Zephyr exited the freezing cold, stepping inside her home. Snow hadn't fallen yet, but it was sure on its way, which meant her father was spending even more time in the Great Hall. Even worse was that she had to train with her brother, and he was…better than her. Course, he did have more practice than her, but he was only twelve! Anyway, it didn't matter because she was more interested in flying dragons.
Zephyr climbed the stairs to her room. Inside were a bed and a desk. Drawings of dragons crowded the walls. She could recite all their names by heart. She had drawings of Toothless, Burst, Stormfly, a Whispering Death, a Monstrous Nightmare, a Scoldren, and of course the Nightlights.
Zephyr heard footsteps and turned around to see who it was. Nuffink, of course. When would he learn to just leave her alone? She'd spent all morning training with him, and soon the teasing would start. Just like his friend Spearhead. That girl was so arrogant. It made Zephyr want…want to…well, yell or punch something. That was the truth.
Before Nuffink could say a word Zephyr spoke.
"Nuffink, get out of my room," she said, standing up.
Nuffink didn't budge. "But I wa—"
"I said 'get out!'" Zephyr yelled.
"Fine," Nuffink said, annoyed. "Guess I won't invite you to my and Spearhead's dragon ball match."
"Nuffink, I—" Zephyr stammered.
"Fourlegs is playing too. Oh, well," Nuffink said before solemnly walking out of the room.
Zephyr sat around for a while. She started more dragon drawings. She sat on her bed thinking about dragons. She went through her boxes of stuff. There was an old wooden knife she had carved, a script to one of the old, well older, Snoggletog pageants, and ten almost perfectly circular wooden balls with the initials "Z H" carved on them. Those were her balls for dragon ball.
Zephyr sighed. She would have to just suck it up and go. Zephyr grabbed eight of the balls, put them in a leather bag, hurried downstairs, and rushed through the door out into the bitter cold.
Zephyr ran through the trees in the forest nearest to town until she reached a pond glimmering in the sunlight. The dark forest past the pond was known as the dragon ball forest.
Zephyr tried to ignore the twisting shadows as she passed into the dark forest. After all, they were probably just the silhouettes of overlapping trees. There weren't any enemies hiding out here. Her parents were wrong; no one would ever attack New Berk with her dad in charge. Stories of her father and dragons were still told even miles away from New Berk, though everyone who knew that the stories were true insisted they were just myths. To protect the dragons. At least that's what her father said.
Those shadows were looking an awful lot like humans though…
"Nuffink," Zephyr spoke into the silence. "I know it's you."
"Finally decided to show up?" Nuffink said stepping out from behind a tree.
"Why do have to blow our cover every single time?" Spearhead yelled from behind another tree. "If you'd just stay put, we could actually scare her for once." Spearhead slid out of the tree's shadow. "But 'no.' You feel sorry for your older sister. She's four years older than you! Give her what she deserves."
"Where's Fourlegs?" Zephyr asked.
"That's why we're out here," Spearhead answered. "He got lost, again."
"We were searching for him until Spearhead decided to try to scare you," Nuffink said. "Which I told her wasn't going to work."
"You mean you left Fourlegs out there alone?" Zephyr asked.
"That kid could make the wolves play dragon ball for him," Spearhead said.
"No animal would think to harm him," Nuffink added.
"If he went anywhere, it's to the pond," Zephyr said. "But while I was passing through I didn't…" Zephyr started sprinting to the pond, then slowed it to a walk. They weren't going to be attacked. Her parents were wrong, too used to defending their dragons, and on New Berk there were no dragons. So, why would anyone attack them?
"Zephyr!" someone yelled behind her.
"Fourlegs!" Zephyr turned and saw her friend. "What have you been doing?"
He mumbled something she couldn't hear.
"Come on. Spearhead and Nuffink are waiting for us."
Fourlegs caught up to Zephyr, walking next to her.
"Where were you?" Zephyr asked.
"At the pond. You ran by but didn't notice me," Fourlegs said quietly. He was always timid. Never spoke out loud in public, which is maybe why the animals liked him? Being so quiet he could have been really good at dragon ball, if he could've run fast enough. So, he was just, average.
"The key to dragon ball is speed," Nuffink said. "And today we play a match of two against two. The rules are simple: get all of your team's balls into the hole in the tree with the Viking helmet carved on it."
