It was cold. Too cold. The snow had yet to fall for the day, but Addi knew it would come. It always came. She stared off into the distance, wondering if she was the only girl to ever have washed up on the shores of Berk without a political agenda. The Vikings of Berk still didn't trust her. She didn't blame them; she wouldn't trust her either.

The sun was setting, and it was getting dark. She knew it would snow all night. She needed to get back to the Hall. She was living there until she was able to build her own house. She still didn't have the skills or the strength to do that, but she was helping out around the village. Maybe someone would start to like her and offer to help her out in return. Maybe...

The villagers may not trust Addi, but they sure trusted the dragon that rescued her. In fact, they were constantly complimenting her and stroking her scales and telling her how wonderful it was to find a new species of dragon that they had never seen before. Hiccup and Fishlegs were particularly interested in her. Addi had halfway bonded with the dragon out of necessity, and the fact that she felt she owed the dragon her life. She was determined to pay back her debt one day. Maybe when she did, she could find a way home.

************************************************

The dragon watched her girl for some time before she began staring past her at the incoming storm. She waited patiently for her girl to return to the Hall, where a nice, warm, cozy blanket waited for each of them. The dragon wasn't a hot-burning dragon, like a Nightmare or a Gronkle. She had needs. Usually, her kind never came this far north, but she needed to be with her girl. She always has.

"Adeline!" A voice called.

Addi snapped her head back toward the sound of her name. She knew it was the caretaker. "Coming, Miss," she called back. She stood and turned back toward the Great Hall, saying goodbye to the southern ocean with a sorrowful apology in her eyes. Addi sighed as she trudged inside to her sleeping quarters in a visitor's lounge. The caretaker fussed over her for the millionth time, telling her that she really should stay out of the cold unless she was wearing more furs, since she wasn't used to this kind of brutal cold. Addi had learned how to tune her out without seeming disrespectful and did so for the thousandth time. She nodded and miles apologies and empty promises to stay warm next time and thanked the caretaker for her concern. It had become routine.

As she readied herself for bed, she heard a knock at the door.

"Adeline?" A young male voice asked. "Can I, uh, speak to you, please?"

She recognized that voice. It was the first voice she had heard when she woke up for the first time after the shipwreck. "Hiccup?"

"Yeah, it's me."

"Um... Yeah, sure, we can... We can talk."

Hiccup opened the door and awkwardly entree the room, sitting on a stool nearby. Addi say awkwardly on the edge of the bed, wringing her hands.

"Listen," Hiccup began, "I'm really sorry about earlier today. There was just a lot of miscommunication going on and the others haven't accepted your presence here yet, and-"

"Hiccup, please," Addi interrupted, holding up a hand to stop him. "It's okay, really. I won't be here terribly long anyway. I need to find a way to get home."

"That's just it, though... What if... What if you never get home?"

Addi let that concept sink in for a moment, then shook her head. "I will get home. I have to. My family, my village, they're all depending on me. I need to. You do understand, right? I... They can't live without me."

Hiccup sighed. "Okay. You're right. But... I just don't want you to get your hopes up anytime soon. The ice won't break up until almost summer, even with the hp of the dragons, and there's no guarantee that we can get a boat into open sea." He smiled apologetically. "I just don't want you to e disappointed, that's all."

"I'll be fine. Really, I will." Addi half-smiled through her homesickness and sighed. "We've got a long day ahead of us tomorrow. We should get some sleep."

"Yeah, we do. See you in the morning."

"Yeah. Night."

Addi watched the door close and flopped back onto the bed. The dragon in the corner of the room huffed.

"You may want to think about giving your dragon a proper name," Hiccup's muffled voice called through the door. "It might help a little."

"Maybe I'll think about it tomorrow," she mumbled, then rolled onto her side and blew out the candle on the bedside table.

