Rise of the Brave Tangled Dragons [COMPLETED]

Chapter 8

After she had taken the arrow from her father's shoulder and tended to his wound as best as she could, Ria went upstairs to bring the strangers back down. However, she found them dead asleep; the girl was on Ria's own bed on one end of the room, and the boy was on Jon's bed at the other end. Sandra sat up on her bed next to Ria's, wide awake and curious to know what had gone on down below. Ria was barely able to calm Sandra down to go to sleep. But somehow the two of them were able to fall asleep crammed into Sandra's bed.

A few hours after the sun first peaked its head over the horizon, Ria awoke to a crash from the downstairs. She sat upright. Sandra stirred from where she was sleeping next to Ria. Ria slipped out of bed and walked down the aisle between Sandy's bed and her own. Ria marveled at how the red-haired girl's bedhead wasn't that much different from her regular hair. 

Ria looked around at her room. A wall split the sloped roof in half with a door that led from their room to the attic half of the upper room. Yes, it made the bedroom seem a little small, but with a chest, a bureau, and bookshelves on both sides of the room, the Faison children had little to complain about.

Except maybe a little bit of decent fashion, Ria thought. Even Sarah has better clothes than I do. And she doesn't even live on the island.

Ria paused at the trap door leading down stairs and looked at the boy lying on the edge of her brother's bed. Drool trailed from his mouth onto the pillow, and his hair was spiked in different directions. It looks a little messy, but in a cute way. He could grow into it.

She crept quietly down the staircase. Her father, still in his night clothes, exited the kitchen and almost ran into her at the base of the stairs. "Oh, sorry, Ria." His shoulder was encased in bloody bandages, and his arm was in a sling. He crossed the living room in long strides towards his bedroom door on the far side. "What are you doing up so early?" he asked quietly so as not to disturb Jon who was sleeping on the couch.

"I heard you trying to make yourself breakfast," she answered him before he slipped into his room to change. "You know you shouldn't be using your shoulder until it's had time to heal."

"I haven't been using it. That's why you heard a crash," her father called softly from inside his room. "Those assassins won't stop until they've killed the fugitives. They'll be back as sure as the sun rises. We need to leave."

"Where would we go?"

"The Orchard. Not only is it out of the way enough, our work hands will be able to back us up if the mercenaries do happen to find us. Would you—?"

"Saddle up the horses?" Ria smiled. "Of course, Dadda."

"That's my girl."

Ria slipped through the dining room and out the front door. She noticed that one of the windows was edged with frost. "Strange," she murmured to herself. "And it's not even that cold out." As she approached the barn, she heard an animal-yawning noise coming from behind it. Curiously, she slid along the side of the barn, peeked her head around the corner . . .

. . . and screamed bloody murder.

Startled, Hiccup fell out of bed, and Merida sat upright. "I didnae do it; I swear!" she rambled. Sandra rolled over in her sleep.

Thudding footsteps and concerned voices could be heard downstairs. Merida leaped out of bed and grabbed her bow from where she had dropped it on the floor last night. She dashed across the room and vanished down the trap door. Still-groggy Hiccup sat up on the floor, rubbing his face. "What's going on?"

Merida followed Jon's and Mr. Faison's voices outside. She came out just in time to see Ria collapse breathlessly into her father's arms. Merida stood beside Jon and notched an arrow to her bow.