Hello, readers!

This update is waaaay overdue, but I've been having a hard time with things. I wish I could say it's gonna get better, but probably not. I'm working full time now instead of part-time, trying to save up for a house and get out of the situation that I'm currently in with my in-laws and I'm still trying to get my original novel to a point where I can have alpha readers take a look at it, then make my final edits before publishing, and I'm also trying to plan my fic Insomnia... . I'm doing my best lmao.

Anyway! This chapter marks the end of part 2, so we'll be moving on to part three soon, which is the last part! Thank you all for your unwavering support and kind words, and above all, your patience! My beta Fizzle is always poking me in the ribs to get these chapters done, so thank him for any sort of punctuality (oh wait I'm still not punctual).

Special thanks to my patrons, Narttu, Dark, Kendra, and Tonya for their support! They were able to read this chapter WEEKS ago when I finished the first draft. You can, too, next time! Just check out my page at the bottom (if you can figure out how thanks to fanfictions disdain for links).

~ Crayola

22 - Loss

Every day, Oddny woke up early and went to bed late. Every chance she was given, she spent her time with Hawkfrost. The days blended from one into the next, moving both too slow—where it concerned waiting for the fleets to return—and too fast. Hawkfrost was getting bigger and bigger according to Gaut and Val, though Oddny would only ever see her as the little baby that had hatched all those moons ago.

Progress was being made toward getting her airborne. The first few days had been rough: no matter what Oddny and Val tried, they couldn't seem to communicate what they wanted from Hawkfrost. All she was interested in was playing and prancing. Until the day a sympathetic dragon stepped in.

Said sympathizer was another Nadder—one Hawkfrost had been pestering for ages due to the similarities he shared with Seaspray. His scales were a bit more green, but the colorful spots on his back and wings were the same colors as Seaspray. Hawkfrost had needled away at his walls until he finally took over the flight lessons for Oddny and Val, showing the Chagewing the ropes and tricks to using her wings.

She got the hang of it after a couple of months when her wings had finally developed to the point of sustained flight.

Oddny loved running along beneath her during those early mornings before the rest of the world woke up. She dreamed of being up there with her, but the growing whelp wasn't strong enough to hold her weight. Oddny had to admit that she was putting on extra weight for the dragon to carry between the muscle put on from hard labor and Val's aid in maintaining a full belly. With a chunk of troops gone, along with some of the slaves to help keep the ships running, there were fewer mouths to feed. Their food supplies were dwindling, but the slaves and servants weren't as gluttonous as their Viking overlords. They overindulged a little with Drago gone, but not by much.

One day, though, Oddny always told herself, Hawkfrost will carry me out of here.

Hope was high in her heart. If Hawkfrost was somehow immune to the Bewilderbeast's alpha call, then there would be nothing keeping Oddny there once they could fly on out together.

Then I can go get help . . . Tell everyone what's going on here. Someone will listen to me.

That was her plan—learn to fly with Hawkfrost and then high-tail it out of the compound and as far from Drago as she could. Then, she would find someone. Authorities of some sort, someone who would take her seriously and see the threat that was Drago.

She hoped she could at least take Val with her. She was roughly the same size as Oddny, so if Hawkfrost grew up big and strong like some of the other dragons, maybe she could handle two passengers. Oddny would have liked the company, and it would certainly help to have someone with a little more worldly know-how and experience.

Or, maybe I could just send Val in my stead . . . No, she'd never be able to trust Hawkfrost to go with her alone, probably.

There was time to work out the kinks. When she had a more concrete idea of how she was going to proceed, she would speak to Val about it. In the end, she would go with whatever Val thought was best. . . even if it meant scrapping the entire plan and starting over.

Oddny had considered at some point teaching as many of the other slaves as she could that the dragons were friendly. Maybe, if they could befriend a dragon of their own, they could all escape. However, with all the dragons under the influence of the Bewilderbeast, she knew that was never going to work.

Unless they could do it during one of the raids when the Bewilderbeast was gone.

First, she had to make sure Hawkfrost was up to it. She was still just far too young to carry anyone, and she wasn't good enough at flying yet. The whelp still crashed into snowbanks and collided with other dragons in the air. She had a long way to go before she was ready, and Oddny needed to stockpile for her escape.

The fires burned high as dragons overhead let loose a deluge upon the village below. The screams of the tormented people rose above the roar of flames. Through it all walked a monster in men's clothes, protected from the heat by his dragon-hide cape. He struck down enemies without remorse as they ran by attempting to flee the wanton destruction—this was their fault. He had offered them protection, peace, and freedom from the dragons he had set upon them.

