HALLI | How to Train Your Lira

Taking to the Sky

 Lira's leather book was stuffed with dragon information from over the last weeks. Blue's wing had been healing perfectly and he was ready to meet the sky once again, but this time with Lira on his back. The butterflies in Lira's stomach settled for nothing, there was always an off chance that his cut would become infected; if it did there wasn't much anyone could do to save him. Hiccup had felt the same struggle with his leg. An open wound, or even a poorly treated healing one, can become infected. Hiccup told Lira to watch for fever, rapid breathing or disorientation and to come to him if he developed symptoms. If infection starts they wouldn't have much time to re-treat the wounds. His bandages had to be changed regularly.

When she wasn't looking after Blue, Lira was either training or swimming with Hiccup and the rest of the Viking teenagers.

"Lira, come over here look at this!" Hiccup called her over, from the other side of the cove. Lira waded clumsily through the water to where he was bent over an entanglement of roots. She pulled herself out of the crystal clear water.

"What is it?"

Hiccup pointed to a medium-sized hole dug out between the roots, "I wonder if a dragon lives in there."

"Do you think it's a den?"

"Maybe," Hiccup looked at her proudly. Lira looked back at him and nudged him gently. She started walking back to the water, Hiccup continued to look into the hole.

"You should really leave it alone," Lira called teased over her shoulder, "you don't want Mama thinking you're hovering around her baby, dragon or not."

"Wait this is weird," Hiccup responded. Lira slipped into the water and looked back at him, her head resting on crossed arms keeping her close to the shore. Hiccup reached into the hole.

"Hiccup!" Lira exclaimed, her head popping back up.

"No- No- I know what I'm doing," He reassured. Lira nervously bit her lip. Hiccup pushed some dirt around with his free hand and freed a good sized crossbow from between the roots.

"Woah," Lira gasped, "Whose is that?"

"And why did they bury it?" Hiccup added. Hiccup examined the crossbow; It was mostly made of wood but it had metal plating, runes had been pressed into the silver metal. Lira had left the water to come to look at the bow, "What do they say?"

"These aren't sayings, they're just words," He touched one, "This one means 'Discipline' see." Lira touched it. His fingers ran over another, "and this one means 'Chaos'. Strife, Sacrifice, Dishonour, Loss, Madness."

Hiccups brows were crossed. Lira outlined them with her finger, "Are they all horrible things?"

"Yes, and they weren't added after it was made. These are purposeful."

"Why would someone want all that instead of protective spells?" Lira looked to Hiccup for answers.

"I don't know. But I want to know who this belongs to."

"We can bring it to the hall tonight and ask around."

Hiccup looked at Lira, "Who would want to claim it, they buried it here. Like they didn't want it found."

"Maybe it brought them bad luck and they wanted to rid of it," Lira ran her hand down the engraved stock.

"But why would they bury it so horribly? Why bury it at all? Why not burn it? They kept it from the village, or my dad would've said something about it to me."

Sometimes Hiccups brain worked to fast for Lira, "Slow down," Her hand rested on his arm, "Are you saying they wanted someone to find it?"

"I'm thinking maybe they wanted to come back for it."