Through The Ups & Downs
Couple; HarrisonXBriana
Rating; Mature
Disclaimer: I do not own HTTYD or any songs I might use! Also, from this point in the story and in future chapters, I do not own the character; Ella(Eira) Solveig. She belongs to my good friend, ShadowSpirit020.
-Author's Note; Hey, all my loyal readers. So, I have to apologize for my lack of updates recently. I'm working thirty hours a week or so and come home to do motherly and wifely duties such as dishes, laundry, cooking, cleaning, etc. Also, as a recent development. I have a dental abscess-tooth infection which has me in quite a bit of pain, and I can't seem to focus on my chapters. All in all, I am sorry, and I'm doing my best, so please bear with me! Thank you again! ~Nightstar-
26) Stories of War
[10/22/2015; Haddock Residence-6:15 pm]
Harrison had been home for six days and was leaving in three. Today was October 22, 2015, a Thursday where everyone was over at the Haddock Household to relax and hang out. As expected, Addilyn was not present. Harrison understood why, though, because Addy was trying to get over him so he couldn't knock that reasoning. All week, Harrison had spent visiting his friends and enjoying the fact he was home until Sunday the 25th of October, that is when he left for the US again with Briana and his unit. As it turned out, only the soldiers with dragons from Wind Rider Platoon were going, not everyone. Harrison didn't mind so much; there weren't a lot of soldiers who used dragons. Some just preferred to have Terrible Terrors rather than bond and train the bigger dragons.
It was cool; no one was obligated to have a rideable dragon. A lot of money went into housing, care, feeding, plus the fees for the licensing. There were different levels of what someone got issued for their dragon. Immediately following a bond being formed, the person would have to apply for an ownership license; this only said the owner's name, address, phone number, type of dragon, date of bonding, and then the dragons name with a picture of both owner and dragon. This was a license issued to all dragon owners, even the Terrible Terrors.
Now, there were different kinds of licenses, and it depended on what the person was doing. There were cards for doctors, trainers, wranglers, and care takers. The ownership license allowed the owner of their dragon to train, house, and ride them-but ONLY their dragon. There was an overall license, and it's what Harrison had. Now this license, was something that meant Harrison was trained for all types of dragon encounters. The overall card that he carried said Harrison could treat, ride, and train dragons of all species plus their dragon.
Harrison earned this card while in Kuwait because of what he and Toothless did during the dragon attack.
Harrison's last couple of days since arriving at home have been spent caring for Briana, showing her around his hometown, and hanging with his friends and family. Harrison even introduced Bri to Calvin and the Berkys crew. Yep, Harrison loved how things were right now; calm, as they should be and no one mad at him anymore. Tonight, everyone was getting together to relax and talk about the past, fun times as it were.
"I still can't believe you made Sergeant! That's amazing, Harrison!" Trevor exclaimed. Yeah, everyone was still talking about that. Harrison couldn't process it either; he jumped from Private First Class to Sergeant! That means he completely passed over Corporal and Specialist and it was truly an honor to be nineteen-years-old and a Sergeant after only being in the military for a year or so. It would be two years in April 2016, so this was pretty exciting for him.
"You still haven't told us about the last six months, son," Spencer reminded.
"There isn't much to tell. We just hung around and did our jobs, few missions and guards now and then," Harrison smiled softly.
"Well, can you tell us about saving Briana? The whole female Night Fury thing, I forget what her name is," Frankie exclaimed.
"Nightstar," Briana informed.
"Ah, that's it. What made you pick that name?" Hailey wondered curiously.
"Well, Nightstar is a little darker than Toothless in color, but the scale pattern on her forehead looks like a star. So I took Nightsky and star pattern to make Nightstar," Briana explained.
"That's cool. And Harrison, you used Toothless because he can retract his teeth, didn't you?" Nate questioned.
"You got it, kiddo," Harrison nodded.
"So, will you tell us about all that? I mean, it got you promoted, so it had to be heroic," Regina stated.
"I was just following my instincts, guys. Anyone else would have done the same," Harrison shrugged.
"Ugh, Harrison! Stop being so modest!" Dexter and Syrus scolded him.
"Yeah. No one else DID it, you did. The point is, and you admitted it to us that you had a feeling it might be Briana signaling you for help," Olivia giggled.
