Dragon!Reader x Hunters!Nordics - (11/?)

Dragon!Reader x Hunters!Nordics – (11/?)

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Note: ok, this has officially become my longest series fanfic XD lol.  Also just as a reminder, this story will have multiple endings, so I’m trying to give reader-chan time with each character.  Although, this chapter might be a small rush.
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Chapter 11:  Tears and Departure


The days rolled by slowly.  At least for you anyway.  Everyone was back working around the village, tending to the fields or patching up what was broken during your encounter with the other dragon.  You apologized to the family whose house you kind of smashed into, but they were not mad at all.  Everyone had made it a point to visit and thank you for saving them from the other dragon.  Many even brought you get well gifts.  The children even made you gifts made out of wood and other things.  You kept all the gifts, feeling the concern and love they had for you.

The Nordics had begun to help around the village as well wherever it was needed.  You did notice, though, that at least one of them would stay at your side at all times.  You found it strange that they did this, but you just figured they wanted to make sure nothing happened to you while no one was there.  However, it did make your escape plan a bit more complicated since you’d have to sneak by one of them, but you would find a way.  

Tino had been very persistent that you didn’t leave the bed except for when you needed to use the restroom.  He didn’t want you to agitate your recovering wounds even though they were closed and almost fully healed.  Lukas was kind of the same way.  He watched you like a hawk, almost like he was afraid you would disappear if he blinked.  Honestly, he was the reason you felt that something was up.  He was the most observant of the group and you felt that he sensed your plan to some extent.  If this was true, then you would have to use foce to leave.

That was the last thing you wanted to do.

It had been about 5 days since you were brought back to the village, and you were bored out of your mind.  You had been laying in be, not being able to get up to do anything, and you were close to losing your mind.  Rose was currently watching you along with Tino, and you were just listening to them as they chatted back and forth.

“Are the capitals that large?” Rose asked in bewilderment.

“Yeah.  They are much bigger than your village here.  Probably about 10 times bigger.  It’s easy to get lost in them if you don’t know your way around,” Tino explained.

“Woah…One day I hope to at least visit one,” she paused for a moment, “Alright, it’s decided.  Before I die I’m traveling to at least one capital.”

You couldn’t help but giggle at her determined face.  You knew that once she made up her mind there was no going back.  

“Oh shush, (Name).  Be happy I’m not making you fly me there.  I want to travel on foot to one.  Will make it feel like more of an adventure.”

“If you say so, but I’d still come to make sure you didn’t get lost or harmed,” you smirked.

“Always the mother aren’t you?”

“Oh come on.  I’m old, yes, but my appearance doesn’t make me look like a mother.”

“That’s true.  You’re too cute to be called old,” Tino chuckled.

You blushed a little at the comment, earning giggles from the two.  You puffed your cheeks a little and looked off to the side, trying your best to hide the growing blush.  To Tino though, it only made you look even cuter.  Unable to resist the face you were making, Tino came over and wrapped his arms around your shoulders.  He snuggled his face into your (h/c) locks, effectively causing your blush to turn a shade darker.

“You look so adorable when you make those faces, (Name),” he said.

Rose looked at the scene with a soft smile on her features.  She could see that these men cared for you, probably even more so.  This was one of the reasons she had refrained from getting too close to them because she wished for you to finally find happiness.  To find the one who would be with you even after they knew who you really were.  That was her hope, but she knew you would probably be against it per the reason you were a dragon and they were humans.

Tino’s grip began to tighten more around your frame, and you were trying to pull him off, “Tino…too tight.”

“Whoops, sorry (Name).  I guess I don’t know my own strength,” he said sheepishly.

He released you from his hold and scratched the back of his head.  You pat him on the head as a way of saying ‘it’s alright.’  A split second later, the bedroom door opened to reveal Berwald holding 4 bowls of freshly made soup.  How he was holding them without dropping them you didn’t know.  He then very carefully came over and began to hand everyone there their own bowls.  However, when he got to you, he placed his own bowl down and pulled an empty chair closer to the bed.  He then got a spoonful of the soup and offered it to you.

“B-Berwald!  I can feed myself!” You stuttered out.

He didn’t say anything but brought the soup closer to your face.  You knew then that he wasn’t going to back down from his decision, and promptly gave in.  You opened your mouth and gulped down the warm soup as it entered your mouth. You could have sworn you saw his mouth twitch slightly into a smile, but if it did it was gone before you could confirm it.  He continued to feed you until there was nothing left in the bowl.  There were a couple times that some of the soup would run down your chin, and he would wipe it away with his thumb.  Once you finished, he placed the empty bowl down on the nightstand and grabbed his own to eat.  It must have gotten cold by now, and you felt bad.

