NEW CHAPTER! ENJOY!
By the time Shadow and Rune decided to head back to the site, it was basically night at this point. The design for the bar was done, sketched both on paper and in the dirt by Rory and Lok, who were both asleep. Ash, however, was still awake if just barely.
Shadow flew above the clearing, settling into a glide down towards the ground. Rune had decided to return on Shadow's back, probably due to it being easier than walking through the woods at night. Shadow glanced back with only his eyes and asked, *Well, the Academy isn't even the Academy yet but it was cool to see it and know what it'll become, right?*
Rune nodded, "Yeah, plus it's interesting to be standing in a place like that; There's so much history and bloodshed there that it's honesty fascinating." Hearing this Shadow shivered, not from the cold but his own thoughts, the Ender Dragon replying with relief, *I am really thankful we ended up here AFTER the events of the first movie.*
"Heh, you and me both, I don't think I would have handled being thrown into that kill arena for 'dragon training.'" Rune replied and Shadow nodded, *Yeah, and the Berkians either would've killed me or tossed me in there to be used as a learning tool; Hell, I don't know, they might've even had me take Hookfang's place in the 'dragon that dies in the final test' thing, and that would've sucked even more.*
Shadow came in for a landing, coming to a slightly jogging stop as he did so whilst being careful to avoid the finished drawing of the layout of the bar.
As soon as Shadow came to a stop, Rune slid off of him and turned to nod in thankfulness, "Thanks for flying me back." Shadow nodded back, *It was no big deal.* And with that, Shadow looked around the area and noticed the sleeping and unsleeping, *Huh, seems Lok and Rory finished the design for the bar... and have gone to asleep; Ash, I'm surprised you're still awake.* The last bit was said at Ash, who tiredly looked at him.
*Hmph, sleep is for the weak,* Ash told the Ender Dragon and Shadow returned a disbelieving look, whilst Rune looked around as well and spoke in a hushed tone, "Yeah, those two definitely had a lot of ideas of what they wanted this place to be."
Rune walked over to the designs and began to study them, Shadow doing the same and seeing them even better thanks to his dragon-vision, the Ender Dragon whispering, *Huh, this looks to be two stories... big room over there, some rooms there... looks good to me.* Shadow had no idea if it was good, lacking any actual experience or knowledge of construction.
Rune nodded, having a larger understanding than Shadow, "Yeah, and it looks like they were very considerate on where they put the support beams around the structure and made the design pretty simple and compact by making it a two-story building, and building a basement to serve as space for all the equipment and plumbing that they want to install." Shadow nodded and simply replied with, *Well, this looks good.*
"Yeah though it's going to be hard to dig the foundations for this building with just the three of us and no construction equipment," Rune said with a sigh, "But we need to help contribute to the group; So we should start to at least try and set up the foundations for this building."
Shadow shrugged, *Eh we can start in the morning, it's the dead of night and we should probably set up a basic camp to use whilst doing construction.* Rune nodded in agreement, glancing around for a spot to set up camp, "Yeah, good point."
Suddenly, a roar rang out overhead and both Shadow and Rune snapped their gazes up to the source, which was the Whispering Death that Rory and Lok met earlier that day. However, neither Rune nor Shadow recognized them or remembered Rory's words earlier, and Shadow mentally swore in his head, *Shit! I don't know how to fight and a random new dragon that might be hostile shows up NOW?!*
Shadow hissed to Rune, *Rune, behind me, now.* As Rune moved to get behind Shadow, Rory snapped awake with a flail before calming down upon just seeing it was the Whispering Death, whilst Lok grumbled and got up with an annoyed look and a question, "What are you people doing, I'm trying to sleep." Lok looked up and just said, "Oh, he's here."
Rune didn't hear and turned to the others, yelling desperately quickly from his spot behind Shadow, "Guys wake up, we got a wild whispering death above us!" Lok, who got up, glanced at the Whispering Death calmly and just replied with, "Yeah, I see him."
Shadow, hearing this, remembered Rory's words and turned to Lok to ask cautiously, *Who? Is this that Whispering Death that Rory mentioned?* As Rory moved to protect the two humans with Shadow, Lok replied with a nod, "Well, unless Toothless's arch-nemesis is arriving early, probably; He said he'd arrive tonight."
The Whispering Death flew down to them and hovered right in front of the two big dragons, looking over the group and apologetically speaking, *I have arrived, I ssssee I interrupted your sssleep; Sssssorry.*
Shadow seemed to relax instantly upon hearing this, whilst Lok had no idea what the Whispering Death had said due to the language barrier, so he quickly spoke, "Hey! Welcome." Rune also didn't understand, so covertly the other human whispered to Shadow and Rory, asking them, "Do you guys know what it said?"
*Um, it's ok, they weren't asleep that long do your arrival was perfectly timed actually,* Shadow answered the Whispering Death in a way that intentionally told the humans what the other dragon had said.
Rory nodded and continued, *Oh, you're perfectly fine dear; I'm sure you saw the human nest on the way, that's where they keep most of the fish... But... we should introduce you, as soon as possible, one of the dragons here, he- um. Doesn't like Whisperers much.* Rory winced, *One in particular, which isn't you of course, but we need to remind him of that.*
Lok's eyes widened as he also realized that, thinking, "Oh shit, yeah we need to make sure Toothless doesn't obliterate this dude on sight." Shadow, seeing that expression, remarked with a shrug, *Toothless is in the village and might be asleep, it can wait until tomorrow; So long as the Whispering Death here avoids the village for now there should be no problems.*
Shadow then thought, *Saying Whispering Death, again and again, is getting tiring, maybe this dragon has a name?* Shadow turned to the Whispering Death and tilted his head at the dragon, asking curiously, *So, um, do you have a name?*
"I hope that we don't accidentally stir something because we brought this whispering death here," Rune thought and gave the Whispering Death an awkward smile, whilst Rory spoke up and offered the Whispering Death, *Well luckily, the sun shouldn't rise too early; We could pay a visit while it's still dark.* Everyone went silent as the Whispering Death seemingly hummed.
The Whispering Death proceeded to seemingly tilt its head, if that was even anatomically possible for its species, and answered them slowly, *Name? Hmm, the otherssss called me Wisssp.* The Whispering Death, or rather Wisp, turned to Rory and answered the Stormcutter's question, *Hmm, maybe later, I would like to reassure thisss dragon I won't cause any trouble.*
Lok seemed to contemplate something before throwing a hand up in the air and declaring, "Ok, that's it; I am officially one hundred and ten percent done with this language barrier." Shadow, hearing this, turned and whispered to him, *Whispery here is called Wisp, also yeah, you two gotta get on that language barrier as soon as possible.*
"As soon as possible, huh?" Lok said and smirked, "Right now, let's fucking go." Shadow glared at him seriously, *It's like, I don't know, probably eight or nine pm, time zone here is different than back home so I got no fucking clue; It can wait until tomorrow.*
Lok glared, "You people already woke me up." After a moment, Lok conceded, "Eh, fine. Tomorrow. But we're getting on this first thing tomorrow, and I'm holding you to it." Lok pointed at Shadow as he finished speaking and the Ender Dragon nodded without thinking, *Tomorrow you can go ham on that.*
Shadow had had an idea and turned to Rune quickly, whispering quietly so Wisp didn't overhear their conversation, *Rune, had a thought, is your phone still charged? Can you check the time, I know it's probably way off cause of time zones, but we did go through magic portals so anything is possible.* Rune nodded and whispered back, "Yeah let me check."
Rune pulled out his phone, which was an iPhone with an external backup battery meaning it could go for a while, and the thing was barely at eighty percent. Rune answered Shadow in a whisper, "Hmm, says that it's half-past ten."
*Am or pm?* Shadow asked quietly and Rune replied, "Pm." Shadow glanced up and seemed to think, quietly muttering to himself before whispering, *Hmm, it might actually be accurate... the Archipelago is right next to Greenland, which isn't that far ahead in timezones if I'm right...* Shadow shook his head and refocused on Wisp, trying to pay attention.
