Chapter Text
The rain was beating down hard outside the cave Gunnar had found in his haste to get away from Skullette. His cheek still stung but it was nothing compared to the pain he felt in his aching heart. She had slapped him after everything that they had gone through. She had slapped him, and he felt as though the world had stopped at that very moment. But one thing still bothered him. Why had she slapped him? She wasn't the violent type, in the few actually fighting practices they did out in the woods back on Gurand, he had learned that she would injure or disable before she would even think about killing someone. Even when it meant her life.
He was merely waiting for the rain to stop at this point. He didn't know where he would go from here, but he didn't care. It was then that he looked down at his bandaged arm. Skullette had complained about not needing help with the man that was flirting with her back in town, but did he need her to help him with his arm? "There is a difference between fighting and helping out of survival!" that is what Skullette had said. Was there a difference? He had always been fighting. It seemed so natural to him. He couldn't see if there was a difference or not. At least not until he thought back to Skullette and the village.
The villagers had always treated her like a disease. Like she would kill them if they touched her in any way. But she never fought back physically; she just faced it and kept going. Was she always fighting silently? She never raised a hammer to the villagers, but she always tried to prove them wrong. Show that she was capable of fighting like they were. She didn't fight with a weapon. She fought with her head, and her remedies.
"We don't know when we will run into these plants again and need to save as much as we can!" Did she have a point? The herbs worked well, but she had said there was enough to last the village till spring… hadn't she? What if she had said that to make the villagers believe she was done with her herbs. If this was true, how much was there really?
He was brought out of his thoughts by a loud growling cry from outside the cave. Getting up and walking to the edge he glanced outside trying to see what was out there. Another cry, this time closer. Why did it sound so familiar to him? That's when he saw the black mass walking just outside the cave entrance. Nightingale, what was she doing here? Why wasn't she with Skullette? He was sure she would have gone back to the cave when the rain started. But then why would Nightingale be out in this weather? All dragon's hated getting to wet he mussed as Nightingale continued to roar out into the woods? Finally, he decided he couldn't let her stay out there by herself.
He ran out into the pouring rain to get to the mighty dragon. "Nightingale!" he called over the storm. The dragon turned to see him running to her. Deciding to make it easier for them both, she bounded over to him. "Nightingale, we have to get inside where it’s safe. Follow me, I found a cave not too far from here!" He turned on his heal and headed the few feet it took to get back to the cave.
Once both were inside, Nightingale shook off all the water on her scales before burning the ground below her in a circle to warm up.
Gunnar went back over to his spot against the wall after ringing out his damp clothes. He relaxed and looked at Nightingale for a moment before speaking. "What are you doing out in this weather, Nightingale? Skullette would never have let you outside."
Hearing her riders name being said, Nightingale lifted her head in order to look around the cave in hopes of finding something. When she didn't see what she was looking for, she got back up and started looking all over the cave in a slight panic. Gunnar watched her carefully at this point, not sure what she was looking for. After a moment Nightingale's eyes fell onto Gunnar's and he could see the worry and anger in them, directed at him no less. Not being able to resist any more, he asked the question that had been bothering him ever since he first saw her outside in the rain. "What are you looking for?"
She advanced toward him so quickly, he had to push his body back against the rock wall in order to keep a safe distance. She had a look on her face that, if she could speak, would be around the line of, "Where is it?" or "What have you done with it?" She stopped in front of him and growled down at the young man, as if expecting an answer.
"Why aren't you with Skullette back in the cave?" He decided to ask in attempt to make her stop looking at him with murder.
Nightingale stopped as she heard the honest confusion in his voice and looked at him with wide eyes in realization, before looking out into the storm again. Following her gaze, Gunnar wondered what the dragon was planning. That's when he realized she was going to go back out into the storm. "Nightingale, no. I’m not letting you go back out into that storm." Not listening to him, she bounded back outside and started roaring again. Confusing Gunnar for a minute. Why was she doing this? Skullette would never…. Then it dawned on him. She was looking for Skullette. Had she not gone back to the cave? Was she still out in the storm? Another roar bellowed over the rain.
If she was still out there…. He had to find her; the storm was bad and if she wasn't under some type of shelter and safe, he would never forgive himself. He had been the last one to be with her. Nightingale had no idea where she had been outside of the cave, they were staying in. Making up his mind, he got up and followed after the dragon. He came up beside Nightingale and yelled over the storm, "You're looking for Skully, aren't you?" A nod was his response from the dragon. "I don't know where she went but I know where I last saw her. I can take you there, come on." They quickly made their way back to the pond.
