He vote with Roana and me," Substance summarized.
"Anything more to it?" I wondered.
"If you understood Dragon, you would know," my Night Fury replied to me with uncharacteristic irritation.
"Even my founding ancestors didn't," I replied. "So I think I'm in fairly good company. Learning and speaking our Norse has been hard enough."
"I learn your language," Substance almost grunted with frustration. "Why you not try mine? It part of me, who I am," she added, seeming to be feeling hurt now.
"Substance . . ." I sighed, not knowing where to go with that as I now sat upright on the exam table. I drew up both my knees for the first time, wincing with pain at the stiffness my right leg still had, while rubbing my face with my hands. "I thought we were here to get my leg cast off," I added, "not have a full-blown tribal council of elders."
"We have let some problems 'slide' as you say, too long," my dragon countered. "It time they were dealt with."
Spring, ever the young, sensitive soul, just seem to cower at the controversy among us now, even backing away a bit, while I noticed Rökkr nudging and quietly murmuring to Roana before he looked at me once more.
"Lance," Roana now said with more conciliation, putting an arm around me from the side, "Rökkr was just adding that he had long thought Ran wasn't fitting in here, reminding even me that he had warned me against him, and thought that while we should help him to adjust to life on the Outside somehow, that he belonged out there."
"Rökkr put you up to this further explanation, just now, didn't he?" I queried.
"So what if he nudged and talked to me?" Roana quietly whispered with mild exasperation herself. "Can't you see Spring's nervous from all this?"
I bit my lip about dragon 'coaching' or even perhaps control. "That's a problem with the Dragon Berker mindset," I decided to say instead as Roana still had her arm around me. "I may not be a psychologist or sociologist, but from what I'm seeing here, our community can't seem to deal well with diversity of thought or independence among the humans. Independence among dragons seems to be fine, but humans don't seem to be permitted that particular luxury."
"Lance, what have I just said?" Roana sighed more loudly this time, shifting further back into irritation again as she withdrew her arm. I took a deep breath, sighing myself. "If a human cannot buy into interdependence with dragons," she continued, "even if they've lived in this village their whole lives so far, they don't belong here. It's that simple. It has to be."
"Roana, could I see you a minute?" I asked, glancing towards Substance, and even Rökkr. "Alone?"
"No," my mate replied. "Your dragon companion has the right to know anything you may want to express. It is law with us."
"Enmity has arisen between dragon and human at times in past here, since Journal," Substance noted, "and even at Old Berk, within Journal. Anything you say, you say in front of me . . . I know what it be, anyway," she said after a pause.
"You can read my mind, then?" I challenged directly to her.
"Yes," my dragon replied with equal directness. "It comes and goes, but when I focus, I sense your thoughts. It is how Dragon and Rider fly as one, and fight as one. You not need to tell me to turn or fire in battle, just think it. I have been picking that up from you before battle. I know you have challenge accepting this truth though. So I reveal it to you slowly, at right times."
That gave me pause for a moment, as I had not before known how deep the bond between human and dragon companions, between Substance and myself, ran. For an instant, I felt mentally naked before my dragon now—that she could tap into most any thought she wanted, while I could not do the same with her.
"Your kind has always had this ability?" was the only thing I could think to ask now.
"Yes, Lannce," Substance replied. "You think Toothless could fight and kill Red Death dragon with Hiccup, if Toothless had to understand Norse within weeks of being snared? Opening a link, one mind to another, through trust, was how they won. Hiccup just never knew, in full. You now do.
"Please don't shut me out, through anger," Substance asked though. "You can, easily. I not read through that. No dragon can. But that why harmony so important, so vital, to us. It is circle we all part of, equally. That is what tribe is—circle. If Ran, others, not share in circle; they not part of us. Please, Lannce . . ." my dragon almost quietly seemed to beg now.
"It's not control?" I wondered. Spring was looking at me, almost sadly, already shaking his head in answer to my question.
"No," Substance replied as well, fully closing her eyes. "It is sharing harmony, equally. Maintaining circle. That all. We dragons revere circle tribe is among us, guard it with our lives. Guard you with our lives. Without humans, without you, we nothing. We dead."
"And from you, no secrets are hid," I sighed, reciting part of the Lord's Prayer I had known in the Anglican Church my whole life until now.
"I not God, or Christ," my dragon replied, seeming to appreciate the irony with me, "even less than you want to be fulfilment of our prophesy. But circle is calling of Dragon Berker way and life."
Substance now stepped forward a few paces, reaching her black snout blindly for a nudge with me. She stopped short of the table, probably sensing from me how close she was, but keeping her large head and its half-opened, unfocused eyes elevated and pointed in my direction as I sat up on the table.
