As usual, Amara was up early to make breakfast for everyone.
Roxanna wasn't up very early the next day. She'd never done well getting up when it was cold.
Amara kindly let Roxanna sleep in, knowing how sluggish the cold could make you, only going to wake her after breakfast was ready, and she'd gotten permission from her mother to borrow Stormfly for that day's learning. She laid out some warm clothes for Roxanna before waking her.
Roxanna took a while to wake up and wasn't particularly talkative once awake. Bane hissed at her a lot but Roxanna didn't answer him.
Amara seemed to understand, just telling her to dress in the warm clothes and leaving her be.
Roxanna came down a little while later, looking very sleepy and a little bit ruffled, yawning a lot. This wasn't helped by Bane who mimicked her yawns.
Amara smiled softly, putting a warm meal in front of Roxanna and letting her eat in peace.
"Still waiting to train today?" Roxanna asked sleepily.
"We need to start prepping for Snoggletog... we'll need new boards for the tree... we usually have our friendly Timberjack, Stokehead, help us with that, but he needs direction on which to cut. A Timberjack as a dragon with wide, sharp wings that can slice through a tree in seconds." Amara said.
"I see..." she replied as she finished her breakfast.
"I've gotten Mum's permission to borrow Stormfly... I was thinking that we should get Gobber's help to get that tree, then I could give you a tour of the full island on Dragon back." she smiled.
"Sure. Sounds good." She agreed.
Amara nodded, gently scratching Stormfly's favourite spot to assure the Nadder they'd head out shortly, before turning to Toothless. "Take care of Dad... you know how he gets caught up in work... make sure he says warm, hmm?" The Night Fury cooed an affirmative, then nudged Amara towards the door. "Yeah, I know, get to work." She smiled, waving at her parents. "Alright, we should get started... take care, and Dad? Remember to warm up from time to time."
Hiccup nodded,already too caught up in his thoughts. Roxanna headed outside with bane and instantly regretted it. Being from Britain, she didn't complain openly about the weather but got on Bane and turned to Amara. "We'll start from here. Put everything you've learned so far into practice. Once you're ready give the word and we'll set off."
Amara nodded, calming herself down as she climbed up onto Stormfly. When she was ready, she nodded again, cuing Stormfly onward, directing her to Gobber's.
Roxanna and bane set off. Flying with stormfly was different to toothless. She was distracted easily, possibly because of her good eyesight and sense of smell. This meant you had to really focus and constantly keep her in check. But while this made her difficult, she was easier than toothless as she didn't argue and happily followed the riders directions as long as she was focused. Amara was starting to learn what Roxanna had said, that the older villagers couldn't explain; each dragon is different but you are the same. You sit and ride each the same but have to compensate for their behaviour and traits. Roxanna, for all that most could see, sat there. But she was always thinking. Always feeling. If a dragon hesitated then why? Fear? She'd compensate with courage. Lost interest? She'd give them new focus. "Try rising her and lowering her a little, constantly, as you go. That'll help her focus." She said.
Amara nodded, doing as instructed and also learning from this experience as well. It only took a little longer for them to meet up with Gobber, and then the three of them, with Gobber on Stokehead, flew out to find a tree that would give them enough boards. Once that was done, the sound telling Roxanna that Stokehead really did cut the tree into boards with his wings, they landed the dragons, setting up a net for Stokehead to carry back to Berk. Gobber thanked the girls for the help, and Amara smiled. "Ready for that tour? It'll probably help out if Bane knows the sights, right?" She said, once Gobber was out of earshot.
"Sure. Can't hurt." She agreed with a smile.
Amara nodded, smiling and guiding, Stormfly up and beginning the tour.
Bane followed effortlessly, staying close to Stormfly.
Amara worked hard, doing her best to keep Stormfly on course. They were visiting the stop on the tour of a particularly interesting cave system when Stormfly swerved away from Bane, dodging a weak concussive blast.
"What was that?" Roxanna asked, steadying Bane who was snarling and flapping his butterfly-like wings rapidly in annoyance.
"It came from that cave... let's go in to find out... carefully, Stormfly..." She said softly, urging the dragon in. "From what I've read, only a couple dragons use Concussive blasts... foremost is the Thunderdrum."