As they reached the side of the pond where Gunnar had last seen Skullette, he couldn't believe his eyes. She was laying on the ground, in the same spot as when he ran off. Why hadn't she moved? Gone and found a cave? Stayed warm and rode the storm out? Why was she still here? Running over to her, he yelled her name but got no response. She didn't move or speak. He rolled her over and found her eyes closed. She had passed out, but why?
A small roar next to his head brought him back. Now was not the time for questions. He had to get Skully out of the rain and where it's warm. Picking her up in his arms, he hopped onto Nightingale's back and she took them back to the cave without a word.
Reaching the cave, Gunnar hopped down from Nightingale’s back and gently placed the soaked Skullette on the floor next to the cold firepit. The worried Night Fury went over to her rider, after shaking off all of the water from her scales and laid down, wrapping a wing around her to warm her slowly so she didn't freeze to death. Body heat was the best way to warm someone up after being out in a storm like that, if she was warmed any other way; she could catch a cold or worse, die. Meanwhile, Gunnar was putting dried sticks he and Skullette had collected the day before and started a fire.
Making his way over to the Dragon and her rider he bent down over Skullette to see if she was getting any warmer. When his hand touched her forehead, he was in shock at how hot she was. It was then that he realized that her breathing was labored, and she was shivering. She was too cold and wet. The body heat and fire weren't enough.
A blush came to his face as he realized what he had to do. He had to get Skullette's wet clothes off of her. That was a violation of her personal space and body, but he would rather be hated for seeing part of her bare skin than to see her die from hypothermia knowing he could have prevented it.
Making up his mind, he went to Skullette’s pack and got out a set of new clothes to dress her in after he gets the wet clothes off of her. Finding the clean clothes, he went back over to Skullette and Nightingale. "I'm sorry for having to do this Skullette but seeing as you're not going to wake up any time soon, and could die if I don't change you, I really have no other choice." With that and a prayer to the gods above to keep him alive after this, he went to work.
First, he took off her fur jacket, then went for the shirt. Just as he moved it past her stomach, he heard Nightingale growl and cover Skullette from his eyes, while nipping at his hands to make him let go of her shirt. Looking up at the angry dragon and glared back at her. "If I don't take off these wet clothes, she will freeze to death! Is that what you want?" he yelled at her, angrily.
Nightingale seemed to think it over for a moment before lifting her wing off of Skullette just enough for Gunnar to grab the shirt. As soon as his fingers grasped the fabric, her wing came back down to cover Skullette. Just enough of her body so Gunnar couldn't see anything but her face.
Gunnar took a moment to smile at the dragon beside him and heard a soft growling purr come from the protective Night Fury. He looked back at Skullette and pulled her shirt off making her arms lift up with the shirt and slide out of the sleeves slowly.
He laid her head gently back down onto the ground before moving around the dragon's wing to the other side. This was the tricky part, how to get her pants off without seeing her top or anything that he shouldn't.
Once again it seemed Nightingale had an idea. Tightening her wing toward her rider’s body, she was able to keep the majority of Skullette's body covered, while Gunnar was able to see the girl’s pants and nothing above that.
Taking a deep breath, he went to her pants and loosened them before taking the sides down slightly past her hips. As he did So Nightingale's wing tightened around her rider, covering any skin that was exposed to the young man. She did this by flexing the back of her wing to lay closer to the floor as if she was coming in for a landing. Once he finally had the girl’s pants off of her, he hung them along with her shirt and jacket on a rock close to the fire so they could dry properly. Her shoes were placed close to the fire to dry as well, while he dressed Skullette in her warm dry clothes.
Grabbing the dry clothes, he made his way back over to the dragon wing covered girl and started dressing her. Starting with her legs first. He slipped one foot in and then the other, making sure not to look up from her feet as he lifted her legs one at a time to put her pants on correctly. Once he had them up to her mid-thigh he sighed again. This was the hardest part of all, he had to get the pants up to her waist but in order to do that he had to go past her hips, and that meant seeing more then he should.
A growl alerted him to the dragon the wing was attached to. She was glaring darkly at him, as if warning him that if he did anything stupid, she promised him pain. Letting out a breath, he grabbed the sides of the pants and pull up past her hips while looking at the stone wall to his right.
Feeling a strong resistance, he believed the pants were all the way up past her hips and that it was safe to look down. To his utter embarrassment, he saw her lower abdomen as well as some blond short hair, he still had four inches to go till he was at her waist but found that they didn't go any higher. Taking a look at the pants now, he noticed that they were made slightly shorter than the ones that were drying. Deciding to give them one more tug for good measure, he quickly tied them.
Getting up Nightingale could see his blush and growled at him. "I didn't see anything." He defended, to shocked at what he had seen to be angry at being accused.