I knew now that I had no choice but to willingly keep myself and my mind open to her, even open them further. Slowly, I moved myself off the table in front of Substance as Roana, Rökkr and Spring watched standing beside one another. The sudden weight on my now uncast right leg caused me to stumble, that leg buckling under me. But Substance was right there, catching and bracing me with her head. She could not have known to do that the way she did in her blindness without direct access to my mind, reacting virtually as fast as I was to it all. I now relaxed myself as I lay on the top of her large leathery, scaly head, embracing her, even feeling our link deepen, almost right through my heart.
"All here," I now felt her deep voice resonate through my body, as much as hearing it via my ears, "all humans who guard us, accept it."
"And you all let me be chief before I bought into all this?" I wondered aloud.
"I not part of that decision," Substance replied.
"And it was made without me as well," Roana echoed near us. "You and Substance saved us though. The job was basically yours automatically, especially with who you already were to us."
"But I want you to be great chief," Substance continued. "To know dragons, and our ways, yourself. I also want to be truly your dragon."
"My becoming a knight didn't quite do that?" I wondered.
"That fighting," she said. "This more."
"Alright," I now quietly accepted, still embracing my dragon's head.
"I love you," my Night Fury said.
I opened my heart unreservedly to Substance at that point, even just thinking, Here, take it.
Substance seemed to silently raise her head slightly higher in acceptance, almost lifting me bodily off the floor on top of her.
"How do you say that in Dragon?" I quietly asked, pressing my nose against her hide near one of her ear lobes.
"You want me to teach you?" my dragon murmured.
"Another trap?" I smiled, moving my face back just a bit.
"You want to learn sacred words like those," Substance gently said, "you learn on my terms. They not just words to us. They part of greater discipline, ways of a dragon."
Just then, Arna came in with a basket load of both Tor's military battle fatigues, as well as their own outside civilian clothing, breaking the spell for the moment as she headed for the washing machine in the corner of the clinic.
"That's for military use only," Roana said to her.
"But how am I supposed to vash the rest of our clothing?" Arna shot back.
"Hand washing with simple soaps, as we do," my mate replied.
"But those rough vashboards vill ruin our clothing," Arna countered, setting her clothesbasket down in front of the washing machine anyway. I noticed she was wearing a blue Outsider polyester ski bib and parka—things our washboards would just shred.
"You should be switching to village clothing by now," Roana answered. "I thought you had been told about all that," my mate added, turning towards me with a less than pleased look in her eyes. I just looked down, feeling like I was right back in the doghouse again.
"Can't talk to Outside relatives like at other posts," the brunette woman sighed. "Can't wash clothes in machine, even though machine here. Have to live like ve in Røros Museum village—no, even more primitive than that!"
"I'm sorry, Arna," Roana tried to empathize. "But that's how all of us live. It's part of the deal in living here."
"Vhy?" the FSK wife now sniffed in front of us. "Vhy? I marry vonderful man, but I not marry all this."
Even though I was wearing a tunic which just covered up the Berker sheepskin leather equivalent of boxer shorts, I turned to face Arna, grimacing as I stood on my right leg again.
"Easy," Roana encouraged beside me as Substance now braced me on my right side. "You're still going to be lame yet for a few more days."
"Got it," I quietly acknowledged to my mate, while also realizing what I should be doing for 'the circle' now, as Substance had put it so well. "Arna," I then said, getting her attention amid her growing frustration at life in our village, "I was right with you when I first came here from the Outside—and that was under the old regime," I shrugged with a half smile, trying to relax the tense atmosphere. "But remember, to the Outside world, we don't exist here. We can't. It has been that way for much longer than you or I have been alive, almost a thousand years now. We both appreciate how it would be if the rest of the modern world discovered there were dragons living here—and that extends right down to washing machines, even calls to relatives. We don't have the energy, and can't process the wastewater with its artificial detergents if every one of us uses the former. Plus how long would it be before either you or I let something slip to someone either of us know on the Outside if we made calls there?"
"My husband vants to stay," she now sniffed. "He is in awe of dragons here. But I don't know. Ve're married, even have a daughter . . . But this is not how I imagined living."
She now left her basket of clothes behind in sad frustration, just turning and walking away before slamming the wooden door of the bunker shut behind her.
"She's on the verge of divorcing him, and leaving us," I quietly noted, knowing those signs all too well myself.
Rökkr now murmured again as he glanced between Roana and the closed door.
"You're right," my mate quietly replied to her dragon companion. "It is sunny. Excuse us, Lance."
Without further explanation, the two of them walked to the door as Roana pushed it open again. Substance braced me on my right side, as slightly smaller Spring tried to do the same on my left, before we three then moved towards the door to follow, with me limping on my newly freed right leg as I did. As we reached the door, stopping there, I could see and hear Roana calling after Arna as both my mate and Rökkr half ran towards her on a cleared wide path in the snow. Catching up with Arna, Roana put a hand on her shoulder to stop her as my mate began to talk with her. I couldn't hear what was being said, but I really didn't need to.
