Broken

Chapter 8: Blind White

The winds were perfect. The warm updrafts had just enough lift that he didn't need to work hard to hold altitude and the headwind pushed against him but gently, letting him nearly hover as he checked the island below. There were enough clouds present that he had to watch were he went lest a bloom of cooler air drop him unexpectedly. It was easy enough to stay between them by watching his own shadow on the ground and moving just enough to keep it from touching the cloud shadows. He was concentrating rather hard, enough so that he didn't see the other's shadow until it broke from the cloud shadow nearest his own.

"Soft tailwinds!" came the other's greeting.

"Swift hunting!" he answered.

Their voices rolled out flat and thin in the cool damp air high over the water. Only the faint muffling of cloud mist distorted their words. It was easier to converse over flat land or closer to the water while aloft, but one couldn't always choose where one met others.

"You're new here."

"Yes."

Nothing more was said for several heartbeats.

"You're small," the other observed. He didn't respond immediately. He was patient. Eventually, when he was ready, he answered.

"Yes."

The cluster of woodcaves that marked the lair of the preytooths he sought came into view, just along the jagged shoreline. He wondered if they should still be named so, since they were no longer considered prey. But if they weren't preytooths, what were they? They weren't Kin, so they normally would have been 'prey' or 'others.' Since they'd been fierce enough to ground a mountainful of Kin over the many seasons, they'd become a whole new word. 'Tooth' had been added to designate their dangerous nature.

But now Kin were hearing words of truce from others. More surprising words like trust, nest, and food were being heard. It was hard to imagine such a complete change in preytooths; as hard to imagine as the grounding of the Great Eel. Yet its carcass lay rotting on the gray stony beach at Fire Nest. No Kin had ever looked to see such a thing in their flight.

So if preytooths had truly changed, what would they be called now?

He would know soon enough, as he intended to see for himself the source of the greatest change in his kind's history.

"Fledgling?"

He grunted in mild surprise, having forgotten the other's presence.

"No."

"You're Blind White," the other decided.

He paused again, considering.

"No." He scanned the waves below him, looking for the best target. So close to the preytooth's lair, choices were slim. Still, he spotted a waterbird that would suit his needs.

With a casual flick of his tail, he dove toward the silvery waters. He tightened his wings and slid down the edge of a cloud shadow, using the slightly cooler air to help him gain speed. As he neared the surface of the water he curled his tail and raised the clawed tips of his bright red and yellow wings. His eyes partially retracted into their sockets and he squinted against the relentless battering of the air through which he tore.

Having arced from a full dive to a close-wing skim over the water, he swiftly closed on his target. His approach was precise, his body silent. When there was less than a breath between him and the waterbird he flared his wings and pivoted his body to throw his large taloned feet forward. The waterbird didn't even squawk as he slammed into it, all the power of his speed focused into his legs and claws. Water exploded up around his body but he had already moved on, swinging his legs from the hips as he touched the ocean's surface. Forgetting to pivot could injure him, breaking even his sturdy leg bones.

Once the kill was complete and he felt the pulpy mess that had been the waterbird trapped between his talons, he began pumping for height. He was young and strong and quickly worked his way back up to where the other wheeled placidly on an updraft.

He approached the other from the front at a non-confrontational angle and displayed the bloody mess of feathers and entrails.

"My flight name is Crush Claw."

Feeling rather proud of his flawless display he rolled briefly upside down. At the same moment he casually flipped the dead waterbird toward his open mouth. He caught it squarely but the effect was ruined by the small gobbet of bloody feathers that went directly into his left nostril.

He was later glad that it hadn't been worse, but the undignified scramble to right himself as he snorted out the feathers certainly didn't leave him radiating confidence. He sneezed once, trying very hard not to vent any flame in the process and not entirely succeeding. The stench of scorched feathers only compounded the misery of an itching nose.

By the time he recovered he realized he'd dropped several lengths in height from where the other glided, watching in mild amusement. No comment was made about his momentary clumsiness and for that he was grateful. But the next words spoken irked him as much as laughter would have.

"Your egg name was Blind White."

He had to wait a mouthful of heartbeats before he could speak calmly.

"Yes."

