Making a new friend

The black dragon then turned to look at Dovah, and he saw the same dragon that had saved his life a few years ago. A Night Fury.

It looked toward Dovah, then at Eyepatch, before walking away. Dovah didn't want that. He wanted to stay close to his favorite dragon. Over the years, his admiration toward that species didn't wave, and he didn't want to lose sight of it again so soon. It took him seven years to see one again, after all.

Each time dragon attacked, he would go outside hoping to see the Night Fury, but the time they attack is even lower than the dragons attacked. In seven-year, no one else saw a Night Fury, so what happened to him seven years ago could be considered a once in a life event. Despite that, there is another Night Fury in front of him, and he will not let it go without trying to get closer to it.

Yet, he didn't know that this Night Fury had been observing him for years. Because of that, it saw how he treated dragons and didn't want Dovah to kill a dragon in self-defense. That's why it helped.

Unfortunately, the Night Fury was already walking away, so Dovah panicked a little, but he still tried to talk to it.

"Wait! Please, I wanted to thank you properly."

The Night Fury stopped walking and looked at the sword on Dovah's waist. Dovah understood what it wanted and took his sword before throwing it away. Once the sword was away, the Night Fury sat down and looked at Dovah.

Its eye is filled with curiosity, but more importantly, Dovah could feel expectation from it. This tells Dovah that the Night Fury expects something from him; if he can tell what it is, he will gain its trust.

However, Dovah didn't know what to say. He couldn't think of anything he could say to gain its trust. The only thing he could think about was telling the truth.

"I wanted to thank you for what you did seven years ago. You saved my life, and I can't forget about it. You showed me that we Vikings are wrong about dragons. Since I was born, I was taught that dragons are mindless, bloodthirsty beasts, and you changed all that in a single night. So thank you, I saved Eyepatch because of you, and now Eyepatch is my closest friend."

The Night Fury seemed satisfied and was about to do something, but Dovah continued talking before it could do anything.

"One last thing, I didn't want to kill the Changewing from earlier, but I was against a wall, so thank you for stopping me from killing it."

When it heard this, the Night Fury's pupil fully dilated, and Dovah felt happiness from it. Then the Night Fury got closer to Dovah. Once only a few meters separated them, it looked at Dovah and waited. Dovah didn't know what it waited for, but he knew what he wanted. He got closer and raised his hand.

The Night fury lowered its head and allowed Dovah to touch its head. They were in contact for a few seconds before the Night Fury took its head back. Dovah was happy to be allowed to pat it. He had gained its trust, and now it would show itself to Dovah more easily next time.

However, it was already very late, and Dovah needed to get home, or he would worry his mom. So with a small, he said goodbye to the Night Fury.

"I'm happy you trust me now, but I need to get back home. One last thing, I would like to call you Grey. It's because of your dark grey scales."

The Night Fury let out a slight approving sound that wasn't growling. It looked more like a croon and went away. Dovah thought it liked the name and was happy with his choice.

"Goodbye, Grey. See you next time!"

Once it disappeared in the night, Dovah left with Eyepatch for his home after finding his sword on the ground. The rest of the travel went without trouble, and they got home safely. His mom only asked why he was late. After explaining he tried to avoid Jeff, he got scot-free and slept for the night.

*The next day at sunrise*

As soon as Dovah was up, he prepared himself for another expedition to find Grey again.

"Eyepatch, get my bag."

Eyepatch quickly got Dovah's bag that he filled with everything he had prepared that might be useful. This time, he didn't prepare a single pack. He also prepared another bag filled with fish. With Eyepatch's help, he discovered many things about dragons' diet, so he ensured that it was only fish that dragons liked.

Once ready, they went out. Eyepatch was hidden in a bag since there are still in the village. Dovah went to the forest, taking the quickest way toward where he had seen Grey the day before. Along the way, he saw Jeff walking in his direction with his goons following behind.

When Dovah saw them, he tried to hide, but it was too late. Jeff had seen him.

"HEY! Come back here. You can't hide this time."

Dovah was exasperated he didn't want to deal with Jeff. Today he was supposed to get to meet Grey and not deal with an idiot. He quickly took out a fog bomb and threw it to make a cloud of fog appear around Jeff and his goons. This time however they didn't panic. They were used to dealing with this cloud.

Dovah used the cloud to run away without being seen, not to fight with Jeff in an advantageous situation. When the fog cloud disappeared, Dovah wasn't here anymore. Nonetheless, Jeff doesn't give up because when Dovah uses the fog cloud, it always to stops Jeff from knowing where he is going. But with time, Jeff learned to tell which direction Dovah wanted to go.

After a few minutes of thinking, he could tell that Dovah's destination was the forest, so he followed after Dovah with his goons.

However, Dovah didn't know this.

When he was in the forest, he falsy thought he was safe and lowered his guard. Then he started searching for Grey. At the same time, an angry Jeff was in the forest looking for Dovah. Because Dovah had lowered his guard, the track he left behind was easy to follow.

Jeff and Dovah didn't enter the forest from the same spot and at the same time. It took one hour for Jeff to find Dovah's track. When Jeff finally found Dovah's track, at the same time, there was a black dragon with dark grey scales that had just appeared in front of Dovah and Eyepatch.

It was the same dragon that Dovah and Eyepatch had met the day before, Grey.

When Dovah saw Grey again, he started by removing the sword he had on his waist. Then Grey took a more relaxed posture and greeted Dovah with a slight croon.

"Nice to see you again too, Grey."

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(If you spot mistakes, tell me I will correct them. Thanks)