The Rider

Ten

Several weeks after she became a Dragon Rider, Rena's hut had already been finished. It was designed to look like Daystrike, with two Terrible Terror designs on the roof, one red and the other yellow. Inside her hut, she made two mini houses for her two Terrible Terrors so they could have a place to sleep. On the roof, there was an opening so her dragons could come and go as they pleased, with the carving of Daystrike's head protecting it from any weather. 

Daystrike got a bed made in the rafters, where she hung out a lot. It was only natural for her to do that, as Whistlewings typically slept in either caves, where they would latch onto the walls or ceiling, or on cliffs. She had a bed platform situated below the rafters above Rena's bed in case she wanted to sleep on the floor, but the dragon preferred the rafters instead.

Even before her hut was finished, Rena had gotten to fly Daystrike, instantly enjoying the freedom. She already knew that she would never outgrow the limp, and it was a tough thing getting used to. But being on the back of her loving dragon made all thoughts of that go away.

The scar left behind by the Beetbreath had completely destroyed a part of her thigh that allowed her to get up after sitting down. It didn't affect her dismounting, but she needed a little help getting up.

The door to Rena's hut opened, and Rena exited along with Bump. The yellow dragon was perched on her shoulders, chittering to herself, with her trainer scratching her on her head. Overhead, her large grey dragon slipped out of the opening in her roof, and helped her mount by laying as low to the ground as she could. 

"Goodbye, guys! Do you need anything else from the markets?" Rena asked, circling above the arena dome. Wartgrub would be coming to the markets again, and she'd missed him the last time due to the Beetbreath incident.

"No thanks! Just paper!" Hiccup replied from the Clubhouse. 

"Nope." Snotlout said.

"I'm good, thanks." Astrid called back, busily sharpening her ax.

"Get the rocks I wrote down for you!" Fishlegs answered from his hut.

"And lots of Monstrous Nightmare Gel!" The twins screamed in unison.

Rena looked to Hiccup, who was glaring at the twins. "We'll take care of that."

"Okay. See you guys in three days!" Rena called down to the base. "Let's go, Strike."

Daystrike crooned in reply and banked the opposite way, off towards Berk. Bump crawled to the front of the saddle, where Rena had a space just big enough for a Terrible Terror to sit, and crouched down. After all, Dragon's Edge was a day's flight from Berk with a dragon.

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When Rena arrived at the market in Berk, she didn't dismount Daystrike, feeling a little self conscious about her limp. The dragon tucked her wings in to make her profile smaller and closed her tail fins, while Bump remained up on the saddle. She got quite a few glances in her direction, as many Berkians had never seen a Whistlewing up close. A small gaggle of young Berkians were trailing her curiously, looking at the gray dragon with the blue, green and black splotches on the wings.

"Ripley, can we sit on your dragon?" One of the children asked. Rena turned around at her nickname, seeing the child who asked. She was wearing a horned helmet, brown tunic, light brown pants, and brown furry boots. 

"Which one?" Rena asked jokingly, stopping at an opening where there were less people. The young child pointed at Daystrike, who was giving Rena a questioning look from the corner of her eye. "Yes, but please don't touch her tail fins. Got it?"

The group nodded and approached Daystrike while Rena dismounted, being careful to step down on her left leg while maintaining a solid grip on the handlebar of the saddle. Bump scooted forward to make room for the passengers. Daystrike stooped down so the four children, who were between eight and ten years old, could climb on. Once they were all on, she stood up slowly and continued keeping pace alongside Rena, holding her wings up higher on her body so the kids wouldn't slide off sideways.