"Because she knew you would understand another Night Fury," Chelsea added.
"Yeah, yeah. Whatever. I'll tell you then, if you really want to know," Harrison sighed while leaning back. All of a sudden, there was a loud thud outside followed by a few groans of pain. Harrison got up and walked to the sliding glass doors and pulled back the curtain to see Addilyn sitting on the ground holding her wrist; Stormfly was beside her ride. Harrison quickly opened the door and hurried out. "Addilyn?" he asked.
"Harrison?" she asked whipping her head in his direction. "I-I'm sorry for dropping in. There's a storm blowing into Berkville, but I needed to see you," Addilyn admitted as Harrison went outside and helped her up, she hissed at the pressure on her left wrist. "Ow!"
"Sorry. Come inside and tell me what's going on," Harrison offered as she nodded and walked in with his help. Harrison assisted her to the couch next to Hailey and Regina while Nate shut the door. "First of all, was that you crashing in the backyard? Are you hurt?" he asked.
"It was the increasing winds, Stormfly and I caught a bad one, and we had trouble leveling out again, then had a rough landing here. I was trying to get to your place anyway. Stormfly has been acting weird, and the local dragon care facility says she's fine, but I know it's something else. I wanted to know if you could take a look at her for me," Addilyn wondered.
"I will look over her for you, but I want to make sure you didn't hurt yourself on landing. Are you okay?" Harrison asked.
"I landed on my side and bent my wrist a little," Addy admitted to him. Harrison lifted her sleeve a little and rotated her wrist slowly, he watched her facial reactions for pain or discomfort and felt around the spots she cringed at the most.
"It's not broken or sprained, you probably twisted it a little, but you should be fine with some ice and giving it a day or two with nothing strenuous. Same with your side, it might bruise, but no broken or cracked ribs. So, what's going on with Stormfly?" Harrison asked as Addilyn fixed her sleeve and Harrison moved back a little.
"I don't know. Bigger appetite and seems tired or uninterested in things we loved doing," Addilyn shrugged. Harrison moved outside again and began checking over Stormfly with a few simple things, ruling out what it couldn't be. Finally, he checked her stomach, and Stormfly reacted to it; that's when Harrison realized what it was. Harrison moved back into the house and shut the door while smiling. "Is she okay?!" Addilyn asked quickly.
"Stormfly is perfect, Addilyn," Harrison informed softly. "She is showing the standard behavior of any expecting mother in the dragon community," he added.
"Wait! You mean Stormfly is pregnant?!" Addilyn exclaimed in shock.
"Yep. Perhaps another three to four days and she'll give birth to the eggs and then in a day or two from that; they'll hatch," Harrison told her lightly.
"Wow. I mean, there's housing at the university I'm attending, and the dragons have a place they can fly around and relax outside of the stables, but I didn't think she got herself pregnant by one of the other Nadders," Addilyn blinked.
"It happens. It's nearing mating season anyway, usually around Snoggletog. The dragons that are not bonded are known for taking off for a few days to mate or give birth to their eggs if already mated. Bottom line, Addy, Stormfly is fine. She knows what she's doing," Harrison smiled.
"Thanks the Gods," Addilyn sighed in relief, "Thank you, Harrison. I knew if anyone could tell me what was going on, it was you," she added. "So, I guess I should be getting back," she said getting up.
"I'm afraid I can't allow that, Addilyn. In fact, I can't let any of you leave. That storm blowing in is a level three hurricane warning, and I can't have any of you flying or driving with that in effect. I'm going to keep you here until the warning lifts," Spencer suddenly said to the friends gathered in the room.
"Are we just camping out here then? This storm is supposed to go all night until lunch time tomorrow," Frankie wondered.
"Yes. There's plenty of room right in here; we'll move a few of the sofas and chairs," Spencer nodded.
"I believe we have sleeping bags and extra pillows in the basement," Viviana said. "Harrison, why don't you and Nate go grab them while your father and I stay up here to call parents and let them know where their kids are?" she suggested.
"Got it, Ma," Nate saluted as Harrison gave Briana a light kiss on the cheek before heading to the basement with Nathaniel.
