Riders Dragons of the Archipelagos

XII

Thankfully, Croise was still in one piece when we arrived. Astrid laid with her dragon under Elva and Father's tree, sharpening an ax that she had not had before. Starfire landed with a soft thud, Hiccup and Toothless followed close behind.

He jumped off his dragon and walked over to Astrid, "Turns out he didn't need my help," he said quietly.

"I told you," she whispered, but didn't look up from sharpening her ax.

"What's wrong?" Hiccup asked, and Astrid looked up from her work, staring at him coldly.

"You left us," she said, "you left when I told you we needed to stay here, and watch his family-"

"Did something happen?"

"No. But what if something had," she exclaimed, "everything here is dangerous. The people, the animals. What if something had happened like what happened there," she pointed in the direction of Corsen, "do you think I'd be able to save them all?"

"Astrid, I'm sorry-"

"You should be," she stood, and strapped her ax to her side. Then she stormed off towards the Cave of Souls, Stormfly followed close behind.

I looked at Hiccup who looked just fine. He smiled at me, "She gets like that alot," he said.

"It's the life of a chieftains wife," I stated, "trust me, Stella can be worse."

"She seemed pretty nice," Hiccup said, and hopped back on his dragon. "We're gonna fly around, and check out the island. Maybe meet us here again later and we could fly together or something."

"Sounds good," Hope told him, "We need to go check on our family anyways."

...

"His name was James Stevenson, Chief, he thinks he's our ally now," the captain of the Dally Anne said, "his dragon was exactly like the one you described in your story."

"I dunno what story your talking about," the chieftain rasped. "I've told so many."

"The dragon with the stars under its wings," the captain said, "Mogg at the one you've been after."

Suddenly a dagger was planted in the wood centimeters away from were the captains hand was placed. The hair on Mogg's arm was the color of freshly spilled blood, as were his eyes. His arms, thick as the mast of a small ship. He carved a small rune in the table, the meaning was unknown to the captain.

"The night was the coldest I'd ever dwelt," Mogg whispered, "then the sky burst into fire, blue, white, gold, all colors of dragonfire known to man. Then it all ceased and the only thing I could see was wings beating in front of me, stars glittering so brightly they made my eyes hurt.

"Eyes the color of emeralds stared upon me," he said, "luckily it didn't strike, or I wouldn't be the new chieftain of Dragnier's clan."

"But we didn't catch Haddock," the captain whispered.

Mogg stared at him coldly, "What?" he demanded, "the girl didn't bait him in."

"We didn't give it time," the captain shrunk back in his chair. "We didn't get the chance, turns out James had a special power, in fact we didn't even know he was on board. He took the girl, she would've died if he hadn't, I hit her a little too hard-"

"You hit her!" Mogg shouted.

"Her rib broke-"

"How did she live?"

"Magic," the captain whispered, "James knows the Runes."

"Why didn't you kill him?"

"It didn't strike me as necessary," the captain said.

Mogg put his hand to his forehead, "of all the-"

"Wait, you said the star dragon you saw had green eyes," the captain said.

"Yeah, the memory is as clear as a cloudless day."

"The one we saw had blue eyes."

"What?" Mogg whispered, then realization hit him. "There's more than one."

"And it could channel lightning," the captain added.

"Do you know where it is?" Mogg asked.

"An island called Croise, located in the Nine Island Archipelago."

Mogg let loose a vaillant laugh, "James Stevenson, you'd best be ready," he said, "because we're coming for your dragon."