Son of the Sea: Characters
Son of the Sea
Years ago, a baby's basket floated up beside the boat of Bo Fisker, a fisherman from Berk. The baby, who had a strange pendant around his neck, was very small and sickly, but Bo brought him back to Berk, and Gothi was able to save the child, who they called Dylan. The Fisker couple offered the baby a home, and all of Berk aided in raising him. He spent time with different families and never really felt rooted in any of them. Dylan kept the pendant his whole life, his only clue of where he came from.
Dylan loved to swim in the sea, but when he was 7 years old, he noticed a dragon watching him. This scared him. He told the grown-ups about it, and they searched for the dragon to kill it but never found it. Dylan continued to feel like he was being watched whenever he went down to the water.
Two years later, Hiccup befriended Toothless and defeated the Red Death. Knowing now that humans and dragons could be friends, Dylan finally decided to let the dragon that had been watching him approach him. She was a friendly Sliquifier, and Dylan named her Splashwing. Bo claims he remembers seeing Splashwing the day he found Dylan’s basket; it’s theorized that she may have pushed his basket to the boat and had been watching over him for some time.
The two grew closer over the years and began flying out to sea to explore, coming back only at the end of the day. When Dylan was 12 or 13 (his birthday being unknown), Trader Johann claimed he saw the symbol on Dylan's pendant on one of his trade goods and told him where he got it. Inspired by Hiccup and the other dragon riders searching for new lands with the Dragon Eye at the time, Dylan wanted to follow his own wanderlust for good as well and find out where he came from. With Bo’s seafaring sailing boat, a falchion and shield from Gobber, a copy of The Book of Dragons from Fishlegs, supplies from the Fisker family, and Stoick’s blessing, Dylan set out to sea with his dragon swimming happily alongside his boat. Their adventures begin on the distant waves.
Dylan
Theme Song: "Used to Be" by Arrows to Athens
Instrumental Theme: "A Tale of Sea Dragons" by Marcus Warner
Species: Human
Gender: Male
Dragon: Splashwing
Weapons: Falchion sword
Dylan is pretty much short for his age, with messy black hair and sea-green eyes. His natural skin color is ivory white, but as he journeys, he develops a tan. His face is rather narrow and his form slim with a strong upper body due to frequent swimming. Though very fit, he's kind of slow and clumsy on land. Dylan is gentle, trusting, carefree, and adventurous. He will take anything and everything thrown at him and simply plow through it with a smile. However, his willingness to trust makes him extremely gullible. His positivity is strong enough that sometimes he comes off as an idealist or wayward dreamer and will not always accept the reality in front of him. And while his temper is hard to trigger, when he does get one, he practically explodes. Adventurous is an understatement; Dylan's wanderlust is neverending and keeps him on the high seas. His personal quest and curiosity are about his own origins. Dylan's greatest failing, however, is probably his reliability. He's not very good at following through with things and finishing what he started. He's too carefree to worry about things, even when he really should. Mackerel is his favorite food (although he also has a soft spot for mussels in yak butter), and when it comes to dragons, he's always most interested in the Tidal Class.
She is gentle, friendly, trustworthy, and loyal to a fault. There's not a mean bone in her body. Unfortunately, she's not always the bravest dragon in the sea and would much rather flee than fight. She's also not the thinking type and will jump into a situation before she's thought it through or considered all her options. Nuturing and motherly, she's really only fierce and brave when a young one she's chosen to protect is in danger (like Dylan). She's (understandably) absolutely terrified of Scauldrons and can lose her wits about her if one's about.
Murphy, captain of the little vessel the Unsinkable II, was a man down on his luck, who had lost most of his crew due to his inability to pay them. With a shock of red hair; a scraggly, short beard; blazing blue eyes; and a stout build, he looks the part of a Viking. This smarmy sailor rescued Dylan when the boy nearly drowned in the sea after Riptide's first attack. Though a bit of a grumpy lout and an alcoholic with a penchant for profanity, Dylan finds Murphy does have a good heart when he decides to help the boy out. He starts to actually enjoy the boy's cooking and eventually even his company (despite Dylan's quip about asking, "What happened to Unsinkable I?") After a few misadventures, they decide to stay together, and the Unsinkable II becomes their home base. Although not an ideal role model, Murphy nevertheless becomes a father figure to young Dylan.
Seacry
Species: Thunderdrum
Gender: Female
Human: Murphy Storstrand
Saddle: A large sealskin saddle that is not unlike Thornado's but more seat-like and made to accommodate multiple people
Murphy eventually gets his own dragon, a grumpy female Thunderdrum named Seacry. She quickly becomes a main member of their group. She's a boisterous protector and often the muscle of the group. She's got quite a bit of spunk and generally gets things her way. When challenged, she has a fighting spirit. In terms of associating with people, including Murphy, she's not very cuddly; she can be kind of standoffish and strong-willed. But don't be fooled; she is faithful and protective. Her love is stern, but it is true. Seacry is a headstrong natural leader who quickly asserts herself over the dragons that come to sail with the Unsinkable II, including Splashwing. Due to her large size, she can't really ride in the ship but is almost always swimming near or under it.
