Hey guys, sorry for posting this later than usual. I was busy with things. And this chapter is by far the longest so that's also a reason why I took longer than usual. Anyways, enjoy. Again, sorry for spelling/grammar mistakes. It's hard reviewing by yourself :/
The king, queen, and their son, were in their tight embrace for what seemed like hours. Nobody spoke a single word, as to not ruin the intimate moment between the 3. Everybody just watched the reunion, with smiles on their lips and touched hearts.
Finally, Chris gasped for air, as the sudden realization hit him;he was in an hug so tight, the need for oxygen barely registered in his mind. "You're…..I need….", Chris barely whispered.
As the words registered in Re's mind, he quickly let go of his son and mate. Aurora followed suit. Chris was dropped to the ground and stayed there, inhaling vigorously. Aurora immediately bent her neck down so her son could have something to grasp on. Chris wrapped an arm around her neck, and Aurora gently lifted him to his feet. "Thanks…..mom", he said hesitantly.
"No worries, my son", Aurora said reassuringly.
Chris stared at both of his parents, collecting his thoughts. He had so many questions he had to ask, but was having difficulty picking the ideal one. The king and queen of Draconia were having the same trouble. Awkward silence ensued thereafter.
Windwalker coughed uncomfortably, unsure if that was the right thing to do or not. Her answer was everybody staring at her. She opened her eyes wide at the mistake she just made, and looked the other way, hoping that all the prying eyes would leave her alone.
Re decided to be the one to break the silence, "So…how are things…"
"How about we talk about this more privately?", Chris asked the group anxiously.
Everybody nodded quickly and followed Chris back to the trunk of the den. As Chris approached the ledge of the tunnel, inside the heart of the mountain, he called out to one of the flying dragons. "Hey Tiir, do you mind?", he asked as he pointed to another cave. Tiir, a female Hackatoo (a yellowish slender looking dragon), gazed to where he was pointing and smiled, "Sure".
She steered course to where he was, and in one swift move, Chris jumped off the ledge and onto Tiir's back. They descended to the cave where Chris jumped off and into the cave. "Thanks Tiir!"
"Anytime", and with that she flew out of sight.
The rest of the group soon landed in the cave. Windwalker joined them a few seconds later. Everyone was surprised at how big this cave was. It housed all of their party with space to hold more! The setting in that cave was unique to say the least. The cave had elevated holes in some sections of the walls that were used as shelves. There was a small pool of water in the corner of the cave, collecting water from a dripping stalactite. In the far back of the cave lay a small, but extensive gathering of animal fur and skin. Next to that was a scorched section of the cave. They were Chris and Windwalker's sleeping areas respectively. On the right side of the cave were several baskets, housing many unknown items. On the side of that was a stalagmite, were Chris' winter coat was hugging it loosely. Finally, in the middle of the room, was a fire pit, where the faint light of the previous blaze was evident. Chris went to the left side of the room, where a pile of dark wood could be seen, and gather a couple of logs. He set them down in the middle of the fire pit where Windwalker ignited the wood in turn.
"Please, make yourselves comfortable", invited Chris.
Hiccup looked to Re and Aurora who nodded their heads. Seeing how he really had no other option, he gestured for the rest of his group to settle down on the cave floor.
Chris looked around the fire pit. He noticed that all eyes were on him. He straightened himself up, and spoke with a quiet tone,"I guess I should start off with how I am standing before you guys".
Even though that question was directed mostly to the Draconians, the Berkians, especially Hiccup, were somewhat intrigued as to how the son of the king and queen survived a rather impossible feat. The draconians all looked at each other and nodded enthusiastically.
Chris let out the breath he didn't know he was holding,"Well…all I remember that day, was you flying through the storm. It was scary, to say the least", he then looked at the king,"...Re… I mean, dad...it wasn't your fault, okay? Truthfully speaking, I did fall off. It was the rain… It made it too slippery to hold on to your saddle, dad. I know you think it was your fault, but I can assure you it wasn't".
Re glumly lowered his head. "It was my fault, my son. I should've made sure you were properly on my saddle.I should've…",Re said with melancholy.
"And you did. Dad, you did what any father would. You made sure your son was out of harms way. You did! It was either the storm or the ambushing villagers, and you chose the safer path. You were thinking rationally, and I can't blame you for that", Chris soothed.
"If it wasn't for that stupid storm…", Re seethed with anger.
"Dad, it was nobody's fault but nature's. No one can control it. How were you suppose to no the storm was going to be that harsh?"
Re reluctantly accepted the facts. As much as he blamed himself for the loss of his son, he was overjoyed that he was still alive after all these years.
"One question still bothers me though", Tenor commented.
"And what would that be?", Chris asked.