All they had to do was bend the knee and accept him as their king.

And now look where they were.

*:･ﾟ✧

His men pillaged, hauling out anything and everything that was deemed useful or valuable and piling it all up by the docks and beaches where the ships awaited. Offshore, the Bewilderbeast lied dormant beneath the surface of the ocean, his position given away only by the roiling bubbles.

Drago himself had given the order. The alpha answered to him—so all dragons beneath the alpha answered to him, as well.

The village guards did what they could. Every able body had taken up arms, doing what they could to fend off man and beast alike. Some of them held their own, others were cut down without even putting up a fight.

It had been almost an hour into the raid. A Deadly Nadder, tired from both the flight across the ocean and the constant onslaught, alighted on the ground outside of the village with a few others that had exhausted their reserves and energy. Many had taken up in the pastures to devour any bovine or fowl unfortunate enough to fall prey to their talons. The Deadly Nadder had been bullied out of a meal by a younger, more aggressive dragon and hobbled off to catch her breath.

A few arrows stuck out of her hide: some lucky shots made by some lucky archers. The Nadder used her tail to strike them off, though the arrowheads remained embedded into her flanks. It was uncomfortable enough to make her lie down and try to gnaw them out with her teeth, but it was difficult and tedious work.

In the fields, the other dragons abandoned their kills, scattering into the night.

Though it took a few heartbeats, the Nadder realized she'd been left in silence. She ceased her tireless gnawing and looked around. A sound off to the side caught her attention and the Nadder whirled around in time to see an armed man charging her, his firewood ax raised high.

*:･ﾟ✧

Oddny woke in the middle of the night, her eyes fluttering open. Tears were in her eyes, only spilling past her eyelids when she sat up. Her chest was tight and lingering feelings of melancholy settled in her stomach. She sniffed quietly and brushed the moisture off her face. Val stirred next to her.

"What's wrong?" the older girl asked, squinting up at Oddny. She rubbed at her eyes and sat up a little straighter.

"I was just dreaming," Oddny muttered, staring at her lap.

Val blinked through the sleepiness and put a hand on Oddny's shoulder. "Was it a nightmare?" she asked.

Oddny shook her head. "No . . . I was dreaming that I was back on my farm. I was with my mother and father. My brother was there, too. I've never met him, but I know they had a baby a little bit ago."

Her friend made a sympathetic sound and pulled Oddny back down, hugging her tightly. "It's okay. I'm sure one day you'll see them again. Hawkfrost can almost stay airborne with you on her back, now. I'd give it a few more weeks, then you guys will be able to fly out of here," she said.

Sighing, Oddny sank into Val's arms and let her comfort her. "I'm sure she'd be able to hold you, too, if we waited longer."

Val shook her head. "I don't think I'll ever want to ride a dragon. Petting her's one thing, but climbing up on her back . . . no thanks. I've seen you fall, I've seen her crash. I don't want any part of that. I'll wait here and keep the others company while you bring back help."

"You think I'll be able to?" Oddny murmured.

"Yeah, I think so. It might take a while . . . But I think you can do it. You'll come riding in on a dragon. They'll have to believe you. It would be kinda hard to ignore all the pillaged villages, too, if anyone cared enough to investigate," Val huffed, letting Oddny go so she could roll back over into a comfortable sleeping position.

Oddny was silent for a moment, then said, "It was so weird . . . in my dream all of our livestock were dragons."

"Dragon farmers." Val snorted. "Go back to sleep, you goon."

"Honestly!" someone in the center of the room hissed. "Go back to sleep for Odin's sake. Some of us are trying to rest up for the morning."

"Oh shut up, you're making more noise than we are," Val shot back, giving Oddny a pointed look and rolling her eyes. Smiling to herself, Oddny tucked herself back into her pallet and curled up, clinging onto the lingering remnants of her dream, where she was far away and safe on her parents' farm.

It seemed like she had just closed her eyes for one heartbeat and then she opened them the next and it was morning. A great cacophony of voices and noises drew her from her slumber and it was naught but a second later that Val was grabbing her shoulder.

"Calla, wake up!"

"I am up," she grumbled, already in the process of sitting.

Val gave her a critical eye, then decided that she wasn't standing fast enough and grabbed her arms to pull her the rest of the way.

"Ow, hey . . . what's the rush? What's going on?"

Her friend huffed and licked her thumb before wiping away a smudge on Oddny's forehead. "They're back."

Oddny's eyes went wide and any lingering sleepiness completely fled her. She straightened out her clothes and let Val lead her through the winding bridges and causeways that led to the main docking area. It was a tight squeeze, and even for a busy day, Oddny thought that this was a little too crowded.

