You've been waiting for it, now here it is, my long awaited sequel to Trainer of dragons.
This is Dragon's edge. It is located about fifty miles South of the Troll tree, and it's been our home for the past three years.
Branch held on to the rocky edge of a snowy drop for dear life, holding onto a rock with one hand and a ice pick with the other. Up above him was a evil blue troll with a long red beard and a matching red bandana shooting arrows at Branch hoping to get him to fall to his death.
We discovered Dragon's edge when out searching for new dragons and decided to use it for our base of operations. During that time we discovered several new species of dragons, made new friends and alleys and as you can probably discovered ran into plenty of danger along the way.
Branch had to jump to another rock to avoid getting stuck by the arrow, leaping to the left Branch jabbed the ice pick into a rock and held on to dear life as he struggled to find his footing among the icy surface.
"Give it up Branch, there is no way out!" The evil troll laughed as he loaded his crossbow with another arrow. "Your trapped like a rat, and soon you'll be dead like one two. And all your precious dragons will be mine!"
No we didn't go out looking for trouble when we discovered dragon's edge but somehow as is the life of a dragon rider the trouble found us.
See after six months on the edge we ran into a army of dragon hunters. They had stumbled upon our home hunting and caging every dragon they found, even some of our own dragons, and we have been at war with them ever since. After freeing our dragons from their leader we dedicated the next two and a half years of our life to fighting these dragon hunters and shutting down their whole operation.
That leads us to our current predicament, before sacrificing himself to save me and Melody former leader turned fragile alley Viggo gave me a tip that the hunters was going after a ice giant, the king of all dragons, with it they could control all the dragons to do their bidding. We followed up on the lead and while it was indeed true it now has all of us in the biggest battle of our lives, and me, literally living on a prayer as I try to avoid falling to my icy doom.
Outside the cave Poppy was flying across the sky on Starfire along with two new dragon riders, a silver female troll with dark blue hair riding a green Widowmaker, and a red male troll with a scar across his face that resembled a burn, he rode a recently discovered scorpion like dragon that Biggie called a Scorpio.
You see those two trolls riding alongside Poppy, those two are Heather and Dagger, two trolls we met alongside our journey. Heather stumbled upon us when her parents was in danger and later joined our crew after we rescued them. Dagger is her brother and kind of a odd story,he started off a enemy of ours, taking over a rival tribe and even working with the dragon hunters. Later though after the hunters targeted his sister he abandoned the hunters and switched sides. It took a lot of convincing for him to earn our trust and prove he changed but he eventually won us over and has even become one of our most powerful alleys
"Heather, take out those two ships!" Poppy replied
"Let's do this Windstorm!" Heather replied to her dragon. Heather dived toward the ship, Windstorm tossed spikes out of her tail, impaling to of the hunters before both Heather and Dagger landed on the ships with their dragons. Heather taking out her double bladed ax, and Dagger his daggers (hence the name) they showed no fear as the hunters surrounded them.
"Your out numbered." one of the hunters laughed as he took out a mace.
"I wouldn't be so sure." Heather smirked.
Before any of them knew it a arrow came shooting down from the sky and stabbed a hunter in the back. The hunters looked up and noticed the arrow came from the sky, but due to the dark storm clouds coming in they had no idea where the arrows came from.
Up in the sky Reby smirked as she rode Arrow and loaded another arrow in her new crossbow. Over the past three years Reby had improved her arrow skills to the point were she was basically the teams sniper. No matter how high in the sky she was in, no matter how dark the clouds were, she always found her mark. Now, since she upgraded to a crossbow no target could escape her sight, all she had to do was look through the scope of the crossbow, zoom it in as far as she needed then fire.
"You can't escape me boys," Reby laughed as she loaded another bow and looked through the scope. "No one can hide from my sights." Zooming in on her next target, Reby fired another arrow that hit a hunter in the chest, knocking him overboard.
Reby smirked, "One shot, one kill."
Due to Reby distracting the hunters on the ship, Heather and Dagger was able to attack first, their dragons firing blast at the hunters knocking most of them off the ships before the siblings even had to use their weapons.
As the team battled the large number of hunters, Poppy tried her best to find where Branch was. She remembered him telling her that he was going after the newest leader of the hunters Johan but during the battle she had know idea exactly where on the island he was at.
"Where's Branch?" Poppy asked Suki, who was on the ground clashing swords one of the many dragon hunters.
"I saw him chasing after Johan in the cave about a hour ago!"
Poppy stared toward the cave, it was about a couple hundred yards away, but due to the amount of hunting ships in their way their was no getting past them without being spotted.
"If there was away to distract the hunters on those ships I could go after him!"
"Did someone order a distraction?" Biggie replied flying up to where Poppy was.
"Where have you been?"
"Oh just getting some backup," Biggie looked up to the clouds. "Okay everyone attack!"
To Poppy's astonishment every single dragon that they had discovered on the island flew out of the clouds and charged after the hunters. It was not just them it was also every dragon riding troll back on the troll tree, including Rosiepuff and Peppy. Everybody came to finish the dragon hunters once and for all.
"Biggie how did you...?"
"We've been fighting these hunters for the past three years short handed and despite our victories have barely made a dent in their operations. I figured it was time to even the odds in our favor a bit."
"But how did you...?"
"Get the dragons to help us? Picked up some new ways to communicate with these beast. Branch isn't the only one allowed to learn new tricks."
Poppy turned her head towards the ships and noticed the dragons were tearing up all the ships, causing many hunters to jump overboard for safety.
"I think the hunters will be too distracted to spot you, now go, go help Branch."
Poppy smiled and flew off towards the cave, she figured Branch needed her backup, she just hoped she wasn't to late.
