Chapter fifteen: Rumors and Truth
The days passed, and as they did I grew stronger. Or at least, I felt stronger. When I played with Toothless I really put on a fight, I still didn't get to win but I lasted longer.
I could walk inside a dragon's den with a confidence that I could never dream on having. I just wished it could be the same way when I walked inside a Viking village. That still made me a bit anxious, even more with the fact that people were searching for us, but I felt well if I had my sword, knowing I could defend myself if I had to.
The few towns I had visit after the last incident had heard about me, but they were just some stupid rumors of a girl who could turn into a dragon, some other people had already heard about the Dragon Conqueror and connected the dots, knowing it was the same girl.
But any of that matter, all of the rumors were wrong. Some said I could make them do my will, some that I did their will. Sometimes –just for fun- I would say some ridiculous thing and there would be people who called me crazy but also some believed it.
My favorite one was when I said, "She drinks the dragon's blood. Every full moon she has to make a ritual to gain the Night Fury's strength." A man even swore he had seen me doing that. Some men even called me a witch.
I looked to the sky as I walked through a Village and took a beep breathe. June, a man had said, it was June. A year ago, I was still on Berk, a year ago I was stubbornly decided to kill a dragon, to kill Toothless and show my Village I was worth something.
Now I couldn't give a damn about what they thought of me. The rumors had traveled all the Scandinavian peninsula and there was no way that they hadn't reach the Barbaric Archipelago.
But I didn't care anymore, let them think what they want. That I'm a failure of a Viking, that I should be ashamed for what I did, that I was crazy, that I was a traitor to all humankind.
I was happy where I was now, with Toothless and surrounded by other dragons that actually liked me for who I was. I could do whatever I wanted and there was no high expectative coming from anyone, no pressure that one day I would be chief.
Stoick probably had already found another heir, probably Snotlout. The boy had always been bothering me saying how he would be better chief than I would. Well, now he could live the nightmare of responsibilities that implies.
It had taken me long to stop focusing on all the bad things that came with being an outlaw and began to notice the good stuff. As the fact that I could walk through a Village without looks of pity and without any question being made. Aside the "you are not from here, are you?"
Most people didn't care that the answer was "no" as long as I had money or something good to trade.
My money bag made tinker bell noises as I walked and it made me smile. A couple of days ago Toothless had hunt a bear and barely any part of the skin was burned or mauled and I sold it in a very good price making my bag heavy.
Toothless had insisted that whole day I should waste it in getting proper human food, it didn't take him too long to convince me and today we found a town, close to a beach. That could only mean we had reach the bottom of Sweden.
I entered a small dinner in town, deciding to buy something to eat first before going to the market to buy supplies.
I sat at the front bar and asked the lady for a sandwich. A simple food but I really missed the taste of bread. I rested my elbows on the bar and swung my feet slightly, trying to control my overjoyed body.
"She is the Dragon Conqueror," a man assured behind me as the maiden returned with my food and I thanked her before giving a big bite.
"It can't be the same," another said.
"And you think there are two girls out there riding a Night Fury?" the first said.
"It could be possible,"
"Come on, man." A third one said, "Use your brain, it's the same!"
"Says the one that actually thinks she can turn into a dragon." The second man replied.
"There are people who saw her do it!" the last said and his desperate tone for the urge of the others believing him made me snort. The voices behind me stopped and I heard a chair slightly moving back.
"What? Something funny lass?" the first man said. I hesitated but turned on my stool after swallowing and gave them a teasing smirk.
"Yeah, the fact that you believe all those rumors," I said. It might had been a bad idea, they were way older than me and each one at least doubled my size. But they didn't intimidate me. Not a lot at least.
"They all sounds like something you would tell a kid to fall asleep," I shrugged and returned to my food.
"You aren't from around here, are you?" one of them said, it didn't sound like a question but I stopped chewing to answer anyways.
"No, I'm not."
"And what do you know?" another said annoyed. I shrugged and swallowed.
"More than you it seems," I said and gestured to the maiden to put the rest of the sandwich to the go, if I continued with this conversation I would need to go soon. I turned completely facing the men, resting my back on the front bar, "None of the rumors are true."
"And how are you so sure?"
"Because I have seen them." I said and almost instantly the three men busted out in laughs. I looked at them with a serious expression, waiting for them to calm down, what lasted a few minutes.
One of the man stared at me, "You are not laying," he said, realizing my seriousness and making the others settle down.
"I have seen them together, there is no control over any of them." Should I be saying this? "They get along, like…. friends." Probably not.
"That's impossible."
"We can tame certain animals, why not dragons? I think she found a way, maybe she knows something we don't."
One of the man nodded, "I've heard she knows the dragons' secrets… how to control them, and she had write a book with everything inside,"
I blinked twice. How could they know?
"A book?" I asked, leaning forward, "Where did you heard that?"
"Who would write a book with the most important secrets? That's stupid, what if someone stole it?"