Very gradually, with her head lowered, Arna turned towards Roana. My mate drew our houseguest into an embrace. I could see Arna was crying now. They just remained that way, seemingly for moments. After watching them, Rökkr now moved in, nudging Arna as well, before tilting his head and gesturing off away from the village, either up the valley or towards the sky. I saw Arna pointing to herself as Roana talked beside her while Rökkr nodded.
To my surprise and delight, Roana was then helping Arna mount Rökkr's neck, even though he wasn't wearing his saddle.
"Rökkr and Roana are taking Arna for a flight," I said to Substance beside me in quiet amazement, conveying the scene for her.
"I know," my dragon quietly replied beside me as I looked at her in surprise.
"Rökkr's thoughts even clearer to me than yours," Substance added, "when I focus."
Once Arna, and Roana in front of her, were on his neck, Rökkr then launched himself upward with a great leap with his legs out of the wide trench in the snow, before rapidly extending his wings and powerfully thrusting the three of them further into the bright blue sky.
"They're flying . . ." I couldn't help saying in admiration.
"Lannce . . ." my dragon said after a long pause, her voice broken in sadness.
"What is it?" I asked, kneeling down next to her large, black head despite the pain of flexing my right leg.
"I wannt to be up there . . . again," she said, lifting her head skyward as if she could see Rökkr flying peacefully over the village with Roana and Arna.
I could have cautioned her—half of me wanted to—with a hundred reasons of why it wasn't a good idea for her yet.
"Well," I said however, pausing as I briefly looked down, "I have my cast off now . . ." I let Substance sense the rest of my thoughts of love and trust towards her as I touched the saddle she was wearing. My dragon just silently turned her head and nudged me, her eyes closed in quiet gratitude.
"You need pants and boots though," she then reminded me. No wonder my legs and feet were so cold as I knelt at that doorway.
"I'll get them," I said with chagrin, turning and seeing them on a chair beside the exam table.
"You need help," she countered as I turned and hobbled with Substance and Spring back across the clinic to that chair.
A moment later, I was fully dressed again, complete with the warm Berker flying jacket and gloves I had worn to the clinic. After some difficulty in stretching my right leg and making it work again, I was mounted on Substance's saddle as we once again stood poised at the bunker's doorway in the bright sunshine. A number of dragons, some with riders, were now seeming to take to the skies, almost in celebration of the rare fine weather.
"I trust you," I said, laying a gloved hand on her.
I lowered myself on the saddle, gripping its bars tightly as Substance's wings spread on either side of me.
"Now . . ." I simply added.
We were off. The bunker doorway and the snowy hillside around it fell away beneath us as my dragon powered us both up into the sky and sunshine. Substance and I were flying again. Even I couldn't help briefly closing my eyes in joyful awe.
"Guide me, Lannce," she replied, "with your mind . . ."
I opened my eyes once more, sitting up a bit in the saddle now. Bank right . . . I thought to her, seeing if such a cue would work. Substance smoothly banked right. Level off . . . I then thought, and we levelled, heading west towards the bottom of the valley and the ocean beyond. Substance wasn't barking to generate echoes this time. I had placed my trust in her to keep us airborne, and I now realized she was placing an equal trust in me to guide her.
Bank left. Let's head up the valley . . . I suggested in thought now, not really wanting to venture out over the ocean this first time, in case we had problems. Substance compliantly banked us to the left as we gracefully turned just out over the ocean above the rocky sea stacks that stood guard in front of our valley against all beyond.
Level off . . . I thought, aiming us up the island valley. Accelerate, climb . . . I then encouraged, spotting Rökkr with Roana and Arna ahead and above us. Substance began digging her wings more rapidly into the air, powering us forward and upward. Good, very good . . . I couldn't help praising appreciatively to her, before adding, Slightly to the right.
"Track them with your eyes," my dragon then suggested. "I cannot see them well through you, but sensing where you see them, and how far away, might be faster than guiding me with words in your mind."
"Okay, show me what you can do," I replied, just keeping my eyes focused on Rökkr, Roana and Arna now.
"Now we Dragon and Rider," Substance said with satisfaction as she banked just a little to the right and continued accelerating us higher right towards them. Rökkr then turned over the upper valley ahead of us back towards the village. Substance and I pursued them from behind and below like an eagle pursues prey in the air, turning with them as we continued accelerating—all without me speaking or even thinking a word to her.
I found myself closing my eyes and touching my face against the back of my dragon's head in a prayer of deep thanks, overwhelmed at the link that even I was conscious of now, and the miracle it was allowing to happen. Substance and I were flying as one, fully and equally dependent on one another. The joy even I was feeling was beyond measure.
"Lannce . . ." she prodded me with her voice though. "I cannot fly us, unless you concentrate."
"Sorry," I smiled, opening my eyes again and focusing on what we were doing together in the air.
