Chapter 7: Lead The Way

                                    

                                          
Zephyr's POV
                          
In some strange turn of events, Firestorm and I had actually managed to land inside the entrance of the cave where my mother and her dragon both lived. I followed the woman, who was known all around Berk as the Chieftess and General Astrid Haddock. 
                          
It was strange, finally meeting someone you had longed to know for your entire existence. In a way, I had romanticized the idea of my mother, the idea of even having a mother over the years, probably because people rarely spoke ill of the supposedly deceased in front of their daughter. 
                          
But as I walked behind her, my eyes wandering around the damp tunnel that surrounded us before they once again landed on her, I realized she was just a normal woman. A normal woman who I had painted in a golden light for my entire life and now that she was finally here ... my mind was having a bit of a hard time with comprehending and processing what was really going on. As we continued down the tunnel, the dampness that had gathered in the air somehow lifted as the small tunnel opened into a large cavern with rocks dripping from the ceiling like icicles and a large slit in the cavern wall which was approximately the width of my own head and the length of three firestorms.
                          
A surprisingly soft and gentle breeze flowed through the cavern, filling it with fresh air from the outside world as my mother quickly stepped over and covered the opening with a curtain of what looked to be ... leather? As my mother was busy hindering the breeze from coming in, her dragon waddled over to the hearth in the middle of the cavern and lit it up which cast an orange glow over the otherwise dark cavern. When my mother finally finished with the curtains, she pulled up two wooden chairs and gestured for me to sit down in one of them.
                          
I furrowed my brows in slight suspicion, but sat down nevertheless, just then noticing how cold I had really been as the comforting heat from the hearth washed over me. I sank down in the chair and turned to look at my mother, who had gotten out of her armor from before and was now wearing a simple, long sleeved, beige tunic with a pair of dark pants and some furry boots on. She sat down in the other chair and smiled warmly at me. 
                          
"Did ... did you make all of this?" I asked as my gaze wandered around the unusually ornate cavern, that had been filled with everything from furs to furniture and pretty much everything else a Viking could need when living out in the wilderness all by themselves. 
                          
My mother nodded enthusiastically as she too let her gaze travel around the room. "I've known how to skin animals since I was young, but the carpenting is something I picked up in my many years alone."
                          
I raised a brow. "You're going to tell me what happened, right?"
                          
My mother smiled. "Of course I am. It all started that dreaded winter night when that gruesome monstrous nightmare took me away. The dragon was more wild than any other I had encountered before and it simply refused to be trained. It took me all the way to Berserker island, where it brought me to its cave in which I had assumed the dragon would enjoy me as his dinner. 
                          
As you can see, I didn't end up in the belly of the dragon, but that was because before the dragon even had the chance to roast me alive, it was shot dead by some Berserker scouts. The scouts eventually found me and brought me to their Chief, Dagur the Deranged, who was delighted to have captured me. I was quickly tossed into a cell where I remained for five years. It was there that I learned to carpenter.
                          
Then, one day, my dear Stormfly showed up and got me out of there, saving me from even more torture and pain at the hands of the Berserker Chief. Exhausted and in the midst of healing from the many injuries Dagur and his men had inflicted upon me, I quickly understood I wouldn't make it all the way to Berk in one night, so Stormfly and I found the nearest cave and settled down there for the night.