HTTYD: Dragon Girl

Chapter 12: Out of the Bag

The semifinals. The day I was dreading above anything else. It's here.

The crowd cheers loudly, filling me with even more fear. The entire village has turned out to watch us perform.

Us-- that is to say, me and Keegan. We're the top students, the ones who are competing for the "honor" of killing the Flaming Drakon.

Keegan's only gotten more competitive as time goes on, especially since the chief's just returned from a failed quest to find the dragons' nest. He doesn't want me to show him up in front of his father.

Before we entered the arena, Keegan pulled me aside, spear in hand and hard anger in his eyes. "Stay out of my way," he growled menacingly. "I'm winning this."

I'm not sure where Keegan is now. Probably lying in wait for the Norkon we're facing. He can ace this test, for all I care.

Actually, he can't. By the time he jumps out, the Norkon lies still at my feet, completely subjected by my scratching on its neck. But it probably looks much different from Keegan's perspective.

Only when Unferth cheers my name do I realize the terrible mistake I've made.

"We're leaving," I announce to the apparently-empty clearing nearly an hour later. "C'mon out, girl. Looks like you and me are taking a vacay. Should be fun, right? Might be so fun we won't come back for about... ever."

Maybe running away is the cowardly thing to do. But I just can't face this. I can't kill a dragon. I proved that when I freed Brightwing all those weeks ago. But nobody else knows about that. I can't show my weakness in front of the whole village.

I still don't see Brightwing, so I decide to double-check my pack. It's full of mostly just food, but I do have some personal belongings that Unferth discovered after finding me in the woods five years ago. There's a belt buckle shaped like a skull, a few blank journals, and a little wood-carved dragon crest strung on a necklace. But the one I'm most attached to, which I remove now, is a map. Not just any map, but one of a place I've never seen before. The main part is a large island that I can only say is not Skaldi, but other, smaller bits of paper have been stuck all around it, adding smaller islands with funny names, like "Itchy Armpit."

Maybe if I can find one of these islands, I can find where I came from. I'll be far enough away from Skaldi that they'll never find me.

I hear something from behind me, but it's not Brightwing landing. It's the sound of a whetstone scraping across a blade.

I spin around and jump. "Keegan!" I exclaim, startled to see him sitting casually on a rock behind me, like he's been there all day. "What-- what are you doing here?"

Keegan drops the stone and examines his spear. "I wanna know what's going on." He hops down from the rock and stalks toward me with an air of mixed nonchalance and intimidation. "No one just gets as good as you. Especially you. Start talking."

"I-- I--" I stutter, backing away from him. "I don't know..."

I don't know why I'm blushing! Gods, that's embarrassing!

"Better not have anything to do with this." Keegan kicks my pack distastefully.

"I know, I know," I say. "This looks really bad, but--"

A stick snaps somewhere off to my left, and Keegan gasps and pushes me down, staring intently in the direction the sound originated from.

"Okay, okay!" I say, clambering to my feet and trying desperately to regain Keegan's attention. "You got me. I'm done lying. I've been... training out here! Yep, that's it. So, why don't you drag me back, rat me out..." I grab his hand and try to redirect him to the way back to the village.

He grabs my arm and twists it painfully behind my back. "That's for lying," he says flatly. "And that's for everything else."

"Ow!" I yelp as he twists my arm even more. "Okay, okay, I'm sorry!"

A squawk comes from the bushes. Keegan lets go of me, and to my horror, Brightwing emerges from the dark foliage.

Keegan gasps. "Get down!" He jumps me and pins me down.

Brightwing screeches at his roughness and charges toward us. Keegan picks up his spear and prepares to plunge it into her chest.

"No!" I shout, clamoring to my feet. I tear the spear out of Keegan's hands and jump in front of him as Brightwing rears up on her hind legs. "Woah, girl!" I say, trying to calm her. "Easy! Don't worry; he's a friend."

Brightwing slowly lowers herself to the ground, my soothing seeming to do the trick, though she doesn't take her eyes off of Keegan, who's staring at me in shocked terror. I rub Brightwing's head softly and look at him. "You scared her."

"I scared her?!" Keegan says disbelievingly, his voice about an octave higher than usual. Then he stops and gives me a strange look, like I've just asked him to put his hand in Brightwing's mouth. "Her? "

"Umm..." This is not how I imagined today would go. "Keegan, Brightwing. Brightwing, Keegan."

I give Brightwing a pointed look, which she completely ignores. She hisses at Keegan, as though daring him to take another step toward her.

Keegan seems at a loss for words. He opens and closes his mouth soundlessly, like a fish out of water.

"It's bad, I know," I say. "But, you know... well, it's kind of a long story..."

Keegan is still silent, seeming incapable of speech. He shakes his head at me wordlessly, then turns and runs.