The Soul of a Dragon

Chapter 62

Vara

The night is unusually calm, with only the gentle rustling of leaves and the distant calls of nocturnal creatures breaking the silence. The moon hangs high in the sky, casting a silvery glow over the landscape, illuminating the sleeping village below. It has grown rapidly, it's amazing. Looking at all the warm lights and knowing people and dragons are sleeping peacefully behind each door, I cannot help but sigh and wonder if I deserve to belong here. I feel a sense of restlessness. Each waking moment, thoughts about the Lycanwing, Grimmel, and the tortured and shackled dragons I discovered in that cave race through my head. At night, images of them haunt me. Everything right now is just...a lot. I close my eyes and take a deep breath, trying to calm the storm inside me. So much has happened in such a short time, and my heart feels like it's being torn in two different directions.

Adjusting to life among the dragon riders has been easier than I could have ever anticipated. From the very beginning, they were warm and hospitable, but – me being me – I couldn't let my guard down completely. It's my own issue, really. That restlessness. It's something that has been plaguing me since, well, always. Therefore, I keep jumping from mission to mission; adventure to adventure. First, it was freeing dragons and fighting down dragon hunters. Now, it's taking down my biological father, freeing the Lycanwing as well as other dragons, and facing my own emotions. The latter, I keep procrastinating on. I will have to deal with that chaos eventually. Just not right now. Tonight, I was on a mission. That sense of foreboding had only grown stronger, and I needed answers. After we flew back to New Berk and I stayed with Liv until Gothi signalled that she's fine, I excused myself and first went to visit my girl. She was asleep but chirped upon sensing me. Her presence always feels like a giant warm glove that wraps safely around me, calming me down. I didn't want to rest nor eat, though. My destination was the library, which has been carved into the mountain, right next to the Great Hall. Fishlegs is the one spending most of his time here, ever since the village had started building it. It makes me smile, thinking about how he kindly commanded workers around and dropped some suggestions here and there. Fishlegs is also the one who found out about the Lycanwing. In confidentiality, he told me about a few ancient books, that contain forgotten knowledge; things that might hold the key to understanding the threat we faced. Although he's been studying them back and forth, I wanted to give it a try, too.

But I did not expect to meet someone there. As I approached the library, I saw that its doors were opened. Confused, I went inside and saw a small figure hunched above a pile of books. The fire-red of her curls immediately gave away her identity.

"Liv?" I asked carefully. "Shouldn't you be resting?"

She startled a little but her features softened upon recognising me. "Hey. I couldn't stop thinking and the, err, others were kind of suffocating me. I needed some space."

I nodded slowly, sensing that 'the other' might refer to one person in particular. But I could relate to the feeling, so I signed to the seat opposite of her in question. She smiled in answer and bit her lip when I started to assess the pile of books in front of her.

"I'm doing some research," she said softly, as if she were ashamed. She seemed to trust me, because she added more self-assured, "It's about the Lycanwing. From where I come from, a lot of fables and stories are being told about it. The Lycanwing is kind of famous there, you could say. Anyway, I grew up with all these stories but never believed any of them. Now, that I...saw it face to face, I cannot help but wonder whether these stories are not just fantasy but, in fact, knowledge. Look-"

She pinpointed to a sketch, showing a mess of black lines at first glance. When looking closer, though, I could make out the rough outline of a dragon, sitting in-between some trees. A set of blank eyes stared into my soul. I knew it was only a sketch, but it felt like the animal was right there.