I blushed a bit, "Yeah, it's stupid." I muttered.
"Well, that guy is sure of it," he said pointing over his shoulder, "And he is gathering a search party to the forest, someone had seen them land there."
Oh, crap.
"And where did he get that information?" I asked straightening up, "Have he seen her with the book?"
"I don't know,"
"Have he even seen her, or the Night Fury?"
"I don't think so."
I sighed and stood up, taking my food and saving it on my satchel. "Okay, I'm going." That made them laugh again.
"Lass, you can't go,"
"Who says that? I'm seventeen and I can do whatever I want," it was half a lie. I wasn't 17 but, yeah, I could do whatever I wanted now.
"Well, you need to ask him first," the man said gesturing over his shoulder with his head, "Good look on him letting you in, wee lass." I fulminated him with my eyes and walked to the guy.
The man's hair was dark brown under a horned helmet that just Vikings inside the Archipelago wear. He had shoulder plates with three big spikes on each, dragon tooth, I realized they were. He wore arm bands, with metal studs on the left one and with metal spikes on the right one.
His armor as the ones of his men and as most Vikings inside the Barbaric Archipelago was of thick leather in a scales-like positon. This couldn't be good.
"I heard you are going on a search party for the Dragon Conqueror," I stopped behind him and crossed my arms over my chest. The men I had been talking to had followed me, just to see how I got rejected and laughed a little.
I knew how ridiculous it must seem. Even when the guy was sitting at a large table with his men he was taller than me. And let's not speak about the width.
The scene caught the eye of almost the whole hall and the place went silent, every eye on me, making my courage disappear and letting me stand alone.
"Aye, why do ye want ta' know?" the men said in a thick Nordic accent that made me feel smaller.
I collected all the courage I had left and spoke, "I want to go."
Now the whole dinner laughed and though I was screaming inside I didn't let my body quiver. The brown-haired man stood up and turned, my eyes followed his head as it went up.
My eyes widened, a hint of fear crossing my face and I had to take a step back. The man was as tall as my fa- Stoick, he was as tall as Stoick. I swallowed, making the man grin under a thick beard.
"A wee lass?" he said almost laughing, my hands gripped my clothes, irritated with the 'wee lass' thing but it gave me the strength to stand straight again. "Why would I accept ya' inta my search party? I have plenty of my men with me 'n' good Vikings from this village, what have ye' worth?"
"I have seen it," I said without a flinch.
The man looked at me confused, "Seen what?"
"The Night Fury, I have seen it," I said making the whole hall laugh again.
"And yer still here?" The man chuckled, making everyone laugh even more.
Irritated with everyone's behavior I took the neck of my tunic and pulled it open to show the nasty scar Toothless' teeth had left. The laughs lowered and were replaced by murmurs.
"I got too close and it attacked me." I said looking straight to the man's grey blue eyes, "I want to pay them back." I let the man look at my shoulder then fixed my collar, felling way too exposed over so many men's eyes.
The dark-haired man gave me a onceover then asked, "What's yer name, lass?"
I panicked for a second. This man was from inside the Archipelago, everything pointed to that, but I had never seen him before. As the daughter of the chief I had seen all tribes of close islands. Berk had different accords with the tribes that had to be renew every once a few years so either they came to us or we went to them.
But this man…
"Nadia," I said almost immediately, it was the name of one of the girls I meet on the first town I found outside here. "Everyone call me Nad. What's yours?"
"Alvin the Treacherous," the man said evidently proud of his name. He extended his big hand, I looked at it a bit hesitantly and shook it, "Consider yourself part of the search party, Nad."
…
We waited until night to left to the forest. It wasn't long but in the mean time I had to make up a story of how the dragon attacked me and why I thought they didn't control each other. Also, why I didn't think the book existed.
And I had to get used to be called "Nad" which wasn't exactly easy.
The men prepared themselves, taking torches and fixing their weapons to their belts. After a few minutes, we left to the forest. Everyone was silent and nervous, I didn't know why Alvin waited until night to search for a Night Fury, we were on disadvantage now.
A bush moved making everyone turn and some yelp. I searched in the dark for Toothless but saw nothing, maybe it wasn't him. But then a deep growl echoed on the trees making me smile, it was him.
"Why are you smiling?" a man a few years older than me asked nervously.
I looked at him, not hiding my smile. "They are here," I said trying not to laugh at the horror on the man's face.
We kept walking hearing the occasional growl that seemed to come from everywhere. I tried to focus and find Toothless, turning to where I thought the noise had come from. Gods, Toothless was going to be so ashamed of me for this.
It took me long to spot his green eyes, gleaming on the night for half a second before he hid again. I gave him a silent nod, hopping he was still there. The bushes where he had been hidden moved as he got away.
Everyone heard his steps as he raced behind us and growled one more time. He was doing it on propose. The dragon could be quite enough that not even I, that had been "playing" with him for months, could hear him.
I shook my head a little and rolled my eyes, letting the dragon have fun as I made my way to the top of the group to meet with Alvin.
