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Chapter 5
Friends and Assassins
As Hiccup and I flew over Berk on Toothless, headed for the village, Hiccup pestered me with questions. "Hiccup, I don't know!" I said for the 800th time. "All I know about the Lightning Keepers, is that they bond with a Skrill for life and that they supposedly have mystical lightning powers." "Then how do you know you are one?" Was his new query. Dawnstrike and I sighed mentally. "Well, my pendant matches the Skrill emblem on the Berserker sails as well as some drawings of artefacts. Oh, and the fact that there is a Skrill flying right next to us! That's kind of a dead giveaway." "Yes, but you could have been killed! What the hell were you thinking?" Hiccup retorted. I had no response to that, and remained silent for the rest of the flight. Toothless glanced up at me, his huge green eyes giving me a 'you're worse than Hiccup. At least he doesn't face down deadly dragons alone' look. I huffed, crossing my arms.
When I got back to the village with Dawnstrike, a crowd gathered around us when we landed. After all, it wasn't every day that someone came in flying beside a dragon that had only ever been seen a few times in history. They packed in so tightly that Hiccup and I could not get off Toothless. Then a voice rang out. "Okay, everyone move along." Grumbling, all of the massed people started to drift away. A dark-haired girl moved through the dispersing crowd, and said "Hi, I'm Aleah. You must be Azura, the one everyone's talking about." "Yeah, that's me. Thanks for getting all those people to go away" I responded, slightly uncomfortable. I had never liked attention, and people were talking about me? Well, a mysterious girl who washed up on a beach after being left to die by the Outcasts is certainly excellent fuel for the rumor mill… I mused to myself. "No problem," Aleah replied. I walked back up to my room in the Great Hall, Aleah tagging along uninvited. "So what is your dragon's name? I have a Zippleback named Duel and Combat," Aleah chatted. "Her name is Dawnstrike" I responded, a little uncomfortable around this strange girl who was talking to me like we were best friends. "Pretty name!" My raven-haired follower said cheerfully. "Well, see ya later."
Since it had been a long day, I went to bed, with Dawnstrike nestled by my feet. She actually emanated quite a lot of heat, though her long spines were dangerous. When I was just drifting off to sleep, a black figure dropped noiselessly from the wooden beams of the ceiling. Immediately I was wide awake. The figure moved towards the bed, and I saw the dim glint of a knife in the half light. As it moved closer, I suddenly sprung upright and hurled myself on it. Dawnstrike shot awake, springing into the fray. Her spines sliced my thin nightdress, but I paid it no notice. We struggled on the floor, and I succeeded in pulling the figure's hood off. I was frozen with shock for a moment. The figure was a man with a badly scarred face! Taking advantage of my confusion, the man took the opportunity to swing his knife around and try to slice my leg. I cried out in pain as the metal sliced across my calf. Heavy footsteps sounded outside the door. Hiccup, Aleah, and several other strange Vikings burst in, the door nearly flying off its hinges. Hiccup was holding an ornate metal shield, which somehow a bolas came flying out of it and neatly wrapped up the man.
Running over, Aleah helped me up. Hiccup was standing over the man, when said man sliced through the ropes, and tackled Hiccup. Once he had an opening, he raced through the door and vanished. A Viking with a bucket on his head helped Hiccup up, and Hiccup said, rubbing his head "Well, it looks like Alvin does know you are here, Azura and he doesn't like it." His gaze fell to my torn top, and he blushed deeply. I glanced down, my face flushing red. Dawnstrike's spines had created a long tear across the top of my nightdress, leaving one side of my chest open to the air. I wrapped what remained of my sleep-clothes around me, hoping that it would preserve some of my modesty. "Um, we'd better go..." Hiccup stammered, trying to herd some of the other Vikings out of the room. They all left, not a moment too soon in my opinion. Dawnstrike burbled a question, looking curiously at me. "Shush," I admonished her, crawling back into bed.