A True Friend

Chapter 13

Andriette's P.O.V

  We had been flying for hours without stopping. Don't get me wrong, I will never not think flying on an actual dragon is exciting, but going for hours on end was boring. My butt was sore from sitting the whole time, and scales weren't too comfortable to begin with. I could only imagine how Jack was doing.

  We were flying at a lower altitude, closer to the ocean, at Jack's unspoken request. We couldn't talk much, any attempt at conversation ending much in the same way: shouting over the wind and giving up when we couldn't hear each other.

  I thought I was gonna lose my mind by the time Dragon Hunters showed up.

  They were kind enough to alert us of their presence via shouting and the sound of..

  "Net launchers!" I shouted, diving as one came at me and Arrow.

  Jack yelped as one came for him and Guppy, but Arrow incinerated the net before it caught them.

  "Who are they?!" Jack screamed as he and Guppy flew back.

  "They are what I wanted to talk to you about!" I replied, dodging another net and narrowly avoiding some arrows. "We gotta go!"

  We took off, almost twice our previous speed, and almost got shot down three times.

  My heart was in my ears, and not in a good way. Sure, meeting a dragon was surreal, but actually coming face to face with people who would kill me, let's just say I would take meeting a dragon over that any day.

  "Andi!" Jack called once the ship had disappeared past the horizon. "What the heck was that?!"

  "Those were Dragon Hunters," I replied, hoping my voice conveyed the grave meaning. "A lot of people here are chill with dragons, but there's a group that goes out and hunts them. They sell them, kill them for fun, and have them fight for entertainment. It's sick, and it's part of the reason I'm here. I came to help stop them."

  Jack seemed to be shocked into silence for a moment. When he spoke, it was meek and I barely heard it over the wind. "They kill dragons? And.. we're on the dragons they were shooting at. That means they would kill us, too?"

  I nodded. "They don't usually aim to kill right away, but yeah. And they either attempt to kill or capture dragon riders."

  I glanced over and Jack looked terrified pretty much to Valhalla and back. His grip was tight around Guppy's neck and back stiff as a board.

  The sea dragon glanced back at my classmate, doing the best he could to nudge him with his head. He made a soft sound in Jack's direction, attempting to comfort him.

  I got Arrow to fly closer to the pair. "I warned you that we might die," I said remorsefully. "I tried to get you to back out, and I'm sorry I couldn't convince you, but we're here now, and I don't think we can get back. I swear, Jack, I'll do everything I can to make sure you stay alive."

  It wasn't exactly the most inspirational speech, and I doubt it was exactly comforting, but that's just about all I had. Unsurprisingly, It didn't really work. Jack looked about three seconds away from crying.

  Frick! Crud, uh, what do I do?! That's, like, all I had!

  I pulled Arrow to a stop and Guppy did the same. "Do you, uh," my voice cracked slightly and I winced. "Do you want a hug?"

  After a moment, Jack nodded. I managed to pull off a move I definitely should not have been able to do and ended up flailing my arms trying to balance on Guppy's neck. I fell more than sat down and pulled my classmate into a hug. After a moment, his arms wrapped around my waist and he held on to me tightly. I will not lie and say neither of us cried, as a wet patch quickly appeared on my shoulder, and I felt my tears dripping down my face.

  We sat there for a few minutes, processing. We would likely die. People would kill us. People and dragons. At the moment, it was just us watching out for each other. 

  Arrow and Guppy. 

  Me and Jack.

~~~

I have returned and brought a chapter with me! In case you haven't noticed, this is kinda a filler chapter. In fact, most of these are filler chapters until they get to Berk. Anyway, sorry it was so short after such a long wait. I have no idea where the time went! If the spacing seems weird, that's because I'm working on my laptop instead of my phone, so it's a little funky. Completely unrelated,  but anyone notice how they can only hear each other while riding when it's plot relevant? I just noticed that. I'll try to come back with chapters more frequently, but ya know, life sucks sometimes, so I can't make promises I might not be able to keep. Origin out!