"Gradually the healing took place, seeming as it always does that it wasn't taking place." - Ursula K. Le Guin - Powers
Echoes
"Try your name this time," Shadowwing said, wiping away their last writing.
Dawn-Singer growled softly as he closed his eyes in thought. Several moments passed before the young Fury partly stuck out his tongue and turned down to the dirt with a single claw.
Dauhn Singer
He eagerly looked up at his teacher.
"That is close. Here is how it should look," Shadowwing hummed.
Dawn Singer
Said Fury's nose wrinkled as he glared at the correct spelling and gave a confused hum with his ears swept back.
"But that does not look how it should. The w sound is not good."
Shadowwing paused and blinked.
Uh, you are actually right about that. Gods, you are a clever one.
"Little one, two-leg picture-talking has rules. The hardest wind to learn about this flight is that those rules are not always good to fly with."
"They are rules and not rules in the same flight?" Dawn-Singer mumbled, his tail frozen in dismay.
A pair of confused grumbles followed.
"Two-legs and their talking are twisted things," Shadowwing grunted.
"How can I learn when the rules are not rules and good sounds are not good?" Dawn-Singer groaned.
Shadowwing gently patted his nephew on the head.
"You will learn this flight. I did."
Dawn-Singer gave him a toothless grin in reply.
"Now, what type of kin are we?" Shadowwing asked.
Dawn-Singer immediately bent down, already knowing this answer.
Night Fury
Shadowwing gave him a satisfied nod and grunt.
"What does it mean? Yes, our wings and scales are dark like night, but what about fury? We are not very angry..." Dawn-Singer innocently asked.
Ah, I wondered when this would come up.
"I think we called ourselves dark wings, but Night Fury is a name that two-legs gave us. Our dark color lets us hide in the night. And we get very angry when we attack."
"Attack what?"
"Bad kin, bad Alphas, prey that need hunting..."
Shadowwing chuckled and winked.
"And little fledglings!"
He pounced and started chasing Dawn-Singer around the cave, their lessons done for the day. It was a while later when Dawn-Singer finally lay down next to him with most of his youthful energy spent.
"I am hungry!" he bemoaned.
"We should fly and get fish."
"Down in the nest with two-legs?" Dawn-Singer's eyes went wide.
"Yes, fly with me."
They eagerly bounded from the cave, flew down to Haven together, and set their sights on the nearest fish station. They landed nearby and the swarm descended.
"There they are!" "Dawn-Singer!" "So cute!" "He will be my dragon!" "Gods, he is growing!" "Is that Toothless?"
They were swarmed by adoring kids and young adults not a moment later. Dawn-Singer soaked up all the attention and stared back at them with his eyes very wide and nonstop humming of delight. He let them pat his head and carefully stroke his wings while Shadowwing supervised the introductions.
But Shadowwing found something about the meeting slightly off. While Dawn-Singer did not seem to care about the treatment, there was a hint of belittling treatment in how the young people patted Dawn-Singer, said 'good boy', and made remarks about who was going to be his rider one day.
That is not how it works.
"Why are they so warm to see me?" Dawn-Singer asked once he pulled himself away from his adoring audience.
"Because all Night Furies are very close to their livers," Shadowwing answered.
"Should I picture-talk to them?" Dawn-Singer glanced at the dirt.
"Not yet. You should learn more before you picture-talk. And," he bent down to his nephew's ear, "you probably know more picture-talking than many of them."
"I do?" Dawn-Singer exclaimed in amazement.
"Yes, it is not a flight that they all want to fly or know how to fly."
That left Dawn-Singer's eyes wide open in awe and his shoulders a bit higher than before.
They walked over to the fish station. Shadowwing did not need to ask before he was handed several large fish for himself and a couple smaller ones for his charge. They both quickly secured the fish in their bellies and began to walk throughout Haven. Dawn-Singer enjoyed seeing all of it, hearing the sounds of activity, and seeing all the different humans and dragons.
"Kin-liver!"
Dawn-Singer noticed her and dashed for her with great haste. Valka bent down to catch him and only then seemed to notice that he was almost as tall as she was when he stood upright.
"Oof!" she collapsed as she was tackled onto her back.
She was savagely attacked in the face.
"That... does not... wash out!" she groaned.
Dawn-Singer laughed deeply and pounced back to avoid the retaliatory finger to chin attack, having learned to avoid that exact attack many times before. He could not avoid the licking from his uncle though and was left rolling on his back in laughter.
"Shadowwing, you have no idea how happy that makes me," Valka laughed.
He abandoned his attack and turned his attention to her. Dawn-Singer recovered himself and sat down next to him to watch as he wrote.