"It's a bit random of it to attack out of the blue like that though, right?" She asked as she steadied bane to follow stormfly.
"Thunderdrums will attack like that for one of two reasons... when protecting something... or when they're frightened or wounded." She said, repeating what she'd learned from the book. "Look... in the cave..."
"Bane... wait here." Roxanna said firmly as she dismounted the deathsong, fully intending to find out what was troubling the dragon in the cave.
Amara signalled for Stormfly to land. When she did, the Nadder's tail spines spiked out, but Amara went to work on calming her. "No, Stormfly... we're not fighting... easy... wait here with Bane." When the dragon calmed, she cautiously approached the dragon she'd seen, an adult Thunderdrum... female, by the egg beside her. "I... don't think she's long for this world, Roxanna... she's... got a screaming death spike through her belly."
Roxanna frowned and slowly walked closer to the dying dragon, her hand stretched out towards it until her fingertips met with its cool skin. "Shh now..." she whispered. "Shh now... time to sleep, beautiful creature." She uttered, her hand still on the dragon's cheek. Surprisingly, the thunderdrum did calm down and looked almost at peace despite the pain before letting go. "Poor thing must have been in a fight or something hmm?" She asked Asana as she removed her hand.
"Dragons close to nesting often fight the hardest and most irrationally over good nesting spots..." She said, picking up the egg and holding it close to her. "We have to find some way to keep this warm so it can hatch."
"Hmm... here." Roxanna said, taking her cloak off. She dabbed it over the mothers skin, trying to get some of its scent on it then passed it to Amara. "It'll keep it warm and it can keep it once it hatches."
Amara nodded, wrapping up the Thunderdrum egg carefully in the cloak. "Thank you for helping... the poor girl must have been here, too hurt to hunt, suffering for a few days... thank you for helping her."
"It's nothing. We were just lucky to be passing. The calming thing is kind of like a quality passed down through the Black family. Though it's not something to be proud of exactly." She mused.
"Depends on where you are...we have to fight a lot...to be able to pass on in peace...it's a great gift." She said softly.
"It's never, exactly been used for peace." She explained.
"Well, maybe it should be." Amara said before frowning. "Wait... Black? Didn't you tell Dad and the rest of the village your surname was White?" She asked, a puzzled look on her face.
Roxanna shrugged, "It's my family name. I try not to associate with it." She said simply.
"So... with that light you used to find the Hobblegrunt... was that what Gothi has always called 'the Gift'? I don't know if you have any other name for that, but it was really interesting. I didn't want to scare Grandmother more than she was, so I tried to calm her at the time, but I thought it was really interesting." Amara asked, full of excitement.
"Yeah... you could call it that." She said.
"Gothi has always said that I have 'the Gift'...she gave me a book that's actually written in a script that I can't read...she said it was a potion book. I keep it in my room, if you'd take a look at it?" she was quick to offer.
"Bit hard to look at something I can't see..." she uttered sheepishly.
"Oh... I'm sorry..." She said, looking down. "The pages are weird, though... The print is clearly words, I can see them... but I can't make hide nor hair of them... they're also a bit raised on the page, not indented like if it was written by hand."
"...maybe but shouldn't you be a bit more worried about your egg?" She asked, clearly not happy about discussing the issue raised.
She nodded, holding it close still. "Fire could definitely help it... but I kinda don't want to... have interference with older Dragon Riders in raising my dragon... any ideas on how we could keep it secret until the hatched baby grows enough to fly?"
"Amber holds heat well. We could make a nest of it and get one of the borrowed dragon to heat it up." She suggested.
"That would be really great... we'd have to fish for it ourselves, so we don't deplete the village's stores, but we have a few days at least before it hatches..." She said softly, cradling the egg close as they made their way to the dragons.
"Making the nest should be easy enough." Roxanna mused as she reached bane.
"Stormfly has the hottest fire of any dragon we know... a medium flame from her should warm the nest well... our dragons can't melt Deathsong Amber with their flames, so it should be perfect." Amara said eagerly.
"It should hold the heat well. The cloak is fireproof too so no danger of combustion." She nodded, getting on bane.
Amara nodded, climbing onto Stormfly. "Let's find a place we can keep this a secret, then." She said, urging Stormfly into the air.
"Lead the way." She said.
