Two eggs sit in a nest large enough for three. One of the eggs has fallen on its side, a slight crack showing.
There was a time when some tribes of vikings hunted for dragon eggs.
Torchlight flickering and moving in a cave. Viking voices call in panic "they're coming back", "quick, to the boats".
An adult fastfin climbs into the nest, sets the fallen one back up and a year rolls out as they nudge the crack "Cadence! They've taken one of the eggs!" An angry, anguished roar answers his cry.
They would usually work in teams. They'd scout for a nesting pair Some of them would distract the parents, with fire or food or try and trap them. Others would then carefully sneak into the nest and grab as many eggs as they could, running away before the parents could return.
The two parents circle the ship, their egg is held in a cage, spikes facing inwards. A swaggering oaf strides about the deck. " Come on ye beasts. I dare ye to come after it." He grins evilly, brandishing a hammer. "Scrambled eggs for tea!"
The boat pulls into a well defended harbour. Dock hands pull the cage from the boat with ease under the stern eye of the hammer wielder and the anguished gaze of the parents, watching from afar. At the sea wall, large trebuchets festooned with rope and loaded with nets are aimed at them. They take the egg to a large stone building, bars on the window and metal studded door. The door slams shut, echoing.
They would incubate the eggs, letting the young dragons imprint on one of their children.
A baby fastfin, Summer, hatches from the egg into a stone cell. A shy girl, no older than 9, blonde, is shoved in front of her and a fish is slapped into her hands. Her helmet falls over one eye as she smiles nervously at the hatchling. Summer takes the fish and eats, looking unsure.
Later, reins are fitted to Summer. A riding crop and shiny spurs are hanging on a wall, next to a spiked whip and chains.
"This is the training stick." The hammerer instructs a classroom, "each time you want your dragonling to do something, use it. Hard. Remember, they don't have feelings, so you have to use pain to teach them." Several of the viking children are already swinging the clubs around, dangerously close to each other, whacking them on the floor, desks and stuffed dragon toys. The shy girl seems uncomfortable holding hers. The hammerer picks her out and leans in close. "Never forget! These are unthinking beasts! They will eat you in a single bite and feel no remorse. You. Must. Dominate. Them." He turns and leaves. She clutches the club sadly as chaos continues around her.
There was a time, but no longer. That tribe drew the attention of too many vengeful parents. One dragon managed to find them, unite them and they took that village apart. People learned it was a bad idea to separate parents from their children.
A fastfin, badly scarred and embittered, stands on a sea stack, shouting above a gathering storm. "We have all lost children to these monsters. We have all followed them to their stoney lair. And we have all been turned away by their arrows, nets and… The Hammerer. Some have lost more than others." Turning, we see many unhappy dragons, some missing a limb, others with scars, all angry and restless. "We could not do it alone. Today we will work together. We shall take down that fortress brick by brick. We shall root out that monster and melt his hammer to slag, fling him in the ocean and Take. Back. Our. Babies!" Uproar, elation, swooping and bouncing, dragons move as a swarm, splitting into groups to position themselves around the harbour settlement.
"Will your obsession end with this victory?" Asks an aged foreverhorn.
"Look around you. Witness the pain of so many souls, crying out for justice." Cadence snaps at the foreverhorn. "Can you doubt this cause is right?" She sighs. "My obsession has become my life. I no longer have hope for my own younglings. It will be enough for me that this can never again happen, that no more mother's will suffer an empty nest, defiled by these brutes. These remorseless unfeeling monsters." With that, she lifts off, spiralling up into the sky, screaming a battlecry which brings the full force of the dragon army crashing down on the vikings.
Flash of lightning. A burst of fire destroys a trebuchet tower.
Flash again. Vikings pushed into the water by jets and rocks.
Flash. Flash. Flash. rockeaters grip and rip at the stones of the prison. Bars are doing aside, the door falls.
The Hammerer appears, raging. Knocking aside dragons. Cadence swoops down, grapples, lifts.
Flash. The others advance into the dungeon, finding humans, they are merciless. Finding dragonlings, they are amazed. Some stand by their humans. They are knocked aside. Some hide, terrified. They are comforted. Some panic, desperate to escape. They are held until they calm.
Summer and the shy girl are sleeping in a house high above the stone building. Summer has a bridle on, even in sleep. It is tied to the floor. They wake up to the storm. Looking out in awe as the Hammerer is lifted by Cadence. Summer sees someone like her. The shy girls whispers "Daddy?" She means the Hammerer. She considers hiding, but instead chooses to run. Summer wants to stay, to see. The shy girl grabs her training stick. "No. Bad dragon." Steel in her voice. She pulls Summer away from the village, into the treeline.
In the morning, the few remaining vikings stood in ruins. The Hammerer's daughter returns awestruck from the forest edge but her shock shifts to anger. She turns to strike Summer, who flinches. The girl pauses and eyes narrow. "No more dragons. Not here. Not ever again." She shoves summer away. From the only home she had ever known.
All the time, the rescuers were interviewing the rescued, trying to return them to those who were missing them. Mostly they were successful, as dragons came forward to claim their blood. Others were adopted or found homes nearby. Only Summer slipped through the net. She drifted away, unable to fathom the depth of the betrayal, the rejection. For months she lived from cave to cave, fishing and pining over her lost home, for all that it was just a prison. Until one day,
Noise, laughter, whooshing wings… Summer slips from her cave into the water, intrigued by what she might see, who might be there. She's been alone for such a long time. She stays under the waves to be safe anyway. She can make out a blue… dragon? Zooming around. Something falls from it's back, a scream, a splash. A girl has fallen into the water. Summer is shocked. The girl… so young, looking kind of… shy. But with red hair. Different. The girl hangs in the water, arms outstretched, eyes closed, in much the same way her mother had, so long ago. Summer feels a bond, she surges forwards, buoying the girl up and lifting her back into the light. She opens her eyes. "Hi… um. Thank you!"
Summer gasps. "You speak dragon? Um, I mean. You're welcome. You know, you're really lucky it's high tide, if it had been lower you might have hit the bottom, it could have been quite painful."
Leyla smiles and answers. "Oh, you're right. Did you know the tides are caused by the moon? It's so amazing that something so high in the sky can affect the waves down here!"
"Wow, I've never thought about it like that. I guess you're right."
They smile at each other, then Dak and Winger zoom by, laughing.