"We be great guardians together now," Substance said with joy yet quiet determination. "I feel alive again."
It was true. I felt something returning, even surging within Substance beneath me. Here in the air, she was no longer a wise but handicapped tribal elder. She was a dragon again . . . alive, powerful.
Substance and I surged forward together, passing just under Rökkr's left wing as we moved ahead of them now. Then, we just had to do it. My Night Fury and I peeled off into a bank and spiral dive to the left, daring them to give chase.
Rökkr and his riders pursued us in that spiral before we led them climbing upwards into the air again as Spring caught up with us. We then flew eastward up the mountainous valley that was covered end to end and side to side in deep snow.
I'm sorry you had to wait for this, Substance . . . I thought as we turned again, now soaring beside the almost vertical mountain faces.
"No, Lannce," my dragon assured. "This was right time . . . for us."
"Time to bring it back to the village, you two!" we heard beside us as Rökkr and his riders caught up.
"Yes, Doctor," Substance sighed with a little irritation beneath me, but knowing she was right.
I looked and concentrated on an appropriate landing spot in the snowy village commons in front of our house. But then, once more, we were bad. It couldn't be helped. I didn't know whether it was Substance, me, or both of us, but I didn't care. We soared on, right over and past that landing spot. Substance accelerated and climbed one more time out over the sea as we now emerged between the north and south ranges of tree and snow covered mountains that marked the western end of our island.
I barely had to think it before my dragon shot a powerful blast into the air in front of us as we then smoothly banked away to the left, back towards the village.
We are warriors . . . I silently expressed with both pride and gratitude.
"Yess . . ." Substance agreed.
Now we could land.
Roana was already waiting on the snow in front of our house with her arms folded, hopefully not too irritated with us, as she stood next to Rökkr, Arna and Spring while they watched us smoothly descend from the air.
"Pick landing spot, not Roana!" Substance hastily cautioned as we rapidly approached them. I just quickly looked at a patch of snow a couple metres in front of Roana and Rökkr, as Substance flapped her wings, slowing our descent as she then landed us with amazing smoothness, her front left paw touching down almost right where I was looking.
I then just lowered myself in the saddle, tightly embracing my dragon's head and neck. Substance retracted her wings as I sensed the others approaching us from the front.
"This," I said, raising myself back up in the saddle while still looking down at Substance's head, "is why we do without washing machines, phone calls and letters here. Gladly so."
"Yes . . ." Substance agreed beneath me. My dragon and I were one again, so very one.
I looked up to see Arna clearly moved at the sight of Substance and I together, as well as her own first experience now with the true magic that flying with a dragon was. But for some reason, she still didn't seem quite convinced or sold on it all.
Roana now came up beside me as I remained in Substance's saddle, also glancing towards Arna as she did. "Lance," my mate then almost whispered to me, "what about that unresolved issue we still have?"
I nodded as I glanced down, remembering another discussion Roana, Substance, Rökkr and I had had a number of days ago during a storm about another in our village, two others actually, who were not in the best way, and who had missed out on our recent Yule celebration, although beef had been brought and shared with them.
"Arna," I said, almost seeming to get an idea being fed to me by my dragon now, "you want to really have your own stake here?"
— — — — —
We walked together, with me still riding on Substance. "My legs stronger than yours," my dragon had perceptively reminded me, as we crossed the snowy commons, taking Arna to a house on the seaward side of the village, near the ceremonial area.
"We want you to see Salmei," I said to Arna as we walked. "She's a young orphan girl I had seen on my first day in the village who was being raised by her family's Nightmare, named Treystu, or Trust. Her dragon was seriously injured in the battle, attempting to fly Salmei to safety during the initial assault as Treystu was shot down from the air. Salmei was uninjured though, and she then proceeded to protect and feed her dragon during the brief occupation, reportedly incurring the ire of the Soviet commandos more than once, so I'm told. But Salmei's being a little girl was the best protection both her, and her dragon, could have had. She was a tough and determined young survivor, even warrior," I smiled, looking aside with admiration.
"Now though, the dragon is struggling amid her injuries after battling them for months," I continued. "A number of us in the village have been helping them both. Roana has even been fielding a number of offers of adoption from human villagers. The little girl has remained resolute though. She is determined not to lose this last member of her family, and has refused all offers of adoption. But caring for her dragon into the winter now, even with help, is taking a toll on her."
We arrived at Salmei's door as Roana stepped forward and knocked while Substance grunted, announcing who we were in Dragon under me as I dismounted from her saddle at last. The door was opened by the little girl. A large basket of fish was in the middle of their house floor. She had obviously been slowly pulling it from their pantry towards her dragon. The young girl looked exhausted. Her clothes were dirty and she obviously hadn't had a bath in a few days.
Even I was surprised. "Shouldn't we be doing better than this?" I quietly asked Roana beside me.