"HA!" Crunch cried out in triumph as he looked at the first signs of the new vein of iron. He wiped some dirt and sweat from his brow. His pick ax resting over his shoulder, and a exhausted by satisfied look on his face he admired his fine. Took a fair amount of digging, but his hunch that he could strike a a nice rich deposited of iron ore if he started a new tunnel from the core mining shaft had paid off. He looked back at Em with a smile and asked "What do you think? Good find right?"

The large green dragon was barely small enough to fit in this still fairly narrow tunnel. Luckily the dragon was well suited for maneuvering through such confined spaces. It had been laying down, deciding to let it's human to do the bulk of the work after helping him carve out the initial new tunnel. It's eyes, just a bright green as it's scales, looked from her human to the semi-metallic red ore coloring the walls. It snorted and laid it's head back down. Clearly unimpressed.

Crunch rolled his eyes and walked over to the lazing mountain dragon, giving it a poke with the butt of his mining tool. "Oh come now, don't give me that. You know we have to worry about work before pleasure. We'll mine you up some Emeralds soon. Though if you had more patients and didn't munch on them so quickly you would be able to maintain a better horde." Em snorted once again, this time a puff of smoke accompanying the dragons sign of displeasure.

A restrained smirk on his features Crunch added "Plus, I think you're getting a little weighty. We'll have to start digging the tunnels wider if you don't control your appetite."

Em let out a rumble and 'gently' stretched out a wing, batting the young lad down onto his ass with an grunt. The dragon then rumbled again, though this one was less threatening and more amused. Crunch grinned, lifting himself up "Your right Em. I'm sorry, it is rude to talk about a ladies waist...even if it is getting bigger." The dragon rumbled once more, this time a little more playfully and began to rise up, it's long tail swaying behind it. The pair were just about to start their normal playing about before a call echoed to him. It was one of his cousins who had be working the other side of the mines today. "CRUNCH! LIGHTS ABOUT OUT, TIME TO GO HOME."

Crunch looked up, the dragon let out a breath that seemed to indicate that it was about time, it wrapped it's tail about the boy's waist and lifted him onto her back and began making its way to the main tunnel to leave the mines. Crunch called back "GUESS WHO FOUND SOME MORE IRON! YOU REMEMBER THE BET! GUESS YOU'LL BE GETTING EM AND I SOME EMERALDS FOR THE NEXT FEW WEEKS." He patted Em on a patch so scales just behind her horn and smiled to her "Gives you and I some free time."

A loud grown ( his cousin ) and a chorus of laughter ( Other family members working the mines today ) echoed back to him. Soon the group was all together heading towards the entrance, Em with Crunch on her back leading the way. Small talk and general roundness was ensuing from the exhausted miners. The days they took to digging for useful and precious were tiring but him and much of his family were quite used to it.

Before long he had returned home and cleaned the day's work off of him. The large family collected beneath on large roof began sharing the meal and before he knew it it was night time and he was sleeping soundly. It had been his shift in the mines this past month, but that was up now, and with his cousin doing the emerald hunting for him and Em for the next while he could finally get a chance to go into town and do something besides digging in the earth. After all, not even Gem Horns spent all their time underground.

Curled up in bed but unable to sleep, Addi waited impatiently for the caretaker to go home. She needed to get out, to watch the stars and stare at the moon. When all was finally silent, Addi tossed her blanket to the side and slipped into her boots. The night was freezing, colder for Addi, who was used to the Southern Isles. Even so, Addi tiptoed by the sleeping dragon and snuck outside to climb to the roof. She pulled her furs closer against the lazy wind that carried a threat of ice and snow, then grabbed the fourth rung of the ladder that led to the roof. She stopped, suddenly changing her mind, and turned away to tiptoe back down the hall to her room. She quietly packed her blanket away into her satchel and strapped her bow, quiver, and sword to herself before she scampered away into the night.

The dragon watched her girl leave, knowing she would want to be alone, and followed her at a safe distance to keep an eye on her. Her girl carefully and stealthily snuck out into the woods, but the dragon made sure she never caught sight of her. She may not blend in with the cold fir trees, but she knew how to hide regardless of where she was. Her first rider had taught her many things about survival, and she had promised to teach her next rider the very same techniques.

