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A lanky teenager trudged out into the cove with a basket over his back.
“Leaving! We’re leaving,” Kim Dokja called out into the clearing with a sigh. “Let’s pack up! Looks like you and I are taking a little vacation. Forever.”
He swung the basket down from his shoulders and placed it under a rock ledge, lifting the lid to check the supplies. The sun was hovering just over the tips of the trees, ready to settle beyond the horizon. His escape plan had to go off without a hitch. If there was any chance of running away, it had to be now. To stay was to face the arena.
The constellations knew that if he could not kill before, he would never be able to do it now. Not after all he had discovered about dragons.
“Oh, man.” He pushed off his knees, standing up.
There was a sound of a weapon being sharpened.
This might be the last day he will ever set foot in the village.
Wait. A weapon being sharpened?
He looked up.
“What the—?!” he sputtered. Kim Dokja stumbled over the sight of Yoo Joonghyuk perched atop the rock, honing the edge of his sword. Clearing his throat, he gathered his composure. “I, uh, what are you doing out here?”
There was no one else in the area. No one should even know he was in this area. Then came the realisation.
‘Oh. He tracked me down personally.’
Yoo Joonghyuk let go of the whetstone in his hand and surveyed his blade nonchalantly. “I want to know what’s going on,” he said coldly, jumping down from the ledge.
He was lean and broad shouldered. A little taller than him too. And he was absolutely taking advantage of both facts at this moment, looming over like a gargoyle.
“No one just gets as good as you do.”
Kim Dokja had no choice but to step back each time Yoo Joonghyuk stepped towards him. The sword spun in his hand, glinting in the yellowing light. If Kim Dokja died here, there would be no witnesses.
“Especially you.”
“Well, what can I say?” Kim Dokja smiled. “I must be the exception then.”
Yoo Joonghyuk’s eyes hardened.
Not one fibre of Kim Dokja’s body doubted that Yoo Joonghyuk wasn’t opposed to harming him. Not with that look on his face.
“Start talking.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Aren’t I already—”
Yoo Joonghyuk spun his sword. “Shut it. Are you training with someone?”
“What? Training?”
With each word, Yoo Joonghyuk was pushing Kim Dokja further back.
All of a sudden Kim Dokja found his feet dangling in the air just above the ground.
“It better not involve this,” Yoo Joonghyuk frowned, eyebrows furrowing.
He was holding Kim Dokja with one hand by the shoulder of his riding harness. Inspecting it.
Kim Dokja tried to come up with a cover-up, holding his hands up in surrender. “I know this looks really bad from your viewpoint—”
Yoo Joonghyuk dropped him and wiped his hand on his shirt.
“—but you see—”
He snatched Kim Dokja by the back of his shirt.
“—this is actually just—”
He tugged on the fabric harshly, throwing him to the ground.
A twig snapped from somewhere else in the cove.
Snap.
Yoo Joonghyuk’s head whirled around instantaneously. He paid no attention to Kim Dokja who yelped as he fell. This was the forest. Deep in the forest. It could be something as harmless as a deer. Or something as dangerous as a stalking wolf or a hungry bear.
Jumping over him, he began walking towards the grotto, trying to discern if any threat lay veiled in the shadows.
But Kim Dokja knew better. He knew it was not a deer, or a wolf, nor a bear. He had to act fast.
“Okay, you’re right! You’re right!” he said, scrambling to his feet and running to catch up to Yoo Joonghyuk. “I’m through with the lies.”
Yoo Joonghyuk rolled his eyes.
“I’ve been making outfits,” Kim Dokja smiled, lying through his teeth. “Haha. You got me! I guess it’s time everyone knew.”
Ignoring the boy, Yoo Joonghyuk marched on. He wanted to punch that stupid smile so badly.
But still, Kim Dokja moved in front of him, trying to block his way. Yoo Joonghyuk peered around his head. Irritation began to creep into his temples.
“Drag me, go ahead.” Grabbing Yoo Joonghyuk’s free hand, Kim Dokja placed it on his chest. Surely, he could not resist such an open opportunity.