"How did you survive? As futile as it may have seemed, we searched the ocean for you. How was it that you escaped the storm alive?"
"Well….dragons", Chris answered nonchalantly.
"What do you mean by that?", Valka interjected.
Chris turned to her, not expected the new voice and replied,"I had no idea how it happened, but….I was sinking in the sea, I blacked out, I woke up, and the next thing I knew, a family of Sea Shockers saved me from drowning".
"Sea Shockers...", Valka voiced wonderously,"They are just so compassionate. They were the ones that saved Toothless from drowning when I first met my son".
Toothless shivered at the memory of having Hiccup taken away from him and groaned his displeasure. Hiccup patted him on the neck. "It's all right, bud. I'm here now.", he consoled.
Toothless nudged his rider in gratitude. Chris and Windwalker looked at the other night fury/rider duo, then at each other, and smiled in remembrance of how much they reminded them of themselves.
"They dropped me off at a nearby island. They said they were suspicious of me at first, but once they recognized that I was able to speak their tongue, they were a whole lot friendlier to me", Chris continued.
"How were you able to survive all the years onward?", Aurora implored Chris.
Windwalker held her head up high,"I saved him", she state matter-of-factly.
Chris snapped his head toward her. "No you didn't! I saved you, if I remember correctly", Chris negated in disbelief.
Windwalker scoffed,"I could've easily broken out of that cage!"
"That's why you couldn't move right? The heavy iron shackles that restrained you were just so weak you could've broken out of them at any time?", Chris grinned.
"You're damn right!", Windwalker growled, her pride blinding her.
"I'm confused", Re asserted.
Chri broke his glare at Windwalker to regard his father in a response,"Well, you see…. we were both prisoners to a foreign tribe. Even though we are by far the best warriors on this land, we were both young and naive at the time. We overlooked certain things that we now call rookie mistakes".
Windwalker sighed and broke her glare away from Chris. "We didn't see what was plainly an obvious trap. I was captured by a net trap, while Chris was simply backed into a corner", Windwalker continued.
Snotlout voiced his confusion out loud, "Uh what?".
"Okay, okay, okay. Here is what happened….", announced Chris.
(Flashback)
"tergesa-gesa sehingga! bergerak!", shouted one of the soldiers.
"Look, I have no idea what you are saying-ah!", Chris was cut short with a painful jab to the back,"Okay, I'll stop talking!"
"budak bodoh", another soldier muttered.
Chris could do nothing but follow his captors commands. 'Can my life get any worse? First I lose my parents, then the family of dragons that rescued me left me on my own, now I get captured for picking berries. What else can go wrong?', he shouted in his mind.
His questions were soon answered when he arrived at his assailants' base camp. As far as his eye could tell, the cone-shape looking tarps, stretched out for miles. Although, he didn't go straight to the heart of the camp, he went to the right side of the camp and inside one of those tents. Immediately he was overwhelmed by the heat of the tent. His surroundings told him he was in a makeshift forge.
"tidak berjuang terlalu banyak kerana ini akan menyakitkan", one of his captors grinned darkly.
Chris's confusion was met by his captors forcing him on his knees and stripping off his shirt. They held each of his arms in place for the event to come. Chris was scared. He tried looking over his shoulder, but was met each time with a whack to the head. He did manage to catch sight of a glowing tool. A red, hot glowing tool! Chris fought and kicked and screamed with all his might trying to escape his current fate but alas, his captors overpowered him. All Chris could do was scream in pain and grit his teeth as he was branded on his lower back.
Chris fazed in and out of consciousness as he was thrown into a cell to probably rot for the rest of his life in. 4 days passed until he finally gathered enough energy to take stock of his situation.
Chris groaned as he sat up groggily; taking in his surroundings. He was in a dark room, and all that he could see were other cages and crates scattered variously around him. As far as he could tell, there were no guards at all. He was chained up. He was in a cage, a rather simple one. In fact too simple. He studied his confinement, as much as his restraints would alone him, intensely, especially the lock. It was rather...weak. That alone confused him. He looked over his restraints and noticed that they looked a lot stronger than the lock did.
"I guess they spent so much time making sure that I couldn't escape from my confinements that they forgot about the actual confinement itself, holding me", Chris thought out loud.
Many ideas flashed through his head, mainly escaping the current predicament that he was in. He was soon interrupted by a groan next to him. He turned to the side and saw the silhouette of something big. 'It's moving so it can't be dead..', Chris thought. He saw the unidentifiable prisoner stir for a couple of seconds, then it opened it's eyes. It's big, golden, reptilian eyes.
The owner's eyes focused in and out, adjusting to the darkness, blinking simultaneously. Once it did that, it gazed at the noise that awoke it.
