looking for the stairs? Welcome to my world.


  I rolled my eyes. "Uhh, yeah, well, actually I'm um, going to Dragon Training today."


  "Well, have fun." answered my Aunt. She didn't seem to have registered what I said. She squinted at her yaks milk. "Where on earth have I left me headband?"


  I sighed and got up. "On your head, Aunt Girtha."


  "I could've sworn it wasn't there when I last looked!" protested the strange old woman as she reached up to feel the top of her head.


  "Whatever. Bye." I got up without finishing my breakfast and headed for the door.


  Aunt Girtha stopped me. "Wait! I have ye'r birthday present!"


  I turned and looked over my shoulder. What could she have possibly gotten me? Some string?


  I was shocked to see tears in her eyes as she waddled over to me, holding something in one chubby fist, smiling widely.


  She reached up and put something around my neck, fastening it tightly. I held it up in the light of the fire. It was a medallion on a plain brown rope, gold and silver, cut in the crude shape of a viking's helmet. It was freshly polished and extremely shiny.


   I looked up and stared at her. "Where did you get this?"

  "I didn't. Ye'r father did."


  I staggered a little, leaning on the door in shock. "What?"


  "It was ye'r mother's, love." She touched my gift with a finger. "Ye'r father had Gobber the Belch make it for her sixteenth birthday when they were ye'r age. They were a match made in heaven from that point onward."


  My head was pounding. "Why didn't I ever notice it?"


  Aunt Girtha put a hand on her heart, wiping her tears away with the other hand. "Well, would you keep something so precious around ye'r neck when times were so hard? She might've lost in a battle! No, dear, she kept it in a little wooden box. She showed it to you when you were little, but you don't remember it. I'm sure she would've wanted ye to have it."


  I looked down at the medallion and smiled, getting misty-eyed myself. Aunt Girtha must have scrubbed and polished it for hours to make it gleam so much. I let it dangle and lunged forward to hug my aunt. "Thank you, Aunt Girtha. This is the coolest present ever."


  She hugged me back, but then pulled away. "Mind ye don't lose it, love.  It's very special. Now, go have a lovely birthday! And stay away from brown grass." she went back to the fire, humming.


  "Um...Okayyy..." I muttered. Brown grass? Way to kill the moment with one of her weird comments.


  But my mood had lifted. No matter what happened in the arena at Dragon Training this evening, my birthday present had belonged to my mom, and that was awesome.


***


  I huddled through the village, my hair loose and my spirits high. My mind was on my parents, and I decided to go into the woods outside of the town. Maybe I'd revisit the tree my dad always used for our knife-throwing practice.



  I ducked in-between huts and shacks, hoping to stay away from the main center of the village or areas where pet dragons were helping their Vikings to work. I might've had to go to Dragon Training tonight, but I could still avoid the beasts until then.


  The forests were calm and serene. Dark and foggy, maybe, but still calm and quiet in comparison to the village. I breathed in the cold air, smelling of pine needles, and headed down the old path my dad and I used to take.


  As I walked, I lifted up the medallion and smiled at it, thinking about what my parents would say if they were still around. Would they want me to do Dragon Training? My dad probably would. I dunno about my mom. She used to have arguments with Dad about how dangerous it was for me to be outside during raids, let alone go into the woods.


  And maybe they wouldn't let dragons out of their cages today. Maybe it might be like an orientation or something where they tell you what they're going to do in the class instead of doing it. Then again, if Gobber has anything to do with it, the first dragon will be out of it's cage in five seconds flat. I hope it's jut a Terrible Terror. I might be able to stomach one of those.

  "Well," I whispered to the Viking helmet medal, "I guess whatever happens happens, huh?"


  I reached the tree Dad and I had thrown knives at. It was in a sunny clearing, and the fog seemed to avoid this patch of woods. After five years, the old pine's bark still hadn't covered the rough scar our knives had made in it. I walked over and put my hand on it, feeling the cut and wondering if I could still hit the tree if I tried.


  I mean, I haven't thrown a knife since my mom and dad died, so I'm a little out of practice. I know we don't really need to anymore, since dragons aren't really dangerous and there's nothing much to throw at, but just for fun...


  I walked over to the boulder we had stood next to when throwing. The sun beamed down and hit my medallion. It flashed and glowed, brilliantly bright.


  I was admiring it when suddenly, the sun darkened above me, like a shadow had passed over...

  Oh no.


  I gasped almost before I looked up, hearing a sharp whistling noise.


  It was so fast I couldn't even register it. The trees bent around me from the wind coming off of it's momentum.


  I barely screamed before I was airborne, caught in the scaly, short fingers of a wild, untrained dragon that was carrying me off.