So...new chapter...hi

Chapter Two

The Spy and the Lightning Rider

Nate's blood laps at my paws from a long gash in his stomach. I stand over him, glaring as his eyes slowly glaze over with death. I'm on the roof of a Viking house, and most of the village is on fire.

The sound of scuffling reaches my ears and I look down to see Larksong fighting my mother, Raven.

A shriek reaches my ears and I turn to see a dragon racing out of a burning house, completely on fire. The beautiful sound of Irria's scream let's me know that it's her that the fire is eating away.

Suddenly, Nixie appears and squirts her with scalding hot water. She screams again, and then drops to the ground, her scales raw and bloody.

All around me, dragons are fighting, in the air and on the ground. Blood stains sky, land, and sea, and screeches of pain fills the air. Bone armor and metal clash constantly, ramming into each other hard.

It was beautiful.

I look back down at my apprentice and my mother. Willow has joined the brawl and is fighting alongside her sister. She grabs my mother's back in her jaws and pulls her to the ground. Larksong looms over Raven and I feel my heart thump in excitement.

"Kill her, Larksong!" I shriek, "Kill her!"

Suddenly, green fills my vision, but disappears a second later. I shake it off gaze at the battle, my eyes a fiery red.

"Kill her! KILL HER!"


Sparrow's POV

I freeze on the spot, staring up at the huge Night Fury with wide eyes. She's got deep purple eyes with a hint of pink in the center, along with purple markings. She doesn't look like she's going to attack me, and instead asks curiously, "Who are you? I haven't seen you on Berk before."

"I-uh…" I stamper, "I just got here. I've…er…heard about this place and…I would like to live here."

She purrs and nudges me with her nose, "Well, everyone's welcome here. I'm Raven. What's your name?"

I hesitate and then say, "Hawk." Frostbite told me not to tell my real name.

Raven nudges me out into the open and leads me to the group of dragons. "Hey everyone!" she calls and they all look up, "This is Hawk. He's living here now."

"Nice to meet you, Hawk." Zahra says, standing up and giving me a sniff, "I'm Zahra, and this is Griffin, Shani, and the siblings, Izzy and Egan."

They all nod in a greeting and Shani comments, "You look hungry. Here," she flicks a bit of her boar over to me. I'm not very hungry because I just ate some, but start gnawing on it anyway. I notice that she is rather heavily scarred, as if she's been in a few fights before she came to Berk.

"Thanks," I mutter through a mouthful of meat. Raven settles down next to me and asks, "Where are Nate and Irria?"

Izzy replies, "Toothless took them and a few of their friends hunting."

"May the gods help them," Shani mutters and they all laugh. Seeing my confused look, Raven explains, "Nate and Irria are my children, and my mate is Toothless, who is the to-be chief's dragon, so I guess they're kind of popular."

"Oh," I breathe, and notice that her markings look strangely familiar. Before I can say anything, though, Griffin drawls, "So, where ya from, Birdy?"

"Griffin!" Zahra scolds, "Don't be rude! His name is Hawk, not Birdy."

The Nightmare looks happy to be addressed by her and twangs, "Sorry, Zahra. I promise I won't do it again."

Zahra rolls her eyes and nods for me to speak. I wrack my brain for another lie. "I-er-come from a small island. East of here." I add, telling the opposite direction of Infernious.

"Cool," Izzy says, "Why'd you leave? Did you have any family there? They can come live here too, if you want."

"Oh, no." I reply, "No family, just me. But the island got a little too crowded with Terrible Terrors, so I came here." I inwardly smile, impressed and proud that I could come up with a convincing lie so quickly. I pretty good at this spy stuff. But I hope Frostbite won't ask for more.

"Why do you walk funny?" Griffin asks rudely.

"Birth defect."

Just then, three black dots appear over the forest along with a green dot, a large red dot, and a strange multicolored dot. I tilt my head as they come closer.

