Everything was burning, the fire a red inferno that spread its hungry fingers across the houses and the plains, swallowing everything it could in its ravenous march. Vikings everywhere were yelling out their battle cries as they wielded their axes, swords, shields and their nets. Catapults were launching huge rocks left and right, sometimes hitting their target, sometimes just hitting dirt or the water.
A large man with dark brown curly locks and piercing blue eyes wielded a large axe as he yelled out orders to the other vikings of the island, a woman with long flowing wavy hair and earthly brown eyes beside him wielding a bow, firing arrow after arrow at the large winged beasts above them.
"How long can we hope to hold the dragons off, Asger?" the woman asked, looking at him worriedly as she paused, her arrow drawn all the way back as she aimed for a Deadly Nadder.
"I don't know, Diana, daybreak is our only choice," he replied, hacking and slicing at a nearby dragon with his mighty sword, "where is our daughter?"
"I last saw her heading for the cliffs, I do hope Cheryl doesn't get into trouble, I know she's an eager lass for wanting to help fight the dragons, but she nearly got her legs broken the last time the dragons raided…"Diana muttered, firing the arrow at the Nadder, hitting bullseye as she fitted another arrow.
"Have faith in our daughter, she is a stubborn one, she won't die easily, she is a Dragonheart after all!" Asger bellowed as he hacked off another dragon's head, the blood coating his silver blade as he fought alongside his wife.
"I hope you're right…"
A young viking girl ran to the cliffs, sprinting as quick as a wolf, bounding over tree trunks and rocks, panting heavily with a net-launcher in her hands. Her dark brown curly locks that fell to her waist was flown back from the wind she caused as she ran, her dark brown eyes wide with excitement and thrill. She skidded to a stop at the edge, looking down at the flaming village of SkyCrest that was no doubt the cause of the dragons.
Her eyes moved to the large beasts, hefting up her net-launcher and aimed one of them at a Gronckle, the net spiraling out and trapping the dragon before launching another at a Nadder. She grinned slightly but then saddened.
'They're only trying to survive, it's not like they have a choice...' she thought before something swooped down at her and Cheryl yelped, tumbling with whatever that was into the forests, rolling into the branches and leaves before coming into a stop in a pile of rocks that collided with her back painfully.
"OW!" she yelled, wincing as she tried to get up, opening her eyes only to see that she was face to face with a...
Night Fury.
'The unholy spawn of lightning and death itself...' the teachings of the dragon trainers from the Book of Dragons echoing in her mind as she stared into the deep emerald green of its cat-like gaze.
This one had scales the color of midnight and a small white crescent moon on its right shoulder...It growled at her and bared its teeth. Cheryl stared at it for a long moment before slowly, reaching up to pull down her sleeve, revealing her own crescent moon mark on her right shoulder.
The Night Fury paused, its irises slowly dilating and a look of wonder and curiosity came across its reptilian face, eyes locking onto the mark before looking back up at her.
The clouds shifted and the moon shined its pallid glow onto both dragon and viking, clearing their vision.
The dragon was beautiful, the scales shined softly against the moonlight, the emerald jewels seemed to glitter brightly and it softened the fierce features of it a bit.
"Magnificent..."the brunette whispered, not even daring to take a breath lest she wanted to have her head blown into pieces. The Night Fury tilted her head and made a soft almost catlike purr and nudged her shoulder.
"You bear the same mark as I do..." came the soft growls from the Night Fury, sounding feminine. The brunette blinked her dark brown eyes in surprise. She could...she could understand...her? She could understand the dragon?!
"I...I can hear you...I hear you speak..." she gasped out softly. The dragon tilted her head slightly and narrowed her eyes.
"If you truly understand, tell me your name, human."
"My name...is Cheryl Luna Dragonheart..." Cheryl replied nervously, her gaze never leaving the dragon's. The Night Fury's ears flicked over to the viking trapped underneath her in slight awe.
"You can understand Dragonese...the language of dragons...how is this so...? And how do you and I share the same mark..?" as the dragon spoke, both the crescent moon marks glowed with a soft blue light, pausing both the viking and dragon as they watched in wonder.
But it was cut short when a roar of a dragon was heard from her village and both of them looked at the village, day was breaking, the dragons were retreating and heading back to wherever they came from. The Night Fury snorted once before turning to the girl, studying her for a long moment before spreading her wings.
"You intrigue me...young human...we shall cross paths again..."dragon spread her large wings and with a mighty sweep she launched herself into the air with a resounding roar. Cheryl let out a gasp, wasn't the Night Fury supposed to be the one dragon that absolutely won't leave you alive ever? She got to her feet quickly and watched as the midnight dragon headed away from the island.
"Wait! I don't even know your name!" the daughter of the chief called out. The Night Fury looked down at her once with glowing emerald eyes and let out a roar.
"I am Artemis! Night Fury of the Moon!" she roared out before she sped off into the horizon into the rising sun with the other dragons, who let out their own cries as they flew away from SkyCrest, leaving the brunette confused to no end.
'I have survived a Night Fury encounter...' she thought before she looked at her village. In a slight daze, she grabbed her net-launcher and jogged back to her parents' sides, who she knew were no doubt worried about her well-being.
"Ah! There's the lass! Chief Asger! Your daughter is safe!" a viking closest to her as she entered the village bellowed out and her father turned to her as she approached.
"Praise Odin! You are safe! Are you hurt anywhere?" he asked worried and her mother looked over to her and gave her daughter a hug.
"Father, mother, please calm down, I am alright," Cheryl said cooly and smiled at them, giving them a 360 degree turn, to prove her point.
"You know how worried we get when you are off on your own, you're the future chieftess of the village, we couldn't bear if you died before fulfilling your destiny..." her mother said, brushing her hand through her daughter's hair gently.
"I know, I know...but I'm 14, mother, soon to be 15 on the next full moon, can't you trust me a little more?" she asked in a near exasperated tone for she had gone through this talk a lot of times.
"Just parental concern, little gem," the chief said, petting her affectionately. The young viking sighed but smiled at her parents.
"Figures."
"Now come on, we all have to get some sleep, you have Dragon Training after breakfast after all."
"Alright, papa."
The family of three headed back to their house, which was the largest in the village due to Asger being the leader of all the vikings. The brunette sighed a bit as she laid down on her bed, staring at the ceiling as the night's events played back in her mind.
'I survived a Night Fury encounter...because of my birthmark...what are the odds of a dragon and human bearing the same mark? What does it even mean? I can understand Dragonese...? The language of dragons? This all doesn't make any sense at all...'
She turned over in her bed and closed her eyes, she would deal with those questions later, right now she needed to sleep. She has a long day at dragon training tomorrow...
'Artemis huh...? That's a pretty name...' she thought before her mind went into the land of dreams in slumber.