Okay, this is my last update for this story until after Christmas. After this week I am going to be taking my annual one week writing break for the Holidays. I am going to be visiting my grandparents in Texas and will be without Wifi for the entire vacation. But don't worry I will be back in a couple weeks.
But enough of that, let's get on with this shall we.
Oaken watched as Branch played with Melody, continuing throwing a stick off of a tall cliff and having Melody retrieve it. Oaken chuckled at how Branch kept complementing and talking to Melody as if she was his own child. He knew Branch truly loved Melody, and and Melody loved him back. Still Oaken didn't know how much Branch really knew of the Feathered Fury species. Almost all of them had been wiped out, to the point that there was less then two dozen of them in known existence. Branch knew about Melody, but was he knowledgeable about the species.
Curious Oaken walked up to Branch as he tossed the stick off the cliff for what felt like the fiftieth time. "I bet you think you know all about your dragon don't you?"
"Well yeah," Branch replied as Melody flew up to him and dropped the stick at his feet again, panting and standing on her hind legs for Branch to toss it again.
"Oh really, you don't think there is anything that can take you by surprise about her?"
"Nope," Branch tossed the stick off the cliff again, Melody once again flew off to catch it. "Why you ask?"
Oaken just chuckled, and as soon as Melody flew back with the stick Oaken dug threw Melody's feathers and squeezed hard between a small space between two scales on Melody's spine. Melody's eyes widened as she felt a feeling rising in her that she never felt before, she then shot up in the air, her entire body lit on fire and she soon took the form of a Phoenix.
Branch stumbled backwards in complete shock at the revelation as Oaken burst out in laughter.
"How... what? How did you know?"
"Once a Feathered Fury turns three they are considered completely mature, then just like puberty for us their body changes and they develop the ability to transform into a Phoenix. The thing is a Feathered Fury has to have help unlocking the ability. Usually another Feathered Fury will bite down on that area to help their fellow fury unlock the ability but since Melody has never been around anymore of her own kind it went undiscovered."
"That's unbelievable, the book of dragons never mentioned anything about that."
"You're really still taking advice from a outdated book that tells us to kill dragons on sight?"
"Well um?" Branch started to stumble on his words, then Oaken ushered for him to follow him.
"Come on boy, I want to show you something."
Oaken led Branch past a field located next to a waterfall, there Branch saw many more species of dragons that were all thought to have died out years ago.
"I thought all of these dragons were extinct!" Branch gasped
"They almost was, if me and your parents didn't bring them here. As much as I wish the dragon hunters were the only ones responsible for the risk for dragons survival, our tribe slaughtered hundreds of dragons to extniction, and pushed thousands of more to the brink. Dragons like this," A medium sized water dragon swam up to Oaken, who knelt by the watering hole.
"The salt water terror monster, A dragon blamed for the sinking of thousands of hundreds of ships throughout the past few centuries. Our tribe would send out expeditions to capture and slaughter these beautiful animals out of there fear for them. While it's true these dragons did sink ships, it was because the loud noises of the canons going off on them would scare them and caused them to go crazy. Our ancestors own actions caused these usually peaceful creatures to attack us out of fear, and as a result we attacked them back and nearly wiped them out."
"We have changed grandpa, we are not like that anymore."
"Maybe, but it still doesn't fix the damage we have done, these dragons only breed once a year and usually have no more then four babies a litter. It will take decades at the very minimum for there population to be stable again due to our mistakes. And unless the killing stops completely that is never going to happen."
"That's possible if we can stop Blood."
"You really think the killing will stop with Blood?" Oaken snapped "Killing has been in troll's DNA since long before Blood and will be in our DNA after. Dragons kill out of necessity and self defense, we kill for sport and greed. A dragon will never kill another dragon unless it's part of their diet, while we kill each other just because someone said something that makes us mad. Unless Trolls as a species learns to change their ways with each other they will never change the way they treat dragons or other animals. They kill for survival, we kill for fun, that's the way it's been since the creation, and that's the way it will be unless we learn to involve."
Branch was silent for a few moments not really knowing what to say, finally he found what he thought was the right words to say. "As true as that might be, if we can at least stop Blood, it will be a major win for the dragon's future."
"That is until the next big hunter shows up." With that Oaken left to tend to some other dragons, leaving Branch alone to ponder with Oaken's words.
Not much was said during Cloud Guy's and Fuzzbert's trip to the Snow Giant's cave, but that was mainly because Fuzzbert was mute so he couldn't say a thing. Cloud Guy did crack a joke here and there to see if Fuzzbert would make any type of noise, but all he would get was a blank expression. Eventually after many failed attempts to start up any sort of conversation, Cloud Guy resorted to mind reading. As they reached the entrance of the cave Cloud Guy stared into Fuzzbert's mind to see what he was thinking.
"Yes Fuzzbert I really do see all and know all."