He moved around to the front of the wing and took one of Skullette’s arms and put it through the shirt sleeve completely, doing the same with the second, and finally getting it over her head. He pushed her up to a sitting position so that her back was the only thing facing him and pulled the shirt down till it went past the top of her pants.
Relieved that, that was over with, he gently laid her back down and Nightingale covered the girl enough to keep her warm. He went over to check on the wet clothes and found that the boots were now dry and warm. He quickly took them over to the girl and placed them on her feet. Feeling he had done everything he could, he sat down in front of the firepit and started to cook some fish, hoping Skullette would wake up soon.
Later, Gunnar still sat by the fire, stomach full but his worry was far from gone. Skullette, while she had stopped shaking, hadn't woken up yet. He kept the fire burning and checked on Skullette from time to time, but there was only the slight warmth of her skin returning. Feeling her forehead, he could tell her fever finally broke, so now he had to make sure that her temperature didn't drop drastically. If it did, it would be very bad for her and she might get worse.
Nightingale made a small noise making Gunnar look up from the fire and see what had roused the mighty dragon. He watched as Nightingale examined Skullette. She sniffed her and nudged her nose against Skullette's arm while whining quietly.
Gunnar's eyes moved to the girl that had the Night Fury’s attention not believe his eyes. Skullette was waking up and was going to be just fine. With a sigh of relief, he slowly walked over to the rider and her dragon. "So, you finally returned to the land of the living." He half joked. As he watched her open her eyes, he noticed something. She was awake but she wasn't aware of what was going on around her or that he had said anything to her. Her eyes were dull and looked as though the very life was taken right out of them.
"Skully?" he called to her gently. No response. However, she did turn her head to look at him. Some part of her was at least conscious. "Come on, Skully. I cooked some fish, are you hungry?" he asked in hopes of getting at least some kind of response out of her.
She just looked at him for a moment before turning away and looking up at the ceiling. Closing her eyes slowly, she went back to sleep.
A whine came from the mighty dragon before she laid her head back down next to Skullette's. Wrapping herself around the girl, as if protecting her like a mother would her child. Gunnar moved closer and wiped Skullette’s bangs out of her face. He watched as her breathing slowed and her body moved to curl closer to the warmth that was Nightingale.
Taking a long look at her, he couldn't help but notice that she looked tired. More so than she normally did. As if she had just spent the last few nights with no sleep. What had caused this change in her so suddenly? Had it been their fight? Had he hurt her that badly? All he did was stand up for her. Then something clicked in his head. When was the last time someone actually stood up for Skullette? Certainly no one on Gurand, no they had treated her like a parasite, something that didn’t belong. Her own father thought very little of her. The only one that Skullette ever spoke of with a smile, was her mother, or rather, step mother, now that they knew that Skullette was an offering of peace. She probably didn’t know what it was like to have someone defend her without expecting something in return.
He remained by her side that night, less worried than before, but still concerned for her well-being. He only ever got up to feed the fire in order to keep the cave warm. It was during one of these treks that he looked outside. The rain had turned into a light snow and was gradually coming to stop, which was a good thing. It meant they could leave as soon as Skullette was feeling better.
Making his way back over to Nightingale, he noticed her watching him with her head still on the floor. He had gotten better at reading her facial expressions. This one was a light glare, but he couldn't tell what she was trying to tell him. Shrugging it off for now, he sat down next to them and started to relax. Skullette had yet to wake up consciously, and if she didn't soon… Well, he didn't want to think about it right now. He just needed to figure out how to get her back to full health.
Deciding to sleep for a little while, he turned his head to look at Skullette for a moment before looking at Nightingale. "Wake me when the fire starts going out. I won't be of any use if I'm too tired to move." Satisfied by a small nod from Nightingale he slowly drifted off to sleep.
Sometime in the middle of the night, Gunnar was woken up by a growl and a rough shove in the direction of the firepit. He landed just at the rim of the firepit, but his hair was less lucky. It was dangerously close to the flame. So much so that when Gunnar moved his head, his hair nearly caught on fire.
Moving swiftly in his now fully awake state, he took his hair and made sure it wouldn't go up in flames. After a moment he looks over his hair only to see it darker, almost a black color on the end of his bangs.
He turned around to see who had woken him so harshly. His eyes landed on…
"What was that for?" Gunnar yelled. Nightingale had pushed him in order to wake him up. The dragon glared at him before looking down at Skullette and then at the fire. Watching her he realized, after about three times of this motion, what she was trying to tell him. The fire needed to be warmer, Skullette was getting cold.