Amara nodded, thinking a bit, then remembering a spot even her dad didn't often think of. "I know the perfect place." She said, leading the way to a secluded cave a fair bit away from the dead mother, but also near enough to the cove to be overlooked if people started looking for them, and big enough for the dragons to enter. "This should do... inside that cave."She said, leading the way in on Stormfly.
Roxanna and bane followed her in, taking it slowly. Bane hissed quite a bit but Roxanna didn't answer him. "Think it's suitable?" She asked.
"Yeah... it's secluded, we won't be found out, and it's near enough to the cove that we'll know if people are looking for us, so when we go back to the village, they'll assume we were at the cove." She said softly. She then turned to Bane and showed him the egg.
"We need a nest, bane. Can you manage it?" Roxanna asked. Bane hissed a reply and touched the egg with his tongue curiously. After a moment he turned and spat up a good blob of amber then, using his muzzle, made an indent in the middle for the egg to sit in.
Amara smiled in thanks, thanking him verbally as well. Once it was fully hardened, she nodded, placing the egg inside it. "Ok, Stormfly. Can you heat it up a bit? Medium flame." The Nadder nodded, using a medium flame to heat the nest up enough to keep the egg sufficiently warm. "Thank you both for your help."
"Bane loves to be helpful as he loves praise. He'll happily do almost anything you ask." She shrugged.
Amara nodded. "Still, I'm grateful all the same. Let's head back to the village for lunch."
"Now that sounds like a plan. Right boy?" She smiled, patting Bane who hissed happily.
Amara smiled, climbing onto Stormfly and then flying with the girl she was seeing as more and more of a friend. When they got home, Lunch was a very tasty fish soup for the humans, for warmth, and Mutton was started to slow roast for dinner.
"Dinner smells good." Roxanna commented.
"Yeah. We always try to save the mutton for after the freeze... Our main sheep farmer, Sven, takes good care of the sheep. We usually only end up slaughtering a few for meat to preserve the herd... we have to have a lot of wool underclothing living here." She said with a smile. "I need to tend to the food and work on some Snoggletog gifts, so I'll probably be staying in until after dinner. Feel up to an evening flight after dishes instead tonight?"
"Sure. I think we can manage that." She smiled.
Amara nodded, shooing her mother out of the kitchen before going up to her room to grab a few things: the book from Gothi, a bundle of fabric, leather, and metal, a block of wood with a knife, and a small loom, as well as needle and thread. She passed the book to Roxanna as she opened the bundle first.
"And you said the old maid gave you this?" She asked as she felt the book, a slight frown gracing her brow.
"Yeah, on the last day of my lessons with her, about 4 years ago." Amara said.
"I see. Kinda surprising, it feels like new." She mused.
"I noticed... we've rarely been able to get new books, those we have gotten came from Trader Johann, and they're all hand-written in our script... but the script in this book is so different... I can tell there are words, but I can't read them at all."
"And she couldn't read it to you..." she said, more to herself.
Amara nodded, humming the affirmative, working with a strangely thin, yet strong fabric in the bundle while also not getting so distracted that she forgot to tend to the mutton.
Roxanna sat quietly and tried to concentrate on the book but reading raised words are difficult and after only a page she gave up.
Amara sighed. She'd known it was a long shot to be able to decipher the book, even with Roxanna's help. "This thing I'm working on is a joint present for dad and Toothless. They sometimes need to get somewhere because of chiefing issues really fast, and the heavier tail that Gobber made to replace the last one isn't quite cutting it... I've been experimenting with different fabrics...I think I found one as light and strong as Toothless' natural tail... I've even coloured it black. The rest of the bundle is a new saddle to go with the new tail."
"Oh? I'm sure they'll love it and it sounds incredibly useful." She smiled. Roxanna knew a bit about Christmas from school but, as her family didn't care for her, she was at a loss without actual experience. Snoggletog seemed to be the same as Christmas so she could only guess the similarities. People tended to exchange useless, unwanted presents for Christmas but Amara had put some thought into such a useful gift. What's more was that it was handmade.
"We usually tend to make gifts for Snoggletog by hand or by skill. Living like we do... it's mostly practical, useful gifts, too. I mean... there's not much use for things that are just for decoration here, except to show affection." She explained, finishing up the stitching on the tail and tending to the roast a bit. After that, she worked on matching the saddle fittings to match those of the one Toothless currently used. By the time dinner was ready, the saddle and tail were finished, tied with a bow, and hidden away back in her room.
