The Second Dragon Rider || Eret son of Eret ||

25. Surprise Visit

"So what does it feel like?" Dagur asked as he was grounding something in a bowl for their lunch.

"What?" Skyla asked looking up from the bed.

"To be missing half of your arm." Dagur replied pointing at her left arm stump. Skyla touched her stump and sighed.

"When it got blasted off, I didn't really feel the pain. I passed out and when I woke up it was all charred and smelled disgusting."Skyla said quietly. "I kept washing it and wrapping it up and it was so hard to balance myself if I fell or slipped or tried grabbing at something."

"You know Gobber, the smith on Berk, could have made you a prosthetic. He has one just below the elbow like you." Dagur said before pouring their food into some bowls and brought them over to her. He set the bowls down and lifted her head up to meet her eyes. "Whatever dragon did this to you I swear I will hunt it down and show it no mercy."

"Y-you don't have to." Skyla said turning her head away. "It was in self defense and I'm sure it was sorry for what it did."

"And if it wasn't in self defense?"

"Don't kill it, even if it wasn't in self defense."

Dagur shrugged before sitting down next to her and started to eat. As they ate, Skyla wondered how he'd react to her having ice powers and being able to turn into a Bewilderbeast.

'He'd probably think I was a monster and leave me.' She thought bitterly. 'And how would he react to finding out that my arm was blasted off by Toothless?'

"Were you ever friends with any of the dragon riders dragons?" She asked Dagur.

"I kinda bonded with Toothless. When I accidentally broke Hiccup's metal leg and he left with Shattermaster to go get a new one, he left Toothless with me to keep an eye on me." Dagur replied and grinned. "He let me climb onto his back and flew me through the forest before I accidentally pulled back on his wing and made us crash."

"You're not suppose to do that to a dragon's wing when they are flying." Skyla said frowning. "It's the only thing keeping you up in the air!"

"Speaking of dragons, did you own one?" Dagur asked, changing the subject.

"Yes I did, a Whispering Death named Starlight. My mother found her and brought her back to our nest and let me raise her. Recently on Snoggletog she had a small nest of babies, cute but destructive little things."

"I remember that the last time Berk had those dragons they nearly sunk the island and caused all the water supply to drain." Dagur said. "And I always thought those dragon's couldn't be flown in the daytime, right?"

"Oh Star is different. She actually likes light, especially the light the moon and stars give off." Skyla replied and chuckled. "That's where she got her name from as well."

"I bet your birth mom would have been so proud of you." Dagur said, setting his bowl aside and laid down on the furs. Skyla did likewise and curled herself down next to him.

"Both my adopted mother and birth mother, though my father would have probably been mad."

"That's for sure, especially a man like him who sees dragons as weapons."

They both laid there for a while, still talking about things from dragons, to 'brother' Hiccup, siblings, funny things their dragons ever did and some bits of their pasts before falling asleep. Little did they know was that someone was coming.

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"I think he found the scent." Heather said as Skull Crusher snorted and began to walk away from them.

"He most definitely did." Eret said with a nod. Starlight growled anxiously and slithered after the Rumblehorn with Windshear and the riders behind them.

They followed Skull Crusher as he sniffed his way through the vegetation before stopping in front of a large cave. The dragon snorted and looked back at his rider before walking in.

"Is that really a safe thing to do?" Heather asked Eret as they followed his dragon inside the cave with Starlight and Windshear guarding the entrance.

"He knows what he's doing, and if we were in danger he would have pushed us outside of the cave and took the other two dragons with him." Eret replied in a low voice.

Soon the cave opened up into a medium sized cavern. Inside was a large fire pit that was dying, some metal pots and various weapons scattered around in piles. And in one corner there was a pile of furs with two people, a man and a woman, asleep on them. The man had dark red hair and a bead to match and was wearing torn up looking clothes and had two blue tattoos on his eye. And the woman was dressed in an oversized tunic with baggy pants, white blonde hair that was streaked with red and had black tips and was missing a part of her arm up to her elbow.

"Skyla?" Eret whispered, taking a step towards the sleeping pair before he heard a rough growl and turned to see a green Snafflefang and Gronckle growling at them. Skull Crusher growled more loudly at them and took a step towards the dragons to defend his rider and his friend.

"That's Shattermaster! That man asleep with your friend is my brother!" Heather hissed to Eret as she gripped her axe tightly.

"Wake them up to call their dragons off!" Eret hissed back.

Heather turned around and tiptoed over to the bed and prodded her brother with her boot. Dagur grunted and opened one eye to see who was bothering him. When he saw it was his sister he immediately sat up.

"Heather?" He said looking at her in shock.

"Call your dragons off before they kill us!" Heather hissed as Jade drew closer to Skull Crusher, growling more loudly and preparing to attack.

"Skyla wake up!" Dagur said loudly, shaking the girl awake. She opened her eyes wearily and propped herself up with her good arm.

"Jade what-" Her blue eyes widened in shock when she saw who was standing right there in front of her. "Oh...my...gods...Eret?"