I was thinking about the dragons
They are flying far for fishing and hunting
We should fly to the nearby tribes
And let them know that we mean no harm
"Hmm, I suppose that we can. It might help them to know what they are dealing with as long as we don't let them know where exactly we are. How is his learning coming?"
Quickly
He noticed places where Norse does not make sense
She turned to Dawn-Singer, looked into his deep green and very aware eyes, and gave him a bow.
"Did he now? Well, I look forward to seeing it when he is ready. That will be a pleasant surprise for everyone when they see it. Uh, where is everyone else?" she warily glanced around.
Shadowwing started in surprise and gave her a guilty half-grin.
Oops, yeah we are a bit late getting back...
"Come Dawn-Singer, we should fly to your sire and dam's cave-den."
"Must we? There are so many two-legs and Kin-liver is here," he looked around with eager anticipation.
"Yes, they want to know where you are."
Dawn-Singer reluctantly grumbled but followed him into the sky and back to home. Both of his parents were outside when they arrived back. Little Aurora was perched on her father's back and was going on short hop-flights to build up her strength.
"Where were you both?" Green-Wings grumbled.
"Getting fish and playing with Kin-liver!"
"You were down in the Haven-nest?" she exclaimed.
"Yes dam! Shadowwing thought it would be good to get fish. I was hungry."
You traitor...
"I was with him all the time we were down there, and he was very hungry," Shadowwing explained himself.
"And I am not a hatchling now! I want to play with the two-legs," Dawn-Singer objected.
Green-Wings gave a soft grumble.
"As long as one of us or Shadowwing are with you..."
Shadowwing winked at Dawn-Singer most conspiratorially and gave him a happy rumble.
That can easily be arranged.
"Are you sure that you do not mind?" Chief Thorvald asked for the fifth time.
As I said the first four times
Someone must plow and the other dragons
Are not as good at following instructions
"That is a fair point, but it still feels like we are using you and I do not..."
The Chief was shut up by the soft snarl and furious scribbling.
I will stop plowing
If I am being treated as cattle
You would know
Now if you do not mind I have work to do
Chief Thorvald relented and departed to deal with other, real problems. Problems like figuring out how a village's morale could survive without ale.
Shadowwing patiently waited as the farmers fitted the various straps and braces around his shoulders and across his chest.
Gods, I guess after this I will have some idea what it was like for Toothless to have a saddle and rigging. There is that at least. I wonder if I should talk to him about it.
Snort.
Actually, he would just tease me about it causing an itchy armpit or something.
The giant plow was fully strapped to him, and he fixed his gaze on the point across the field.
A straight line now. How hard can it be? And I need to ask Gobber how he managed to forge a plow. That is not exactly the kind of thing you can just strap onto a dragon and have them carry for a couple days over an ocean.
Getting to the point across the field was very simple. He did not run into any rocks underground or have any problems with keeping the plow in the soil.
Who would have thought that there would ever be a place for farming Nords or farming dragons? Sure, breadmaking, smithing, fighting, even some doctors, all of those have a place, but farming was never really encouraged as a career path.
He groaned.
And I can do the work of six men easily. We will have this field tilled and planted in no time at all. I am sure that they cannot wait for more potatoes. Me, I will stick to my fish, thank you very much. Some salmon and some nice Icelandic cod.
It was on about the tenth pass when he realized something slightly amusing. Mulch and Bucket, who had somehow managed to get assigned the responsibility of overseeing this plowing mission, were arguing with each other over something. That was not terribly abnormal. They were quite intensely shoving at each other, pointing at a map, and rotating the map in various directions while pointing in all directions.
He stopped before them and gave them a clearly questioning look.
"Ach, you see Shadow... we waren't sure s'actly which d'rection the plowin' should go. I think it shuda been that way..." Mulch pointed perpendicular to the direction the current rows were being tilled.
He stared back at them in confusion and disbelief.
Wait, you mean to say that all that we have done... that all I have done so far has been going the wrong way!
"Oh, come on!" he roared aloud.
He grinned when he recovered himself. He started walking to continue the next passes exactly as he had been before, even after Mulch and Bucket shouted at him and each other.
You can explain how the field got turned around, unless you want to plow this yourself, you useless humans.
"Get those beams higher!" Gobber roared.
On it! I'd like you to put your wings into it though. Oh, that's right, you can't because you don't have any!
He beat his wings and gained some height while the other dragons tethered to the log followed his lead. The large ceiling beam was guided into place down below by several of the younger workers who were less afraid of heights. They got to work hammering the beam into place after unstrapping the dragons' ropes.
He turned and flew back to the ground, leading the other dragons with him. A glance at the village going up around him followed on his way down. It was quite impressive.