"Hey, so how do you know about the book?" I asked him casually.
"That's not yer business," Alvin said. I had to jog to walk at his same speed.
"Come on, you haven't seen her, have you?" I asked, I had been very cautious about that, even more since I knew there were people searching for us. A few people had seen us, but how could they figure out the whole book-thing?
I gestured to my shoulder, "This didn't happen more than a month ago, and I didn't see anything. She wasn't carrying any bag or satchel, it was just her and the dragon. How could you possibly-"
BAM!
Suddenly a plasma blast threw everyone to the ground, including me. The sound and the impact on the ground letting me dizzy. I rose a bit over my chest and shook my head to get the dizziness away.
I was about to stand up when something took me from the leg and began to pull me way from the group. I screamed truly scared as I was dragged to the trees trying to grasp on anything I found on the ground.
My mind screamed me to kick and fight to run at the safety of the search party. To find comfort on humans as I had been taught my whole life. But then it told me to stop fighting, and it wasn't until then that I realized it was Toothless.
I stopped fighting and yelling, Toothless let me go as soon as we were out of view and I hurried to his back.
"Quickly, to the camp," I told him and he ran off to the little place where we had landed.
"What's happening?"
"They know about the book and want to steal it." I told him and jumped off as we got to the camp and packed up, horrified realizing the search party were closer than I thought.
"How did they know?"
"I don't know! Now we need to go," I said putting my sword out and making a cut on my arm.
"What are you doing?!" the dragon screeched.
"Bite me," I told him, ignoring the question.
"What? No!"
I sighed exasperated and quickly explained, "I'm going back, I'll tell them I found our camp, fought the "Dragon Conqueror", searched for the book and found nothing. But I have to make this look real."
"Why don't we just go?"
"Because they will keep looking for us and for this book," I said waving it on my hands before saving it on my satchel, "If I tell them it doesn't exist they will stop following us. There is something about that Alvin, he is from inside the Archipelago and had tracked us since the first town and knew about the book... we have to make him stop searching."
The dragon sighed and agreed to bite me, but just the boot, where he had pulled me from.
"Perfect, now-" He blasted the ground once and swung his tail hitting my back and throwing me face first to the ashes. "Hey! What was that for?"
"You said you want it to look real," he said still annoyed with the idea of him hurting me.
"Ha-ha, very funny," I said, standing up. "Okay, stay close, but not too close," I told him, not knowing how this would turn out.
I ran back at the group, guiding myself with the flickering lights of the torches that came from between the trees. By the time I reached them I was panting. The way seemed shorter on Toothless' back.
"Woah, Nadia, are you alright, lass?" A man asked.
I rested my hands on my knees and raised a thumb as I tried to breathe right again.
"What happened?"
"It took me to their camp," I said breathlessly and stood right, "there is no book, I searched for it. She… she tried to kill me," I had to stop and rest my hands on my knees again raising a finger to make them wait.
"They flew away after the Night Fury tried to blast me, I hid. I think… they think… I'm dead."
"I don't think tha's true," Alvin said, making his way to me pushing people away.
"What? Dude, I almost died!" I said slowly stretching my back. He reached out a hand and snatched my satchel from me. "Hey! That's mine!" I yelled trying to reach for it.
He put a hand inside and pulled out my book, I went pale.
"So, there is no book, huh?"
"Give it back, I almost died for it." I said harshly.
"Too bad," he said tossing me the bag but keeping the book. Toothless roared and everyone freaked out. "Well, I guess they are going ta' be pleased ta' really kill ye this time."
Alvin suddenly put out his sword. I heard Toothless, this time closer but Alvin twisted his sword and hit me with the hilt on the head and everything went black.
…
I woke up on the forest's floor. Suddenly completely awake and alert.
I looked around, the forest was calm and quiet. A weird light was coming from everywhere, illuminating it all.
"Toothless?" I asked when I realized he wasn't at my side, my voice carried a weird echo. I stood and shook the… dirt? There wasn't any of the usual dirt, mud or ashes on my clothes. Not even the blood of my new wounds.
Not even the wounds or long-live scars.
There was definitely something odd about this. Maybe it was the light, or the fact that it was all so clean and quite –even myself.
Something chirped behind me and I turned with a yelp that echoed through the forest. A small green Nadder was standing alone, tilting its head.
I sighed. "Hey, little fella, got lost?" I asked and got close making the Nadder turn and walk away. A few feet away, it stopped to face me and tilted its head again. The tail was swinging playfully and it looked at something on the forest behind it and then to me.
"Oookay," I said awkwardly and searched Toothless with my eyes one last time before following the small dragon.
We walked through the forest and I couldn't shake the weird feeling off. Even less when I began to notice the forest looked just the same.
The same lifted root the Nadder had happily jump over. The same low branch I had hit myself three times.
It was all the same until we got to a cliff. No, it wasn't a cliff. As we got closer and closer I could see more of the enormous cove we had arrived to.
