Beyond the Sunset | HTTYD (Discontinued)

Chapter Nine

Deav paled. Who wouldn't at this point? I mean, honestly. If you found out you're a werewolf-dragon-human-thing, what would you do?

"I might be able to find something to help in my stuff at the forge," I said. "Meet me there."

I took off as fast as I could into the sky. Riona seemed to feel my urgency; she teleported to directly above the forge. Before Riona could even come to a stop I was inside and flipping from my notes and journals. As I skimmed the information on Lycanwings, things like "vicious," "condemned," and "no true survivors" leaped out at me from the pages. Other things made me doubt my theory. According to legend, it was a huge dragon with red scales, black eyes, and strong spikes, few of which described Deav's dragon.

Deav landed a few feet from the door and looked inside the forge nervously. 

"Anything?" he asked quietly. 

I said nothing, not wanting to crush or get his hopes up. I examined Sparrow cautiously, looking at the dragon more closely than I had before. 

What little optimism I had left disappeared like morning dew when I saw the scales just around the dragon's dark eyes were a vibrant red.

"It's bad, isn't it?" Deav asked. 

"Maybe. Let me see your hand."

Even worse than the discovery of the scales, the mark on Deav's hand matched what was suspected to be the actual Lycanwing's. 

"Well," I said grimly. "The poison has already made its way into your bloodstream and there is no known cure. We'll just have to wait and see if you become half-dragon."

"There's nothing else that can be done?" he asked, surprisingly quiet, considering the situation. 

"You've got until tonight before the full moon. Let's hope those legends are wrong."

Deav looked calm and collected as he left the forge, but I could hear him screaming at the sky in anger on the back of his dragon. If I was being honest, I felt like doing much the same. Instead, I packed up the journals, ignoring Riona's attempts at comfort. As excited as I was to find a supposedly mythical dragon, it was nonetheless a terrible discovery. 

I rode on dragonback high into the clouds, letting Riona teleport to some snowy, cold place. Now that I was away from Berk, I, too, screamed at the sky. 

Of all the poisons, it has to be the incurable one, I thought. Of all the dragons, it has to be the mythical one that I know absolutely nothing about. I know every cure for almost every dragon-related ailment, and it has to be this one. 

"Are you alright?" a voice with an American accent said from beside me. 

My eyes snapped open even though I hadn't remembered closing them. "Who are you?"

"That was going to be my next question of you." Her dragon was obscured by the clouds; I could only see the woman herself. 

"I'm someone who wants to know who you are."

"I could say the same."

"I'm having a pretty difficult day today, so if you could make it easier by not forcing me to blast you into oblivion, that would be great." I sighed. 

"In that case," she said with a chuckle, "I'm Cressida. Your turn."

"Merica," I said bluntly, laying down on Riona's back. 

"Interesting name," she commented. 

"Interesting person."

Neither of us said anything.

"Are you the only of your kind?" Cressida finally asked. 

"'Of my kind'? What, are you not human?"

"No. A dragon rider."

"No," I said simply. 

"Can I join your group?"

"What?" 

"I have nowhere else to go," she explained. "Killer and I have been traveling from rock to rock afraid of the Hunters."

I was paying attention now. "Where are the Hunters?"

"Let me join your group and I'll tell you."

"Fine. Follow me." I paused. "Wait, you named your dragon 'Killer'?"

"What's wrong with that?"

I just laughed at her lack of creativity, then grew serious. "You wouldn't happen to know anything about Lycanwings, do you?"

Cressida laughed. It was one of those laughs where you couldn't tell if it was evil or simply that of someone who knows something. "You could say that." Her dragon reared up into the air where I could see it. 

Cressida's Lycanwing was almost nothing like Deav's. It had the bright red color described in legends and was three or four times as big as the purple one back on Berk. It had large spikes lining its back, which I now saw were what Cressida had been standing against earlier. 

"I need your help," I said as Riona swooped out of the way of the flaming wings. 

"What for?"

"A friend." Riona and I flew off towards Berk, Cressida and her dragon following close behind. We landed towards the back of the island where the people wouldn't have a heart attack from an insanely huge dragon they didn't recognize swooping down on them. 

"Do you know of a cure?" I asked when we landed.

"A cure for what?"

"The effects of Lycanwing poison."

Cressida looked confused. "Why would you want to cure that?"

"Why would you want to become half-Lycanwing every full moon?" I countered.

Cressida laughed. "I do find the legends funny."

"This is no laughing matter."

"Of course not," she agreed. "The Lycanwing's bite does not transform humans, rather it joins two minds together."

"What?"

Before Cressida could answer, Deav ran through the doorway, sweating and breathing heavily. 

"Something... something is following me," he panted. 

I looked around him to the path. "Nothing is following you, Deav."

"No I can here its voice. It's following me."

"Is this the Lycanwing rider?" Cressida asked. 

"Yes," I said. 

She turned to Deav. "Do you want the good news or the better news first?"

"I don't care. Just get this voice out. Of. My. Head."

"Well, the good news is that you won't turn into a dragon tonight." She let that sink in for a moment before continuing. "The better news is that your dragon loves you and will never be loyal to anyone else."

"Then why did he bite me?"

"The Lycanwing's bite creates a link between it and a rider," Cressida explained. "It allows for better teamwork. The "voice in your head" is probably the dragon attempting to contact you."

"So I'm not going to become some sort of were-dragon?"

"Not from that dragon."

Deav nearly fainted with relief. 

"Well. crisis averted," I declared. "I'm going to take a nap. I hit my daily excitement limit about four hours ago."