A number of basic homes had already gone up in place of the simpler huts and tents that had sufficed for much of the winter. There were pens for the domesticated farm animals and stables for the dragons that lived in the village. Stations had already been built to hold the catches of fish for the day. A large pile of dragon armor taken from the number of Drago's slave dragons that had joined Haven lay abandoned on the side of the village. No one had a great use for any of it yet, so the consensus solution was to leave the armor there until a solution presented itself.
There was also the new Great Hall as it slowly began to go up. It would be smaller than the one back on Berk had been. While somewhat smaller, it would be more designed with all the essentials to accommodate dragons, with reinforced perches, a wider entrance, and a bit more general fire resistance.
I really do not know how we have managed all this already. Pure force of stubbornness probably. Though dragons do help in major construction projects.
He spied Was-Grounded off in the distance floating over the village to help keep the peace. Their arrangement had more or less been that Shadowwing would be the main Alpha in the village so that Was-Grounded could spend more time being a good father to his children. He completely understood the importance of that, given his own experiences with a father not being there as much as he should have been because of work. This naturally left him with more time in the village himself, confusing though that was with the occasional problems that flared up.
The main problem at this point was actually the dragons. There were so many of them that there was now almost a permanent flock flying over Haven. This new reality led to the key issue which he was spending more of his free time thinking about and that everyone was spending more time fretting over.
There was not enough food for them all right here. There had already been several incidents with the newer dragons from the ice nest or from Drago's army terrorizing the chickens and the goats. And as for fish, the waters were filled with fish but not necessarily enough right here off these shores to satisfy everyone. Even the wild herds in Haven were becoming thinner. He was still reflecting on this puzzling problem as he dove down to the clearing forest to haul some more lumber.
They have to fly further down the coast or deeper inland to hunt. That could cause problems for anyone else who lives around here. True, there are not many tribes or villages that I can recall seeing around these parts, but there could still be some incidents.
He gave a hum as he looked around and waited for the next log to be hauled over.
We just need someone to go to the other tribes that are around here and let them know what to expect. This project for me and mom will definitely help. And maybe along the way I can help with more mapmaking since we have none for this area.
He got closer to several of the other people who were busy felling trees and carving them into useful logs and planks. The work went very quickly with Tembra's Timberjack eager to help out by doing what it seemed to do very well, cut down trees with its impossibly sharp wings. He was sitting down on his belly and resting in a break between hauling when he overheard a couple of people idly talking.
"Did ya hear the news? What the Chief wants to do?" Bard muttered.
"Nah, what's he thinking about now?" Merla answered.
"A way to celebrate them both," Bard replied.
"Stoick and Astrid?" Merla asked.
"Yep, both of em. I say Stoick should be left out because of how he turned on them..."
"Come on Bard, he redeemed himself you know. Anyone who dies in battle for their own is in Valhalla..."
Shadowwing stopped listening and turned away from them. And he stared at the trees as he felt it swell in his heart again.
The terrible uncertainty mixed with resignation at what must have happened. They never found a body in his case, whether because of a hungry dragon or because of the tides or flames. But Astrid's ship and the faint glimpses he had thrown toward those spiraling flames...
He could still feel it all in that moment. The loss, the pain, the shame, and the emptiness always lurking under the surface and threatening to rear up from the darkness whenever he stopping doing other things. It did not feel so bad when he was playing with his still living family, but he still had no idea how to actually move on.
That pang in his chest remained there even as he worked throughout the day.
Warmth.
Cleanliness.
Relaxation.
She floated on her back in the warm, bubbling water and delighted in the simple pleasure of being.
This is the best place in the range. Quiet, alone, warm.
Her belly growled at her.
And hungry. Sky-breath, I wish I had some fish. Four-leg prey gets old after many sun-cycles. But catching fish usually needs fire.
She rolled in place and hauled herself from the very good, warming water. She knew where she could go to get fish, even though it was the one place she most did not want to go.
A wary hum followed.
Maybe I could see what that nest looks like now. I might understand better why the other kin are so warm around two-legs or let themselves be life-thralls.
Her mind made up to do this safely, she took to the sky and flew down the range toward the spiraling mass of kin. She was quite surprised at what she saw as soon as it became visible.
The two-legs had built many tree-dens since the last time she flew over them. Some of them even looked big enough to shelter kin, and there were indeed kin roosting inside some of them. There were also clearly visible several places where kin gathered closely together on the ground around what looked like feeding places. Feeding places in which she could see many fish.