I walked to the edge and looked down. Thousands of different dragon species lived together around the bay that continued to the sea.
A small "wow" left my lips as I took more in. Dragon species I have never seen or heard of. All of different colors and ages. I began to see different environments too. The aquatic dragons had the sea, most of the cove in front of me was grassland, on both sides of the entrance of the water was a huge forest of all kind of vegetation and to one side of the entrance it was covered in snow.
The Nadder called for my attention again, and it took a lot of me to stop looking at the place and follow the small dragon trough a path that lead us down.
We walked at the wall's edge, over boulders and roots, slowly going down. With every step, I stopped to admire the beauty of both flora and fauna. I decided that I was definitely dreaming because there was no way that I had miss this when I landed.
We reached the ground and walked to the bay, I froze halfway. How could I have miss that? How?!
In the lake were three huge –and when I say huge I don't mean Timberjack-huge or Typhoomerang-huge, I mean mountain-like huge- dragons.
My jaw fell open, my eyes trying to take all in once again, because this couldn't be real.
The one on my left looked quite literally like a mountain. Boulder and big, half of it was inside the water and the part that wasn't was covered in dirt and trees. Dragons were landing on its back and it didn't seem to bother at all.
It looked like an island with a serpent-like neck coming out at the water. Its scales of a soft green that was rather calming. It was looking down at sleeping dragons on the shore, liking and nudging them.
The one of the middle was half covered in water too, its long neck was almost the only thing out, it's shinny blue scales of different tones reflected the sky. The dragon was surrounded by others, especially hatchlings and short-wings. They were playing around and the big dragon looked with loving eyes.
On my right was another dragon. At first sight I thought it was jet black but as I looked longer I noticed the scales were actually of a very dark blue, as the night sky. The scales shinned too, in an odd way that make it look like stars. The eyes of a light blue, almost white. Its neck stretched out of the water to reach just one dragon that was on shore: a black Night Fury.
It wasn't until then that I realized what this was.
I looked again at the dragons. One of the earth, one of the sky, and one of the night.
"The three Ladies," I whispered in wonder and disbelief. Was this really happening?
The dragons seemed to hear me because the three of them turned to me. I stammered, feeling a huge weight falling above me.
Toothless happily roared my name and ran to me, nuzzling my side and the weight lifted.
"Little Viking," the dragon on the middle, the Sky Lady I presumed, greeted with a nod, using the name dragons had gave me –just Toothless could call me "Fuzzy". I looked at her, it was weird, I was closer than I remember walking.
Suddenly, I realized something and almost threw myself to the ground as I tried to bow quickly. Bowing was a sight of respect that dragons showed to their queens and I had got used to show it too. And these dragons were obviously more important than a queen.
The Sky Lady hummed a laugh, "Stand up, Little Viking."
I did, though my knees were weak. I couldn't believe it. How was this even possible? They looked at me and I looked at them for what seemed like an eternity. There was something in their eyes, as if they were expecting something but I just could look at them with the hint of a smile on my lips.
"You are taking this very well," the Earth Lady growled slowly with a motherly tone that made me feel warm inside. Then I panicked.
"Wait. Am I dead?" I almost yelled.
They laughed in a weird humming-purring sound that calmed me down.
"No, no." The Earth Lady said, "your body is a bit wounded but is safe in the forest you were in, but your mind left Midgard."
I nodded in agreement then frowned, "I did what?"
"We wanted to communicate with you," the Sky Lady said, "this was the only way."
"You wanted to communicate with me?" I asked confused.
"Little Viking," the Night Lady purred, lowering her neck to be closer to me. Toothless instantly left my side and nuzzled her jaw with his nose. He seemed too small at her side.
She nuzzled him back before asking, "do you know why can you understand my night-person? Why can you understand any of us?"
"Uh… I supposed I just… spent too much time with him I kind of… learn their language?" I said realizing how stupid it sounded now that I said it out loud. "Is that or I'm getting crazy."
"You are not completely wrong," the Sky Lady growled lowly.
"The crazy part or…" I trailed off.
She laughed a bit, then explained, "Being so close to our kind had help you, but not all humans can just learn our language." She lowered her neck until her head was just in front of me. Big, blue eyes the size of my body looked at me and I could swear she was looking to my very soul.
"You can understand us because there is something inside you that is like us." She said and there was a sparkle of pride on her eyes.
"What?" I laughed nervously and gave a step back.
"When you were born you were chosen by your gods and I took away your human inner-fire," You did what? I wanted to say but was too shocked by the words of the Sky Lady to do so, "And I replaced it with one like us."
"My-my inner-fire?" I stammered, "but… isn't that like… me? Who I am? A-" a Viking. No, I was no Viking.
"You ARE a Viking," the Sky Lady said and I wondered if she could read my mind, "on your heart you are, and it beats with the courage of one."
