By the time the sun was just rising, Nora had recuperated a bit, and she got a good night's sleep for the first time in days. Blueberry lifted his head, opening his mouth in a long yawn and then lifted his wing to see if she had awakened, and she similarly stretched out her limbs. She groggily made her way back to her feet to properly stretch out her body.
"Buenos días, Morazul." She said, gently grabbing Blueberry's head and scratching right under his chin, earning a purr of delight just as the blue dragon bristled his plumage from relaxation. "How about we go for a morning flight and then we go check on the other Mordecielos?"
Blueberry chirped in delight, and lay down to allow Nora to climb unto his back. As soon as he felt her toes gently touching his sides, he ran of the club house and spread out his wings, taking off with a powerful flap. Overall, he was delighted at feeling the weight of his rider on his back once again, and he let her know by twirling in the air and giving shrieks of delight. Nora laughed and led her dragon soar freely through the air, but it would be best if she checked the other dragons and make sure they were all in condition to fly all the way back home.
At this hour, it was probable most of them were already awake, anyway.
Nora had Blueberry turn around towards the forest where they had taken the Skybiters the previous day. Blueberry's ears twitched when he heard the familiar growls and squawks. Though they had awakened, almost all of them were still on the ground, most of them preening themselves or each other. A few younger ones were running around in play.
Blueberry gave a loud squawk to announce his presence, and the Skybiters moved away to give him some space, allowing him to land. Blueberry heard a different noise, and turned towards one of the bushes, hearing a familiar voice.
"What's wrong, Morazul?" Nora asked him, but it only took her a while to figure it out. She climbed down from Blueberry's back, but rather than going to the safety of the flock, Blueberry ran towards the bushes and jumped into the bushes, there was a small scuffle and a yelp as a large figure was abruptly pushed out of the bushes.
"Sorry, didn't mean to intrude!" Fishlegs cried out in dismay as Blueberry pushed him out of his hiding spot. However, other than that the blue Skybiter showed no aggression towards him, rather he looked surprised. Meatlug came out of the bushes, looking as friendly as ever. Fishlegs glanced at Nora with his face red.
"I'm sorry!" he apologized, standing up. "It's just, well, since you will be leaving soon, I thought I could finish documenting the Skybiters!"
"Oh." Nora shrugged. "Don't worry, I was going to check if they are in condition to travel, anyway. You could lend me a hand." She couldn't help but giggle when Fishlegs squealed in delight.
By then, Blueberry had already rushed towards the other Skybiters, bristling his plumage and making a few squawks.
"He's asking the other Mordecielos to groom him." Nora explained. "There are parts they cannot reach, and they ask other members of their flock for help."
Fishlegs was enthusiastically writing the information down on the Book of Dragons, including a small sketch of Blueberry being groomed in the upper part of the wing and the back by an emerald green Skybiter. Meatlug enthusiastically ran towards them to see if they would groom her, but the wild Skybiters shrieked in surprise and stepped back, bristling their crests as a warning. Meatlug stepped back sadly.
"Don't worry, nena, they're not used to featherless dragons, that's all." Nora said, patting Meatlug's side gently. "But they are actually very social." She turned to Fishlegs again. "I need help to check their wings and their condition. If they lack too many they won't be able to fly properly, and if they are ill they might not endure the whole way back." She went over to one of the wild Skybiters, a female with a similar shade of blue to Blueberry, but her wing feathers and paws were bright yellow. She stepped back with bristled plumage, hissing as a warning. Blueberry shrieked at the female with his own plumage bristled, but settled down when Nora lifted up a hand in his direction, telling him wordlessly that everything was okay. It was natural they were so distrustful of humans after what they went through with the Hunters.
Nora made a few sounds with her throat, squawk-like groans that sounded similar to the Skybiters' own. The female perked up her ears and her plumage pressed down against her body once more, she stretched out her neck to sniff out Nora with a raised crest. All the while, Fishlegs momentarily left his scribbling to stare in awe at the scene.
"I just let her know I'm not an enemy, if I make the right vocalizations she will lay down and let me approach." Nora explained.