Branch was slowly crawling his way up the wall, just as he reached the top Johan kicked him off, causing him to fall. He quickly used his ice pick to cling onto the wall to avoid falling to his death.
"Give it up Branch!" Johan laughed "You can't win. I have the high ground." Johan pulled out his crossbow and aimed it at Branch's head. Branch just froze in place as he stared right at the arrow pointed at him. There was no way out, this was it for him.
Suddenly he heard a scream and someone tackling Johan to the ground.
"Get away from him you lousy son of a...!"
"Poppy?" Branch gasped.
"I've got him, you get out of there!"
A new wave of motivation overcoming him Branch slowly and carefully started climbing his way up the wall, they could still win.
Johan kicked Poppy off of him and fired his crossbow at Poppy, Poppy quickly deflected it, slicing the arrow in two with her ax. Johan quickly reloaded and fired again, only for Poppy to once again deflect his arrow.
Poppy let out a cry and charged Johan, Johan rolled to right narrowly missing Poppy's blade, Johan quickly reloaded but before he could fire Poppy swung her ax and knocked the crossbow out of Johan's hands. Poppy swung her ax again and Johan quickly rolled out of the way, causing the ax to get stuck in the icy ground. As Poppy worked to get her ax unstuck, Johan ran for his crossbow. Grabbing it he quickly fired, right as Poppy got her ax unstuck allowing her two slice another arrow in two.
Both of them started pacing each other, trying to say who made the next move. The next move turned out to be by Poppy, who let out another cry as she charged. But Johan was ready this time, he waited until Poppy was close enough to where she wouldn't have time to counter his attack then fired, knocking Poppy's ax out of her hands.
Poppy froze in shock as she saw her ax go flying, fear starting to settle in Poppy ran towards her ax, but not before Johan loaded another arrow. He fired a shot and hit Poppy right in the back. Poppy screamed in pain and fell to her knees. Johan laughed as he paced around the wounded Poppy.
"You always was a worthy opponent, you have given me hell a lot during our battles. But all games must come to a end."
Poppy seethed her teeth and glared at Johan with fire in her eyes. She refused to go down like this. Her eyes fell upon some explosives that Johan had brought in to use against the dragon. She knew what must be done. It would be suicide but she refused to let Johan win.
Grabbing her ax she turned to face the evil troll one last time.
"If I'm going down, I'm dragging you with me!"
Poppy threw her ax at the explosives, much to the horror of the evil dragon hunter.
"What are you...?" The ax struck the explosives and they erupted, sending both Poppy and Johan flying off the cliff.
Branch had no idea what was going on above him all he knew was he saw Johan screaming as he fell off the cliff into the deep dark abyss below. His eyes widened in horror as he saw Poppy also falling. Jumping towards her location he grabbed Poppy with his one free hand, holding onto the spike with his prosthetic hand.
Poppy was covered with burns and ash marks, and the arrow was still sticking out of her back, she was to weak to climb back up there on her own and she knew it. She also knew there was no way Branch could get them both up that cliff. There was only one option. Looking up at Branch she gave him a encouraging yet tearful smile.
"You have to let go of me."
"What? No I'm going to get you out of here Poppy, we're both going to get out of here."
"Branch listen to me, I just set off a huge pile of explosives this cave is about to crumble on top of us, you got to let go, save yourself."
"I'm not leaving you!"
"Branch, please!" Poppy encouraged, "The dragon riders need their leader."
"And I need you!"
"Branch," Poppy stared at Branch with pleading yet comforting eyes, encouraging him to trust her. "Everything will be all right." Branch looked up at his prosthetic hand, it was starting to loosen with all the weight it was being forced to support, much longer and it would fully loosen and send them both falling.
"It will be all right, let go."
Closing his eyes as tears fell from his face he then made the hardest choice he ever made in his life, he let go of Poppy's hand.
"I love you," Poppy cried as she fell. Branch screamed as he watched Poppy fall, sacrificing herself to save him.
"I love you too." Branch cried.
The cave started shaking violently, it was crumbling around him, he had to get out of there now. With Johan gone Branch worked viciously to climb his way up. Despite the place falling apart around him he was able to reach the top within a couple minutes. He then ran for his life, dodging falling rocks as the place fell apart around him.
"Melody!" Branch cried out, hoping his companion could here him "Melody where are you?"
A huge hole suddenly appeared right in front of him, blocking the cave's exit. It was to big for him to jump but with the cave tearing apart behind him he had no choice. He jumped, and right before he fell to his doom he noticed he was floating in the air. He looked above him and saw Melody carrying him in her claws.
"Perfect timing girl." Branch sighed, perfect timing.
Once they reached outside the battle was over, the hunters had either fled or surrendered themselves to Rosiepuff and was being taken into custody.
The rest of the riders breathed a sigh of relief as they saw there leader make it outside.
"Oh thank the gods your alright." Reby cried running up and hugging Branch. "When we saw the cave collapsing we were scared to death you got buried with it."
It was right then they all noticed someone missing.
"Where's Poppy?"
Branch fell to his knees and buried his head in his palms. "She's gone."
"What?" Everyone gasped.
"She's gone!" Branch sobbed, everyone gathered around Branch for support, hugging their leader as he mourned the loss of his love. "She's gone."
Oh no, I ain't playing no games with this sequel, I'm throwing everything plus the kitchen sink at it in order to make it the best bloody sequel I've ever wrote.
For anybody who watched the series yes I did just pay homage to "Race to the edge" by bringing in Dragons edge, the dragon hunters and even Troll versions of Heather and Dagur. Those two were always my favorite of the original characters to the series to the point I had to bring them into the story.
Oh and as for Poppy's fate, just keep reading before you track me down and murder me okay?