Second chapter ready! I was genuinely surprised by the good reviews and number of follows that the first chapter managed to get as this is my first fanfic. Still! Any critique is welcome, I WANT TO GET BETTER! I have a whole story planned out for this fic. It's a sort of drama/romance/comedy kind of thing and I really hope that I manage it! Anyway, enjoy this chapter and let me know what you think.
Running out into the village centre Gobber wasn't surprised to see half of the village's buildings on fire, plumes of smoke rising up and blocking out the stars. Looking upward, he saw a couple of monstrous nightmares flying overhead carrying nets filled with sheep. There goes the last of the herd, he thought as he continued down through the village.
Charging through the vikings and dragons, Gobber headed down in the direction of the docks to reach the yak fields, taking down a couple of gronkles on his way. Here, Stoick and few other men were battling several nadders in an attempt to protect what remained of the herd. With his hammer, Stoick dealt a mighty blow to one of the nadders heads causing it to shriek in pain and erect its spines. The nadder retaliated by sweeping its thick, spikey tail around causing the chief to dive to the ground to prevent himself from being impaled. The nadder shrieked as it stood over him, wings spread, threatening to deal the last blow. Running toward his friend, Gobber saw the green gas accumulating at the back of the beasts' throat and drew his axe in time to hook the dragon's mouth and change the course of its blast. He felt the heat of the fire as the dragon scorched the ground just shy of Stoick's face. He continued by drawing back his axe and striking the dragons mouth, causing its teeth to break under the force. Whimpering, the nadder retreated and took off into the night.
"Oh, so you decided to start the party without me?" Gobber jested as he held out an arm to heave his chief to his feet.
"Believe me Gobber, this is no party, I've never seen anything like this," He replied bleakly looking up the hill to the burning village.
"What do you mean?" Gobber asked looking at his friend.
"There are dragons here that we've never seen before. We don't know how to bring them down,"
Joining Stoick in looking up at the warring village, Gobber saw what his friend was talking about. Here he could see several dragons that were unlike anything he had ever encountered. Every dragon they knew of was described in the book of dragons, but these, these were creatures that resembled no diagram, no description anywhere within its pages.
"What are they?" Gobber asked, confused. Why had these dragons never shown themselves before?
"I don't know, but we need to get them away from the village,"
Gobber nodded and after Stoick had instructed some of the men to get the yak into the stables, the two began to head back up to the centre of the village.
All that Gobber could think of was the little girl waiting for him back at the forge. He could picture her now, trembling in fear, clinging to her necklace. Often, whilst she watched him working in the forge she would declare that she was going to be the best dragon killer Berk had ever seen. Gobber didn't doubt it for a second. She was brave and strong and he knew that she would give even the Hofferson's girl a run for her money when it came to ferocity. For the moment though, she was still just a child and like any other, she was scared of the turmoil and the disaster that dragon attacks bought with them.
"I'm going to head to the catapults, stay here and make sure the dragons stay away from the food stores," Stoick ordered as the two reached the edge of town. Gobber nodded and ran back into the town to find total chaos. There were dragons here that he had never seen before. A short-necked version of a zippleback with 4 heads instead of two was taking on four vikings and winning, picking them up in their mouths and throwing them several feet in the air before they slammed back into the ground. Several smaller dragons about the size of terrors were zipping about the square at speeds he didn't know dragons could reach and a long necked, long legged dragon, pinkish in colouring with a severe grey stripe down its side and piercing white eyes was being forced into a corner by a group of viking men and women. Gobber watched as these vikings began moving toward the dragon to attack but before they were close enough, the dragon suddenly erupted into flame, the same way a monstrous nightmare would. Odin almighty, not another one of these, Gobber thought. He charged toward the dragon, axe raised, to help.
The fiery dragon began to attack the surrounding vikings with incredible speed and agility for a dragon so large. Using its wings as weapons it slammed several vikings into the surround buildings. The rest of them it attacked using fire. From its mouth it produced flames that remained suspended in the air stopping any viking from getting too close. This was unlike anything Gobber had ever seen. As he reached the dragon he ducked and slid beneath the suspended fire and rose using his momentum to smash his axe into the side of the dragon shoving it to one side.
"That did it" Gobber announced, as he realised that he had sent the dragon into a rage. The flames encasing its body grew hotter as the dragon reared onto its hind legs and spread its wings. He took several steps back as the dragon came back to stand on its four legs. Several other vikings came to help but the dragon ignored them as it growled, staring Gobber straight in the eye. It then proceeded to send out a colossal blast of fire from its mouth. Gobber dove to the side to prevent being burnt alive but the fire continued and set alight one of the surrounding buildings. Gobber knew that dragons as a species were cruel but within this dragon he saw something else, it was as if it had come straight from hel.
"Alright. BITE ME!" He taunted as the dragon reared again for another attack. Once again Gobber managed to evade it by diving away from the pillar of fire coming towards him. Their battle quickly became more elaborate, ignoring any other viking in its path, this new dragon followed Gobber as he lead the beast to the centre of town. It scaled buildings and scrambled over carts and wells in its hunt for Gobber.
The sun was starting to rise as the battling pair reached the top most part of the village where his forge was. Most dragons were beginning to leave with their haul and the pinkening sky was littered with the silhouettes of dragons. Their battle however, was not over. With his axe, Gobber continued to slash the dragon whenever he got close enough. The beast retaliated with blasts of fire, all of which were dodged by the one-legged viking. Many of the buildings around him were now engulfed in flames.
Gobber was suddenly distracted by a high pitched scream coming from the entrance to the forge. It was Malie. The building behind her was ablaze and she had run out into the square to escape the fire. Gobber could see that her face and clothes were covered in soot.
"Malie, run, get awa-" Gobber began to yell however this moment of distraction was all that the dragon needed as it sent yet another blast of fire in Gobber's direction. This time, he wasn't so lucky and didn't manage to dodge it in time. Instead the force of the blast sent him barrelling to the building behind him, his large form smashing through the wooden slats of the building. As his mind came back into focus, he tried to get up, but realised that his wooden leg had been burnt away and was now non-existent. He crawled out of the gap in the building to see the dragon approaching his daughter.
"No!" He screamed as he looked from Malie to the dragon. Screeching overhead from one of the dragons leaving the island caused the beast to look up into the sky at the rest of the raiding group. Malie was frozen in fear, looking up at the dragon towering above her and Gobber could see her knuckles were white from clinging to her necklace. He got up and began to hobble towards the dragon but was too late. After giving him one last cold stare, the dragon spread its wings and began to ascend into the morning sky and as it did, grabbed the small girl in his talons and lifted her with it.