Down on the farm (open)

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Time and date: Mid-January, Noon
Weather: Calm and cloudy
Previous Thread: None





Nestled in the foothills of the snowy Berkian mountains, where the air was thinner but the earth was richer and more untouched, was a humble farm and within, a family of humble farmers. The expansive tracks of terraced land had been in their family for generations and what had once been wild, rough land unfit for any kind of growing had over the years been sculpted into a secluded sanctuary for those who weren't scared of a little dirt under their nails. And weren't deterred by the promise of a life of solitary boredom.

Of course not everyone got to make that choice, mused Tryggr as the blade of her ax split another log of firewood. Not like anyone had asked the little baby Horndottir her thoughts on the matter.

As she finished with the firewood, a pair of young terrible terrors skittered over the remaining stump in hot pursuit of a fat gray rat. Nowadays it seemed more of the farm staff was made up of these little troublemakers than people. What had started as two in a matter of months began to multiply. Tryggr couldn't complain though; they chased off the birds and vermin so she didn't have to. They weren't exactly tame however, and the younger ones sometimes burned more crops than they saved.

Her own dragon, dear to heart though he was, wasn't much better. Even as she hefted up the stack of firewood and carried it to the shed, Moonseed trailed behind and nudged her provocatively with the blunt end of his horn, silently urging her to drop her load and come play with him.

And oh how she wished she could. But her parents would throw a fit if they came back from their trip into the village to find her daily chores still undone.

"We'll get away later," Tryggr promised. "Go on, go play. But don't go bringin' back anything weird this time."

Moonseed was the sweetest dragon a girl could ask for, but he had a bad habit of wandering off when he got bored. He never went too far but he almost always came back with some strange trophy from his latest misadventure: a thick treebranch with an abandoned birds nest still in its clutches, a frightened hen stolen from a neighboring farm, even something shiny he decided to lift from some poor traveler that hadn't had the courage to face the deadly nadder's fire.

The large nadder made a clucking noise with his tongue and scurried off obediently. His human allowed herself a break to mop the rapidly cooling sweat from her brow and brush the snow from her work clothes.

She stretched and heard the soft pop of a seam on her trousers. These old rags were on their last legs, but she'd spent the money her parents gave her for new clothes on a replacement for her rusted left shoulder guard. The older Horndottirs still didn't know about her slowly increasing armor collection, and hopefully they never would.

There was the clumsy sound of feet shuffling through snow. Moonseed couldn't be back already, could he?

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Megan and Bluebreeze walked side by side through the forest. They hiked up the semi-steep hill to explore what was over it. Bluebreeze ran several yards ahead or trailed a few yards back sniffing around.

"Anything good, Blue?" Megan joked. Bluebreeze ran back to her side hearing his name. Meg rubbed his snout and pushed him aside. "Come on. I bet if we make it high enough, we might be able to see another island." She said. Bluebreeze wasn't impressed. "And maybe fly to it!" Megan lied. Her mother would kill her for traveling that far, but Bluebreeze now looked excited. He nudged Megan to move faster and ran ahead again.

Bluebreeze lowered his head to the snow and lifted it back into the air. He could smell a few things of in the distance; definitely a farm, and another dragon! Blue's tail wagged back and forth a few times before he ran off in the direction of the farm.

Megan watch her Deadly Nadder run up the hill. "Blue? Wait, Bluebreeze!" She called and ran after him. "Slow down! You don't have to run, we'll be there soon!" She tried to catch up, but the snow slowed her down.

As Bluebreeze got closer to the farm, he could could scent that the dragon was also a Deadly Nadder. Because he only stayed with Meg, he never really met any other dragons. Which means it is even rarer to meet a Nadder. He opened his wings any flew into the air to find the farm easier.

Megan stopped running. She rested her hands on her knees and nearly ran out of air, or it feels like that. Still panting like a dog, Megan looked up to see Blue hovering over a farm. He must have seen her, because he flew back down. "You, crazy dragon. What... am I going to do, with the most.. untamed Nadder?" Megan said just catching her breath. "Now, where were ya going?"

