A/N Wow! A review!

Mara crouched down low. She could feel the leaves against her skin, and the heavy air that hung in silence. She could see that there was many, many more dragons surrounding the nightmare, and that the nightmare was too weak to fight them back. Carefully, she walked forward, instinctively reaching for a weapon on her back that she remembered she put away.

"By Odin's eye," she grumbled. She continued forward, and saw that the dragons fighting the nightmare were small and thin, like skeletons. Skin hung about in flaps, and they were drooling uncontrollably at the food that was bestowed upon them. Immediately, Mara spotted a larger one, thicker, with more of a belly, and a tail like a whip. It was laying low, probably waiting for a chance to strike, very unlike its comrades, who were just snarling and striking. The black one had a strong aura of respect with a healthy dose of fear, and was currently in mid pounce.

"Hey!" yelled Mara, stopping every action against the nightmare, and averted all the eyes towards her. Growling came from every direction of the crowd, and she knew she was unarmed and defenceless. Well, apart from her rune dagger, which she always kept in case it came to the worst. She took out the obsidian blade, and half the attention went to that, and half were fixed on her. The black dragon strided over to her, an eye on the rune dagger, and another on her wavering stance. It sniffed, and a thin line of drool dropped down from its mouth. It looked towards its comrades, and gave an almost human-like shout of "Tonight we eat!"

Mara was stunned. She could've sworn that the dragon just spoke. But she just managed to grasp hold of her dagger, and strike at a nearby dragon, which whimpered, and headed towards the back of the crowd to recuperate. If they fought like that, she would be dead by mid-morning.

But then, she realised that her dagger was a rune dagger, sometimes used by the Celt druids, and were used to perform sacred rituals and have good fortune. Good fortune sounds good about now. She stepped back, closely avoiding the fangs of another dragon, and read her dagger, "Gods bestow the ancient virtue of swift and strong flight, the luck of a old-lived elder and the leadership and courageousness of a centaur, let me carry my allies into battle, and let them and me be blessed."

Mara sighed as she side-stepped a dragon, it was utterly gibberish, but she wanted to finish it, so finish it she did, "Hail Thor! Hail Odin! Hail Frey!"

There came a sudden rumble of thunder, and the sky turned cloudy, and immensely wet. Mara was astonished when no lightning came. This was supposedly a good omen, so she decided to give Thor an offering when she came back home. IF she came back home. The rain had stopped the dragons in their tracks, making them pause and leave, retreating from the cold. The black one was the last to leave, looking at her with spite, and a small glimmer of respect.

Mara looked at her dagger, and could imagine her father's smiling face on the obsidian. It was a gift from him after all.

Mara turned her attention to the Nightmare, who had been slowly regarding her through half closed eyelids. Mara could see that, although it had been attacked, it had not sustained much damage, and was simply tired. On closer inspection, the dragon was a he and was young, as he was still on his first row of teeth. But he was on his seventh hide and one tooth had been knocked out many times. On his back was a scar, that was so deep she could see that it was immensely painful, and that the nightmare was tired, as he needed to sleep to recover.

She looked over him again, and focused on the neck, which had a large, metal collar. It obviously hurt and he was wincing as he craned his neck around. Mara was trying to cut it, but the nightmare chuffed loudly and set himself on fire. His fire was purple, which was odd and rare.

The dragon snorted every time she approached, and she did that often. But he straight snarled when she tried to go away. So she looked after him for a few hours, giving him water and feeding him on fish. Whisper even woke up after a while, and waddled about, for the nightmare's amusement. Mara called him Terror, after a tag on his neck.

But Terror was not a tame dragon, even if he had a collar, and wanted Mara to look after him. When she sat on his back, he huffed and glared at her, when she tried to lead him away, he just wouldn't budge. Mara had tried everything, even threaten him with her dagger, but he just rubbed his cheek against it like an average house-cat. When this got overbearing, she finally spoke another verse on her dagger, "Frey, GOD OF HUNTING, let me tame this wild beast, let me sit upon him, and ride across the sky towards my home and house!"

The sky did nothing, and the world continued as normal. Mara looked at the verse again and saw that it had changed. She sighed dejectedly and sat on Terror's side, earning herself a few hisses, "I'm sure that there's a way where I can help everybody." she said. By the way things were going, she was sure she wasn't going home, probably die here of starvation or thirst. Maybe Terror would find reason and let her go...

Suddenly, the trees rustled as a strong gust of wind blew through them. A black dragon was getting closer, and for once, Mara was glad to see the night fury (still mad at its species, of course).

Hiccup slid off it, leg finding its place on the ground and hugging Toothless with one arm to prevent sliding about. When he was on the ground and in no danger of falling, he crossed his arms, looking at Mara and the nightmare she was sitting on. Mara could see that he was looking at the scars and scratches on his body, and was trying to form words that weren't too harsh or easy on her, "Mara, this is not okay."
he said crossly, eyebrows knitted so close they became a uni brow, "People had started to ask where you were, and you weren't at training either."

Mara looked back at him, not with a sombre expression or scared, but a concerned expression, "Hiccup, this nightmare is in pain, and cannot defend himself. I tried to help him, but he can't move, and doesn't want me to move either."

Hiccup looked closer at Terror, cautiously moving a step forward. Terror took this as a sign of hostility and let loose a jet of flame, which Toothless shielded him from, "Mara," said Hiccup, from within his nightfurys wing, "Can you get your dragon under control please?"

After a few hours of hoisting and flying, they got the dragon under control, managed to put a net under it, and lifted it to Berk. Terror was highly scared with the flight, and, at one point, he froze, occasionally setting himself on fire for an hour, then regained himself. Mara insisted staying with him on the net, uncomfortable with the preposition of sitting on the night fury.

Finally, they reached Berk.

Terror was asleep with Mara underneath his wings. Whisper was above them both, curled like a kitten. Townsfolk saw them, and were too busy to wake them, and besides, the dragon looked dangerous.

When Mara woke, it was because of her stomach. She was very hungry; starving even. She tried to crawl away from Terror, but he felt her and woke up, bolt upright. The nightmare stood up immediately, bristling and billowing flame from every fire sac on his skin. Soon, he realised who she was and calmed down, licking his scars. He wasn't looking at her particularly, but was in her presence. Mara could see he was hungry also. She looked around and saw that a man had mutton on for sale, and she had a few coins in her pouch.

She bought a few pounds of mutton, noticing that she had more than she would normally get. As soon as she was feeding Terror and herself, she realised that she was part of a club she had joined unknowingly: the dragon-riders club.

A/N: so that's all for now, folks! Stay tuned and comment, but remember: no swearing!