Zephyr and Dart: The Quest Of The Broken Tail

3

Dart scanned the girl with narrowed eyes and her fangs bared around the tail wing in warning, she looked around quickly for anything that could hurt her before staring unblinkingly back at the girl. 'Are- are you Toothless?' The girl asked, excitement laced in her voice. Toothless? Dart thought, her fangs were retractable but she wasn't toothless. Why would the human ask that when Dart clearly had her fangs on display. Dart stretched onto the ground so that she was level with the girl and stood tall. The girl looked her over, 'no, you're one of his hatchlings!' She squealed with delight.

'Hatchling! I'm not a hatchling, I'm almost a broad wing!' Dart roared, her voice muffled by the tail wing, the girl jumped back in fright and Dart recoiled, maybe she needed to speak softer, slower and without a tail wing in her jaws. She flattened her ear appendages and placed the tail wing gently on the ground. 'Sorry.' She muttered, 'I'm assuming your Hiccup's hatchling because if memory serves, my father said he had green eyes and short hair. And that he was a he, which you're not. The girl hesitantly stepped forward with confusion written in her eyes. 'You don't understand a word I'm saying, do you?'

The girl gave no indication that she understood. Dart sighed, 'this just proved to be way more difficult then I initially thought.' She looked down at the tail wing then back at the girl, then back at the tail wing. 'Okay let's try this.' She flayed the tail wing open with her paws and curled her own tail beside it, opening her tail wings as well. 'See this?' She began, gesturing at the broken tail wing. 'It's meant to look like this.' She gestured at her own tail. 'It doesn't look like this.' She continued to gesture at her own tail, 'because it's broken like this.' She pointed at the rip in the broken tail wing. 'Do you understand now?' The girl took a hesitant step forward and crouched beside the tail wing. Dart flicked her own tail at the proximity. 'I need your father to fix it.'

'It's broken..' The girl pointed out.

'Oh gods, thank you captain obvious. Yes it's broken, can your father fix it or not?'

'You must've come here so my dad could fix it.' She pointed out again.

Dart groaned, 'yes, can he?' At least they were on the same wave length.

'I'm sorry to say, he's not here.' The girl smiled apologetically at Dart.

'You're joking.'

'I can try and fix it though?' She offered, Dart scanned her and narrowed her eyes. 'My father and I have a workspace, his old designs must be in there somewhere. It's better than nothing, right?' Dart glanced up at the sky where she knew Flame was looking for her.

'Right.' She repeated then gestured for the girl to lead the way.

'Follow me.' She began to head in a direction, 'I'm Zephyr by the way.' Zephyr looked at her and scanned her. 'I'm going to call you Lunar.'

'My name is Dart.'

'Come on Lunar.'

'It's Dart- oh whatever.' Dart followed her, disgruntled and muttering curses under her breath as they moved across planks of wood and between pillars to an area beneath where they had originally been standing. Zephyr pushed open the door and looked around for something, she grabbed two pieces of stone and a club of charred wood.

'This will only take a second.' Zephyr explained, striking the two pieces of stone together and producing sparks a few times but nothing else. 'It's meant to light on fire.' She feebly explained, Dart shot her a look that could only mean really? and quickly shot a blast at the wood. It lit instantly and Zephyr picked it up, muttering, 'I forgot, dragons had fire.'

'No kidding.' Dart mocked as Zephyr stepped into the room and put the torch in a holder, bringing others to light against it. Soon enough the room was completely lit by the flickering orange flames. Dart looked around, the walls were filled by blueprints and the desks covered by half-finished inventions. Dart barely fit through the doorway but her eyes had widened at the room, Zephyr was digging through piles of blueprints, broken inventions and tools. Dart flattened her wings right against her body and stepped in, looking at everything, in one corner there was an armour stand, on it there was a suit that looked like it had been made out of dragon skin, it was incomplete. The chest plate was open at the front and the hands looked like dragon claws but were also open on the palms, the only things complete were the pants and helm. It looked the right size for Zephyr to be able to fit in it, if it was ever completed. Dart looked around at the other inventions, most she didn't know what there purpose was, there was also one that sat alone, it was a small capsule made of what appeared to be iron, it was dressed in black with red patterns dancing around it.

'That's Inferno, my father's old sword, he doesn't use it anymore, it ran out of gas and saliva so it cant be lit.' Zephyr explained, noticing Dart's interest. 'I tried to make my own, I've got the retractable part down but nothing stays lit.' Dart looked over at Zephyr, who had blueprints in her arms, Zephyr reached for something on the desk. It was a similar capsule, made out of the same iron and leather strappings, it had no embroidery or patterning, just simple black, she pressed a button on the capsule and it grew to a pointed tip that sparked briefly before spluttering out. Dart looked away disinterested and then at the blueprints.

'Did you find the designs then?' She asked, knowing it was futile as the girl couldn't understand her.

The girl seemed to be trying to understand, she laid out the blueprints on the workbench and weighted them. 'I wish I could help, Lunar-'

'Dart.'

'-but I don't understand these designs, my father is a brilliant inventor. He creates things that I've never even thought of and I just don't know how to make some of them without him.' Zephyr explained, 'I'm sorry.' Zephyr apologised and rolled the blueprints up. 'But my father will be home in a few days, he'll be able to fix it then if you want to stick around.'

'I can't stick around. My parents will be furious when they discover I'm gone. I'm in enough trouble as is, it was my fault that my father got injured in the first place, I have to fix this, my parents already think less of me then they do Ruffrunner and Pouncer. I need to do this, I need to fix this, If I can't fix this I'm just proving them right. Ruffrunner and Pouncer don't have to deal with being the 'princess' Papa trusts them. I don't know why he doesn't trust me. Now I'm stuck talking to you and you can't even fix this.' She knocked the tail wing away and fell onto her stomach, stewing in anger and distress. Zephyr had fallen back, arm up to protect herself and hyperventilating on the ground. Dart glowered across to her then sighed. 'Whatever, I'll be back tomorrow night, try and fix it. I need to get home.'

Dart stepped out of the workspace and into the open air, 'where are you going Lunar?' She ignored Zephyrs calls, and made herself disappear into the night sky.