The boat rocked beneath your feet, but you'd gotten used to the constant drumming of waves on wood. For the fourth time that day, you examined the intricate metal cuffs on your wrists. They were beautiful, no one could deny it, with their embossed gold plating and the large sapphire on each one. A clunking noise brought you back into reality. A soldier walked passed, paying you no mind, a deadly nadder on a cart behind him, being pushed by two others. This was a daily occurrence, but that particular dragon looked different than normal. There was something odd about her, but you couldn't quite put your finger on it.
You turned around, climbing up the side of the ship, and sticking your head out the window. You were a few feet away from the water, but you could see fish swimming by the ship, and underneath, what looked like a pack of scauldrons, paying no mind to the vessel a hundred feet above. That was all but fine, as should they notice you, it was likely that your face would melt off by their boiling blasts of water. A few islands were also in sight, but there was something else. What looked like a human figure, clinging onto a log in the water. A storm was brewing, so that person better get to shore. You slid back down to the floor of the ship, thinking.
Seeing the human made something click. What had seemed off about that nadder. She was wearing a saddle. Were there people out there, somewhere, riding dragons? You pushed the thought aside, that couldn't be possible, everyone knew that dragons were untrainable beasts. Who would be crazy enough... you were once again jolted out of your thoughts by an approaching person. A familiar enough face, though you never liked it.
"What do you want now?" You asked, tired of the daily interrogations you had to go through. The man glared at you, then nodded at someone out of your line of sight, and a few soldiers dragged in the nadder from before, pushing her into your room. You knew what he wanted you to do, no matter how much you wanted to punch his teeth in, you knew he could do much worse to you.
The man left, leaving you to your work. The nadder was a beautiful blue, a rather rare color for this type of dragon. The arrow that had pierced her was laced with dragon root, as you knew. You pulled it out, and continued your work.
A day later, you heard the sounds of dragon fire, and quickly scrambled to the window, looking out over the open water. In it, you saw the reflection of a group of dragons, what appeared to be Vikings riding them. They were firing at the ships, while avoiding the arrows, until what looked to be a gronckle was hit, and spiraled down, landing on the deck.
You frowned, thinking about what you remembered of dragon root. Why had that gronckle been affected? Dragon root doesn't work on gronckles. Your eyes widened, as you realized that these riders were trying to trick Ryker. What could they possibly want from him? You decided not to worry about it, as long as they didn't sink the ship, it wasn't your problem.
About ten minutes later, Ryker, the captain of the ship, came down with some Vikings in chains. He put them in the cell across from yours, but the dragons were placed in another section of the hull. The Vikings were talking amongst themselves, but you watched them with interest. It had been a while since you'd seen anyone other than Ryker or the men who transported the dragons to and from the hold of the ship, so you were quite curious to see new people.
In two days, you realized these new people were not as interesting as they looked, having multiple failed escape attempts, and were now serving Ryker. You had stayed quiet, not speaking to them, hoping that something entertaining would happen, but the most interesting thing was some very bad lies and someone named Gustav. Blasts rocked the ship, and you saw the wood planks were cracking under strain. Yelling from the deck of the ship reached you in the hold. The window was expanding, bits of wood from the hull was cracking and falling into the sea. You managed to slip through the window, swimming away, just as the boat collapsed. You dived into the dark blue water, the golden cuffs that had burdened your wrists finally unlatching in the strong currents of the sea.
You came up for air, and with a quick breath dived once again into the depths of the ocean, aiming for a familiar island not far from the wreckage of the ship you'd been trapped on for over a year.
YOU ARE READING
Shapechanger
Fanfiction(Y/N), a girl trapped on a ship for nearly a 4 years has finally been freed, thanks to mysterious enemies of her captor. When she meets them, secrets become harder to hide, and old business begins to interfere. What kind of mischief will she find he...
