The tears are so close to coming out that it takes all of my will power to prevent the liquid from pouring down my face once again. I gulp, slowly rereading the words of my father. He hoped I wasn't dead, yet I never even considered the fact that he might be alive. And now, it's too late... I sigh and roll the paper up and tuck it in my belt.
"Did you see what it said?"
"Be quiet mutton head. You'll give us away!"
The two hushed voices come from up and to my right. Squinting through the leafy trees, I can faintly make out two humanoid outlines and two dragons behind them. No. I look closer and realize the dragon is not two, but one. I roll my eyes.
"Ruff? Tuff? I know you're there."
Silence and then, "No one is up here. Especially not these Ruff and Tuff that you speak of."
"Yeah, what he said." I turn to face Afternoon who nods and breathes a squirt of flame, barely enough to light a campfire, through the leaves.
"Yeowyeowyeow!" shouts Tuffnut as he leaps out of the trees. His sister is soon to follow. Tuffnut rolls on the ground while Ruff just stands there looking at him. When Tuffnut finally realizes he is not on fire, he stops. "I am hurt, I am very much hurt," he complains, looking at me with puppy dog green eyes. I laugh at his expression.
"Then, next time don't spy on me," I reply, smirking.
"We weren't spying," replies Tuffnut innocently, hurriedly getting up and brushing the dirt off of him.
I roll my eyes and then frown. "How long were you here?"
"Uh.." Tuff stammers, looking at Ruffnut for help.
"Long enough to see your emotional breakdown?" She says helpfully.
"Traitor," mutters Tuffnut. He looks hopefully at me. "Now that you know, can we see the note?"
"Of course not!" I retort, hugging it close to me to hide it from their prying eyes.
"Please?" he begs me with big puppy dog eyes showing up again.
I glare at him. "No means no." Both Ruffnut and Tuffnut hang their heads in disappointment. I roll my eyes and turn around to the awaiting Afternoon. "Come on. Let's get back to the Edge." I jump on his back, and he takes off without waiting for the twins to catch up.
"Hey! Wait up!" Ruffnut yells. I look over my shoulder to see them rushing to climb on Barf and Belch. As Afternoon pauses hesitantly, I tap his neck to encourage him to keep flying. The twins will catch up no matter what. I feel a smile tugging at the corners of my mouth. Despite being annoying most of the time, the twins were still pretty great.
I turn back around, leaning on Afternoon's long neck for support. I sigh into the breeze, feeling Afternoon's steady heartbeat thrumming through my body. I let it calm me as my eyes slowly start to drift close...
I am jolted from my rest when I hear a thud, and Afternoon roars out in pain. Sitting up straight, I notice Afternoon wavering in the air as we slowly started to drop from the sky and towards the water below.
Frantically, I try to search for the thing that had hurt him, both scanning the ocean and his body. What I see causes my heart to jump to my throat. Not again... My eyes watch as a fleet of ships come crashing down on our position. My head slowly turns, and I finally see the Dragon Root arrow in Afternoon's thigh.
I scramble across the Monstrous Nightmare, trying to whisper reassurances to him as I try to reach the arrow. We are dangerously close to the water now, so close I might even have been able to reach it with the tips of my toes. I reach his back and stretch out my arms to their full extent with sweat dripping down in my eyes and making it hard to see. I come just short of the arrow, so I shimmy closer, fingertips just brushing it's edge...
I pull it out as another thud comes and Afternoon cries out again, I yelp as I slide off of his scales and into the freezing cold ocean below...
* * *
The twins watch as Draira's Monstrous Nightmare is pelted by arrows, too far away to do anything but encourage their dragon to go faster. And they did. "Hurry up! We're missing all of the action!" Tuffnut exclaimed, looking on worriedly as Draira reaches for the arrow stuck in her dragon's thigh. He almost drops off Belch as another arrow hits, and Draira falls into the turbulent ocean below...
"DRAIRA!" he yells out, his face more horror struck than it had ever been.
"We have to go rescue her!" Ruffnut points at the fallen girl. "Onward!" Their dragon speeds up even more, though not enough to stretch its wings to the point of no return. Tuffnut barely nods his head, too busy focusing on the slowly sinking Draira.
"Come on," he mutters, leaning forward as though that would help them go faster. "Almost there..." As Barf and Belch near the water, Tuffnut gives up on waiting. With a splash, he enters the water and dives after Draira.
"Tuff?! What are you doing?!" asks Ruffnut, her eyes going as wide as saucers. But, Tuffnut was already too far underwater to hear her. The Hideous Zippleback flies into the water, flapping its wings desperately to propel it enough to save its master. Tuffnut reaches Draira first, grabbing her by a hand and desperately trying to pull her out of the water; however, both of their weights combined prove too much for the floundering twin, and he soon finds himself being dragged farther underwater.
Barf and Belch barely manage to grab onto the two of them and pull them away from the water in time. Tuffnut loudly gasps for breath as his sister scolded him. "What were you thinking mutton head? You could've drowned!" Despite her ramblings, there is an obvious relief in her eyes that her twin is safe.
A cry from next to them stops their happy reunion. They had clearly forgotten that the Dragon Hunters were still there. The cry had come from Afternoon who is struggling against chains as he drops slowly into the water.
"Uh oh..." Ruffnut mutters.
Tuffnut coughs out some water and croaks, "Let's go rescue the Monstrous Nightmare!"
Ruffnut nods her head firmly. "Yes, let's." They zoom toward the Hunter ship, letting out Zippleback gas as they went. "Here we go!"
The resulting explosion frees Afternoon and momentarily blinds the Hunters. The twins drop the still unconscious Draira back on to Afternoon who immediately takes off towards the edge. The Zippleback moves to follow, but a chain wraps itself around its leg. It struggles to free itself, but another chain and another wrap around it and pull it down.
"Uh oh.." Ruff and Tuff say in unison, looking at each other with fear in their eyes as more chains wrap themselves around their dragon, pulling all three of them towards the Hunter ship below.
A/N
Woo! An update! Thanks for all of the support.. your motivation helps me publish this chapters faster! 😁