"Your different inner-fire is what lets you learn our language and understand it. It has grown stronger these last moons that it even had let us communicate with you" The Night Lady said, raising up and Toothless returned to my side, a playful glint on his eyes.
Communicate with me?
"But- why?" I asked still confused on that matter. I looked at Toothless, remembering what he had said when I asked again about the ladies a few weeks ago. He had said they still could communicate with dragons through worlds, that all their minds were connected somehow but even when they were present in everyone's minds they just talked when it was super important stuff.
Toothless had said he hadn't even seen them. No wonder why he was so happy to have the Night Lady at his side.
"I thought you just communicate when it was something important." I said.
"It is, Little Viking." The Night Lady said with a tone that left me uneasy, "You are getting away from your path."
"My path?"
"As I said, when you were born you were chosen by the gods." The Sky Lady said.
I stared at her for a moment, not really liking the turn the conversation had taken. I asked carefully, "Chosen for what?"
"To end the war between our species." The Earth Lady explained, "you are a connection and only a person like you can end this with peace. There had been others before you, and there will be others after your time but you are the one that had gone farther."
"The first step is always the harder, but you have already make the right decision befriending my night-person but you also decided to leave, getting both of you away from your destiny." The Night Lady said softly, then her tone got serious as she said, "You two have to return. Destroy what lays on the nest. That would end the raids to your islands. With the raids done you can bring peace."
Destroy what lays on the nest… there was something about the way she said it that bugged me.
"But, what's on the nest?"
The ladies turned to Toothless, showing confusion. The Night Lady talked, her voice with a hint of disappointment and a little bit of anger, "didn't you tell her?"
The Night Fury made himself small, "I didn't want to scare her," he whimpered but I remembered the way he acted when any question related to the nest came into conversation.
The one scared was him.
And, to be honest, that scared me.
Toothless turned to me and sat on his haunches, he looked at me but then turned his head away. I had never seen Toothless so nervous, so scared. He wouldn't even meet my eyes. He had said bad things happen on that nest, but how bad could they be to make Toothless afraid?
"Inside the nest there's- a queen. As in any nest she is supposed to protect us but… even when she promised, she doesn't." out of nowhere Toothless snarled, "She is not a good queen." His tone returned to the frightened one as he continued, "She doesn't care, she lures you in with promises of rest and food and a warm spot to sleep on… but inside the nest there is nothing than fear."
With every word he said tension grew and even the dragons around us began to quiet down a bit. "And you can't leave. You are trapped in there and obey her out of fear. She is big enough to be a mountain herself and if we don't bring food… she eats one of us."
I looked at him in horror. That bad it could be.
"Your kind, Vikings," the Earth Lady said softly but even her voice couldn't calm me down now, "call it a Red Death."
Everything stopped with those two words. The soft breeze, the chirping birds, the baby dragons playing around and every dragon-sound in general.
My own breathing stopped, my legs stopped working too and as I tried to step away from this reality, I fell back on my butt.
Toothless quickly was on my side and I forced myself to breathe again. Heavy, unsteady breathes left my lips, "N-no, t-the Deaths were killed, centuries ago!" I stammered.
The Big Deaths, we called them, they were almost legends, just myths as the stories of how they were killed. No one alive lived in those times. Those stories are way older than this war. The Purple Death, the Green Death, and some others… they were all killed. Funny enough a Hiccup Horrendous Haddock had killed one of those.
"There is still one, she is from the Alpha species," The Earth Lady said, still trying to calm me down with her voice but it didn't have any effect on me anymore.
"Th-The what?" I almost yelled, not controlling my own voice. What were they talking about now?
"Alphas, like us, were given the power to be inside the minds of our own kind," The Night Lady explained, "we were given that power to protect but the Deaths got corrupted for it and forced other fire-people do things they don't want to."
"B-but how?"
"I think your friend can explain you that, after all, he was under her control… until you got him out." The Sky Lady said proudly, "you have that power Little Viking, you were born with it. You are special. You are not like other Vikings."
"So, if…" I couldn't breathe, "I need to go back? to the place I ran away from?" a small fire of anger lighted up inside of me and I let it grow, "you understand that if that thing doesn't kill me someone from Berk surely will?! The whole freaking archipelago knows I'm a traitor and they won't doubt on killing me!"
Toothless cooed my name in a small warning but I cut him off.
"No! I- I can't do this. I won't!"
The Sky Lady raised up, showing more of her body, and opening her wings slowly. Even when there were no clouds over us the place darkened and I felt a huge weight over myself. It was similar than the one I had felt when they first turned to me but way, way worse.
The Earth Lady and Night Lady growled stopping the other. I could see lighting and fire in her furious eyes and I felt so small on her presence that for a moment I wanted to agree, I wanted to say yes, I'll go back and kill the queen.
But I pushed that thought out of my head. I wished I could be brave enough to stand up and say "no" one more time but instead I recoiled my legs and pulled myself back.
The other Ladies growled again.
