Yay another chapter :D Just a note: I am intending this story's pace to be fair quick compared to my other stories since this is more of a side project. But I hope you guys enjoy it anyway!
It had been a few months since that nearly hazardous first meeting, but in their time together Sigrid and Flynn became close, as did their dragons. Smog and Milo in particular took a strong liking to each other. They played with each other often, the sight of which always made Sigrid and Flynn laugh together. Her trust in him was only more solidified when he stood by her and helped her repel an attack by Baldr and his friends that still pursued them, despite her insistence that he run while he could to save himself. From then on they decided to travel together. Another rider and his dragons would be welcome aid in repelling Baldr's group and if Flynn was going to ignore her warnings about what he was getting himself into, then so be it. Sure Sigrid was good and Voltage was powerful, but they were still only one dragon and rider. It worked out in their favor too for Flynn since he was already on a quest to travel across the world and visit as many places as he could. Sigrid wouldn't lie; she wouldn't mind visiting new places too. And Flynn would most definitely find the additional company of someone who could talk most welcome. They never stayed on one island for too long, just long enough for Flynn to gather new information about the island's flora and fauna and any new dragons they came across. They had to be careful about Baldr being on their tail.
"So which island is this one?" Sigrid asked, as they flew over the ocean and came closer to the island in front of them. She sat atop Voltage while Smog flew next to her; Flynn sat on Shimmer's saddle while Milo sat securely in a pouch attached to her saddle.
Flynn pulled out his map and fumbled a bit, trying to keep the wind from blowing the map away. "Well, we were on Dragonspine Ridge so this should be… Berk!"
"Berk? Isn't that where a Viking tribe lives?" she asked over the roaring wind.
"Yes, the Hairy Hooligans tribe, I believe!"
"Are you sure that's a good place for us to be stopping? Don't they kill dragons?"
"Yeah, but we need to stop to pick up food and supplies. Plus, one of my tools got trashed when your boyfriend attacked us so I need a new one."
"He's not my boyfriend!" she corrected.
"Let's land away from the village. We don't want them to spot us and think we're attacking dragons," Flynn said, quickly changing the topic. The landed far off from the village in the forest before making their way to the village borders on foot. It was nightfall by the time they got there.
"Ok, you stay here and I'll get the supplies," Sigrid said, peering through the bushes to examine the village.
"What? Why?" he asked.
"One person can get by unnoticed, but they might get suspicious with the two of us walking around. They won't realize I'm not from here until they get too close and I can handle myself in a fight," she explained.
"All right, if you insist," Flynn conceded. "And I can handle myself in a fight, just not when they get up close."
"I do insist. Whoa, sorry buddy, but you need to stay here," Sigrid said as Voltage made a move to follow her out of the bushes. He groaned and looked at her with sad eyes while nudging her with his snout. "I know you're stealthy Volt, but if any of those Berk Vikings see you, we're finished. If it makes you feel any better, Shimmer can come with me. She's guaranteed not to be seen."
Voltage gave a defiant grown before he looked over to Shimmer as they exchanged approving nods.
"Ok, I need some new tools, which you should be able to find in the blacksmith's workshop. If you come across any food or fresh water supplies, you might as well stock up too. But don't take more than you can handle!" Flynn warned.
"Food, water and assorted thingamajigs! I'll be fine, Flynn. Just stay here with the dragons. Ready, Shimmer?" Shimmer nodded and instantly disappeared from sight. "Let's go." She stayed behind barrels and corners to avoid the patrolling guards. It reminded her of the times she would sneak over to where Voltage was being kept back on Stormchaser Island. It took her some time, but she managed to locate the blacksmith's workshop. "Ok, assorted tools, assorted tools," she mumbled to herself. "Whatever, Flynn can get a whole new set!" Sigrid didn't bother trying to figure out which specific tool Flynn wanted. Honestly, she didn't even remember which one he wanted. To her, they might as well have all looked the same.
Sigrid felt something touch her shoulder and saw Shimmer appear behind her. Shimmer pointed to the shop entrance with one of her long antennas as she heard approaching voices. "Let's get out of here!" Shimmer nodded and disappeared again. Sigrid dove out of the shop and took cover behind another stack of barrels.
"Man, I'm glad those Speed Stingers are gone," said a female voice.
"Yeah, they really did a number of the village. I'm just glad we managed to get them back on their own island before the ocean thawed," said a boy.
'Speed Stingers? That's Milo's species,' Sigrid thought. She started crawling on the ground to sneak away, but accidentally knocked something off one of the barrels.
"What was that?" asked the girl.
"It came from over here," said the boy.
"Dammit," Sigrid cursed. She waited until the two got closer before kicking over the barrels onto them. She took off through the village when she heard someone shout, "Intruder!" The entire village became alert as Vikings appeared in front of her. She ran up a hay cart and climbed up one of the houses to reach the upper level of the town. She was about to make a b-line for Flynn, but a large black dragon suddenly appeared before her.
"A Night Fury," she whispered in awe and to her surprise a young boy sat atop it.
"Who are you?" he asked, "Are you a spy for Alvin?"
Sigrid didn't answer and kept her eyes locked on the Night Fury. From what she could recall, Night Furies were in the same class as Voltage: Strike class, characterized by their blinding speed, deadly accuracy, strength and extreme intelligence. Slowly, she reached for her sword, but the snarling dragon noticed her movement and slapped the sword out of her hand with his tail just as she drew it.