Roxanna had long since given up on trying to 'read' the book. She sat there moving her hand a bit and whispering to herself. Even though she'd shrugged off the incident in the cave with Amara and Valka she wasn't sure exactly how she'd done 'lumos' without her wand.
Amara worked on carving workable, smooth as possible buttons from the block of wood. "What do people call 'the Gift' where you're from?"
"I don't know." Roxanna lied. If the girl could do magic like the old woman had said then that would make Amara a 'mudblood'. Roxanna hated the name but the thought of her family's anger towards her if they ever found out she'd befriended one wasn't worth thinking about. "Maybe that Gothi woman can tell you." She suggested.
"Maybe. We'll have to see tomorrow, after warming the egg for the morning. Have you had any ideas on the lesson plan you spoke with my dad about for Toothless?" Amara asked as she set the mutton aside to be carved when the others arrived.
"I'll need to learn how they fly together, what foot movements to make and such. That'll be the very minimum. But I don't know how much more I can do." She said thoughtfully.
Amara nodded in understanding. "Alright. Still, I'm sure they'll both be grateful for any help." she said softly, working on the side dishes, finishing it all up as the rest of the family arrived, and dinner was served.
Roxanna took a seat in silence, still trying to figure out what they expected her to teach toothless.
Hiccup smiled softly at her, something that was carried in his voice. "So...what have you noticed different about how Toothless behaves compared to the rest of his species?" Hiccup asked curiously.
"He's a bit more clumsy and noisy. He must have been practically a baby still when he first arrived here." She said softly, 'staring' at her plate as though in thought.
"According to my mother, relatively, he and I are the same age. I was about 15 when I shot him down... but he looked so alone and scared that I couldn't kill him. I saw myself in his eyes." Hiccup explained. "And of the dragons around Berk, he's usually the quietest and most graceful. If he would have been more so growing up with his own kind... it's hard to imagine."
"They're a generally mute dragon. To date, only three have ever been captured and all three escaped within an hour. Unharmed and without making a sound." She explained.
"Do they mostly communicate with sounds beyond human hearing, do you think, then?" Hiccup asked curiously, while Toothless seemed to hang on her every word, trying to take it in and learn, even now.
"It's unsure. We've never been able to get close enough to monitor them." She said, glad that she'd listened carefully to professor Weasly during one of his many, MANY, many excitable talks to the other teachers about the subject. Jo hung on his every word... even if she'd had to hide to do so, so as to not damage her family name any further.
"Huh... well, to be honest, we couldn't either... it was all 'kill on sight' for any kind of dragon... until Toothless." He said softly. "But Night Furies were known for their stealth until I managed to shoot him down. Until I had him tied up with a launched bola... nobody here had even seen one. Who knows... maybe humans are as scary to them as they are to humans?"
"Who knows? But I do know this much, with no disrespect to yourselves, the 'world' I'm from isn't so... primitive, and we've no idea on their numbers because they're so fast and such good escapists. We've tried everything to simply count their numbers, but even raider doesn't work for more than a second or twice." She said. "So this much is certain; if he'd grown even to a teen with his pod, you wouldn't have caught him."
Hiccup nodded, considering as he rubbed Toothless' head. "I guess all we can do is try to help him learn as much as we can about his kind... and hope instinct can do the rest."
"To give him the best chance to not be rejected, he should probably spend some time away from people. But it's too soon for that right now anyway." She said.
Hiccup nodded, sighing. "If only his other tail-wing hadn't been shredded... or if he'd accept the replacement I made so he could fly on his own... but every one I put on him, he breaks, ever since our first Snoggletog together. It's like he doesn't want me to worry about him like I did that first time, when he disappeared for a week to find my helmet when I lost it in the ocean."
"Or, he's scared without you. Back home we have a... stallion. He's in charge of his herd. But he'd rather be with people than his own kind. Toothless seems to prefer people to dragons." She said.
Hiccup sighed. "Bud..." Toothless cooed cutely, making Hiccup shake his head. "Please... try?" The dragon grumbled, his flicking 'ears' slapping his own neck quietly. "He does that when he gets sulky for some reason." Hiccup explained, not fully understanding the reason for the behaviour himself.
