Tesla was growling, feeling like a vibrating sleeping bag. I weakly hit him in the chest with my right fist, subconsciously remembering my injured left hand.
"Dude, shut up. I'm tryin' ta sleep…OOF! TESLA! The heck?!" Tesla had stood up, dumping me off his wing in the process. He was using his body as a shield for something. I rolled out from under him. Tesla jumped when I walked into his sight line, and started to reach for me with a wing. Without looking, I pushed it away with the back of my hand.
The Triple Stryke was standing on the other side of the pond. Apparently, it had been drinking, and froze when Tesla started growling. I put my hand on Tesla's nose.
"Tesla, relax, this must be the only fresh water around here. We'll go somewhere else to make camp. After all, it was here first, and spared me when it could have killed me yesterday. Let them have this." He softly scoffed and turned towards the woods, disappearing into the dark brush. I walked to the edge of the woods, and turned to look back.
The Stryke was still watching me, its ear flaps perked in interest. I raised my hand and waved to it. It cocked its head, then slowly raised its tails, waving back with all three. I laughed. Tesla growled at me from the trees, wanting to be as far away from the other dragon as possible. I jogged to catch up.
"Alright you absolute child, I'm coming. You need a vacation or something." He simply mumbled. "That better not have been a smart response." I retorted playfully. The forest was thin enough that even Tesla had no problem getting through. I hopped up to grab a branch, then swung myself on top of another one. I hopped from branch to branch as Tesla marched on through the brush. I spotted an opening in the trees, and leaped to the ground, rolling when I landed.
'Dang it, my ribs are still sore…'
"There's an opening up ahead, wonder what's there?" We broke through the tree line and almost walked off a cliff. Tesla grabbed my coat and pulled me back when my arms automatically started wheeling. I landed with an oomph. I stood up and rubbed my backside.
"Thanks for the save Tesla, I can't fly like you can." He simply glared at me. "Hey! It's not my fault Mother Nature decided to put a cliff here! How was I supposed to know?" He simply grumbled. I rolled my eyes and looked down the cliff. It was only about ten feet, but the difference in surviving that is whether or not you know you're falling. It could literally mean life and death.
I jumped.
I heard Tesla freak and try to catch me, but I was to far down to grab. I landed and rolled, flinging sand everywhere. I bounced up onto my feet with my hands in the air.
"Hooo! That was a trill!" Next thing I know, I'm giving the beach a big ol' hug and kiss. "Phhhhft-! What was that for?!" He had a miffed expression (Imagine Toothless' face at the start of HTTYD 2 after he saved Hiccup. I gotta give props to the animators for that whole scene! XD) and wasn't looking at me.
"Oh what's wrong now? You looking for an apology? Well, guess what? You ain't getting' one! I knew I could make that jump, and that's why I did it." He flashed a glance back at me, then turned his head completely away. I found a small rock and chucked it at him, nailing him in between his neck and head spikes.
When he turned around, I had my hands behind my back, pretending to study the rock wall we had just jumped down from. He started to turn back around, when another rock hit him. He whipped his head around, but I was in the same position before. He growled slightly, making me turn to look at him over my shoulder.
I quirked my eyebrow, shrugged and went back to studying the stone. He started to turn around, when it happened again. This time he roared as he spun. Tesla hadn't roared at me since we became friends. I nearly jumped out of my skin and spun around.
"What was that for?!" He gave me the "you know what" look. "Are you roaring at me for that rock I threw earlier?! Cause that's a really late, and really over-exaggerated response!" I took a deep breath to calm my nerves. Tesla stalked right up to me, making me back up against the wall.
"What in Thor's name are you doing?" He reached down to the sand and drew three small circles in the ground with his wing claw. Then he pointed at me.
"Are you saying I threw three rocks?" He nodded, satisfied I'd been caught. "…Tesla…I only threw one…" We both looked up as sounds of screeching came from above us on the cliff. I raised my eyebrow at Tesla and he mirrored my confusion. I hopped on his neck and we flew up to the cliff top.
"YOU?!" The Triple Stryke was literally rolling on the ground with laughter. I dismounted and started walking over to it. It saw us and tried to take off, but I had gotten within sprinting distance and threw myself on top of it. I gently pinned its head by sitting on its neck and leaning forward.
"Did you throw those rocks?" It slowly nodded as best it could. All Tesla could see was my shoulders shaking and he started to get growl, when I cracked up laughing. He jerked back in shock, having no clue what was going on.
I was laughing so hard I actually fell off the Stryke. It lifted its head up and backed away from me and Tesla, not wanting to seem like a threat to the bigger dragon. I eventually caught my breath enough to explain to the lost and confused Skrill.
"Hehehe, the…the Triple Stryke threw the-he, the other two rocks!" Tesla whipped his head over and growled at the other dragon, who's smile wasn't very convincing. I stood up and walked right in between the two.
"Now now, no need to fight. It was a harmless prank." Tesla snorted as if saying, "Yeah, harmless, sure".
"Oh, come off it Tesla, seriously, you need to chill. He just threw some rocks at you. I did the same thing." Tesla looked at me and the Stryke, then rolled his head as he turned to sit at the cliff edge. I motioned for the Stryke to stay where it was and walked up to Tesla. He wouldn't make eye contact with me.
"Are you pouting? What? Am I a bad guy for taking the other dragon's side?" He simply flapped his bottom jaw, rolling his eyes. I got that evil glint in my eye, and I turned away casually, waving an arm lazily in the air.