Rune yawned and put his phone away, and upon hearing this Shadow knew the humans needed sleep. Hell, he wanted to get some sleep too, so he spoke to the Whispering Death, *Well, if Rory wishes to take you into the village to meet that one dragon who might have an issue with you then you two can go; But the humans need sleep and I'd like to rest as well.*
Wisp glanced to Rory and asked the Stormcutter, *If you would prefer to sssleep, I will go find a spot on this island to make my new nessst.* Rory seemed to shrug and answered back quickly as they got up to fly, *I'm awake now, no point making you wait; I can lead the way, but... I should land first. Their nest isn't hard to miss, it's right by the big spire.*
Wisp nodded and flew higher as Rory joined him in the sky, the two high above the group. Shadow yelled up to them quickly, *Eh, well, um, don't get mauled by Toothless!* Lok waved to the Whispering Death and so did Rune, who spoke up, "It was good meeting you, Wisp."
Wisp was confused as to how the human knew his name, but ultimately after some thinking, he chalked it up to humans and their weird habits, *Nice to meet you too.* And with that, Wisp and Rory flew off towards the village.
Rune stretched and began to walk off to build a small campsite and grab some fire, Shadow turned and saw this so he decided to ask, *Oh, you and Lok need a camp and fire right?*
Rune paused and looked over his shoulder to tell Shadow, "Yeah, but I've already got it covered." Shadow shrugged and put on a neutral face but inside he felt disappointed, a lack of anything to do starting to wear on him. *Oh, ok...* Shadow answered slowly, *Is there anything you need me to do?*
Upon noticing Shadow's response and behavior, Rune felt a little bit bad and decided to offer something to perk up the Ender Dragon, "Maybe you can help start the fire."
Shadow knew he was useless for this task, not only did he have no idea how to start a fire even when human, but as a dragon he had not been gifted the power of fire-breath, only having an acid attack, but he still wanted to help and he'd take what he could get. *Yes, sure, sure! Um, just, let me figure out how...*
.
Meanwhile, in the village, Rory and Wisp had just arrived and were making their way towards the Haddock house. The village was, for the most part, empty. Almost all of the Vikings holed up inside and only one or two dragons milling about, thus leaving a lot of space to land.
Rory did so and looked around, finding the skylight window of the Haddock House, through which was Hiccup and Toothless's room. They paced up to it and craned as high as they could to peer into it, whispering, *Toothless? I hate to be a bother, are you awake? Visitors have come to Berk, I just thought you should know.*
Wisp hovered near Rory, staying out of sight of the window just in case this potentially hostile dragon caused a scene. Said potentially hostile dragon used his snout to push open the wooden hatch and then popped his head out, the Night Fury asking them, "A visitor? Why do you feel the need to tell me..." And then Toothless saw Wisp and he snarled, "What the fuck is one of them doing here?"
*Wait wait!* Rory yelped quickly to hopefully prevent any fight, *This one's young! We found him out in the open on Dragon island, the rest bullied him out! He didn't have anywhere else to go, and well, we needed help with construction and thought he could help the rest of Berk too.*
Wisp glanced at Toothless curiously, tilting his head as he remarked, *Never ssseen a dragon like you before... I promissse I mean no harm.* Toothless glared at the Whispering Death in suspicion, looking them up and down as if they were prey before eventually telling them with a huff, *Hm, ok, I guess it's fine then.*
Rory spoke up, *He'll stay in the forest most of the time, the Timberjack too; They'll just be around to eat, probably at night... Sorry to bother you, that was really all; Goodnight!* And with that Rory quickly moved out of view, letting out a breath of relief as they did so. The Whispering Death followed them and remarked, *I think that went well.*
*Yes; Now you can go where you like, thank you Wisp!* Rory told the Whispering Death before taking off and flying towards the Salty Dragon Bar, only staying around long enough to see Wisp nod and fly off into the forest to build a new nest. Meanwhile, Toothless still had his head out of the window and was staring in the direction they went with narrow eyes.
*Why did that Stormcutter even think it was necessary to introduce to this visitor at all...* Toothless thought and took a deep breath, *It's not like they know I had a problem with a Whispering Death in the past...* After a few moments, the Night Fury shook his head and went back inside, shutting the skylight window behind him.
.
Meanwhile, back with Shadow, the Ender Dragon was looking for the nearest tree and quickly found one. He padded over to it and used his tail to swat some of the branches off of it, picking them up in his maw and carrying them over to a dry spot away from the schematic drawn in the dir. Shadow spat them out and stuck his tongue out in disgust, *Argl, that tastes terrible.*
He closed his mouth and began to look around for small stones to create a border around the fire, like the ones he'd seen in movies or games. It took a while, but he managed to find enough and he collected them again in his mouth, taking them over and dumping them next to the pile. With a shudder from the test, he carefully began to use his oversized claws to move them into place, eventually making a somewhat decent circle around the dry sticks. The Ender Dragon looked at the sticks and whispered to himself, *Ok... um, fire, starting a fire like this requires friction... I can do friction, um... what to use though...*
Rune quietly observed from nearby, wondering how he could help his dragon friend. Shadow tilted his head and hummed, thinking out loud, *Um, maybe rubbing two pieces of dry wood together could work? Or maybe hit some stones together to create sparks to get it burning...* Shadow grumbled and then spoke to himself in a whisper, *Come on Shadow, if a fucking caveman could do it then the twenty-first-century human turned Ender Dragon can...*
Rune walked over to stand next to him and politely asked whilst trying to not make Shadow feel useless, "Um, do you need help?" Shadow turned to glance at him and quickly answered, *No! No, it's ok, I can do this.*
*Sticks should work, just need to rub a dry stick against another dry stick over the branches and some kindling...* Shadow thought to himself and used his mouth to pull two dry sticks from the pile of sticks, dropping them at his feet as he realized, *Oh...* Shadow said in realization as he thought to himself, *How the fuck am I gonna hold them with these paws?*
Shadow glanced up at the sky as he thought, *I could hold on in my mouth and maybe the other in place with my paw? But if I put too much pressure with my paw the twig will snap... hmm.* As the Ender Dragon was doing this, Rory coasted down from above them and came to a stop, looking at the Ender Dragon and asking with a tilt of their head, *Uh, would you... like some help?*
Rune was watching and thought to himself, trying to think of some way to help Shadow, "Hmm maybe if a do a pulley system with those beaches and connected it to the pieces of wood and set a fix position Shadow might be able to start a fire by himself." Before Rune could go off to grab some vines or rope, Shadow turned to them.
*No, I'm good, I think I got an idea on how to do it... just let me try,* Shadow told them gently and looked back at the unlit firepit, taking a deep breath and slowly moving one long stick over the kindling, being gentle in holding it in place with his paw. He picked up another stick in his mouth, and thanks to his rather long neck, he was able to position it correctly are at least he thought so. *Ok, let's try this...*
Slowly, Shadow began to move his head back and forth, building up speed and thus friction as he went on, the stick in his mouth rubbing against the one held by his paw. The Ender Dragon held this position for three whole minutes, wondering just how much longer this would take as his concentration was beginning to wane...
But the Ender Dragon smelt something, he hadn't focused on his sense of smell or hearing since becoming an Ender Dragon as he had sort of pushed it to the back of his thoughts, but the potential of it being smoke... Shadow narrowed his eyes to see closer and almost gasped as he saw a bit of smoke coming from the kindling as it actually began to burn. *Fire!* He shouted, coming out muffled due to the stick in his mouth.
Rune smiled at the Ender Dragon's accomplishment, "Yes! Nice job Shadow." Internally Rune sighed in relief as it didn't turn out as bad as he had feared it might. Shadow continued rubbing the sticks together until the kindling was fully on fire, the Ender Dragon turning and spitting the stick in his mouth into a nearby bush.
The Ender Dragon released the stick under his paw and it fell into the kindling, beginning to grow into a bigger fire. *Yes!* Shadow said excitedly and then turned to the sky to roar, *FUCK YOU UNIVERSE! ACID-SPITTING DRAGONS CAN MAKE FIRE!* Rune clapped his hands with a large smile, forgetting how tired he was.
Shadow turned to Rune with a smile and told him, *Thanks, I needed that...* The dragon took a deep breath and glanced between Rune and the fire, *Can you maintain it from here on?* Rune nodded and told him in thanks, "Yes I can, thanks for the help."
*Your welcome,* Shadow nodded back and then moved away from the now majorly burning fire, going off to find a good spot to lay down and rest. Rune added onto the fire some of the branches Shadow knocked down, before starting to set up a spot next to the fire for him and Lok to sleep for the night in warmth.
