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

~ Chapter 32~

"I'm learning to fly... but I ain't got wings... coming down... is the hardest thing-"

WHACK!

"Stop singing!" Winter chirped as she and Cloudsky soared over me and Wavebreaker.

"Owwww..." I complained, rubbing the back of my head. "Whyyyy?"

"Because you're annoying," Night cut in as she wove in and out of us on her Little Shadow, Greytooth.

"What about Winter, then?" I inquired, pointing to her. "She's singing right now!"

Winter looked round at me and grinned before raising her previous quiet humming to a loud, screeching, "OVER THE CASTLE ON THE HILL!"

She stared at us brightly.

"You know," I said flatly, "I can't decide what's more scary; the fact that you screamed out Castle on the Hill on top of a super-noise-sensitive beast, or that you're in a choir."

Winter smirked at me and did a backwards loop in the air on Cloudsky.

I shook my head.

"So, what exactly is our plan again?" Zero shouted, gliding just above me on Chameleon.

I pulled out the map that Luna had nabbed from the storeroom for us, and spread it out on Wavebreaker's back.

"We come in here," I said, pointing to the North side of the island. "So we'll have to fly around the back, since this is where they expect any attackers to come from."

"Well, that sounds pretty good," Zero said sarcastically, "If we could only see the map over your head."

I scowled and held the map up. Unfortunately, the constant wind kept making the corners flap, so I couldn't see too much of the island.

"Er..." I began, trying to read it.

"Oh, give it here." Night flew past and grabbed it from my hands.

She held it up and tried to read it, but ended up turning it around so that she was reading it upside down. "Er... I can't read it."

Zero dove down and snatched it from her hands.

"Thank you!" he called, soaring out of her reach.

"Dang it Zero!" Night fumed.

Zero turned it the right way up and smoothed it over Chameleon's neck.

"Right," he said, buisness-like, "We go in from the South and me and Night scope out the scenes to make sure there's nothing that can hurt us. Then Night'll come back and get you two when we know it's safe."

He reached down and handed it back to me.

"Uh... thanks, Zero," I said reluctantly, taking the map back and tucking it away in my yellow cardigan jumper.

"I can't believe we're actually going to raid the Outcasts!" Winter squealed, gliding down beside me. "Like real dragon riders!"

"According to you, you always were a dragon-rider," I pointed out.

"Yeah, but you guys weren't," Winter replied.

"Wow," Zero said blandly, flying neatly above us.

"By the way, Winter," I said, looking across at her, "You might want to just... pretend you don't know about Hiccstrid. It might be a bit weird, you know?"

"Nah!" Winter laughed. "Pretty much everyone knows about it. Oh, imagine how cute it would be if they had kids in the future! Oh, I would just die-"

"Excuse me?!"

With roars of alarm, our dragons flared their wings and came to a sharp stop, beating their wings in the air as they hovered just above the clouds.

In front of us, Astrid and Stormfly had just shot up from below and were now hovering just above us, glaring down.

"What in Thor's name are you doing?" she demanded.

"We're... uh... going to try and stop the Outcasts before they attack?" Night said nervously.

"What!? After you were told to remain on Berk?" Astrid cried furiously. "You're the leader. You're supposed to keep your followers back where they should be."

"Okay, first of all, we are not followers," Zero corrected her flatly. "We're friends. You guys don't call yourselves Hiccup's followers, do you?"

Astrid stared at him, looking bewildered.

"And secondly," Zero went on, "Night isn't the leader of this little expedition. Willow is."

I twisted around and gave him my best death-stare.

He grinned at me.

"So it was your idea?" Astrid asked me, sounding a little less hostile than before.

"Er... yes?" I said nervously.

"We were going to sneak into the Outcasts ships and sabotage their weapons," Winter put in desperately.

"And we left the better dragon-riders out of our group back at Berk to help out," Night added.

Astrid hesitated.

Then she whirled Stormfly around and flew forward a few paces before stopping and looking back at us.

"Well, what are you waiting for?" she called. "These Outcasts aren't going to sabotage themselves."

"Wait, what?" Night asked, confused.

"I'm coming with you," Astrid explained firmly. "If I can't keep you from going, I can at least stay with you and make sure you do it right."

I felt myself beaming and Winter's jaw dropped beside me.

"Well, let's go then!" Night cried out as she and Greytooth flapped over to Stormfly.

As Zero and Chameleon flew over to join them, I looked back at Winter.

"Astrid's coming with us!" she whispered, quivering with delight. "I can't believe she's coming with us!"

"Neither can I," I said as we started to fly over. "I thought for sure I was going to feel Stormfly's fire on my backside."

Winter rolled her eyes. "Drama Queen."

"Mememe," I muttered.

Then we all nudged our dragon's flanks and soared off across the horizon, headed straight towards the Outcasts' island.