The Ghost and His Shadow
They flew over the lake in the cove at first, the boy getting used to the change of balance and direction in the air and the dragon getting used to moving with the boy. Quite a few times, Shadow turned one direction or Ghost leaned too far and they tumbled into the water. Ghost found that he could tug on the wrist straps to direct Shadow, and Shadow was impressed by how easily the boy took to the air.
They began to make small trips from the cove, still learning how to move together, though occasionally, they completed a move in such tandem, they felt as if they had been partners for years. They both wanted that easy understanding as they wove through trees and around piles of rocks.
It was much harder for Ghost to tell Shadow whether to go up or down than it was to tell him to turn. There was a clearing that Ghost directed his friend towards, but Shadow didn't understand, and they wobbled in the air. Ghost yelped as they crashed lightly in the tall green grass and unbuckled from the saddle as Shadow rolled. He leaped down and turned to look at his companion, who was flattening the grass with his back and scratching and groaning in pure bliss.
Ghost didn't know what this plant was called – Gothi had never shown him any, though he had seen it previously when he explored the forests around the village. He did notice that it released a smell rather like crushed garlic – a spice that Trader Johann had brought once on his ship – and made sure to cut a few of the stalks for later use. He tucked them into one of the many hidden pockets on the inside of his armor, sticking a small bit into a notebook with pine sap and a small explanation and a new nickname: Dragon Nip.
The curious boy had started keeping a small notebook on behaviors he noticed in Shadow and the other dragons. There were drawings of the dragons he'd seen – including Shadow, Cragg, Brightspikes, and Spark and Smoke, along with their names – notes about their personalities and behaviors, and questions jotted in the margins about each species. He had also jotted his notes and drawings about the saddle, and his drawings and notes about Shadow's old splint and healing broken wings within its pages. He didn't plan on showing anyone, but it did help him to organize his thoughts and recognize common patterns between species.
Bork the Bold would be jealous.
Or maybe he'd be utterly horrified that a Viking had gotten so close to a Night Fury and hadn't killed it on sight, but Ghost had been displeasing an entire village's worth of Vikings for so many years that he no longer cared about their opinions. He would care about Gobber's – and maybe Gothi's – but they wouldn't find out about the notebook or Shadow if he could help it. Even if they did, their opinions wouldn't sway him to abandon his best friend.
What's one more dissatisfied Viking?