Grabbing some wood, he got to work on making the fire warmer and then headed back over to the dragon and the shivering girl. He looked down at her sadly, only to be surprised when she opened her eyes. They were still dull but slightly more focused now.
She looked up at him slowly. Her eyes glimmering with sadness when she saw him. He watched as she didn't move, nor blink when she didn't look away. At least, not until Nightingale growled lightly to get her attention. Blinking slowly, she turned to look at her dragon partner. Reaching out a hand to her dragon’s head, she started to pet the mighty beast. Then the smallest, voice whisper filled the cave. "I'm Sorry."
Gunnar was so surprised he didn't even notice when Skullette's hand left her dragon’s head, as the girl fell back into a deep sleep. He just sat there for a long while trying to understand what she was sorry for. That's when he remembered his cheek that was stinging earlier. Or was it about his arm and her bandaging it when he told her not to? Was she really sorry about all of it? Or was she saying sorry to the dragon for worrying her?
As the sun began to rise in the sky, Gunnar stretched and looked around to see the fire just licking at the last bits of fire wood and the sun shining into the cave. The storm from last night was over, finally.
Turning around to see Nightingale still asleep he turned his attention back to the girl now back to her normal color. Her hands and forehead were warm again and the cold had left her body. Sighing in relief he added a few sticks to the fire and went out to find some food.
He came back about an hour later with a row of twelve fish over his shoulder. To his surprise Skullette was up and feeding the fire with some more wood she apparently brought back from the woods. He quickly set the fish down next to the fire before going over to Skullette. "Are you sure you should be up right now? You just got over a fever and nearly freezing to death, you should be resting."
She poked the fire a few times before turning away from him. He was about to yell at her for ignoring him, but he was stopped as her voice reached his ears. It was sad and almost sounded like she was embarrassed to say anything. "I'm sorry I freaked out on you and slapped you."
He sat there in silence for a moment before deciding to clarify which she was talking about. "Is this including the man at the bar?" he needed to make sure he knew exactly what she was apologizing for, so he knew what to do next.
A sigh crossed past her lips before she nodded her head so he could see. Understanding this entirely he thought for a moment before speaking as well. "I'm sorry I was so adamant about defending you. You can defend yourself. I just want to make sure nothing happens to you. You're my friend after all."
Faster than one could blink Skullette spun around in her spot and stared at him wide eyed. In their village she never had friends. At first it was because she was the chief's daughter, and no one wanted to disrespect the chief by making his only child injured or cry. Later as they found out she was less Viking-like then the others, they made fun of her verbally. She never once knew what having a friend was like and now, here was Gunnar telling her he did everything in the village because he was her friend. That was the reason for his actions.
This realization brought tears to Skullette's eyes before standing quickly and burying her head in his chest, crying. This action startled Gunnar before he wrapped his arms around her shoulders and back and held her tight. A muffled, "I'm Sorry." vibrated through his chest from the crying girl.
"It's okay. I know." He rubbed her back trying to get her to stop as all her frustrations over the years poured from her eyes. Every terrible word that was ever said to her; every word that was said when people thought she wasn't listening. And every word her so called father ever said about her and what he had been forcing her to do.
After a few more ‘sorry’s’ and more comforting words from Gunnar, she pulled herself back together and wiped the tears from her eyes. "Thank you, Gunnar." Skullette said smiling at him.
He grinned back before a soft growl interrupted them. Nightingale walked over and nudged her head against Skullette's side while purring. Giggling She pat her head, "Thank you too, Nightingale."
"Well, now that that is all settled, how about we get on our way?" Gunnar suggested.
"We will, I just want to do one more thing first." Skullette said with a grin.
Nightingale and Gunnar looked at each other and then back at her confused.
Skullette and Gunnar were back in the village an hour later. "Are you sure you want to do this alone?" Gunnar asked concerned.
"I'll be fine. And if I need your help, my scream is your signal." Skullette assured him.
"Fine, but if I hear so much as a whine or whimper come from you, I'm coming out of hiding and kicking his sorry ass." Gunnar promised.
There was no arguing with that. She was about to do something completely crazy after all. It reassured both of them that he was close by just in case she did need him to bail her out. Besides, back up was always a good thing to have, especially if the enemy didn’t know about it.
"Alright, I'll be back soon." Skullette walked over to the back door of the blacksmith stall, while Gunnar hid among the trees, and knocked loudly on the wood.
The man from yesterday came to the door and grinned down at her in a way the made her stomach churn. "Well, look-y what we got here Babbitt.” He called to one of his friends inside, making the man come to the door. “The Girly came for some fun after all."
"Actually, I'm here to collect the money you owe me for the damage you caused at the bar." Skullette said calmly, while glaring at the man and his friend, who was behind him.
