I'm glad you guys liked what I did with the last two chapters. Sure a sad thing happened, but something good happened later too :) More good things to come!
"Still nothing?" Flynn asked, climbing up onto the roof of their house. Sigrid had gotten into the habit of perching there every morning and every night, hoping to catch a glimpse of her Skrill, Voltage.
"No," she sighed sadly. "I'm getting worried, Flynn. Voltage wouldn't just up and leave without a good reason and he's been gone for nearly a week!"
"I'm sure he'll be back. Maybe he's just busy doing something," he said, trying to reassure her. He wrapped his arm around her shoulder, giving her a reassuring squeeze. Sigrid, surprised by the movement, turned her neck to look at him. Flynn's cheeks flared red as he quickly removed his arm and pretended to scratch his head while Sigrid chuckled lightly.
"Maybe… I just hope he gets back soon. I can't hunt or teach when I'm stressed. Fortuna's certainly growing," Sigrid commented, as the Changewing casually strolled up to their house with big eyes and a wide smile. Fortuna had grown rather quickly over the past few months since her egg hatched. But when it did, it was like that light of joy inside Flynn just came flooding back.
"Yeah, she's getting bigger and bigger every day!" Flynn beamed. "I know she's not Shimmer and I would never try to replace her, but at least like this it feels like she's still here with us."
"Hm, maybe I should check to see if Voltage hid any secret eggs around."
"Relax, he'll be back before you know it."
"I guess there isn't much I can do except wait. Not like I can track him either. Come on, I want to do some shooting."
"Ok, I'll get my crossbow!" Flynn exclaimed.
"Oh no, no, no, I think it's time you learned the traditional form of archery," Sigrid smirked as she held up her bow.
"But you know I'm no good at that! Why do you think I use a bow that pulls back and fires for me! I have like no upper body strength!" Flynn protested.
"You don't need strength. You just need a keen eye and the right stance. You're already a great shot, so I can teach you the proper shooting technique. Come on," she sad, taking his hand as they climbed down the roof. With Fortuna, Smog and Milo following behind them, Sigrid and Flynn made their way to the Academy campus. It took a few weeks, but they managed to complete a large and beautiful campus complete with stables for the dragons, a small hut in which Sigrid would teach her lessons and obstacles courses, both ground and air. It was truly an impressive sight; the Haven Dragon Academy.
"All right," Sigrid began, tossing her bow to Flynn, "load the arrow into the bow and pull back on the drawstring."
"Like this?" he asked, just managing to pull back the drawstring slightly. His arms shook furiously as he struggled to keep the bow drawn.
"Farther," she commented.
"Farther? This is as far as I can go!"
"Here, let me help," she said, coming over to him. She placed her hands over his and with her right hand over his, she helped him pull the drawstring back farther. "You'll want to draw the bowstring back to your mouth is right by your lip," she said, pulling his hand back to that it rested right on his cheek. "Line up the shot," she continued, helping him aim at the target, "and fire!" She let go of Flynn and stepped back so he could take the shot, but without her there, Flynn immediately lost his grip and the arrow went flying off high up into the trunk of one of the trees. Fortuna leapt onto the tree and grasped the arrow's shaft with her tendril, pulling it out of the tree trunk and happily returning it to Flynn, who gave her an affectionate scratch under her chin, causing the young Changewing to twitch her leg.
"Ehehe," Flynn laughed as he nervously scratched his head and turned to face Sigrid, "I guess I'm not as cut out for this as you are."
"Nonsense, it just takes some practice. You should have seen me the first time I fired an arrow. I didn't even hit the tree that I had my target on. Come on, let's try that again." Sigrid and Flynn spent the next few hours working on his archery, and he was slowly improving with each shot, though he still needed Sigrid's help with pulling the drawstring back far enough. Eventually, it became less about improving his strength and aim and more of a contest between Fortuna, Smog and Milo over who could retrieve Flynn's arrow the fastest. Fortuna and Smog were evenly matched, but Milo wasn't able to retrieve the ones that were shot high up into the tree. By the time he struggled to climb up to where the arrow was shot, Fortuna or Smog would have already retrieved it.
"Haha, well I'm glad to see someone's enjoying themselves with my archery failure," Flynn laughed.
"Hey, you're getting better. You may not be hitting the bull's eye but you're at least hitting the target," Sigrid complimented. "Come on, I'm getting hungry and it's your turn to make dinner tonight!"
"It's always my turn to make dinner and that's only because you hate to cook!"
"Yeah, because it was one of the many things I was forced to do!"
"Well, even so, I actually think you're quite good at it," he complimented.
"Uhuh, flattery won't get you anywhere," she teased.
"Well… maybe I can try something else," he said, walking up to her. This had been on Flynn's mind since his encounter with Baldr. Flynn couldn't deny that Sigrid was pretty, but Flynn ran the possibility of them getting together over and over again in his head. What was he compared to the stronger, more handsome and capable warriors she'd known in the Stormchasers. But when he was fighting her fiancé, Baldr, the chief's son had implied that Sigrid had feelings for him. But Flynn had to be reasonable. For all he knew, Baldr was just saying that to throw him off and gain the upper hand… but why would Baldr need the upper hand? He was already far stronger and more skilled in battle than Flynn was. So maybe what he was saying was true? Maybe that anger Baldr held for Flynn was jealousy? Jealousy that out of the two of them, Sigrid preferred Flynn? Flynn couldn't deny that he was nervous, gods, he never thought in a million years he would tell a girl how he felt about her. But if there was one thing he learned from Shimmer's passing, it was that at any moment something could happen, to either of them. And if he was going to die, he didn't want to die without at least knowing if she felt the same way as him. When he finally swallowed the knot that was building up in his throat, he gently took Sigrid's hand in his before placing his right hand on her shoulder.
