I am not sure what I expected from the Island dubbed Mystery by all those who inhabit the Archipelago. It's name is so earned because, before dragons, no one could set foot on it so what lay within its borders was truly a mystery. Maybe, in my own sometimes one-track mind, I had hoped for a serene paradise that Hiccup and I could claim as a personal retreat where we could further explore and enjoy each other. That feeling had all but vanished since hearing the eerie silence of this island and seeing those eyes that watched me. Now it felt as though anything we did would be under the observation of something we did not know or understand and I for one was not ready to put myself in such a vulnerable position in an unknown environment.
"There go the hopes this would be a getaway." I mutter as we walk, not hiding my disappointment in the unease I feel, nor the desire I had been holding onto. For some reason, the image of us in the dragon pens continues to flash in my mind and makes my suit feel tight.
"Yeah, I'm not sure I'd be comfortable even taking off my suit here at the moment. Not with this feeling." Hiccup responds softly, his arm still wrapped around my waist as we walk slowly together, following the stream up. I nod along, sightly lightly as he stops and turns to look at me. Cupping my chin, he kisses me softly before adding. "Besides that, I'd rather we feel safe so I could enjoy your presence without a single other thought in my mind. When the storm hits and we button down in Berk, we'll have days of uninterrupted time." He says, cooing slightly and kissing me again as I smile and nod.
"That… sounds good to me. I almost want to just leave this place and go get started on that now." I whisper as he smiles and then I shrug with a teasing grin. "But, those eyes could be a whole new dragon. What could be more important?" I taunt him, purposefully drawing on his love of discovery and dragons to see what he says. Unbeknownst to him, he can't actually answer that question wrong.
He pulls me back away from the stream and turns me so my back is now against a tree before pressing his lips to mine passionately as I literally melt into his arms. My own arms find their way around his neck and help stabilize me as our tongues meet and begin their dance, and for that brief moment, I forget where we are and lose myself in the kiss. I feel my own hips start to grind as he presses his body to mine before pulling back, my lips instinctively chasing his before they part and I frown.
"Nothing is more important than you. Toothless knows he is my best bud, and dragons are a close, a very close second, I'll be honest. But I will leave this island right now if you want." He answers softly against my lips and I bite my lower lip into a smile before shaking my head.
"That won't be necessary, but you got a ten out of ten on that answer." I answer and he smiles, stepping back and glancing around. His face suddenly contorts and his brow furrows as he looks around, and I see it too. The mist that had been above the tree line was lower and thicker. We hadn't even noticed it during our kiss, but it was definitely thicker.
"The mist." I mutter and he nods as we stand closer together.
"Do you feel that? Almost like it's alive." Hiccup says quietly as his arm waves lightly in front of me. I can see his dragon blade in one of his hands as we look around. We certainly are not alone now. Something is here, something veiled in the mist. As I look around, the trees more than ten feet away seem harder to see, and I can barely see Stormfly or Toothless.
"Stormfly, here." I say softly, bringing Stormfly to my side as Hiccup beckons Toothless to his so we are flanked by either dragon.
My eyes trace to the stream and I see what looks wisps moving in a small, cloistered area. Pointing to it so Hiccup's eyes see what I see, my eyes find the same pair of eyes that had met mine in the lake. They didn't seem dangerous, perse, but they stood taller than either of us. Now, our dragons saw it as well and both coiled around us defensively. Hiccup sees it as well and it's almost heartwarming that he steps lightly to the side, so he is partially in front of me.
"We mean you no harm." Hiccup calls out as he places his hand on Toothless. "We are friends to dragons, and to our fellows. Show yourself?" He adds as my hand finds his.
There is a sudden gust of wind and the mist seems to dissipate around us but as it does, the eyes are gone within it. Whatever is watching us is using the mist to hide and may even be able to create it, like the mist of the Flightmare. As the mist clears, we move closer to the stream and see nothing inside its waters, just the same clear water following a light current.
"We couldn't be hallucinating, could we?" Hiccup mutters as I shake my head.
"No, we both saw it, and our dragons. We felt it. Something is here. The question is do we stay and find out what, or leave before we overstay our welcome?" I ask Hiccup who shrugs with a light smile.
"I'm a bit on the fence about that. As unnerved as I am, I don't feel threatened yet. I can't tell if that was a warning or a declaration. Get out or I see you." Hiccup answers softly, looking to me as he holsters his blade. "What do you want to do?" He asks as I smile.