"Others are supposed to be checking on them daily at midday, while it is light," Roana said. "But during storms like we've had the last few days, it doesn't always get done, especially as different villagers take turns."
The young girl then simply returned to her task of hauling the large basket of fish across the floor to feed her disabled Nightmare. Even the sight of it tore at my heart.
"Arna," I said, turning to her. I could see she was moved though as Roana stepped forward to help haul the basket the rest of the way to the Nightmare as it lay centrally on the house floor near the small fire the two of them were able to maintain by themselves.
"All they have is each other," I said in English, "and they refuse to give up on one another. But they need more than what they have."
"I can see that," Arna responded beside me, almost seeming in shock from the sight.
We resumed watching them in silence a moment more as both Roana and little Salmei now fed Salmei's dragon with fish—the Nightmare, gratefully swallowing every fish she was given, but clearly with some difficulty. I briefly recalled the first day I had seen them both out in the village, healthy and innocent of what they, what we all, would experience a few months later. It saddened me even further.
"You vant me to adopt her," Arna noted beside me, breaking my train of thought.
"No," I quietly replied. "As I told you, Salmei will not be adopted. We want you, your family, to help her family survive and endure. Her dragon has grown up serving and guarding Salmei's family alone since hatching. It doesn't seem to really want another dragon around, and neither does Salmei, which makes pairing them up with another family on the island here somewhat difficult. Roana and I were going to try matching them up with a family from out in the Barony—but perhaps Tor, your daughter and yourself would like to become part of their family."
Arna just looked at me.
"This will make things like washing machines pretty irrelevant after a while," I added.
"But Tor and I do not speak Old Norse," she replied. "And caring for that large dragon?"
"All you need are baskets, fish, and occasionally a shovel," I quietly said. "Salmei will show you the rest. She lost her father to fire, and her mother to cancer. Her dragon likely cannot last forever as it is. Salmei is a very responsible young girl from what I've seen. Helping you care for your infant daughter will give her something new to focus on, one that will not compete with her dragon for Salmei's strong loyalties. She should make a transition sometime though, bond with a new family before her dragon passes if it doesn't survive. You want a purpose here? A reason to stay and adapt?" I posed.
"She's lost everything," Arna quietly said as we looked at the little girl and Roana feeding the disabled Nightmare.
"She could lose everything," I noted, "unless someone makes a difference for her, now."
Arna seemed to take a deep breath, before she stepped forward and knelt down beside Salmei and Roana. "Hjálpa?" she offered in one of the few words of our Norse she had picked up so far.
"Já," the girl simply replied, as Roana got up, allowing Arna to take her place and continue slowly feeding fish to the ailing Nightmare.
Roana came back to me no longer able to conceal her sadness. "It may not be long," she quietly said. "Treystu has been holding out as much as she can."
I could see Arna glancing back as I now consoled Roana with an embrace. I just looked back at Arna, asking with my eyes.
Glancing at the young girl beside her as Salmei fed her dragon another fish, Arna then looked back at me, closing her eyes and finally nodding.
"My family vill move here this afternoon," she said to us, "after I give this house, and even Salmei a good cleaning. Vil du hjelpe meg omsorg for datteren min?" Arna then invited the girl beside her in Bokmål, asking Salmei to help care for Arna's daughter.
Salmei looked at Roana in confusion.
"Vilt þú hjálpa umönnun hennar fyrir dóttur ungbarna hennar, eins og hún hjálpar þér þykir vænt um drekinn þinn?" my mate translated into our Norse, rephrasing it into a more equal exchange of Salmei helping to care for Arna's daughter as Arna helped care for Salmei's dragon.
"Já . . ." the young girl of few words said once more as she now looked at Arna.
"This might just be what both of them need," Roana quietly whispered to me. "Salmei hasn't been able to keep up with Treystu's needs very well, and that has been making her dragon worse."
"So there's hope?" I wondered.
"I choose for there to be," Roana answered as we both looked on at them.
— — — — —
Soon Roana and I found ourselves bidding Tor, Arna and their daughter farewell—even though they were just moving across the commons from us.
Tana had even offered to go with them to lend a grandmotherly hand, and allow her Zippleback companion to continue soothing their toddler off to sleep. But once we all were over at Salmei's house again, the girl seemed more than happy to introduce the toddler to her own dragon, and as soon as she had invited Arna through mostly gestures to bed the toddler down next to her own Nightmare for even an afternoon nap, the infant was falling fast asleep as usual. Well fed this time, Treystu even seemed to find renewed purpose in helping to care for this new young human, as Salmei was as well.
I smiled though, watching as Tana nonetheless insisted on doing a first load of clothes washing by hand for Arna, seeming to take extra care with the more delicate fabrics. Sure enough, that worked, as Arna could not just stand by as an aging village woman washed the family's Outsider clothing for her.