One's egg name was given by one's sire or dam, depending on which was present at one's hatching. His egg name had been given to him by his dam because of the unusual condition of his eyes upon hatching. The protective film that covers the eyes of all hatchlings is usually somewhat cloudy and clears within a day or two. The film on his eyes has been a solid, ghostly white that kept him blind for nearly two weeks. Both his parents had been relieved when his eyes eventually cleared, leaving him with normal eyesight.

Because of his condition, Blind White's physical development had been hindered in the first month of his life. It wasn't for lack of care on his parent's part. It was that his brother and two sisters would often pounce on the food dropped into the nest before he could locate it.

Once he gained his eyesight, Blind White fought ferociously for his share of the food. As a result he was able to make up most of the growth he'd lost during his blindness. But by the time he left the nest, last of the four, he knew he would never gain his full size as an adult. He was perhaps one quarter smaller than other Kin his age. Eventually he decided this was not the disadvantage it seemed to be. What he'd lost in size he gained in patience and determination. Those two traits he'd been forced to learn while sightless held him in good stead later when he decided to leave and find his flight name.

A dragon's flight name was usually a short descriptive of the individual's most favored trait. In this way he or she might advertise to potential mates who were looking for such traits. While he was learning from his parents the skills he'd need to feed himself, he discovered his smaller size allowed him to hunt prey in a unique way, as he'd just shown the other.

"Why are you here?"

He watched the preytooths he could see below him scurry between their woodcaves and all around their flat, open nesting grounds.

He could not determine what most of them were doing except the few who stood on stony outcroppings that lay just above the water. He could easily make out the tempting silver shapes of fish lying near those preytooths. Those were obviously gathering food for their young. If they had been hunting for themselves, they would be eating them as they caught them. He wondered how such clumsy creatures could catch fish when they didn't seem to ever enter the water

"I wanted to see the preytooths," he eventually replied.

"Do you want to nest with them?"

He finally took a moment to study the other. It was a female brightscale with a typical spattering of vivid colors across her hide. She seemed healthy and flew steady in the gentle updraft. He was certain he hadn't met her before.

"I don't know."

"I do."

The wind shifted slightly and the other drifted cautiously nearer to him. He watched her closely.

He wondered if perhaps she was in season, but a glance showed the scales around her eyes and muzzle were no shinier than was normal. He supposed she might be offering a Kin truce, since she'd mentioned she was looking to nest in the area he was exploring.

He realized she was looking him over and he instinctively flared his wings to show their span. She lifted over him, then across to his left side, under and around back to the right of him in a slow, casual circuit.

"You're really small."

Despite having heard those words many times before he'd left Fire Nest, it still bothered him that this other would focus so sharply on his size. He'd hoped he might leave such comments behind when he left to find the preytooths. His skin began to tingle and he decided his instinctive reaction might change her view of him. He felt the thin, oily substance of his skin fire leaking out from under the scales of his body. Once enough of it contacted the air it ignited. The effect was not what he'd wanted, though. The ferocity of skin fire was lessened while flying, especially in damp air. It burst into flames first around his head and neck, but he could feel it flickering out in many places across his body in the wet wind. He concentrated, willing his body to respond. He'd never tried using his skin fire like this before and he suddenly worried it wouldn't work.

It was most satisfying to feel his body respond the way he wanted. A full, thick coat of flames wreathed his long body, burning hot and clean. It felt good and it pleased him. He roared to the other, "I AM BIG ENOUGH!"

He snapped his wings hard and shot straight up. He willed his skin fire to stop just as he reached the apex of his leap and curled his body over on itself. As he dove back down the few lengths to where the other hovered, he left his last few tendrils of flame above him like a shed skin. His wings flared violently out to stop his descent as he came even with her, to hover beside her as if he'd never moved.

She eyed him critically a few moments before she gave a quiet chirp of agreement. She shook her heavy head and said, "Yes, you are."

They continued to soar in silence a short time before he decided he wanted a better look at the preytooths. He angled his wings to let the air slip by them easier and slowly made his way lower. The brightscale stayed with him.