"Where's everyone going?"

"They came back from a raid," Val explained. "The Vikings have probably already gone through all the good stuff, but any leftover spoils are for us if we can get in there. You ready to throw some elbows?"

The look on Oddny's face was answer enough for Val.

"I didn't think so. Don't worry, I've got enough elbows for both of us. Here."

They stopped just long enough for Val to size Oddny up, pick up one foot and compare it to the sole of her own, then they were off again. "Okay, if there are any clothes, I think I've got a good gauge on you."

To Oddny, Val might well have been speaking a different language.

All became clear, though, once they reached the main docking area where the raid ships were making landfall. The entire group of slaves had congregated as close as they dared without earning the ire of the Vikings. They were already unloading the boats, bringing crates upon crates of looted goods off the boat—mostly carried by those few slaves they had brought with them.

"Back, vultures!" a particularly irate Viking spat, kicking a slave that had wandered too close. "Ye'll get yer turn."

The group of slaves backed up farther.

Finally, Drago made an appearance and he clacked the haft of his bullhook on the ground, making everyone except the Vikings flinch. His voice boomed out over the crowd and Oddny had never felt smaller.

"Back to work," he snarled. "You'll get what's left after we've cataloged everything we're keeping. Don't let me catch anyone lurking!"

They scattered like roaches in the light. Val harrumphed and took Oddny by the shoulders, steering her through the crazed mass of slaves trying to scramble back to their stations. "Crap. We were too obvious."

"That's okay," Oddny murmured.

"Yeah, it's fine. Here, just go back to our normal spot. I'll find you there later."

Oddny stopped short and managed to grab Val's wrist before she was lost forever in the sea of bodies. "Where are you going?" she asked.

Val rolled her eyes. "Don't look so scared. It's business as usual. I'm just gonna go find Dagfinn or Ulfrik and see if I can convince one of them to give us a head's up when it's time to grab what we can."

Somewhat reluctantly, Oddny let Val's hand go and was swept up in the tide. She navigated the best she could as the herd began thinning. She broke off from the main group and wound up in the sewing room. A group of Vikings was dumping off new clothing items that needed to be mended, or in some cases scrapped altogether, so at least she knew she would have work to do while she waited.

She grabbed up a tunic from the top of the pile and assessed the damage before falling into work. Her thoughts wandered to the dragons that had returned, and a smile graced her features—somewhere out there, Seaspray was back. Once the day settled, she would go out and find her.

*:･ﾟ✧

Gaut had joined Val and Oddny in their search for Seaspray. They had all managed to score their own haul from the scraps the Vikings left them—nothing of worth or importance, but Oddny had a "new" pair of boots in better condition than her old ones and a bigger coat, courtesy of Val . . . and, apparently, Ulfrik.

Oddny was too afraid to ask Val what she had done to convince him and Val hadn't offered to talk about it, either. Whatever she'd done, she'd gotten a shirt and hair accessories out of it.

Hawkfrost was out and about as well, joining them in their search for the Nadder Oddny so desperately wanted to see. The group had split up, searching in the dead of night and bundled up against the cold to find her, keeping low and doing their best to encourage their Changewing companion to stay invisible. None of them knew how long they had been at it, but it was the third night in a row that they hadn't been able to find her.

After a while, they met up by a rocky wall hiding them from sight, too tired and cold to keep going for even another moment.

"I can't feel my fingers," Val said through chattering teeth, her hands tucked under her arms.

Now almost the size of a full-grown dragon, Hawkfrost bounded up to the group with a keening warble, already in the process of dropping her camouflage. The expression on her face drew immediate concern from Oddny.

"What is it?" she asked, knowing full well the dragon couldn't answer verbally.

The visibly upset Changewing nestled her frost-colored head up against Oddny's chest, nearly knocking her off her feet. She wouldn't stop whining and her tail was dragging on the ground, her antennae-like head frills drooping. Oddny consoled the dragon as best she could, scratching behind her jaw and shushing her quietly

"Shouldn't she have found your Nadder by now?" Val asked, now brave enough to approach Hawkfrost and warm her hands against the dragon's hide.

Gaut nodded. "She can cover more ground and should be able to go right to a dragon she regards as kin," he said, watching the dragon carefully but never venturing too close. He had, at least, finally come to terms with the fact that they weren't violent beasts as he had been led to believe.

"So why can't she?" Oddny asked, holding her dragon's head close to her. "It's okay, girl. We'll find her . . ."

"Maybe she's not here." Val was hesitant to point it out.

Oddny let a little bit of hope seep into her chest. "You think that she could have escaped during the raid?" she asked.

