after seeing the reception chapter one recieved I couldn't keep you waiting! Here comes chapter two!
Standard disclaimers apply! R&R please!
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Chapter Two: I Find the Night Fury
And what do you think you'd ever say?
I won't listen anyway,
You don't know me,
And I'll never be what you want me to be…
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I quietly made my way through the outskirts of Berk and into the forests towards Raven's Point. Everyone else in the village would be doing repair jobs to clean up after the raid and my mess. So I was confident that nobody would take any notice of my absence.
Everyone was most likely in the meade hall right now. That was where the villagers gathered whenever Dad made his plans for finding the Dragon's Nest; though every ship that went looking for it never came back. They all got lost in the fog known as Helhiem's Gate.
I opened my notebook to the map of Berk I drew last year, despite my impulsiveness and short attention span-I just tend to pay attention to everything all at once making it hard to listen to what people tell me-I'm actually quite observant and aware of my surroundings. I always keep my notebook on hand in case I find something interesting so I can take note of it or make a sketch. It's my only keepsake of my Mom, Valhallarama. I don't have many memories of Mom, and the ones I do have are fuzzy. She passed away when I was very young. My strongest memory of her is my third birthday when she gave me my notebook saying it might come to be useful one day.
"Alright…"I muttered circling the point from where I shot down the Night Fury, "If the Night Fury fell from there…it should have landed about here?" I drew a line from the origin point to the Raven Point area. It was time to start searching.
Several hours later, my map was full of cross outs and I was starting to go to any random spot, squeeze my eyes shut and pray that I got lucky and found the Night Fury. But, I had no luck.
Typical, just typical. It looks as if the gods finally cut me a little slack by giving me a chance to prove myself, then yank it back just when I can grasp it.
Come on…Now… I thought. I opened my eyes. No Night Fury. I took several deep breaths in an attempt to calm down and crossed out another spot on my map, then my frustration getting to me, started scribbling out the whole map.
"Oh the gods hate me…" I groaned. Everyone else did, so why not them too? I shoved my pencil back into my pocket book and tucked it into my vest, "Some people lose their knife or their mug. But NOOOOOOOOOOOO! I manage to lose an entire Dragon!" I slapped a branch out of my way-which immediately snapped back to slap me right in the face.
THWAK!
"OW!" That was it. I was about the tear the branch off, when I noticed that the tree it was attached to was split lengthwise right down the middle. One half of the tree had been flattened against the hill and after, there was a huge trench as if something had plowed its way through the ground.
What came through here? I ran down the hill following the trail towards several large boulders and ducked down as fast as I could! Only a few feet away from me, was the Night Fury.
It looked nothing like I imagined. Except the color of its scales, jet black. But, I always imagined that the Night Fury would be this great beast with spikes all over its body, near impenetrable armored scales, and a wing span of over fifty feet!
In reality, the Night Fury wasn't that big. I'd put it at about fifteen feet long. It had slightly stubby legs, almost like those of a dog. The head was slightly triangular with floppy ears, two stubby horn-like projections from the back of the skull along with a net like flap from the cheeks, and the wings, when fully spread out must have had a wing span of close to twenty feet. I also noticed a second set of wings attached to its hind legs. And unlike most Dragons, the Night Fury had a short neck and no nose horn.
To sum it up, this Dragon was built for speed.
I quickly drew my dagger from my belt and taking a few deep breaths to gather up my courage, sprinted down the slope leaned back against the boulders. Then taking another breath and holding my dagger at the ready I stepped out from behind the boulder. It was rightly called "Night Fury" among other more important things; I couldn't help but wonder if the night sky itself had come to life in the shape of a Dragon. I inched closer holding my dagger up in both hands.
"I…I…I did it…" I gasped amazed at my own success, "Thi-This fixes everything! Oh YES!" If I brought home proof that I had indeed felled a Night Fury, everyone would finally stop giving me a hard time and start singing my praises of how I felled the most feared of Dragons using my ingenuity.
Hey, brains had to beat brawn someday.