Bluebreeze lead the way to the farm. Megan, not knowing where they were going, followed. Bluebreeze was already out of the forest by the time Megan saw the farm. "Bluebreeze, no." She said firmly, "You can't just steal other's chickens or what not." Bluebreeze looked around and waited for Megan. She walked up beside him and saw a female farmer outside. "Blue, let's go." She whispered to him, but he wouldn't move.

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Tryggr plodded forward through the snow until she could make out the form of a deadly nadder. But that definitely wasn't Moonseed. Aside from the fact that the coloring was different, her nadder hardly ever stood still for more than a few seconds. A little further and she could see this new dragon was not alone.

Standing with him was a young girl unfamiliar to the farmer. Normally she had to go down to the village to get any sort of human interaction outside her own family. Why would anyone bother coming out here? Was she lost?

"Hey, girl!" she called out. In her excitement the greeting had come out a lot more assertive sounding than she'd planned. She mentally toned down the stiff, work-hardened demeanor life in the mountains had gifted her and tried again. "I won't bite. And if I did I'm sure your friend there would bite harder."

A new person. A new rider maybe if she was lucky, someone she could talk freely with instead of biting her tongue and keeping her passions bottled up like she did with her family. And she had a nadder too, looking to be no older than her own. It was all pretty exciting. But what she wouldn't have given to have some forewarning so she could've cleaned herself up and stuffed her unseemly mess of curls out of sight into a hat or helmet.

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"Uh, Hello." Megan called back to the young farmer. "I'm sorry for interrupting you at your farm." She said as she walked a few steps closer so she didn't have to yell. "My Nadder, Bluebreeze, wouldn't listen and traveled straight here. I have know idea why. Maybe he scented food or something. He really likes chicken. Or maybe if there is, um, never mind." Megan stopped herself from mumbling on and on about her dragon to a stranger.

Bluebreeze was paying no attention to Megan. He was way too interested in finding the new Deadly Nadder. He brushed past Megan and walked a few steps around the farm. He stopped and stretched his neck to scan the area. Where ever the Nadder is, he is not here now.

Megan chased after Bluebreeze. "Again, sorry about him. He is just so curious. I'm not so sure you would understand." Megan said and placed a hand on Bluebreeze. She patted him twice for him to follow, but he just sat down.

He looked all around waiting to see the new male Deadly Nadder come out of the forest. The Deadly Nadder either lived there, or stole some free food from the farm.

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Tryggr watched with amusement as the dragon trotted around the farm, neck stretching and head bobbing in apparent curiosity. His mannerisms were remarkably similar to her own dragon companion's. Heck, for all she knew, they're eggs could've been from the same brood.

"I think I've got some idea, actually." She pursed her lips around two fingers and let out a shrill whistle. The sound seemed to bounce off the trees and echo, driven on by the cold quiet of winter without fear of interruption.

There was a beat, and then in a bristled indigo blur Moonseed came vaulting over the hilltop, wings spread, and stumbled to a messy landing, tail over wings, in the white patch of land. There were pine needles stuck to his scales in sappy patches.

First he came bounding towards his human, happy as could be, then stopped short, wings flared out defensively, and began lumbering over towards Bluebreeze, cocking his head in interest.

The other dragon was a bit smaller than Moonseed, and lighter in color. He paced a circle around the newcomer and his human almost manically. After a moment's deliberation, the nadder let out a squawk of a roar and opened his mouth the reveal two small bird eggs, no doubt pilfered from some unguarded nest, tucked under his tongue for later snacking.

He spit them out, warm but raw, into the snow and rolled one forward with the edge of his horn. A peace offering of some kind, it appeared. Following her dragon's lead, Tryggr moved forward with less caution and resolved to show this newcomer some good old fashioned mountain dweller hospitality.

"How about you come in out of the cold for a bit. I was just thinking of goin' in for some lunch, and it looks like Moonseed here's already taken a liking to ya'." She skritched at the softer underside of the dragon's chin dotingly. "That's my good prettyboy. Such a big sweetie, mhmm." she murmured.