From a lesser height he could see more of the preytooth's nest and the activity within. He could also see Kin, but not nearly as many as he'd expected. Mostly he saw flits, bumbling around the tops of the woodcaves and being the general nuisance flits usually were. He saw a single splitneck sleeping in a sunny spot and two stonebellies, one of which had a preytooth sitting on top of it while it flew away toward the nearby woods. He was shocked.

"Didn't you know?" The other chittered in amusement. "That's part of nesting here."

"No one told..." He snapped his jaws shut. A tiny puff of flame escaped his muzzle and the smoke of it dispersed before it drifted farther than his neck. "I heard of nesting and feeding. But not..."

"New hatched riverbacks do that, you know." She tipped her snout in the direction the stonebelly had gone with the preytooth on its back. "They stay on their dam's back until their eyes clear."

"I'm not a riverback!"

The brightscale dipped her head and blinked slowly in mild apology. "I know."

"It looks... wrong." He snorted, uncomfortable with the idea. "Sitting on us like we're rocks."

"It's not really part of nesting here," she added contritely. "I was word twisting. You can nest here without any preytooths touching you."

He was relieved. Something about the idea of having a preytooth latched onto his back made his scales quiver. "Good. But why would any Kin let a preytooth do that?"

"It's part of bonding."

Taken aback, he stopped working to stay aloft and started to sink. A moment later he drew himself back up to her. "More word twisting?"

"No. It's heart truth."

He felt more and more disturbed by this brightscale. He was starting to wonder if she was ill or damaged inside. "Bonding." His gruff growl betrayed his disbelief. "With preytooths." Despite his doubts, her words were an echo of some of the things he'd heard at Fire Nest. He hadn't believed it then, either.

"Look at them with clear eyes," she urged.

With a rumbling gust of a sigh that pushed a small plume of smoke from his nostrils, he focused his sight on the few preytooths he could see.

"They're tiny, aren't they?"

He could see a few of them close to the Kin. Their size in comparison was laughable. But only if one didn't know of their fierce reputation.

"Yes."

"No wings, no tails."

That was something else that bothered him. Preytooths stood longways to the ground, forever looking like they should fall over. When they moved it was with this strange falling/flailing motion that looked ridiculous. How did they even do that?

"No fire."

That almost didn't count, in his mind. Preytooths had plenty of other ways to draw blood than fire. Preytooths would crush cut smash twist if you didn't keep your eyes on them. He'd heard the stories many times.

"No flight."

That thought sank like a stone in deep water. No flight! To never rub your back against the misty heights, never see the world as a tiny speck. To never hear the wind shriek at your passing or play hide-in-clouds.

How could they live like that?

"When a preytooth bonds with Kin, the most important thing it wants to do is fly with us."

When the idea was spoken so, it made a kind of scary sense.

"They can't grow wings or tails. So we share ours. And we give them the skies for a little time."

He heard the wistful tone in her words, saw the muted anguish in her eyes.

"And they love us for it. So... bonding."

Her words disturbed him. Love. Bonding. How could any Kin use such words on preytooths? They were squat, fuzzy eels with sharp metal always nearby. They grounded Kin with a ferocious glee that chilled the liver. How could she speak so?

He had to find out. That was the reason he'd come from Fire Nest in the first place. Had the preytooths really changed? Could he nest here? Would he want to bond to one of them? He glanced at the brightscale.

"You are bonded to a preytooth?"

Now her misery became obvious. "No. None of them will approach me."

He set aside his suspicion that such aloof behavior on the preytooth's part was to be desired. "Why not?"

"I don't know," she conceded. "When the Great Eel was grounded, it was different. All the preytooths would approach Kin. There was trust. There was flying and nesting."

She glided silently for many moments.

"Then it changed. Now only a few of them will go near Kin, and most of them are already nesting with others."

"They don't attack Kin they don't know, though?"

The brightscale gave a squawk of denial. "They don't attack any Kin." She paused again. "You can display for them if you want. Your best bonding display might get you a fish, but that's all. Their eyes won't see you."

He had no intention of offering a bonding display, but he still wanted to know more about them. The brightscale's claim that they didn't attack any Kin gave him just enough heat in his liver to try landing among them. He chose a place outside their nest yet near enough to watch and made a cautious descent. Keeping a close lookout for any preytooths that might be lurking nearby, he settled to the ground a dozen leaps from the nearest woodcave. A few moments later, the brightscale touched ground directly in front of him.