"I have brought down this mighty creature!" I shouted proudly planting a triumphant foot on the Night Fury's side, then without warning it shifted under my foot causing me to lose my balance, "WHOA!" I stumbled backwards nearly falling over. I somehow managed to regain my footing and glanced back at the Dragon.
One, bright green, cat-like eye was staring right at me. I gulped, still pointing my dagger at its belly, right about where its heart should be. I took a deep breath and gathered up my courage.
"I'm going to kill you Dragon." I said in a low voice, "I'll cut out your heart and take it back to my father…" I turned back to glare back at the Dragon to show I meant it. And yet…something in the back of my head was telling me not to strike.
"I…Am…A…Viking." I said, my words shook slightly.
No… I can't back down now! Not when I'm so close! I took another deep breath, raised my dagger high above my head squeezed my eyes shut and readied myself to strike. I took another deep breath, and another, and another…I opened one eye and saw that the Dragon's eyes had gone slit in absolute terror. My arms froze in place.
No! Not now! Please Odin not now! I prayed frantically and squeezed my eyes shut again and once again readied to strike! I had to, I had to cut the Dragon's heart out and finally prove myself as a man to Berk!
This is slaughter. A voice in the back of my head said, The Night Fury can't even move while it's all tied up. Killing it while it can fight back is one thing, but while it's defenseless…
"I'm…a…Viking…" I groaned my arms going slack the dagger's flat coming to rest on the top of my head. No…This…wasn't what I was meant to do. The more I thought I found I really didn't want to kill the Night Fury. Dad was right, I was no Dragon Slayer. I was doomed to be a weakling for the rest of my life.
I lowered my arms to look at my dagger, then at the Night fury tied up with the bola I shot at it. I sighed heavily knowing what I had to do.
"I did this…" I said and got down on one knee, and started cutting at the ropes that held the Night Fury constrained.
Go ahead; call me an idiot, a fool, completely insane whatever you like! But I was not going to kill the Night Fury, I was going to let it go and hopefully, never see it again. I quickly sawed through the ropes glancing around frantically making sure no one happened to be walking by. This would take a lot of explaining…
"One more…" I gasped somehow knowing the Dragon could understand my words (and I wouldn't have been at all surprised if it had some idea of what I was thinking too), "And you're free!" With those words, I cut through the last rope. I was about to tell the Night Fury to fly away, go home, get far away and stay where ever it and the other Dragons lived, when suddenly, the Night Fury sprang up onto its feet and pounced!
"AGH!" I yelped and tried to get away, but the Night Fury was faster! It pinned me against the boulders, one powerful paw around my throat making it difficult to breathe! My dagger had been knocked out of my hand and skittered away out of my reach. I gasped and tried to pull the paw off me, only a little more pressure, and my throat would've been crushed!
I stared into the Dragons bright green eyes terrified! Either I was about to be burned to a crisp or have my head bitten off! The tables had been turned. Now I was defenseless and in the Dragon's exact position only moments earlier.
The Night Fury glared at me, then…miraculously, impossibly, it let me go! I coughed clutching at my throat trying to get some air into my lungs and felt the large bruise left behind. I looked back up. The Night Fury rose onto its hind legs roared at me showing its fangs, then turned and flew away crashing into the trees. I stood up shakily using the boulder behind me for support. I stepped forward to watch the Night Fury vanish into the forest.
After that, I couldn't tell you much of what happened next because I passed out.
I woke with a start. I was lying on the forest floor flat on my back. I sat bolt upright. How long had I been out? I glanced around a little confused. Maybe I just randomly passed out while hiking in the forest and the Night Fury encounter had just been a bad dream. I had been walking around the forest since the crack of dawn. Then I saw the cut bola ropes and knew I hadn't been dreaming.
I just encountered the most feared Dragon known to man and survived…I felt the large bruise around my throat. I had been very lucky. I fumbled around for my dagger, and realized, that it was almost night! I got down on all fours and scrabbled around for my dagger in the dim light. When my hand closed around the hilt, I stood up, jammed it into my belt and sprinted up the hill retracing my steps back to Berk. Dad was going to kill me!
