Chapter 44

It was not long before the sun began to dip below the horizon, but Blue and Calla did manage to get in a good half hour of play with the dragons before stopping to watch the sunset.

"I don't think I'll be wearing this anymore" Blue noted as he looked over the remains of his sweater.

Calla sat with her arm over the Nadder's neck as she took in the beautiful colours of sunset, while to her side, Blue lay down with a pair of Terrors half laying on his chest.

"Hey Calla, look at Firefly and Daisy" Blue whispered.

"Yeah... cute" she smiled.

"You should do this to the Nadder" he suggested "Climb on her back and hug her neck; make it seem like a normal part of human/dragon friendly interaction."

"Are you sure she won't get angry?"

"I doubt it; she seems really happy and content."

Calla had a feeling Blue was right, but she was still a little nervous as she stood up and took a step back. The bulbous head of the Nadder turned slightly so she could watch the girl with one eye, but did not seem in the least perturbed as Calla climbed on the dragons back and hugged her neck as Blue had suggested.

"I love you girl" she said quite honestly.

The dragon purred as if in agreement, causing a shiver to travel all the way through Calla's body. While she was more than pleased to be bonding with the dragon, there was something that still bothered her.

"Blue... I don't get it; why was it so easy to make friends with this Nadder?" she asked.

"Two reasons" Blue replied "Firstly there was all the information the Berkians left for us, but more importantly none of the dragons we've encountered were born into war."

"So they're not as aggressive" she smiled "...cool."

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Calla awoke the next morning in slight discomfort. She and Blue had not used the makeshift shelter they had built and probably never would. Instead they had both spent the night lying on the ground with Daisy and Firefly, under the wing of the Deadly Nadder, at the back of its cave. Considering how high up the mountain they were, they enjoyed a warm and restful night. It was only a light tapping on Calla's hip that woke her up the next morning. She looked down to find Daisy was the one responsible, twitching slightly as she dreamt.

"Hey... stop that" Calla whispered as she turned the little dragon away from her.

At the sound of her voice, the Nadder turned its head back and lightly nuzzled the young girl.

"Oh... you're awake" Calla smiled.

She then realise the dragon was actually waiting for Calla and Blue, keeping them warm and letting them rest. The low noises and slight movement of the dragon's body also woke Blue, and soon he was yawning and stretching.

"That was quite a windstorm we had last night" he noted "I'm glad we were safe in here. Well... what have you come up with?"

As the couple had curled up in each other's arms the previous night, Blue had tried to come up with a name for their new friend, but Calla had not been impressed with any of his suggestions and had insisted she would come up with something better by morning.

"You said the Dragon Rider Astrid had a Nadder, so what did she call hers?"

"Stormfly" Blue yawned again.

Calla repeated this name a few times in her head a few times and thought about how it reflected the power and majesty of such a dragon; and then she remembered something Blue had just said.

"Then I think I will call her... Windstorm."

Blue considered the title and nodded.

"More than suitable" he smiled in agreement.

"So um... what do we do now?"

"Well if Windstorm is okay with it, we'll all go out and catch us some breakfast" Blue smiled as he got up and climbed onto the Nadder's back.

As he had hoped, the huge dragon was already accustomed to being this close with her young friends. After Blue had reached down and helped Calla up as well, the dragons stood and walked outside.

"Why am I sitting in front?" Calla asked.

"Because Windstorm is your dragon, so you should be the one to pilot her" Blue insisted.

"ME? But I don't know how to fly a dragon!"

"You don't have to; Windstorm already knows" Blue smiled reassuringly.

His words proved to be true as Windstorm stretched out her wings, felt the direction and speed of the breeze, and lifted up into the air.

"eep!" Calla gasped as the ground fell away.

"Don't worry, just lightly hold on to the spines on the back of her head" Blue pointed to them.

Calla tentatively did a Blue suggested, while worrying if the dragon might suddenly become annoyed and toss them off.

"Not too tight, let Windstorm go wherever she wants to go."

As they flew down the slope of the mountain, Blue looked around and was please by what he saw.

"Look" he said, grabbing the top of Call's head and turning it to the left.

Not far away, Calla could see Daisy was flying alongside them. While Windstorm flew straight and steady, the little Terror banked from side to side and even did the occasional barrel roll. When she looked to the right, Calla noticed Firefly doing the same thing.

"This is incredible" she cried out as she slowly became accustomed to being on a flying dragon.

Just as they had seen Windstorm do the day before, she levelled out near the base of the mountain and flew out over the sea. She glided high and fast, only occasionally beating her enormous wings to keep up her speed. Calla soon noticed the dragon turning her head from side to side as she scanned the surface of the ocean, looking for the tell-tale shadow of a school of fish. Their high vantage point soon proved most advantageous when the sought after black patch finally came into view.