Addi made her way blindly through the woods, following the deer trails to nowhere in particular. She felt so strange, so alone, so distant from everything and everyone she had ever known. It was hard enough that she had to accept the loss of her crew, but as far as she was concerned, she also had to face the loss of her clan. She had been missing for weeks, and she was sure that her clan believed her dead. They had probably already mourned her...

She couldn't take it anymore. She couldn't hold it in. She stopped suddenly and fell on the ground by an ancient tree and wept. She had lost everything. Her life had changed forever. She would never get it back.

She felt something at her shoulder and spun, drawing her sword in one swift movement, expecting to defend herself, but the dragon never flinched. She stared at her girl with sadness and understanding in her eyes for a few moments, then curled her body around Addi's to shield her from the cold. For the first time since her shipwreck, Addi let go of her stubborn inhibitions and let the dragon comfort her. Addi hugged the dragon around her chest and sobbed into her soft, leathery skin. The dragon curved her neck and closed her eyes, thinking vividly of her first rider, and gently touched Addi's forehead with the tip of her nose.

That's when it happened.

In a bright flash of dazzling light, the tree erupted into beautiful emerald hues of light, illuminating the night sky. Royal purples, magnificent blues, and soft white danced with the initial green light, and Addi watched the dragon beside her flying through the bright midday sky as if in a dream. On the dragon's back sat a lovely young woman with wild red hair and eyes like sparkling emeralds. She rode the dragon like she'd been riding dragons for a million lifetimes. Her laughter was like bells, and her voice was like music.

And just as quickly as the light began, it disappeared.

The stars returned, and Addi looked into the eyes of the dragon curled around her.

"Thremyr. That's your name, isn't it? I heard her say it."

The dragon nodded solemnly, never breaking eye contact. Addi raised a hand and gently laid it on the side of Thremyr's face.

"I never knew... Your... Your rider. She... She looks just like me. That must be why you saved me from the ocean, isn't it?"

Thremyr stared, unblinking, unresponsive.

"I'm so sorry... But I'm not her."

Thremyr huffed a soft whoosh of air through Addi's hair and made a tender sound. Addi sighed and looked away.

"I'm not her. I can never be her."

Again, the dragon huffed softly, and then she curled tighter around Addi and sighed contentedly, as if she had regained a missing piece of herself. Addi didn't have it in her to break the dragon's heart, so she curled into her warmth and watched the stars.

Not long after Addi had finally settled down, Thremyr heard something in the bushes and started.

"What, Thremyr? What's wrong?"

Thremyr lowered her head and growled protectively, staring directly at whatever was causing the noise. Addi deftly strung her bow and slid an arrow out of its quiver and, directly notching it, holding the arrow at the ready, prepared to pull it back and loose it. She stared hard at the bush, unblinking, trained on it with the discipline of a trained warrior.

"Who are you, and what do you want?" she called.

Trygir was relaxing against Orm's side, close to nodding off for a pleasant afternoon nap, when the serpentine dragon perked up quite suddenly, accidentally buffeting the boy with his huge feathered wings. The result, as seemed typical when they were out on the family fishing boat, was Trygir being knocked into a somersault over the side of the boat.

The frigid water doing wonders for his alertness, Trygir broke the surface with a surprised gasp and quickly clambered back onto the boat, where he lay shivering, paying no heed to the chum that slicked the deck.

"Why?!" He exclaimed through clenched teeth.

Orm offered an apologetic look and a mournful coo, before springing from his coiled position, quickly taking wing and leaving a very confused fisherman to his cold drippings on the boat.

"I've got to get a bigger boat if Orm is going to keep doing that..." He muttered, stripping his waterlogged clothes from his body and reaching for a length of linen he kept handy for drying.