Gaut and Val exchanged grave expressions before Gaut spoke out. "The Bewilderbeast's hold is unwavering. No dragon can resist the call from the alpha. The only way your Nadder wouldn't return with the others is if she . . . Well, if she died."

The world fell out from beneath Oddny, and if she hadn't been holding Hawkfrost, she might have fallen into the snow. Val watched her carefully with a crestfallen expression.

"No," Oddny murmured. "No, that can't . . . How would she have died? What kind of village were they even raiding?"

Gaut shrugged. "Dragons aren't immortal. If even one person knows what they're doing, they can kill a dragon. Even a fool strikes gold sometimes, you know . . . Might have been a lucky blow. She did look like she was getting up there in age."

Hawkfrost simpered and whined, pushing as close to Oddny as her growing size would allow.

"She can't be dead," Oddny insisted, her jaw set.

Sighing, Gaut flicked his chin in Hawkfrost's direction. "Look at your dragon there. She's in mourning."

"Because we can't find her! We will. We just need to keep looking."

He threw up his hands in exasperation. "Well, you can keep looking if you want. I'm not going to help anymore though. There's nothing to find."

Oddny merely watched in muted despair as Gaut wandered back toward the encampment, huddled up and checking the path for Vikings. Val came over to put an arm around Oddny's shoulder and gave her a little squeeze. "I'll keep looking with you, but we should turn in for the night so we can get some sleep for tomorrow."

Reluctantly, Oddny ushered Hawkfrost back to where she was supposed to be and, reluctantly as always, attached the chains and muzzles again. Words on the wind said that Drago was considering giving her a private meeting with the Bewilderbeast, but she didn't know when. Just that it might happen. When it did, if it did, she would have to figure something out. If Hawkfrost couldn't be controlled, Oddny knew it wasn't going to end well.

Val tagged along, helping to put on the bindings while Oddny kept Hawkfrost calm.

"Don't worry, girl . . . it's just until tomorrow, then we'll break you out again. Goodnight, for now, and I promise we'll find Seaspray tomorrow."

If it hadn't been freezing outside, Oddny might have considered staying with her dragon, but she knew more reasons than she had fingers and toes for why that was a terrible idea, so she big Hawkfrost farewell and turned in. The Changewing watched her and Val go, then sought out comfort from one of the other Nadders she had befriended—a surrogate for Seaspray—who was always hanging nearby.

For the next few nights, Oddny returned to the group of dragons in secret with Val by her side. She grew more and more desperate with each passing day that Seaspray wasn't found. Eventually, Val stopped searching with her, leaving Oddny to struggle to pick the locks on her own, making freeing Hawkfrost difficult. Still she went, still she managed, winding through the dragons and marking off in her head all the spots she had checked, mentally checking off each dragon she could.

At some point, she stopped caring about being caught and called for Seaspray—shouted her name as loud as she could. Hawkfrost stayed by her side every sleepless night until, exhausted, Oddny gave up and sank into the knee-deep snow, trying not to cry.

A hand on her shoulder startled her out of her shivering stupor, but it was merely Gaut with Val at his side.

"What are you doing here?" she asked somewhat bitterly, her voice raspy from shouting.

"I asked the guards," he said.

Oddny clenched her eyes shut.

Gaut took a step back and Val kneeled with Oddny in the snow and drew her in, holding her close. "They lost five dragons during the raid, Calla."

She didn't want that to mean anything. "So?"

Val bit her bottom lip and pet Oddny's head in soothing strokes. "She's not here, Oddny. She's not coming back."

Hawkfrost slithered around the pair and wrapped her body around them, snaking her head between Val and Oddny so she could rest it upon Oddny's lap. She took Hawkfrost's head in her arms and nuzzled against the ridge of her brow.

"She can't be dead," Oddny gasped, tears rolling down her cheeks.

Gaze averted, Gaut walked backward before turning and leaving. He never had been good at emotions and comfort. The best he could do was remove himself so he wasn't in the way and let them sort it out. Taking a deep breath, Val held Oddny and, by proxy, Hawkfrost in a tight embrace. Hawkfrost was smothering somewhat, but she could endure it.

"It's okay, Calla," Val whispered. "She's free now."

Those words were meant to soothe but they tipped Oddny over the precipice and she burst into a mess of tears and sobs. Val shed her tears in silence, sitting in solidarity with her besieged friend. The nearby dragons gathered closer, drawn by the lamenting sounds coming from the humans. They lifted their heads and threw in their own keening calls, an ode to the one for which they mourned.

Is this all our fates? Oddny wondered as she cried. Finding freedom only in death?

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