"Let's just have dinner over here," I suggested amid all the cleaning and washing that was going on in Salmei and Treystu's house. "A housewarming."
As we just left the half-made stew in our own house for another day, I continued marvelling at the young girl and her Nightmare surrounded by activity, life, and a new sense of family once more in their house, with all of us enjoying fish and vegetables, both roasted and raw. Even Treystu eventually grunted to Roana that it had been too long since she had enjoyed stimulating mature conversation, thanking my mate for all she and Salmei were being given this day with a simple nudge as the evening wound down.
"Því mitur þat tók okkur svo langan," Roana said to the dragon in apology for taking so long in arranging this kind of needed and lasting help for them.
Eventually, Roana and I were walking home across the commons amid a quiet, clear and starry night . . . well, both of us were riding our dragons side by side actually, as Substance and Rökkr occupied themselves widening the snowy trench in front of us with sustained blue flames. "Works off dinner," Substance had said to me as she and her mate had voluntarily begun their task.
As Spring followed us while Tana rode Tvö Höfut's shoulder between its necks as well, Roana just reached across from Rökkr to take my hand, giving me a clear indication that now our guest family was gone, I had one more task ahead of me tonight as well . . . albeit it a pleasurable one, especially now that my leg cast was off. Rökkr was even walking with his right wing extended over and around Substance. It was 'love night' in our house for sure—even with Tana and her Zippleback still present, and presumably off in their own corner where they slept.
"You got a problem?" I heard Roana wonder, as if she was trying to read my mind as well.
"No," I assured as I was just watching my dragon rapidly melt and harden a section of snow wall that was as high as my chest as she and Rökkr continued slowly but steadily moving forward underneath us against the snow. "Just a busy day," I added.
"We at house yet?" Substance wondered, pausing for another breath as her flame shut off for a moment. I just looked up across the shelf of snow in front of us. The front steps and porch of our house were only about three or four metres away now. "Thanks," my dragon said as I patted her neck appreciatively. "All I need to know."
"Can you see through me?" I wondered to her. "Really see?"
"Yes and no," my dragon said, almost with sadness as she paused again before resuming her fiery snow clearing. "I sense information from your thoughts like how far, as well as up, down, left, right, faster than you can think words—basically like you catch balls or aim gun. You don't think 'up, down' as you move arm, your arm just moves. Arm doesn't see either. So I become arm. I can sense outlines, presences, vague images . . . but not clear picture. Might work on that focus though, and see what might be possible."
"I still wish it had been me, rather than you, Substance," I said, appreciatively laying both my gloved hands on her neck at the base of her ear lobes, scratching where I knew she enjoyed it the most.
"No . . . you don't," she gently countered. "You would be dead if it had been." Substance and Rökkr then simply resumed their steady blasting of snow in front of us.
I ungloved my hands, laying them silently down on my dragon's neck as I let her feel the full extent of the unfathomable gratitude I was now feeling towards her for what she had just said. The two dragons melted the final few yards of snow on either side of the trench in front of us before we reached home.
— — — — —
I found myself in an earthquake . . . a serious one as I felt shaken like I never had been before. Strangely, even though the wooden floor of my house looked solid, it was spongy and very soft to my touch. Suddenly, the wooden wall of our house next to me issued not one but twin ear-splitting roars.
"AAAAHHH!" I exclaimed, sitting bolt upright now in what turned out to be our family bedding as I felt Spring nose me over onto my side away from what was going on next to us.
"Sorry, Fatir," my son excused in seeming apology for startling me.
"Sor-Sorry, too," I now heard Substance strain to say as she gasped for breath, albeit sounding very contented and satisfied.
I turned my head with my eyes open now, seeing Rökkr poised over Substance, and easily guessing what they had been up to, especially as he gnawed at her neck a bit more.
"A different way to be woken up, eh?" I heard Roana now smiling as she knelt down next to me offering me a cup of morning tea. "It was my suggestion though, so don't blame them. More natural than an Outsider alarm clock for you anyway."
"What happened to waking me up yourself?" I wondered. "The way we had talked about?"
"I can be a little mischievous, even conniving with the dragons, can't I? Especially when we don't have Outsider house guests anymore who wouldn't understand," she responded, smiling.
"Outside Berker, you mean," I clarified.
"Outside is the operative word there," she defended, while still offering me the cup of tea once more.
I gave her a sceptical look while I sat up in the bedding now, taking the tea as Roana, and even Spring, moved my pillows up behind me, before my dragon son invited me to lean back with a gesture of his head.
"Thanks," I said gratefully to him. "Do you have to be the good peacemaker all the time though?"
My young dragon son looked down for a moment. "Lost much," he finally said. "War, conflict, hurting . . . not like."
I extended a hand to rub his head as Spring just quietly laid himself down next to me again, resting that growing black head of his on my lap.