Tino, who had watched the scene unfold, was now partially jealous that Berwald got to feed you this time.  For the first time in his life he was jealous of Berwald.  He was about to get up when Matthias decided to burst into the room, startling everyone.  

"Dude, is she still in bed?  Tino, I think it's time she gets up and actually walks around," Matthias stated.

"Matthias!  She's still a bit weak.  She needs her rest!"

"She's been resting for 5 days now.  Let's go (Name).  I'm breaking you out of this place!" grabbing your hand and pulling you from the bed.  He had a firm yet gentle grip, but he pulled you out of that room so fast the others couldn't even react.  

Your legs felt like lead from having not walked around for such a long time, and your body itself wwas stiff as a board.  Luckily, you were wearing warm enough clothes, or else you would have been freezing right about now.  It was lightly snowing outside and the temperature had to be at least 25 degrees.  It didn't bother you much since you were warmer than a normal human, but you could still get cold in the body of a human.

"M-Mathias!  Slow down!  I....I can't keep up," you panted out.  You both were near the gate heading out of the village, and it looked like he was planning on going out those gates.  Why in the world did he want to leave the village.

In response to your slow pace and request, he turned on you and scooped you up into a bridal hold, "Hold on tight!" he stated with a grin.

You quickly wrapped your arms around his neck as he began to sprint out of the village.  You could tell he had a specific place in mind because he made precise turns, and he was also mumbling to himself where to turn.  Soon enough he began to slow down before coming to stop at a snow covered hill.  He didn't let you go, but slowly walked up to the hill.  Once you both got closer, you now recognized that it wasn't really a hill, but the grave they had given the fallen red dragon.

"Why did you bring me here, Matthias?" you asked in pure confusion.  

You looked up at his face and gasped a little.  His face held a frown and his eyes held grief and sorrow.  This wasn't like him at all.  Something was up; something big.

"Are you alright, Matthias?"

"How can you be so nice to me after you saw me kill that dragon right in front of you?" he whispered out just loud enough for you to hear.

His question silenced you into shock.  Was that why he brought you out here?  Did he really think you hated him after that?  You laid in his arms stuttering, trying to figure out an answer to his question.  However, you couldn't find an answer quick enough because he promptly set you down and walked over to a tree.  He proceeded to punch it, hard enough to leave a dent.  You watched in shock as his face became angry, more at himself than you.

"Matthias, stop it.  Don't hurt yourself because of this," you pleaded.

"How can you say that so easily?!" He shouted back at you, "I killed one of your own kind right in front of you, and yet you stand there and tell me not to be upset?  Didn't you say you wanted dragons and humans to get along?  Don't you still want that?!"

You lowered your head in thought, trying to find the words that would calm the angered man in front of you.  You then glanced at the mound where the now dead dragon laid.  The dragon didn't need to die, but his blind anger and hatred towards humans would have never made him fit to live in a human and dragon friendly world.  You then looked back up at Matthias, his fiery eyes still on your form, painfully waiting for an answer.

"The dragon chose his fate, and while I did not agree with it, his hatred and rage would have blinded him from seeing anything close to peace," you spoke sternly.  Matthias was about to speak, but you held up your hand to silence him, "You may have killed him in front of me, but you killed him with a purpose.  He was going to kill not only me, but villagers as well.  Had you not stopped him when you did, I would probably be dead, and most likely many of the villagers as well."

Matthias looked at you in stunned silence, which you took as the go ahead to continue.

"Everyone chooses how they live.  Some are given the chance to choose how they die, and that choice was made by him the second he attacked you.  He wanted to die fighting for what he believed in, and in a way he chose," you swallowed briefly, taking a moment to prepare yourself, "Instead of saying I hate you, I want to say thank you.  You saved my life and spared future torture for one of my kind.  You saved the ones whom I would give my own life to protect.  So why should I hate you when I should be saying thank you?"

You had tears brimming your closed eyes that were beginning to drop down one by one.  You were giving him a sad smile, and hoped that your words sunk in.  Everything you said was from the bottom of your heart.  You knew that the other dragon's death was unavoidable, and even though it pained you, you knew his death was for the better.  You wouldn't have wanted to live in fear like that, especially with hatred that burned so deep.  You would have wanted it to end, too.

Before you knew it, large, strong arms encircled your smaller frame as a head buried itself into the top of you head.  Your eyes opened in shock as you began to feel the chest that you were pressed against shudder with each breath.  He had killed many dragons before he met you.  Many other people killed far more than he did.  Him out of pure hatred, but the other hunters out there killed for sport, not caring what happened to their prey.  However, what he didn’t want to tell you was what he heard at the other village’s tavern.  How could he?  

How could you be so forgiving?