"Ugh, it just had to be a human. They could've just put me near others of my kind.", Windwalker snorted, dismissing Chris.
"Hey! What's wrong with me! Barely 7 seconds since you met me, and you start complaining about me!", Chris snapped back.
Windwalker's eyes widened at the reply she just heard. "What?!...Wait…. Can you, can you understand me?", she asked doubtfully.
"Nooo, you're just hallucinating because you ate a basket full of eels-of course I can understand you!", Chris shouted sarcastically, "How else is it that I can hear exactly what you're saying to me?".
Even though Windwalker was practically in a helpless situation, she couldn't help but argue back at Chris's sarcastic remark. "Well I'm sorry. It's not everyday you wake up to a human that can speak Dragonese, let alone insult a dragon, who happens to be a night fury!", Windwalker shot back.
"Am I suppose to be intimidated, just because you have black scales? Big deal", Chris annoyedly countered.
"You know, for a child, especially a human, you have the ferociousness of a dragon… a pathetic one", Windwalker smirked.
Chris sighed sarcastically, "As much as I want to argue with you forever and shut you up, I plan to get out here".
"And how do you plan on doing that? I don't know if you've noticed, but we aren't in a position to do much of anything right now. If a dragon can't escape this prison, then a human cannot either".
"Exactly. Right now, we can't. But patience is the key", Chris spoke with confidence.
Windwalker sighed in defeat, "All right, if you say so", and slumped her head to the ground as she had nothing better to though Windwalker barely knew, and was arguing with Chris for 5 minutes, she started to gain an interest towards this stranger. Not only could he speak her language, but he bravely stood up to a dragon, a Night Fury, unlike any other human she had ever encountered before. What confused her even more was that he wasn't afraid of her. Almost as if dragons were a big part of his life.
A couple of hours went by. Windwalker tried to doze off her and there, but she was constantly interrupted by a scratching noise. After being tormented relentlessly by that horrible noise, she roared out in frustration,"Okay, just what in the hell do you think you're doing?!"
She was met by an angry shush from Chris. Before she could retaliate, a guard came into the tent, shouted something weird in his language and whacked Windwalker on the side of the head with a thin, blunt object. She seethed with pain and rage. She normally would have stopped the weapon, but being a prisoner of war can wear a person out.
After he chuckled something evilly, he left. As Windwalker recovered from her pain she happened to notice Chris glaring at him with a burning hatred.
"Once I get out, I am going to skin that bastard", he commented darkly.
Windwalker was shocked at his intention. "Since when do you care about dragons?", she asked dubiously.
Chris turned his glare towards her. "Look, I don't care what you think of me. But where I grew up, you don't treat a fellow dragon as trash. You treat him with respect. And when I see someone treating a dragon like dirt...ooh, that makes my blood boil", Chris seethed with a voice of venom.
Windwalker was shocked, to say the least, at Chris's compassion toward dragons. 'Alright, now I definitely want to know who this guy is', Windwalker firmly decided in her head.
After a couple more minutes of scratching, Chris happily breathed out in victory, "I got it!".
Windwalker turned her attention toward Chris, "Got what?".
"This!", Chris exclaimed, holding up a nail with his bloody fingers,"I got it from the crate next to me!".
Windwalker gave Chris an annoyed look, "How is that suppose to help, hm?".
"Well, directly, it can't help you. But, it can help me, which…", as Chris replied, he directed the nail toward the keyhole in his right arm shackle. He would wiggle and turn the nail until he heard a click and the heavy shackle fell to the bottom of the cage with a muffled thud.
"...can help me escape", Chris finished.
Windwalker stared at the human, mouth agape, as he amazingly unlocked the remaining shackles from his body. Then once he was free of those, he stuck the nail in a certain position between the lock and the door and kicked the nail in. This in turn, broke the cage door open and he crawled out into the open space.
"Now, the nails helps you indirectly, because it freed me, which will now allow me to free you", Chris added casually. As he spoke, he opened up Windwalker's cage door and proceeded to free her from her bindings. Once she was free, she quickly rushed out, took in a deep breath, and stretched her wings.
As quickly as she enjoyed her momentary freedom, she formed an escape plan to get all the other captured prisoners out of here. She turned to Chris,"Look, I don't know about you, but I-we need to free the rest of these-. Hey, what are you doing?", she asked Chris angrily.
Chris was peeking out of the opening of the tent, "I am looking for an escape route. Hurry and free the others. I will try to stop any guards that draw their attention to this tent".
Windwalker was speechless. This kid, was already a step ahead of her. 'I definitely need to keep my eye on this kid', she thought as she went to free the other captives. As Windwalker was finishing freeing the last prisoner, she heard a muffled cry from behind her. She snapped her head toward the sudden noise, only to find a dead soldier with Chris standing over him. She was frankly surprised that he was able to kill quite easily at his age, but then again, she had to kill when she was young as well. She quickly shoved that dark thought to the back of her mind.
