Survivor (Book One- Lei)

12. A Better Friend

The flight back home was unbearably quiet. Hiccup kept glancing at his sister as she flew alongside her dragon family. Some of the other riders had attempted to talk to her, only to receive a grunt in response or for Lei to fly off to another part of her flock to avoid them completely.

"Is she mad that I didn't let her kill Dagur?" Hiccup asked his mother as he moved Toothless to fly next to Cloudjumper.

"No, I don't think so dear." Valka assured him, glancing at her daughter's direction. "But I do think she's still processing over the fact that a huge chunk of her family is gone, and I don't think they'll be returning to their home island soon either."

"Yeah, I don't think it's safe for them to return." Hiccup agreed and glanced over at his sister. "You know, we do have room on Berk for a few more dragons, I'm sure she wouldn't mind staying with us for a while."

"You'd have to ask her yourself when we rest, let's do that at the next island we come across."

They stopped to rest at one island that had a large lake teeming with enough fish to satisfy the dragons, Lei planting herself on a rock that stood out in the middle of the lake and not even bothering to get herself any food or water.

"What's she doing?" Snotlout asks pointing to where his cousin stood, now in her normal human form and trying to shed her ruined shirt that had gotten torn earlier.

"Being on the lookout, alpha dragons who move their flocks hardly ever rest to make sure they're not in any danger." Eret explains as some of the dragons fly over to the rock and drop some fish. "Other dragons in the flock will often bring them food so they will have energy to keep protecting them or a beta rank dragon will switch places to let them rest. Kind of what Sapphire is doing right now."

Indeed the female Monstrous Nightmare had perched herself on the rock to take Lei's place, though the human refused to leave until she was knocked into the water with a flick of her mother's tail and a growl. Defeated, Lei swam back to the shore where Ruffnut yanked off her vest and handed it to her to cover her.

"My favorite shirt got ruined." Lei muttered as she approached Hiccup and the others. "Might as well destroy the rest of my clothes while I'm at it, I don't want anything that has to do with that pathetic excuse of a human who calls himself a man."

"Okay but you can do that when we get to Berk, we don't have any spare clothes for you." Hiccup said as Snotlout pulled off his fur cape and held it out to his cousin. "Uh what are you doing?"

"Giving her something else to cover herself with, duh." Snotlout responds with a roll of his eyes. "We can't let her stroll into Berk naked like this."

"I'm not going to Berk, I have to find a new island to relocate what's left of my family." Lei points out, gesturing to the wild dragons nearby as they were pacing around nervously. "They just got caught by humans, I don't think putting them on an island full of humans is gonna help their uneasiness."

"Oh but we have some parts of Berk that don't have humans living in it, they don't have to stay in the village with us." Astrid points out as Lei wraps the fur over her shoulders. "Yeah that won't fit, Snotlout's shoulders are too small."

"They're not!" Snotlout protests as his cousin throws back the cloak at him.

"Here, just take this. I can handle the cold." Eret says as he swiftly removes his fur vest and hands it to Lei. "Big enough to cover yourself. And there are areas on Berk the dragons could stay, like the cove where we had that little party earlier to introduce ourselves to your family."

"And while they stay on Berk I could help you find another island." Hiccup suggests before Valka shakes her head.

"Oh no, you have chief duties to fulfill, if your sister agrees to staying on Berk temporarily someone else has to help."