The Gray Area (2/2) - A Viggo Love Story

1

Sessa and Viggo ran quickly through a deep, wooded forest. Dodging low branches and ankle-twisting rocks, the pair made their way toward the shore. There, their dragons awaited.

"When you said we'd be visiting one of your older outposts," Viggo shouted as he tried to keep up with his love, "this isn't quite what I had in mind."

Sessa smirked in amusement under her black cloth mask as an arrow skimmed by her head. "Stop complaining," she told him.

"And who says I'm complaining?" Viggo asked, pausing between deep, running breaths. "I love getting chased through the woods...by angry Vikings....on unfamiliar terrain," he panted sarcastically.

"That's good to hear," Sessa answered with just as much sarcasm in her voice. Viggo glanced at the woman running slightly ahead of him and smiled a bit.

Finally, they reached the edge of the small island. Lilith roared as if to tell the humans to hurry up, her body rippling with electricity. Above, two Devilish Dervish circled in the sky, spitting red flames through the trees at the hostile Vikings. Sessa whistled, gaining their attention. As the two massive dragons swept down, Sessa and Viggo each mounted one, then took off back into the sky.

Lilith remained on the shore, awaiting the remaining Vikings. The lightning on her scales charged up more and more, until the hostiles were in view. Then, she released. The Night Riders watched from above as the whole shore lit up for a split second. Then, all was silent, and Lilith flew up to join the riders.

Viggo sighed and pulled down his mask as they began to fly away from the island. "Grimtalon is starting to get a hang of this," he praised, softly petting the side of the dragon he rode. Lilith groaned and flicked Viggo's shoulder with her tail, sending a small electric shock through his arm. "Come now, Lilith, no need to be jealous. We all know you stole the show." At this, the skrill squawked happily.

"I didn't expect there to be so many," Sessa admitted, changing the subject back to what had just happened. She pulled down her own mask and frowned. "When I went scouting last week, I only saw one ship here," she went on, "and now..suddenly it's a whole base." She looked back over her shoulder as the burning island faded into the distance. The Night Riders had won this battle, but they knew more were to come.

Viggo felt her sorrow and anger in his own heart. "It's alright, darling," he reassured her, "we've plenty of other outposts."

But when Sessa met his eyes, he realized he'd wrongly assumed the reason as to why she was upset. "It's not the island I'm worried about."

Silence followed for a few minutes. The sun was just above the horizon now, clouding Sessa's vision slightly. A lot had happened in the past four months. After the defeat of Johann and Krogan, Sessa and Viggo set out to find Grimtalon, the lost brother to Nightshade. But in search of the Devilish Dervish, the Night Riders stumbled upon an unfamiliar tribe of dragon hunters.

Viggo's old tribe had been bad, but this new one was worse. They were obviously well-sponsered, having a seemingly endless supply of dragon trapping equipment. And their numbers doubled every couple of weeks. Their whole tribe seemed to be sailing in from the North, capturing and imprisoning dragons the whole way. Sessa and Viggo had had quite a few run-in's with them now.

But just a few weeks ago, the pair had finally managed to track down Grimtalon. The male Dervish recognize his sister immediately, and even seemed to remember Sessa from when the were young dragons. The young woman looked over toward the male dragon and smiled, still not over the joy of having reunited him with Nightshade. She could see only a faint outline of him in the rising sun's light. The colors she would normally see clearly in the dark were still visible to her in dusk and dawn, but appeared washed over with a thick, white film.

Noticing her staring, Viggo smiled. "Your vision has been re-adjusting to daylight hours," he observed. Even from the distance between them in the sky, he could spot the light blue irises that brimmed Sessa's large pupils.

And that was another thing that had happened. Since Grimtalon wasn't nocturnal and rather slept at night than during the day, Sessa found herself spending more time in the sun lately. And her human eyes, which were never truly meant to be so sharp in the dark, were slowly returning to as they once were so long ago.

Sessa scowled and looked ahead again. "I know," she huffed, obviously not thrilled about the change. But not even she could be entirely upset about it; Sessa enjoyed seeing the way sunlight reflected in Viggo's dark eyes. "Where should we go now?"

Viggo raised his eyebrows and hesitated out of shock. "You're asking me?" He wondered with a smirk.

Sessa smirked back and replied teasingly, "I value you're opinion sometimes."

"'Sometimes'," Viggo repeated with a chuckle. He shook his head and thought for a moment before responding. "I know it'd be a long journey...but I believe we should fly to Berk, warn the Dragon Riders of this new threat."

Sessa nodded thoughtfully, eyebrows drawn down in seriousness. "I was thinking the same thing," she sighed. "If those trappers keep expanding their operation, our friends are bound to run into them eventually. It'd be best if they're prepared."

"Then it's settled," Viggo confirmed. He pulled a folded up paper out of a pocket in his shoulder cloak and delicately unfolded it, revealing a map. After examining it momentarily, he announced, "Dragon's Edge isn't far; we should rest there today, then fly to Berk at dusk."

Sessa nodded in agreement. Leaning down over Nightshade's head, she muttered gently to her dragon, "to the Edge, Nightshade." Then the riders and their three dragons were off.