His thought were interrupted when he felt your arms return his embrace.  You shooshed him quietly while rubbing circles on his back.  He let out a breathy chuckle and released you, giving you his signature grin.  You laughed a bit and offered your hand to him, which he took without hesitation.  You both began to head back to the village hand-in-hand, making small talk and laughing.  By the time you reached the gates, Matthias had given you his coat to wear since you had begun to shiver a bit, and you were both in better spirits.  It was just about dinner time, so you had been out there far longer than you had originally thought.

A sudden blur flew past you and tackled Matthias to the ground.  Thankfully he didn’t pull you down with him, but you soon heard the all too familiar sound of choking coming from the tall man.  

“N-Nice to…see you too, Norge,” Matthias choked out.

“You are an idiot!  Do you know how worried you made everyone, especially Tino, when you just ran off with (Name)?” He growled, tightening his hold on the poor man.

“(Name)!” Tino’s voice shouted behind you.  You turned around just in time to be brought into a crushing hug, “We were so worried.  Are you hurt?  Can you walk alright?”

“Give her some space, Tino,” Emil piped up from behind him.  “She looks fine, and she walked back here right?  She’s more than fine.”

“I’ll admit I’m a bit tired, but the walk felt really good.  I just haven’t been moving around so much so the walk was a bit of a strain,” you tried to explain.  Tino kept checking you though out of worry.  He was always like an overprotective mother when it came to you.  Emil came up and placed his hand on Tino’s shoulder, effectively grabbing his attention.

“I’ll take (Name) back.  Why don’t you go ahead and scold Matthias for awhile,” he said with a grin.  You had a feeling there was a hidden meaning behind that statement, but before you could ask Emil was gently pulling you towards the house in the back of the village.  

Once you were far enough away you let out a low groan, “Emil~, do I have to go back to that boring room?”

“If you want to get any better then yes, yes you do,” was his answer.

“I’m already healed though.  I heal a lot faster than you guys.  If anything I’m just stiff from laying in that bed for days on end.”

Emil stopped walking and looked to be in thought.  After a minute he gave a defeated sigh and released your arm.  He turned to you and crossed his arms loosely, “Alright, fine.  What do you want to do?  It has to be quick since I’m sure Tino won’t be too pleased to see you still up and about.”

You cheered and threw your arms around him, causing him to blush scarlet, “Thank you, Emil.  Let’s go sit at my favorite spot for a little bit.  It has an amazing view once the sun starts to go down.”

As soon as the last words left your mouth, you grabbed his hand and pulled him with you to your favorite hill spot.  It was the same one where you told your story.  You did feel Emil’s hand tense slightly as you walked up the hill, and it worried you slightly.  Once at the top, both you and Emil could only gasp in wonder at the sunset before you.  

The clouds were painted orange, blue, and violet.  In the patches that the sun shone through there were lighter, warmer colors of orange, yellow, and some red.  Rays of light beamed down onto the land below through the cracks in the clouds.  The land looked like a giant puzzle with light and dark pieces.  No matter how many times you had seen these sunsets they never ceased to amaze you.  

You looked to Emil and caught him staring at the scene with an open mouth.  Snow flakes fell into his silver hair, making it look like it sparkled.  He looked like he was trying to form words, but they got caught in his throat.

“You okay, Emil?”

“Y-Yeah…This…This is amazing!”

“I usually come here every night when there nothing to do in the village.  Each sunset is different than the last, and no matter how many I see, they always leave me in awe.”

“I can see why,” trailing off a bit.  He stayed silent for a moment before mumbling, “Wish I could have seen this first before what happened.”

“What do you mean?” curious as to what he meant.

“My first memory of this hill is when you – ‘we’ were attacked.  It’s not a pleasant memory for me,” he again trailed off like he didn’t want to speak of it.

“I don’t think anyone would like that memory,” you agreed.

“You weren’t me though,” earning a confused look from you. “All I could do was run away with the other villagers as you fought that dragon.  I know I came with the others afterwards, but before I didn’t even have the courage to come and help you.  I couldn’t even watch you fight it off because I couldn’t bare to see you hurt.”

“But you did help me in the end.  If you or the others hadn’t been there, I would have died.”

“But…” his lip was beginning to quiver.  He then turned and threw his arms around you to which you stumbled a step back and returned the embrace.  “I was so scared.  I really thought you were going to leave us.”

“Can’t get rid of me that easily,” you joked, trying to lighten the mood.  It seemed everyone was affected by the fight that happened not even a week ago.  Each in their own way.

“Pft, and all you can do is joke about something like that?  None of us want to lose you.  Not even Lukas.  I just felt so useless and powerless to help you when you needed it most.  If we could have done something sooner, maybe we could have prevented you from getting hurt as bad as you did.”

“Maybe you could have, maybe you couldn’t.  What happened has already happened, and now we must move forward with the outcomes.  No matter what happens we can never change the past.  We just learn from our mistakes and grow.”

