A.N. shout outs to Rosalie Barvik and Sgt Sniper Man101 who commented last chapter.
Dreamhunter was a wind-walker, and like all wind-walkers she loved flying at high speeds throughout the sky without a care in the world, and pushing herself to reach the highest of altitudes. She had reached very high speeds while flying, not fast enough to break the sound barrier but she could fly across the entire archipelago within half a day and probably touch a tree from each island provided no Vikings tried to shoot her down. What she didn't like was flying through underground caves and caverns and having to take her time as to not hit her head on a stalagmite, unfortunately that's just what her rider needed her to do.
Aliyah was currently searching for the scales for one of the underground dragons. It was an absolute must for Gothi, the healer herself had discovered the healing properties various dragon scales had possessed and how to incorporate it into her medicines to treat her patients. The Whispering Death's spines could be used to make a paste to stop infections and had saved quite a few Vikings from unnecessary amputation. The Fire worms were used to treat burns which most Vikings would no doubt suffer from when fighting creatures that can breathe fire. And the mucus from a cavern crusher; that one was used to stop the doors and windows from creaking in the night, Odin knows how irritated Gothi can be if she doesn't get any sleep because of a creaking door.
As the dragon and rider continued to fly in the caverns the silence of the place was starting to get to them. "I am starting to think we took the wrong tunnel. This was on the eastside of the island right?" Aliyah asked the dragon. Dragon let out an annoyed growl, not bothering to hide its displeasure about flying underground.
"Oh don't be like that. I am sure we'll run into Whispering death in no time. Would that make you feel better?" She asked the dragon, who promptly flew a little higher than usual causing Aliyah to hit her head on the roof of the cave.
"Hey watch it, or next time you'll be eating eel for breakfast." The girl threatened the dragon. The dragon in turn responded with a series of grunts and growls. To the average observer this would be unrecognizable noise but to a person like Aliyah she could easily make out what the dragon was saying.
"I'll have you know, I am not afraid of holding an eel." Aliyah responded.
The dragon continued to taunt her more about the eel being all slimy and slippery and having that snake like movement. Aliyah gave the dragon an ever so light tap on her head. "At least I won't fly several thousand feet into the air and wait for someone to move it all the way across the island before coming down." She told the dragon before guessing its next words. "And the whole climbing the tree incident was one time." She continued, recalling the time when she and Rush were fishing by a pond on the island.
Rush had managed to snag an eel and had yanked it right out of the water, unfortunately the creature had landed right on top of Aliyah. The next thing Rush or the dragons heard was scream a hundred times louder than a Titan wing Thunder drum. When the boy and the dragons turned to see what had happened Aliyah had disappeared leaving only the eel on the ground. The dragons likewise had fled at the sight of the creature leaving only Rush present. Rush wasted no time in getting rid of the sea creature. He had grabbed the creature, wrapped it around a stick and tossed it across the island. He had hoped it had landed in the ocean but he was wrong as a family of Terrible Terrors flew from the direction he threw it. After having gotten rid of the eel the dragons had returned but Aliyah didn't. Everyone had spent the rest of the day looking for her, when they were about to give up Ghost noticed bright purple shape at the top of nearby tree. Upon flying for closer inspection it revealed to be Aliyah hugging the tree tightly. Ever since then Rush and the dragons would tease her from time to time about eels, but never two often as once she was really annoyed she would force feed them the eel itself.
Back to the present the duo had decided to take a break from exploring the caves. They stopped by underground spring to rest and rehydrate, unbeknownst to the duo a dragon was hiding in the shadows of the cave was staring very intently at them practically stalking them with a pair of red eyes. The dragon continued to stalk the duo as they saddled up and flew further within the cave unaware of the dragon trailing them.
Rush was currently in the middle of the forest, packing a small bag with some stuff he thought he might need for when he went to the island. He had packed several of his homemade bombs, a few vials of changewing acid, a container full of monstrous nightmare gel and earplugs. Satisfied he turned to go find Hiccup. Usually whenever Rush had to babysit Hiccup he'd take the boy on various trips into the woods and Rush would teach Hiccup various skills, like spear fishing or surviving on make shift tools in the woods. The current survival lesson Rush was teaching Hiccup was how to build a shelter in treetops. Hiccup had come up with some ideas really quickly on the spot, so Rush was having him do various sketches and drawings to plan out the shelter. When Rush arrived he was surprised to see the boy climbing from one tree to another while holding a white rope. Upon closer inspection Rush realized that the rope had a pattern of black markings across it. Hiccup was jumping from branch to branch pulling the rope taut, whenever he reached a certain spot and writing down some stuffs on a piece of paper. He was about to move on to another branch when he took a wrong step and ended up falling from the tree. Rush ran to try and catch him but just before the hooded boy could reach he tripped and fell face first into the ground with Hiccup landing right on top Rush's back.
"Ow." Hiccup winced as he got off of Rush, "What are you made of Rush, stone?" Hiccup asked as rubbed his back. Rush merely rolled his eyes.
"Only trolls and some dragons are made off stone unlike you who I assume is made off skin and bones. I don't think I felt any fat or muscle on you at all." Rush told the boy as they both dusted themselves.
"Hey," Hiccup called out, "I have muscles." The boy struck a body builder pose. "See." He told Rush. The cloaked boy merely reached and pinched one of Hiccup's biceps.
"Ouch!" Hiccup yelped.