Shadow finally found a good spot under a tree, the spot probably being shaded during the daytime, he cleared some of the snow and curled up under it. He glanced around and spotted a passed-out Ash nearby, and the Ender Dragon could help but smirk and remark in amusement, *Sleep is for the weak, huh?*
Rune finished setting up the spot where he and Lok would sleep, before realizing that Lok had been really quiet. "Did Lok already go back to sleep?" The human thought and looked around, noticing that a good chunk of the group was already asleep or well on their way there. Lok specifically was leaning against a tree, fast asleep.
Shadow glanced at Rory slowly, tiredness beginning to show in his slower movements as he asked the Stormcutter, *So, did the meeting with Toothless go well, or did we just piss off the Night Fury?*
As Rory made a loop around the area and found a spot to lay down, Rune had decided to not disturb Lok and instead laid down on the snowy ground, covering himself up in some cloth from the supply kit Hiccup had given them. The human tried to get comfortable and slowly closed his eyes, falling asleep as Rory cleared a spot and laid down.
*The meeting went fine, I think; We'd better be ready for him to be suspicious though, like in the Typhoomerang incident; So far as we know, it's just polite to mention whenever a new dragon comes to town so, that's what I did,* Rory answered Shadow's question finally.
Shadow shifted as he spoke, *Hmm, best to be careful though.* With that, the Ender Dragon glanced over at the two humans and his eyes widened as he realized something, so he turned to Rory and told him, *We have got to get the two humans into new clothes soon before they freeze to death.*
*I'll bring it up to them...* Shadow continued but then yawned before finishing, *Tomorrow.* Rory nodded and spoke up, explaining to the Ender Dragon, *Oh, I could coach them through sewing; it's not that hard, especially if you can figure out a simple puzzle; A six-piece shirt, A big ol' parka... shouldn't be too hard...*
Shadow was too tired to form a complex response, so he just yawned and told Rory, *Yeah, we'll... bring it up tomorrow... Night.* And with that, both Stormcutter and Ender Dragon laid their heads down. Shadow curled up around the tree, quickly falling asleep and joining the rest of the group...
.
The night passed rather quickly and by the time it was six or seven in the morning, the sun was just beginning to rise and lit up the massive clearing with which the group of five slept in. The fire had long since gone out, nothing but slightly smoldering embers now, and the proceeding coldness from a lack of fire woke Rune up first with a shiver.
Shadow, nearby, was unaffected by the cold and with the tree that he was under providing proper shade, the sunlight wasn't hitting his face. He probably would've slept for a few more hours, if Lok hadn't been awake and decided to kick him in the ribs, "Hey, wake up. I said first thing in the morning and I meant it."
The kick woke Shadow up alright, the Ender Dragon screeching almost unholy curses as he rounded to slam his tail into whatever was threatening him. However, Shadow managed to realize who he was gonna hit and stopped his tail at the very last second before it would've collided full force with Lok's face. *Holy fuck, did NO ONE teach you to never wake a sleeping dragon? You could've gotten a face full of tail, and if my instincts were better or worse, maybe even acid.* The acid bit was in a joking mode compared to the seriousness of the rest of the statement.
Lok shrugged, "Eh, I knew there was only a one percent chance of you potentially hurting me." Lok then added for benefit, "Just to be clear, I wouldn't wake any other sleeping dragon that way. Just you."
Shadow looked annoyed and began to grumble, *Lucky human, very lucky human. I was THIS close-* Shadow brought his tail within inches of Lok's face, any closer and it'd smother the human, *-to hitting you with my tail.* As Shadow moved his tail back to a resting position away from Lok's face, Lok decided to do his best impression of a meme as he told Shadow, "But yah didn't."
Rune, nearby, got up and began to walk towards the forest whilst grumbling about how he was sick of the cold now, the human doing his best to ignore Shadow and Lok's little spat.
Shadow glanced over as he saw movement and upon seeing Rune walking away, he called out, *Hey, wait, hold on, I just remembered we need to get you and Lok into new clothes.* Then, Shadow paused as he began to think and realized that Rune may be going into the forest to do private stuff, *Although it can wait if you need to go do something private.*
Rune paused and glanced back, "Yeah thanks I just need a moment and I'll be back." Rune continued on his way into the woods, quickly disappearing as Shadow nodded in response.
Lok however, was not finished with the earlier discussion, "But seriously, you severely overreacted to that; I'm like, what, less than a fifth or your size? I'm surprised you could even feel that." Shadow turned to glare at him with a grumbling retort, *You kicked me right in the stomach, of course, I'd feel that; Anyways, my tail could've seriously hurt you, I did cleave through half a tree with this thing and you are nowhere near as durable as a tree.*
"Eh, you can either call it trust, or confidence, or lack thereof," Lok told him with a shrug and Shadow just sighed, *Anyways, we should probably start working on the clothes situation, it is the middle of winter and we don't need you and Rune dying of hypothermia or something.*
This seemed to remind Lok of the cold, and the human shivered as he told the Ender Dragon, "Hm, guess your right; Fuck you though for bringing it up, now I feel cold." The 'fuck you' was more of a friendly fuck you rather than a hostile one, which slightly threw Shadow for a loop as he wasn't used to hearing it said friendly.
The Ender Dragon still winced through and told him, *Sorry.* Shadow suddenly remembered what Rory had said about teaching the humans to sew and thus, walked over to the still sleeping Stormcutter in order to wake them up. Although not like Lok had done with him, Shadow decided as he whispered, *Hey, Rory, it's day now, you gotta get up.*
Rory seemed to stir and they grumbled, cracking one eye open as they shifted to look at Shadow and asked, *Whassit? Who's dead?*
Shadow chuckled and replied, *No one is dead, it's just daytime; And your gonna have to teach Lok to sew, gods I hope Hiccup included a sewing kit in the supplies he gave us... But yeah, it is time to get up.* Rory groaned and stretched hard, levering up one wing at a time whilst still getting used to this new way of waking up. The Stormcutter turned to Shadow and Lok whilst replying, *Alright, alright I'm up. Mentioned last night I could coach you through sewing, make some basic clothes. On top of the other chores of course... I'll have to figure out how to fish.*
*I can teach you how to fish, I learned how yesterday,* Shadow offered in an attempt to be helpful but Rory replied with, *Yeah, but I need to fish on a Berkian scale. We could rig up some sorta giant cast-net, I might be able to manage...* Rory sighed and then continued, *Luckily, only have to do that a few days a week.*
Shadow, hearing this, began to think and talk to himself, *I need to fish too for them... Hmm, how much fish did we need to catch each day again?* Shadow shakes his head and changes the conversation, *Nevermind, you can tell me later if you know. Right now, you gotta teach Lok to sew; So that way, we don't end up with frozen human popsicles, heh.*
Rory turned to Lok and began, *To start... we need some sort of pattern. You could use the shirt you already have to get a rough size. You need a front, a back, and two long rectangles for sleeves; So, what do you have for cloth? Any shears, needles, thread..?* Rory finished with a questioning look, and Lok made a move for the supply bag only to pause and turn back to look at Shadow.
"Don't be trying to get out of helping me learn Dragonese," Lok told him before walking over the supply satchel whilst announcing, "But for now, let's get to sewing."
Shadow tilted his head, *You got everything you need out of that satchel?* Lok nodded as he began to pull out wool and a charcoal pencil, "Yeah, everything is in here. First things first is a coat..." Lok began to lay out the wool fabric, beginning to draw the correct patterns on it for a jacket his size.
*Eh, maybe a shirt would be better but that's up to you,* Shadow suggested and then glanced around, Rory and Lok were busy with the sewing which he couldn't help on, Rune was still doing private stuff, and Ash was asleep... *Well, I'll leave you and Rory to figure this out, I'm gonna go take a flight and check out the sea-stacks around Berk.*
*Alright, I'll just make sure this doesn't catch fire,* Rory chuckled and went back to instructing Lok, *Alright, so if this is a coat you'll wanna make the back all out of one piece, here fold about this much in half so you don't have to cut it twice...* Lok did so and told them with a chuckle, "I've sewed a few times, though I'm not the best."
Shadow nodded to them and slowly backed up, with nothing to do he could feel his mind wandering. The Ender Dragon told them, *I will... leave you to it...* And with that Shadow turned around and took off into the air, flying away towards the sea-stacks.
.