"We will give you time to think," the Sky Lady said, though she wasn't speaking in soft growls and purrs anymore, her voice didn't carry that pride as when she talked to me a few minutes ago. It was a deep growl and a harsh voice that sent quivers down my spine. "You have until sunset."
…
I woke up, I was on the floor, again. Dizzy and hurt. I could feel every single wound, the dried mud on my skin, and the clothes sticking with sweat on my sore body.
Toothless was sleeping on my side and the sun was casting shadows on the trees.
Gods, it had been a dream. It all was a dream. The Ladies, the destiny thing, that a Big Death was still alive and on the Archipelago. Just a dream, a very bad dream.
I tried to sit up and groaned, waking Toothless up. He pushed my side softly, helping me to a siting positon. Alvin hadn't been a dream, he was real, and he had my book.
My hand raised to my head. My hair was glued to my skin with something dried that I suspected wasn't mud. I scratched it and saw the dried blood under my nails. Well, at least I wasn't bleeding anymore.
Toothless cooed, "You don't want to go back?" it wasn't a question and it made me feel sick. It had been real, all of it.
"What are they thinking?" shouting made my head dizzy but it didn't stop me, "I'm sixteen! What kind of idiot puts Midgard faith in a sixteen-year-old kid!" I yelled, pointing at me and gesturing wildly with my hands.
The dragon cooed my name in warning, "you shouldn't speak like that. You insulted the Ladies and you are insulting your gods."
"I don't give a damn about the gods! Or the Ladies! I can't-" All the fury gathered left me in a shaking breath, just an unsettling feeling of fear and sadness was left inside.
I hugged myself, recoiling my legs to be a small ball. Toothless purred reassurances, trying to calm me down and stood up just to circle me and lay down again. I tried to stop but I began to cry. I leaned my body on Toothless, weeping.
"I can't go back," I managed to say. How could I? After what I did I couldn't show my face. I was just getting used to be alone, seeing the bright side of being an outlaw. To having no father and no other friend to relay on but Toothless.
I was too scared to go back to Berk. And now, knowing what waited on the nest… I was completely terrified.
The sun kept moving on the sky. After a few hours, I calmed down. I was still laying on Toothless' side; it was all my sore body could do. I stroke his black scales softly as I thought of every little hint he had said of the nest.
'Once I didn't eat for two moons.' 'Aren't queens supposed to see you have enough food?'
'They have got into your head and made you thought you are something you are not! I know that because that is what she does!'
'Toothless… what is going on in that nest?' 'Bad things.'
'If you wanted to see the world why did you stay?' 'It's not that easy… I couldn't leave.'
"Toothless?" I said softly, "why didn't you say anything?"
The dragon shifted uncomfortable, his anxiety and fear was palpable. "I didn't want to scare you," he growled lowly, "you missed your birth-nest, if any day you wanted to go back to it I didn't want her to stop you."
After a long moment of silence, I spoke again, "What do they do?" Toothless turned to me, not understanding the question. "The alphas. The Ladies said they have the power to enter your minds… one day you said she makes you think you are something you are not."
Toothless sighed, "Sh-she lures you in with a song… you hear what you want, what you need, and she promises that. Once you agree to her song you are doomed, she is already inside your head, she sees your inner-fire and manipulates it, changing who you are and what you want to do."
"Go out to see the world changed to fire things up, to destroy your weapons so my nest-mates won't get hurt. I don't even know how long it took for her to release me. Like that you are not completely under her control, you can think by your own again but if you try to scape she calls you, and you have to answer."
"By that time, you obey out of… fear. Being so long on her control makes you forget a lot of things, I don't remember lot of places I went to. I barely remember my birth-nest, my parents, my nest-mates… I didn't remember my own name."
"But… you are out of her control now." I half-asked, worried that she could call him again.
"Thanks to you," He answered.
"The Sky Lady said I had the power to put you out of the alpha's control." He nodded, "but I didn't do anything, how did I…" my voice trailed off, not understanding a thing. I barely understood the fact that there was a part of "dragon" inside of me.
"I don't know…" he sighed, "most times when a dragon gets taken down she leaves them at their own if they can't escape fast. But when I was on the cove I still could hear her calling me, I was trying to escape that place to go back but with you being there I just… forgot? When you are at my side I just… forget about her."
I smiled a bit and stroke his neck. A slightly uncomfortable silence fell upon us and my mind swam on the memories of what just happened. Every word the Ladies had said circled inside my head, everything I had seen and feel.
Even the scary feeling of the Sky Lady getting angry. That weight and pain on my head as she looked at us. I remembered how small I felt and how I just wanted to agree to make her stop.
"What does it feel like to be on their control?" I asked, too late realizing I shouldn't had done that.
Toothless shifted uncomfortable and shook me off to turn his body away from me, curling aside me instead of around me. "Horrible" he said shortly.
"It's not supposed to be like that. It doesn't feel wrong when I'm with the ladies but with the queen…" Toothless' body shivered, "your head hurts, there is a weight inside you and you feel like you are being crushed by a mountain. The more you resist their control the more it hurts. It gets so unbearable that is better to just… cede in."