"Money? If anything, you owe me something, sweetie." He said before licking his lips as he moved closer to her making her take a few strides away from him. Gunnar’s fist clenched as he watched, unnoticed, from his hiding spot.
She took out her bow and notched an arrow onto it. "I wouldn't do that if you know what's good for you." She threatened, glaring darkly at him. He stopped in his tracks while glaring back at her, not really taking her threat seriously.
"What's a girl like you going to do with that? You should be in the house doing chores, making food, or better yet, under me in bed." He grinned suggestively as he eyed her up and down.
A moment later, an arrow was flying past his ear, cutting the side of it before being in bedded in door of the stall. "Like I was saying, you owe me money and I'll be taking it either by force or you could do the smart thing and hand it over." She said, notching another arrow and aiming it at him once more.
"Feisty, I like that about you." He walked closer to her, grinning like mad the whole way. "And now it's time to put you in your place." He was about to grab her when an arrow went through his crotch and he let out the most girly, high pitched cry she would ever hear. “You bitch!” He yelled in a high voice, before collapsing and passing out from the pain.
"I did warn you." Skullette muttered before walking around him and moved closer to the other blacksmith. "So, are you going to pay me, or do you want to end up like your friend over there?"
The man quickly ran over to the side room, where they stashed all of the profits for the month and came back moments late with a small sack of money, his hands trembling as he did so. "Here, half our earnings please take it."
She smiled at him and took the sack before opening it, taking only what she paid for the damages before throwing him back the bag. "Thank you, I only needed the money to pay off the debt. I’m not a thief by any means. You have a nice day. Oh, and one more thing." She turned around and shot him in the calf. "Tell no one about this. Not even if they threaten your life, because if you do, you'll end up worse than your friend over there." She said menacingly as he fell to the ground holding his leg.
Getting a pained nod, she grabbed her three arrows. One from the door, the second from the man on the ground who was still passed out, and the third that was protruding from the man's leg, making him cry in agony as she did so.
She walked away and met up with Gunnar who was waiting behind a grouping of trees, cleaning his crossbow. "Did everything go well?" he asked, while silently checking her for any scrapes or bruises.
"Better than I thought it would. We can leave now, if you're ready." She said, walking through the woods to get back to the cave where Nightingale was waiting for them. He quickly followed her, and no one knew it was them that had castrated the blacksmith and the other one claimed he had driven a nail into his leg. The blacksmith that was castrated refused to talk about what happened, only glaring whenever someone asked.
"All packed, ready to go Gunnar?" Skullette asked, as she hopped onto Nightingale's back.
"There’s just one thing that is still bothering me. How much of that medicine do you actually have?" he asked, concern not only in his voice but in his expression.
Sighing sadly, she leaned forward, holding out her hand, waiting for him to get on. "I only have two jars of antidote, a jar of healing herbs and maybe half a jar of herbs that help fight a cold or high fever, other than that I only have a few herbs that I bought here, or that I gathered while still on Gurand." She explained.
Nodding in understanding, he accepted her hand and hopped on to Nightingale before holding on to Skullette’s waist. "Alright, I'll leave the herbs and remedies to you then. I won't even touch your jars unless you ask me to." He assured her.
"Thank you, I truly appreciate that." Skullette said, grinning at him over her shoulder. A moment later, Nightingale took to the air and they were off.
Later that same day, around high noon, a ship came into harbor. A large man with brown hair and braided beard walked onto the island and seemed to be looking for something. He walked over to the closest stall which just happened to be the blacksmith. "Excuse me, have you seen a girl with auburn hair in a braid and green eyes around here? She would be traveling with a young man about the same age as herself." His voice was calm, but his green eyes told the blacksmith that if he didn't talk, he was going to die.
"N-no, no one like that came here." He quickly closed the door and secured it.
Growling, Bundar walked towards the pub to ask one of the bar maids if they had seen the two teens he was looking for. "Have you seen a girl with auburn hair in a braid and a boy traveling with her?" he asked.
She looked at him warily before deciding to answer him. "No, best to look elsewhere." Before Skullette went to the blacksmiths', she'd paid the barmaid not to tell anyone that they had been there, which took some bribing.
Growling more, Bundar left the pub and headed back to the docks, but as he reached the edge of the village, he was stopped by a man selling herbs and baskets. "I saw the girl your looking for, she didn't tell me where she was going, but her and the boy were headed for the woods. My best guess would be that they are headed south, maybe south west." The man explained.
Grinning, Bundar thanked the man before heading back to his ship and setting sail. "I'll find you, and when I do, you are going to pay dearly."