She clearly saw them all again. Riding-things on the backs of kin. Kin were being made to carry around two-legs for only the sky-breath knew what reason. Some two-legs were softly roaring at and shaking their paws at kin for having done something not what the two-legs wanted.
I will never let that happen to me! Foul my own back with a two-leg's waste-end. No.
She gave a soft growl as she passed on above the nest without landing. She pulled up midflight and froze in place when she saw something outside the nest among the trees.
A pair of spine-tails were on top of each other and very busy with making eggs. It was the new-life-season for them.
The bad, twisted memories of vivid sleep-visions were stronger than her hunger for fish. She turned from the nest and departed for the wild further up the range.
She was back in the comfort that she knew, and she curled up alone under a thin-tooth tree. Her strong white wings wrapped around her and hid her from all the outside world.
And she was joyfully running through a strange, dark forest with bright flowers and tall plants. Twisting, darting, dashing, and laughing as something big bounded along after her. A shadow with wings and bright green eyes was chasing her and getting closer. She jumped out into a grassy clearing in the strange and familiar forest. The place felt very much good for some reason she could not remember.
The shadow crashed into her from behind, pulled her down onto her back, and pinned her. It felt good and warming to see that much-close-known like-kin playing warmly and roughly with her and to be pinned by him.
His eyes narrowed, his teeth appeared, and he growled as all warmth departed from her liver.
"Weak prey!" he snarled.
She gasped and gave a cry as she woke up, safely wrapped in her wings where none could hurt or claim her. But the bad-wrong feeling from the twisted-thought-hunter did not leave.
Stoick was fighting like a madman. His eyes blazed with fire and his axe flew back and forth, hewing armor, blades, and heads. Dozens of dragons hovered in the air all around him, all their mouths glowing with fire.
Stoick fixed his eyes in defiance at the Night Fury placidly sitting nearby and watching.
"Where were you, son? Why were you not here? You could have..." Stoick's panicked shouts died in a stream of dragon fire.
Astrid was falling from the cliff after hurling Drago to his death. Her arms were held aloft, ready to be caught and carried to safety. And she looked up at the Night Fury as he hovered afar, aloof and unresponsive.
"We needed you here! Why did you betray us? You left us to die... die... die!"
Shadowwing bolted awake with a roar and a sob. His heart was racing, and he was panting heavily. He took several deep breaths and looked around his cave in a panic before laying back down.
Just a bad dream.
He curled his tail around and covered his head with his tailfins as usually worked when trying to fall asleep. The night was very peaceful and warm. He closed his eyes to try to go back to sleep but his thoughts immediately went back to the dream and to how real it seemed.
Could he have ever actually forgiven his father for what he had done to Toothless? Could they have made peace? He would never know now because they had lost the chance to reconcile. There would never be true closure for that wound.
I could have been there to stop it. I could have saved them. I could have stopped all the bad that happened.
And Astrid...
At least it was honorable. She always joked about dying gloriously in battle.
He tossed and turned on his furs for a while before admitting defeat.
I cannot sleep like this.
His mind was too restless to allow for sleep, so he got to his feet and walked to the entrance of his cave. A brief flight always seemed to help him relax after an especially trying day. It looked like a good night for it too since the moon was full, there were barely any clouds in the sky, and the warm breeze was out of the south.
He was aloft moments later and turned to face into the wind so that he drifted higher with minimal effort. He took a deep breath of the clear, crisp night air and looked out at the vista beneath him. The village was visible a few minutes flight away. Torches and fireplaces illuminated the homes and stables which were interspersed with each other. The feeding stations were sure to be empty at this hour.
Absolutely nothing was stirring down below. Everyone was safe and sound asleep in trust and peace.
It was moments like this that made him question the need for his essentially self-imposed exile. He was always welcomed and accepted by everyone. Neither was it truly difficult sleeping outside the village considering how long he had lived away from human villages and also because his brother, Green-Wings, and their children were only a short flight away. They also made it clear that he was always welcome in their cave whenever he wanted.
Valka had even agreed that he needed time to heal from the aftermath of the battle. There was no telling how long that would take, and having a place of refuge and quiet away from the activity of the village always helped those who were most unsettled.
A patch of darkness caught his eye. What was odd about it was that the darkness seemed to be moving. He looked more carefully and saw the beat of wings. He silently banked toward the dragon, curious as to why it was out in the middle of the night. The shape was peacefully gliding along, oblivious to his presence, and resolved itself into a very familiar figure, that of something very like a Night Fury. The particular beat of its wings, size of its body, and now rather bright color left no doubt as to who it was.
I wonder why she is out tonight.
He bugled a greeting to Luna as soon as he thought she could hear him. She visibly jumped in surprise and glanced around, looking for the source of the voice. She relaxed slightly when she saw that it was him and that he was flying in alongside her. They both glided silently with the wind for several moments.