"What do you intend?" she asked.

He was crouching on hinds and wing claws, ready to leap into flight if anything challenged him, but her rudeness set him off balance. She was obviously many seasons past her first breeding cycle, but she acted like a fledgling looking to interfere in his hunt. And she had yet to offer her flight name. In spite of his being very much her junior, he felt compelled to raise himself to his hinds and spread his wings for balance. Imitating the way his own sire had chastised him on occasion, he hissed at her. The essence of the message was clear: 'Where are your manners?'

She froze, surprised by his reaction. Her posture spoke of both nervousness and embarrassment. Then she twitched her head slightly and shifted herself until she was facing him directly. With him in her blind spot, she extended her wings and tipped her head down until the point of her muzzle was facing the ground.

"My flight name is Swimmer." She'd chosen that name because she'd learned to dive deep into the water to go after the tastier fish than those that swam near the surface. Her dam had taken her flight name for the same talent, but had chosen 'Water Walker' instead. "I intend no insult but I must question your hunt." To question another's hunt could be taken as doubt in the hunter's ability, but her words and her posture spoke of the intention to offer advice or a warning of dangerous prey.

Crush Claw was more than willing to listen to an older Kin's words, especially concerning the preytooths he wanted to see. He dropped himself back to the ground and uttered a soft growl of acceptance. Swimmer relaxed slightly as well. Before she could speak another word, however, they heard a high, raspy squawk from behind her.

A preytooth no larger than Crush Claw's head had come up behind the brightscale and was chattering at the pair of them. Swimmer had stepped back to see the source of the noise. The instant she did she chirped an imperative 'Fledgling!' The instinctive reaction took hold immediately and they both held perfectly still.

"A preytooth fledgling?" he asked.

She turned an eye toward him and said in a low but commanding rumble, "There is Kin truce here. Do nothing to damage it!"

Instantly their positions were reversed. Crush Claw was the other and she the elder. He had only a moment to wonder if the 'it' she didn't want damaged was the Kin truce or the fledgling. To protect both he took her advice and locked his joints in case the fledgling blundered into him. Even as he did it he could see it was unnecessary. The preytooth fledgling was so little it couldn't possibly knock him over with its uncoordinated movements. Turning his head slightly to keep it in sight, he studied his first preytooth up close.

Several things struck Crush Claw at once. The first was the utter lack of fear the fledgling displayed as it approached them. It didn't wait for acknowledgment or permission; it simply used that fall/flail motion to carry it within touching distance of them. He also noticed it was covered with an odd assortment of animal skins and fibrous sheathing that concealed all but its foreclaws and head. The exposed, hairless flesh of it exuded an oily smell which seemed to have permeated its coverings. It was also making a lot of noise. It seemed to gibber and squeal at them as if it believed they could understand its intentions.

From such close range he could see the preytooths most fearsome weapon, its grasping foreclaws. Those incredibly dexterous parts allowed them to fashion killing metal objects and use those objects with devastating results. It could use them to make woodcaves and the woodfish they rode on the waters. He'd heard stories of climbing and ensnaring and other things that one could scarcely believe. Seeing them now, he could understand his dam's wisdom when she'd told him, "A clawless preytooth is a dead preytooth."

Crush Claw grunted in dismay as the fledgling placed its foreclaws on the tip of his snout. The oily smell intensified, but not to the point it was unbearable. He was quite surprised by how warm the skin of its foreclaws felt against his. Their eyes met and the fledgling started making a soft, low howling sound. He couldn't tell if it was a happy sound or not. It wasn't acting like a creature in distress.

"I think it likes you," Swimmer noted.

Before he could offer an opinion of such a statement they heard a new sound. One of the adult preytooths had approached from the same direction as the fledgling. It was running toward them. Seeing a preytooth fall/flail as fast as it could gave him reason to wonder why they didn't constantly fall down.

