In Memoriam

Shadowwing felt completely at peace at the moment. There was absolutely nowhere in the world that he would rather be than up on this desolate mountainside in the middle of the northern wilderness. The chill wind was whipping around him and nipping at his ears on this cloudless night. The brilliantly bright moon smiled down and filled the world with its lunar radiance.

Luna shifted at his side under his outstretched wing. She purred softly and leaned against him, her breaths as slow and peaceful as his.

I could so get used to this...

Sigh.

Maybe another week of flying at this pace if we don't get... delayed, though I would not be opposed to more of that. Then we will be home. Really cannot wait for them to tease me.

A soft snort.

Heh, I know what he will say. Brother, you are a rock-head, it is about time you flew with her.

He rolled his eyes.

And mom... oh gods, that will be quite a talk. Hey mom, guess what happened... I am, uh, married now, and your grandkids will be dragons... She'll actually be thrilled about that...

"Shadowwing?" Luna whispered.

"Luna?"

"I was thinking..."

"That is a flight that is filled with danger," he teased.

She chuckled solemnly and let a quiet moment pass before she continued.

"I want to know... but you do not need to say anything if you do not want to..."

"Tell me."

She hummed warily.

"You told me much about your two-leg sire. But I do not know much about the other one, the female that you had wanting for. Do you want to talk more?"

He sighed softly and considered it. Talking certainly helped, especially when talking with someone he fully trusted in everything.

"What do you want to know about her?"

"Anything you want to say. I will sit here and listen," she answered.

A brief pause followed.

"Her name was... Astrid..."

"What does it mean?" Luna tilted her head in wonder.

"Beautiful and liver-warming beyond the sky-breath."

"Was she?""

"My liver was much warmed by seeing her. She... was what any male two-leg then would want as a mate. Strong for a female, very brave, a fighter, and one who lived much for the nest-pack."

Luna considered all this with a soft hum.

"Those sound good for fighting. What about living in peace?" she wondered.

It was a fair point and something that he had gradually started to notice. Everything about Astrid that he had found so attractive when he was younger and... still human... was...

Stubborn. Always training for combat. Physically competent. Useful and skilled. Loyal to the tribe. Answering the call of duty.

The pride of Berk.

Sure, she was beautiful also, and he had been a young man with natural desires and wants.

What he had fallen for back then was Astrid the Fighter. It was perfectly understandable too since that is the kind of girlfriend he wanted... before he found Toothless and learned that the Nord way was not the only way.

Astrid had clearly changed after the encounter in the cove. Taking her on a romantic flight, letting her touch the clouds, and then her seeing him defend his dragon friend had made far more of an impression on her than he thought was possible. To completely change her opinion of dragons, after years of training to fight them and thinking of them as monsters, in one day no less, was quite incredible. He was not one to question how it had happened.

"The life-flight of a fighter is not best for life when there is no fighting. True. I do not think she ever thought much about having little ones of her own. That was not in her life-flight then," he admitted.

Luna hummed softly.

"It is not good to start a nest when in much danger," she agreed.

"She was what the nest-pack needed then. She did change some after peace came to the nest-island. But she always lived more for the whole nest than for herself. She flew her life-flight for others and worked to keep the peace and bonding. I wonder if she would have become... much warmer if I had lived... as a two-leg."

Silence followed that comment.

"Do you wish that had happened?" she whispered.

He gently nuzzled her neck and purred to her.

"No. I am not living a different life Luna. You are my life-mate because of who you are, not who you are not. I only wish that she had not died. My life is now and in the future skies with you, always."

"Yes, it is," she clenched his tail.

Another quiet moment passed between them.

"Is there anything else about your two-leg life that you want to say?"

He took a deep breath and sighed.

"I was not good at being a two-leg."

"No, why not?" she purred with a hint of amusement.

"I was small as a fledgling. I could not fight well or do things that the nest-pack wanted."

"I was small as a hatchling," Luna whispered.

"But you grew big and strong. I was always small and not strong in my body. I was strong in my thinking though," Shadowwing continued.

"And being big and strong, being a fighter, was what the pack and your sire-Alpha wanted from you?"

"Yes," he whispered, "the island was one with fighting between two-legs and kin. The kin would fly down and burn the cave-dens, take ground-prey, and kill some two-legs. Fighters were needed to defend the nest. I made two-leg things to help me fight, but the things did not always do what I wanted them to do. Sometimes I would make fires in the nest by accident..."

She chuckled softly and nudged his side.

"What Luna?"

"You were not a good two-leg, you made fires in the nest by accident, you bonded with a Night Fury as a nestmate, and you were warmed by flying even when you were a two-leg in body. I think you always had the life-fire of a kin."

Shadowwing hummed in thought for a moment.

"Another two-leg who was like a sire in some ways told me that I needed to 'stop trying to be something I was not'. Maybe he knew better than I did."

"Which one was that?"

"The one-arm, one-leg one named Gobber."

"His second-name is... burps-much, yes?" Luna innocently asked.

He laughed at that.

"Yes, that is what his other name means. He does that much after he drinks much happy-water, almost like a game with other males to make the loudest sounds."

"Two-legs..." she grumbled.

"Yes, they are much twisted," he agreed.

"Why was that one like a sire in some ways?"

"He almost thought of me like his own little one when my true sire was away much being the Alpha. Also, he had no little ones of his own."

"Why not?"

He paused before answering that question.

Well, part of that you might understand. The other part...

"He was hurt and could not... make little ones. He also did not want a mate... because of that, maybe."

She did not seem to question any of the explanation.

"I wonder what our little ones will look like," she softly purred.

Now that was a thought that made him grin and purr as well. Thinking about what his own kids would look like... who could really know that? Especially in their own case too. Who knew if Light Furies and Night Furies had ever paired off before?

"Probably both of us together. Maybe light and dark scales," he answered.

She laughed warmly at that.

"My dam teased me before I flew the nest for the above. She said that I might find a dark wing and find out if we could be good mates!"

He chuckled at that and then he froze with an idea tickling his tail.

"Were there others? Other Night Furies in the hidden world or this world?"

Her warm look faded rather fast at that question.

"I never saw any. My sire and dam told me that there were few because of something bad that happened."

"In the hidden world?"

"Yes..."

He again had a very faint suspicion of what that might mean, but it was better to not give voice to it. Let the monsters of the past stay dead, especially since Mimir said that they were all gone.

Together in each other's warmth, they looked up at the clear sky in perfect peace.

I wonder what has been going on back at Haven. Rain-Eater is probably learning to fly and talk now. I really cannot wait to see them all again. I will miss this peace and quiet though.

The deep silence and desolation around him beckoned in some way. It was now so much warmer, literally and figuratively, than all his previous nights and months in the wilderness had been.

All because he was not flying on his own, now or ever again.

Author's Note – Luna would naturally be rather curious to learn more about her mate's past life which helped make him who he is. It also felt like a talk that still needed to happen at some point.