[Living Room-7:45 pm]
The sofas and chairs had gotten moved out of the way while everyone found a spot on the floor of the Haddock Residence main room. Briana, of course, was staying on the couch for the sake of her ankle and ribs recovering. Harrison didn't want either to get worse when there was only about a week left before she was completely healed. Harrison would be sleeping close by her and Nate not far from him. Trevor, Syrus, and Dexter were sleeping side by side with Hailey on Dexter's left. Chelsea and Olivia were near the wall by the staircase. Addilyn and Regina were by the wall nearest the sliding glass door. Frankie and TJ were laid out in front of the television. Spencer and Viviana would be upstairs in their room.
"Well, since we're all stuck together tonight; Harrison, maybe you can tell us that story from before Addy crashed here?" TJ wondered.
"Oh, I suppose," Harrison stated as he sat next to Briana on the couch while she laid her head on his shoulder with a smile. "Well, Briana got separated from her unit on a mission after an explosion went off, she got captured for three days and escaped. While running between villages for the first week, she hurt her ankle and took refuge in a house on the outskirts of one of the smaller communities that were a twenty-minute flight to the Camp Arifjan bases,"
"Oh, you poor dear. I hope those people didn't hurt you too much," Viviana said softly.
"Few slaps and punches, the kick is what hurt my ribs," Briana informed lightly.
"So, two days after ending up in that old house, Nightstar showed up and because she knows about bonding and training a dragon due to the fact I taught her everything using Toothless, the two bonded. After that, Briana told her dragon to find a man named Harrison with a Night Fury named Toothless; then she sent Nightstar where to go. The brings us to when Nightstar whipped in and knocked me off Toothless. The first fall, Nightstar grabbed me and tried to take me herself, but Toothless made her let me go, then place me on the ground before the two faced off," Harrison continued to explain.
"I had Toothless back off, and I tried to calm her down. I said I was a friend and wouldn't hurt her; I even introduced myself and Toothless. After saying my name and his, she seemed to relax then start urging me to follow her. I had Toothless confirm that Nightstar wanted me to follow, so Major Hagebak said I could, but I only had an hour to check it out and then return to base. I went with Toothless after Nightstar until we got to the village outskirts. I didn't know what it was, but I knew the direction we'd gone in. The same one where Briana went missing and just a little while before getting knocked off Toothless, I'd prayed for some kind of sign to let me know she was alive," Harrison said.
"Wow," Frankie and Regina said together in awe.
"Reaching this house on the edge of the community, I scouted it out carefully and called out for anyone to answer me if they were in there. After the second try, I added in that I was a soldier led to that spot by a dragon, that's when I heard someone say my name. As soon as I heard her voice, I knew it was Briana. I hurried to her, and she told me about the capture and hurting her ankle. Initially, she said it was broken, but that was likely due to the pain of not having it treated after it was injured. Bri told me she bonded to the female Night Fury, now as you know Nightstar. I got her in my arms as I was sitting on Toothless and we returned to the base," Harrison finished the story
"And that's when Dunbar tried to say Harrison defied the orders of not going to look for me and Harrison countered him by saying he didn't look for me, he followed Nightstar but hadn't known that she was leading him to me. Harrison said he would be happy to tell them the story after I was taken to medical for treatment," Briana smiled.
"That is so sweet. And Harrison didn't you technically go looking for her? You said that you knew Briana disappeared in the direction you were flying in?" Regina mentioned.
"Well, I thought it had been a bit odd that right after I asked for a sign to know she was alive, a Night Fury of all dragons came to take me with her. And when Nightstar motioned the direction to go in, it was the same area Briana went missing. I don't know, it was just instinct to go, so I did," Harrison shrugged.
"That's why you got promoted, stupid," Syrus sighed. "Because you did what no one else did. You trusted your gut and rescued Briana because of it," he added.
"And I'm grateful every day for it; I owe him my life," Briana smiled as Harrison leaned over and kissed her gently.
"I'm just glad to have you back," Harrison said to her.
"So, tell us more. Anything from when you were there, I'm sure you weren't fighting all the time, right?" Nate asked.
"Of course not. We all knew how to have fun in Zone One," Dexter chuckled. "I don't think it will hurt," he added looking to the rest of the Fury Fire Unit. Harrison could only shake his head with a smile. Sure, it wasn't the best way to spend the night until they went to sleep, but it was something. So, tonight they'd be sitting around and relaxing in the living room. After everyone had sat back, the Fury Fury soldiers began telling their stories of war.