Ska'i Malamalama
The occasional crackling of the firewood eased her out of subconsciousness before her eyes opened. Still, she chose to lay there for a few moments longer. The crashing waves sounded closer than usual. Hmm, it must be an early high tide, and she noted it in one of the spare journals Fishlegs had given her, to memorize later. It was good practice. When she was done, she couldn't stop a full-body stretch underneath her blanket mound. A slow, itchy feeling awoke as well, screaming at her with more and more vital urgency to get up, out of bed, now!
Oh, right. Hiccup will want to leave as soon as we're ready. Ska'i rolled over and had completely forgotten Tuff had fallen asleep in one of her sand chairs. Studying the natural sheen of his long blond hair, she noticed with surprise how muscly his lean arm was, lying atop the blanket. She unintentionally heaved a peaceful, heavy sigh, enough to make him wake up.
Blinking, he saw her watching him. " 'Morning," he mumbled with a smile.
"Aw. Is that what you sound like when you first wake up?" She cooed. "I love it."
"Is that what your hair looks like? It's adorable."
Ska'i's boom of a laugh rivaled Stoick's, and she covered her mouth to reduce the smell of her breath. "Ugh, if Hiccup were here, he'd bring up how nauseating we are."
"Yeah well, I had to put with him and Astrid for years." Tuff countered, giving into a long stretch of his own. "Speaking of Hiccup, we should get to the Clubhouse. Get some breakfast."
Her stomach growled in agreement. "I'm sure Fishlegs found that island by now." Forcing herself out of bed, she ended up face-to-face with Tuff. Before he could lean in for a kiss, she brought up. "And Hiccup would want to leave as soon as possible."
"I want to leave as soon as possible."
"You called it," Tuff murmured.
"Of course you do," Snotlout grumbled at the same time.
They'd left the fire burning with Ska'i's reassurance that it would not burn the entire island down, or smoke every living off the island. "I leave it burning all the time."
"Yeah, how aren't you smoking yourself out, when you're leaving it burning all the time?"
"Well, I used one of the shovels to expand the boar pits and dug out an extra tunnel in case of a cave-in. I also borrowed your dragon to lure a couple of Whispering Deaths here, so they could make a few more tunnels that led straight up to the crowded section of woods." She explained on their way to the Clubhouse.
"So that's where Belch went, that one day! I thought he was pigging out on all the fish he gets by your shoreline."
"Astrid isn't even back from her routine flight, yet," Snotlout went on.
"Look, Fishlegs figured out which island it was, in the middle of the night. I paid him a visit because I couldn't get to sleep, and I'm letting him try to catch some of his own. I finished plotting out the best route for us to take and packed some essentials. Now -."
Astrid quietly slipped in, which only Ska'i caught on right away, despite how early it was. Ska'i watched her head toward the breakfast bar, zoning out as Astrid piled some strawberries and bananas, in two separate bowls. Curious.
"I want everyone to finish eating, pack whatever you think we need, and be ready to leave within a quarter of the hour."
"Less than fifteen minutes," Astrid affirmed, emitting a communal groan from the twins.
"Whoa, when did she get here?" Snotlout asked.
As they finished getting ready, Ruffnut turned to Tuff. "So where were you last night?"
Ska'i stiffened, as Tuff drew out a long, "Uhhh. . . ."
"I'm going to go check on the dragons," she exclaimed abruptly, leaping up from a loan chair. She greeted Barf and Belch with hand pets on each of their heads. "Alright, guys. Let's get you fed." And she led a ravenous Zippleback down to his favorite eating spot. Moments later, she heard clumsy sloshes in the sand behind her, and she couldn't help a small smile crack across her face. He offered her some sausages that she hungrily took. They watched the Zippleback frolic along the waves as they washed up on the sand, managing to get a couple of fish out of the water as he did so. She eventually broke the silence first, "We all ready to go?"
"Yeah," Tuff answered. "Hiccup's all frantic, having to gather everyone together."
They held hands, walking up the short trail, with the two-headed dragon behind them. Instead of the Training Arena, they all met on the trail, behind Fishlegs' house. He heaved a giant yawn, yet the anticipation of the adventure ahead reflected a shine in his eyes.
"Now we're all here, Fishlegs and I will lead. I have the map, and he has the compass. Just in case our group gets separated, or a huge storm hits us like last time."
"Hurricane," Snotlout corrected.
"In any case," Hiccup continued. "Let's get up in the air, and find this stone!"
Seeing as they had all eaten and packed, they were in the air in moments. After a parting hand squeeze, it was decided she'd ride with Astrid on Stormfly. It was silent at first, but as the sun began to climb higher in the sky, everyone else started to wake up, and conversations flitted through the sky.
"I wonder what this stone will do?" Astrid wondered.
"Well, one had an efficiency with water. Imagine what fire would do!" Fishlegs exclaimed.
"Maybe it'll shoot fire when you put it in your mouth!" Tuffnut fantasized.
"We don't even know if this is what we're going after." Hiccup realized the tension he'd created, and cautiously reiterated, "If it's the Fire Stone. It could be something completely different. It might not even be there! Perhaps Nadig said no one has seen anyone once they go to this island, is because the stone has already been found. And used like with the volcano -."
"Mount Olawai," Ska'i instinctively corrected.
"Either way," Astrid cut in. "We'll find out when we get there."
Subconsciously chewing the inside of her lip, Ska'i would be lying if she didn't admit that that last possibility was also what she'd been thinking.
The rest of the journey was mostly quiet after that, other than the occasional change of direction from Hiccup or Fishlegs. Or the flapping of the dragon wings when catching drifts, after another one ended. It was a rather beautiful day out, the sun desperately trying to warm up the frigid, permanent chill in the air. One would easily think to prefer doing something else - anything else - rather be hunting down a mythical, miniature rock. But better this kind of weather while traveling, other than a hurricane, like what happened to the Riders last time.
Ska'i was about to suggest flying on Hookfang, when Fishlegs asked, "What's that?"
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