"Yeah, you're super ripped." Rush teased, before turning back to look at the trees that Hiccup was climbing across earlier. "What were you doing up there anyway? Supposed you did fall and I wasn't there too cushion your- I mean catch you. You could've fallen and hurt yourself then Aliyah would hurt me for letting you get hurt and then what would you tell your father?" Rush told the boy.
"I was just trying to get better measurements for the treehouse." Hiccup murmured quietly as he stared at the ground, this was the second time Rush had had to scold him for the day.
Rush sighed realizing that it was on him for putting Hiccup up to this and not staying to supervise him. Thinking he scolded the boy enough Rush then turned to ask him about how Hiccup was going to get better measurement by climbing the tree with a rope. The boy in question looked up ever so slowly and gesture to the rope he was using.
"I was going to use my new invention. The Measuring Rope." Hiccup replied as he showed Rush the rope. "It's about five meters long, with one meter at the end divided into 10 equal segments. Basically I use it like a giant ruler except I can carry it around and I don't have to worry about accidently breaking it. I can also just tie on more rope in case I need to make it longer." Hiccup explained. "I thought it would have been easier to design the treehouse if we knew how much space we wanted to use."
"And?" Rush asked.
"And I haven't figured it out yet. I still need to measure the amount of space higher up," Hiccup responded before turning to Rush. "if you let me measure it that is."
Rush looked at the treetops while thinking about the boy's idea. It had flaws but it was a very a good one especially when you looked at the ideas of other children his age. The biggest flaw was the fact Hiccup didn't put anything to help him if he slipped, but lucky for Hiccup, Rush knew just what to do to help. Rush took some more of the extra rope Hiccup had and climbed up the tree.
Aliyah and Dreamhunter were now threading very, very quietly. They had gotten lucky and spotted a whispering death fly into the cave and were doing their best to tail it. The duo had managed to follow it all the way into the heart of the cave where they found it sleeping in its nest. Aliyah looked around area making sure there weren't any dragon eggs in sight. Stealing scales from a whispering death was hard enough, but stealing them from a mother dragon who would assume you tried to hurt her babies, not fun, not fun at all. When she saw the coast clear, she reached into one of her pockets and took out a small clump of grass, Dragon Nip. This grass had the ability to make dragons that sniffed it act a little out of sorts. They usually felt very lazy and sometimes friendly and it usually works well, even Rush and Aliyah herself had fallen under its effects at some point in time and Aliyah was hoping to use it now to pacify the dragon. Aliyah was almost within reach of the spines when a loud scream echoed through the cave. The whispering death work up to see the girl within inches of it and wasting no time it lunged at the intruder. Aliyah leapt over the dragon as she whistled to call Dreamhunter. The dragon jumped and stomped on the whispering death lowering its head enough for Aliyah to hop on.
Without wasting another second the windwalker took off, trying its best to fly as fast as possible to get out of the cave without hitting a wall. Another scream echoed through the cave and this time the cave shook as the owner of the scream approached. Aliyah turned to see to source of the voice only to see a pair of red eyes coming at them with a mouth the size of house. She turned back in front looking for any other exits that would be too small for the large dragon to fit through and as if fate wanted to be cruel, there was not an exit in sight. Luckily for Aliyah Dreamhunter was out speeding larger dragon, that was until Aliyah heard a hissing sound. She forced Dreamhunter into a dive just barely avoiding a fireball from the larger dragon. While the fireball missed, it did illuminate the cave giving Aliyah a better view, showing her a few stalagmites on the ceiling. She quickly ordered Dreamhunter to shoot them down as they flew. While Dreamhunter was able to avoid the falling rocks the large dragon was not. It roared in frustration as it hit several of the falling rocks slowing down but still not stopping. As the pair reached the entrance for the cave and began to fly upwards a familiar hiss of gas was heard. This time Aliyah didn't wait, she turned around and opened her mouth sending a small burst of fire downwards into the dragon's mouth lighting it on fire. As Dreamhunter flew out of the cave and into high into sky: Aliyah and her dragon looked back to see a huge serpent like dragon exiting the cave. Its head and several other parts of its body were on fire but its wings were still functional. The dragon wasted no time in heading for the ocean to try and extinguish the flames before they consumed it. As it touched the water a huge cloud of steam arose from the water completely obscuring the dragon from view. Not wasting another second Aliyah and Dreamhunter headed back to Berk.
"Okay, next time let's just skip the Whispering death or better yet let's have the boys do it. What do you say Dream?" Aliyah asked her dragon still a little shaken up the situation. The dragon let out a soft croon in agreement as it flew.
"Too bad, we didn't get the spines for Gothi huh." Aliyah sighed as they flew. Dream however simply smacked her for only being concerned about that. After Aliyah apologized, she rubbed the dragon's head thanking her for getting them out safe sound. When the duo arrived on Berk Aliyah was about to run off to get the ingredients to Gothi when Dreamhunter stopped her. Initially confused Aliyah asked the dragon what was wrong. Dreamhunter immediately lifted up her leg to reveal a few spines from the Whispering Death that had apparently gotten lodged there when Dream stomped on the dragon. Thanking the dragon, Aliyah promised her some extra fish for dinner before heading to Gothi's hut.
A.N. Can anyone guess the dragon? Next chapter Rush leaves for The Island leaving Aliyah home alone with Hiccup. Like always Review, Follow and Fav.
Also if you all have any dragon requests, i am open to suggestions.