Selene

Chapter Thirty-Six: The other side of Hadrian's Wall

Wet. Everyone who ever came to Berk undersold the rain of Alba. My boots were soaked, my clothes were soaked, my hair was soaked, and in the hours I'd been standing here the puddle beneath my feet went from 2 inches to 7 with a current.

I wiped away the rain from my eyes, determined not to let my discomfort show. The soldier I was teaching was not so subtle, his face and lips blue, skin covered in goosebumps.

"No you're leaning too far. You're going to cue her right, sit up!"

"I can't she's too slippery!" He bobbed up and down as Stormfly ran. Feeling his shift in weight she did just as I warned and veered sharp right, losing the rider.

Ker-splat!

He landed, face down and sprawled in the mud. A tiny tidal wave rose up in his wake.

I stifled a laugh and grinned as Caliban stood, shivering.

"Have you even ridden a horse?"

"I have," He returned stiffly, wading out of the miniature lake. "More times than you, I imagine."

"It doesn't show." I sneered.

Stormfly had been skittering all about beneath the bars of the training ring, now she stopped, and cocked an eye at me.

Rawk rawk rawk!

My nadder came running, passing Caliban who she first splashed with the stomp of a foot and then spun back into the puddle with a brush of her wing. She leapt, and flew the rest of the short distance to me.

I stroked that spot behind her horns she so loved.

"You don't have to deal with this sort of weather where you come from," Caliban hoped to regain some of his dignity. "If it were better, I'd have that dragon flying circles around this place."

"Please we live on an island in the arctic circle. If it's not snowing or hailing it's raining."

"Then prove it," the Roman snapped.

"All right I will." I hopped with little effort to Stormfly's back. "Show him what a real dragon and rider can do, girl."

The nadder switched from aimless distraction to competitive focus. We charged past Caliban, ran for the dome of metal bars and went straight up it without breaking a lead. Halfway across, upside down I cued her to let go and turn a sharp one eighty. We executed it flawlessly, then ran three circles along the parameter of the ring before coming to a dead stop, jumping back and changing direction. I urged her over to the soldier whose mouth was agape. She looked down at him, head held high.

"Should I do it with my eyes closed?"

"No." Came his short reply. He glanced outside the dome at some officers making inspection. "Get off."

I looked beyond the walls of the cage to a single tear in the clouds just to our north. I was sitting on her. Sitting on her, and we still couldn't escape.

The training 'dome' was more like a sphere half buried in the ground and had nine siblings exactly like it. Not new structures I had assumed they were made for the furies but the soldiers called them Lightsprinter Cages. Built with two layers of dragonproof bars the inner layer was significantly smaller than the outer one, there were three feet between both domes. Inner bars were sturdy, about five inches thick, but anyone short the size Stoick the Vast could easily sneak between them. Dragons not so much. The second layer was a much finer mesh of the same material and very much unsneakable for even a terrible terror.

Since we got to Alba none of our dragons could fire even if they tried. We couldn't figure out how the Romans did it, but at least the dragons didn't seem to suffer any harm for it. Stormfly, like all the others with barbs or darts to throw, had had all loose ones harvested, leaving behind underdeveloped ones that couldn't be released.