11 Never Gonna Give You Up

Stoick the Vast stood guard outside in the wind, near to where many of his people had taken refuge. He was thinking how unfortunate it was that the small cave could not hold them all. Orders had been given for the injured to be taken to the rear of the cave, while others would slept near the entrance for a few hours before joining the Chief outside underneath the rock overhang; thus making room for the next group of weary warriors. It could be very dangerous to wake a sleeping Viking, so the task was given to Gobber the Belch who could block any wayward blow from sword or axe with the large stone hammer he had attached to his artificial, and interchangeable left arm. Most of the night had passed in an uneventful manor, when Gobber approached the unmovable figure of his chief staring into the darkness.

"It's not letting up then" Gobber shouted over the storm.

"Not long now" Stoick replied looking up at the thinning clouds "it's almost blown itself out."

"Err... I've come to tell you that the second shift has now had some sleep and left the cave so there is plenty of room for you to have a little shut eye now. So why don't you just..."

"I'm fine thank you Gobber" he said in that polite yet firm chiefly way that meant 'don't push me or you might get a bludgeon in your face'.

"Oh I'm sure that you are, it's just that we may be here for a few more days... or maybe a week, so you'd better pace yourself as we are gonna need you to..."

"I said I am FINE GOBBER" came the stern reply with the kind of finality that insinuated 'you're pushing it'.

"I am sure that Hiccup would like you to sit with him for a while" said Gobber; pushing it.

"HE'S AWAKE?" Stoick yelled as he spun around and grabbed Gobber's shoulders.

"Well... no, but all the same..."

"You are really pushing your luck Gobber" said Stoick through gritted teeth.

It was now Gobbers turn to be angry "Look here you stubborn ol' goat, if you don't..."

"GOBBER!" the Chief yelled and then caught himself and took a deep breath. "Gobber, I can't go in yet; young Astrid's still out there, and I..."

"And you can do nothing about that now BUT... you will need to do something if she's not back at first light, so you'd better make pretty damn sure that you've got a clear head... for her sake."

Gobber stared unflinching into the worried Vikings face until Stoick began to see reason and became the Chief once more; both he and Gobber had been doing their level best to keep their voices down, although they were not very good at it, but now Stoick spoke with authority so that all around who were awake could hear.

"Take over Gobber while I check on the injured in the cave."

"Right Chief" said Gobber knowingly as Stoick strode off to get some much needed rest.

Astrid had assumed that the trip back to Dragon Island would be much easier than the forward journey, but it was not proving to be so. It was true that the headwind she and Stormfly had fought against all the way to Berk, had been very rough and had slowed them down considerably, but on the return journey every gust of the tailwind knocked the poor dragon and her rider around the sky like a feather. This made flying extremely difficult for Stormfly and she found it very hard to keep her altitude up. Every time they came anywhere near to the clouds, the wind would send the dragon and rider tumbling over and they would begin to fall back down toward the untamed sea below, until the determined dragon would finally manage to right herself and begin to climb once more.

Stormfly knew that this journey was important to the girl on her back, or why else would they be there? Why would they have taken the perilous flight through the dark and stormy night, just to see a short woman with a tiny dragon, if it had not been of vital importance? And why would they have left the strange wooden cave which the humans liked to build, with its warm fire and inviting host, just to carry a bigger load back to Dragon Island?

The many different breeds of dragon have many different attributes and personalities, and Astrid was discovering that Deadly Nadders were very agreeable when they were treated well. Like most Nadders, Stormfly like to keep herself in good condition by washing in the sea, or in any handy river she happened to be passing. She would also spend any of her spare time (not that there was much with a giant angry dragon threatening her life on a daily basis) preening around her spines and quills, so it was very rare to find a Nadder infested with any parasites.

Nadders were also very intelligent and were quite capable of observing, and then reasoning with the information that they had at hand. Stormfly had noticed many things about both the girl, and the boy with the fish including the following; the boy was kind, but the girl was fierce like all the other Vikings. The boy had done something to all the smaller people, and now they were kind too. The boy and girl had taken her back to her home, along with all the other imprisoned dragons and their riders. When they had arrived, he had helped a black dragon who was bound and gagged. The boy had then saved Stormfly and the girl from being eaten, and then followed that up by destroying the giant dragon and freeing them all.

When all of this was over, Stormfly had seen Fish Boy once more and he was badly hurt. Stormfly could see that one of his legs was gone and it made her very sad, for now he would die. She did not want him to die, but that is what would happen to a dragon that was unfortunate enough to lose a leg, a wing or a tail. The girl had followed as the injured boy was taken into a cave, but had run back to Stormfly an hour or so later and their journey back to Berk had begun.

The dragon had given much thought to all of these observations, and had concluded that this journey must be for the benefit of Fish Boy. Then Stormfly remembered that some of the other Vikings were also missing legs, and had replaced them with pieces of wood or metal, so she came to the logical conclusion that inside the pack that she carried, was Fish Boys new leg. This was not a bad piece of reasoning, and although the dragon would never know that she was completely wrong, she had managed to come pretty darn close.

The warmth of the fire rocks inside the cave, were a welcoming change to the wind and rain that Stoick the Vast had been standing in ever since the sun had set eight hours ago. The form of the fires had been changed once again because the Deadly Nadder and Monstrous Nightmare that had made the rocks glow red hot, were no longer present. The first had flown back to Berk with Astrid, and the other had been sent to the aid of the small group of Vikings who would remain separated from the tribe until morning.

Fortunately for all concerned there were three more dragons present, but the Night Fury that lay near the cave entrance was still badly wounded, and gas from the Zippleback could blow up the cave entirely. Fortunately the Gronckle was more than happy to get all the praise and attention for helping out. The only problem was that unlike most dragons, Gronckles don't breathe fire very often, so when the hot rocks had begun to cool the brown bulbous dragon was simply taken to each campfire and allowed to eat the rocks; thus enabled it to create the molten lava that now kept the Vikings cosy and warm.

A strong gust of wind suddenly hit Stormfly from above and caused her to drop like a stone until she managed to fly out of the downdraught and level off. Although Astrid was incredibly cold and beginning to feel ill from all the rising and falling, she did feel very satisfied that she and Stormfly had managed to fight the headwind all the way to Berk, and now had survived the buffeting tailwind on the return journey.

Stoicks yak fur cape was rolled up and bound in front of Astrid providing her some protection from being thrown face first onto the back of Stormfly's neck with every change in the wind. Astrid could tell that the weary dragon was finding it harder and harder to go on with every beat of her wings, but they were almost back to Dragon Island, and then they could both rest. A blinding flash filled the air followed closely behind by the crashing sound of thunder causing Astrid to almost jumped out of her skin; she was so surprised by the lightning, that in the bright and brief light she failed to notice that the wind had begun to drop slightly. As the second bolt of lightning went streaking from cloud to cloud, it lit up Stormfly so brightly, that she appeared to Astrids eyes as if she was glowing and the young girl was awestruck by the sheer beauty of the sight, but in that same light she also noticed that the satchel had fallen open on one side and slipping out of the top was the stone bottle that Hiccup needed so much.

Astrid gave a cry of panic; she grabbed for the bottle as it slipped from the bag and began to tumble through the air. The smooth surface was very wet and slippery and she found it hard to catch; with every touch of her fingers, she only succeeded in pushing it further away. The desperate girl's brow furrowed with grim determination as she reached for the tumbling bottle. When the large round cork came into contact with her fingertips, one of her nails caught on its rough surface; so with a slight flick of her wrist she brought the vessel a little closer. This new advantage was all that was needed as she moved in her hands to steady the still spinning target and finally managed to grip it firmly and bring it close to her. With a sigh of relief, Astrid held the bottle tightly to her chest determined never to let go of it again as she plunged down toward the sea.

The long journey and buffeting wind had definitely taken its toll on Stormfly and the weary dragon felt that she could not go on much longer. The lightning had flashed for a second time when to Stormflys surprise and horror, she felt the girl slip from her back and saw her disappear into the night.

The dragon's loud screech pierced the darkness as she dipped her head, folded her wings and dove headlong down toward the falling girl, but the large pack tied to Stormfly's back interrupted the air flow over her body and slowed her down considerably and much to the dragons frustration the girl was not attempting to slow her fall, but was streaking through the sky as straight as an arrow. The distance between the two seemed to grow larger as they fell, but Stormfly was not willing to just give up and lose the friend who had come to mean so much to the dragon in only two days. Stormfly strained and stretch herself thinner to cut through the wind, but it was to no avail until finally, the girl suddenly brought in her limbs and rolled into a ball thus slowing her decent to the point that the two began to draw closer together. Stormfly's head moved over the tumbling girl as another flash of light lit up the scene below; the dragon could see waves crashing on an island shore that was coming rapidly closer; she dipped her head and rolled forward pushing the girl back into her waiting claws. The dragon completed her roll with the girl safely secured; she threw out her wings, but was too late. As she began to slow up, a large wave hit her firmly in the face as the shore rushed toward them. In a desperate but impressive move, Stormfly brought her legs up under her chin and placed the girl as gently as she could onto the beach before coming down with a tumbling crash, rolling to a halt ten yards away.

Astrid had felt the claws closing around her, as well as the rapid deceleration; the wave strike followed, as well as the abrupt halt on the beach. As another flash of lightning lit up the island, she saw her dragon painfully rolling away up the beach and coming to rest against a large rock. Picking herself up and slipping the bottle into one of the deep inner pockets of her coat, Astrid staggered up the beach to the dazed dragon and lifted up its head in her arms.

"Stormfly, are you alright?"

She stroked the dragons face and a soft birdlike chirrup emitted from the frail beast.

"Oh Stormfly, I am so sorry. Thank you... thank you... good girl."

Placing the dragons head gently in her lap, Astrid continued to comfort Stormfly as they rested together under the curved, eroded rock face at the top of the beach.

Why do you think that there are millions more cat videos on the net than there are for other animals? Obviously we are cuter and it is also plain to see that we are funnier and more entertaining, and yet people everywhere spend so much time putting us cats down, as well as the people who do like us.

Consider the following terms in wide spread use:
Dog Lover
Bird Fancier
Horse Officianardo
Crazy Cat Lady

Really? Why is someone assumed to be crazy if they like cats? Look at me for example; I'm cute and I enjoy the company of people. It may be true that I once tried to carry out a plan to destroy the computers of everyone who reads Marty's stories, and I did have a large stockpile of futuristic weaponry at my disposal but hey; a Kitty's gotta do what a Kitty's gotta do and if a few thousand people get inconvenienced and many of them get hurt then... hmm... I haven't really made my case have I?

Bye for now, Moon. =^..^=