Rune walked through the forest until he was a good enough distance away from the site that he felt comfortable to go to the bathroom. As he did so, it went unnoticed by the human that nearby, napping was a large green and red dragon that seemed to have passed out after a long flight.
As Rune finished his business and moved to begin making his way back to the group, he spotted the green and red lump that he did not recognize as being a living creature, much less a dragon. "Huh, that doesn't seem normal," Rune remarked and walked over to the lump.
He studied the green and red lump and, with a shrug, experimentally kicked it without realizing just what he was kicking. He did realize, however, when the green and red 'lump' woke up and uncurled from its resting position in order to give a pissed-off look at the human who disturbed its nap. And the dragon just so happened to be a Flightmare, not the one from any of the series as this one was primarily green with some red, unlike the blue of the other Flightmares.
Rune backed away slowly whilst trying to make himself look non-threatening, doing this as he regretted his decision to kick the lump without first making sure it wasn't a dragon, "H-hey there sorry for waking you, I didn't know that you were a dragon." Rune's eyes widened a tiny bit as he realized just which kind of dragon this was, and what it could do to him.
The Flightmare looked at him cautiously with a growl, trying to determine what exactly the human was planning or doing in case they became a threat. Rune backed up a bit more and began to try and think of a way to calm down the dragon so it didn't attack.
"Alright, think, you have a very grumpy Flightmare in front of you, think of something to calm it down before you end up as it's breakfast... Breakfast? That's it!" Rune thought to himself before speaking up, "Hey are you hungry? I might be able to get you some food as a peace offering." Rune hoped the dragon both understood him and wasn't too upset to listen to his offer.
The Flightmare tilted its head and after a moment of deliberation, it slowly nodded to Rune, which cause the human to sigh in relief. "Alright, just stay here and wait a moment and I'll get you some food."
Rune then turned and ran off to find a river or pond for some food to give the dragon, whilst said dragon stayed in place while also giving a suspicious glare in the direction of the human, seemingly wondering what the human was playing at.
It took a moment but Rune eventually found a pond, but he seemed to hit a realization, "Wait, don't Flightmare eat only that special Algae that only comes once every ten years here on Berk? So how am I going to feed them?" Rune didn't know the dragon's gender just yet, "Do they also eat regular Algae or fish?" Eventually, Rune shrugged and decided to just get both.
At least two and a half hours later, and just as the Flightmare's patience to wait was running thin Rune reapproached the Flightmare, soaking wet and with multiple fish in his arms and some algae. He had apparently wrestled the fish with his bare hands due to lack of fishing equipment, and was exhausted as a result of this, "I'm back."
The Flightmare looked over the food and then back at Rune, staring into his eyes for a good long second before nodding down towards them in a gesture to do something. Rune looked down at them confused before looking back up, and then it clicked for the human and he asked in slight disbelief, "You want me to eat this first?"
The Flightmare nodded as gestured again with a suspicious look in its eyes, seemingly wanting Rune to test the food. Rune sighed and grabbed a piece of the algae, looking away from the algae disgusted for one moment before biting down quickly. His face contorted in disgust as he tasted it and it took a moment but he forced himself to swallow it, remarking afterward, "Ugh that was unpleasant."
Rune glanced at the fish and then at the Flightmare, silently pleading for them to not make him take a bite of raw fish. The algae test seemed to be enough for the Flightmare, who took both fish and algae quickly, eating them and then sniffing in Rune's direction as if trying to find more. The Flightmare tilted its head to the side and walked in a circle around Rune, trying to find more but ending up disappointed when it did not.
Seeing the disappointed look, Rune awkwardly chuckled and apologized, "Sorry, I couldn't catch anymore and I had a hard enough time with catching those." The Flightmare stared at him for a good long minute, almost like it was analyzing him, before the green and red dragon suddenly turned and flew away.
Rune watched them go and sighed, unaware that the Flightmare hadn't actually gone far and was watching him from some nearby trees. Rune glanced down at the little bit of algae he had left and put it on the ground for the Flightmare, should it come back. With that done, Rune began to make his way back towards the location where he and his friends had been staying.
Unseen by him, the Flightmare quickly popped out of the trees and took the left behind algae, eating it as a quick snack before going back to hiding in the trees as it followed Rune back to the others...
.
As all of that had been going, quite a distance away Shadow flew over Berk and to the sea-stacks located right next to the island. If Shadow was correct, these were the same ones Hiccup and Toothless had nearly slammed into during the test drive scene in the first movie, which made it kind of uncanny to see them in real life.
Shadow took a deep breath and remarked out loud, *This place is amazing.* Eventually, the Ender Dragon pivoted mid-air and circled around, eventually finding a large sea stack with which he could land on. It took a moment, but he managed to lower himself onto the platform that barely fit him, perching on top like a bird would on a telephone wire.
As he got comfortable, Shadow took another deep breath and then sighed, looking out at the endless ocean as the silence of being alone began to bleed into him as a dye would bleed into a fabric. *Well, I'm here... thought about one day ending up here so many times and well, it actually happened.*
The Ender Dragon's breathing began to grow deeper, glancing around and seeing he was alone whilst his thoughts began to run wild, *I'm useful to the group, ain't I? Ok so I don't know much about construction or even engineering but I can write, program... except there are no computers, and with these claws, anything I write will be in my horrible mixed-case handwriting.*
Shadow switched to speaking aloud and thinking, trying to get the silence to not bother him so much, it never had before now, *And if I could write, no one but the others of the group would understand it, I'd be writing in English not Norse...* Shadow paused and then thought one thought, *So then what do I bring to the table?*
*I... I can shoot acid?* Shadow suggested out loud and then answered it in his thoughts, *Changewings produce acid which reacts to both organic and inorganic materials unlike mine, and the others could probably acquire that.* Shadow took a deep breath and spoke again, *No... um... I can fly?* Again, he dismissed that in his thoughts, *So can Rory.*
*I'm strong and fast?* *I got my fucking tail stuck in a tree, who am I kidding, I'm a weakling.* *Um... I know a lot about How To Train Your Dragon?* *Ok, and so do the others, I am really struggling to find some use for myself here.* Shadow sighed, his back and forth between speaking out loud and thinking becoming a bit tiresome, but yet he kept going with it.
*I have... good deflecting scales?* Shadow suggested and then sighed as he thought of a reason those weren't useful, *Unless you hit the edges between the scales, and the others could just make Gronckle Iron armor or something.* Shadow took a deep breath, *Nothing, I bring... nothing. I barely managed to start a fire and Rune or Lok easily could've done that themselves.*
After a moment, Shadow began to speak without really thinking, *Would the group even be impacted if I just... disappeared? They already got a flying dragon, they could get acid from elsewhere, make armor for themselves and not need my scales...* Shadow could feel his chest almost painfully constrict from the emotions and thoughts at war in his head, as one simple thought of his stood out from the rest, *Do they even need me?*
There was a pause of both thought and speaking as Shadow struggled to find an answer, the silence weighing on his back like a boulder until... *No, they don't.* Shadow shook himself to try and get that thought out of his head. The dragon knew it was a horrible idea to undervalue himself so much, but it still nagged at him and made him feel hollow inside.
Shadow closed his eyes and lowered his head down to his scaly chest, faintly hearing his own heartbeat and breathing as he whispered, *I... do they even need me? I've done a grand total of starting a fire and some trick flying.*
*I could just leave,* Shadow thought again quickly but just as quickly as it had arrived, he dismissed the idea. Although now he had his eyes open, staring at the horizon from where he had his head near his chest. *I could die... trying to change the Hidden World, I could get myself killed. What if I get someone else killed as well just because I wanted to feel included in the group? What if I fuck everything up because I'm an idiot and it's my fault the Hidden World happens? No... no, I don't want to fuck everything up, there's a chance here, would my presence just ruin it?*
Shadow visibly shuddered, *Deep breaths, I need to take a deep breath and calm down. I can't leave.* The Ender Dragon began to take deep breaths, listening for any noises and managing to make out the sound of the sea-water below crashing against the sea-stacks. After a few moments, he took one last deep breath and decided he was calm enough to continue thinking.
