How To Win The Soul of A Dragon

Chapter 22

"Cloudjumper is really beautiful, too. I've never seen any species like him before" I looked at him amazed, and the woman smiled.

"He is a Stormcutter, he may look tough, but he is really gentle in the inside" I nodded smiling, he was amazing. He could turn his head 360 grades like an Owl, who else could do that?!

Valka then backed away a few meters, before finally jumping off Cloudjumper. I stood on my saddle worried, but then saw another dragon flying up, and she was on top of it.

Awesome.

Hiccup thought the same thing I did, maybe a little bit more impressed, because his mouth was opened wide.

"Close your mouth, Hiccup, we don't want any flies getting into it" I joked. He closed it immediately, and blushed slightly, while I giggled.

We stayed flying there, we were already away from the cliff, watching Valka jump from dragon to dragon, until one of them got closer to Toothless & Hiccup, who were smiling at her. Valka floated over her son and ruffled his hair in a very motherly way, while I just smiled. Then, she let herself fall off Toothless' wing, and came back up on her dragon.

I closed my eyes and enjoyed the wind, the breeze blowing my hair, and the sun, warming me up with its sun rays.

"Oh, when I'm up here, I don't even feel the cold. I just feel..." started Valka.

"Free" I said, opening my eyes, but someone else said it simultaneously. I looked to my left, and saw Hiccup smiling at me, Valka flying beside him. I didn't even apologize that time, I felt much confident.

"This is what it is to be a dragon!" said his mother, sticking her arms to the sides.

"It's all well and good to call yourself a dragon, but can you fly?" said Hiccup jumping off, Valka gasped amazed looking underneath us. I just leaned forward to look at him; he had opened his gliding suit, and the woman was smiling at him amazed.

"Show off" I said, rolling my eyes, but happy because he could show his amazing work to his mother.

Toothless looked at us with a confused expression, trying to understand what we were looking at. He hadn't realized what Hiccup was doing and, once he did, he rushed down to catch him. It was part of the trick, that didn't exactly work, because Hiccup felt onto the snow of a small island, with Toothless protecting him with his wings. I knew he was alright, though, so I didn't worry much, unlike his mother, who rushed down to the island, just as Hiccup emerged from a pile of snow with a triumphant scream. I landed with Thunderlight some meters away from them.

"Man, almost! We just about had it that time!" he shouted, while Toothless just grumbled and glared at him, but I can't describe what it said because we need to respect each other in life, and what Toothless was saying didn't exactly have the word 'respect' written in it.

Then, the dragon tripped him, pretty much confirming what I had just said.

I laughed a little bit as Valka went to help him, and, once he was up, she started to admire his suit.

"Incredible" indeed it was, that was Hiccup right there. Every single thing he did could surprise even the most arrogant Viking on earth.

"Well, not so bad yourself" he complimented her, making me smile. Valka was trying to clean off the snow on his suit, when her hand landed on his cheek, and Hiccup leaned into her touch.

Now that was painful.

I remembered my mother doing the same thing every time I was sad, it was her way of cheering me up. That, and a hug. My mother's hugs always felt warm and made me feel really safe, she was always there for me when I needed her to be. I could always come to her for advice on something, anything you could imagine, she had the perfect story for it; her way of teaching me new things was through stories. The clearest story I remember she used to tell me, was one in which there was a girl and her pet, a beautiful white sheep. In it, the two of them were always together and people would never see them separated from one another, that was until the sheep died. The girl was devastated. She wouldn't eat, wouldn't sleep, wouldn't go out; she was completely shattered. Her parents tried to convince her that the sheep wasn't really gone; that she was still watching over her from the Valhalla, but it didn't work.

Her father was a painter, an artist, and her mother loved to embroider cushions, so, together, they decided to use their talents to make sure that the little sheep was never forgotten, and to assure their daughter that she was still there. Her father painted a portrait of the sheep; it was breathtaking, while her mother spent days and night embroidering cushions with the pattern of a sheep and a little girl. Once it was done, they showed it to her daughter, who loved it. The cushion with the sheep and the girl became her pillow, and the painting was hung in her wall, so, everytime she woke up, she could see it.

After working and improving her talents more, the mother managed to make a stuffed toy of a sheep that looked exactly as the pet her daughter used to have, and the girl stayed with it till the ends of time.

That was her way of teaching me that the ones who loved us never really left us, they were still present, watching over us.

As for my father, his way of cheering me up was by making me laugh. He would tickle me, always, and he was really loving and caring ever since I was little. He wouldn't stop till he made sure that I was happy again.

Some tears fell from my eyes when I thought about my parents, and I had to turn away immediately so Valka and Hiccup wouldn't notice. Thunderlight did, though, and he purred curiously and a little bit sad, too, while I tried my best to force a smile, but, of course, it didn't work.

I took a deep breath and wiped them for my eyes as quietly and still as possible, but it wasn't good enough, because Hiccup noticed.

"Hey, a-are you okay?" I exhaled the air I had gathered and turned to look at him, Valka was staring at me, too.

"Yeah" I sniffed, much to my irritation "Fine"

"A-are you sure? You don't look so good" I nodded firmly. I couldn't ruin that moment for him.

"Yeah, I'm fine" he stared at me suspiciously, he didn't believe me "Really" I assured "Keep talking, I'm okay" he gazed at me for some more seconds, before nodding and approaching his mother again, who didn't looked like believing me, either.

And she was right not to.

I wasn't fine, at all. In fact, it was the complete opposite thing.

I was broken.