"I'll ask again, unless you want to let him ask instead," the boy said with a confident smirk. The Night Fury growled in response, slowly opening its mouth as light purple flames collected within.
'Where's Shimmer?' Sigrid thought to herself, scanning the area behind the Night Fury for any sign of the Changewing. 'She must have gone to get Voltage. Which means that he should be here any second now…' As if on cue, a loud, thundering roar echoed through the sky and Voltage landed swiftly right behind her, startling the Night Fury and its rider. Sigrid smirked in response.
"A Skrill?" he cried in shock.
Voltage saw the dragon that threatened his rider and immediately narrowed his eyes into a deathly glare. He stood on high his legs, opening his wings wide and roaring to intimidate the Night Fury. However, the Night Fury was unfazed and only roared in response and opened its wings as well. Voltage charged forward, tackling the Night Fury to the ground and knocking the rider off. As their dragons fought, Sigrid drew her bow and fired an arrow at the boy, but he quickly blocked the shot with a metal shield. Suddenly, the shield opened up and the boy placed a bow inside.
"What the?" Sigrid was so distracted by the transforming shield that she didn't realize he was getting ready to fire a return shot until it was too late. She tried to move out of the way, but the arrow hit her right in her shoulder. She cried out in pain as the arrow pierced her skin and the force of the blow knocked her onto the ground. She clutched her shoulder painfully as her pained whimpers immediately got Voltage's attention. Voltage saw the arrow and quickly deduced what happened. He angrily shoved the Night Fury away before rushing to Sigrid. He roared at the boy as the Night Fury came between them to defend its rider. With the rest of her strength, Sigrid pulled herself onto his saddle.
"Come on, Volt," she mumbled weakly. "Back to Flynn." Voltage nodded and took off, careful not to hurt Sigrid with his movements. The Night Fury gave chase, but the Skrill was gone from sight.
"Hiccup, what was that?" Astrid asked as she jumped off Stormfly.
"That… that was a Skrill," Hiccup whispered, almost not believing what he saw.
"Yeah, I get that, but who was the girl? She definitely wasn't one of ours," she said.
"I think she was the Skrill's rider," Hiccup answered.
"A rider? With a Skrill? After that crazy Skrill we found in the ice, I thought Skrill couldn't be trained!"
"Well, we all thought all dragons couldn't be trained," Hiccup said, affectionately rubbing Toothless' snout. "Maybe we were wrong about the Skrills. Gather everyone else. We have to find that Skrill and its rider."
"Now? It's the middle of the night!" Astrid argued.
"Which means they could be gone by morning! We have to find that rider; she might be able to tell us how she trained a Skrill."
"So, you're not at all concerned that she tried to steal from us?" Astrid asked.
"I'm a dragon trainer Astrid, I have my priorities."
"What in Thor's name happened?" Flynn cried as Voltage helped Sigrid move into their camp.
"Things got a little… dicey. If Shimmer didn't come back to get Voltage, I would have been in big trouble." Sigrid hissed in pain as she sat down and Flynn began examining her wound.
"Yikes, it looks like it went all the way through. I'll have to snap it and pull it out. Here." Flynn handed her a cloth to bite down on just as he snapped the arrow's shaft and pulled the body out of her shoulder, all the while Sigrid bite hard into the cloth, muffling her pained cries. He had to help Sigrid remove her tunic so he could get to the wound better and he couldn't help blush at the thought of nearly seeing her nude. He quickly averted his eyes away as his cheeks turned bright red. Sigrid held her tunic against her chest with her uninjured arm and sat up so Flynn could dress the wound. As quickly as he could to minimize her pain and to quell his own growing discomfort, he cleaned the wound and wrapped it securely with bandages. Just as he helped her put her tunic back on, Voltage and Shimmer's eyes suddenly narrowed, their pupils turning to slits as low growls escaped their throats.
"What is it, girl?" Flynn asked his Changewing. Shimmer quickly shot acid from her mouth, melting a nearby tree trunk and revealing the hiding Vikings. "Who are you?" he shouted, drawing his crossbow as all the dragons suddenly became hostile and angry, roaring at each other.
"Wait, wait, everyone just calm down!" Hiccup cried over the roaring dragons. "Let's just talk," he said calmly. Toothless and the academy dragons calmed, though Voltage remained angry and hostile to Hiccup.
"Last time I checked, Berk Vikings kill dragons," Sigrid said weakly as Voltage moved over to protect her.
"Yeah, well Berk's changed," Astrid replied.
"Why were you sneaking around our village?" Hiccup asked.
"We needed supplies. We didn't bring our dragons with us because we thought you would kill them," Flynn replied. "Look, I don't have time to talk right now, all right? In case you haven't noticed, my friend here is hurt!"
"Look, why don't you come back with us? We can help fix up your friend," said Hiccup.
"And our dragons?" Flynn asked with suspicious eyes.
"They'll be unharmed. Like I said, we don't kill dragons anymore; we train them," Hiccup answered, happily rubbing Toothless' chest. "If it's all right with you, we'd actually like to learn about your dragons. We've never seen a rider with a Changewing or even a Skrill before!"
"All right," Flynn answered after hesitating to think about it. "But Sigrid gets help first!"
Hope you all enjoyed that. Keep an eye out for the next chapter ;)