Disclaimer: I don't own anything besides a few OCs.
Warnings: same as in previous chapters.
POLL RESULTS ARE IN! I've removed any mention from previous chapters so people don't vote on it thinking it's still open.
Flare will be joining Fairy Tail (which I already announced a few chapters ago), while Yukino will be rejoining Sabertooth. Sorry, guys. That doesn't mean that her and Lucy, and the Fairy Tail and Sabertooth guilds in general, can't be close.
Enjoy!
"And the fourth match of today's Games is about to begin!" Chapati called. "Shiemi Moriyama from the True Cross Order versus the Hairy Hooligan's Fishlegs Ingerman!"
Astrid scowled.
Were they really sending Fishlegs, of all people, out there? Large and strong he might be, but he wouldn't hurt a fly!
Then she saw his opponent. A short female a couple years younger than them wearing a kimono, with large breasts and a sweet cherubic face.
…Okay, maybe Fishlegs would manage to win this one.
How could he call himself a Viking if he couldn't beat such a defenseless-looking girl?
"Match, begin!"
Neither of the blondes moved.
"Hi!" Shiemi smiled. "Nice to meet you!"
"You too." Fishlegs returned with a smile. "No hard feelings?"
She wasn't a mage, so the chief wouldn't get mad at him for interacting with her in a non-negative way, right?
"None." Shiemi confirmed, before whispering a phrase.
Suddenly, a small humanoid figure appeared on her head. It was light green with a few darker green spots, a small lily pad for a hat, two leaves for a tail, a yellow flower for a right eye, and the left eye was also yellow but instead of a flower it was just shaped like a flower petal.
"Nee." She greeted her adorable familiar with a fond smile.
Without prompting, the little creature nodded, and an odd-looking flower grew out of its body.
Nee plucked it out, handing it to his Tamer.
Shiemi turned back to Fishlegs, who was looking on curiously, fascinated by the small creature.
"What is that?" he asked, wide-eyed.
"Nee is a Greenman. Some exorcists hold contracts with demons." Shiemi explained, before walking towards him slowly, holding out the flower. "He can grow plants out of his body, like this flower. Here."
She handed him the flower, and Fishlegs took a small sniff.
"Nice." He grinned, before he started to feel a bit dizzy. "Wait—"
The large man fell over backwards, passing out from the fumes the plant was giving off.
"And with Shiemi Moriyama's victory, the True Cross Order earns 10 points!" Chapati announced.
"Sorry!" Shiemi cringed as Fishlegs awoke a few minutes later, in the infirmary so that a healer could check to make sure that he wouldn't experience any side-effects. "I was at a rather big disadvantage."
Fishlegs chuckled sheepishly. "It's fine. I'm sure you could've chosen a much deadlier plant, so thanks."
Shiemi nodded, acknowledging his point, but still felt a bit bad.
Fishlegs, meanwhile, was internally cringing as he imagined the reactions he was about to get from Astrid, much less the rest of the tribe.
Not that he blamed her; it was hardly her fault.
When Ryder regained consciousness, it was to find himself in a dark place he'd never been before.
He blinked slowly, dazed, only to see Jack's unconscious form a few feet beside him.
With a sharp gasp, he crawled to his boyfriend, placing a hand on his chest to make sure that he was still alive.
He was.
Ryder let out a slow, relieved breath before shaking the white-haired winter mage gently.
"Jack?" he tried, holding the other boy's pale, cold hand.
Jack groaned quietly, and Ryder caught a glimpse of blue as his eyelids fluttered open.
"Come on, Jack." He coaxed. "You need to wake up."
"Ry?" Jack muttered, arm lifting slightly as he tried to grab ahold of Ryder.
"Yeah, it's me." Ryder assured him, putting Jack's arm around his shoulders and lifting him up.
Jack yawned, eyes finally opening up fully. "Ugh. What…where are we?"
"I don't know." Ryder admitted, looking around the cavern. "What do you remember?"
"Another wyvern…with a rider." Jack stretched a bit. "Did something to us. Sleep magic, maybe."
Ryder looked around nervously, wondering where Toothless was.
His thoughts were interrupted as the two males saw a dozen or so wyverns peeking out at them from the shadows.
"Great." Ryder muttered as a few came towards them.
Immediately, his hand went to his belt, where the hilt of a sword could be seen.
Seconds later, a blade of pure fire emerged, and he waved it around his head slowly, making sure not to get Jack.
The wyverns watched, utterly entranced by the show.
When the wyverns shook off the effects of the flames, one growled, and Ryder realized that it wasn't working. He took something else from his belt, something that released a green gas, and it lit on fire in a circle around him and Jack.
Appeased, the wyverns stopped.
Ryder walked towards one of the bigger ones slowly, arm outstretched to greet it like he had Toothless when he had met the Night Fury, but stopped when he heard someone behind him.
The person, who wore a strange wyvern-like outfit with a spiked mask and odd-looking staff, tilted their head as they stared at Ryder curiously, moving strangely like a wyvern as they stepped closer.
"Who are you?" Ryder asked.
