Into the Rainforest
They soared over the ocean, tired and hungry. Hiccup knew Willow was crying into her arm, but he didn't show it. He only had a vague idea of where they were going, so he hoped Willow would be able to navigate soon. If not, Marina could just lead them to where they were headed.
Seeing as he had nothing else to do, Hiccup decided to listen in on Toothless's conversation with Marina.
"- they were so young, Bring and Dontlet. They deserved more in life."
"They may not be gone. Perhaps they were just captured," Toothless said.
Marina turned her head away. "You don't know the Bloody Barbarians. They're ruthless, cruel, unforgiving, to name a few. The only live prisoners they've taken are me and my rider. And even then, their intent was to kill."
There was silence between them, before Toothless spoke again. "We should set down for the day. We need rest. We can continue to the Rainforest in the evening."
Marina just nodded before angling her wings downward. They had been flying over water at top speed for a while. Land was just peeking over the horizon.
Marina sprinted towards the land, and in an hour they were there. They set down on a warm beach, with mountains towering behind them.
Willow had since stopped crying, and she explained to Hiccup that the Rainforest was just beyond the mountains.
The sun was high in the sky when the dragons laid down to rest. Hiccup crawled into his dragon's wings, the darkness pulling him into sleep.
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Hiccup and Willow woke at sunset to fire and the smell of burning fish. On the beach, a small fire crackled, and on a slab of rock next to it sat five fish. The tails were falling in the fire, and looked blacker than Toothless.
The Night Fury was sitting next to it, staring expectantly at Hiccup. He made a slurping noise and licked his lip, and Hiccup couldn't help but laugh.
Marina was sitting on the other side of the fire, but had since moved towards her rider to nudge her in the direction of the charred food.
Hiccup walked over to his Dragon. "Thanks, bud." He set his hand on the Night Fury's nose.
Toothless purred and warbled his thanks before Hiccup walked to the fish. He picked one up as the blackened tail crumbled off. Eh, just saves the time he would've spent cutting it off later.
After they ate, they mounted up once again, and set off over the mountains. The towering, green trees of the tropical rainforest rose up from the depths of the forest.
Willow didn't stop to blow her conch horn. Instead, she kept on flying as the sound droned out over the trees. Bird-like things flew out of the leaves, sqwaking and blowing green... fire?
Hiccup was about to say something about them when a yellow blur shot up from the trees. As soon as it appeared, it disappeared, diving back into the tops of the trees.
They could barely see it as it zipped away. Willow smiled before telling Marina to put on a burst of speed. They flew after it, Hiccup and Toothless slightly behind.
Suddenly, it dove straight down, and they lost sight of it. Willow continued to follow, and Hiccup had no choice but to dive down through the branches after her.
Once he and his dragon had cleared the canopy of leaves, they could see much better. There was a floor of dark brown dirt far below them, with a brooke of teal water snaking through the tree trunks.
Brightly colored birds, plants, and reptiles were everywhere. Hiccup also spotted something that looked like a large, spotted cat sneaking around a trunk, stalking something that looked like a thinner, lighter, and less shaggy version of a yak.
He was so busy trying to take it all in, he didn't notice that Willow had slowed. He almost crashed into her, but Toothless's roar of warning brought his attention back. He quickly snapped the tail into a different position and they flipped, beginning to fly backwards upside down.
"Hiccup! Get back over here!" Willow's exsasperated roar turned him back to slowly approach her.
He looked up just in time to see the tip of a golden tail disappear over a wooden railing.
Hiccup gasped. Above them, just below the leafy canopy, was a tree house. But this wasn't your typical tree house. It took up tens of trees. There were wrap-around porches, zip-lines, vine bridges, plank bridges, stairways, rope ladders, and ramps leading to the different trees and rooms. Some had landing strips, others had just enough room for a dragon to set down.
However, that wasn't all.
Everywhere you looked there were brightly colored flags, waving in the breeze. There were small bird and Dragon perches, along with endless bird feeders and bird baths. There were wind socks and windmills, which were twirling lazily in the breeze. Along with all this, there were food and cloths lines, and so many torches that if Hiccup hadn't known it was night, he would've thought it was day.
And besides it all, there were birds. Hundreds of them, flying around, chirping, perching on poles, lines, feeders, and baths. They were brightly colored. Some had long, green and red tails. Others were blue and yellow, or purple and blue. Many were different shades of green.
"Hiccup! Are you gonna change my tail position or not?" Toothless roared at his rider.
"What?" Hiccup looked down at his dragon, who motioned upwards. Willow was already halfway up.
"Oh, whoops."
Hiccup changed the position, allowing his Dragon to fly skyward. Or leafward.
Toothless continued to warble under his breath as they climbed up towards the canopy.
Finally, they landed next to Marina, who was watching her rider. Willow was conversing with a gold and hazel Scuttleclaw that was about the size of a Nadder. What surprised Hiccup about this dragon, was it didn't have a rider.
As his partner talked with the dragon, Hiccup looked around at all the birds. A good percentage of them were the same species. They were larger than the rest, and most of them were green, although some were different colors.
One landed on the rail beside him. It had odd legs for a bird and it had a pair of small front legs, like Stonescale's. It reminded him a bit of a mini, Deadly Nadder with feathers, an eagle's beak, and two small, front legs.
The one he was looking at was green and blue. It stared at him, before dropping down on it's front legs and crawling to one side a bit. It stood back up and opened its beak.
"What are you doing here?!" It squawked.
Hiccup didn't have any time to react because as soon as it asked the question it let loose a jet of green fire, scorching the tips of his hair.
"Hey!" he cried.
"Ugh," Willow walked up behind him, "Tree Terrors. Go on, shoo!" she waved her hand at it and it took off and landed in the nearest bird bath.
"Tree Terrors?" Hiccup asked.
"Yeah, like Night Terrors and Terrible Terrors. These don't look like dragons, but they are."
"Oh, I was going to say."
"Anyway, Natalia's in her art studio. That's why Goldstar came to fetch us alone. I think you'll like her, she's pretty unique, like you."
"And if I don't like her?" Hiccup asked.
"Well you better. I have a feeling we'll be staying here for a few days. I need some old fasion friend time."
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Alrighty. This chapter would be longer, but the next good stopping point wouldn't be for another thousand or some words, and this chapter was already 1268 words long. I normally try to make my chapters between 1000 and 2000 words long, and I didn't want this one to be too long.
Also, this chapter and all the chapters that have Natalia and Goldstar in them, are dedicated to nwheelerhoot. She helped me A LOT in coming up with this character (it's actually her character) and a lot of this stuff like the tree house and the Tree Terrors were her idea.
So go say hi to her! Go check out her book! Follow her! She's great and I wouldn't have come up with this great character without her.
See you in the next chappie!
¤Cloverpool¤
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