Dragons: The New Chief

Chapter 8: New Findings

Hiccup took off into the sky, straight up, leaving Astrid and Stormfly on the island. The girls watched as Hiccup and Toothless soared far away, until they were a tiny black dot in the distance and then swooped down to a beachy area of Itchy Armpit. The blonde turned on her heels.

"We should collect some firewood." She stated to her dragon.

Stormfly grunted, taking off into the trees and whacking her tail around. Many branches fell and Astrid picked them up from behind her dragon. She placed them in a pile and began to dig out the circle of rocks that they used for their fire last night until it started snowing.

Once she cleared the snow away, revealing the frozen grass, she laid the sticks in a cone formation.

"Stormfly." She called and the dragon came bounding over.

"Can you light that?" Astrid said, backing away from the make shift fire pit.

The dragon squawked and shuffled her wings before shooting molten flames at the pile. It lit immediately, erupting into orange flames.

Astrid gasped and ran up to the fire, sticking her hands out to warm them up. She pulled her hood over her head and more tightly around her shoulders.

"I didn't know how cold I was." She stated.

Stormfly waddled over and sat next to her and extended her wing around her rider. They sat like that for the next hour.

Astrid began to get bored then, she grunted and stood. She paced for a few minutes, thinking about how to spend her time. Then the idea hit her.

Stormfly bounded over when she heard Astrid whistle for her. She found her rider piling snow up a few feet high. The dragon cocked her head to the side, staring wondrously.

"Come help me." Astrid said, motioning for her to come over.

Stormfly squawked again and went to help her rider.

For the next hour Stormfly patted and scraped at the snow with her tail and head, listening to Astrid's instructions, while Astrid did the same with her hands.

After they were finished she stepped back to admire her work.

"Good job Stormfly." Astrid said, patting her side.

The dragon warbled. Suddenly, her eyes turned to slits and she sniffed the air. She fluttered his wings and squawked loudly.

"What's wrong girl?" Astrid turned to her and placed her hands on the dragons shoulder.

She squawked again and looked towards the rocky cliff. Astrid turned as she watched the dragon run and jump off the side of the island.

"Stormfly!" Astrid screamed.

She ran to the edge and watched the dragon dive into the icy water with a splash.

Astrid gasped and covered her mouth with one hand.

"Stormfly..." She mumbled, on the verge of tears.

It wasn't yet time to go to dragon island, not that diving into the ocean was the way to get there, but Astrid worried. She fell onto her knees.

"Stormfly!" She called.

Then, rushing out of the water, Stormfly came flying up. She spun around in the air, flinging the water off of her body.

"Stormfly!" Astrid yelled in excitement.

She jumped to her feet as the dragon landed and shuffled her wings shut.
Astrid gave her a big hug and stepped back.