Adventures of Elsa Jade ~ Ch 8 ~ What Friends are For
Surprise - I did an illustration for this one! It started out as a doodle I did in class, and morphed into a new species :) In the story, it's supposed to be glowing a little, but that didn't really work out. But you'll get the idea.
CHAPTER 8
This island was bigger than it had looked from the air. I spent the rest of the day hiking through the forest, wondering when I would encounter more guards. From tracks and other signs, I gathered that the forest was home to several breeds of large nocturnal predator animals. As twilight approached, I climbed a tall tree and oriented myself. I still had almost half of the forest to go, so I decided to stay in the tree for the night. It seemed safer than the ground, and its branches were wide enough to sleep on.
I was awakened in the dead of night by a soft hissing sound. Yawning, I started to push the heavy blanket off my shoulders – then jolted fully awake as I realized I was in a tree, and hadn’t been sleeping with a blanket. The thing wrapped around me was the body of a gigantic snake.
I forced my body to relax, knowing that any sudden movement would cause the snake to start squeezing tighter. Slowly, I eased my left arm up toward my head, keeping it inside the snake’s coils. With my right hand, I palmed a dagger from my belt and began feeling for the snake’s head. The reptile gave a sharper hiss and began tightening its loops, swaying back and forth. I braced my forehead against my left arm, guarding my neck. Leathery scales pressed against my arm and upper back. My right hand brushed fangs, and with a sudden lunge I drove the dagger into where I guessed the head was.
An unearthly shriek rang out, shockingly loud after the subtle hissing. The serpent was still tightening, so I hadn’t struck a killing blow. I tried to locate its head again, but it looped around out of reach of my blade. Markings on the snake’s head began softly glowing green and yellow. It was an unusually long head, with what looked like several horns.
This snake was more like a… dragon. I couldn’t fight it, but if taming it were possible…
I stretched out a hand toward its nose, like I’d seen Hiccup do with wild dragons. It began hissing again, but the noises sounded different. I could almost (but not quite) make out words in the hissing. Words, and subtle laughter.
The chill focus of my combat mode faltered. I was dimly aware of the dagger slipping out of my loosened grip, but at the moment I didn’t seem to mind. I kept hearing laughter in the serpent’s hissing, and it made me want to laugh as well. My mind was floating in a blissful state between sleep and wakefulness, and I didn’t have a care in the world. I was strolling along a sunlit beach, with a cool salty breeze in my hair and waves hissing in the background. A warning bell was sounding, from far away, but it was annoying and I ignored it. Gradually, it faded, swallowed up in the endless hissing of the ocean waves.
Someone was calling my name. Two people… oh, it was Axtar and Hyrith. They were a long way off, along the beach. I waved in a “come on over” motion. The more the merrier.
Explosions of fire ripped through the sky, followed by the piercing roars of hunting dragons. It was a dark night, lit in wavering bursts by the dragons’ attacks. Eerie shadows played along the sides of what houses hadn’t already been sent up in flames. This was Berk, and it was under attack.
I was nine years old, and Erik was seven. Our parents had told us to wait in the house, and we were huddled in fear under the kitchen table. I was supposed to keep an eye on Erik, keep him safe. The house shook with the roars of dragons, and the screams of injured Vikings sent chills up my spine. That could have been our mom or dad. There was no way to tell. The waiting was the worst part – at least if I were out there with them, I might be able to help instead of just hide. If Erik hadn’t been there, I would have grabbed a dagger and charged out long ago. I glanced down at him – and saw the edge of his shadow as he ducked out the door. “They’re coming too close, Elsa! We have to hide somewhere else!”
“Erik, get back here!” I shrieked. The house shook even harder, and beams from the roof came crashing down. They were on fire. I dove out the door, barely making it before the entire house crumpled under the weight of an enormous flame-cloaked dragon. Erik was nowhere in sight. Running wildly through Berk, I searched for my brother while trying to dodge dragons and Viking warriors. I kept thinking I heard his voice, calling for me, urging me on. I ran past the Great Hall and finally caught sight of him, almost to the woods. He looked up and saw me, and smiled in relief. I tried to run to him, but my legs were moving in slow motion. He kept smiling, waving, and I saw the long shadow rise up above him. It was the snake dragon. The creature wrapped a loop of itself around Erik, and disappeared with him into the shadows.
“ERIK!” I screamed in anguish, trying to run to his rescue but unable to move. The dragon had taken him from me, and I couldn’t do a thing about it.
I’d try, though. This was the last time I would ever be helpless against a dragon. Elsa Jade would be the best dragon hunter Berk had ever seen, even if it was too late for Erik. I’m so sorry I couldn’t save you, Erik.
Hyrith and Axtar ran up to me, dragons in tow. I flinched back. What kind of traitor would actually befriend a dragon? I tried to run away, but they kept coming. Axtar ran past me into the woods with her Skrill, and Hyrith grabbed my arm, yelling at me to wake up.
I blinked. My vision cleared. I was lying on the ground, looking up at the worried face of my friend. We were teenagers in a dark forest, not children in a burning village. I flinched as a dragon’s face entered my line of sight, and then forced myself to relax as I recognized Fire and Ice.
Hyrith pulled me up into a sitting position, and Fire and Ice lay down at my back. “What in the world happened, Jade? Our dragons chased the snake dragon away, and got you out of the tree, and then you started freaking out and screaming. Like you were having a nightmare, only worse.”
Screaming, and probably crying. How warriorlike of me. I tried to slow my ragged breathing and at least act calm. “It did something to my mind; I don’t know how. I think it was trying to make me feel safe at first, maybe so I wouldn’t fight. But then there was an explosion of fire… Did the dragons shoot fire at it?”
Hyrith nodded.
“After that, the dream or vision or whatever turned into Berk during a dragon attack. Back when we hadn’t learned to tame dragons yet.” I almost told him about Erik, but decided against it. I never talked about Erik to anyone.
“Good, you’re awake!” Axtar jogged over to us and handed me my dagger. “Sparklebolt and I tracked that snake thing to a hole in the ground, probably the entrance to a tunnel. It was too narrow for a Skrill, so we came back to let you know and regroup. We’re going after it, right?”
A thought struck me. “What are you two doing here, anyway? Don’t get me wrong – you saved my life, and I’m extremely glad you’re here – but what made you come?”
Axtar stared at me like I’d grown a third eye. “You disappeared for a day, so we hopped on our dragons and flew out to take a look. Fire and Ice can track you, by the way. And then we meet Fáfnir carrying a note saying you were chasing down some evil villain who’s capturing Night Furies. Did you really think we’d miss out on an adventure like that?” She grinned. “Besides, you might have needed some help.”
That was probably obvious to most people, but I’d never had really close friends. Friendly acquaintances, sure, but no one who would dash off into the middle of nowhere because they thought I might need help. Axtar and Hyrith had done that for me. “Thanks, you guys. You’re the best.”
Hyrith smiled. “So, do we go after the snake dragon?”
“Absolutely.” It had taken Erik in the battle on Berk – in real life, as well as in the dream. Maybe this time I would find the answers I had been searching for ever since that night.
(all 3 pics by goldenfury360 (aka Hyrith))
by SoulStereo
(free lineart base found 
by me
Sefarva blinkie by DuskDaybreak
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