How to Be a Dragon Star 1

Chapter Twenty-Two - Stranded

"What do you think they're going to decide?" Astrid asked.

Estrella smiled at her friend. The last hour or so had been very confusing and busy for everyone. Hiccup had been shuttled to one of the nurses, who was taking a look at him. Toothless had adamantly refused to allow any human to look him over, but grudgingly allowed Estrella to do so. He had suffered several minor burns, a broken leg on impact of hitting the ground, and had pulled several muscles in his wings. Estrella had revealed her human form, which caused much confusion in the case of the vikings. She had tried to explain this phenomenon without giving her backstory, and that had taken a while. Then, she had given the story of what had happened up in the clouds.

Finally, Stoick had called a council to decide what to do next, and Estrella had some time to herself.

"There's a lot to decide," Estrella said. "We lost all of our supplies, and we have no means of communicating with anyone back on Berk."

"I mean, you can go wherever you want," Astrid told her. "The rest of us are stranded here."

"It's not like I'm going to leave." Estrella leaned back, splaying her hands on the lava-rack boulder below her and staring out at the ocean.

No one spoke for a moment. Then Astrid sighed and continued, "I mean, it would be awesome if the dragons could just fly everyone back. But there's a lot of problems with that. It would take so long, it would tire the dragons very quickly, the dragons might not even be okay with it, the vikings have never flown before, and..."

"Are you just talking for the sake of talking?" Estrella asked her. "Because you're contradicting yourself."

Astrid shrugged. "At least the more urgent problem is taken care of." She turned to look at the Red Death's carcass.

"But now we're facing the less urgent problem, which is quickly becoming a priority," Estrella said. "Food and recovery."

Astrid pursed her lips. "I want to know what they're saying over there," she said, gesturing to Stoick's council. "They probably won't let teenagers in, though."

Estrella remembered the time when she had shrouded Hiccup from Stoick's view. "I've hidden others before, in dragon form," she brought up. "I could do it again."

Astrid's eyes lit up. "That's a great idea," she complimented.

Estrella smiled in return. "One second," she said, and morphed, leaping into the air. She came back invisible and nudged Astrid's arm to let her know she was there.

"Hi," Astrid greeted, and started walking.

Once they were close enough to hear, Estrella wrapped her invisible wings around Astrid and stood still.

"...people are exhausted," someone was arguing. "I say we need to rest before making a decision."

"The people will die of starvation and dehydration if we don't make a decision now," someone else countered. Estrella felt Astrid bristle next to her and wondered if Astrid recognized the viking's voice.

"What are you suggesting, then?" the first viking asked. "Hmm? What's your foolproof plan to get off this island alive?"

"We need to contact those back at Berk," a third viking put in. "We can survive another day without supplies, if we find a way to tell them about our predicament."

"How, though?" the second viking challenged.

"Spitelout, you haven't suggested anything," yet another viking informed him. "The rest of us all have. Would you mind contributing to this discussion?"