Guardians Rising

21: New Talents

The late morning sun shone on the five seekers as they flew through the clear air. Even on dragonback, the trip from the castle to the glen where they had camped was an uncomfortable distance. Nevertheless, they flew hard, fearing that they might already be too late to save their friend. The wind howled in their ears and, though the sun still shone, a shadow seemed to hang over them. Rapunzel shivered and rubbed her arms. Hiccup looked back at her.

"Sorry," she said self-consciously. "It's just a little cold up here." She pulled her hair around her; it was almost as good as a cloak. Hiccup smiled and turned around again. Then he glanced back, and Rapunzel followed his gaze toward the distant hills. She looked at him, confused, and asked, "What's wrong?"

"Oh," said Hiccup, as if coming out of a trance, "nothing. I just realized that those mountains are the same ones where the four of us met." He broke off with a chuckle and added, "And that was only a few days ago; it feels so much longer."

"Yeah," Rapunzel said, and smiled as she thought about it; Merida's lightning speed with her bow, Hiccup and Jack's surprise, her own bluntness.

As Hiccup returned his attention to flying, Rapunzel glanced over at Astrid and Merida. They appeared to be having something of a discussion, and Rapunzel guessed they must be talking about weapons, or something like. Merida was nodding to something Astrid had said. Rapunzel strained her ears to listen.

"Actually," Astrid was saying, "I've always fought with a battle ax, so I haven't had much experience with swords." To which Merida replied,

"Really? I've trained with a sword since I was a lit'le girl. But still, I prefer a bow."

"But with a bow, you have to be farther away to do anything."

"Not always, if you're fast," replied Merida, "and besides, an unstrung bow is a bit like a staff, and it's a strong one."

"But you -" Astrid was cut off by Hiccup's voice as he yelled over the blustering wind,

"We're coming up on the place now!" At the command of their masters, the dragons began descending quickly toward the trees.

Rapunzel, eager as she was, squinted to get a better view of them. Her eyes widened in dismay.

"Hiccup!" she exclaimed, pointing to them.

The trees were smoking.

A second later, the flames were visible, scorching the pines and oaks. The three dragons were right above the rapidly spreading fire, and the heat of it blasted up towards them. They veered away from the hungry flames, coming to the ground several hundred yards from their intended landing site.

"No!" said Eret as they jumped off the dragons. The others managed to tear their eyes away from the blaze to look at him. He continued. "The fire will burn any leads! We won't find anything and there'll be nothing we -"

Low growls broke into his ranting. All eyes flicked to the dragons. The three of them were staring into the flames; they seemed to be concentrating hard.

As the growls grew louder, Astrid, Merida, Hiccup, Rapunzel, and Eret stepped back, instinctively knowing that something was about to happen. And they were right.

Toothless reared up, standing erect on his his hind legs. The other two followed his lead.

They stood there for a moment, and time seemed to slow interminably.

Then, it happened.

They inhaled deeply, drawing the blazes into themselves, consuming the fire as it had consumed the trees.

The flames, before so violent and deadly, were now no more than smoldering embers.

The humans looked on in utter awe.

"Wow," said Hiccup, at last breaking the stunned silence, and smiling fondly at Toothless. "That was amazing, bud."

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