Toothless' body stiffen, he moved a bit to curl up more. I slid my hands on his neck and hug him, pressing my cheek against his scales. Almost without realizing I made one of the two dragon's sounds I knew how to do and howled lowly to comfort Toothless.
"I'm just glad you don't have to feel that," he purred and the memory of that horrible weight came back. I swallowed hard but said nothing, he can't know that pressure.
"We are not going back," I told him after a while. Toothless let out a questioning whimper and I nuzzled his neck with my cheek. "I'm not letting her hurt you, I promise. You are safe out here and that's how it is going to stay."
Toothless shifted, turning his head to me. "but… your birth-nest…"
"I don't miss them, not anymore. Besides, if I go back they will try to kill me. We both are safe here."
Toothless turned completely, laying on his back. He extended his neck and licked my temple, taking the dried blood off and though the pressure of his tongue hurt it let a nice, cool feeling.
I giggled and cleaned the saliva off my eye before turning to the sky. It was way pass midday; the day had gone on too fast and a few hours it would get dark again.
"We are going to see them again, aren't we?" I asked Toothless, recalling the last thing the Sky Lady had said.
Toothless cooed a 'yes' looking at the sky too. "You should rest," he said, softly pushing me to the ground.
I resisted and pushed his head away, "I'm fine, I don't really want to sleep."
Toothless looked at me with inquisitive eyes –I never turned down a chance to sleep. "Staying awake is not going to stop meeting them,"
"Wha? Who-who said I was trying to delay anything?" I said with the most innocent tone I could manage. But Toothless wasn't buying it. I hugged my knees and shrugged, "I thought it would work."
"They call, you answer. That's how an alpha's power works."
"But I'm not a dragon, they can't control me, right?" At that Toothless eyes filled with fear and mines did too. I had a knot in my throat that wouldn't go away, even if I swallowed it.
"I don't know," Toothless growled lowly and we both went quiet. I remembered once again the Sky Lady and that awful feeling when she got angry, how I just wanted to accept… that weight I felt when I first were on their presence.
What if they could control me?
"So, we are screw," I mumbled looking down to my filthy boots. Toothless growled, not understanding, "If they want us to go back they can just… make us do it, we don't have a choice."
"We do." Toothless purred and rolled to be around me again, "Alphas have power but is to protect, they don't force you to do something you don't want to. The queen is bad, that is why she does it."
"But what if they do?" My voice sounded like one of a scared child, and I couldn't say I wasn't one.
"They let it be our decision, the Sky Lady wouldn't have given you time to think about this if she didn't want it to be. Of course, they want us to go back but it had to be on our own accord."
"Do you want to?" I asked him and he adverted my eyes before looking deeply into them.
"I will always follow you," he purred softly, "not matter where that takes us."
I smiled and rested on his neck again, stoking his scales as I stubbornly tried not to sleep.
…
I woke up resting on the grass of the beautiful cove the Ladies laid on.
"Are you kidding me?" was the first thing I said, I didn't even remember falling asleep. Toothless was widely awake, still curled up around me.
"I hope you have come to your senses," the Sky Lady said with a complex of superiority that made my blood boil. I stood up, my hands fists at my sides as I walked to the shore –well, I just had to give a step forward and I was already before the Ladies.
I blinked twice a bit confused but shook my head. "Look, I understand that this is a whole "destiny" thing and that somehow the gods are involved on this, but- well, no. Actually, I don't understand half of what is going on." I admitted.
"But the point is…" suddenly I couldn't speak, the simple thought of the Sky Lady being angry frightened me. I took a deep breath and forced myself to talk, "I'm not going back."
Everything went silent. And this time it wasn't just the Sky Lady the one angry, the Three Ladies looked at each other, first shocked then mad. They looked at me and everything began to take a darker tone, a crushing sensation fell upon me.
"Don't you understand what this mean?" the Earth Lady said, trying to get a hold on her voice.
"Yeah, I do. But that doesn't change the fact that I don't want to go back."
"The gods chose you, over all humans." The Night Lady snarled.
"Well, the gods do very crappy decisions," I muttered what just made them angrier.
The Sky Lady raised up, "I gave you your inner-fire, I made you who you are!"
I opened my arms to show my whole body, "Great job you did!" I said, not afraid to talk back. Then her eyes turned to slits and the fear came back. My head buzzed and hurt as if two boulders were crushing me, I groaned and tried to shake the pain away. My breath speeded up, knowing exactly what the pain meant.
Toothless snarled and put himself between the Ladies and I. Showing his teeth and his ears flat on his neck as he took a defensive stance. My breath returned to normal, looking at the Night Fury's courage. To be honest I wasn't expecting him to protect me from the Ladies.
"Get off the way," The Sky Lady ordered. Toothless' body stiffened, he shook his head and I got a glimpse of his eyes, turned to thin slits. Worry overcame fear and pain and I stepped forward, putting my hand on his bare neck.