Fuzzbert paused and stared at Cloud Guy weirdly.
"Yes Fuzzbert I can read minds, it's something I don't like to do often because I don't want to freak people out, like I'm nosing into their business. Even though I already do that everyday when I meditate and stare into that crystal ball. Not that I can see everything all at once though. Everyone's life events comes to me in chunks. Like Branch's for example. When he was born I saw that he would free the dragons from the Demon Dragon, and I knew he was going to be the one that changed the Troll Tree's opinion on dragons, but after that everything else was kind of a blur. It is then that I turn to meditation and sometimes my crystal ball to see what is next in their life. Then after that it's up to me to guide them without giving everything away."
The room was silence for a couple more seconds as they walked further and further into the cave. "And no Fuzzbert your not going to find true love and retire to a private island with ocean front company and raise two kids. Sorry to break your heart, but that's the way it goes."
Fuzzbert's head tilted forward in sadness as they reached the cliff that Poppy had fell off of. From there Cloud Guy stopped, closed his eyes and started meditating.
"Okay, give me something, show me what I am missing, complete this puzzle for me." After a couple of seconds a more fuller, clearer vision of that day appeared to Cloud Guy as the entire event was shown to him. He saw Poppy doing battle with Johan, and getting stabbed in the shoulder. He saw Poppy throwing her ax at a box of dynamite and he saw her fall off the cliff. From there the vision ended. As Cloud Guy opened his eyes, he knew there was only one way he was going to get the full answer he needed, he was going to have to go down the cliff. Luckily for him he was a immortal cloud so the fall wouldn't kill him, still, as he looked down at the edge of the cliff and saw nothing but darkness, he knew it was going to be a long, long, drop.
"Okay Fuzzball you stay here, I got to take a dive into the great unknown. Yes without a rope, no I can't die because I am immortal, no I won't stop reading your mind and freaking you out, it's fun." Cloud Guy then jumped off the cliff and let out a scream. "Cannonball!"
Fuzzbert leaned over the edge and watched as Cloud Guy disappeared into the darkness. "This is a long way down," five seconds later "I am still falling!"
Finally Cloud Guy landed into a body of water with a loud splash. From there Cloud Guy closed his eyes and the final piece of the vision came to him. He saw Poppy land hard into the water and after swimming up briefly to gasp for air, the tide swept her away into the ocean. There he saw her pass out from exhaustion and float for hours before bumping into a boat belonging to a strange black troll that he had never seen before but could tell belonged to another tribe. From there he saw the black troll patch Poppy up and they were now sailing to Thor knows were on a small boat with a Night Fury.
"Yes!" Cloud Guy screamed leaping out of the water and flying all the way up, landing right behind Fuzzbert, nearly giving him a heart attack.
"She's alive!" Cloud Guy screamed, picking Fuzzbert up and swinging him in the air. "She's alive, the tide swept her to a boat to some strange black troll with a Night Fury. She saved her life and now are sailing to some unknown location. Which now that I think about it could get her killed, but who cares right now she's alive!"
It was right then one last vision came to him, as he saw at the other size of the cave obvious signs of a scuffle Cloud Guy walked to a black patch in the ground and saw residue from a explosion. He then saw in his vision Blood capturing a Ice Giant and putting it under his control. He also heard the bone chilling words of where he was going to be taking that dragon. To the troll tree.
"Oh my Thor!" Cloud Guy gasped. Grabbing Fuzzbert by the hair he made a U turn and ran as fast as he could out of the cave. "We've got to get back to the Troll Tree fast, Blood has a Ice Giant and he's about to unleash it."
Back at the Troll Tree, young troll children were outside playing with there pet dragons, laughing and having fun when the shadows of mysterious ships started appearing on the horizon. Suddenly the pupils of every dragon's shrunk and they flew off towards the ships, much to the horror and confusion of the dragon owners.
The commotion obviously caught the attention of the dragon riders, who ran after their dragons not knowing what the Valhalla was going on.
"Where are you going?" Reby asked "You love bath's it's Coopers dragon that usually runs away." It was right then that she saw the ships ahead of her, not only that but Blood, flying above the tree on a ice giant.
"What in the name of Thor?"
Arrow as well as every dragon in the Troll Tree flew next to Blood. Blood just stared over the Troll Tree, chuckling as many of his hunters left their ships and pointed their weapons at the civilians, ready to strike down anyone who made a move.
"Listen Everyone!" Blood roared over the tree, "I come in peace."
"Oh yeah, then why you mind warping our dragons and have your goons pointing weapons at us?" Heather snapped back.
"This is only a message, a example of the power that I have and will use against you if you refuse to give me what I want."
"And just who the bloody hell are you anyway?" Creek asked.
"My name, is Blood."
Satin and Chenille just burst out laughing at the mention of his name, causing everyone to turn and look at them in confusion. "I'm sorry you said your name is Blood?" Satin asked
"Yes, What's it to you?"
