Without Saying

Chapter 3 - What Happens Next?

I thought this post was kind of funny.

What should I do? I felt like screaming. After Toothless leaped off the ship, we flew out of the fog, but I wasn't sure where to go from there. Could we go back to Berk? What if Dad and the others had seen me on Toothless? I mean, I wanted them to find out in time, but not yet. What would they do? Would they kill Toothless? There was no doubt in my mind what they would do to him. I couldn't let that happen. But I couldn't just send Toothless off on his own either. He needed me to fly. Did this mean we would have to run away? I fought with myself for what seemed like hours as Toothless flew aimlessly over the open ocean. As far as I could tell, there were only three possible outcomes. 1) They didn't see me on Toothless and everything is fine, 2) they did see me on Toothless and are furious, or 3) they saw me on Toothless and are curious, or even hurt. I would honestly take either betrayed over furious, but I had no way of telling.

"I guess we'll have to go back to Berk eventually."

I decided. Toothless gurgled a responding 'yes' and started to turn in another direction, which I'm assuming was home. I had been so distracted earlier that I had lost track of where we were. I just had to assume that Toothless knew where he was going. So, with nothing else to do, I laid back and watched the clouds pass above us, still thinking about what everyone's reaction would be when I got back.

. . .

Everything was so quiet. It almost felt unsettling. Suddenly, Toothless jerked hard to the side, almost knocking me off had I not grabbed hold of the saddle in time. I heard a sharp whistle pass by and glanced up to see what Toothless had been avoiding. Was that an arrow? But how could that be? My head snapped down to the open water below and saw a small fleet of ships flying under colors I didn't recognize, but what's worse is they weren't only firing the one arrow.

"Toothless, look out!!!"

I shouted. Toothless' reaction was like lightning. He barrel-rolled off to the right and quickly changed direction so we were no longer off the ships bow. Off in the distance, I saw an island, and a plan started to form.

"Go that way, Toothless. We'll land there, and if they come ashore for us, we'll take off again."

He warbled back at me, still dodging arrows, then changed direction once again toward the island. After a while, the arrow fire started to dwindle as we approached the island.

"Looks like we're out of their range, Bud."

I hadn't been wrong in believing that. My only mistake was thinking they only had arrows to shoot, and this mistake is what got us, or a bola did, at least I think it was a bola. It was hard to tell the difference. All I remembered was something hitting Toothless' wing, him grabbing hold on me as we fell toward the island and slipping out somewhere in the middle before black consumed my vision.

~

The Reaper sailed through the still ocean waters with ease, and the crew carried on with a purpose that filled the air with a hunger for action. Standing on the top deck, watching them all, was the captain of the fine vessel. Not many knew his name, only referring to him as 'captain' when needed. He was a stern man who ran a tight ship, but it always brought in more harvest and, in turn, profits, so no one could complain. This was their first time sailing in this direction, but as of late, the dragon population had been dwindling and growing smarter, so the hunters had to expand their reach if they were to have any luck. The skies were a bit cloudy today, which would mean fewer dragons would be out, so imagine everyone's excitement when a decent sized dragon leisurely flew right over their heads. Everyone was inching for action so that the captain didn't even need to order them to take chase or so break out the bows and arrows to start shooting. The captain watched, not partaking in the event himself, but watching and studying from afar. As soon as his men started firing, the dragon veered left and then turned sharp right in the other direction. He was heading for the island! Smart dragon. It was too far away for him to see what kind of dragon it was, but he could see something very unexpected on the creature's back. There was a person riding on that thing. He could see it, clear as day. That man was riding on a dragon!