Jack's grip on his own staff tightened, ready to defend if the stranger attacked them.
"Do you even understand what I'm saying?" Ryder asked as he received no answer.
In response, the figure slammed the staff on the ground, the noises it emitted calming the wyverns in the cavern immediately.
A moment later, a large four-winged wyvern appeared from behind the stranger, dropping Toothless in front of the two males.
"Toothless!" Ryder shouted as he and Jack ran to the black wyvern, hugging the Night Fury's head. "It's okay, it's okay…glad to see you too, bud. You really had me worried there."
Jack murmured his own soothing words, carefully checking Toothless for injuries and making sure that his flight gear was in working order. Well, that was definitely more Ryder's thing, but seeing if it looked like it had been tampered with.
Toothless gave them both a grin, licking Ryder's face and then Jack's.
Ryder groaned. "Ugh. You know that doesn't come out!"
"That's what you get for wearing leather armor." Jack pointed out with a smirk. "Gets out of my clothes just fine."
Ryder stuck his tongue out at his boyfriend.
The strange person made another movement with the staff, and suddenly all of the wyverns in the cavern aside from Toothless gathered fire in their mouths, which acted like lanterns, lighting up the room.
Toothless growled and wrapped his body around Ryder and Jack as the figure approached them slowly, and Jack aimed his staff at the figure…
Only to be surprised when the person dropped both the staff and the shield they'd been holding.
Of course, the person still came closer, and when Toothless was about to do something, they waved their hand in front of his face, causing his eyes to roll to the back of his head as he turned over belly-up, though he was still conscious.
The stranger came towards Ryder, about to touch him despite his awkward attempt at a protest, when their eyes widened behind the mask as the figure saw a small white scar on his chin, and the person backed away.
"Hiccup?" a woman's voice asked, muffled by the mask. Even so, the disbelief and joy was evident.
Ryder and Jack tensed.
How did this woman, this wyvern rider, know the name he had discarded years ago?
The stranger took off the mask, showing a middle-aged woman with long auburn hair pulled back into braids, large green eyes, pale skin, and a thin face. "It couldn't be…after all these years. How is this possible?"
"Should I—should I know you?" Ryder asked warily.
"No. You were only a babe." The woman glanced away. "But a mother never forgets."
Ryder inhaled shakily as he realized that the woman's green eyes were the same shade as his own.
Jack sighed quietly, sitting down next to Toothless and scratching under the wyvern's chin. "Plot twist."
The Night Fury grumbled contentedly.
Jack glanced at the woman with a small frown.
He was more than happy that Ryder had apparently found a blood relative that would obviously accept his unorthodox relationship with Toothless, but he couldn't help but wonder.
The woman herself hadn't known that Ryder (he knew how his boyfriend hated his former name, so he refused to even refer to him as such in his thoughts) was her son until a few moments ago, so what was with the kidnapping?
Ryder was about to back away from the woman, about to say something (he didn't know what), when the woman shushed him.
After a moment, she smiled slightly. "Come."
And she swiftly moved towards a tunnel, clearly expecting all three of her 'guests' to follow.
"H-hold on!" Ryder cried, stumbling after his mother. "Wait just a minute!"
"Quick, this way." She said, otherwise ignoring him. "Come!"
"You can't just say something like that and run off!" Ryder grunted, having trouble following with his fake leg. "You're my mother? Do you grasp how insane that sounds?"
"Come quickly." The woman responded yet again.
Ryder tried to follow, but the obstacle in his path was too steep to get over, his metal leg unable to find purchase.
Jack, who was sitting on Toothless' back, pulled Ryder up with him, and Toothless sent Ryder (his rider) a smug grin.
Ryder relaxed against his boyfriend's back, but the sea of questions wouldn't stop. "I thought you were dead! I have questions! Where have you been all this time? What have you been doing?"
Jack and Toothless exchanged an amused, knowing glance.
"Everyone thinks you're dead!" Ryder called. "Everyone thinks you were eaten by—"
He was cut off as Toothless caught up to his mother (Valka, his mind whispered), leaving the tunnel and emerging from a huge, beautiful clearing, with wyverns as far as the eye could see.
"Wyverns." He finished, eyes wide as he and Jack dismounted, walking forwards.
Hundreds of wyverns, of all ages, playing on the ground or flying in the open space. The area was mostly a light blue…was that crystal? Ice? But the rest was green with plants and flowers.
"What is this place?" Jack gasped, just as awed.
The two startled, seeing Ryder's mom and her dragon hanging from up above them.
"This is where you've been for twenty years?" Ryder realized.
Valka nodded, with a small, hopeful smile.
Raven, who had been sent along with a few others to try and find their missing friends, paused in her flight as she saw a strange object a few dozen meters below her.
Slowly descending, she grimaced, realizing what it was.
The purple-haired half-demon picked the spiked metal helmet up carefully.
Ryder.
…This better not be Raven Tail's work again.
Raven felt annoyed just sharing part of their name.
Still…maybe she had a spell in one of her books that she could use to track the trio.
Please review! :)
This is officially my longest story!
Next: Yukino Aguria vs. Kagura Mikazuchi