Kim Dokja's smile widened as Yoo Joonghyuk’s hand grabbed his own.
“Here we go— Aah!”
And he had it wiped clean off his face when it was twisted back, pulling his arm. Something cracked in his wrist. He fell on his butt lest one of his limbs get dislocated.
“Ow! Why would you do that, you bastard?!” he hissed, trying to get back up.
Next thing he knew, the air in his lungs left him. Yoo Joonghyuk had kicked him back down and was now squatting beside him. A deep scowl was etched into his face.
“That was for the lies. And that’s—” The rounded pommel of a sword was brought down on Kim Dokja’s forehead right as he began to sit up. “—for everything else, you fool.”
A low, guttural growl came from the grotto.
Yoo Joonghyuk stood up immediately. From the obscurity of the shadows, he made out two frigid blue eyes with small slits for pupils and a barely visible figure.
Kim Dokja groaned and rubbed his head, sitting up. “Oh, constellations above.”
A dragon.
The sharp inhale Yoo Joonghyuk took was involuntary. He spun around and tackled Kim Dokja to the ground.
“Get down!”
A Light Fury bellowed, spreading its white wings and leaping out of the cave. The Vikings from generations ago had christened it “the unholy offspring of lightning and death itself.” And here it was, moving towards them with killing intent, sleek muscle shifting under its scales.
Adrenaline rushed through him. Yoo Joonghyuk rolled to the side and got to his feet, blade gripped tightly in his hands.
He looked back at Kim Dokja and yelled at him, voice threaded with urgency, “Dokja, go! Run!”
The dragon was crossing the distance between them in a matter of a few seconds. Yoo Joonghyuk held his sword in front of himself, trying to steady his breathing as he stabilised his legs for a killing strike. Just like his training.
“No!”
Kim Dokja grunted as he threw himself at Yoo Joonghyuk to shove him out of the way. They felt a great thud as the dragon landed where Yoo Joonghyuk was standing a mere moment ago roaring and snarling. Before Yoo Joonghyuk could even sit up, Kim Dokja wrangled the weapon out of his hands, flinging it to the side amongst the dirt. He whirled around to the dragon.
“Stop!” he cried, spreading his arms and hands to block its way to Yoo Joonghyuk. “It’s okay! It’s okay.”
The Light Fury’s wings flapped, completely unfolded as it roared defiantly and reared onto its back legs, casting a large shadow.
“He’s a friend,” Kim Dokja eased.
Despite the growling not subsiding, the Light Fury lowered itself, wings half-folded. He had to push it back to keep it from getting any closer to Yoo Joonghyuk.
“You just scared her,” Kim Dokja said to him.
Yoo Joonghyuk was glancing warily between the Light Fury before him and Kim Dokja with wide eyes.
“I scared her?!” he breathed disbelievingly. He would be absolutely seething if the utter shock and alarm he felt was not stronger than his anger.
The Light Fury growled, huffing. Yoo Joonghyuk took half a step back.
“Who is ‘her’?”
“Joonghyuk, Biyoo,” Kim Dokja gestured. Then he turned to the dragon with a sterner voice. “Biyoo, Joonghyuk.”
The slits of her pupils remained pinned on Yoo Joonghyuk as she snarled at him, baring her teeth.
Okay. Maybe not the best introduction.
Yoo Joonghyuk looked at the Light Fury beside Kim Dokja and shook his head slightly like he could not accept the sight before him. Then his face hardened into something sharper, more resolute.
He turned and ran.
He did not care about his sword, still laying on the ground. There were more in the village, anyway.
“Well,” said Kim Dokja, watching the boy’s figure grow further from them. “We’re dead.”
He turned around at the sound of Biyoo trotting back to the grotto pleased with herself.
“Wh— Hey! Where do you think you’re going?!”
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There was a disturbance in the ambience of the forest. Yoo Joonghyuk was hurrying through the forest as ferns and undergrowth brushed his legs, chest heaving as he scrambled to get away.
