Night Fury's Venom

Part 36: Time To Go

"Time to get up, you lazy pile of scales!" I curled up tighter at Toothless's voice. I was having a great dream, why wake me now of all times? "Don't make me wake you myself."

"Go away," I mumbled, groping for the missing heat at my side. Where did Stormfly go? Wait, Toothless stopped talking... that was too easy, maybe I should open an eye to-

SLAP!

I jerked my head up only to see a fish slowly slide off my head and splat onto the ground. I shot a glare at Toothless, who was now snickering. "Why?"

"It was funny," Toothless replied breezily, "and we are about to leave, so you might want to tell the Scaleless to get ready, uh, Astrid I think her name was."

I snorted, swallowed the fish that was thrown at me, nodded, and looked around me for the girl in question, seeing her sitting against the wall. Astrid looked up at me upon realizing she was being watched, giving me a little wave, before going back to fiddling with what looked like the fake tail-fin. Apparently, she had taken it off me while I was asleep—I had no idea how—and looked like she was adjusting something. I was too tired to notice yesterday, falling asleep next to Stormfly as soon as we arrived.

Then I sighed, remembering something. I looked at Toothless's expectant gaze and shrugged. "I don't know how."

He tilted his head. "What do you mean 'you don't know?'"

"I forgot how to write," I admitted sheepishly, "and I can't understand Astrid anymore. So, could you do it instead? What I taught you should be enough, I think." He stared at me disbelievingly. "I'm serious."

"Fine," he groaned, "I don't know how you would forget so quickly, but I'll take your word for it." He got up and walked toward Astrid, flicking his ears at the entrance. "Go and sit pretty with Stormfly then, she's waiting for us outside."

I nodded and made my way outside, squinting against the rising sun. Stormfly sat calmly to the right of the opening, and I moved to join her, feeling our wings barely touching. It was a little breezy today, and I was sure it would feel chilly if I was still a hu- er, Scaleless.

Stormfly stared down at the ground in front of her. "Remember when you could barely hold your wings up? To be honest, it was kinda funny to see an adolescent dragon dragging his wings everywhere like a hatchling." I blinked. Where was she going with this? "Or how you knocked yourself out with your own fire, choked on your own igniting gas, or tried to fly?" She chuckled softly.

"You were so thin and clumsy," she continued softly, turning her head to look at me. "And now, you look like you were born a dragon. You're even starting to act like one, too. Have you seen yourself? It's quite the change." I looked down at my body, trying to see what she was talking about. She snorted. "No, silly, that won't work. Follow me." She stood and started walking in a seemingly random direction.

"Wait! That about Toothless?"

Stormfly shrugged, continuing to walk. "We won't be gone that long." Sighing, I gave in and ran to catch up to her, matching her pace when I did. After a minute of silence, she spoke again, "you know I love you, right?"

I blinked, looking at her curiously, but she just stared straight ahead. "Yeah..." I replied cautiously, "is there something I should know about?"

"Just wanted to make sure," she mumbled nervously. She stopped, gesturing with a wing at a large puddle of water. "Here we are, take a look."

I looked down, seeing a black dragon with green eyes staring back at me. I blinked, and so did the dragon. "That's... me?"

Well, duh.