“Then I’m going to make a promise.  I promise that starting today I’ll protect you from anyone or anything that tries to take you away from us,” he stated in a serious tone, which caught you off guard.

You gave him a smile and nodded in acknowledgement.  You ruffled his hair, earning a half-hearted smack from him. “We should probably get back, but…do you think we could come here again?” he asked timidly.

“Of course.”

He smiled at that and grabbed your and began to lead you once again towards the house.  The last rays of light were shining through the sky as you got there.  Everyone must have been back already since you could hear them through the walls.  You could hear Tino’s voice most of all, asking where you were or where Emil took you.  You rolled your eyes and entered the room first so that Emil wouldn’t have to deal with that.  As soon as you did Tino was one you in an instant, hugging you and ushering you to the bed to lay you down.

“Tino, can’t I stay out of the bed a little longer?  It’s been refreshing to be able to walk around.”

“Nope.  You need your rest.  Lukas will be staying to watch you tonight.  Once your settled in we are going to head back to our rooms and get our own much needed sleep.”

Matthias practically groaned in sadness.  You suspected Tino banned him from sneaking off to the tavern to get more ale since that was really the only thing that got Matthias down.  Soon enough, each of the men left one by one as soon as they were sure you were safe.  Lukas was the only one to stay behind as Emil left the room.  He looked back to me, gaze softening as he looked over my tired form.

"Get some sleep.  You look like you need it," he said as he brought one of the chairs over.  He then pulled out a thick book and began to read.  You couldn't tell what it was about, but closed your eyes anyway.  You were tired, but you wouldn't be sleeping tonight.

It was time to set the escape plan into motion.

You knew they wouldn't let you leave willingly, so you planned to sneak out in the middle of the night, hoping that Lukas was indeed asleep.  You laid there in the bed for longer than you could count, patiently waiting to finally hear soft snores coming from the man next to bed.  You kept your breathing slow and steady while also keeping your heart rate in check.  You weren't really tired at all anyway since you hadn't done anything for 5 days, and the small walk around didn't bother you like you led them to believe.

Using your heightened senses, you could hear Lukas' long, deep breaths and slow steady heartbeat.  You were more than sure he was asleep by now.  You began to shift silently, maneuvering out of the bed so quietly that only the sheets made a little noise.  You were about to walk out of the room when you took one last glance at Lukas.  His face looked peaceful and serene, and probably held the most emotion you had ever seen him with.  Your heart begins to ache as you turn away and silently go out the door, shutting it behind you.  You continued walking through the village, taking your time to look at each one.  Memories of each family filled your head as you walked.  When you past Rose's and Hans' house (They are neighbors) you remembered when they first began walking to when they would always ask to look at your scales or play on your back.  

'Times I will never forget,' you thought as you pasted through the gates.  The scouts had probably fallen asleep again, or gone home for the night.  You decided the latter since you didn't hear anything from their perches.

After a few minutes walk away from the gates you came to a small clearing.  You didn't want to waste any time, but right as you were about to shift a voice called out to you, freezing you in place.

"What do you think you are doing?"

You spun around to meet the icy, blues ones of none other than Lukas.  His eyes were filled with hurt and he wore a deep frown with his fists clenched at his side.  Little did you know that he had pretended to be asleep as well.  You closer your open mouth and looked back at him with a sorrowful gaze.

"I need to leave, Lukas.  There's something I need to find out."

"And you think leaving without telling anyone is the best way?  That's worse then actually just telling us what you are doing, or at least telling us where you are going," taking a step towards you only for you to take a step back.

"I know it's not the best way to leave, but if I had told you what I wanted to do you would have either stopped me or tried to come with me.  I didn't want that.  I don't want to put you guys in danger, and I know you will protect this village while I'm gone."

"Stop being selfish!"  he half-shouted.

"I'm not being selfish.  If I was then I would have left without thinking of everyone first.  There's just something I need to confirm for myself.  I shouldn't be gone for longer than a couple weeks.  Now please let me leave without a fight, Lukas."  You began to back away, but you could tell Lukas wasn't going to have any of that.

Could he not see the fear and sorrow in your eyes?  

He sprinted towards you right as you shifted in a dragon.  You quickly beat your wings and took off from the ground just before Lukas could grab your tail.  You glanced behind you at Lukas' shrinking figure and your heart fully broke apart.  You could faintly see a thin trail of a tear escape his right eye, and his teeth were clenched in a scowl.  

'I'm so sorry, Lukas, but this is the way things must be,' your mind cried out, hoping that they would somehow reach the disappearing man.  

Turning you head back to face forward, you pushed yourself harder to fly as fast as you could.  Your trip would be long, but it would decide the future you would choose upon your return.  You had to know.  You just had to.

You had to know if you were truly the last dragon alive.







To be continued~