The Night Rider: Book Two

Chapter 6: The Girl

HICCUPS/ NIGHT RIDERS POV.
1 Day Earlier

By the time Hiccup and Toothless were circling the island the sky was already an inky black. And Hiccup was fairly certain his dragon hated him. After Hiccup had received the note from the person who he had come to this island to meet with he had left his home immediately. Which meant from their arrival home from the ship raid and then receiving the note Toothless had only had about an hour of sleep, and then he had flown Hiccup across the entire Archipelago to this island. To put it simply, Hiccup was afraid Toothless would drop from the sky due to exhaustion.

"Hey bud, what do you think about landing for a bit?" He asked and Toothless didn't even usher a dragony response not even an exhausted growl, instead Toothless just outstretched his wings fully to catch the wind as best he could and drifted lazily down to the islands surface. The island wasn't to large like Berk or like his own but it wasn't small. It was raised from the ocean floor like a giant sea stack covered with large trees with golden leaves. Toothless touched down in a small clearing on the south side of the circular island and laid down in the grass and by the time Hiccup dismounted and took a quick gander at his friend his eyes lids had already slipped over his eyes and he purred softly.

Hiccup looked up to the moon's position above him, it was around nine pm maybe. Hiccup looked around  although he couldn't see anything due to the darkness.

"She said she'd meet me here..." Hiccup murmured to himself quietly. He listened to the sounds from the forest, the rustling of the leaves, the splashes of fish in a pound that he couldn't see. She must not be here yet. Weird. She wasn't usually late and meeting up had been her idea. Hiccup shrugged off her tardiness and decided to settle in. He walked over to Toothless's saddle and opened up a rectangular saddle bag pulling out his helmet. Hiccup dawned it concealing his face, the person he was supposed to meet here he hadn't seen in years, not since the first hunter war and even though they had fought on the same side against Vigo and his hunters he didn't exactly know this person too well. And didn't quiet trust them with his identity.

The Night Rider pulled more equipment from various saddle bags on Toothless's saddle moving carefully as to not wake his friend. From Toothless's saddle bags he pulled a small flint stone and a bundle of kindling. He walked over to an old fire pit from around three years ago, inside the ring of stones there were old burnt out logs and dust from previous fires. The Night Rider removed the old burnt logs and placed in new sticks and small branches building them into a teepee like structure placing the kindling in the center.

The Night Rider pulled out his dagger and placed the tip of it into the kindling striking the blade with the piece of flint illuminating the darkness if only temporary with the orange light from the sparks. With a few more strikes the kindling took a flame which quickly began to infect the smaller pieces of wood and after a few moments it spread to the largest pieces. The Night Rider returned his dagger to its sheath and settled down by the fire in a comfortable position. The light from the fire danced elegantly across the surrounding tree's creating a calming ambiance.

The Night Rider zoned into the flickering flames of the fire the exhaustion of the war tempting him to slip into a comfortable sleep. The heat from the fire seeped into his armor warming him like he was under a blanket allowing a yawn to have been able to slip out of his mouth. He slipped his thumb and pointer finger of his right hand through the slits in his helmet tiredly rubbing his eyes yawning again.

A crunch in the woods made his head snap up, the flames of the fire were smaller and the sky seemed darker, the stars more prominent. Had he fallen asleep? The Night Rider stood up and turned towards were he had heard the noise come from. His hand found its way down to the hilt of his sword and he drew it with a satisfying swoosh. He made his way slowly towards Toothless giving his friend a slight kick in the side of the head to wake him.