He could not believe it. What kind of a fool did you have to be to even think of such an idea nevertheless attempt it? Kim Dokja, son of Lee Sookyung “Wanderer of the Vast”, had befriended a dragon. And not just any dragon. A Light Fury? And now Yoo Joonghyuk knew his secret. Kim Dokja could easily let the dragon kill him for uncovering such a thing.
He glanced back as he ran and jumped over a fallen tree, heart racing at the thought of being chased by that beast.
Except when he jumped, he did not come back down again.
Yoo Joonghyuk did not register the mix of a scream and shout that left his throat when a swooping claw caught his right arm and dragged him upwards into the air.
Biyoo flapped her wings, rising higher as the wind rushed past Yoo Joonghyuk’s face, legs swinging aimlessly high above the treetops.
‘Oh, for star stream’s sake. This is it,’ he thought, grasping desperately at the white claw. ‘I’m going to fall to my death or die to a Light Fury.’
Tilting to turn, the dragon slowed down at the peak of the tallest tree and proceeded to drop Yoo Joonghyuk.
Yoo Joonghyuk yelled as he grabbed hold of a tree limb with both hands. Immediately, urged by adrenaline and instinct, he began to pull himself up.
And then Biyoo decided to perch on the top of the tree.
The tree groaned and bent at the weight causing Yoo Joonghyuk to lose his footing. He swung, suspended by only his two hands. His legs were dangling over the ground far, far away from him.
Kim Dokja who sat on the back of the Light Fury, looked a bit apologetic. Yoo Joonghyuk glared at him, catching his breath.
“Kim Dokja! I’m going to kill you!” There was an attempt to swing his legs and use leverage from another branch to get up. It failed. “Get me down from here!”
Kim Dokja looked at Yoo Joonghyuk from atop his saddle. “Do you want me to die or to get you down?”
Truly, if looks could kill, Kim Dokja would be buried so far down that his remains would never see the surface even in a million years.
“Look, you have to give me a chance to explain,” he reasoned.
“I am not listening to anything you say!” Yoo Joonghyuk spat, climbing across the branch to try to get to the trunk.
“Then I won’t speak,” said Kim Dokja. “Just, let me show you.”
Glancing down at the distance between him and the forest floor, Yoo Joonghyuk scowled, hanging in the air.
“Please, Joonghyuk.”
Yoo Joonghyuk gave Kim Dokja a look (though the latter would argue that it was much more a glare). Then he grunted, pulling himself up as the bough gave a creak.
He got on the branch, still holding it with both hands for balance. He looked up at the hand Kim Dokja was offering him and ignored it, raising his own arm to get on the dragon’s back.
Biyoo growled. Yoo Joonghyuk returned the favour with a glare. He hadn’t even touched a single scale yet.
Kim Dokja’s hand was still held out to him. Yoo Joonghyuk smacked it away and hauled himself up by the handles of the saddle.
The realisation that he was currently sitting on the back of a Light Fury made a nervousness climb up from his chest.
“Now get me down from here,” he said, glancing at Kim Dokja, who was looking back at him.
Kim Dokja pat Biyoo’s head. “Biyoo, down. Gently.”
Her wings shot out and the wind current slowly raised the three of them just above the tree.
“See?” Kim Dokja turned back to Yoo Joonghyuk. “Nothing to be afraid of.”
The dragon shook her head, almost frowning, and launched into the sky upright.
Yoo Joonghyuk screamed.
“Biyoo!” Kim Dokja scolded, wind whipping violently past his ears.
Yoo Joonghyuk could not help but yell frantically as he felt himself slip from the saddle, holding on dangerously by his hands. Just as he was about to fall off, Biyoo began to ease out from the steep climb.
Kim Dokja was completely bewildered. “What is wrong with you?! Bad dragon!”
Gladly taking the opportunity, Yoo Joonghyuk grasped wildly at Kim Dokja’s face and torso for something to hold onto.