The adult stopped when it realized its offspring was near two dragons. It seemed reluctant to get any closer and made unhappy sounds and motioned the fledgling to return. Without taking its foreclaws off Crush Claw's nose, it looked over its shoulder and yammered back to what he assumed was its parent. There seemed to be a difference of opinion between them.

Eventually the parent convinced its wayward youngster to come back to it. As it walked away, the fledgling looked back over its shoulder at the two dragons and thrashed its upper limbs. It reminded him of a young dragon testing its wings on the edge of the nest, looking to make its first flight.

When the preytooths were gone both dragons relaxed. Crush Claw wasn't entirely certain how he felt about the encounter. It hadn't inspired any feelings of love or bonding but it did prove that the preytooths were showing an amount of tolerance for Kin that was truly surprising. He gazed at the woodcaves. He wanted to know more.

"What will they do if I go into their nest?" To enter the nest of an enemy was to ask for a fight. It chilled his liver to think of what could happen if the preytooths took exception to his presence.

"Nothing." The brightscale ruffled her wings to emphasize her next words. "Move slowly, touch nothing. Stand still if any approach you. And do not fire your skin while you are there. You've never seen their woodcaves burn. They catch easily."

He gazed at her a moment. He suddenly wondered how far through her life cycle she might be. But that was not what he wanted to ask her. "Will you teach me the winds here?"

His question seemed to catch her off guard. Nevertheless she answered, "Yes."

So they walked into the preytooth nest. Walking was something Kin hardly ever did except around fledglings. It made sense, though, when Swimmer offered her opinion that the preytooths felt less threatened by that which stayed on the ground where they could reach it. Privately, Crush Claw intended to stay alert and ready to take to the air in an instant. He would not allow the preytooths to trick him.

The preytooth nest was both fascinating and boring. Since he was not yet of breeding age he had never gone raiding with the other adults while the Great Eel was still alive. He'd heard stories about how deceptively calm the nest would seem until the preytooths caught the scent of Kin. Then they would spread across the nest like fire in dry grass and ground any Kin they could get close to. As he carefully stepped between the woodcaves he wondered what it was truly like to see them defending their nest. What did it sound like? Would he have had enough heat in his liver to fight them?

The smell of the nest was unlike anything he'd ever known. He'd heard things about that as well, but it wasn't the same as taking the scents in for himself. He could taste many things he knew in the air; burning wood, thawing earth, the muted tang of nearby bleaters and the sharper whiff of their dung. He could even pick out the bright, offensive stench of metal objects around him. But there were other things he could detect that he didn't recognize. There was something that smelled like heated grass coming from one woodcave, and another that gave an odor which reminded him of rotting fruit. He could detect the presence of meat that had dried out without rotting but it was combined with the smell of the sea. Yet the meat didn't smell like fish, it smelled like bleater flesh.

And when he thought of fish, he quickly realized he'd been smelling fish that had obviously been laying out for only a short time. The wind was bringing it to him from his right yet as the wind shifted slightly the smell did not. Was the fish moving?

Crush Claw was startled into stillness as a preytooth came around a woodcave with a small object that smelled of dried leaves and fish. It caught sight of him and stopped moving for a moment. Despite his curiosity, despite his fear and despite all Swimmer had told him, he had no idea what to do at that moment. He could only stare stupidly at the preytooth and watch it as it studied him.

The preytooth was covered as the others had been, with both animal skins and fibrous sheathing. Its face was free of the hair that some of them wore. He wondered if the face hair meant something specific to them or if it was no more important than the colors of one's scales.

It took a single step closer to him without getting close enough to attack him. He could see the object in its foreclaws was shaped specifically to hold things, in this case fish. It grabbed one of the fish it carried and made noises like the fledgling had. It waved the fish enticingly, then gave it a gentle toss toward him. Without thinking, he opened his jaws and caught the offering easily. When he chewed it the cold slime of its outside mixed with the warm blood of its inside. The taste was as good as anything he'd caught himself.

As the morsel bathed his tongue with juices and slid down his throat, he started thrumming. Momentary happiness filled his mind and he relaxed without meaning to. Seconds later, he realized what had happened and looked around, perplexed and somewhat embarrassed. The preytooth had already wandered off, heading for its woodcave. Swimmer stood nearby, watching with amused interest.