"I want to figure out what this is, with you. With everything we've battled against and won together, whatever this is, even if it's a threat… we'll figure it out, together." I explain as he smiles and pulls me in for another light kiss.
"Beautifully spoken, as always. Come on, let's follow this thing. I think it probably went back to the lake as that's where you first spotted it." Hiccup answers, taking my hand and leading us down as I smile and go with him.
Together we head down to the lake, our dragons on high alert as we continue down the stream and follow it to its destination. The mist around the lake was stronger than before but not as strong as it was mere moments ago. There was also evidence of snowfall from above, light and calm but the snowflakes still lingered down in an increasing fashion as we traveled back to the lake.
"Were we off on the storm? It couldn't have swept on us that quickly." Hiccup mutters as we near the lake.
"No, we weren't. We've been calling storms for years, that one was certainly two days away from Berk and we haven't even been gone a full day yet. Not unless there was another front we never noticed, but that seems off too." I explain and he nods.
"We shouldn't linger much longer, we can't afford to be snowed in here with no cover, food or protection." Hiccup adds.
"I agree, the mystery of this is being outpaced by the potential risk." I confirm and he nods.
Together, we approach the lake with our dragons in tow. Now walking up to the side of the lake near where I first saw the set of eyes. We gaze into the water for an extended moment and I think I can see movement inside the water, but it could easily be a trick of the mist or simply the current moving loose dirt or grass in a flow. I don't see any eyes, at least, not at first. All of that changed in but a moment, when both Hiccup and I see not one, but two sets of eyes from beneath the surface of the water that do not hide in a guise.
Slowly, we see a translucent body begin to take shape beneath the surface. It was like a long, pale blue snake. Much like the slither wing in body style though the body seemed much longer as we started seeing it. There were two of them as well, with longer whisker like things on their snouts and short, wavy fins that followed its spine. They were just smaller than the channels of the streams and were likely what cut them. They were awe inspiring, and as I glance at Hiccup, he too was mesmerized as I feel his grip tighten around mine.
This was not what I was expecting when Astrid and I decided to visit Mystery, though I suppose I shouldn't be surprised there was a sort of dragon here. The shape of their body was long, and eel or snake like with what seemed to be long folded wings that hugged their body. They used their wavy bodies to move effortlessly in the water and circled each other. Every time they came for a pass, their eyes locked with ours as we watched.
Moments later, they rose out of the water together, their bodies circling together as if supporting each other as they stand nearly ten feet above the surface of the water. They were large, and when out of the water, their wings that were collapsed on their sides and hugging the skin were much more visible. The long whisker-like extensions from their snout dropped down and we could see obvious predatory teeth. Though, they were not baring them, nor acting aggressively as we watched them.
Glancing at Astrid, I see her eyes shift between them and me and following my gut, I wrap my arm around her as she does the same almost reactively. Our dragons had moved closer around us, their tails nearly linking behind us as they faced the pair of eel-like dragons that now stood elevated before us.
"Go with me on this." I whisper to Astrid as I tighten my grip around her side.
"Always." She answers and I smile. That had become a thing between us ever since it was her and I against Krogan's Flyers when we chased them from Vanaheim.
"We are friends to dragons." I say slowly to the dragons, my free hand finding Toothless and motioning him to move closer. "We are not a threat." I add as the pair only watches us. Their bodies contract and one of them moves its head lower to us as I can see the long body of the other tighten to help steady it. It's head now mere feet away from us as I can feel its breath against us.
"What's it doing?" Astrid asks softly beside me.
"I think it's checking us out. Notice how their bodies are intwined. These may well be an isolated, mated pair that have never seen another person or dragon." I explain my observations as she nods along.
"Hopefully they don't think we're food." She adds softly as I smile. I take her free arm with mine and spin once with her in between our dragons before ending up back where we were and then hold her hand, keeping my other around her waist and look to the dragons watching us. Their heads turn to the side and then they look to each other and rotate together, their intwined bodies adding another layer to the circuit before they turn back to us.
"I think we're communicating." I say softly as I turn and glance at Astrid who has a smile on her face.
"I'll never understand how you can figure this stuff out." She answers and I just shrug and smile.
"It's a gift." I retort and she laughs lightly.
"One of many." She answers teasingly and glances up at the dragons before turning back to me. Using our hands, she rotates us around again and then pecks me lightly on the lips before turning to look at the dragons. "If they understand affection, let's see what they do." She adds softly and I nod, smiling.