“Uh, she’s not usually like this,” Kim Dokja laughed nervously as Yoo Joonghyuk’s arms wrapped around his middle. Biyoo began to tilt downwards for a dive. “Oh, no.”
‘This damned dragon!’ Yoo Joonghyuk swore as they hurtled towards the sea.
They plunged right into the cold, frigid water before shooting back out.
“Biyoo! What are you doing?! We need him to like us!” Kim Dokja shouted, gasping. Not a moment after, they plummeted back into the ocean and back out.
The boys spluttered as Biyoo skimmed the sea surface causing icy water to soak them again.
She shook it off and took to the sky again like a rocket. In her book, there was no mercy. They were reaching the clouds in a matter of seconds.
Kim Dokja groaned defeatedly as Biyoo slowed down to drop once again and began rotating.
“And now the spinning. Thank you, you useless reptile.”
Yoo Joonghyuk closed his eyes, pressing his body to Kim Dokja and clutching tightly for dear life. He felt like his insides were going to leave him.
Pressing his forehead to Kim Dokja’s back, he conceded, “Okay! I’m sorry! I’m sorry!” Even the winds were whisking his words away from his breath. “Just get me off this thing.”
Biyoo looked back at his voice. She opened her wings, bringing the dive to a halt right before they hit the water and they rose gently away from the ocean.
And thus, Biyoo granted Yoo Joonghyuk mercy.
“Biyoo, did you really have to do all that?”
She warbled happily.
Kim Dokja sighed.
He felt the slight warmth of Yoo Joonghyuk who was still clinging onto him. His face was buried in the back of his shirt. With the smallest of smiles on his face, Kim Dokja guided Biyoo into the clouds.
He tapped Yoo Joonghyuk’s arm and said softly, “Look.”
Yoo Joonghyuk brought himself to open his eyes, lifting his head while blinking to adjust to his surroundings. And when he did, he was breathless.
All around him as far as he could see were yellow-pink clouds, tinted by the setting sun. They lay about in massive shapes, soft and like fleece. He raised his head to look up. He could see the colours of the sunset sky where the clouds didn’t reach. The wind didn’t bite and howl anymore. It was easy and carded through his hair with a gentleness.
Biyoo flew lightly, using the air currents to climb higher. Tentatively, Yoo Joonghyuk reached out with an arm to run a hand through a cloud. He couldn’t feel it but he saw the cloud parted in the wake of his touch. He let out a huff of amazement. Maybe he could allow himself a small smile. A small indulgence. And something warm bloomed in him. There was freedom in the wind, in these clouds, and in his chest.
The corner of Kim Dokja’s lips lifted when Yoo Joonghyuk reached out with both hands and leaned. He didn’t dare speak. He didn’t want to interrupt. And when Biyoo flew in loops, drifting through the air, white scales blending into the clouds, Yoo Joonghyuk trusted.
They flew, continuing as the sky grew dark and inky. Moonlight shone down upon them from above as lights of green, blue and purple danced in the night. Aurora borealis. The Northern Lights. It was one thing to see them from Berk, but it was something entirely different to see them so close with a sea of clouds beneath you.
Kim Dokja led Biyoo to the edge of the clouds. As Yoo Joonghyuk peered over, he saw the tiny yellow lights of their village twinkle like stars on the rocky ledges of the island. He couldn’t help but gasp. Never in his life had he ever thought he could see Berk from so high up.
Biyoo glanced back at him and huffed as if preening in satisfaction.
The two vikings could taste the salt of the sea spray as Biyoo, pale scales turned grey in the night, soared over the surface of the ocean. They flew between pillars of rock jutting out of the sea and ducked under arches of limestone.
It was an experience like no other.
“All right, fine,” Yoo Joonghyuk admitted, soaking in the present. “This is okay. It’s… nice.”
Coming from anyone else, such words would be an understatement. But from him, those words were high praise. Yoo Joonghyuk reached down to rub just under Biyoo’s jaw and then frowned at a worrying thought.
“But Dokja, your final exam is tomorrow.”
He felt Kim Dokja shift as he looked away.
“You’re gonna have to kill a dragon.”