*I have the knowledge of what's going to come in the next five years... the horrible fate that is lying in wait for all dragon-kind; If I do nothing with that knowledge, does that make me just as bad as the characters in the Hidden World?* Shadow took a deep breath, *Knowledge is power, I firmly believe that.* The Ender Dragon took another deep breath, *And as the saying goes... With great power, must also come great responsibility. Huh, I've never realized just how much my morals and shit all rely on movies and TV shows.*
A deep breath and Shadow spoke aloud with firm resolution in his voice, *I know what I know... and thus I have the responsibility to act on it; This is my world now, and I'm not letting it fall apart if I have the opportunity to change it...* Shadow then added in his thoughts, *Even if I'm useless to the group, even if I can't do anything, I have to try because I have the responsibility to do so.*
Another deep breath and Shadow spoke slowly, *Ok, I feel much better now... Granted, not much but... but it's enough.* The Ender Dragon raised his head from his chest, looking around at the frankly beautiful views on Berk, sunlight coming through the other side of the large forest and shining onto the sea-stacks, the endless ocean with nary a cloud in sight. For the first time since arriving, a smile graced Shadow's snout, *And this really is a great fucking view.*
After a moment of silence, Shadow begins to hear the sound of... something coming closer. He focused and eventually managed to realize it was the wing-beats of a dragon, and it didn't sound like four so it wasn't Rory. *I really need to take the time and learn to get in tune with my new hearing and sense of smell, I'd be caught off guard less then.* Shadow turned to look at the source...
And it was Toothless, with Hiccup on his back, landing on a sea-stack right next to him. *Oh, it's Toothless. And Hiccup. Ok, did not expect them out here but it is morning and they might fly early in the mornings so...* Shadow thought to himself before stamping down his internal fanboying in order to speak, *Oh, um, hi, I didn't except-I mean, expect to see you two out here.*
*Smooth, Shadow, can't hide your nervousness; I'm a terrible liar, I really need to be careful so he doesn't get suspicious of me,* Shadow cursed in his head as Toothless glanced at him and responded, *Funny seeing you here as well; Normally we're the only ones out here this early in the morning.*
Hiccup, from atop Toothless's back, tilted his head curiously at the Ender Dragon as he greeted the unexpected dragon, "Huh, hi Shadow, didn't expect to see you out here."
Shadow took a deep breath, feign calmness whilst his mind was vastly different, *Calm, calm, pretend you're just talking to any stranger and not motherfucking Toothless the Night Fury and Hiccup Haddock the future Chief!*
*I wanted to check out the sea-stacks, I also needed some alone time to myself,* Shadow told him truthfully before chuckling, *You got no idea how chaotic the rest of my group is.* As he finished speaking, his thoughts went wild, *Should I have said family? Would it help with the cover? Is that how I feel about it? Ok no pondering, just focus!*
As Toothless took a moment to respond, Shadow mentally sang through the entire lyrics of Cara Mia Addio, which helped the Ender Dragon calm down considerably and make him untense his muscles, hopefully coming across as more calm to the Night Fury. Eventually, Toothless responded, *Yeah, your band is certainly... Interesting to say the least.*
Shadow chuckled and responded, *Yeah, I know.* As Hiccup quietly observed the Ender Dragon in hopes of learning something new, whilst Toothless eventually asked, *Last night, that Stormcutter, it was Rory right, came to talk to me; It seems your group is only expanding, huh?*
Shadow couldn't tell if that was suspicion or curiosity, so Shadow sighed and made it sound like he was annoyed, which wasn't all that difficult. The Ender Dragon responded, *The humans love to pick up any new strays they can find and basically adopt them; Are all humans like this or just my two?*
That seemed to get a slight chuckle out of Toothless, *Ha, don't even get me started.* Toothless glanced up at Hiccup as he spoke, *Once the hatchlings arrived Hiccup was all over them; So were the others his age... The older humans not so much, they're still adjusting.* Shadow nodded along, it sounded exactly like something Hiccup would do.
*Your humans though are definitely peculiar,* Toothless remarked and Shadow shrugged before replying in a thinking tone of voice, *Well, humans are odd, in general.* In his head, Shadow was screaming, *I just somewhat quoted Vision this is amazing-* Shadow cleared his thoughts and continued speaking, *Your humans are odd to me too, they wear thicker... clothing I believe they call it.*
Shadow put on a speculative tone as if figuring something out as he continued speaking, *Although I supposed, for them, it makes more sense; Unlike us, they are too easily affected by heat or cold and need thicker coverings to handle it...*
Toothless chuckled and told him, *I'm not just talking about the things all humans do.* Shadow smirked at him in good nature and said in a happy voice, *That ain't a disagreement on the humans are odd in general statement.* Toothless seemed to smirk and replied with, *Oh, humans are extremely strange; I mean, how do they even stand burnt fish?*
Shadow shivered and wondered if maybe the dragon in him found that distasteful, the Ender Dragon responding with, *I have no idea, non-burnt is so much better.* As he said this, Shadow thought to himself, *I've never eaten cooked but as a dragon, having tasted raw, it is great.*
*But yours are particularly strange, at least compared to most humans I've met; They're similar to Hiccup in some ways, I remember one of them completely fawned over my tailfin when we first met,* Toothless brought up to Shadow, whilst Hiccup listened to the two talking whilst he wondered if they had a language, and if so, what they might be talking about? Hiccup dismissed that thought and went back to observing them.
*There's also the fact they're also smaller than most humans I've seen,* Toothless added on and Shadow chuckled as he responded, *I'm gonna bet the one who fawned over your fin was Lok, he and Rune really like making stuff, sometimes very weird stuff.*
With a shrug, Shadow continued to speak, *Most humans I've seen have been more around Lok and Rune's sizes than the ones on your island, like wow, the... Chief I think they called him, he's probably the biggest human I've ever seen!* Toothless nodded and replied with, *Oh, Stoick most definitely is the biggest; Hard to believe he's Hiccups father sometimes.*
Shadow makes a shocked expression, he already knew this and had seen the size difference but it was still slightly shocking to think about. *Oh, wait, yeah, your... Hiccup did mention that. But, just... wow.*
Toothless seemed to gesture to Hiccup with his tail as he spoke in slight disbelief, *I mean, just look, how could this fishbone come from that giant! I mean, I'm glad he's not that big, I probably wouldn't be able to carry him around if he was that size.* Toothless let out a warbling chuckle and Shadow chuckled as well with a slight hum.
*Yeah, carrying someone as big as Stoick would be exhausting... Hmm, Hiccup's size must be from his mother's side, I guess, although I haven't seen his mother,* Shadow remarked, although he knew Valka was technically considered dead but actually alive... eh, it was a whole thing to deal with later.
Toothless shrugged and explained slightly sadly, *We don't really know... His mother died when he was young, and Stoick never talks about her.* Shadow put on a sad expression, even though he knows Valka is alive it's still sad that Hiccup didn't get to grow up with his mother. The Ender Dragon eventually said quietly, *That really sucks.* Toothless nodded in agreement.
Hiccup was completely unaware of the topic of the conversation, although he did wonder why Shadow looked sad all of a sudden. After a moment, Toothless asked Shadow curiously, *What were you doing out here anyway?*
Shadow perked up and the sad expression disappeared, *Oh, I just needed some peace and quiet to clear my head; This island and its people are still new to me and different from what I'm used to, so I'm just taking some time to adapt.* Shadow then thought to himself happily, *Not a lie, technically, just different meaning in this use.*
After a moment, Shadow added some context for explanation, *I grew up on the mainland and lived there most of my life, so living on an island is pretty different.* This was all technically the truth, which definitely helped Shadow in telling it with a straight face and confident tone. Toothless seemed to tilt his head curiously and asked the Ender Dragon, *What's it like, the mainland? We've never been there before, but we'll hopefully reach it eventually.*
Shadow glanced out at sea and hummed, he'd never had to describe the mainland before but he could try his best, *Some mountains can reach really REALLY high, easily taller this island's mountain; There are seemingly endless forests and fields, slopes and hills, large cliff-ranges... it can heavily vary depending on where you go, but I hope that description shows a good idea of what it's like.*
*Sound neat,* Toothless replied and then seemingly stretched before asking, *Anyway, it's been a good talk, but we should finish our flight; You wanna join us for a bit? A lap or two around the island?*
Shadow shrugged nonchalantly as he tried to keep his overboiling excitement hidden, flying beside Hiccup and Toothless would be amazing and a dream come true. *Sure I'll join you, then I'll head back to my friends,* Shadow answered.
