How To Train Your Dragon

14: From the Water

Whisper POV

I wake up with a pounding headache, and look around in confusion at the bedroom my brother and I share. Slowly I sit up and look over at Hiccup's bed. But it's empty. Then I hear a great amount of commotion coming from downstairs.

Instantly my head ache vanishes as alarm rushes through me. I can feel fear, worry, and an aching love radiating from Toothless from where he is downstairs. Quickly I get out of bed and stumble to the stairs. I pause by a small mirror and see that the cut on my cheek has been sewn closed. It starts on the side of my nose and goes down across my cheek to the top of my jaw bone.

Hearing footsteps on the stairs I look down to see dad climbing up to me. There is so much relief and love in his gaze. I back up, from instinct. He struck me. How do I know he won't do it again?

Then I am folded into his large embrace. "Ivory, I was so scared. I thought I lost you. The Nightfury saved Hiccup, be we couldn't find out. All we found were arrowheads, your bow, and your quiver. We gave them a warrior burial in place of your body, but then we came back and you were on the dock sopping wet. Odin knows how. But your safe, and alive. And that is all that matters to me."

Slightly I manage to push away from him. I look up frowning in confusion and slightly tilting my head. Ivory? Who is Ivory? My name is Whisper.

Dad instantly knows. He slightly smiles through his thick beard. "When you were born, your skin was very pale and didn't grow darker. You reminded your mother of an ivory pendant she had lost, so she named you Ivory. But then she... then the dragon took her and we discovered that you couldn't speak and we changed it, Hiccup came up with the name Whisper. But now that you know, what would you like to be called? Ivory, or Whisper."

I take my father's hand and write on his palm, I-H-A-V-E-A-L-W-A-Y-S-B-E-E-N-W-H-I-S-P-E-R T-H-E-O-N-E-T-I-M-E-I-S-P-O-K-E-I-W-H-I-S-P-E-R-E-D I-W-I-L-L-C-O-N-T-I-N-U-E-T-O-B-E-W-H-I-S-P-E-R L-E-T-M-Y-N-A-M-E-B-E-A-R-E-M-I-N-D-E-R-T-H-A-T-I-D-O-H-A-V-E-A-V-O-I-C-E A-Q-U-I-E-T-O-N-E-B-U-T-A-V-O-I-C-E Y-O-U-C-A-N-N-O-T-H-E-A-R-M-Y-V-O-I-C-E-B-U-T-D-R-A-G-O-N-S-C-A-N-F-E-E-L-I-T

Dad is shocked, but he says, "Whisper you are."

I look over at my brother's bed. Then I realize something is wrong. I need to see him. I look at my father, begging with round eyes.

"No Whisper. You can't see him yet." Dad says.

I have to. I need to know what is wrong with my brother.

"No." Dad says again.

I squirm away and rush down the stairs. There are many Vikings attending to someone on a bed, Toothless sits on one of the rafters above, so many emotions coming from him that I have to shut them out. Then the people shift and I can see the top half of the person on the bed. I stop in horror as I see the pale face of my brother. There is a metallic smell and I see a cloth spotted with blood. He's pale because he's missing a lot of blood. Then the people shift, and I can't see him anymore.

I panic and run to the back door. I hear my father call my name as I slam into the door. For a second my hands don't work properly as I fumble with the lock. Then the door swings open and I am off running.

I run and I run and I run. I run through the forest blindly, dodging trees, leaping rocks, tripping over roots, and running through bushes, ignoring the brambles with thorns that claw at me.

The sky has grown dark by the time I stumble to a stop, leaning against a tree, then collapse into the moss on its roots. It isn't long before sleep overcomes me and I sink into a dreamless darkness.

~oOo~

I wake up and stumble around till I come to a beach. I walk out onto the sand and look over the great expanse of the salty water, waves heaving up then crashing down in the distance filling the air with a pounding and swishing sound.

I stand on the shore, the water lapping just inches from my feet. I am scared, confused, and lonely. Scared because Hiccup is my only friend and he is still passed out from yesterday's dragon attack, and I don't know what I will do if he dies. Confused because I was told that I was found on the dock when the ships came back, wet with ocean water and out cold. And lonely because I don't have any other friends than my brother and I don't have a dragon as loyal as Toothless.

I hang my head. First the tears come as trickles then my shoulders begin to shake as my crying turns into sobs.

My name is Whisper the Silent and I have no voice. And with no voice I never made any friends beside my brother, and now he might die. I am the girl with the mismatching eyes that makes it hard for people to look straight at me. I am the one who can only listen, a loner forever.

A comforting feeling washes over me and I feel instantly soothed. Then I hear the singing. And I recognize it as the song that I listened to every night for the past few days, except for last night.

The water ripples then begins to bubble and froth. First a head emerges from the water, held high on a long neck. The head is black on top and blue underneath, silvery blue eyes gaze at me with slightly crescent curved black horns above the eyes. Water streams off, falling back into the ocean. A scaly chest appears followed by a slender body and tightly closed wings. The wings snap open, showering me with salty spray, then settle closed again. Black claws glint in the sunlight before disappearing into the water again as the dragon walks into the shallow water. A long tail whisks through the waves.

The Waterfright stops in the shallows and lowers it's head.

Timidly I reach out my hands. The Waterfright instantly presses its forehead against my head. I wrap my arms around its head and realize I do have a connection with a dragon. This is my mysterious friend.

It looks at me with beautiful, trusting eyes full of curiosity, as if it... no, she is asking what I will name her. Seafire. I think. Your name is sea fire. Sea because she came from the sea and fire because she saved me from the fiery explosion of the queen dragon.

Her eyes spark with happiness and I know she likes this name.

I hug Seafire around her nose, pressing my forehead against hers, I can feel her warm breath on my chest and her horns slightly brush the top of my head as I gaze into the depths of her silvery-blue eyes.