Just like she just said, the Skybiter lay down, purring, her pupils two perfect ovals. Nora ran her hands down her neck and back, carefully examining the condition of her plumage, and then she gently rubbed on the wing joint, asking her to stretch out her wing, which the female did. "When Mordecielos rub another's wing joints, they are saying they want to groom their wings. You have to rub it very gently." She proceeded to take examine her wing feathers, and thankfully she wasn't lacking any of the primary flight feathers.
Intrigued, Fishlegs momentarily placed the Book of Dragons aside and approached a brown Skybiter male who turned to him, and made the same warning posture the blue female had made to Nora. Fishlegs attempted to repeat the squawking-like noises Nora made, but the Skybiter's pupils turned into slits and gave a loud shriek with stretched out wings. Fishlegs yelled in fright and ran away from the male, while Meatlug instantly ran between them and growled at the Skybiter with slit pupils, protecting her rider. The wild male simply snorted and trotted away.
"Are you okay?!" Nora asked him as she ran towards him.
"I think so!" Fishlegs replied, panting heavily from the experience. "Did I do something wrong?"
"You have to make the right vocalizations. Unlike most other dragons, Plumíferos communicate more vocally, apart from their body language. They have a set of unique calls and sounds to distinguish one another, even though to the human ears all their vocalizations sound alike."
"Wait a second, now that I recall, back on the ship you didn't call Blueberry by his name. You made a loud squawing and he was the only one who flew down to greet you."
"Among my people, each rider shares a unique call with their dragon, they can distinguish their riders' call from hundreds, and we can distinguish our dragons' call from thousands of them."
"That's interesting!" Fishlegs went back to scribbling in the Book of Dragons. "But wait, how can I help if I can't do the right vocalizations?"
"Leave the vocalizations to me. To check on their health, touch their plumage. If it's soft and shiny, they are healthy, if its opaque and raggedy, they are not in a good condition."
For the rest of the morning, they checked on the wild Skybiters to see if they were in condition to travel. Both Nora and Fishlegs would approach a small group, and Nora would make the vocalizations to have the Skybiters lay down. Then she and Fishlegs would pick one and examine their plumage and wings. Sadly, most of the Skybiters had opaque feathers, which meant they were weak and in no condition to travel for long. Others had many primary flight feathers missing, which would make this more difficult for them. However, the main problem was that most of them looked very thin, they hadn't been well fed or the Hunters didn't give them the proper food.
They were just finishing on the last dragon when Astrid arrived on top of Stormfly. "Fishlegs! Nora! Trader Johann is here, and he brought the cabbage for the Skybiters!"
"Thank you, Astrid!" Fishlegs waved back at her as she flew back to the Edge, then he looked at Nora. "We should go and disembark those cabbages before the Skybiters tear apart Johann's boat in their hurry."
"Who is this… Johann?"
"He's a merchant who often travels to Berk. You'll like him! He's a nice guy, even though sometimes he doesn't know what's going on around him."
Nora was still uncertain, but still she got unto Blueberry and followed after Fishlegs.
After managing to drag Snotlout out of his cabin, the riders proceeded to unload the cabbages, tomatoes and other vegetables from Johann's ship and up unto to the Edge. Soon after, Blueberry emitted a loud call, it didn't pass much time before the rest of the Skybiters appeared in the sky and flew towards them. As soon as they saw the vegetables, the feathered dragons erupted into a chaos of shrieks and roars as they rushed towards the vegetables. They started devouring the green food, often bickering between each other and snatching the food away, causing even more arguing amongst themselves.
The other dragons (mostly Toothless, Meatlug and Stormfly) tried to interact with their feathered visitors, but the Skybiters were wary about the 'naked' dragons and kept their distance. A few, though, perhaps the younger ones, became increasingly curious about them and warily approached to sniff them out warily. Toothless even went as far as to offer them a tree branch to draw with, but the Skybiters just nibbled and fidgeted with it, unsure as to what to do with it.
"They surely are talkative…" Hookfang said in dismay.
"Our communication depends on being able to distinguish our calls from one another, so yes." Blueberry explained as he ate a good, red tomato.
Goblin saw Syrilth talking with one of the Skybiters. "Syrilth, let him eat!"
"I'm a female." The red Skybiter said curtly with a frown. Syrilth had to contain a snicker when he saw his father's embarrassed expression.
Hookfang shrugged. "Sorry, hard to tell with all those feathers."