*Sounds good,* Toothless replied and then smirked mischievously as he prepared to take off, Hiccup opening the prosthetic tail fin for him as the Night Fury told the Ender Dragon, *Try to keep up!* Toothless took off at high speed, circling around and flying over the sea-stacks.
Shadow chuckled and shouted, *Oh, your on!* With that, Shadow began to launch himself from one sea-stack to another, then running across a very long one before throwing himself off of it, climbing higher into the air with a few flaps of his wings and beginning to follow the Night Fury. Hiccup glanced back and spotted the Ender Dragon following them.
"Heh, guess he wants to join us for our morning flight, bud?" Hiccup remarked happily and then smiled before telling Toothless, "Let's show him what we can do."
.
Back in the clearing with Rory, Lok, and the still asleep Ash, Rory sighed and spoke, *The cutting is the easy part I'm afraid, it's the stitching that gets tedious... But it'll last far longer than anything from a store; You can even add some pockets later, or a hood...*
Lok nodded and remarked, "Yeah, hood and pockets are a necessity." Rory nodded and began to list off things, *Especially in this cold; Layers too... So, for the bar... the Jack should be off doing her thing, I'm sure we'll run into her eventually; That'll be the wood sorted out, then Wisp to handle the well and basement... There's so much to do and winter's bearing down.*
"Yeah, and we still gotta make some sort of kilm to rapidly try the lumber in too..." Lok brought and then paused, eventually asking, "Hm, do you know where Rune got off to?"
Rory continued their original list for a moment, *Wisp might be able to help with that; If he makes a tunnel, I roast it with fire to make it nice 'n hot, roll the lumber in... Somehow... Damn...* Rory paused as Lok's words registered in his mind before he eventually said, *Wait, Rune? Uh. I have no idea.*
They continued in silence for a moment before they heard rustling and looked to see Rune come out from the forest, still soaking wet from his adventure with getting the Flightmare food. "Hey guys," Rune greeted them before noticing a certain dragon's absence, "Um, where's Shadow?" Lok shrugged.
"Speak of the devil, and the answer is no idea," Lok answered him as best as possible and Rory noticed that Rune was wet, *Better question, why are you all wet?* Lok noticed as well and asked, "Wait, yeah, why the hell are you wet?"
Rune sighed and told them simply, "Don't ask as it's a long story." Lok looked disgusted as a thought came to mind and he told the other human, "Did you piss all over yourself or something? If so, don't get any closer cause that is fucking nasty."
Rune looked disgusted as well and decided to explain why, "No, I found a dragon, a Flightmare actually, and I accidentally made it mad by disturbing its sleep; So I spent the past few hours in a pond trying to catch fish and grab algae to make amends and to not get killed."
Hearing this, Lok went wide-eyed and asked excitedly, "Wait, a Flightmare! Where? That is fucking epic." Rune gestured behind him with one hand and answered, "In the forest about a mile down the trail, next to a pond which I was in."
Lok nodded, memorizing it and speaking, "Well, I'm going... Right after I finish this coat... And find Shadow and force him to help me learn Dragonese." Rune was shivering heavily now, considering he was still in wet clothes and in the middle of Berk during the winter season. Lok noticed this and swore, "Oh shit, you need clothes, your gonna die of hypothermia like that; You want my t-shirt? It's not very insulating and probably is small on you, but it's dry."
Rune waved him off, the shirt was way too small given Rune was six foot three and Lok was only five foot eight, "I-it's alright, your shirt wouldn't f-fit me anyway." Rune's teeth were chattering at this point as he rubbed his arms in an attempt to generate warmth. Rory spoke up with a swear as they moved, *Shit, here let me get the fire back up...*
Rory slunk off and gathered as much dry firewood as they could, tossing it into the pit and using a small flame of fire to get it going before using their tail to fan it into a bigger fire. Rune moved over to it and sat down, feeling the heat run over his body as he thanked the Stormcutter, "T-thanks Rory."
From the treeline, unnoticed by them, the Flightmare from earlier watched them curiously. It seemed to think of something and then flew off, leaving them alone. Rory and Lok resumed their work on the coat whilst Rune remained next to the fire, tucking his legs close to his chest to preserve some heat as he sits very close to the fire, drying relatively quickly. A few minutes passed before the Flightmare quickly flew overhead, dropping a bunch of dead Elk, a Bear, and some other animals before pivoting around and going back to hiding in the trees.
Rune heard the thud and turned towards it, "What the?" He got up and walked up to the pile of animal corpses, staring at them and asking over his shoulder, "Hey guys, do you know if anyone went hunting recently?"
Rory, seeing the pile, sprung up into a crouch and scanned the trees for threats, but the Flightmare hid just enough to not be seen as Rory spoke, *No, not that I know of; But, where did they come from? Not that I'm complaining, food and fur and all... but they'll need skinning, damn, that could take hours, and tanning'll take days!*
Lok also stood up and remarked upon seeing the pile, "Hey! Free fur! That's good for clothing and bedding." Rune, meanwhile, just stared at the carcasses in confusion, wondering who or what is responsible for the bodies, let alone why they were dumped in front of them.
Rory came up to the carcasses whilst speaking, *We- well, you should mention that to someone in the village; They have to have a tannery, with all the leather they've got... Add that to our bill...* Rory paused and then sniffed, taking in the order of the dead creatures as well as the scent of something like... fish and a dragon. Rory looked around and called out seriously, *Alright, who's out there?*
From the trees, the Flightmare stayed quiet as they began to carefully back away, trying not to make any noise... and proceeded to accidentally step on a stick, the loud crack alerting Rune, Rory, and Lok to their position. Quickly the Flightmare turned and flew away from them, deciding to be more careful from here on out... the Flightmare seemed to get an idea and pivoted to fly towards the village.
Rory and Rune checked where the stick was cracked but found nothing, whilst Lok went back to the work in progress jacket, beginning to sew it. Rory and Rune walked back up to the carcasses and asked Rory, "So what are we going to do with all of these carcasses?"
Suddenly the group heard a lot of fast wing-flaps and look to see Shadow flying in at high speed, turning around and coming to a running stop in front of them. Shadow was panting heavily from his flight, having pushed himself to his limits to try and even somewhat keep up with Toothless. *GUYS! Toothless-* Deep breath, *Hiccup-* Deep breath, *We flew together-* Deep breath, *Amazing-* Deep breath, *Actually held a conversation without exploding in a nerd explosion-* Another deep breath and Shadow crouched slightly, *Gods I need to take a longer deep breath...*
"Looks like you had a lot of fun," Rune said in a teasing tone as he sat back down next to the fire, and Shadow took a very long breath before telling Rune calmly, *Yes, I did have a lot of fun.*
*Well, at least someone is,* Rory told Shadow with a chuckle, *We've got some kinda monster dropping dead animals on our future doorstep; Maybe a giant ghost cat?* Lok looked up and told him, "So much fun you missed this small graveyard around us." Lok gestured to the dead animal corpses.
Before Shadow could process that, Rune suppressed a snicker and asked Shadow, "So how was your date with Toothless and Hiccup?" Shadow glared at him.
Taking a deep breath, Shadow began to quickly speak, *No, no it was not a date... I went to the sea-stacks to think, had a mental crisis, figured out said crisis, then Hiccup and Toothless showed up; I held a conversation with Toothless without breaking down in joy, then we flew around the island a few times cause Hiccup and Toothless were on their morning flight and offered for me to join them and oh gods Toothless is very fast, the speed of a Night Fury is no joke...* With a deep breath, Shadow then processed the earlier words and asked them, *Wait, a giant ghost cat?*
"Alright fair enough... Wait you said that you had a mental crisis, are you alright?" Rune asked in concern and Shadow used a paw to wave him off, *I'm fine, like I said I figured it out; Anyways, I heard 'giant ghost cat' thrown around and what does that mean?*
Rory pointed his tail at the pile of animal corpses and Shadow turned to look at them, staring at them for a good long moment. Eventually, the Ender Dragon sarcastically remarked, *Oh... well that totally ain't ominous at all.* Rune shrugged and told him, "Well at least we have a ton of meat and fur to sell and use to make clothes."
Lok spoke up, "We really need some knives; The only thing we have are sewing shears and I don't think we wanna use those on butchering animals; It would get them filthy." Rory and Rune nodded whilst Shadow shrugged, and unbeknownst to them from the trees, the Flightmare had come back with a bunch of stolen knives, seemingly having thought ahead and realized what the humans would need.