"Let him be who he is," Roana said as she settled herself down on my other side. "It's okay, Spring," she soothed him, placing a hand on his head as well. "I'll just be bad sometimes for both of us, alright?"
"Good better," he sighed. His was a pure soul indeed—despite, or maybe because of, all he had experienced, and lost, in his young life.
Substance seemed to turn her head towards him or us though a little, but she said nothing as she chose to rest it instead on our bedding next to us once more.
"But . . . you don't mind seeing your dragon parents doing that?" I then wondered to him while gesturing my head towards Substance and Rökkr, even though I knew better by now.
"Why?" Spring innocently replied, raising his head and looking at me. "See them clean each other, eat, what is difference?"
"Your father is still half Outsider, Spring," Roana noted as she just took her own indoor tunic off and curled her bared self up against me in our bedding with her own cup of tea. "They don't do such things in front of others out there. They keep themselves . . . falinn, hidden . . . from each other. Much more than we do," she explained, searching for the right words.
"Strange . . ." Spring noted, looking down as he tried to understand such a perspective.
"Your English is getting very good, Son," I now praised him solely in that language.
"Thank you, Father," he replied likewise, looking at me with gratitude.
"Can you read my mind, too?" I wondered.
"What you not want me to see?" he answered, almost seeming to smile.
"Never mind," I smiled as well. He was right. What was there really left for me to hide, sitting up in our bedding as I was with Roana curled beside me?
"You need rest of my plan," Substance noted, turning her large head towards me as Rökkr moved down beside her, breathing a deep sigh as he proceeded to relax.
"Plan?" I asked, almost choking on my tea, suddenly feeling I was in for something here.
"You want to deal with Ran?" she then asked. "Turn him? Keep him here?"
"Do we have to deal with that right now?" I sighed. "Breakfast and a bath first might be nice, you know."
"Storm coming," she said, raising her head, almost seeming to sense it. "We should get to dragon caves with Ran before it arrives."
"Why would we want to go to the dragon caves if another snow storm is coming?" I wondered, now trying to more rapidly drink my tea before it felt like I might lose the opportunity to enjoy it at all.
"Because," Roana now chimed in, stirring herself again beside me, "it is something that neither you, nor Ran, have ever done."
— — — — —
Before I knew it, I was being bathed, dressed, offered a quick breakfast, and then almost shoved out into the snow as the skies darkened and the winds began picking up.
"See you later," was all Roana would say as she kissed me goodbye at our front door before Substance hustled me outside, almost at the point of her snout as the door was shut behind us.
"Find Ran," Substance then said to me, lifting her head towards the sky and sniffing the air. "Not much time."
"What is all this about?" I wondered with a little irritation.
"Connection, circle," my dragon almost cryptically replied.
"Oh . . ." I said, now beginning to realize what was going on. "And it has to be done now?" I added.
"Now is time," Substance simply maintained.
"Did you do this with Amund?" I couldn't help asking as we trekked across the commons, with me leading her towards the house Ran occupied alone.
"He was boy when he did this," she simply replied.
We then were interrupted by the young vet tech who was still in our village, as Frelsari came up behind him.
"This is it!" the young man almost angrily exclaimed to me. "I qvit!"
"YOU!" Substance almost roared at him. "Come with us!"
The young man seemed to almost freeze in surprise. "Who runs zis place?" the young vet tech exclaimed, looking between Substance and I.
"We both do," I said. "But," I added, "the Guardian has spoken, and right now, she is."
Substance had her mind made up about something, and I felt I owed her my support at the moment, even though I didn't know what it was. Looking at Frelsari, I could tell he had done about all he could with this clearly difficult Outsider as well.
"Hvíld núna, vinur," I gently encouraged Frelsari as I gestured with my head back towards the house he shared with Helga and their family.
The aging Night Fury grunted at me, shaking his head though.
"He says he will fly Anders with us," Substance relayed.
"Anders now, too?" I quietly wondered to her as the winds picked up further around us.
"You, as Outsider and Berker, are needed," she quietly said to just me. "We both either get them to join circle, or they leave."
"Understood," I replied.
We all proceeded to trudge the few remaining steps to Ran's door, with me knocking on it firmly. Ran opened his door, dressed only in an undertunic, clearly surprised to see me.
"þú . . . þarft at klæta sig og koma met okkur," I said somewhat hesitantly but firmly as I directed him to get dressed and come with us.
Seeing both Substance, as well as a now nervous Anders with Frelsari behind him, Ran just quietly nodded, murmuring, "Já," before he turned to change as he shut the door again.
Fresh snow was beginning to blow against us as Ran soon re-emerged from his house, now dressed for winter. With a gloved hand, I simply gestured towards Substance's saddle as he compliantly mounted it, before I mounted in front of him.
Substance then took off into the air, with Frelsari carrying Anders not far behind us.
"Hvat—" Ran began to ask me as he loosely held onto me from behind.
