What Next?

Chapter 3 Winter is Coming

"But we can't travel through this blizzard, we'll die!" Scythe pointed out.

"We have no choice!" Bottonlout said and began walking off the shore.
Pretty soon we were all walking into the kneeling trees. They gave some cover from the trees, but even Zeus was shivering as I held him to my chest.
We walked, and on occasions I heard that roar I've never heard from another dragon kind. It was high pitched and threatened to burst my eardrums. We kept walking, until I fell.

  My face stung as the snow clung to it when I dropped to my knees.
Comet was the first to my side and said in my ear, "We can't go on. We have to stop."

"We can't stop." I replied.

"We're tired and cold, we can." He argued.

"Look, what ever is following us it's either getting closer to us or we're getting closer to something." I said and used Comet as a tool to stand up.

"And how can you tell?" He asked me.

"My stomach is on fire." I replied and kept walking.
  It grew darker around us and the blizzard raged on. The dragons were by their rider's sides, trying to shield them from the winds.

  The longer we walked the hotter my stomach grew. I don't know why, either we were going to find something or something is going to find us. Either way, I'm pretty sure we're screwed.

Suddenly flapping filled my ears. I turned to the others who were looking up to the sky. I turned around and saw a Flightmare, glowing mystic blue in the moonlight.
Fear rushed through me as fierce as the blizzard. I looked to the others who were looking to the Flightmare. It hasn't even paralyzed us and we're already frozen stiff.
I suppose we have the storm to thank for that.
My question was, what was it doing all the way out here? Flightmare don't usually come out this far from the forest surrounding the Berk islands.
  The Flightmare didn't roar or growl when it came into our presence and I know it saw us, because it looked stright into my eyes. There was nothing but urgency in its expression as it dove for us.
  Just as I was about to duck down, I saw that the Flightmare wasn't looking at us, it was looking past us.
Before I had a chance to do anything about it, an ivory spike was shot into its wings.

  The dragon crashed into the ground like a meteor with a horrendous cry. Snow blasted in my face when it passed me in its crash, and I instantly looked to Spike and Bottonlout.  Spike's tail was now a weapon instead of an accessory. Ivory spines were shaking with fury and in front of Bottonlout.
  I turned my attention to the crashed dragon, but what surprised me was that there was no glow.
Disregarding the others shouts of disapproval, I followed the trail of shoveled snow, where finally, I saw a little black dragon. It looked almost like a Skrill, but with less of an armored hide.

"Oh my gods..." I gasped.

"Freya!" Comet ran up to me and pulled me back by my arm. "Those things are crazy territorial!"

I didn't break my eyes with the dragon's as it looked straight at me. "Not this one."

Comet let go of my arm. "What?"

"Look at it, it's lost its glow."

"Meaning...?"

"Meaning it doesn't have a food source. Their food is so rare, that they have to be overly protective of it. Without it, they're just wild dragons." I explained to him.

At this point Salmonfoot had come up beside us and looked at the Flightmare and said, "This one seems scared. Strange, they're usually very aggressive creatures."

"I would be scared too, if I was just shot by a Deadly Nadder. That thing's not moving for a while." A sudden gust of a sharp wind reminded me that we were in the middle of a snow storm. "And neither should we. We have to find some shelter before we freeze"

We all looked desperately around, trying to search for something that would serve some cover, and eventually the Buffnut cried out, "There's a cave over there!"
  I was almost upset that they were the ones to find a cave, but I geuss I can't not share the glory.
As the others ran to the cave, I couldn't bring myself to run away from the dragon that called out in pain behind me. I looked over my shoulder to see its pure black eyes looking into mine.

  Zeus clawed himself out of my arms and up to the Flightmare. The little Terror was nearly blown off his feet in the strong winds, so he practically crawled on his belly.
The Flightmare didn't seem to know how to react. He mirrored the look in Zeus's eyes with his own.

My brain shut down for a second when I began to realize something. I struggled to walk up to the dragon, but as I did, I clenched my fists and gave it a harsh stare. I'm return it let out a warning growl and then a snarl as I got closer.
I stopped halfway.
The other half I walked smoothly as I could in a storm with a soft smile. I continued to look into its eyes as I did this, and it purred at me.
"Oh my gods," I gasped when I realized, "you don't have eyes."

"Freya!" A voice caught on the wind called to me. I looked in the distance and saw a flame in the distance.
I looked back to the dragon. "Do you have enough energy to move? The Nadder didn't give you that much poison, did he?" I asked sweetly.

The dragon struggled to get to its feet, but I put my hand on its head and it turned to me. I smiled and the dragon continued to walk on toward the cave. Zeus crawled up my leg and clung to my neck with his entire body.

  When all three of us got to the cave, the other immediately reacted.
"Freya, you brought a freaking Flightmare in the cave!" Bottonlout shouted.
The dragon reacted with a sharp growl and opened its mouth. I saw blue mist beginning to seep out from the corners of its mouth and I turned it's head to me.

"Easy, girl. It's okay." I said as I looked into its eyes.

  Everyone watched on in amazment until Buffnut piped up. "She tamed a Flightmare." He said bluntly. "What next? Is Thor going to come down as well!?"

"But ... how?" Salmonfoot asked in pure awe.

"Well, I learned that a Flightmare doesn't have eyes. It has mirrors instead. Like how the nurse's dragon can change moods, a Flightmare sees expressions and interprets them as it's own." I explained.

"So it doesn't have its own?" Bottonlout asked.

"I'm sure it does, but I geuss it's a survival tactic." I responded before Salmonfoot gasped.

"Of course!" He said. "If the other dragons feels hostile then it'll get just as angry as that dragon and if it sees a helpless dragon than it'll feel as if it's trapped as well and help."

"Something like that. It's only a geuss." I admitted before I felt my stomach heat up. "Something's in here."

"How can you tell?" Comet asked. "Stomach warm?"

"Yup. It wasn't the Flightmare, but whatever's in this cave." I said and stared at the darkness that was beyond the light of Spike's fire that balanced on his tongue.

"Well we can't really leave your new friend here at the mouth of the cave while we go explore, for gods knows how long. Could get hurt, or freeze and it can't move." Scythe pointed out as he watched the Flightmare collapse on the stone floor.

"Fine. We should stay here and wait for the Flightmare to move again. If not I'm blaming Bottonlout." I said and went to go curl up on Stormcloud.

"What? Why me?" He argued.

"You're the one who shot it!" Comet retorted.

"I was Spike's idea, but I aporoved." Bottonlout said and let his dragon curl around him, like a mother cat with her kits.

"Okay! Let's just all sleep. I'm tired as is." I said as Stormcloud enclosed her wings around me.
I don't remember anything that happened in that night while I was safely enclosed in Stormcloud's wings, but I did know my stomach was getting hotter and we were getting closer to something.