"Fine, then I guess I'll become its friend." Next thing I know, Tesla had grabbed me by the coat and dragged me into his possessive wings. "WAH! …Okay, so maybe I won't be leaving. But does the Stryke have to?" Tesla looked like he was deep in thought, then shrugged, giving the Stryke a pointed look.
"So as long as he doesn't bug you, it's fine?" He nodded, releasing me. But not before a tongue to my face. "Blech! Aww COME on!" The two dragons laughed and I walked up to the Stryke, who had heard the whole thing. It was sitting there, tails slowly waving behind it. I walked forward until I was right in front of him.
'I've wanted to try this for a while now.' I looked away and held up my hand, closing my eyes. I felt the Stryke's breath before his actual nose. Dragons were warm blooded, but this dragon was particularly warm. I looked up after a moment, and we both smiled.
"I've got a feeling this will be a beautiful friendship."
Chapter 21
"Forget what I said, this is not beautiful-!" I rolled to the left to dodge an attack. I jumped and slashed at my flying adversary, landing with just enough time to rolled out of the way of another attack.
"Tesla, blast 'em!" The Skrill charged up a blast, static building in the air. He let loose, hitting two or three of our attackers. I saw the Stryke holding his own.
What happened? You may be asking, weren't you just making friends with the Triple Stryke? Why/what are you fighting? Well the short of it is we were walking back to the pond, and when we had gotten there, a small group of Terrible Terrors were getting a drink from the lake.
Some were playing, and some keeping watch. I did something stupid, (Don't give me that look, at least I admit it when something is stupid.) And I walked right up to one of them. Now, this was a young one, and so it didn't really care who you were, just as long as you had food or could pet it.
Its parents on the other hand…Let's just say they weren't pleased with their child making random friends.
Now we're fighting about fifteen of them at once. At least that's an even amount for each of us. Sad part is, I was no dragon, so it was making things difficult. Some of the Terrors figured out I was good target practice if they stayed out of reach. I was only able to strike at the ones that got too close.
"I really, need to get a ranged weapon-!" Tesla had finished with his five, and I'm not describing that image. Since he was done, he flew over to help me, and when my five had seen the damage a Skrill can do, they started squawking at the rest of the Terrors. They all saw their fallen brethren, and they booked it as fast as they could.
Once we made sure they weren't coming back, I sheathed my sword, leaned against a tree and slumped to the ground, trying to steady my breathing. The two dragons walked over and curled up next to me on either side.
"That, was enough adventure to last me a week." Both dragons agreed, and we all fell asleep for a short break.
I woke up (dang it with all the naps) with a slight cramp in my leg, and stood to stretch it out. I heard a small roar, and looked up in time to get a full-on fish to the face. Because I had been stretching, I wasn't in the position to catch myself and landed on my back.
"Oof! Alright who threw that?!" I sat up and rubbed fish oil off of my face. Both dragons were laughing so it was hard to tell, but Tesla had a certain glint in his eye. I got up, grabbing the fish along the way, and stalked over. I stopped right in between them, and when I started to turn toward the Stryke, Tesla shifted in the corner of my eye.
So instead of stopping when I faced the other dragon, I kept spinning and back-handed Tesla with the fish. Both dragons froze in shock, then the Stryke fell over laughing. Tesla simply snatched the fish out of my hand, eating it in one bite.
"That's what you get, ya brat." I simply patted the side of his head. He playfully scowled turning away for a second, then bumping his nose into my stomach.
"Ooh, careful bud, I'm still sore from that hit from his tail." I jerked a thumb over to the Stryke, who looked guilty all of a sudden. I turned to him, and reached my hand out. He hesitantly pushed his nose horn into it.
"It's alright. It hurts, but you were only protecting your territory, plus, that hit was nothing compared to what Tesla tried to do." Tesla's eyes widened and I could tell he was shaking his head behind me. "Yeah, I mean, I can take a hit, a good number of them in fact. But when someone tries to blast you with lightning, that's when things get dangerous!" Tesla had dropped his head to the ground, covering it with his wings. The Stryke looked at him in shock, letting out a small squawk.
"It's okay, because he never got the chance to actually hit me. Plus, I…may have, egged him on…?" It was the Stryke's turn to give me a deadpanned look and whack me over the head with a wing. "Okay…I deserved that…" I turned to Tesla, who had peaked out from behind his wings.
"Get up you. I think we've scared the others back at the Edge for long enough. I'm surprised this island hasn't been checked yet." I walked over and Tesla held out his wing to give me a leg up, when I stopped and turned.
"We never did tell you how we came to land at this island, did we?" The Stryke shook his head, then cocked it to the side, ready to listen. I quickly explained the situation. The Stryke let all of it sink in, then brought his combined tails over, hovering just in front of me.
I gently grabbed it, a silent token of trust and gratitude. Triple Strykes were very sensitive about their tails, and while they did use them in battle, their tails were their most prized weapons. Even more so than their fire breath. If a Stryke let you touch its tails, it was basically saying you're a trusted friend.
"Do you want to come with us? I promise I'll do my best to help you fit in." Understandably, the Stryke hesitated. Leaving its home? Going to a new place, albeit not all that far away? He slowly spread his wings, then chirruped quietly. I smiled and hopped on Tesla. "I promise, this is going to be fun!"