All three dragons dove down at a steep angle, approaching the rear of the school at an even higher speed, catching the fish completely by surprise. With a quick flick of her splayed claws, Windstorm snatched a large Albacore Tuna out of the sea before dipping her head down and taking another in her jaws. Now fully laden, the Nadder then rose up and banked around towards home once again. The Terrors each picked up one of the smaller fish circling around the school of tuna; and so only a few minutes later, they were all back on the rocky coast of Eysturoy.

Windstorm placed the fish in her claws on the rocks for Calla and Blue, before she dropped the one in her jaws and started to pick at it.

"What do we do now?" Calla asked while looking worriedly at the tuna.

"We eat" Blue smiled "Don't worry though because I was hoping this would happen. It looks like Windstorm has accepted us as a part of her weyr."

"Her what?" Calla asked.

"Her weyr... w, e, y, r; it's the collective noun for a group of dragons."

"Okay, now you're just being a smartarse" Calla sneered "Herd or flock I can handle, but weyr if just weird."

Having come prepared, Blue took a sharp pocket knife out of his pocket and proceeded to clean the fish. The Terrors, having finished their own already, took great delight in finishing off anything Blue threw away.

"Where did you learn to do that?" Calla wondered.

"Oh we have quite a large aquaponics systems inside the Railgun Complex" Blue answered "Nothing quite as tasty as fresh fish."

"But how are you going to cook it?"

"Ah yes; did you know dragons have over a thousand uses?" Blue grinned.

He looked around the area and found a good sized flatish rock, made nice and smooth by thousands of years of wave erosion. He placed it on a large boulder and called to the Terrors.

"Firefly, Daisy, fire blast" he pointed to the rock.

A series of flame balls hit the rock in quick succession, making it quite warm. Windstorm was not sure why Blue wanted the rock heated up, but she was sure she could do a much better job. So she left her half eaten tuna, craned her head over the rock and opened her jaws. The almost white light Windstorm emitted was so strong, Calla and Blue were forced to shield their eyes.

"Oh good girl" Blue smiled at the rock as it glowed bright red.

All three dragons watched with interest as Blue fried up the two halves of the tuna. It was such a large fish, he and Calla had more than enough with just one piece and so as they ate, many portions were tossed to the dragons, and all of them loved the flavour of cooked tuna. Windstorm liked it so much, she went back to the fish she had already half eaten and cooked what was left herself. Blue and Calla found it fascinating to watch the dragon heat another rock and place the fish on top.

"They learn quickly don't they?" Calla noted.

"No doubt about it" Blue agreed

With breakfast eventually finished, Blue decided to take the plunge and try to teach Windstorm a few things. He knew Astrid Hofferson had believed the Nadders intelligence to be the highest amongst dragons; and even though Blue knew she had a bias towards them, he suspected she was right.

"Dragon" he said, pointing to Firefly.

"Human" he pointed to Calla.

He was pleased to see Windstorm was actually interested. He repeated himself a few times, pointing also to Daisy and himself, and even to Windstorm; then he felt it was time to make the lesson more comprehensive.

"Dragon... Firefly" he pointed "Dragon... Daisy; Dragon... Windstorm... Windstorm.

Just as he had done before, Blue repeated himself several times while the Nadder and everybody else watched with interest. Calla was particularly fascinated. It never would have occurred to her that dragon training would involve such simple techniques. A warm feeling of pride washed over her as she considered how smart Blue really was, and she felt quite fortunate to have him in her life. After ten minutes of changing around the lesson between names of individuals and species, Blue took a new tack that surprised the young lady.

"Dragon..." he pointed to Windstorm, and then to Firefly and Daisy "Dragon... Dragon."

He then turned away from Windstorm and slowly waved his hand over the horizon.

"Dragon?" he pointed north.

"Dragon?" he pointed east.

"Rhaaak!" Windstorm stood up.

Poor Calla did not know what was going on, but Blue was overjoyed. Windstorm was not sure why, but it seemed that the human named Blue wanted to find more dragons; and she could help because she knew of another dragon living not far away.

"Come on Calla" Blue smiled as he hurried to the Nadder and climbed on her back.

As soon as Calla had joined them, Windstorm lifted off and flew east. She flew high up over the island of Kalsoy, and on to the largely uninhabited island of Kunoy. Swooping down from the clouds, Windstorm glided down to the north-eastern side of the island where, in the shadow of a tall mountain peak, a Monstrous Nightmare lay sleeping.

"Look at that!" Calla gasped.