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Megan looked up at the familiar figure soaring through the sky. A large purple Deadly Nadder landed right next to the farmer, or maybe Dragon Rider. "Oh, cool!" She mumbled to herself. Maybe she finally met someone with a curious Nadder like her own.

Bluebreeze jumped up from his sitting position. He opened his wings and bobbed his head, squawking. He settled down when the Deadly Nadder walked toward him and Megan. He took a step closer to Megan so she was under his chest. He turned head watching the new dragon circle them. The dragon stopped and dropped a small bird egg as an offering. Bluebreeze opened his mouth wide like a smile and scooped up the egg in his cup like jaw. He gulped the egg down without hesitation. As a thanks, he squawked once at the taller Nadder.

A small smile grew on Megan's face. "I had no idea some one else had a young Deadly Nadder." She said. She walked up to Bluebreeze and scratched his neck. "Sure. I don't mean to be a burden. I don't even think I have anything for my share of lunch. If you don't mind us staying here, we will." She replied, trying not to sound pushy.

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Tryggr led the stranger across the fields to the farmhouse she called home. It was quite spacious without the rest of her family cluttering up the place. Even when nothing was growing, there was always plenty of work to be done and the other farmers likely wouldn't be back until sundown. Still the traces of them were everywhere; mom's wheelbarrow turned over on its side, uncle's broken hoe propped up on the worktable, a pair of grandpa's trousers strewn over a chair waiting to be washed. It was a proper mess.

Moonseed flitted up to the landing pad built like a makeshift balcony into the second floor of the house. Though it actually wasn't so much a second floor as a large loft, not unlike the one in the barn, connected to the ground floor with a long ladder.

"I just gotta let the dragons in upstairs," Tryggr said as she dodged the clutter and and climbed the ladder up into the loft. "My folks don't like Moonseed running around down here, but he doesn't like to stay in the stables with the terrors, so,"

Her hands found the metal clasp to a huge door built into the wall, almost as big as the wall itself, and pulled open the heavy oak, leaving an open passageway from the balcony to the loft. However opening the door not only welcomed in the dragons, but a blast of cold air. Such was one of the hazards of having a dragon friendly home.

"Hey, can you do me a favor and start a fire?" she called down. "I just brought in some firewood, and the stove's in the kitchen. Oh!" A thought suddenly occurred to her. She crawled over to the edge of the loft and hung her head over the side to get a look at her guest. "What'd ya' say your name was?"

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Megan walked through the farm to the house. "Cozy little place." Megan said as she walked through the doorway. The mess didn't effect her since her small family farm was always a mess, mostly from Bluebreeze. Bluebreeze stuck his head into the house. "No Bluebreeze. Stay out with, uh, um, the other Deadly Nadder." Megan pushed him backwards by his horn. Bluebreeze just stared as Megan closed the door behind her. Megan turned to see the female almost upstairs. "Oh you have Terrible Terrors, too?"

Bluebreeze walked a few feet away from the house he was shut out of. He looked around for his new Nadder friend and saw him on the second floor. He unfolded his wings and flapped them a few times. He jumped in to the air, flapping his wings a few more times, and landed next the dragon on the deck. When the door opened, he watched the other Nadder walk in. Bluebreeze took two slow, cautious steps forward to see if he was allowed in. No one pushed him out, so he let himself settle in.

Megan walked to the middle of the room. She looked around at the deco, not that there was a whole lot. When she was asked to start a fire, she glanced around the house again and saw the wood behind her. "Yeah, I'll get it." Megan said and walked over to pick up an arm full of wood. She, not being the strongest Viking, wobbled over to the stove and dropped the wood in and started the fire.

"What's ya' say your name was?" The farmer asked. She completely forgot to introduce herself. Megan looked up from fixing the fire and said, "I'm Megan Winters. You can call me Meg. My dragon's name is Bluebreeze, but I normal call him Blue." Megan snapped her hand back from its resting place on the firewood when the fire reached it and burned her. She shook her hand a few times. "Ouch, oops." She whispered to herself. "What's your name?"