"Ekki núna!" I replied somewhat sharply to him, cutting him off as I tried to concentrate amid the rapidly diminishing visibility on where we were flying so Substance could receive adequate guidance from me.
"I got this," she said, then roaring anyway, her ears rapidly pivoting to trace the echoes.
I felt her bank us gently to the left as I now lost sight of both the ground and mountains around us. A couple of cave dragons, a Nightmare and a Nadder, then dropped down on either side of us, with fish hanging from each of their mouths, seeming to silently offer to escort us to their caves. Substance briefly roared again, seeming to confirm her course, as all of us began gently descending.
Substance barked one more time, the echoes almost immediately bouncing back to us. Finally I saw some snowy rocks and trees in front of us, as I looked at the ground, giving Substance a spot to focus landing upon. She braked in the air, once again touching us down gently, this time right at the twin entrances to the caves, as wisps of steam came out of each of them.
"You're getting better at this," I praised Substance as I dismounted from her, my right leg feeling somewhat better today as it touched the ground.
"Thanks," my dragon said as our group then entered the caves behind the Nightmare and Nadder who had been escorting us. "Now," Substance said, turning towards we three humans once we were all comfortably inside, surrounded as we were by other dragons of every breed resting almost cheek by jowl against one another upon their nests. I knew Miles, Ilsa and Garrison were in here somewhere, but I couldn't see them amid the crowd of dragon heads and bodies around us. "Lannce, Rann, Annders, take off coats, please," she said in English, knowing that Ran and Anders could understand her along with me.
"Why?" even I had to ask though.
This time Substance would not answer, except to repeat, "Take off coats, please."
Reluctantly, I led the way, taking off my flying jacket and gloves. The other two humans behind me slowly followed.
"You may keep them as bedding," Substance continued. "But do not wear them again for now, or we will burn them off your backs."
"Substance?" I asked her a bit forcefully.
"It is time you three understood my kind better," she then said, "through living, eating, and speaking as we do. Became part of circle with us."
"I did not sign up for zis!" Anders now objected as Frelsari angrily growled behind him.
"Are you Berker, or Outsider?" Substance then challenged, her vacant eyes narrowing.
"W-Why?" Anders stammered in his Norwegian-accented English.
"Because if you Outsider, you leave, on my neck," Substance maintained. "We send your belongings on next helicopter. But if you Berker, you stay, learn, become part of us!"
"The FSK are Outsiders, like me," Anders tried to quietly counter.
"They Berker!" Substance shot back. "They work with us. They not cause problems! You treat simple crocodiles and antelope at zoo better than us!"
"H-How'd you know?" Anders nervously stammered with surprise.
"Even though I blind," she said, "I see into heart, your heart." I was a little surprised that she so readily revealed her ability to mind read to the young vet tech, but I could understand the reasons why she was.
"You want to connect with animals?" she now pressed. "With beings other than your kind? Here your chance. Not as master to captive, but as equals. And Rann," Substance continued, addressing him in English that she knew he understood, "it time your hiding end."
I glanced at Ran on my other side, but he said nothing in response.
"You want to go to Outside, or stay?" she posed to him.
Ran did not answer though, just stiffening as he looked at her, almost like he was about to be sentenced at trial.
"You know harmony is all in Berk," Substance resumed. "You know you not part of that. Unless you become part of harmony, you not belong here. So choose. Or leave island as well."
"Lance . . . ?" Ran now turned and asked me, speaking my name for practically the first time, almost seeming to plead with me to intervene and stop his threatened exile.
"Both of you," I said, addressing Anders as well, "Substance is right. Just as we don't have the resources to have modern conveniences—there isn't room for those who will not become part of this tribe, and live as we do . . . and that includes," I added, even to my own surprise, "the harmony that has kept all of us here alive, and living together, hidden, for almost a thousand years. Outsiders are among us now. I'm among us," I almost shrugged. "But the rest of us are adapting to our ways here. You two are the only ones who aren't. Substance and others have helped me realize that this life, here, is a call to not only live as this island is able to sustain us, but to live open to our tribe as well. It's why Substance has brought me here, along with you," I acknowledged, facing my dragon once again. "We are here to become truly part of the tribe, or leave. It's that simple."
To emphasize my point, and lead by example, I then proceeded to shed the rest of my clothes altogether. The dragons didn't wear anything, so why should we while we were guests in their home?
Substance silently nodded at me as I lay the rest of my clothes on my jacket. With the geothermal steam wafting through the caves, I wasn't cold as I stood up again, mostly on my good leg. I then just closed my eyes, meditating, praying, my hands folded in front of me as I stood in between the other two men, facing Substance.
Eventually, after a lingering silence, I heard the rustling of clothes on at least one side of me.
"Alright," I then heard Substance accept with a sigh in front of us, able to judge our intentions even without seeing us, "it time you learn I serious."