"I dare say that is the dragon Mateo saw when the fishing boat was attacked; and Windstorm would have been the other dragon they heard but did not see" Blue noted.

The Nadder knew it would not be wise to surprise the Nightmare, so she gave a loud announcement call before coming in to land, well away from the big red dragon. Upon hearing Windstorms cry, the Nightmare raised its head and watched as the familiar Nadder swooped down. At first his visage was merely one of mild annoyance at being disturbed during his nap, but when he saw the two humans drop down to the ground, he leapt up into a state of panicked aggression. The Nightmare advanced on the group, emitting a powerful roar which Windstorm returned while arching her tail in defence. The two dragons circled each other in a standoff, the Nadder always protecting her friends with her wings.

There is no way of knowing how long this posturing would have gone on if Blue had not acted. Moving back a little, he called to Firefly and whispered an order to the Terror while pointing out to sea. Then he ducked down under Windstorm's wing and placed his hand on the side of her head.

"It's alright girl" he said calmly.

Blue then took another step forward, sat down on a rock and much to Calla's surprise, he started to sing. It was no particular song, just a melody in a pleasing major key but it had the desired effect. Just like Windstorm, the Nightmare had encountered several humans before. The resulting screams, shouting and anger had definitely tarnished his opinion of the species, but now he began to see that these two were not like anyone he had interacted with before; and it was not just the music.

The Nadder had allowed these humans to ride on her back, when she could have just thrown them off or bitten them in half. Now she was threatening to fight, just to protect them. There must be something more to this; the boy even seemed to be on good terms with one of the Terrors.

Still only half sure he was not on any danger, the Nightmare lessened his aggressive stance a little to see if the Nadder would reciprocate; which she did. Together, and slowly, both dragons backed down from the mild fracas, but continued to look at each other with suspicion.

"Calla, I'd like you to do me a favour" called back.

Stepping forward a little so she could hear him better, Calla asked what he wanted her to do.

"Get on Windstorm, and fly back to Simon's house; get Haley and bring her back here."

"What! Are you serious? I can't leave you alone with..."

"I'll be okay... the Nightmare is over the shock of meeting us and he seems pretty calm now."

"Are you sure about this?" Calla asked nervously.

"Absotively posolutely" Blue replied.

She still did not feel good about leaving him to the mercy of this dragon, but Blue must have had his reasons.

"Come on Windstorm, we gotta go" Calla said as she climbed up.

To say the Nightmare was surprised to see the Nadder leave, would have been something of an understatement. He was pleased she was gone from his territory, but why did she leave this boy and a Terror? As if having these two hanging around wasn't bad enough, the other Terror soon returned making the Nightmare feel outnumbered; it was as if these strangers were slowly taking over.

"Good boy" the young man petted Firefly.

Blue was pleased the little dragon had fulfilled his mission, and had brought back the biggest fish a Terror could carry.

"Would you like this" Blue stood and offered the fish to the Nightmare.

Two days ago, Firefly would not have believed he would gladly fly out to sea and catch a fish, just so it could be given to a bigger dragon; but then he had seen what his human friends could do. Last night the Terrors had both slept very well, knowing they did not have to worry about predators. Never before had they been protected by one of the larger dragons; they would normally sleep close together, using the Safety in Numbers defence method. He also remembered how much fun he and Daisy had enjoyed playing games with the Nadder; so if Blue needed fish to win over the normally grumpy Nightmare, Firefly was happy to provide them.

"Come on boy... you'll like it" Blue smiled.

The Nightmare took one sniff of the offered snack, found there was nothing out of the ordinary about its smell, and then took it with gratitude.

"There's a good dragon" Blue said quietly as he rubbed the Nightmares chin.

As was usual, the dragon enjoyed both the meal, and the attention but Blue knew he still had a long way to go before he could hope to ride his new friend. While he waited for Calla and Windstorm to return, Blue decided it would be best if he simply found more basic ways to bond with the dragon; but while this was a good idea, he would never get the chance to try it.

Firefly and Daisy where the first to be aware of approaching trouble and scampered off to hide behind some nearby rocks. A second later, the Nightmare also sensed incoming intruders; he lifted his head and roared at the sky, tensing himself for battle. Blue suddenly felt like there were rocks in the pit of his stomach when he heard the roar returned from multiple directions behind him.

The young man turned quickly to see four more dragons approaching fast; three were as black as night, and the fourth shone bright like the moon.

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Just took a few days off writing to get my head back on track, and it worked well. Took a few long bike rides, did some woodwork in the garage and watched some old black and white sci-fi movies. I guess you just can't do the same thing over and over again, or as poet William Cowper once wrote, Variety is the very Spice of Life.

Be spicy everyone, Marty ;D