I stumbled and tripped a few times in my hurry to get back to town before anyone actually started wondering where I wandered off to. Thankfully, I managed to get back within the town's borders just as night fell and the stars started coming into view. I stopped running to catch my breath and glanced around, almost nobody was outside except for the odd night owl. Everyone was most likely in their houses or in the meade hall getting drunk.
I slipped quietly through town to my house and opened the back door as quietly as I could. Dad was kneeling in front of the hearth stoking the coals. He hadn't noticed me.
Yet.
I crept past him and was halfway up the stairs when…
"Hiccup." Dad said calmly. I stopped in my tracks and stepped down a few steps.
"Ah…Dad…" I gulped, "I…I have to talk to you…" Dad stood up and walked over to the stairs to join me.
"I need to talk with ye too son." He said.
I took a deep breath and said, "I decided that I don't want to fight Dragons." But whatever he said, he said it at the exact same time I spoke and didn't understand a word of what he said.
"What?" we both said in unison looking at each other confused.
"Ye go first." Dad said patiently.
"No, no you go first." I insisted sitting down on the stairs.
"Alright, ye got yer wish: Dragon Training." Dad said, "Ye start in the mornin'."
"Oh man…" I muttered to myself trying not to panic, "I should've gone first…" then I spoke up.
"Are you sure Dad?" I asked innocently, "Don't you think we have a bit of a surplus of Dragon fighting Vikings? I mean…Do we have enough bread making Vikings? Or small home repair Vikings?" I was actually quite good at cooking and repairs. Dad never cooked because he's completely useless at that sort of thing and he likes my cooking too much. And I have fixed my fair share of leaks in the roof. I should've just kept my mouth shut for all the good it did me…
"Ye'll need this." Dad said-not even listening to me as usual…And dropped a big and really heavy axe into my arms. I grunted and fell back under its weight.
"I really don't want to kill Dragons." I said. Dad was about to say something then stopped. Maybe he was finally listening to me.
I should've known better…He burst out laughing as if I had just made a particularly good joke.
"O' course ye do!" he said still chuckling and walked back over to the hearth beginning to stoke it again.
"Dad." I said standing up somehow holding onto the axe, "Rephrase: I can't kill Dragons!" I had already found that out first hand anyway.
"But ye will kill Dragons." Dad insisted, "Ye'll learn all the basics."
"No Dad." I insisted, "I'm really, extra sure that I won't."
"It's time Hiccup." Dad said seriously completely ignoring me.
"Can you not hear me!" I bleated. Things were going exactly as I feared!
"This is serious son." Dad said turning to face me, "When ye carry this axe, ye not only carryin' yer own strength, but all of us as well. That means, ye walk like us, talk like us, and think like us." He made his point by tapping the side of his head.
"No more of this." He added gesturing to all of me.
"You just gestured to all of me…" I said feeling extremely annoyed. What was it about me that everyone hated?
"Deal?" Dad asked.
I sighed exasperated, "This conversation is feeling very one sided." I commented.
"Deal!" Dad asked a little louder this time.
"Deal…" I groaned in utter defeat.
"Good lad." Dad said he picked up a large basket and put on his long horned helmet (which had a notorious tendency to get stuck in the doorway) and headed for the front door, "Train hard. I'll be back…probably." He was off to go find the Dragon's Nest again…
"And…I'll be right here." I said, "Maybe." Dad left the house.
I stood where I was for a few minutes. I had just been enrolled into Dragon Training and in the morning, I would either get blasted to bits or eaten and I didn't know which I liked better.
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If you're wondering why i didn't add in the Berk Meade Hall scene where Stoick is making plans to find Dragon Island it;s because, this fic is in first person, Hiccup wasn't in the Meade Hall at the time and he;s not psychic.
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I' think I'm beginning to emulate Hiccup...Oh well at least this'll allow me to do his snarkniness justice.
Chocobo Scribe
