httyd reader insert

ch.7 the cave

.......ahshh......mhmkdkn......whhasss.....weecant................fiynee....

I stirred in my sleep... I heard fragments of a conversation, but couldnt exactly make it out. feeling gales scales under my hand gave me some comfort and made me feel safe- letting my brain return to slumber- blocking out the noise...

I eventually awoke- stretching my limbs as I tiredly dragged myself off of gale.
After I rubbed my eyes a little I noticed Heather and windshear were gone...
I looked around and nothing seemed out of place.
I then got to a table, upstairs in the cove library- only way to get to the platform was by bridge.

My hand grazed the tables surface before picking up the piece of paper that caught my eye.
It was a letter, or I suppose a note-

"I need to get going, after all my search for Dagur is impending- and I got a tip from a trader I know, don't worry, I'll come visit.

-H"

Hmm... I hummed, folding the note and placing it back on the table.
Gale sluggishly walked up behind me, I turned to her and said in a joking tone,
"she ran away- how dare she!" I exaggerated my facial expression, and motions in mock anger and grief.

Gale snorted at me before bopping my on the head and walking away- which personally felt like Gale was calling me a dork.

"Rude" I mumble half joking.

After we ate we went through some more stuff in the library- slowly getting bored of the repetitive content. Gale glared at me- I continued reading, pretending not to notice.

Eventually Gale laid her head on my lap, ontop of the book I was reading.

"What?" I quizzically looked at her- giving her a head pat.

I stare at her head for a solid 7 seconds before letting out a long sigh.

"...Fine! We can go flying!" I said begrudgingly- flailing my arms up in a shoo-ing motion. Gales glare slightly intensified- I immediately looked at her confused.
"...what do you want to do then?" I hesitantly asked. Gale stopped laying in my lap and let me get ready to go outside- after I had some warm clothes on and shoes- I got on her back and we took off.

As she was flying there was a little bit of an awkward and tense silence- the clear language boundary getting to both of them.

After a long time of flying I see a weird island in the distance... it was grayish with lots of vegetation. There were large, spike-ish, stone pillars protruding all around and on the island...

As we flew closer I saw some cobblestone statues of dragons or sleeping dragons- hard to tell.
Once gale landed she guided me to a huge, colossal, skull- the skeleton of a dragon making up the entire island.
The skull had tusks or remnants of tusks.

Gale lead me around the skull- more towards the beach. We eventually reached where the dragons wings would be located- there was a cave and gale lead me through it... as we flew, there were some scattered skeletons of dragons and dragon bones on the ground... some, if not most of them looked like gale, or a subspecies atleast...
I nervously fiddled, and rubbed my fingers together- not having a great feeling about this.

Gale reached the end of the biological cave- there was a small, very old campfire... and some papers posted onto the wall and scattered on the ground... on the ground at the very end, in an almost tucked away corner, was a small book, it had a piece of paper dislodged in it- but was loose-leaf paper, not bound into the notebook.

I looked over to gale, before stepping forward- carefully picking up the dusty, old, book.
The first thing I did was take out the loose leaf paper.
There was a diagram on it for a mechanical, complex, dragon influenced design, cylindrical, object.
I gave gale a weird look- but she awkwardly looked away, intentionally averting my questioning, and playful accusatory, stare.

"Gale? Care to explain?" I smiled over at her, raising a brow. I didn't see the object in any of my other books and scrolls in my library... so it's either more recent then them- or it's more rare...

After a couple minutes I sighed, pocketing the book and loose leaf paper- looking around the end of the cave- it seemed like everything there was atleast centuries old...
The diagrams on the wall depicted mechanisms relatively advanced for centuries ago- and seeing as all the paper was aged more than my books and scrolls, I could only assume that the object is more rare, or harder to hear about.

I got ontop of the saddle on gale, making a mental note of this place- we then flew out of the cave, going back to the library- but for some reason as soon as we were over the water, gale sped up a lot- wind whipping my hair- and threatening to knock me off-
"GALE- WHAT-" I called out- surprised.

As soon as we were farther away from the island gale slowed down to a more normal speed- my hair was extremely disheveled, aswell as my clothes.

I side eyed gale in slight annoyance.
"What was that about?" I questioned, raising a brow and crossing my arms.

She only shook her head- brushing off my question. I sighed before jolting to check my pockets to make sure I didn't drop the old book or paper.
I patted down my pockets- feeling the book protrusion before sighing in relief.

We had a quiet fly back to the library.
Very awkward. I patted my finger tips on the saddle to attempt to destract myself from how much more time it'll take to get back.

Once we landed, back in the library, I walked over to the restricted section- unlocking and placing the book and paper on the stone table in the center.
I looked through my drawer, taking out that hunter document with the nightfury and it's rider, as well as the book I found forever ago with some basic notes about the nightfury...

I then looked through the book- trying to find something, anything, about the skeletons in the cave- my curiosity peeked mostly at that, rather then the device construction plans.

My search unfortunately was unfounded.
I didn't find a single thing about the skeletons. What dragon they were- or what they were doing there.

I sighed, annoyed.
Gale just laid down next to me, nuzzling my leg with her cheek.

I smiled down at her, I patted her head a little before laying my head on the table, annoyed I had more questions than answers.

I looked through the book a little, it was mostly if not only the functions of the cylinder. Something about a green gas, something about a bone dart, something about light- I was relatively disinterested.

I yawned- dropping the book back on my desk.
I sighed, standing up and stretching- Gale stood up too, she was groggily wobbling a little.

I smiled at her a bit before I walked over to the boat, flopping down in the bed. It feels like I hadn't slept in a bed for forever.

Gale laid down next to me but on the floor, she had her tail up on the bed near my feet- I couldn't tell if it was to keep me safe or something... maybe her tail was cold.

Whatever the case we quickly fell asleep, exhausted from all the stuff we did today.

.

.

.

(Another p.o.v.)...

"What do you mean you haven't found the dragon that ruined the shipments through boulder pass yet?!" A man yelled at his subordinates...

they nervously responded...
"Well, Ryker sir, this dragon is incredibly fast- and seems to be very smart- we haven't been able to get a single hit in- not with dragon root arrows, bola's, or anything-"

The other one piped in
"We haven't been able to track it either- it seems to come from all different directions every attack- and whenever we do encounter the dragon- we always get knocked out, our memory slightly fuzzy-"

Ryker glares at them, unshething his sword and slamming it into the table, embedding it into it.
"I don't care how incompetent you are. I gave you an order. And next time, you won't fail. I'll be coming along..."

.

.

.

(1404 words)
End chapter 7.