"Shadowwing, you scared me."
"I tried not to."
She adjusted her flight and banked toward the cliffs. She backwinged, delicately landed on a clearing right at the top of the cliffs, folded her wings away, and moved aside as he came in to land as well. They walked right up to the edge of the bluff. She lay down on her side and curled her tail around herself with her tailfins resting on the ground near her head. He settled for laying down on his belly several paces from her.
The roar of the sea breaking on the rocks below made for a very soothing melody. They lay there together, simply listening to the crashing of the waves and the sounds of the night for several minutes before he decided to broach the question. There was something about her appearance that was more unsettled than was normal.
"You feel sad, Luna. Do you want to talk about it?"
She glanced at him and looked up at the sky.
"I had bad sleep-visions," she whispered.
"I have them too. Do you want to talk about them?"
He had his suspicions about what was bothering her or what her nightmares could have been of, but he figured that it would be best to hear the truth from her if she wanted to talk.
She seemed surprised by his question and craned her neck over to look at him again.
"Licking hurts makes them better. Talking about bad sleep-visions makes them better, I think," he explained.
She hung her head again and moaned softly.
"I was on the bad island with the Monster two-legs. I was hungry again. My wings were broken again."
He moaned softly in sympathy. He could still remember everything about the day that they had found her. However, he was surprised that she continued.
"The two-legs had their hurting things and were laughing. Tthey took me to the other bad-thrall-kin males."
Her voice died away as she shuffled herself and curled her tail in tighter to her belly. He closed his eyes as well as this was the first time that she had ever voluntarily spoken of it.
From the little he knew of dragon mating practices, different types of dragons did not try to cross. For one there were irreconcilable size differences in many cases. No one had ever seen hatchlings that looked like mixes between two types of dragons or a pair of mates that were different types.
"Do you know why the other kin would try to… do what the Monster two-legs wanted? Why would they hurt you that way?"
She said nothing for a while. He knew that it was a difficult question to ask her since it involved details she certainly would rather forget.
"No," she muttered.
"I know why the rotten-waste-livered two-legs wanted it to happen."
"Why?" she asked.
"Eggs. We are the most special of all kin. They probably wanted kin like us to be in their thrall-flight."
"But no kin can make eggs with a very different type of kin," she objected.
"No, but the rotten-liver two-legs probably did not know. Was there anything about the thrall-males that you remember? Do you know why they would try?"
"Do you mean like being thralled to a great-tusk?" she warily hissed.
"You know about that?" he groaned.
"Yes," she mumbled without saying anything more.
She did say that she was caught by seeing that Bewilderbeast.
There was an embarrassing question he wanted to ask because it might help him figure out this mystery. It was only by reminding himself that dragons apparently did not know shame that he finally worked up the nerve to ask.
"Was it the right time for them to… want to mate? Were you… ready to make an egg?"
"Yes, I could," she whispered.
So that part of their actions was somewhat understandable. But there was another question which naturally followed from the previous one.
"And did you? Did you ever make an egg?"
She snarled and looked up at the sky.
"I never let any of them join with me. Even if they had fouled me, I could not get an egg from any of them. They were all very different."
A bit more reflection let him have an idea of what might have happened. The only difficulty was how to explain it to her.
"Do you know that our two-legs drink much... happy-water?"
"Happy-water? What?" she replied in confusion without questioning why he brought it up.
"A little drink of the happy-water makes their bellies and livers feel warm. Sometimes they drink too much of it and it makes them do... twisted things. They do not even remember what they do when they have too much happy-water. Some of the two-leg mate-pairs started that way."
She raised her head in interest and gave a very faint murmur at learning something new about two-leg ceremonies.
"I think the bad two-legs did something like that to the kin males. Gave them bad happy-water or something like it so that all the males knew was that you… were ready to make an egg."
She thought about it for a while.
"That holds wind," she finally admitted, "if an Alpha can thought-control kin, why could there not be something that makes kin lose control. Like bad-wrong-snake-fish," she proposed.
Eels…
"I know what you mean. I once ate some of that," he groaned.
"You did what! You ate bad-wrong-snake-fish! Why would you do that?" she exclaimed in alarm.
"I was only a hatchling, and I did not know what was in the food."
"You did not know what was in the food?" she chuckled.
"It was food made by a two-leg. I did not know what was in it until after I ate it and it... came up."
She warbled long in confusion but seemed satisfied by his answer and looked back out over the ocean for a few minutes. The moonlight glistening off the water showed the regular pattern of the waves.
"You said that you had bad sleep-visions. Will you tell me?" she softly asked.