Sharkfist
Theme Song: "Black Water" by Of Monsters and Men
Species: Human
Gender: Female
Dragon: Fjord
Weapons: Knife, Axe
Sharkfist is Murphy's first mate and navigator. She's got curly black hair, brown eyes, high cheekbones, a tall frame, and the darkest skin ever seen in the Archipelago. Sharkfist was enslaved in her native land when she was only a child and was sold north among the Viking people. In Norway, she eventually fought for her freedom and stowed away on a trading ship, soon applying what her father had taught her in the Mediterrean to sailing the Norwegian Sea. She is now a sailor, fisherman, and viking raider in Murphy's crew and, though she constantly bad-mouthes him (especially when she's been drinking), she's surprisingly loyal to her captain. The tough life? She knows it well, and she's never relinquishing her freedom again. She hates having her dark complexion or the fact that she's a woman pointed out to her. As for her real name...no one knows it, and she's keeping it that way.
This old man is the shipwright and cook on the Unsinkable II. He's a bit past his prime. As a young man, he ran from commitment to a young woman and still ponders the "what if" of it all. For most of his life, he's been at sea, avoiding settling down. He now has trouble finding work because of his age and so agrees to work for the down-on-his luck Murphy. He likes to talk about the old days, particularly how pirating used to be bloody business back in his day. Despite this talk, he's generally a genial man who likes to play lively tunes on his rebec (a Norse violin-like instrument) when he's feeling good and thinks the mood needs lifting. However, he does get cranky when his joints are acting up. (Don't joke with him when it's about to rain.) He's also the most knowledgeable out of the group, being the oldest, and knows things such as where to find scurvy grass (a medicinal plant that Icelandic sailors have used for hundreds of years to prevent scurvy). He can be a bit hard to live with sometimes, though; just ask his three ex-wives.
Sparky
Murphy met this troublesome Shockjaw and found himself being zapped. This fun-loving guy decided to follow Murphy home after he basically got stuck in an underground cavern. Once back at the ship, Spitz discovered the chirpy fellow had a thorn in his flipper. He pulled it out, and the Shockjaw took a shine to him immediately.
Riptide is the name Dylan gives a mighty Scauldron. He and Splashwing meet this character not long after leaving Berk's shores. Riptide was leading a pod at the time. He first sees Splashwing as a meal, and Dylan's ship is sunk while defending her. Dylan manages to strike him across the face, leaving a nasty scar and making him lose some teeth. This causes him to lose his place in his pod. Since then, Riptide has wanted revenge on Dylan and has stalked him. While doing so, he also seeks to finally have Splashwing as a meal. Scauldrons might just be Dylan's least favorite Tidal Class dragon after some of these encounters.
Harry the Perilous
Species: Human
Gender: Male
Dragon: None
Weapons: Sword, Ax, Mace, Crossbow
Harry the Perilous is a ruthless viking raider, with curly black air, a scraggly beard, and piercing blue eyes. Raiding is his prime occupation in summer, and he's taken it to a nearly military level. Unlike Murphy's crew, he doesn't hold people at sword-point and take their loot; he prefers to slaughter everyone. He's also done a bit of gambling with Murphy...and put the man in debt to him. Harry's reputation does precede him, and it's well-earned. This is not a man to cross. Murphy has managed to cross him by not paying him, and Dylan convinced Murphy's crew to defend a village from one of Harry's bloody raids. Furthermore, Harry recognized the pendant around Dylan's neck and seemed to have decided he would be better off if Dylan were dead. Dylan doesn't yet know why. Since all of this, Harry has not been hunting them, instead caught up in his own pursuits, but any chance he can take to kill them, he'll try. And due to trying to protect people from his murderous raids, Murphy and crew often get in his way. As of now, Harry is trying to form a plan to get the crew's dragons out of the way should they meet again...
Kaylee Moar
Theme Song: "Sailing" by Celtic Woman
When Dylan is badly wounded after another run-in with Riptide, Splashwing takes him to her friend, a Tide Glider, who uses her healing saliva to save Dylan. Dylan names her Wavedancer and is in awe of the creature, quickly becoming friends with her, but the skittish dragon flees when Murphy and crew find them. Sometimes, when Splashwing wanders out to sea while Dylan stays on board, he can see her swimming with Wavedancer, and it makes him feel safe to know the Tide Glider is close. And though the rest of the crew don't know it, Wavedancer may be a big reason as to why Harry has such a hard time killing this boy...
Sneaky and predatory, these two thought they'd given Dylan and Splashwing a hard time...until Dylan decided to introduce them to Riptide.
Darkbreather is a high-strung, tempermental Submaripper. When Dylan and Splashwing find this dragon, they get the brilliant idea to lead Harry's crew into his jaws.
This Purple Death may end up being the biggest challenge yet for the little crew of the Unsinkable II...an enemy far more terrifying than any other they have faced.