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"I'm Tryggr." She climbed halfway back down the ladder and jumped the rest of the way down, landing with a heavy thump. "That prettyboy dragon up there is Moonseed. The terrors, well, they aren't really mine or anything. They're kinda like little farmhands. A lot of them don't even have names."

She toed off her work boots and kicked them aside. With the shuffling of thick, woolly socks on the scuffed wood floor, Tryggr meandered over to the stove and began filling a pot with the fixings for a simple stew. As always, she set aside the fattier meat scraps for Moonseed.

"You can bring some of this up for your Blue there," She nodded towards the loft. "The folks would probably throw a fit if they knew I was letting another dragon in the house, never mind feeding it, but hey they're not here, are they?" She winked.

Upstairs, the two nadders settled into the gradually warming space. It was mostly bare, save for a bed, a fur rug, a large wooden chest, and a single oil lamp that hung unlit above the bedpost. It was neater than most of the downstairs; with a dragon who could and would make a chewtoy out of any odd item when he was bored, not to mention a pair of prying parents, it had to be; but the unmade bed gave the space a distinctly lived in look.

"Bluebreeze seems well-trained, pretty smart too. And he looks about Moonseed's age. How long've you had him?"

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Megan walked over and poked at the fatty pieces of meat. "We can feed this to them after we eat." She said, now piling them into two equal piles. "Bluebreeze likes to eat scraps of chicken my mum cooks up. I always make sure she sets some aside for Blue, but sometimes I give him some of my own." Megan loved talking about her dragon, even if they were useless little stories. "After all, chicken is his favorite food."

Bluebreeze circled around the second floor once and found a comfortable spot to lay down. He curled his body up, but he wasn't tired yet. To him, it would be hours until he would sleep.

"Bluebreeze? Well-trained! Well, his is a very loyal dragon. He is just a bit too curious. Like, one time at my own family's farm, he was chasing around some chickens.And scaring the goats, so they kept fainting!" Megan couldn't help but to laugh at the memory of Bluebreeze with chicken feathers on his mouth. "But, he is pretty much a good dragon. Lets see. I believe I have only had Blue for two years. I moved here when I was nine, and we met. He really became my dragon when I was eleven. So, yeah, two years. He's pretty young. I would say around seven years. I haven't had him since an egg like most people with dragons. He kind of just chose me to be with." Megan shut herself up realizing she was mumbling on again. "Is Moonseed well-behaved?"

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Tryggr smiled to herself as she prepared lunch to the pleasant backdrop of the younger girl's stories. Her obvious affection for her dragon felt very nostalgic. It would be all too easy to drop all pretense and gush about her own dear companion. Instead she simply hummed in happy acknowledgement and focused on the stew, only chiming in occasionally.

"Moonseed is... well he's a bit hyperactive. I'm not sure anyone can hope to train a dragon perfectly. That's kinda the point, yeah? They might listen to us when it suits them, but they'll never lose they're own way. Ya' just gotta hope your dragon's way is the same as yours, so you both can go together.

"Anyway, I got my Moonseed when he was just an egg. He was so little when he hatched, all tiny and frail. I was pretty young myself then, though I don't think I was ever little. He sorta imprinted on me I guess, so the two of us have always been good together, but with anyone else," She shook her head with a laugh. "Nuh uh. No go."

From upstairs there was a loud squawk, as if the larger nadder could just sense her talking about him. Tryggr laughed harder.

"Yeah, you're not little anymore, are ya'." she shot back, but with a sugar-sweet undertone. She began to dole out two servings of stew into a pair of wooden bowls. "And I'm glad for it too. He was a runt when he hatched, ya' know. Back then I thought it was my fault. I thought... I thought he wouldn't last that first winter. But we showed everyone."

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"Yeah, that's the first thing I noticed about Moonseed. Well, second. The first thing was that scale color of his. That is a very unique color." Megan complimented. "And as for a perfect dragon, I don't see that happening. Plus, it wouldn't be as fun as our dragons now. For the most part, I love Bluebreeze's wild side! He can be a lot to hand, but once you have a dragon, you can't imagine life without one."

