When everyone woke up the next day, they quickly ate breakfast and immediately mounted their dragons afterward. Fourlegs had avoided Zephyr during breakfast, or, really, Zephyr had avoided him. She was trying to ignore the fact that he liked her, but it wasn't working. She didn't want Fourlegs to think she liked him, not like that, but she still wanted to be friends. She didn't hate romance, but she certainly wasn't planning on falling in love any time soon. In summary, it was complicated. Really, really complicated.
They landed on the island that Zephyr and her dad had seen when they were searching. Snow and ice covered the island, making it seem so quiet. Peaceful. Eerily so.
They walked through banks of snow, their dragons following them. Zephyr yawned. She had woken up so early, well, earlier than she did on New Berk. Her parents had never mentioned the lack of sleep they suffered on adventures, or maybe they had and she hadn't listened. It turned out there were downsides to saving dragons.
Zephyr looked up at the cloudy sky. They were getting close to Shadow Streak; she could feel it. Actually, her feelings had gotten her in a whole heck of a lot of trouble, so maybe she shouldn't trust her feelings. Then a wisp of grey appeared, floating upwards into the sky—smoke.
"Where's that smoke coming from?" Zephyr called out to everyone else walking ahead.
The group stopped and peered at the sky.
"That…" her father began, "that might be from an enemy camp. Everyone get back on your dragons."
"An enemy camp?" Zephyr exclaimed, hopping up behind her mother on Stormfly.
"An enemy camp?" Spearhead echoed, nervously climbing up on Slasher.
"Yeah," Zephyr's father said. "This might get dangerous. We need to make sure Fourlegs, Spearhead, Booboo, and Nuffink are safe before we scout it out. Get on your dragons and we'll find a safe place for you."
Zephyr's father flew them to a more remote part of the island with a smattering of trees.
"I'm ready," Zephyr said eagerly when the others had dismounted, gripping Stormfly's reins. Her mother was letting her borrow her dragon again.
"Wait," Nuffink said. "Dad, I want to go too."
"No," their father replied from Toothless' back. "It's too dangerous, Nuffink. You've already been hurt enough." Nuffink's neck still was still wrapped in a bandage.
"First thing," Nuffink said, approaching their father, "Zephyr barely knows how to hold a dagger. Second, I'm fine." Nuffink untied the cloth around his neck. "I don't even need this anymore."
"You're not going," their father restated.
"Please," Nuffink asked. "If you're taking Zephyr to sneak around enemy camps, then take me too."
"Nuffink, I'm not letting you go; you're too young."
"I might only be twelve, but I'm more prepared for this than most people would be."
"You are prepared, and that's good, but I'm still not letting you go."
"Then why are you even taking Zephyr?" Nuffink asked. "Because she actually saw me being kidnapped a few minutes before you arrived to rescue me and she did nothing about it."
Their father looked at Zephyr.
Zephyr sighed. "It's true."
"Dad," Nuffink said. "I'm ready. I can handle this."
Their father looked to their mother.
"You've got to admit, he has a point," their mother said. "He's also great with a dagger."
"Fine," their father sighed. "You can come."
Nuffink excitedly remounted Claw. As they took off, Zephyr noticed Nuffink's neck. A scar stretched wide across the right side of it. Zephyr knew he had been injured, but she hadn't expected he would be scarred.
Why did her awful choices have to result in such life-changing consequences?
Zephyr, Nuffink, and their parents landed softly on the island near where the smoke had appeared. They quietly climbed off their dragons. The smoke came from somewhere to the northwest. Zephyr hurried into a swath of trees. They commanded their dragons to stay behind. It would be pretty hard to sneak up on anyone with dragons in tow.
"Zephyr," Nuffink hissed as they crept along, "quiet down."
"I'm not making any noise," Zephyr protested.
"You're moving too fast. You need to sneak," Nuffink said. "Step lightly on the snow. And would you mind whispering?"
"Oh," Zephyr whispered. "Okay."
They crept lightly in the shadows of trees. Zephyr hoped they would reach whatever camp was ahead soon. Sneaking along so slowly was hard. Maybe she should just burst into the camp and take its occupants by surprise— no, she wouldn't do that. Sneaking was tedious but it was what needed to be done.
Suddenly they heard voices. Everyone crouched towards the ground. Zephyr's father moved ahead even more slowly. She followed behind him and her brother.
Then, through the trees, they caught sight of a camp. Several warriors surrounded it. Zephyr laid flat following her father and brother's example. Her father whispered back at her. "I recognize their tribal symbol. These are the Vikings who attacked New Berk."
Zephyr's heart leaped into her throat. They were going to find Shadow Streak. They were about to get her back.
Two warriors at the edge of the forest nearest them were hauling a tree trunk. Its branches had been chopped off. One of them stopped and wiped at his sweaty forehead.
"Come on," the other side said. "We need to collect enough wood by tonight to take back home."
"Why do we need it anyway?" the first one asked.
"For a new ship, numbskull. We need to replace the one we lost before we go back to that island we attacked."
"You mean New Berk?" the first one inquired.
"I guess. It's such a confusing name. Honestly, why would you call something 'new'?"
"Because there was probably an island before it."
"Then they should have just picked a different name. Just adding 'new' to it doesn't make the name rememberable."
Zephyr thought New Berk was a good name for her home. She strained her ears. Would they mention Shadow Streak?
"So," the first one said, reluctantly taking hold of one end of the tree trunk again. "When do we get another break?"
"We just took a break," the other warrior said. "The chief wants all this wood loaded up by tonight so can get out of here tomorrow morning, and we're already behind. No more extra breaks. You know how mad he gets."
"Yeah. I don't want to end up on the wrong end of his sword. Or that new weapon he has."
"Heard anything new about it?"
"Well, it's alive. They had trouble chaining it up and have no clue how to use it. We should have left it behind if you ask me."
"No one did ask you!" The warrior lifted his end of the trunk. "Doesn't matter anyway. Let's just get this thing down to the shore."
The warriors grunted and groaned, hauling the trunk along as fast as they could.
Zephyr's nerves tingled. The weapon they'd mentioned, they'd said it was…alive. The weapon had to be Shadow Streak. Shadow Streak was alive! Zephyr's father motioned for them to move back. They snuck back through the trees until they reached their dragons.
Once they had taken to the air, Zephyr shouted her excitement. "She's alive! They haven't killed her or let them ride her! Shadow Streak's alive!"
Nuffink smiled at her delight.
"They said they would be taking their tree trunk haul back to their main base tomorrow morning," their father said. "Zephyr, in the morning, we'll track the ship."
Zephyr sat on the shore of the island, back where they had camped the night before. She watched her friends and parents soar through the sky. They'd started practicing exercises together that Zephyr had never taught them and they were doing very well. Booboo had almost been accidently shot a few times, but he managed. And Spearhead was honestly pretty good at flying. Surprisingly, she seemed to be bonding with her dragon.
Zephyr had been trying not to look at Fourlegs flying through the air. If she did, Nuffink might think that she liked him. Of course, maybe not watching Fourlegs would make Nuffink more suspicious. She hadn't realized knowing that someone liked you would make things so overly complicated.
Zephyr turned her attention to her brother and her parents. They flew the best of course, but all her friends were becoming better dragon riders. Soon, she would be flying along with them—on Shadow Streak.