The Flightmare threw them over at the group, the knives landing in the middle of the clearing. With that done, the Flightmare flew back to the lake near where Rune had first encountered it. In the clearing, Shadow snapped his head around to stare at the thrown knives and cursed quickly, *Ok, what the actual fuck.*
Lok also jumped up, "Ok what the hell, now it's throwing knives..." Lok seemed to pause and think before saying in realization, "... Wait, cool, free knives." Lok moved to pick them up but Shadow hissed and put his tail between Lok and the knives.
*Your really gonna touch freaky ghost-thrown knives?!* Shadow asked in disbelief before pausing and whispering under his breath, *Damn, now I really agree with Toothless that humans are odd.*
Rune looked at him and told him seriously, "Shadow, there are no such things as ghosts." Rune walked over and picked up a knife, inspecting it whilst Lok also did the same, searching through the pile until he found a good-looking dagger and inspected it. "This'll do," Lok remarked and stored it on his belt.
Shadow turns to glance at Rune unamused, *Ok, first of all, Hope or as Rune calls him Quadro, I know he ain't a ghost but he's fucking close; Second, then what the fuck just mysteriously threw corpses and knives at us?* Shadow didn't realize he had used the wrong name in terms of who calls Hope Quadro until Lok spoke up, "Me, not Rune."
Shadow apologized quickly, *Oh, yeah, sorry.* Rune meanwhile shrugged and remarked, "Someone who is interested in helping us."
Shadow did not look satisfied, *Well, I wanna know who and what their intentions are.* Lok hummed and spoke up, "A dragon with a twisted sense of humor?" Rune, hearing this, pointed at Ash and joked, "Well it ain't Ash as he is still asleep."
Lok hummed and went over to the corpses, inspecting them as he thought out loud, "What killed them anyway? And how the hell did it kill a bear?" Rune walked up to the corpses and found some obvious bite and claw mark in some of them, looking at it closer he thought for a moment and then spoke up, "Based on the teeth and claw marks I'd say dragon; As no other animal has those types of signature teeth or claws to do this level of damage or is that large beside a dragon."
Nearby, Shadow took a deep breath and thought to himself, *How did Toothless find me on the sea-stacks, if he was flying high above? Dragons have advanced senses and I've so far been ignoring mine...* Shadow took another deep breath and told them, *Ok, I'm gonna try something and if you all could be quiet for a moment, that'd be helpful.* He then thought to himself, *I should've done it on the sea-stacks, would've been quieter.*
However, Lok and Rune didn't seem to hear, as Lok spoke up, "Yeah, but what dragon? There are no scorch marks; I mean, dragons don't have to roast their food but it's a possibility... Also, what dragon's bite marks are these? They don't look like the jaw shape of any common ones..." Lok paused and then added, "Also, I call dibs the bearskin."
Rune looked into the eyes of some of the dead animals and found them frozen in fear, however, he dismissed it as that didn't tell him much beyond the animal dying with a fearful expression.
Shadow, meanwhile, took a deep breath and closed his eyes, trying to cut down the amount of information his brain had to process so whilst he fully got used to his other senses, he didn't suffer from some form of sensory overload. *Ok... how do I focus on my senses...* Shadow questioned in his mind whilst staying absolutely still.
Lok reached out and touched one of the animals, "Hm, they also feel stiff; And it's a bit too quick for Rigor Mortis to set in... These all look freshly dead, within the last hour or so, some are even still slightly warm... I thought it takes a few hours for a corpse to stiff up..." Rune seemed to realize something and asked Lok, "Do you think that it might be the Flightmare that I met earlier?"
Lok seemed to think and agreed, "That... Would explain a lot; The sudden interest, the stiffness, the unidentified bite marks..."
Meanwhile, Shadow took a deep breath and focused, *The Ender Dragon in-game could always tell where the players are, it must have some pretty advanced senses... Gods I hope I got those too, or at least good enough ones.* He took another deep breath and focused fully on his hearing, and it was nearly overwhelming just how many new sounds he could hear and for how far he could hear. After a few moments, his brain adapted to the massive influx of information and he began to pick it apart in his head.
Lok and Rune were still talking even though he'd asked them not to, and Shadow could hear five heartbeats. Lowering his head slightly, it became obvious that the closest slightly frantic one beneath him was his own heart. There was a slower calmer one maybe twenty feet behind him... *Ash, Ash is behind me.* Shadow thought and refocused.
He could hear Rory and Lok's heartbeats, in front of him and maybe about a hundred feet distance. Rory was close, to his left and about forty maybe fifty feet away... But he could hear something faint, a sixth one, going further away and to his right... the forest. Shadow opened his eyes and smirked, *I got you, motherfucker, you thought you could hide from ol' dragon senses.*
Shadow took a deep breath and decided what he was doing, *Ok, time to figure out who's behind this.* He began to walk in the direction of the heartbeat, only pausing to glance behind him and tell the others, *Rory, Lok, Rune, join me if you want to get to the bottom of this, otherwise I'll be back hopefully soon.*
Rune got up and moved towards him, deciding that if this was the Flightmare then he wanted to see them again, "I'm coming." Shadow nodded and turned to Lok and Rory, *You two wanna come?*
Rory winced and replied, *Dunno... we should probably keep working here; Clothes are pretty high on the priority list.* Lok looked like they wanted in but were trying to decide which was a higher priority, clothes or dragon. Shadow, oblivious to Lok's indecision, shrugged, *Suit yourselves, I'm figuring out who's behind this and if they're a threat.*
Shadow walked off into the woods with Rune, and after a few moments of deliberation Lok stood up and stopped sewing, leaving behind the coat as he quickly followed them whilst declaring, "Sewing can wait, this is more important." Rory looked like they debated following but decided to wait behind and watch Ash.
.
In the forest, on a rock by the lake, the Flightmare was sunning themself and their scales whilst thinking to themself, *Those humans better be thankful I helped them survive; In this day and age, it's all about survival of the fittest.*
Unbeknownst to the Flightmare, Shadow and Rune were walking nearby and stopped by the side of the lake. Shadow growled to himself, eyes darting in every direction, *I swear if Mildew is behind this and fucking with us, I'll make due on that threat from yesterday.* Shadow came to a stop and shouted in irritation, *ALRIGHT! I know you are out there!*
Rune came to a stop as well and stood there quietly, giving Shadow a light glare for yelling and giving their positions away like that, especially without them knowing where the 'creature' was. Shadow also realized this and thought to himself with a wince, *That may have been a bad idea...*
The Flightmare heard and glared in the direction of the noise, wary as they quickly flew and made their way up atop some cliffs next to the lake, waiting up there. Shadow listened carefully and heard the Flightmare's heartbeat, looking up and spotting the dragon in the room, or well, the area. *Oh...* Shadow whispered as he felt even stupider for giving away their position.
"Are you still tracking them?" Rune asked in a whisper from behind Shadow, trying to keep their position hidden if it was even possible with Shadow's shout. Rune hadn't realized Shadow was staring right at the Flightmare, so Shadow whispered without taking his eyes off the dragon, *Uh yeah, and I found them.*
Rune walked around him and looked up, spotting the Flightmare. Rune smiled upon seeing the dragon again and greeted them happily, "Oh it's you again." The Flightmare, upon seeing a familiar face, flew across the lake and landed in front of them, although with some distance between them for safety.
Lok, coming up beside Shadow and Rune, saw the dragon, and his eyes widened, "Holy shit, a Flightmare... Epic." Rune turned around in surprise and asked, "Lok?" Lok nodded and shrugged whilst answering, "Yeah, I followed you guys; This is way cooler than sewing."
The Flightmare watched them carefully, recognizing the one tall human but not the shorter one and especially not the unusually large dragon. The Flightmare tilted its head at Rune and then glared at Shadow, distrusting, and if that didn't make Shadow's instincts scream to run for safety then nothing else would.
*Ok, Flightmare, paralyzing mist, not good; If we get in a fight, I'm gonna have to just grab Rune... and Lok, damn senses you are supposed to warn me, and fly as fast as possible; I avoided other kids on the playground by running and they never caught me, I can do it here,* Shadow thought, *I should try friendly.* Shadow took a deep breath and greeted out loud, *Ok, hello strange dragon I have never met!*
Rune took a step forward as well, raising a hand in front of himself and speaking to the Flightmare in a reassuring tone, "Hey it's alright, he's a friend, he won't hurt you." Rune hoped that might alleviate some of the tension, and it seemed to as the Flightmare's glare softened but they still looked like they wanted answers about who the other dragon and human were.