What can I tell her? I do not want to lie.
"Before we found you, there was a large fight of nests. You saw what happened at the last island we were on. The island of ice."
She hummed, remembering what he was referring to.
"That battle was between a bad flight of two-legs, thrall-kin, and a very bad great-tusk-Monster all on one flight and the white great-tusk-Alpha, free kin, and kin-two-leg bond-pairs on the other flight. Some of the survivors live in the mixed-nest here," he gestured with a flick of his head.
"There were two two-legs I knew who died in the fighting. One was a female. She was the Alpha of the flight that came from the nest where Was-Grounded and I were hatchlings. The other two-leg was a big male. He was…"
My father… my protector… a betrayer… redeemed... fallen...
"...the one who protected me and Was-Grounded when we still lived in our egg and when we were hatchlings. He gave us food and protected us from many dangers when we were hatchlings. In my sleep-vision, I see both of them wanting to be saved, but I cannot save them."
She blinked when he finished his story.
"Dying happens in big fights. Why do you blame your own flight?" she asked after a few moments of thought.
"I am the reason they are dead."
"What? How?"
"I was not there to save them. I flew out to the water-walker that had the two-leg Alpha of the bad flight."
"Why?" she exclaimed in obvious disbelief.
"I wanted to picture-talk with the Alpha and stop fighting and dying from being. I was liver-twisted and did not think well. The great-tusk-Monster made me a thought-thrall. I do not remember anything until Was-Grounded saved me."
He paused before continuing.
"He freed my thinking, and we joined into one flight. We defeated the great-tusk-Monster together and drove it away. All the kin made us Alphas by bowing to us. But the other deaths already were. And there is something else..."
"What?" she hummed.
I... oh, why am I even telling her this?
"It is something that happened on the ice nest island when I was a thrall. I... almost... killed... my nestmate Was-Grounded."
She blinked and gasped in horror.
"What?"
"Yes," he sadly hummed, "he told me that the thrall that was me attacked him and almost killed him. He had a clawing in his belly when I... remembered myself. And there was life-water on my claws. His life-water. I became a Monster," he whined.
"No, it was not you..."
"Yes, it was. I think there is something dangerous in me. It feels like a dark, twisted kin is living in my scales and liver and might make me a Monster if I get angry or feel much."
"You would not..." she started to object.
He spun around with a faint snarl and stared at her, silencing whatever she was going to say.
"You were not there. I was. I saw his life-water and his belly-hurt. I licked his hurt clean. I tasted his life-water. I..."
He groaned and looked out over the ocean.
"I do not know what I am. Alpha, Monster, or both. Warm or cold in my liver. I am lost even though I am here. I am... filled with danger."
She got to her feet and stepped over to him.
"Shadowwing, you are not a Monster," she softly answered.
"I do not know if I believe that," he grumbled.
"Your life-breath is making you feel like you killed the two-legs you held to your liver?"
"I did by not being…"
She softly growled at him.
"No, you are not why they are dead! Those bad-Alphas were. They caused all the death."
He shook his head at her words.
"It is more than only those deaths that happened. There were other mixed-nests that lived in peace. They all joined into one great nest on that island. But the bad great-tusk made almost all kin thought-thralls and turned their flights against all two-legs, even their own bond two-legs. The other two-leg nests that lived threw all kin out of their livers in hate."
He gave a very weak sigh.
"I lived much of my life to make peace between kin and two-legs. That peace and bonding was alive, and it was almost all flamed. There is no peace and bonding now except for this small mixed-nest."
"I do not know what to think about that. Two-legs being false-livered flies with what I know of many two-legs, but the great-tusk was also a bad kin," she eventually whispered.
He continued after a moment of reflection.
"I think about how many kin and two-legs we saved, but it does not help me feel better though. Much that was good and warming is dead now. How do you stay strong, Luna? You have survived much worse than I have."
She thought for a while before replying.
"It helps that I am here and am free now. I can fly and hunt alone now. I will not let any two-leg or kin use me for anything again."
She looked away from him and out over the ocean while saying this. She gave a soft and confused hum.
"You seemed to speak of the dead male two-leg like he was your sire."
He stiffened slightly at how apt her comment was.
"He was in a way. He provided for me and Was-Grounded from the egg. I had no kin sire or dam."
"You mean you never met them. You must have had a sire and dam to make and sing to your egg."
He saw no need to correct her and merely inclined his head toward her. They both looked out over the ocean for a while in silence.
"What about your life before? You have never said anything about the time before the two-legs caught you," he asked.
