***Back to Freya's POV***
"Mom!" I called out. He head poked out from behind the cave wall. She was tending to a clutch of baby Nadders who didn't have a parent around. A green chick was snoring on her lap. I walked out to her. Darkmoon followed me like a shadow.
"Going out, Freya dear?" She asked me. I nodded, knowing I wouldn't be taking my trust companion with me today. It was the day that Darkmoon would be helping count the chicks for this oncoming winter season.
There were twice in a year that the nest would be overrun with chicks. The Nightmares, Changewings, Speed Stingers, and Zipplebacks would be having chicks in the spring. In the early winter weeks, the other species would start laying eggs. Nadders, Scauldrons, Whispering Death, and others were going to be laying. Most of the eggs were laid and some had hatched. It looked like these babies had wandered away from the nest. A Nadder mother would come looking soon. Darkmoon oftened wandered around with Cloudjumper and Valka to make sure that the nest was protected and that the chicks weren't wandering too far.
That meant I was on watch…alone.
"Yeah. I'm going to the northern beach today. There shouldn't be much, like usual. The waters are going to freeze up soon and that should slow down any ships." I explained as I wandered around our home and gathered my stuff. Argo was calling for me outside from the branches of a tree. I slipped my mask on and shuffled my cloak around my wings. I had left the new contraption down here after I showed my mom.
"That means we have to go out and break up the ice for the Scauldron pod soon. Hopefully, it'll help a little more this year." The woman reminded. I nodded. Every winter, we had to break up chunks of ice for the water dragons so they had more places to breach. Some of the little Scauldrons like to climb up on the ice and chase the seals. It was pretty funny to watch.
"Okay, mom. I'll see you in the evening." I called to her and started to walk out. My sword was strapped to my belt and I turned as I heard my mom call to me.
"Don't forget your staff for the signal!" She called. I had almost forgotten!
We kind of ran into a problem last year during hatching season. Since almost all the dragons were busy herding chicks, I was out on watch and saw a ship coming towards the island but had no dragons to go and ward it away with. I couldn't yell and give away our position. I couldn't do anything except run back really fast and snatch up a Nadder to go and help me with. The Nadder was a little ticked, but pretty happy to chase the shiny ship.
So we developed a system. During hatching season, I carried a staff with me. If I stood on the hills on the northern beach and spotted something, I gave a signal using the staff, and a few dragons would respond.
Yes, we had trained the dragons to respond to that signal. It was a pretty ingenious way to solve the communication issue.
Thanking her for reminding me, I grabbed the staff (painted black and silver, of course. Sometimes, I have a little too much free time…), I started off down the trail. Argo came and followed overhead.
An hour later, I was perched up on my usual spot for look outs. A couple of Scauldrons lazily swam around in the distance. I yawned as grey clouds rolled in. They promised me another wonderful fog that would cloak the island.
I loved the mist and grey weather. It made me kind of sleepy. It also promised thunderstorms and I loved thunderstorms. I mean, the Thunderdrums loved the weather to, but that was beside the point. It was kind of obvious what their favorite storms were.
I sang myself a soft song as I twiddled with the ends of my cloak. Argo restlessly rolled on the grass, trying to scratch his back. Once he successfully grasped my attention, I ran my hand over his soft feathers and itched the spot on his back he always loved me to scratch.
I reminisced fondly of the old memories. Right now, Darkmoon and Alexander might be cuddled up together on the grass. I could've sworn that if they had another ten years, they would be mated together.
If only those Berk ships hadn't taken my friend.
Anger rose in me and I took deep breaths to calm it.
"Alexander, get back here!" I chuckled as he chased Darkmoon. She grumbled as he batted at her wings. Rearing up, Darkmoon hissed playfully at him until he whimpered and tried to hide behind me. Darkmoon looked like she had won a giant fish before settling back down on the grass. Alexander walked up to me and sat down. His head titled curiously at me. Oh, I knew he wanted to play our favorite game.
It was called Roar-until-you-pass-out game. Basically, it was pretty self-explanatory.
"GRAAAWR!" Alex roared at me. I stood up and pretended to make a big show of brushing the grass off me. Darkmoon opened one lazy eye to watch.
"RAWR!" I howled. He shook himself off and opened his mouth wider to return the call. We went back and forth until I got lightheaded. I cupped my hands around my mouth one final time before collapsing back on the grass. Alexander had one, of course.
Oh, the good old days.
With a sorrowful sigh, I scanned the waters. The Scauldrons had disappeared. I kept looking until I found my worst vision.
Yet, it gave me a lust for his blood.
A boy, adorned with the Berk logo on his armor, was walking up the hills of the north shore.