"Rather, I'm surprised you have not frozen to death without any plumage at all." The female retorted as she walked away.
Just then, another Skybiter was running from Meatlug, who was chasing after him wagging her tail. "Stay away!"
"Please! I want to try the grooming thing!" Meatlug was crying out.
"Meatlug, you realize that you can't be groomed if you lack feathers to groom at all, right?" Goblin pointed out to her matter-of-factly.
Meanwhile, Fishlegs and Hiccup discussed with Nora about the Skybiters's condition. Unfortunately, most of them were thin and weak, and wouldn't be able to travel for a few more days. She had the feeling Fishlegs was happy, he'd get to study the Skybiters a little more meanwhile.
"So, Nora, how far is your home from here?"
"It's about five six days of travelling southwest, more if we have to stop to rest. But we leave before the winter comes. Skybiters are not meant to dwell in snow and ice."
"Don't all those feathers keep them warm?" Snotlout muttered, kicking the downy feathers away with his foot irritably.
Nora shook her head. "There's no snow in my land. It's a tropical jungle, and from what I've heard you get terrible blizzards around here often. It would kill the Skybiters."
"In how many days do you think they will be ready to go?" Hiccup asked.
"It depends. If we manage to feed them properly, in a week they should be healthy enough for the whole way back."
Stormfly approached one of the younger Skybiters with a cabbage in her maw. The young red male squawked and approached her, making caw-like growls and opening his mouth, sticking out his tongue. Stormfly just looked at him in confusion. "He's asking for food." She raised her voice enough for the Nadder to hear her. Stormfly understood and let the cabbage fall into the Skybiter's mouth, but it was too large for it to swallow it whole, and it let it fall to the ground, hissing and bristling its plumage.
"Who would have thought?" Heather wondered outloud in wonder. "All this time, there are people who have trained dragons long before we did."
Nora couldn't help but shiver in discomfort at this. "You mean when you killed dragons?"
"That's all in the past. Now we train dragons and protect them from people like Viggo." Hiccup said confidently, hoping it would make her feel more comfortable.
"Hey, do you think we could somehow get to ride one of the Skybiters?" Fishlegs chirped in delight. "I mean, you know, in the name of science!"
Nora couldn't help to chuckle at his enthusiasm. "I'm afraid once you tame a Skybiter, they bond to you for life and will not want to leave you. However, you can fly Morazul."
Blueberry growled in dismay while bristling all his plumage. Nora approached him and stroked his head. "It's okay, Morazul." She then glanced at the riders. "Who wants to go first?"
Snotlout walked away from the Skybiter, back to his cabin. "Not me, thank you very much! I don't want his teeth near my body!"
"Maybe Fishlegs should go." Hiccup said.
"Are you sure?" Fishlegs inquired. "You could give it a try too…"
Hiccup smiled and nodded. Fishlegs squealed in delight and approached, but Blueberry bristled his feathers slightly, growling. Nora pulled his head closer and whispered something into his ear; afterwards, he calmed down, though he didn't remove his gaze off Fishlegs. Nora ran her hand down the Skybiter's neck, and he responded by lying down. Once he was sure Blueberry wouldn't bite him, Fishlegs carefully went to the dragon's side and climbed on top of him with a bit of difficulty, with his legs behind the wings just like he had seen Nora do it.
"Flying him won't be different from how you fly your dragon. Grab unto the feathes, but whatever happens don't pull them, Morazul won't like it. And since you're me, he will probably try to bite you or throw you off."
Fishlegs gulped. He didn't know which would be worse, being thrown off or receiving a bite like Snotlout. All he had to do was avoid pulling the feathers; it wasn't a big deal.
"Be gentle wit him, Morazul." Nora told her dragon sternly. "Don't scare the underworld out of him."
Blueberry squawked, but didn't give Fishlegs time to get ready as he took off. Fishlegs yelled in fright and clung to the feathers; Meatlug instantly flew after the blue Skybiter just in case Fishlegs needed any assistance. Once Blueberry stabilized in the air, Fishlegs started to enjoy the experience; he noted how comfortable Blueberry's back was without a saddle, probably because of his plumage.
"Blueberry, do you think I could take a closer look at your layers of feathers? I won't pluck any, I promise!"