“Don’t remind me.”
In the far-off distance, too faint to be heard by human ears, a dragon roared.
Biyoo’s ear-like appendages on the back of her head shot up, twitching and her eyes constricted to slits. Her wings folded close to her body as she suddenly veered away from the island. They dropped like a rock.
Both boys yelled.
“Biyoo, what’s happening?” Kim Dokja asked with increasing concern as she flew them into a thick veil of fog and eased out from the dive. He could hear dragons roaring but couldn’t see anything. A shudder ran from Biyoo’s head down to her tail. “Hey, hey, hey! What is it?”
A large, reptilian shadow emerged from the fog beside them and Biyoo jerked to the right to get out of the way. Kim Dokja gasped.
“Get down!” Yoo Joonghyuk hissed, pushing him and laying the both of them flat on the saddle. “Don’t move.”
A Monstrous Nightmare came into colour, a fire red and spines needle-sharp. It clicked, nostrils flaring.
Kim Dokja could feel both their heart rates quicken.
Biyoo pulled away as another closer sound cut through the fog. With it came a Deadly Nadder holding a lamb just like the Monstrous Nightmare. Both dragons were flying in the same direction as they were. The Light Fury settled for flying between the creatures and the boys pressed closer to her back. Either they were incredibly lucky, or the dragons did not care for their presence.
The Deadly Nadder roared as they peered into the grey, trying to see what lay ahead. And Kim Dokja saw it. Dark silhouettes. It started with five, then ten, then fifty, then more. Hundreds, if not maybe even thousands of dragons of all kinds and sizes emerged. The sound of their wings and their noises filled the air. Yoo Joonghyuk’s eyes glanced around. They were right in the middle of it all. For as far as he could see into the mist, the dragons were flying alongside them, above them, and beneath them. Not even in the biggest dragon raids in Berk's history had they seen anything close to the number of beasts that he was seeing.
Yoo Joonghyuk swallowed nervously, palms growing clammy. “What’s going on?” he whispered. Not one dragon was fighting the direction.
“I don’t know.” Kim Dokja was just as on edge as he was, eyes darting around. He reached down to Biyoo whose ear nubs were still twitching and pulled on a harness strap. “Biyoo, you’ve got to get us out of here.”
She snarled and threw off his hand much to his uneasiness.
“It looks as if they’re bringing in their kill,” Kim Dokja said as they looked at the live animals caught in the clutch of the dragons’ claws.
Yoo Joonghyuk tried to calm his heart when a Zippleback made eye contact with him before flying ahead.
“Then,” he asked, “what does that make us?”
Before either of them could think of an answer, Biyoo swooped downwards with the rest of the dragons with sudden speed. The wind whipped as it passed and they swerved around rock columns alongside rotund Gronckles and small Terrible Terrors.
And finally, the fog began to thin. Towering above them was a volcano, black and jagged with veins of molten lava peeping through the cracks within the rock. Heat seeped out, warming their skin and faces. Kim Dokja looked at the dragons, each one headed right towards it, snarling and roaring. They followed through a crevice into a seemingly dark chamber when Biyoo turned around a corner and it opened into an enormous cavern.
Columns of rocks rose from the glowing red haze from within the bottom of the cauldron. Everything was lit a flame red. The places the glow did not touch remained in shadow. Countless dragons perched on every ledge and outcrop, roaring, growling and snarling as they shoved each other for space.
Kim Dokja stared wide-eyed at the sight as they flew with the crowd. “What my mother wouldn’t give to find this.”
The arriving dragons were flying by the centre of the cavern and dropping the animals into the haze. Yoo Joonghyuk pressed his lips into a thin line.
Biyoo turned away from the group and spotted a hidden ledge, unoccupied and covered by a rock pillar. She slowed and landed as the boys observed it all.
“Well, it’s great to know that all our food has been dumped into a hole,” Kim Dokja said dryly.
A Deadly Nadder shrieked and dropped a sheep. “They’re not eating any of it,” frowned Yoo Joonghyuk who peeked over Kim Dokja’s hair.
