TAW Tales: How to Train Your Shifters (#1)

~ Chapter 15 ~

"Come on!" I shouted back, lifting a branch in front of me. "It's not far now!"

There were collective grumblings as my friends and the Dragon-Riders trudged after me, but I ignored them and bounded through the branches. I leapt up onto a mossy boulder and paused, listening.

"Are you sure we should be following her?" I heard Fishlegs whisper to Astrid. "I mean, I'm not so sure that we can trust them just yet-"

"Fishlegs, I promise you I'm not working with the Outcasts, and I'm not leading you into some sort of trap," I sighed, looking over my shoulder at him. "There really is a Shockjaw here, and it's injured under a pile of rocks."

Fishlegs started. "Um, how did you hear me from all the way over there?"

"I have good hearing," I said quickly. I didn't want to tell them that my time spent as a dog had sharpened my senses, nor that I could turn into one in the first place.

Because believe me - that never ends well.

"Did you tame it?" Winter asked excitedly. "Ooh, ooh, did you get to ride it?"

"Um, it was about to EAT. ME." I stared at her, exasperated. "WHOLE."

"Well, yeah," Zero said casually, "What kind of dragon would want to eat you in pieces? You're small enough to be it's toothpick already. It probably would've had to eat, like, a whole herd of sheep after you to get a half-decent meal."

"Okay, I get the point," I grumbled, thinking at the same time, you're going to regret that later.

Eventually, the trees opened up and I found myself staring at the same cliff from last night. It looked way bigger in the daylight, which I thought should've been impossible. Shouldn't stuff look more scary at night than in the day?

But as the others emerged out of the forest around me, I frowned. Something was wrong.

"So, where is this massive Shockjaw you found?" Snotlout snorted.

I blinked and raced over to the pile of rocks; which had gotten WAY smaller since the night before. As I approached, the pile remained unmoving, not even a breath stirring.

The dragon as gone.

"It-it was right here!" I stammered, dumbstruck. "I swear, it was right here! I know, it chased me!"

"Or you just led us here on a wild goose-chase." Astrid crossed her arms and even my friends were giving me looks that said, really Willow? Are you TRYING to get on these guys' bad sides?

"Uh, I don't see any gooses," Tuffnut pointed out.

"The correct word for that is geese," Night corrected. She loved to catch out other people's mistakes; especially the twins, who had made a habit of annoying her.

"Ugh, why does language have to be so complicated?" Ruffnut complained loudly.

"So are you gonna explain why you dragged us all the way out here for nothing?" Snotlout demanded, folding his arms. Behind him, Hookfang reared his head and narrowed his eyes at me.

"I told you," I replied angrily. "There was a Shockjaw under these rocks! It must've burst out or, or something!"

"Ri-ight," Fishlegs said, unconvinced.

"I swear, I'm telling the-"

Suddenly, Winter and Moon screamed and I whipped around. The Shockjaw reared up onto it's hind legs and roared, the knobs under it's chin glowing purple and crackling with energy.

The other dragons roared back protectively, taking a step forward.

"Wait, wait!" I shouted to the Shockjaw, waving my arms at it desperately. "Don't hurt them!"