"What-" He watched as the preytooth pushed against a part of its woodcave and the side of it moved inwards. It went inside and the moving portion of the woodcave returned to its place. He'd never heard any Kin describe how preytooths got in and out of their woodcaves. Now he had seen it yet he didn't understand. He left that mystery for the moment and turned back to Swimmer. "Why did it do that?"

The brightscale gave a confused squawk and folded her legs to sit directly on the ground. "I don't know. I've never seen one offer food without a display first. And it didn't try to bond with you, either."

Crush Claw's liver shriveled a bit. "Did it think I'm a fledgling? Because of my size?"

Swimmer didn't answer.

He lowered himself to the ground as she had and thought for a moment. There was no doubt the preytooths had changed. They hadn't attacked him when the fledgling got close enough to touch his snout. One had given him food for no understandable reason. He could see a few other preytooths moving around the nest. More than one of them looked his way, only to ignore his presence.

The preytooths may have changed, but even Kin as young as he was knew that an enemy that doesn't attack is not an enemy to be trusted. He needed to know more.

"Why do you want to nest with the preytooths?"

This time it was the brightscale who paused in thought. She looked around the flat, open nest for some moments before answering. "The Kin truce is very important. I want to be here to help protect it."

"How can you do that?"

Swimmer gave a fluttering growl of irritation. "I told you. By bonding, like Kin do."

That idea still did not sit well with him. "Preytooths are not Kin!"

"No, they're not." She stuck her head under one wing and rubbed a few dull scales with her nose, giving herself a moment to think. She turned back to him. "But they are still very much like us."

That was another idea Crush Claw didn't care for. "How can they be like us?"

Before she could answer, another preytooth, one with face hair, came around the woodcave and stopped moving. It was obviously surprised to see them sitting there, judging by the way it came to such an abrupt halt. It reached one foreclaw down to its middle to grasp something that apparently was not there. It looked down at its empty foreclaw, then back at them before slowly backing away.

Swimmer fixed him with a bright yellow eye. "That preytooth just answered you. It made a threat sign before it left."

"Threat sign?" he echoed, alarmed.

"Most preytooths carry sharp metal around their middles. It must have lost what it was reaching for. Yet the one we met before it gave you food." She gave a flick of her snout toward the center of the nest. "I've been watching this nest all through the cold season. I've noticed not all preytooths are the same, just like not all Kin are the same. Some of them are territorial, some are not. Some of them are aggressive, some are not." She paused a moment before she added, "It takes many scales to make a skin."

Crush Claw would never have thought to hear that bit of draconic wisdom applied to their old enemies, but he had to admit that it felt like heart truth.

"How can I tell if a preytooth might be willing to let me nest with it?"

The brightscale answered with a light chittering sound. "The same way you do with Kin. By scent."

"They scent the same way Kin do?" That seemed too incredible to believe.

"No, not the same way. But like enough to work. You have to learn the softer scents, but the strong ones are the same for Kin and preytooth alike."

He looked around the nest, at the woodcaves and the preytooths and the bleaters off in a distant field. He'd learned much on the first day of his visit. But he still didn't know if nesting with preytooths was a good idea. He supposed the best way to decide would be to display for some and see how they reacted.

Another preytooth with face hair came around the woodcave near them and stopped. Crush Claw stood up and took a step forward. Before he could even begin his display Swimmer hissed at him and swiped at his flanks with her wings. He jumped back, confused. She squawked harshly at him as though he had taken her kill and charged him. He reared up and spread his wings, a universal threat display. Still she growled and spat at him until suddenly she stopped. Then she lowered herself to the ground and touched the grass with her nose. She uttered quiet chirps of apology over and over until he calmed down.

Once he subsided Swimmer looked at him. There was a trace of fear in her scent and her eyes.

"I am sorry, but I had no choice. The one you chose for your display is unsuited for Kin."

Crush Claw thought about that for a moment. While she seemed to mean well, he wasn't sure he understood her words. "Why is it unsuited for Kin?"

Swimmer looked around carefully, making sure the preytooth had truly left them. She turned back to him.

