I got up the next morning feeling sore and stiff. It was hard to open my eyes, yet I forced them to be awake. Outside, the green pines swayed and mixed with aspens. I heard the river flow under the weeping willow to feed the pond at the lower part of the nest. The Bewilderbeast would be snoring right now.

Getting up, I poked Darkmoon away. She rolled over for me to scratch her belly and snored. I rolled my eyes and rubbed that spot under her leg to make her roar in happiness.

"Okay, Darkmoon. Let's get going." I chuckled. She let out a toothy yawn and I hauled her up. With another loud snore, she finally got up and trotted after me. I strapped the saddle on her back and got on.

Her massive wings unfolded and we started to take off. She pumped her muscles again and again until we were high in the sky. I held on tight as she spiraled straight up and let herself fall back down. I clamped on tighter as she unfurled her wings and launched back up. It was a beautiful game of up and down.

We soared through clouds and wove around hills all in warming up the muscles.

That's when I saw him.

Alexander.

"Darkmoon!" I called and pointed. Her eyes pinpointed on the dragon. She dove for him, but I reigned her back up.

"Wait, it might be a trap." I whispered. She let out a quiet grumble and landed in the forest. I got off and hunched down. She nudged my shoulder, quietly begging to go with me.

I shook my head and said, "No, if they see you, we can't risk losing you to. I'll go first, and if I run into trouble, get Cloudjumper." I whispered to her. I couldn't lose Darkmoon like I had lost Alex.

She whined but eventually sat down. I patted her shoulder and walked off. With a quick adjusting of my mask, I walked off to the open area. Alex sniffed the ground as I emerged. His head snapped up.

"Alexander?" I asked it like a question, although I knew that this was for sure, Alex. He whined, tilting his head sadly at the thought.

"Alex, it's me." I whispered to him, approaching the dragon. The Night Fury twitched his tail nervously.

Nervously.

I heard wings descend through the sky as dragons surrounded me. There was a Hideous Zippleback with twin riders. A Nadder was led by a blonde haired warrior and she wielded a double sided ax with her. A boy rode a heavy brown dragon and another rode that flaming Nightmare.

So it was a trap.

That same boy I saw before leapt out of the Nadder's grip and landed on the ground. They were all on me at once.

They thought they were smart to encircle me. They thought they had the advantage.

They were wrong.

The Hideous Zipplebacks flew above and sprayed the noxious gas. For any normal person, it would make them gag and then hurt them when it was it. I knew how do defend myself from it. Holding my cloak over my mouth, I held my breath and rolled out of the way as one head lit the other's gas.

The large man riding the dragon attempted to squish me, but I was too quick for it. I knew that although these dragons could fly side to side, they were pretty slow. As soon as she dropped, I ran my hands up her snout. It made her sneeze as her eyes closed in sleepiness.

One dragon down, four more to go.

Valka had all taught me these tricks to calm angry dragons. It was coming into great use now that I was faced with these problems. The Nadder landed next to me and I rolled out of the way as she shot the spikes. I let her shoot three more times before she was out. They only had a certain spike limit and I had reached it. The Nadder let out an angry howl as the rider jumped off to attack me.

I wanted to run. I wanted to so badly. But I couldn't.

I had a home to protect.

I had a family to protect.

The girl came at me and I blocked each swing easily. The ax made it slow and cumbersome. I pushed her backwards with the butt of my weapon and dodged a swing from the boy I saw yesterday. He was a little quicker with his weapon, but I had been well taught by my mother. She trained me every day with the weapons. I learned to use my environment to my advantage.

The Nightmare swooped down to grab me, but I hit the sensitive spot behind its leg and it tumbled down. The rider leapt off to make sure the dragon was okay. The beast would be fine, just stunned for a few minutes.

That's when Alex jumped in front of his rider. I stopped my killing swing just short of hurting Alex. The battlefield fell silent for a minute, just barely a second.

"GRAWR!" The Night Fury let out a strangled roar. Breathing heavily, I smiled a little under my mask.

"ROOOAAR!" I called back, cupping my hand over my mouth. It was just like we were playing our games back seven years ago. Alex looked a little taken back and roared again. That boy behind him looked confused.

"ARRRR!" Alex screamed back. I mimicked it and he just looked at me like I was insane. But somewhere deep in his eyes, I saw a spark of recognition. His ears flickered back again.

Before I knew it, the blue Nadder was on top of me and I struggled under its claws. I had let Alex distract me! I rolled away and went up sprinting. The warriors were after me.

Letting my cloak fly behind me, I hooked my wrists to my wings and ran to the top of the hill. Gaining just enough speed and angling with the wind that started to pick up, I leapt off the edge.

My artificial wings carried me high into the sky. Their gasps were heard from all the way on the ground. Skillfully maneuvering in the sky, I did flips and turns around shots fired at me.

I needed to get them away from here.

So I flew out towards the sea. The Scauldron pod was breaching out where the ice wasn't freezing over. I called for them and I saw Aria turn her head to me.

But then I was hit.

Up high in the grey clouds, I didn't see the Nightmare that swooped in front of me and my wing was singed. I started a spiral down to the sea.

My brain kicked into high gear as I quickly unclipped my wings and let them drop. If they were to capture me, I wasn't going to let them have my inventions. The Scauldrons underneath started to breech and spray at the enemy dragons. I saw one of the younger dragons snatch my wings before the Nadder could grab them. Aria called for me and I angled my body for her. She would catch me before I hit the thin ice.

But she didn't reach me. The Night Fury did.

I was yanked back hard and felt my wrist snap. The Night Fury howled in triumph. The riders seemed pleased. The vision in front of me started to fade to black. I attempted to stay awake, but was unsuccessful.

The dragons shot off to their island. Aria called to me below. She breeched again and again, trying to snap at the high flying dragons.

"Aria!" I called to her. She swam faster, trying to keep up. Oh, how I loved that faithful dragon! She called her familiar whistle, the one that always let me know she was close by. I loved that whistle and now I might never hear it again.

"Keep them safe!" I called to her. She mournfully whistled back, but stopped following. Right before I blacked out, I saw her dive back below the surface.

That was the last I saw of my beautiful island.