The couatl, Orm, was roughly fifteen feet long, from nose to tail, and had a wingspan to match. Trygir had initially though it to be a leviathan, a mythical sea serpent that would lay waste to any ships in its path before moving to attack the shore. However, a few things set it apart from the fabled terror of the deep.

First were Orm's wings. They were mostly a sandy brown color, darkening into a rich amber towards the tips of his trailing feathers. They were by no means waterproof, like most seabirds. The first time he had tried to take Orm for a swim, the serpent was unable to fly for hours, heavy as his wings had become. The dragon was adept at swimming, yes, but would not be capable of immediate transitions back to the air.

Second was the size. Trygir thought that it might have been a baby leviathan at first, but the legends spoke of only one horror, and never measuring less than thousands of feet.

Finally, Orm was far too friendly to be any sort of monster. At least to Trygir, it seemed. Yes, the serpent would flatten his head and hiss at larger ships that overtook them unexpectedly, but the fisherman got the idea that this was more protective than anything.

As Trygir contemplated building a larger ship, Orm glided by, offering a sort of happy scrunching of the snout as he chewed on what seemed to be a seagull, completely derailing the boys train of thought.

"Maybe I should worry about a better source of food for Orm, as well..." He muttered, watching as his dragon glided seamlessly into a slither over the roof of his home, where he settled down to enjoy his meal.

Elia lay against her dragon, Chameleon's back. His currently dark green and brown wings were folded up concealing her from view. Chami walked through the forest almost silently, his skin color shifting to keep him camouflaged with the foliage around him. Elia loved it. The security of being invisible upon his back, the warmth of his scales, and way he avoided all dangers easily. With her ear pressed against his scales, she could hear his comforting purr. Her mind wandered to the time she'd first heard that purr.

---

Twelve years ago Elia walked behind her father as he taught her how to hunt. Her eyes caught sight of a small brook as she wandered off to stand in it, unbeknownst to her father. She splashed in the water happily with not a care in the world till her bare foot brushed against something smooth. Not at all like a rock. She reached into the water and picked up the almost invisible blue object. It changed colors as it touched her hand, taking on the same light pink as her skin. "What is it?" She wondered tilting it from side to side. "An egg?" The object began to vibrate lightly in her hand. She held it up to her ear and heard the distinctive purr of a dragon. "A dragon egg!"

---

Elia patted Chamelion's side. That had been a very fun year. It had been a fun 12 years, in fact. The purr suddenly stopped and turned into a rapid series of huffs which Elia had learned was Chami's way of chuckling. It also meant he'd found his next victim to tease. She sat up cautiously and looked over his head to see who he was sneaking up on. It was the shipwrecked girl, Addi and her dragon. Chami's shoulders rocked and Elia could tell he wanted to pounce. But much to both their chagrins Addi jumped to her feet and notched an arrow. "Who are you, and what do you want?" Addi called out.

"Stand down, Chami." She whispered patting his head. "And Shift." Chamelion changed into a stark white, his normal color when not camouflaging. "Aye, aye. Put the weapon down, Addi. It's just us." Elia called out as Chami stepped into the clearing, the moon light shimmering off his white scales. "Can not even a Stealth Dragon sneak up on you?" She complained.

Thremyr growled at Chami, obviously not amused. Addi glared at her, lowering the bow and sliding the arrow back into its quiver.

"Apparently not," she replied, turning to Elia again. "Did you come here to check on me? Following me to make sure I'm not spying?" Addi scoffed. "I don't understand why you all don't trust me. I've been here for almost three weeks, and I haven't done anything wrong except land here unconscious on the back of a dragon that everyone loves." She threw her hands up in the air and waved them around while she spoke.

Thremyr watched her hands wave about, suddenly playful, and swatted at the air behind Addi as they went by. She made a chirruping sound and flopped onto the ground on her side.

"What the-" Addi turned to face the dragon. "Threm, what are you doing?"

Thremyr laughed, a strange sound from a dragon, and rolled back over onto her belly. Addi bent down and scratched her head. "You're a strange beast, you know."