"We call that one Iceblood. His liver is full of snow and his eyes are full of blood." She preened the dull scales on her wing again to calm herself. "He stinks of anger and malice. He has tried to nest with several Kin but none with stay near him. Not even those looking for a place to nest."

He was confused. She had said that none of the preytooths would give him more than a fish if he displayed for them. And yet she also said that specific preytooth had tried to nest with several other Kin. Could a preytooth want to nest with something it hated? It made no sense. He kept his doubts to himself, however. If he was to learn more about preytooths, perhaps he might start with one that was easy to approach. Swimmer said they didn't attack Kin anymore, and no preytooth was a serious match for him when his flame skin was roaring like his voice.

Feeling more confident in his choice in coming to the preytooth's nest, he gave a courteous dip of his head. "Thank you for teaching me the winds. I believe I will fly here for a time."

Swimmer chirped contentedly, obviously happy she had helped. "Swift hunting, Blind White!"

He glared at her until he realized she was word twisting again. He tucked his muzzle a moment to show he understood she was teasing, then answered, "My flight name is Crush Claw. I AM BIG ENOUGH!" Then he launched himself energetically into the air, looking for a preytooth who might like his display.

(c)Wirewolf 2011

"How to train your dragon" and all attendant characters are copyright

Dreamworks Animation and used without permission

A/N

I apologize for how long this chapter took to complete. I've discovered I don't really like writing a story the way I'm doing this one. Every multi-chaptered story I've done before I did multiple drafts and edited many times with enough time between edits to come back with fresh eyes. When it was ready, I posted it as a complete story. By posting each chapter as I complete it, I lock in possible errors and lock out possible improvements I may not think until later. Because of this, I'm having to do a lot more thinking about each chapter to make sure it's really ready for submission. I also spend less time working on individual chapters and more on the overall plot arc. It really can't be helped.

What's worse is there are other factors stealing time from my days and keeping me from getting as much writing done as I would like. I won't bore you with details, but my job is one culprit and the current weather is another.

I also hope I didn't distract readers by changing the POV as I did. There are things that will happen in this story that may not come to the notice of the human characters and as such I need another way to tell those parts of the story. I don't have a problem with presenting the dragon's part of this story, but to do it right I felt I had to limit how their part is told. Those limits would have to be placed mostly on language, social interaction and motivations. I don't want the dragons to become little more than strangely shaped humans.

I figure the most distracting thing about presenting their side of the story would be how I have them see and relate to their world, especially language. To help a bit with that, here's an explanation of some of the things I used that may have confused some folks.

Dragon language – Dragons are creatures with no technology and very little understanding of human behavior. They look at the world in very simple terms. This is why I used words like 'woodcaves', to reflect the limits of their understanding of the Viking way of life and the objects they use.

Liver vs. heart - Like early humans, dragons have only a limited understanding of the internal functioning of their own bodies. Long ago, humans equated the heart as being the center of human intellect and emotion while the brain was essentially ignored. The idea that the liver is the equivalent of the heart is something I borrowed from the Klingons of Star Trek: Next Generation. It occurred to me that dragons might understand that the liver, being a large organ full of blood, might be the source of their own internal power. Without any dragon 'doctors' or 'scientists' the knowledge they have of what organ does what would likely come from the observation of sick or wounded individuals, so a lot of flawed beliefs are inevitable.

Kin vs. Others - I decided that dragons would have a fairly limited grouping system for dealing with themselves and those that are not themselves. The term 'Kin' is actually flexible. It may seem like I used it incorrectly at some points in this chapter, but there is method here. When comparing humans (preytooths) and dragons, all dragons are 'Kin.' When comparing only dragons, those individuals outside one's species are 'others' while those of one's own species are 'Kin.' When comparing dragons within one's own species, those outside one's family unit are 'others' while those related are 'Kin.'

I really did want this to reflect a certain amount of creativity on my part, but I fear I may have inadvertently copied some other author's idea or work. The names the dragons apply to individual species are one area I may have accidentally plagiarized, but I promise it was never my intent.

One other thing I'd like to say. At the start of this I expected the chapter count of this work to range from 8 to 10 chapters and said so in my first submission. It's obvious to me now that 18 to 20 is more realistic.

Thank you all for reading!