"Probably just a show of displeasure. Horses stamp their feet or swish their tails so it's possibly similar to that." She shrugged. "It won't be for a while anyway little guy. I need to learn about you first if you'll let me." She explained to the dragon. "Because of his... limitations, we'll still feed him and such but absolutely no touching skin to skin and only using clean, freshly washed clothes so we don't undo what's done."
Hiccup nodded in understanding. Toothless took a cue from Hiccup and cooed, pressing his nose to Roxanna's hand, showing he would let her get to know him and learn about him.
"We'll take it slow, don't worry." She soothed.
Hiccup chuckled. "Just make sure you let him know he doesn't need to 'share' his meals with you."
"Yeah, I'll be sure to remember that." She smiled. The thought of sharing a raw fish was certainly not appealing.
Toothless grumbled softly, but relaxed. "So... while you get to know him... maybe you should fly with him in the evenings? He loves night flights." Hiccup suggested.
"Sure. Makes no difference to me, day or night. But I want to be comfortable with the 'controls' first, if you get me." She said.
"Not a problem. Toothless?" The dragon cooed, nudging Roxanna towards his saddle and waiting for her to get on. Once settled, Hiccup showed her how the stirrup worked, and how to switch between the 6 positions, and what type of manoeuvrer each was used for. "I had a cheat sheet at first, but then I said 'screw it' and learned by Toothless' movements and intentions.
"Well there's nothing more I could do." She shrugged. "Cheaters never prosper." She added, triple checking her seating. Astrid had stood back to watch feeling smug as toothless stood perfectly still. He hadn't moved for her daughter and this girl was nothing special so toothless would totally show her up now! Or so Astrid thought until toothless started moving away. "Just once around the place and again the other way and we'll leave it there." She said patting toothless gently. Toothless took two leaps before taking off. Roxanna played it by ear, moving her foot according to toothless's movements.
Toothless enjoyed the evening flight, working with Roxanna and soaring into the guest room with her when they returned, quiet as a whisper. He cooed softly at her in a curious tone after she slid down.
"So, she is capable after all. I thought you two were just goofing off, especially when Fishlegs saw you just sat there and she was moving your leg." Astrid said as they watched toothless soar.
Hiccup blinked at overhearing that, before getting a distant look, as he often did when lost in thought. He remembered seeing every dragon she'd ever ridden on Berk approaching Roxanna to mount, instead of making her approach them. After a while, his eyes cleared. "Astrid... you said, she was moving Amara's leg?"
"That's what fishlegs told me." She confirmed. "How she expects you to learn to fly them by using your legs, I'll never know... but I'll give her this much; the girl can fly."
Amara noticed her father's dawning look at that confirmation. "Dad?"
"Hiccup?" Astrid asked too, recognising her husband's change. "Blind..." he uttered, more to himself at first then he looked at his daughter, "Roxanna is blind isn't she Amara?" He asked directly.
"Yeah... she is... from what I've gathered, as much as Grandmother's rescued Hobblegrunt." Amara said honestly, unable to lie to them.
Hiccup scowled in thought then nodded, "I think I should have a talk with Gothi soon." He mused. Astrid frowned but didn't ask. She'd learned a long time ago that it was safer to let hiccup follow his train of thought than ask about it, so she headed back inside.
"Goodnight, Dad...I have some more work on gifts to do before bed." Amara said softly, heading up to bed, picking up the loom and getting to work with it. She wanted Roxanna to really feel like a part of Berk, and she hoped this Snoggletog gift would help.
Roxanna dismounted and pet toothless before letting him head to bed and doing so herself.
Toothless fired a shot into the hearth in her room to keep her warm through the night before heading to find Hiccup.
Hiccup was looking through the book of dragons, reading up on the tunnelling type to see how they adapted... or that's what he had been doing before he fell asleep.
Toothless sighed, grumbling and slapping his neck with his ears before scooping Hiccup's sleeping form onto his back and carefully carrying his friend up to bed, nudging Astrid to get her help in getting Hiccup into bed. Amara, however, was up half the night weaving and sewing, but finally the last gift she'd had to finish was ready. She went to bed herself around midnight, and was, for once, still asleep when Roxanna got up.