Bluebreeze lifted his head. He twitched his nose as the scent of meat blew past. He opened his mouth wide and stood up. Shaking his tail and bobbing his head, he headed toward the entrance to the first floor. Bluebreeze peaked through the entrance, letting out a whine like roar.

Megan looked up to see only her Deadly Nadder's head. "Hey, look who wants to join us." Megan said grabbing a chuck of unused meat. "Here, Blue, have this for now." She chucked the meat at him and he caught it in air. Bluebreeze ate it in one bite. He stood there waiting for more. "Go on, go. You'll get more later." Obediently, Bluebreeze sat back down in his corner. Megan chuckled, "Nadders may be the best species."

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Tryggr's smile broadened. Growing up away from the village, raising and training Moonseed practically all on her own, there were many times when she felt she didn't know what she was doing. Only after years of practice had she and her dragon come to the place where they were now, and she knew- she felt in her gut- that there would be more challenges for them up ahead.

And through all of that, to find someone so likeminded... In addition, a younger rider with a fresher bond, in comparison she found herself feeling like she was in a role of mentorship. Maybe that was a little narcissistic, she considered, but she caught herself puffing up a bit at the thought nonetheless.

"I sure wouldn't want any other kind as a partner," she nodded, following Megan's lead and hand-feeding the larger nadder a few scraps.

The dragon wiggled joyfully and nearly took off a finger snatching at the meat. Tryggr gave him an admonishing look, but honestly she was used to that sort of thing. And she hadn't lost a finger yet; so far so good. She gave Moonseed a few doting scratches under the chin and then returned to the table to have at her own lunch.

"Hey, Meg," she piped up halfway through her bowl of stew. "You and Blue ever go flying?"

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Megan grabbed her bowl of stew and followed Tryggr to the lunch table. "Oh yeah, we fly whenever we can. Blu- er, we love to fly." Meg caught herself from blurting out how she was still sometimes freaked out from the whole thing. She didn't want to look like a wimp in front of, well, anyone. "Bluebreeze has this one cool" yet scary "move where he will be flying, then close his wings and drop like a free fall. Obviously he'll stop before slamming down on the ground. I think he does it because he likes the trill of speed." She stopped to slurp down some stew. "We never are able to fly to new islands. Only because if my mother found out, I'd be grounded until I'm forty! So we fly around Berk and glide over the sea." Megan turned her bowl and watched the stew twirl with the motion as she talked. "But, I'm still getting used to it." She added.

"I'm guessing you and Moonseed fly a lot, right? Do you two race, like in dragon races?" Megan asked excitably. She always loved watching the racers with their dragons. She never thought about being one herself. Plus, she's only thirteen.

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Tryggr's eyes lit up. Speed, risky flying, dragon racing!

"Ah, now you're definitely speaking my language." she grinned. "You happen to be looking at a top notch racer right here. Me and Moonseed are gonna be the best there is someday.

"Well, I guess it might be too early to tell. We practice together whenever we can, but we gotta kinda keep it under wraps for now. Just until we get good enough to go pro. For now we just take on whoever's willing, racing around the island the-rules-are-there-are-no-rules style, ya' know.

"It's a riskier way of doing things, but it makes for great practice, and Moonseed and me need all we can get if we're ever gonna get to race in a real arena or anythin'"

She reached into the collar of her shirt and fished out a dingy, old-looking medal.

"See this? It used to be my grandmother's. She passed when I was young and I didn't know her that well, but she was the first person I've ever even heard of in this bumpkin family who did anything but farm. I knew, ever since I was a little kid, that all I wanted was to earn one of these," She gestured to the medal. "All on my own."

Moonseed made an indignant huffing noise, hanging his head down over the edge of the loft, not unlike how his human counterpart had done before.

"Okay, so not all on my own. Pretty obvious it has to be a team effort, yeah?" She laughed nervously, aware that she was blabbering. It was just something she really cared about, and hardly ever got a chance to talk about.