"Like is that the name your mommy gave you?" Chenille added.
"Um you two might want to be quite." Biggie requested as he saw Blood's face getting more and more furious. "I think he's getting angry."
"No, I'm not finished here," Chenille replied "Seriously, I want to know what your mother was drinking that night when you came out of her you know what and looked into your adorable little baby eyes and say to herself in all seriousness you know what will be a adorable and cute name? Blood!"
By this time everyone was terrified at how Blood was going to react.
"I mean, what was her second choice? BONES?"
"Men, kill those two!" Blood ordered. Three of Blood's men charged after the twins, only for one of them have a sword get thrown into their forehead, and two arrows land into the chests of the other two.
Everyone turned and saw Rosiepuff stepping out of the crowd, a bow in hand as she glared sternly at the mad troll threatening her village.
"If any of you lay one hand on any of my people, I will feed you to my dragon personally." Rosiepuff then looked straight at Blood's eyes and directed him.
"You want to talk to anyone Blood then talk to me. This is my tribe, my people, I am the chief of this tribe, and you threaten one of us, you threaten me too. So what do you want? What possessed you to come to my home, and threaten my people?"
Blood didn't say a word as he landed his Ice Giant next to Rosiepuff's feet. Then turning to his men, he calmly snapped his fingers and all his men exited their ships and surrounded the entire tribe, preventing them from drawing their weapons without risk of getting killed. Furious at Blood's extreme tactics Rosiepuff grabbed for a arrow only for Blood to grab her bow with his prosthetic hand and crush it. He then grabbed Rosiepuff's arm with his other hand and pinned her against her pod, grabbed his dagger and held it to her throat, as the rest of the tribe stared on helplessly in horror.
"Chief Rosiepuff!" Suki screamed, causing one of the hunters to smack her in the gut with a mace.
"Chief Rosiepuff huh?" Blood chuckled "I've heard of you, I've also heard of your grandson, Branch is it? He has caused the death of hundreds of my best men over the years."
"Go to Valhalla." Rosiepuff spat.
"Now is that the way to talk to someone who holds your life in his hands?" Blood replied, holding the dagger closer and closer to her throat. "I hear your grandson has a Feathered Fury, find him, tell him to hand it over, do that, and I will let the both of you live, as well as your entire village."
"Branch will never hand over Melody."
"Then you and your entire village will die." Blood released Rosiepuff, slamming her against the pod as he put his dagger back in it's sheath. "You got forty eight hours to hand that dragon over, fail to complete my request and your entire tree will burn to the ground. You've been warned!" Blood then broke the Ice Giant's control of the other dragons for the time being and allowed them to fly back to there owners.
"I will not ask again a second time." Blood then flew off and the hunters soon followed in their ships. Once Blood had left, everyone turned to Rosiepuff, looking for answers.
"What are we going to do now Chief? Reby asked.
"That mad man is going to kill us all if we don't hand over Branch's dragon" Smidge added
"I knew getting into this business was a bad idea." Cooper whined.
It was right then that Cloud Guy appeared, having flown Fuzzbert back to the troll tree as fast as he could. Fuzzbert landed on the ground panting for air, having never gone that fast in his life.
"Cloud Guy, please, where is Branch? It's a emergency."
"He's at a Island East of the troll tree. It's a two day flight though.
"Two days? That's all the time that Blood gave us." Guy Diamond realized, "Oh man, we'll never get him back in time, we're dead."
Everybody looked upon Rosiepuff for answers, Rosiepuff knew they were scared, that they were concerned for themselves and their home. She needed to give them some sort of hope.
"Listen, back when dragons was our enemy we never ran and hid when they attacked our homes and took our flocks did we? No we fought back, and we chased them off. That mad man, he is no different then those dragons. There is a threat out there, threatening our home and our dragons, it's up to us to stop him, we have to fight back, we have to fight for our freedom. We are the Troll tree, we don't back down from a threat, we fight, we win, and we will chase that Blood fool right back where he came from and make him regret he messed with us!"
The whole village cheered, Rosiepuff knew just what to say to motivate the village. Rosiepuff then turned to Peppy.
"Your with me, we're going to bring Branch home."
"Yes Chief," Peppy responded.
"But what about the village?" Reby asked
"You and your riders are in control. They look up to you, your Branch's team."
"Us?"
"But we're inexperienced in leadership." Suki protested.
"And we're immature." The twins added.
"Please, the Troll Tree is counting on you."
"We will not let you down." Reby saluted.
With that Rosiepuff and Peppy flew off to find Branch and bring him home. The Troll tree needed him now, more than ever.
"We're coming for you Branch."
Yes, I did purposely leave you on a cliff hanger for the Holidays. No I will not apologize, no you will never find me, Texas is a big state and you'll never find me in time.
Have a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays.