Chapter Forty: Zhang -Part 2-
Josh had never flown a dragon before but he figured it couldn't be too different from riding a horse, could it?
Luckily Nightlight did most things on her own.
But when Josh was sure that the mist ahead got thinner he heard an agonizing scream from somewhere inside the mist.
He cursed.
Kate looked at him with frightened eyes.
"Was that…" "Hiccup? Sounded like him." "We have to save him." "We won't do anything. I will. You can barely stay awake right now. Let me handle it." "You handle it? Over my dead body." "Now is not the time. Maybe later. Just hold on." She nodded.
Josh steered Nightlight back into the mist. "Come on Hiccup, come on, where are you?" he whispered as his eyes darted around trying to spot his friend or his dragon.
"HICCUP!" he called.
It wasn't his friend but his dragon who answered.
Toothless roared and a plasma-bolt lit up the sky.
Nightlight darted for it and Josh just held on.
They broke through the mist and the sight was just…amazing.
Toothless hovered in midair, unable to fly away from the beast that flew in slow circles around him.
The dragon was big and bulky and had a skin that looked as thick and heavy as rock and was the color of dirty gold. It had no talons but tusks the size of Josh, curled like the ones of a wild boar. Its tail was as thick as its torso and had dull spikes that looked like hammers.
It snout looked like someone had punched it a bit too often. Its wings looked fairly normal.
The only …strange things were its eyes. They looked like maelstrom of red and gold. It made liking into its eyes difficult because he couldn't see any pupils.
So he did the only logical thing. He stared right into them.
This dragon was the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen.
The dragon still hadn't spotted him. Which was probably good so because all Josh could do was stare.
And stare.
Only its roar woke him from his trance.
The dragon beat its mighty wings and mist swirled around Hiccup, who sat bend over in the saddle. He was still conscious but he looked without seeing.
Josh was sure he was in no condition to train that dragon if the same thing happened to him as to Kate.
A very brief moment he wondered what actually had happened but he decided that he could figure that out later on. First of all he needed to survive and save his friends.
"Ah, dragon? Hello! Could you…not…eat my friend?" he yelled and waved with his arms.
The dragon turned around, its eyes fixing on him.
It opened its jaws impossibly wide and roared deafening at them.
"Wow, it that all you got?" Josh asked before he yelled back. "ARGGGGGGGHHHHHH!"
The dragon looked startled for a moment. What, this puny little human dared roaring back at him?
Again it screamed, loud and long.
"Nice one. But learn from the pro." Taking a deep breath he again roared at the top of his lungs.
Angered the dragon roared back again and for a while they both just roared at each other.
When they both ran out of breath something strange happened. Again.
The dragon floated closer and looked directly at him.
When it again opened its mouth again to roar, Josh cursed.
"This is not getting us anywhere!"
In one swift motion he pulled out his flute and placed his fingers on certain holes in the wood.
When he blew into the mouthpiece, the sound that emerged from the instrument was high, loud and hurt in his ears.
Before him Kate flinched and covered her ears while Nightlight shook her head in confusion.
But they weren't the only ones affected.
The wild dragon hollered loud but not in a competition. It was confused too and the sound was different.
Josh knew now that it reacted to sounds and different levels of frequency.
He had an idea how to calm the beast down.
He feared if it kept flying like this and swaging with its tail all around, he would probably hit one of them sooner or later.
He stopped the high tune and breathed uneven.
The dragon looked still confused and hadn't regained it's compose yet.
So Josh used its distraction.
He pressed Nightlights reins into Kates weak hands.
"Here, take over." "What are you doing?" she asked as he got to his feet. Something crazy. But later you will all say that it was brilliant!" "Really?" "Probably not." "Good luck." He smiled. "That I will need!"
Then he jumped.
He landed hard on the dragons back and he legs automatically closed around its body so he had a safe hold on it.
In the with light of the mist everything looked so unreal.
"It's already late! You should be in bed. How about a lullaby?" It was the only thing he could come up with in such a short time. Josh said and raised his flute again.
The tunes that left the wood were slow and calming yet hypnotizing.
His mom had taught it Josh when he had been old enough to understand its meaning. Josh had sung it every evening for his three little sisters while his mother played the flute.
It wasn't until many years later that he found out about the instruments magical nature. Played right, the music leaving the flute could make a person happy, sad, angry, sleepy, wake him or confuse him.
His mother had taught him all kind of songs when she had seen his potential. But of all this was his favorite. Maybe because it was his mothers and his sisters favorite too. His father of course never agreed on that, saying his only son and heir had to stop this stupid useless hobby of his and concentrate on becoming a great leader and soldier one day.
It was ironic that it was the magic of the flute that saved his live when their village had been raided by bandits from the south-shores.
It had made his attackers fall asleep in seconds.
But by then it was too late to save his family.
They all had died.
He'd been left with guilt and a flute.
Josh shook his head. Now was not the time to think about past mistakes. He had to do something to prevent future mistakes.
He'd promised Hiccup he would help him.
With determination he continued playing and the roaring of the dragon stopped.
It stopped spinning around like crazy. Its wing beats slowed down and it stopped with the roaring.
A little confused and disorientated it hovered in the air.
Josh sighed and lowered his flute. He patted the dragons neck. "There you go boy! That wasn't so bad, was it. Now help me with me friends. Something wrong with them. Well, more wrong than usual."
His little quarrel with the dragon had led him a bit away from his two friends but when they parted through the mist (for reasons unknown to him the dragon obeyed his orders and suddenly was as tame as a puppy) he saw Kate and Nightlight flying next to Toothless and Hiccup.
Hiccup looked better. He wasn't stiff as a lamppost anymore and Toothless wasn't hovering anymore. But they all looked exhausted and when Josh rode up to them it probably was too much.