"Flynn? What are you doing?" she asked tenderly. Flynn didn't answer. Instead, he moved his right hand up from her shoulder to cup her cheek, bringing her face closer to his as he gently placed his lips over hers. Thousands of thoughts were flooding Flynn's mind and he could barely focus on them. All he could focus on was himself and Sigrid. But when Sigrid didn't respond or even move, he pulled away, blushing furiously as he nervously scratched his head and looked away.
"Uh, sorry, Sig. I, eh, don't know what came over me," he muttered. Sigrid didn't say anything. Instead, she pulled Flynn back towards her by the collar of his jacket as their lips met instinctively wrapped his arms around Sigrid's waist, bringing her body closer to his as his hands rested on her upper and mid back. Sigrid removed her hands from Flynn's collar and wrapped her arms around his neck as she buried her fingers into his thick, long hair and deepened the kiss. When they pulled away, they stared at each other in silence while they caught their breath. "Whoa, Sigrid, that was… whoa," Flynn exhaled, unable to find the words as his thoughts kept racing from what just happened.
"You should talk. I never expected you to be so… so forward," she said, impressed.
"I guess you could say since I lost Shimmer, I don't want to have any regrets. I don't want you to be one of my regrets, Sigrid," he said to her with a serious, yet tender look in his eyes. "I love you, Sigrid."
Sigrid gasped and was taken aback slightly. She wasn't expecting Flynn to confess, at least not before her! She knew her feelings for him were growing as they spent more and more time together, but she just wasn't sure how to approach the subject. Should she be aloof or direct? Obviously it didn't matter in the end. "I love you too, Flynn."
"Y-you do?" he asked surprised, as if her reciprocation of his kiss wasn't enough confirmation. "I figured you'd be more into someone stronger than me."
"You mean like Baldr? Flynn I grew up surrounded by men who did nothing but keep me from being who I am and doing what I want. I can be myself around you, not to mention the fact that you don't get all moody and upset by the fact that I'm a better fighter."
"That's actually my favourite part about you," he smiled.
"Hehe, you don't give yourself enough credit, Flynn. You have the strongest, bravest heart out of anyone I've ever known. That's my favourite part of about you," she smiled back.
"Oh, come here you," he chuckled, bringing her in for another kiss.
A few days later, Sigrid and Flynn were woken up early in the morning by a thundering roar that echoed through the skies. "Flynn! Did you hear that?" Sigrid asked, barging into his room.
"What was that?" he asked, rubbing his eyes as he sleepily pulled himself out of bed.
"It's Voltage!" she exclaimed, spotting a large, dark dragon in the distance flying towards the Haven. Without hesitation, Sigrid ran down the stairs and out of the house to greet her dragon. Voltage was carrying something wrapped in an old torn sail that he set down first before landing in front of Sigrid. "Voltage! Where have you been? I've been worried sick!" she scolded after hugging him tightly. "What's that you've got there?" she asked, lifting up the old sail. She gasped at the sight of what lay inside the sail: five large, dark colored eggs with a purple, electric aura.
"Sigrid, what is it?" Flynn asked, joining up with her as the rest of their dragons followed. Smog and Flynn playfully examined the eggs with Sigrid while Fortuna happily nuzzled up to Voltage, excited that he was finally home.
"This is why you left? You went to have babies?" Sigrid asked as Voltage affectionately nuzzled his rider.
"Interesting… traditionally, Skrills abandon their eggs once they're hatched," Flynn examined.
"You didn't want to abandon your babies, did you?" Sigrid asked, as Voltage furiously shook his head. "Well, it looks like we've got some new arrivals!"
With the way this is looking, the next chapter might be the last. Also, I've been thinking about an AU story. I posted about it on deviantart, but I know some people don't have accounts on both sites like I do. Basically, the idea is that what if Hiccup was taken by Cloudjumper along with Valka? How differently would Hiccup turn out and how would he interact with a Berk tribe that still kills dragons? I haven't decided if I'll write it with Hiccup as Hiccup or with him as my genderswap. I've got a few ideas already but I'm interested to hear what you guys think of that: ideas, concerns, suggestions, etc.
Now I just want to make some things clear: Fortuna is the offspring of Shimmer and an unnamed Changewing while Voltage's eggs are his offspring with an unnamed Skrill. Apparently there was some confusion surrounding this so I wanted to clear that up. The eggs are Voltage's not just ones he found like with Thornado and Bing, Bam and Boom. To see Fortuna and the eggs, head over to my deviantart. Also, I made up certain facts about Skrills, namely their tendency to abandon their own children. The series didn't show us much about Skrills beyond the two parter in season 2, so I'm filling in some blanks with what I think would work. Basically, that means that Voltage was abandoned by his own parents and forced to survive on his own since he was a baby. This often led to a lot of in-fighting with his siblings over resources and survival.