"I do not remember very much from back then except for a few stories and memory-flashes. It was long ago. I remember many mountains, lights, and a deep, warm cave. There were a couple other little kin like me. I was from the first egg and my nestling-mates liked to try to eat my ears and tail. The second one was also a female. I called her Ear-Biter. We played much."
She rumbled softly at that memory, and her eyes seemed old beyond her time.
He chuckled slightly.
"Two-legs have a word for those. Males from the same sire and dam are brothers and females are sisters."
"Brothers and sisters," the words rolled off her tongue, "I remember the one you use for Was-Grounded. Why do two-legs have more words for nest-mates?"
"Because the words mean more than only being like each other and from one nest."
"I do not understand."
"It means… that they lived together, learned together, struggled together, and hold the other close to the liver. I do not think that male fish from the same sire and dam think about each other. They would not be brothers. Another male Night Fury would be my kin, but he would not be my brother. Only Was-Grounded is my brother. We want to fly the winds of life within each other's call."
She was quiet for a while as she heard and reflected on his words.
"You are a twisted kin, Shadowwing. I have never known a kin that thinks like you do."
He shrugged and chuckled in amusement.
"I am different because I was raised by two-legs. I think some as they do. Do you think that is a bad thing?"
She thought for a moment.
"It is strange and some twisted, but it is good in your life-winds as you are living them," she eventually answered.
Another brief lull in the conversation arose, and he relaxed again, happy simply to be resting on a warm night and with good company. He almost started to feel sleepy when she asked another question.
"How did you learn to talk if you never knew your sire and dam?"
He blinked and paused, not knowing how to respond.
Why are you so smart?
"Was-Grounded and I... have good heads and think well. Maybe my sire and dam did talk much to us when we were... in the egg."
Fortunately for him, she seemed satisfied with his answer and even chuckled a bit at something.
"And is it truth that you can understand two-legs because they... raised you from the egg?"
Technically, yes...
"Yes."
"And you can make the voice-pictures to talk to them because they taught you?"
Yep, in another life...
"Yes."
She shuffled slightly and looked uncertain about something.
"Could you… teach me how to make the pictures?"
Yeah, I could... wait, what?
He could barely contain his excitement and did not even bother stilling his tail.
"Yes! I am teaching Dawn-Singer now and I can teach you."
"I would like that."
"There is so much you can learn from talking to them! And they want to know what you have to say!"
She warily hummed at that.
"It is not for all of them. I would only want to share words with Kin-liver. None of the others. Why is Kin-liver filled with an always-chill?"
His ears fell at that as he again tried to consider how to explain it to her without a blatant lie.
"She left her home-nest-island two tens of season-cycles ago, and she stopped flying the winds of life with her life-mate and little one. She lived in the ice nest for all the season-cycles as one of the kin because she wanted to protect them and keep them free. She had a good vision-hope that two-legs could change and be warm to kin, but much fighting and two-legs not listening made her think that peace would not be. All the dying happened at the ice nest, and her old life-mate died in the fighting after she found him again."
Luna softly and sadly hummed.
"What about her little one?" she asked.
"He was lost to his nest many season-cycles ago. I knew that two-leg well. He was much like Kin-liver and did not think of kin as life-thralls."
"I almost wish that I could have also known that two-leg. Sharing words with Kin-liver would be good," she sighed.
A brief moment of silence arose as he thought about the prospect of teaching Luna how to write. He had no idea how effective it would be since she was a truly wild adult dragon. Dawn-Singer was still young enough that he could learn such things quite quickly with his youthful enthusiasm.
"Do you want to start learning the picture-talking this next sun?"
"Yes, how will I learn?"
"Come to my cave. That is where I have been teaching Dawn-Singer. Maybe you can both learn together."
She slowly hummed in agreement.
"I will come to your cave when the sun first flies."
"I will be there."
She got up and walked over to near the cliff's edge. When she finally spoke again, her voice was far more solemn.
"Shadowwing, you said that the bad two-leg Alpha had thrall-kin. Did he get the thrall-kin from the thrall-makers, from the two-legs with water-walkers and traps?"
"I think so. That is also what some of our two-legs have said."
"Do you think the bad two-leg Alpha is still alive?"
He breathed very heavily and steadied himself to answer.
"No, our female two-leg Alpha killed it with her last strike. They died together."
"She sounds like she was a great fighter to kill a male Alpha, that most bad one."
"Yes, she was," he moaned.
Luna turned to him, hesitated, and spoke.
"I never told you how I got my wings cut, did I?" she nervously asked.
"No, you did not," he kindly answered.
"I do not remember much from when I was a thrall, there was not much to remember, but there was one sun that I almost escaped. The two-legs took me out of my trap and led me out to a two-leg Alpha."