"Toothless?" I asked softly. His body was shaking but he began to step back, his eyes forcefully closed, his jaw clenched as in pain, "bud?" I asked, this time louder and my voice broke.
He suddenly opened his eyes, his pupils were still slits but they were more normal. "No." he snarled. His eyes, filled with fury, looked up to the Ladies. "If she doesn't want to go back, we aren't going back."
The Sky Lady's eyes widened, offended of him talking back and surprised that he could do that. "You are supposed to put some sense on her head-" And Toothless did another thing I wasn't expecting, he cut her off.
"You think I want to go there again? To return to that nest? To see how many she had eaten in the last winter?" he hissed angrily, "I don't want to go back either and there is nothing you can do to make us change our minds!"
The Ladies turned at me, looking me as if it was my fault that Toothless was talking like that to them. And yes, it was. And yes, I was proud of it.
"She will become more powerful," the Night Lady said making a last try to change my mind, "she will destroy the whole archipelago and the first island to go is going to be yours."
"Don't you care about your nest?" the Earth Lady asked, "your friends, your father?"
My hands turned to shaking fists and returned to my sides, "No. I had no friends in there and Stoick the Vast is no longer my father, I'm not a Haddock and I have no attachments to anything or anyone! Just to Toothless."
"You were born with a dragon's fire and it is your destiny to make peace-" the Sky Lady began to explain with an exasperated tone but I cut her off.
"Well, screw destiny!" I shouted, "I'll do what I want to do!"
"Don't you understand, child?" the Night Lady tired, "You can't avoid this! It is already written."
I frowned and my voice suddenly turned to a high-pitched tone, "You said there were others,"
"Not like you," She said, shaking her head. The Night Lady looked at the Night Fury still standing protectively between us, "just look at what you did."
"The others had a fire-person's inner-fire but not as strong like yours." The Earth Lady explained, she had calmed and was speaking in that soft voice of hers, looking at us in marvel. "You have accepted it, Dragon Master, it is what gives you the curiosity for our species. And it is completely compatible with the one of Thunderstorm."
Thunderstorm?
"Do not call her Dragon Master," the Sky Lady said bitterly, "she doesn't deserve that name. Maybe we were wrong, she is not the chosen."
"She is Dragon Master, just look at them." The Night Lady said confusing me more, I thought dragons called themselves fire-people. And so far, any of them –except Toothless- had called me Little Viking and now I was Dragon Master?
"Their inner-fires are connected," the Night Lady continued as if we weren't there, "she and Thunderstorm were meant to meet."
"That is NOT my name!" Toothless snarled.
"Oh, and what is it? That silly name she gave you, as if you were her pet?" the Sky Lady snarled and Toothless snarled back.
"He is not my pet," I said with a strong voice, "Toothless is my friend." Toothless stood tall at my side, his tail around me. "You wanted this to be our decision, well, this is our decision. Find another one to do the job."
"You are the one," the Night Lady said, "it is already written, no matter what you do, you will go back."
"We are not." I said stubbornly.
"It's your destiny, there in no way to change it." The Earth Lady said.
"Watch me."
"Let her try," the Sky Lady told the others, "things will just get worse for her."
Something boiled inside of me, "Is that a threat?" I asked harshly.
"Fuzzy," I heard Toothless call but it wasn't coming from Toothless, "Fuzzy!"
Suddenly I opened my eyes. Toothless was harshly nuzzling my side, sending bolts of pain all aver my body, "I'm awake, I'm awake!" I shouted to make him stop. I looked around, it was still night and Toothless' body lose in the darkness that for a moment I thought he wasn't there but his shinny green eyes said otherwise.
"What happened?" I asked, not understanding why everting had ended so abruptly.
"You were going to threaten the Ladies." Toothless said a bit concerned, "this was the only thing I thought to stop you."
I looked around, still confused, "How?"
"Fire-people can hear them no matter what but you need to be asleep, I supposed if you were awake you wouldn't hear them, so I woke you up."
"You… can still hear them?" I asked slowly, worried to let Toothless alone in front of them. The Ladies were to dragons what gods were to Vikings. I could scream and say all I wanted of the gods there and here but if I was standing in front of them, things would have gone a bit different.
"No…" Toothless said, just realizing he didn't hear them anymore, "we already made a decision and we pissed them off so I don't think they will even talk to us ever again."
I grimaced and instantly felt bad. Toothless looked so happy at the Night Lady's presence and he always talk of her with such adoration and I took his chance of seeing her again away.
Then I remembered what she had said. It was written. It was destiny. We couldn't avoid it.
Watch me, my own voice sounded inside my head and I smiled. "So, what did you say about that island with the blue fires?"
Toothless' mood changed completely. He gave me a gummy smile, excitedly moving his tail side to side. I laughed and stood up, jumping to the saddle in one move. And without thinking we took off, leaving on the ground the mess that were our lives.