Blueberry seemed to ponder for a moment, and after a few seconds gave a wary purr of approval. Fishlegs carefully started to examine beneath the upper blue feathers, and like he suspected, he found gray down feathers hidden underneath. "Interesting! You have another layer of feathers underneath your blue plumage, but these look different…" he gently ran a finger on the down, and noticed it was fluffier, and this layer of down grew over the flesh. "These feathers must serve as a sort of insulation in case of heat loss, it's almost as if you had a natural sweater!"
Blueberry rolled his eyes, snorting. However, he perked his ears when he spotted a seagull, flying just above, and shrieked as he flapped his wings rapidly, flying up to catch it, almost knocking the surprised Fishlegs off his back.
"Whoa! Blueberry!" Fishlegs panicked and again clung to his plumage, careful not to pull on them. Thankfully, though, Blueberry was so drawn into going after the seagull he didn't really mind. Meatlug panicked and flew after him, but as much as she tried, she couldn't catch up to the more agile Skybiter. "Do you think you could lower the speed a bit?!"
Blueberry ignored him and dove after the seagull. Fishlegs inadvertently touched Blueberry's right wingbone with his leg, causing the dragon to spin as he dove as a response. Yelping, Fishlegs removed his leg and Blueberry stabilized himself, but he looked back at Fishlegs, bristling his crest while giving him a frustrated growl.
"Sorry!"
Before Blueberry could complain any further, suddenly he saw a shadow cast into one of the clouds, signaling something was flying above them. Instantly his pupils became slits and he twirled to face upwards, shooting a blue fireball at the caster. Fishlegs wasn't prepared for such a maneuver, and fell off when Blueberry twirled; he yelled in fright as he plummeted down, but thankfully Meatlug had finally managed to catch up, and caught her rider just in time.
Blueberry dove down back to the ground and gave a loud shriek; instantly, the other Skybiters frightened and took off, flying towards the forest. Blueberry, however, landed and ran towards Nora, glaring up at the sky.
"What was that about?!" Fishlegs asked, still recovering from the experience, as soon as he landed.
Hiccup had been staring in confusion at the forest, to where the Skybiters had disappeared. "What happened up there?" He asked finally.
"We were flying, but suddenly he twirled to fire at the sky and knocked me off in the process."
"Did you see a shadow being cast unto the clouds?" Nora inquired.
"Well, now that you mention it, I think I did see a shadow…"
"He acted on instinct. A dragon that attacks from above preys upon Mordecielos, the only thing its victim sees is their shadow. Whenever they see a shadow of something flying above them, Mordecielos will try to attack it and flee, then they alert the other Mordecielos of the danger."
"Wait, if he saw a shadow, then it means…"
Before Hiccup could finish the sentence, Skullcrusher landed a few feet away, and a not-very-happy Stoic dropped down. "In the name of Odin!" he growled, walking towards the group, while giving the blue Skybiter an irritated look. "Could you put a leash on that overgrown parrot?"
Nora frowned in response. "You flew above him and frightened him."
Hiccup decided to intervene before they were at each other's throats. "Whoa, whoa, let's all calm down!" He said while running in between the two parties. "Dad, this is Nora, Blueberry's rider." He then turned to Nora. "Nora, this is my dad, Chief Stoic the Vast."
Nora seemingly relaxed, but she still felt intimidated by the man's intimidating size and dragon. "Mucho gusto, señor Stoic."
Stoic was genuinely surprised to see the blue dragon's rider was such a young woman. "I must admit, I imagined you'd be… older."
"Dad, Nora says she will take the Skybiters back to their homeland, but Fishlegs insists it's dangerous that she goes alone… Well, actually, he does have a good point."
"Son, are you saying what I think you're saying…?"
"It's not certain! I mean, we all know it wouldn't be as easy as Fishlegs makes it sound, there's the dragon hunters around here…"
"Hiccup, how about we talk this over with the others before you reach any conclusion?" Stoic then glanced at Nora. "You could also inform us of your… trip properly."
Blueberry perked up his ears and watched as Nora followed the Stoic and the reluctant Hiccup towards the main cabin. He wondered what they would talk about, but he had the feeling it would have something to do with the journey back home. Blueberry took off and flew towards the stables.
He had the feeling the other dragons would be interested in hearing how the conversation played out.