"The Alpha, did it have a long-tooth-stick in its paws and have dark skin burned by the sun?"
"Yes," she growled.
"That is the most bad one that is dead now. What happened?"
"I bit off the paws of the thrall holding me and I escaped into the sky. I was flying again, free in the sky where no two-legs could catch me. I saw a great-tusk like the one that was dead off the ice nest island, but not that one. It was the same one from before, it saw me, and-"
He closed his eyes, knowing well what she was going to share.
"-I woke up in my trap... with my wings cut so that I could not fly again," she whimpered.
He growled.
"Both of those Monster Alphas, the great-tusk and the two-leg, are gone now. The two-leg is dead, and the great-tusk lost its life-fire and is not an Alpha now. They will never hurt any more kin, and you will never be grounded again."
"That makes me feel warm to know that they are grounded or dead," she softly hummed.
He turned to her with a question nipping at his tail.
"May I ask about your old past? About before you were a thrall?"
"Yes, but I do not remember much about it."
"Do you know where your home-nest range is?"
"No. Where it is hides from me. I do remember a story that my sire told me though," her ears lifted slightly.
"Will you tell me?" he eagerly asked.
She hummed and looked up at the moon.
"My sire was alone and flew many ranges to find a life-mate, but he could never find one. He said that he asked the sky-breath and the moon to guide his flight. That night he had a sleep-vision when the moon spoke to him. It said that he had a choice. He could find a mate but would fly himself into danger by doing so or he could have no mate but he would live long. He chose to not live a safe life and flew to a place he did not know. He found my dam, and they had my egg, but there was something bad with me."
"Something bad? What?" he softly crooned.
"Yes, he told me that I was very small. I... could not break out of my egg on my own."
He gasped in shock as she went silent and closed her eyes.
"I would have died in my own egg, but my sire helped me break my egg. I was weak and small, but he and my dam nuzzled me, licked me, fed me, and stoked my life-fire even so. I grew fast and stopped being small. I always tried to fly on my own after that to show life that I was not weak. My sire also told me many stories about the sky-lights, the moon, and the sky-breath."
She gave a puzzled growl.
"I was always confused by much of what he told me. I do not now know why, but I think it is because of that story that I was always warmed much by seeing the moon."
"Maybe you will remember where your sire and dam are and you can fly to them. You could tell them about this range here and let them know that it is good," he proposed.
"I will fly that flight when I get to those skies," she answered.
They lay there next to each other in silence as they listened to the soft wind and the distant waves. It was a very peaceful night.
"I think I will try to sleep now. My head and liver are quieter now. I am warmed by sleeping under the sky or in my own warm den," she announced after yawning widely.
He looked up at the heavens as she did the same and stretched her limbs and wings.
"I like to look up and see the sky-lights, moon, and sky-breath. Why do you sleep far away from the mixed-nest that you are warmed by?" she wondered.
"Because I still hurt from what happened. I am also warmed by having my own cave, and it is very close to my brother's cave where all my nest-kin are."
"You should not ground your own life-fire much," she softly hummed.
"I do not try to, Luna. It hurts to remember what I had and to know that it is gone now."
She stepped over to him and gently nudged his shoulder with her nose.
"Be warmed with what you have now. That is what I am trying to do. My wings are strong, I am not always hungry, I know a good two-leg, and I know kin who have my life-fire now."
That is easier said than done...
"Sleep well, Shadowwing. No twisted sleep-visions."
She spread her wings and jumped from the cliff. He watched as she gracefully soared higher on the ocean breeze and smoothly banked on the wind to fly deeper inland.
Good night, Luna.
He waited a few more moments before he too got up, stretched his legs, and flew back to his cave. He curled up on his stone bed after warming it up as he always did.
She is right. And mom has already told me several times that I cannot blame myself for what happened.
Hearing the words from Luna somehow gave them a bit more force. She had endured truly terrible experiences that were far different from his own, but she still remained hopeful and did not want to give in to despair. She remained defiant and strong. If she could endure despite what happened to her, he had no excuse to not try to do the same. Even so there were still scars on her, visible and invisible, that may never go away entirely.
'You get used to it eventually. It changes you into someone new.'
He remembered Valka's words as they rested on that desolate island on the journey that would eventually lead to Luna's discovery.
I guess that there will always be bad days, and maybe the best way is to accept them as truly part of life. Maybe getting over the past is the wrong way to think about it. Like trying to outrun my shadow.
Sigh.
I am not who I was.
He closed his eyes and waited for the nightmares to return. But this time they did not. Peaceful sleep claimed him instead. His dreams were of white wings spinning through the sky alongside a joyful cry.