The dragons do not disappoint as they rotate in sync with us. One of them, one that is slightly lighter in coloration, nuzzles up to the other and rubs under its chin before rubbing the sides of their faces together. After a moment, they pause and turn back to us. Looking to us both, they bring their heads down and each are now about three feet away. Close enough for us to get a much better look at them.
Their scales are pale blue and seem to have a flickering effect, like they reflect under the sunlight. The long whiskers seem to be like feelers and are easily two feet long with snoutlike mouths; not unlike a changewing. Their eyes and narrow like almost like Toothless's when he is aggressive. The wavy fins on their backs seem to be pliable. They do have large teeth that are more numerous than a changewings, but also not as pin-pointed. I take my hand and place it in front of Toothless's nose and let him close the gap as he closes his eyes and coos while they watch. Then, I take my hand from Toothless and extend it towards them.
"Be careful." Astrid whispers besides me. This little trick almost always seemed to unnerve her as it requires a high degree of trust. She used it a couple times herself, and I felt the same level of brief unease in that initial extension. Especially towards the Triple Strike which had proven extra hostile.
Fortunately for the both of us, this was just as it had been in prior times. After a few moments, one of them seemed to sniff my hand before following suit to Toothless and pressing its snout against my palm. I release a breath I wasn't aware I was holding as it parts from my hand and both dragons dive back into the water. The moment they do, they seem to vanish beneath the water and at the same time, the mist surrounding the lake seems to lessen considerably.
"So maybe the mist was them?" I mutter as they vanish and smile towards Astrid.
"They were beautiful. A defense mechanism, maybe? They didn't seem hostile at all." Astrid responds softly, stepping closer to me as I nod.
"Beautiful, certainly." I say, brushing her hair from her face and kissing her lightly on the lips in a brief connection. "They were gentle, giant eel-like dragons. What should we call them?" I ask quietly as we return our gaze to the lake. There is a brief silence as we both think before Astrid rests her head on my shoulder and sighs.
"Veilwing? They had large, folded wings too and they were veiled in the mist and water." Astrid suggests and I nod along lightly.
"Works for me. And on that note…" I begin, pausing and pointing up as the snowflakes start to increase their falling. "We better return to Berk before it gets too bad." I suggest and she sighs.
"I know, I almost hate to leave now. We just introduced ourselves…" She says softly, her hand finding a hook and hanging on my chest. I couldn't see if she had closed her eyes, but I think she did briefly.
"We can come back after the storm, just us. Maybe we'll see more of them, then." I suggest and she pulls away from me in a smile and nods.
"Sounds like the beginning to a perfect vacation to me." She adds, leaning up and kissing me.
We decide to take our queue there and mount our respective dragons and take off. As we rise higher, the mist below seems to thicken and obscure much of the foliage and as we look out to the horizon, it is blackened by the storm clouds. It seems that the storm was moving faster than anticipated and would likely hit Berk in full force tomorrow. We decided to take a detour back and return to Berserker Island to warn Dagur and Heather about the increased pace of the storm before returning to Berk. This time, we did not dally there longer than needed and we soon found ourselves back on Berk where the winds and the cold were starting to pick up fiercely.
Together, we made rounds to the people, checking in on everyone as they battened down their houses and ensured everyone had the supplies needed. Following that, we closed off the Great Hall and secured the Dragon Stables and Academy. We checked in with the riders and made sure they were safe. We'd still need to periodically patrol during a lull in the storm, but Astrid and I offered to do that. Gobber was closing down the Forge and locking it up, it was where he'd stay during this as it sometimes doubled as a home and he had his own bed in the main part of the forge. He swears up and down he never once has or will ever open my smaller room in the Forge, which is all the better.
Once all of those tasks were completed, Astrid and I returned with our dragons to our house and buttoned it up. I closed the sky roof that the dragons used so often, and Astrid closed off all of the windows and sealed the door behind us. Our Dragons found their perches in the house as Toothless lit the firepit from his spot and within moments, our house was warming up. By tomorrow morning, we'd be littered with snow and possibly unable to leave. The winds were picking up and the danger on the sea was increasing. The first major winter storm since I became Chief, and the first one I'd spend alone with Astrid. Well, relatively alone, anyways. Snoggletog was just around the corner, and I honestly couldn't wait to celebrate that weirdly named Holiday with her either.