"We've played this before," Spearhead chastised him. "I want Fourlegs on my team."
Nuffink saw Zephyr shaking her head at him. It was a good strategy, but Spearhead could get rather competitive, and yell-y. Fourlegs was too quiet to defend himself against her.
"Actually, Spearhead, you and me are on the same team," Nuffink said.
"Okay. But that's making it harder for the old people," Spearhead said. "It'll be hard for Zephyr to keep up."
"You might be surprised," Zephyr growled.
"Okay," Nuffink said. "Let's start! Each team head to your starting tree. Team Z-F, you get the west tree. Spearhead, we get east."
Spearhead nodded and started walking to the east tree. Nuffink ran to catch up, looking back to see Fourlegs and Zephyr fade into the distance. Nuffink didn't pay attention to anything Spearhead said as they walked. He kept his eyes on the shadows.
He was probably just being paranoid, but the rumors about war were…unsettling. He had told Spearhead about them this morning, but she just laughed. They shouldn't have gone out into the forest at all. What if they were attacked?
Zephyr crouched into her starting position, leaning forward with a ball marked Z H, waiting for the horn to sound. Each team had to sound a horn to let the other team know they were ready. Sort of like a war horn to warn people of an attack, except it had a completely different sound.
The game horn echoed through the trees.
Fourlegs hurried over to their team's game horn. He whispered, "Be careful."
"I'm always careful," Zephyr said. "Enough."
"No, I mean really consider being careful this time. Usually you sprint off like a berserker and I'm just worried you're going to break your leg or something. Seems leg issues run in your fam—"
"Just because my dad has a peg leg doesn't mean that leg issues run in my family! He was fighting a drago—"
"We're not supposed to talk about them."
"No one's spying on us, Fourlegs. Just sound the game horn."
"Be careful." Fourlegs sounded the horn. Zephyr took off through the trees, almost tripping over a vine and careening into a bush. "Zephyr," he groaned. She darted over rocks and to the side of a gathering of trees, dashing through the shadows and underbrush. A clearing appeared, and a figure—Spearhead.
Spearhead always exuded an air of arrogance. She didn't listen to anything but praise. Did she work to get it? Yes. Work hard till she was sweaty and sore? No. But she insisted she was better than everyone else.
"Sorry, Zephyr," she called from across the clearing. "But I'm the dragon when it comes down to us two."
"You haven't even seen one," Zephyr mumbled under her breath. She was faster and reaching the Viking helmet tree quicker. She was going to make it first! Spearhead glared at her, readied the ball in her hand, and threw it! Zephyr was prepared to dodge but someone crouched down next to the Viking helmet tree stood up. The ball wacked him hard in the head and he tumbled over.
"Owww," he moaned. He had red hair and…it was Booboo. Of course.
"Arggh!" Spearhead yelled as she stomped over to him. "Why do you always feel a need to get in the way of things."
"He wasn't. That's a foul. You threw the ball at me!" Zephyr shouted.
"What's a game without people occasionally cheating?" Spearhead said dismissively as she picked up her ball and dropped it into the hole carved into the tree. She took off back through trees towards her team's starting point.
Zephyr angrily hurled her ball into the hole. She looked down at Booboo, who had a hand to his head.
"Need any help?" Zephyr asked, extending her hand.
"Nah," Booboo replied, standing up. "I was just wondering why there was a helmet carved into that tree."
"It's for dragon ball. Never played?" Zephyr asked.
"My parents give me chores to do, no free time. Which means I need to keep collecting logs. Bye." He walked away into the woods.
Zephyr started heading back to her team's tree, but something on the horizon caught her eye. Ships, at least eight of them, were heading to New Berk. They weren't merchant ships. They could be the missing fishing ships! She was relieved and proud that she was right all along. Who would attack New Berk?
"My parents are going to be so surprised when I tell them…" Zephyr said to herself as she ran. "…Or I could keep it a secret till they arrive. Then they'll have the proof to believe me."
Zephyr reached their base where Fourlegs was waiting.
"Did Spearhead cause more trouble?" Fourlegs asked.
"Yep," Zephyr said as she blew the game horn. Fourlegs ran with his ball, though he was taking his dear, sweet time. "This means war!"
