Zephyr and Dart: The Quest Of The Broken Tail

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Zephyr may not have trusted dragons when she was a child, but after coming face to face with her fathers old friend she had a certain admiration for them and couldn't help but long for the day when humans and dragons could reconnect.

Until then, she sat curled up under her blanket while her family slept, a fire flickered by her side as she read book after book on the recent history of her people, and older histories that spoke of the dragons, not as fearsome beasts but as curiosities. Word after word, she read through them, devouring the information eagerly. Currently she was reading a scripture from someone who claimed they had unlocked the secret of talking to dragons, was it possible- probably not, but worth the read either way. 

Her messy brown hair, usually pulled up in a braid was loose and flowing down her shoulders, she pulled her blanket closer to her shoulders and blinked tiredness out of her eyes, looking up at her wall. She had realised at a young age that she shared her fathers knack for inventing, on her wall were incomplete designs of everything she had thought of. The only thing on her wall that wasn't a blueprint was a drawing of her father's dragon, she had drawn from memory and knew that it did nothing to the creature himself. She yawned and stretched widely, nestling into the fur pelts that lined her bed and staring wistfully up at the ceiling.

Her father was on business in Rome at the moment, currently her mother and her were running Berk with the help of her little brother, she yawned again and closed her eyes.

*

King and Light rarely ever yelled but when they did, Dart was compelled to listen. Her parents were smart, smarter than her. She kept her head down, watching her father's tail swish, the makeshift fin was torn and broken, her parents had been going on about it and the fact that she could've been hurt-or worse. 'Go to bed Dart.' Her father finally commanded, she nodded and scampered away with her head down. She pushed through the thickets and was met face to face with her two brothers.

They smiled at her kindly, knowing she would be down from their parents chewing out. She smiled back at them and curled up in her bed, her brothers nestled in either side of her and she rested her head on Ruffrunner's shoulders with Pouncer curling her around her. They soon fell asleep, their breathing matching each other, but she was wide awake. She had been for hours, feeling the guilt crushing her chest.

She slowly stepped out of her brothers embraces, they had pressed against her and sheltered her with their wings. She stepped out of the thicket, looking around the empty plateau and heading towards her parents thicket. She pushed her nose through the leaves and found her parents sleeping in the moonlight. Her blue eyes scanned them and she found her fathers tail wing, it was still wrapped and secured to his tail. She narrowed her eyes and bared a claw, hooking it under the leather straps and tugging upwards, her father grunted and flicked his tail irritably. She froze and stared at him patiently until he seemed to have settled, she tugged harder at the strap and it came away, she gripped it in her teeth and pulled it away from her mother and father.

She flayed it open and tried to determine the damage and how to fix it, the only damage was a hole from where the arrow had cut through it. She eyed it and tried to flatten the frayed edges, when she was a hatchling, her father had told her that his old friend had invented the tail so that he could fly freely. As well as the story of how he lost his tail wing in the first place. Hey wait, that's it. She thought to herself, he should be able to fix papa's tail. She pressed the tail back together and gathered it into her mouth, heading to the edge of the plateau, but I don't know how to get there. She paused, she could recall having gone to her fathers old tromping grounds with the humans when she was a hatchling, but that was years ago. She readjusted her grip on the tail wing and looked back at the empty plateau, but what other choice did she have? There had to be someone who could help her get to her fathers friend.

She rolled her shoulders and fluttered her wings, what about his old team? Her mind pitched in, there was an idea. She pressed off the edge and jumped into the air, catching the updraft and climbing higher and higher. She made it a point to know where every dragon nested in the caldera. Her fathers old team slept close to the entrance. The nocturnal dragons were flitting in and out of the stalactites and through the gaping maw some acknowledged her, others didn't. Her brothers were more personable than she was and she tried to fly under the radar most of the time. She came to the ledge near the entrance and touched down gently, her fathers old team were resting together. They were a pile of claws, wings and tails. She quietly crawled forward and sniffed, one of them moved and she jumped back. She could smell the acrid hot fire that could only come from a monstrous nightmare. He opened his eyes, uncurling from the pile and stepping forward, his titan wings stretched behind him and lit on fire, she swallowed nervously and he crawled forward on his hooks with a growl. 'Aren't you in enough trouble as is, Dart?' He bared his fangs.

She put down the tail wing, 'Hey, Uncle Flame... I ah, need your help.' She curled her tail around her feet, 'my fathers tail wing got damaged. His old friend must know how to fix this.' She reasoned, 'could you take me to the humans?' His fire began to dim and he scanned her. He crouched down and sniffed the tail wing then looked back at her.

'Alright, but we have to be quick.' He told her. 'Let's go.' She picked the tail wing up again and he leapt into the air, she followed. Titan wings were of course, fast, she had to struggle to keep up, matching one of his wingbeats with three of her own. Flame's skin was on fire, and he wasn't going to let it go out any time soon. 

They flew for most of the night, Dart was getting tired, her wings were sore and her gums ached from holding the tail wing. She glanced up at Flame, watching the fire dance on his dark red scales. As if sensing her eyes, he looked down on her. 'We're here.' She looked forward, crags and sheer cliffs were giving way to a sleeping island, fires flickered in braziers and ships bobbed in the harbour, her keen eyes could see all the small details, the scours and carvings in wood, the engravings that weaved and curled around a huge stone statue, giving way to a powerful figure of a man, frozen in time. The houses and buildings with their planked wood and the flags of the ships that bustled in the breeze. She urged herself forward, only to be stopped by Flame's giant wing. She glanced at him, flapping her wings to stay in the air. He nodded towards something and she looked, there were watch towers. With weapons and people manning them.

'They wouldn't shoot us would they?' She asked. Flame looked unsure.

'We can just drop the tail wing somewhere, someone will find it and take it to Hiccup.' Flame suggested. Hiccup, that was his name. Her father rarely spoke of his friend by name, not out of spite or malcontent but because the few times that he did, pain would flash in his eyes and Dart assumed that it hurt too much. Flame's idea wasn't bad, but it wasn't good, either. Dart flattened her ear appendages against her skull and tried to come up with a better idea, she looked down her nose at the tail wing. Her father had once told her that it was made out of his scales, she had no idea what that meant, but maybe they still reacted the same way to his scales. She inhaled strongly, the same ritual she always did, as her scales turned reflective and made her invisible, the tail did so too. 'Stop.' Flame snarled, but it was too late, she was gone.

Invisible now, she dived towards the island weaving through the buildings and looking for any sign of Hiccup, she was silent, not wanting anyone else to find her. That's when she saw it, a house above the rest and carved figure heads that looked like her father. That must be his. She landed on the roof, crouching low as her scales cooled and trying to pick up any noise on the inside. She took a tentative step forward and the planks creaked underneath her weight someone breathing hitched inside and she tuned in on the noise, applying more weight to the board on purpose. Now there was hyperventilating. She heard feet on wood rushing towards somewhere and she looked up, following the noise. A door opened and feet rushed against more wood, Dart peered over the edge of the roof and froze as she was met by young blue eyes.