The smell of smoke woke Aphira from her bed.
Blackout roared as if to say, "What took you so long!?" and Aphira realized the Lunawatcher had stood over her, her wings protectively guarding her side and Blackout's tail guarding her head.
Aphira growled and flattened herself to the ground, then started crawling to the door. Fire fire fire. Her mind repeated the word at the rhythm of her beating heart, calming her. "You won't breathe in as much smoke this way," Aphira explained to her dragon as she crawled outside.
"Woohoo!" Aphira recognized Loutnut's voice as a huge dragon with colossal orange wings but a tiny head (with razor-sharp teeth) breathed fire on a few tents.
She realized she had left her Journal in her tent, and she quickly rushed back in to grab it, along with a few other belongings of hers (much to Blackout's frantic dismay).
"Hey!" Aphira barked, mounting her dragon and lifting into the air. "If you want to deal with somebody, deal with me!" The dragons turned, growling, and Blackout snarled back, her teeth popping into sight with a snapping sound.
"Aphira!" Whip cried. "Let's go, girl." Aphira murmured. Blackout whipped around and bolted as the dragons pursued her. She blasted at the sea stacks around the island and ducked away from the falling debris, making the big dragon roar in pain and fall behind.
Whiteout and Shadow did the same thing, but Blackout managed to twist away and blast a sea stack in front of her. She twisted through the falling debris as she flew up the sea stack, and twin roars of annoyance, pain, and anger came from both Whiteout and Shadow.
Suddenly, boiling green acid flung just in front of Blackout before she halted, nearly throwing Aphira off. But Aphira grabbed Blackout's ear, making her head jerk back and away from the second blast with a roar of pain, and dragged herself back on.
Blackout blasted a plasma blast and started to go through it, just to see the red shape of a dragon falling and wailing in panic. The orange dragon roared, glared at Blackout, and shot down to snatch it from falling into the ocean. He dropped him off on the sea stack, and turned to face Blackout.
"Easy, Blackout. We'll only have one shot at this. Let's make it count!" Aphira whispered, seeing the light glow of gathering plasma in Blackout's mouth. "Wait for it, wait for it, now!" Blackout shot a huge plasma blast at the orange dragon, but he flew in a circle around it and shot toward Blackout. "Oh no."
Blackout weaved through the sea stacks at an incredible pace but somehow the orange one could always keep up. She blasted at sea stacks and rolled away, even flying through the debris a few times, but he tracked her movements with perfection and blasted every rock she sent flying his way. Why did he seem so much more experienced than the rest of them?
Whiplash. It seemed to click so suddenly, so...so PERFECTLY - Aphira didn't know how she didn't see it before. Whiplash, Mother's old dragon friend, had died, though, hadn't he? Then she remembered Mother telling her the story of how she could turn into a dragon and why. How had they separated him, though?
Aphira remembered the only time she had seen her mother go full dragon mode: When a Grizzly Bear was chasing them through the forest, Mother had stopped and turned, a hand raised toward the bear, and one lowered toward Aphira. Her finger had twitched, then something seemed to click in Mother's mind. She had facepalmed, but when the Grizzly Bear took this as a chance to attack, in a flash she suddenly turned into a flaming dragon, with colossal wings, teeth sharper than Aphira's new Gronkle Iron sword, and a fleeing Grizzly.
"Ah!" Aphira yelped as a small rock hit Blackout's wing. The Lunawatcher let out a grunt and a roar of pain and surprise. "I know, girl, I know, we need a new plan." Aphira glanced back to where the other Riders were recovering. "And quick! Come on, Blackout, come on!"
Aphira and Blackout raced through the seastacks. This better prove I'm loyal, Ryker. Aphira growled inwardly. Or I don't know what will.
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Fading Echoes - The Echoes, Book 2 - HTTYD Fanfiction
FanfictionAphira had met the dragons when she was very young with her Mother and her brother, Whip. However, she didn't remember it, and not even the stories that her Mother told in vivid detail stirred her memory. But when one day, suddenly several beasts...