Their attention was pulled to a lone Gronckle swaying lazily as it hovered over the glowing haze. It shuddered and opened its mouth. A single fish dropped from it into the obscurity. As the Gronckle scratched behind its head, a subtle, low growl rumbled from the depths. Its eyes became alert and it began flying upwards away from the magma chamber.
Then there was the sound of a great rush of movement.
A wide head larger than a Viking ship arose from the red smoke with three pairs of yellow reptilian eyes and a horned nose big enough to smash open the volcano. The Gronckle disappeared into its open jaws as teeth the size of stalactites slammed shut around it.
Kim Dokja gasped.
Yoo Joonghyuk flinched, horrified. “What is that?”
Dragons all around the volcano recoiled, stepping back from the ledges. Some whimpered and cowered in fear.
The neck of the colossal beast sank back into the depths beneath the magma chamber and its throat undulated, rumbling so low that it sounded more like a deep clicking throughout the cavern.
But then it came up again, growling. Its nostrils flared as the dragon sniffed the air.
“Uh, alright, Biyoo. We gotta get out of here,” Kim Dokja began, a sense of urgency creeping up his neck.
The beast lurking in the magma turned its eyes in their direction.
“Now!”
Biyoo leapt out from the ledge making a beeline for the exit just as the behemoth’s jaws snapped around the space where they had taken off. The Terrible Terrors hanging on the ceiling circled to escape through the top of the volcano and dragons scrambled to get out of the way. The beast raised a leg up onto a shelf and stretched its neck, opening its mouth.
Yoo Joonghyuk held tight to Kim Dokja as they barely escaped the jaws of death. Literally.
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“No, listen to me,” Yoo Joonghyuk argued. “It makes sense! It’s like a giant beehive. They’re her workers and that’s their queen. It controls them.” Biyoo made her landing in the cove and he jumped off, starting towards the village. “Let’s find your mother.”
“No!” Kim Dokja blurted. He ran after Yoo Joonghyuk and pulled on his arm, looking him in the eyes. “No, not yet. They’ll kill Biyoo. We have to think this through carefully.”
Yoo Joonghyuk paused, glancing back at Biyoo (who was stretching her wings by the lake) and then turned back to the chief’s son.
“Dokja, we just discovered the dragons’ nest— the thing we’ve been after since Vikings first sailed here and you want to keep it a secret?” He followed as Kim Dokja walked and paced himself. “And for what? To protect your pet dragon? Are you serious?”
Kim Dokja’s hands were balled up into fists.
“Yes.”
He was almost surprised by his iron resolve. Even if he thought it was questionable and didn’t quite understand why he would go so far, Kim Dokja’s heart was, at the very least, brave.
Yoo Joonghyuk frowned. He sighed and one of his eyebrows twitched.
“Okay.” He gave in against his better judgement. “Then what do we do?”
“Just give me until tomorrow. I’ll figure something out.” Kim Dokja turned away and fiddled with his riding harness. He avoided Yoo Joonghyuk’s eye.
“All right.”
There was a pause.
Then Yoo Joonghyuk punched Kim Dokja’s shoulder. “That’s for kidnapping me.”
Narrowing his eyes in confusion, Kim Dokja looked back at Biyoo with a shrug. Biyoo trilled and shook her head.
“But… thank you,” came Yoo Joonghyuk’s voice. “For everything else.”
Kim Dokja found Yoo Joonghyuk’s heavy gaze flustering and kept on avoiding his eye. Maybe he was just imagining it, but there was something gentler and sincere about his voice.
And even as Yoo Joonghyuk’s figure retreated into the forest, Kim Dokja couldn’t place a word on the feeling in his thumping chest.
Biyoo chirruped as she walked up to him from behind and nudged his shoulder, eyes looking at him. If he didn’t know any better, he would go as far to say that she was teasing him.
Kim Dokja shoved Biyoo away. “What are you looking at?”
The flush growing on his cheeks remained even when he finally decided to turn in for the night.