Zephyr settled down on a rock as she took in her surroundings. Last night, they had picked this small island as their stopping point. Her father had gone hunting and brought back food. They were doing good so far…well, except for last night's incident. Booboo had managed to bump into a tree that contained a wasp nest. The nest fell and they barely escaped, except for Booboo: he had been stung 35 times. Which was pretty good for him since the nest probably was home to hundreds. They had switched camps.
They hadn't been attacked by the enemy yet, but they had to stay on guard. And Zephyr kept worrying someone, who was currently making a noisy racket not too far away, would hurt her dragon because she was being way too aggressive. Spearhead had tied Slasher's saddle way too tight and kept yelling at the dragon, who had changed to yellow and was running away from Spearhead.
"Yelling at her isn't going to help," Zephyr's mother said to Spearhead.
"How do you know it isn't?" Spearhead argued. "How do you even know my dragon is a girl?"
Spearhead had woken up cranky as ever. She kept complaining that her back hurt from sleeping on hard ground.
Nuffink had gone with their father to search for more food. Fourlegs had remained pretty quiet all morning. And Booboo was rubbing an icicle on his wasp stings.
"When are dad and Nuffink going to get back?" Zephyr asked her mother nervously.
"Once they find food, of course," her mother said. "But they have been gone for a while…"
Fortunately, Toothless and Claw soon appeared in the sky zipping towards them. The dragons landed and her father and brother immediately rushed over to their camp. They didn't have any food.
"What happened?" Zephyr's mother asked.
"We found an enemy ship!" Nuffink said. "It was on the shore. There were tons of burn marks all over it."
"Could Shadow Steak have escaped?" Zephyr asked hopefully.
"I don't think so," Zephyr's father said. "We investigated and…"
"Did you bring any food?" Spearhead asked.
"No," Nuffink replied hurriedly. "But we found dragon pawprints on the shore."
"Shadow Streak probably did try to escape, but she couldn't. It looks like they transferred her to another of their ships when she burned parts of the other one. There were several pawprints surrounded by footprints and drag marks that led to the ocean. I would guess they found a way to muzzle her and tie her."
Zephyr's heart skipped a beat and then her blood boiled. They had muzzled her dragon? Tied her dragon? She was going to kill them all! She stamped over to her mother's dragon. "Let's get going," she snapped.
Spearhead grumbled as everyone mounted their dragons, though she climbed up on Slasher as well, and they took off once more.
They flew for a few hours. No more evidence of Shadow Streak or the enemy ships appeared. The waves crashed below. Zephyr fidgeted behind her mother. If she were on her own dragon she would have searched from The Hidden World to Old Berk by now! She hated not being able to direct the dragon she was riding.
"I'm hungry," Spearhead complained for the fifteenth time.
"I need more icicles," Booboo said.
"Maybe we should try a little farther south?" Zephyr suggested.
"We can stop and make camp for the night," her father said. "Nuffink and I will hunt for lunch."
"Okay," Zephyr's mother agreed.
"That island looks suitable," Zephyr's father said, pointing to an island that wasn't completely frosted over.
They swooped down.
Right after lunch, Zephyr and her father flew off to scout for more signs of Shadow Streak. Fourlegs watched them fly away, then Zephyr's mother called out, ordering them to mount their dragons. Everyone complied. Zephyr's mother began instructing them in the finer points of dragon riding. Fishmeat was the slowest dragon, but Booboo and his baby dragon were the ones doing most poorly. The baby dragon had crashed into sea stacks multiple times. As if Booboo wasn't hurt enough with all his wasp stings.
Fourlegs leaned forward on Fishmeat. Fishmeat wasn't as fast as all the others, but at least he could arc round the sea stack and back without bumping it or being yelled at like Spearhead.
Spearhead was…not treating her dragon as nicely as she could. Or anyone else for that matter. She practically strangled her dragon trying to stay on. Her mood against the mission had not improved any since they had left.
As Fourlegs was making his lap around multiple sea stacks in zig-zag form, like Zephyr's mother had instructed them to, Spearhead's dragon turned blue and snapped at her. Zephyr's mother ordered everyone to hover, except Spearhead who she commanded to land immediately.
At least Fishmeat was good at hovering. Since Zephyr had gone with her dad to search, her mother had let Zephyr borrow her dragon. But Zephyr's mother didn't seem to have a hard time teaching from the island. She used Nuffink as her example when she needed to.
It was good Zephyr was out searching for signs of her dragon. She had been so not-Zephyr-like recently. At least that was from what Fourlegs could tell. It was also good she was getting to fly a dragon all by herself again, unless it was making her miss Shadow Streak more…
Zephyr's mother told Nuffink something. Soon he flew up, Spearhead flying behind him.
"Okay," Nuffink said. "This is what we're going to practice this time." Nuffink and Claw darted around the sea stack like in the first exercise, but shot it on their way back around. Then they swooped through the sea stacks like in the second exercise.
Booboo went first. His baby dragon rammed into the sea stack perfectly, while Booboo tried not to grimace. His baby dragon also managed to ram into the sea stacks on the way back, then at the end almost dropped down into the sea.
Spearhead was next. She did okay. She was nowhere near as good as Nuffink, but she definitely did better than poor Booboo. At the end she muttered, "Good job, Slasher," to her dragon. She must have been told to do that. Her dragon had still been blue, but with her encouraging words it changed to purple again.
Fourlegs was last. He leaned in on Fishmeat and flew forward as fast as he could. He fired at the sea stack, just barely hitting it, then weaved his way through the sea stacks again. He emerged unscathed.
"Good job, Fourlegs," Nuffink said.
Fourlegs thought maybe he wouldn't die in a battle. He hadn't died last time but he attributed that to pure luck. They weren't planning to actually go into battle with their dragons again, but it was reassuring to know that his and Fishmeat's skills were good enough they could maybe survive if they did.
Zephyr skimmed across the ocean. Her mother had let her borrow Stormfly for the search. Stormfly wasn't Shadow Streak, but she felt good flying a dragon again. Zephyr and her father were headed back to the island they had camped on. She could see it in the distance.
They had been searching all day and hadn't found any signs of Shadow Streak or the enemy ships. Their search had reached a standstill. Zephyr flew up to some sea stacks just off the shore of a tiny islet. No burn marks. No pawprints. What could Shadow Streak's captors be doing to her right now? Did they know what to feed her? Was she even alive?
Zephyr sighed when she reached the end of the sea stacks.
"Zephyr," her father said, flying up next to her on Toothless. "Did you see anything?"
"No," she said.
"Well, at least we know they didn't stop here," her father remarked.
"I guess," Zephyr said.
"They could have stopped at that island over there," her father said, pointing to another island on the horizon. They hadn't flown that direction yet.
"Then let's go," Zephyr said, taking off.
"Wait, Zephyr," her father called out. "It's near sundown. We need to stop for the night. Everyone needs to rest including you."
Zephyr's first instinct was to ignore her dad and fly as fast as she could towards the island. But, she didn't. He was right. Zephyr reluctantly turned back towards the island and their camp.
"I want to find Shadow Streak as much as you do," her father assured as he flew close to her. "We'll start again first thing in the morning."
Zephyr nodded.