Chris was frantically searching the tent for something, "Come on, come on. Where is it?!".
After some more rummaging, he found his desired items, "Yes!". He strapped his twin swords to his waist again.
"So, what's the plan?", Windwalker questioned.
"It's practically a straight shot forward. As we ascend to the sky, we scatter, making it harder to capture us".
"Good. Did you hear all that?", she asked the rest of the captured dragons. They nodded their affirmation.
A couple of those prisoners were human, so they were not so keen on having a dragon so close to them. They glanced at the dragons nervously, while the latter did nothing but shrug them off.
Chris turned to the rest of his species and told them very slowly, "Run away… After... I... go". As he spoke, he gesticulated every word.
The foreign prisoners grasped the concept of what he was trying to say, albeit they didn't really understand what he was saying.
He turned to Windwalker, "I will distract the enemy and cause a ruckus, while you guys slip away".
"No. You can't handle all of them by yourself!"
"It's either 1 or 20. Now once you see me attracting most of the soldiers, take to the sky. Grab the humans in your claws. They are too scared to do anything so they won't fight back. By the time the soldiers know you are missing, or hear the humans' screams, you guys will be long gone".
Windwalker gave Chris a stern glare. "Fine", was all she muttered. She relayed the information to the rest of the dragons and they all got ready. Once Chris made sure everybody was set, he ran from the tent as fast as he can, yelling and screaming at the top of his lungs like a banshee. Once the troops started to take notice, he drew out his swords and started slicing through them left to right, while expertly avoiding their attacks. Once a majority of the soldiers were preoccupied with Chris, she let out a roar and took off toward the sky, with the now-free dragons following her with humans in random dragons' claws.
"Scatter!", she ordered once they were high enough in the air. The dragons went in all directions, flying off to who knows where, while the dragons with human cargo flew towards a nearby set of mountains to drop off their 'passengers'.
Windwalker just hovered in the air, contemplating her next move. She wanted to go back to her nest, but for some reason, she couldn't leave the kid behind. She scanned the base camp for him and once she saw that he was restrained to the ground with a soldier raising a sword above his head, her decision was made. She dove at the gathering of soldiers. Instead of the troops hearing the tell-tale whistle of a diving night fury, they heard nothing at all. All they were met with, was the blinding purple light of a plasma blast and the explosion that followed. Chris, being restrained to the ground, was the only one who wasn't affected by the impact. He looked around and saw the dragon he freed.
She landed and lowered her back, "Get on now!", she barked.
"Hold that thought", he told Windwalker. His eyes roamed the group of recovering soldiers until he locked onto his target. He sprinted to the unsuspecting man, who just so happened to be the one that hit Windwalker. At the last second he withdrew his sword and swung it at the guy's neck, effectively separating his head from his shoulders. He then ran back at Windwalker who started running as well. He mounted Windwalker effortlessly as she took to the skies, never to be seen again.
As they flew in the darkness, Windwalker had to ask, "Wait a minute, was that the guy…"
"Yep", Chris beamed with pride, "Even though I couldn't skin him, a beheading is a good second".
Windwalker chuckled, "You know what? I think we started off on the wrong paw. Can we start over?"
"Sure! A life story for a life story?"
"Why not! You earned it! I am Windwalker by the way", the dragon greeted.
"Chris", the human smiled.
(Current time)
"...and we just talked and talked and talked. All the way until we arrived here, at her nest. Over time, we learned more about each other: our troubles, our past, strengths, weaknesses, etc.", Chris stated, "Over the course of those 9 or 10 years, we fought together, worked together, played together, and so forth. The point is, we bonded and formed what most people would call a forbidden friendship. We became closer to each other and now, we are the best of friends. I consider her to be my sister. And I her brother". As Chris said the last part, Windwalker purred and nuzzled Chris affectionately, with Chris hugging and scratching Windwalker in return.
Everybody sat quiet and processed what they were just told. They all had a myriad of thoughts running through their heads. Some were shocked that Chris was able to kill so effortlessly. Others were touched at what he was willing to go through to save people he didn't even know.
"Wow", the twins said in unison.
"I can't believe I am saying this, but that was...epic", Hiccup said astoundingly.
Everyone regarded him with a look of shock. They did not expect that to come out of the chief of Berk's mouth.
"Well anyways, now let me get to the main reason why I came all this way here for", Hiccup announced, "What is so important about that map? And why did you have to raid Berk to get it?". The stern tone in his voice said that he wasn't leaving without some type of logical, reasonable answer.
Chris sighed,"That, my friend, is a grave matter on its own".