Rune nodded, happy upon seeing the Flightmare calm down, so he continued to speak, "This is Shadow, he's an Ender Dragon." Rune gestured to Shadow, and then switched to gesturing to Lok, "That's Lok." Rune kept his voice calm and nice as he decided to bring up another topic, asking the Flightmare, "You're the one who brought all that stuff for us, didn't you?"
*Hello,* Shadow greeted them upon being gestured to by Rune, waiting for the Flightmare to talk. As Rune finished speaking, the Flightmare nodded to Rune with an "obviously" look before turning to Shadow and replying, *Hi.* The Flightmare was a female and Shadow whispered this fact to the other two.
Lok looked fed up with something and turned to Shadow, whispering, "Ok, as soon as this interaction and my coat is done, we are getting to language lessons, that's final."
Rune looked appreciative of the Flightmare's actions and gave a small bow of appreciation to her, "Thank you." As Rune got up from the small bow, Shadow tilted his head at the Flightmare and thought to himself, *Finally words, maybe they're shy?*
With a cough to join into the conversation, Shadow spoke, *Hi, nice to meet you... sorry for, um, earlier, just a little protective of my Humans and seeing knives thrown a bit carelessly in their area makes me nervous and protective is all.* Shadow hoped that the Flightmare wouldn't maul him for being disrespectful earlier, but the Flightmare just sniffed and gave a look like it was no big deal.
Lok suddenly had a realization and asked, "I have to ask, where did you get so many knives?" After a moment, the Flightmare spoke up and answered with, *A small village.* The second he heard this, Shadow went tense and sighed as he thought to himself, *Fuck, of all places to steal from...*
"What did they say?" Lok whispered and Shadow whispered back quickly, *She stole the knives from Berk...* Lok's eyes widened and he turned to the Flightmare, slowly speaking, "You stole, like, a quarter of the village's knives... Honestly, that's really impressive; And you didn't get caught?"
Shadow almost groaned out loud, *Really?! That's where your mind goes?! Not that if Berk finds out and associates this Flightmare with us, bye-bye good relations.* Shadow took a deep breath and told the human seriously, *Lok, no, that is not impressive, It is not a good thing to steal.* Shadow then added in his mind, *Especially from who's supposed to be our allies.*
*Eh, I was sneaky and it wasn't busy there at all,* The Flightmare answered Lok, who turned to Shadow and told the Ender Dragon, "I'm not saying it was the right thing to do, I'm just saying it's an impressive feat; I admire their skill the same way I would a perfectly executed crime, because that's what this is."
Shadow sighed out loud and whispered, *You can use them to cut the furs and stuff, but after that, either the Flightmare or I will sneak the knives back; Berk, especially Mildew, cannot find us with stolen knives.* Shadow then thought to himself in his head, *I just got on Toothless's good side and by extension our group, which is a very big step, we don't need that very thin trust going up in smoke.*
The Flightmare sniffed and muttered, *That old human says a lot of stuff that isn't even true, and most of it is completely stupid from what I remember watching them.* As Shadow and Lok talked, Rune got closer to the Flightmare and admired her green and red scales, "Woah…"
The Flightmare gave him a curious look and Rune looked at them, chuckling sheepishly, "Sorry, first time being this close to a Flightmare." The Flightmare sniffed again and gave him a 'seriously?' look. Lok also turned to the Flightmare and asked, "Um, can I get closer?" The Flightmare stared at Lok with wide shocked eyes.
Shadow really felt like groaning, Rune and Lok's actions seemingly reminding him of Hiccup and thus making the Ender Dragon sympathize with Toothless. *Ok, time to take a page out of Toothless's playbook; Or maybe the entire damn book at this point...* Shadow thought and took a deep breath before giving his best glare to the Flightmare, warning her, *Don't hurt them.*
Lok glanced back at Shadow and told him, "Shadow, be nice, we want them to like us." The Flightmare looked at the Ender Dragon, offended and clearly remembering which one of the two shouted. Shadow internally winced but played it off as a shrug as he replied, *Hey, just trying to ensure the safety of the two humans I've got to watch over since Rory is nowhere to be found and Ash is asleep.*
The Flightmare lightly glared at the Ender Dragon before its gaze softened, seemingly deciding to relax for a bit. Rune slowly began to approach the Flightmare more, hand outstretched obviously to show the dragon they wished to touch them, thinking for a moment Rune asked, "Hey, do you have a name?"
After a moment the Flightmare responded, *Icelight.* Shadow waved with one paw and realized something, so the Ender Dragon quickly spoke up in Icelight's direction, *Nice to meet you, Icelight.*
Shadow thought to himself, *This is for Rune and Lok's benefit so they can get to know Icelight's name without me whispering.* The two humans seemingly got the message as Rune nodded and spoke to Icelight calmly whilst taking another step forward, "Yeah it sounds like a lovely name, nice to meet you Icelight."
Icelight smiled softly, at least in the way a dragon could smile, and replied back happily, *Nice to meet you too.* After a few moments, Rune was only a few feet away from Icelight, hand outstretched like he had seen Hiccup do in the movies. "Please let this work," Rune thought to himself as he closed his eyes and waited.
"Rune's gonna beat me to being the first to do the hand thing," Lok realized whilst both he and Shadow watched carefully, Icelight slowly moving her head towards Rune's outstretched palm before flinching back, pausing for a second and then proceeding forward, scales meeting human palm.
*Well, that was interesting,* Shadow thought to himself as Rune gasped, the human opening his eyes and seeing the Flightmare's head against his palm. "This is the best day of my life!" Rune screamed in his head as he tried to keep himself from shaking from both excitement and adrenaline.
Lok spoke up and simply said, "Well, congratulations; You did the thing." Rune had a big smile on his face as he petted Icelight and Shadow nodded, before the Ender Dragon proceeded to think and sigh internally, *Did we just adopt a Flightmare? I think we just adopted a Flightmare.* Iceflight just closed her eyes and happily accepted the petting, deciding these weird humans needed help with understanding Viking culture.
Shadow thought to himself in a joking manner, *Maybe I can find Toothless and the other dragons, find some Dragon Nip and complain about how humans love to adopt all willy-nilly...* Although it was joking, Shadow felt like he could do with some form of stress relief. With a deep breath, Shadow smiled and told the Flightmare, *Well, Icelight, I think that makes you part of our group now.*
Lok nodded, "Oh... This is going to be fun," Lok seemed to think of something and smirked, "Hey, Icelight, do you wanna help me do something funny..." Shadow glanced at Lok and tried to determine what the human was up to, whilst Icelight grinned evilly and nodded, down for whatever Lok considered funny.
"So, we have this very small dragon in our group, he's part speed stinger, and he's constantly threatening to sting and paralyze, well, everyone... Up the anus," Lok explained and then smirked as he asked, "Wanna give him a taste of his own medicine?" Iceflight seemed to think to herself, *Oh, a surprise paralyzer breath, hmm, how interesting.*
Icelight nodded and Lok grinned, "Awesome." Lok also had an idea and thought to himself, "Hm, I'm gonna need a gas mask..."
*Yep, I'm gonna find Toothless and the Rider's dragons and go get high off Dragon Nip, cause the chaos is going to hit peaks thought impossible,* Shadow declared in his mind with a mental groan before asking out loud, *Lok, seriously?*
Lok glanced at him in disbelief, "What? You telling me you haven't thought of that?" Shadow just rolled his eyes.
.
And there you go, the new person joining us is Icelight the Flightmare, played by WitchCat on Discord!
Also, another thing is that Ash and the others now have control of the tags, so if they go crazy (looks at Ash) you know why. We've already done two more sessions as this chapter took... a while to actually finish with the IRL stuff I had to do. But it's here now! Took a while, but here we go! Next two chapters should come (hopefully) soon with a third also soon (cause we'll be holding another roleplay session today.)
Gsv wzb droo ifm olmt zmw gsv vmw droo yv wruurxfog lm gsv hlfo, yfg gsv mvcg hfmirhv droo yirmt gifgsh zmw zwnrhhrlmh nfxs mvvwvw.
Until next time! This is JustANormalHTTYDFan, over and out!