"Josh? What are you doing?" Kate asked with a very weak voice.
Josh looked down and up again. "Ah…I am not sure I know what you are referring to." "I think she means the dragon." Hiccup suggested though his usual sarcasm was covered by a strange hoarseness in his voice.
Is eyes were bloodshot and he was shaking. Good god what was wrong with them? Josh felt fine.
"Ahm, I'm riding it." "You tamed it?" Kate asked? Hiccup flinched. "I'm actually not quite sure what happened. But yeah, he seems very tame."
"Can we talk about it later? Me for my part would like to crash somewhere and sleep." Hiccup said his eyes dropping.
"Good. I'm sure Zhang can show us the way." "Who?" Kate asked. "Zhang!" "You named that thing?" "You gave your dragon a name. Why can't I?" "You want to keep that?" "It's a him, right boy?" Josh said and added silently. "You are a boy, right?" Zhang luckily roared and did something that could count as a nod.
"Guys, can we settle this later?" Hiccup asked. "Yeah. Sure." said Kate silently and chewed on her lower lip, avoiding his eyes.
Josh frowned but decided to drop it for now.
"Hey buddy" he instead addressed his dragon "Do you know by any chance some nice taverns around here that are still opened in the middle of the night and have a spare room?"
The dragon didn't know any taverns with a spare room.
Instead he darted through the mist, totally confident, the others on his tail.
They soared a few minutes though the mist, before it started to dissolve and the dragon landed with w 'HUMP' in the surf of the island they had intended to land on.
Josh looked around. It was a relatively small island with a huge mountain with a pointy top.
But what amazed him was the white fist that entered through holes in the mountainside and flowed from there in all directions.
At the foot of the mountain the sight was all clear. But only a few hundred meters above them white smoke covered the sky.
Josh turned around when he heard the other two dragons land in the wet sand. "Let's find shelter." Kate suggested and together they rode inland.
They were seated around a big fire. The dragons lay behind their riders, all fast asleep.
Said riders were covered in blankets and slowly ate the stew Josh had hastily put together so they could warm up a bit.
Kate was avoiding Hiccups concerned glances and Hiccup probably didn't really realize it.
The silence was…awkward.
Josh clapped his hands together, which startled the others.
"So…anyone want to share what happened there?" "What do you mean?" Hiccup asked. "I mean those voices in the mist or wherever they came from." Josh said in 'duh'-voice.
Hiccups eyes widened and for a moment his tiredness fell.
"You mean you heard them too?"
"I did." Kate said silently. "I heard Kates. But not…well, mine…" "Yours?" Hiccup asked. "Well, those voices were talking to Kate…" "And Hiccup." "And they affected her." "And him." "And you both show the same symptoms of shock and fear. It's obvious that those…voices…do something to us. But I…well maybe I'm immune." "Or maybe not important enough."
He ignored Kate's objection. He knew she was just scared and didn't know what happened.
"Whatever the case, we can be glad about it. Otherwise I have the feeling we would be dinner." Hiccup said and looked over to the snoring Zhang. "How did you do it?" he asked.
Josh did see his attempt to change subjects. Hiccup clearly didn't want to talk about those voices. Well, he would still have too. Later.
Josh told them about their roaring contest.
"I thought he had lost it completely but here I stand corrected." Kate said. Hiccup nodded. Then he leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees.
You bonded with your dragon. I did something similar with Toothless. I danced through his drawing after he saw my drawing and I had to avert my eyes to show him I trusted him before I let him touch me. Zhang listened to your music and trusted that you wouldn't harm him. And you trusted Zhang not to go wild."
"I'm actually not quite sure what I was thinking. I was rather instinctually." "Mine too."
Kate leaned against Nightlight.
"But why and how? What's so special about that flute that it puts you to sleep?" she asked.
Josh fidgeted uncomfortably with his sleeves.
He'd never shown one the powers of the flute. Not even his father.
He'd been afraid that someone would steal it and use it for bad stuff.
He looked up and saw Hiccup staring intensively at him. His eyes looked darker in the firelight but so intimidating that he had to swallow.
"You used it before." Hiccup said silently.
"I remember now." Josh cursed. He'd hoped Hiccup wouldn't have realized it. "When you came to rescue me. From those knights in Barn. You put them to sleep with your music." Josh swallowed dryly.
"Yes." he confessed. He pulled out his flute and showed it to them.
"It belonged to my mother. She used to play to me and my siblings every evening to put us to sleep. She…she had the same ability as I have. Magic." He looked down. He expected them to call him a liar. Everybody knew about magic but everyone thought it was something only higher divine creatures could wield.
But nothing happened.
"What kind of magic?" Hiccup asked calmly. "I don't know. But I can affect everybody in every kind with my music. It's…dangerous. I never told anyone before." A few seconds there was silence.
"You did good doing so." Hiccup said after another we seconds.
"You're not the only one with magic."
Josh looked up. Hiccup had his hand extended as if to offer him to shake it.
While still looking at him a little flame suddenly appeared out of nothing on the back of his hand and it grew until it covered his whole hand.
Josh grinned at him.
"So you actually are hot!"
Kate groaned. "That joke is getting old." she complained.
But she still refused to look up.
"Let's continue talking tomorrow." Josh suggested. "Sounds good to me."
Hiccup was asleep in seconds and shortly before Kate followed him, he whispered: "We'll figure it out. I promised you that. It will be alright. Those weren't his words."
"I don't know what you are talking about." she whispered silently before slipping into sleep. "I mean your little crush on our friend here." He said silently. "Don't worry." He added even though he was sure she couldn't hear him.
AN: I know, three chapters at once, am I ill? That's actually true. Nasty cold and stuff. Well, enjoy!
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