The three black dots turn out to be more Night Furies. The green dot is a young Hideous Zippleback, and the large red dot is a full-grown Monstrous Nightmare. The strange multicolored dot spreads out and before my eyes is a whole family of Terrible Terrors.

"Hi!" an adult male Night Fury with a rider on his back greets as he lands, "We got some prey."

"Cool." Raven purrs, walking up to him, "Why don't you give that boar to Shimmer and her new hatchlings? They're bound to be hungry."

He nods, nuzzles her, and lets his rider get off him before disappearing. One of the younger Night Furies suddenly gives me a sniff and I jump in surprise.

"Oh, that's Hawk," Raven says, "He's new here. Hawk, this is Nate and Irria, my children. That big male you saw earlier was my mate Toothless. The Monstrous Nightmare is Griffin's dad, Hookfang. The Zippleback is our friend Barf and Belch's son, Snip and Snap. And that family of Terrible Terrors are-"

"I'm Iris!" a young female Terror suddenly interrupts, jumping in front of me, "Nice to meet you, Hawk! Did you know my name means rainbow?"

I lift my crooked paw, staring at her with wide eyes, "Uhh…"

"Pardon my sister," another female, a bit younger than me, says, "She's a bit excitable. I'm Ambra, and welcome to Berk, Hawk." She jerks her head to three more Terrors, "The dark green and red one is our older brother, Pounce, the light green and reddish brown one is our dad, Kindle, and the light green one is our mom, Stream."

"Uh, hi." I say shyly. The parents jerk their heads in a greeting, but Pounce simply narrows his eyes.

Nate lies down and starts eating his wood duck and squirrel. His sister Irria settles next to him and eats her prey.

The Terror family lies down around me and eats as well. Ambra offers a fish to me, but I deny and tell her that I already ate. The group of dragons talk for a while, and there's something about Raven's family that seems familiar.

I can't put a paw on it, but they all look familiar, yet they don't.

It's something with their markings that…

My eyes widen in realization. They look like Frostbite's. But…no that's impossible. She wouldn't want to kill her family. And why does she look so different from them? Their markings are smooth and seem to work for their color. But Frostbite's are like a more twisted and cruel version of them.

And she's so much bigger than her siblings; she's even bigger than her father. And more muscled. And her claws are longer and more curved. And her ear wind flaps are different somehow. And her wings are torn and stuff from previous fights and scuffles. And I'm pretty sure Night Furies aren't white and red, like a bloody moon.

I could go on and on, but the main point is that she doesn't look like a Night Fury, and yet I can see the resemblance between her and her family.

I nuzzle my forehead with my paw.

What is Frostbite doing?


Frostbite's POV

A few days later…

I jerk awake from my dream. My claws have dug deep into my nest of feathers, moss, ferns, and small bones. It seems strange, but they are surprisingly confortable.

I take deep, shuttering breaths as I try to calm myself down. A long, warm body shifts next to me and a deep, gruff voice rumbles, "Good morning to you, too."

Open my eyes and see my deputy, Skurge, staring at me with a fat carp in his jaws. He drops it at my paws and I raise my head, "Thanks."

"Were you having a nightmare?" he asks, curling his long, snake-like body around me.

"No," I reply through a mouthful of fish, "I was dreaming of our revenge on Berk."

"Shouldn't it have been a good dream then?"

"Yes, it was, but I never found out what happened," I say, "Larksong was about to kill Raven." I let out a content purr, "Nate was already dead at my paws."

Skurge grins, "Good. Did I get to kill anyone?"

I cock my head, thinking, "Hmm…. I think you and I killed a male Night Fury together. Did you say that my father's name was Toothless?"

He nods and I purr, continuing to eat my fish. "So," Skurge says conversationally, "I was thinking, since the omega has been spying on Berk for a week or so now, that we need to think about how we'll make our entrance."

The plan was to, first, fight the dragons of Berk with the best Fangs and Claws that we have, showing off our skills and power, and then have them retreat while Skurge and I go down and talk to them. We'll give them a chance to leave while they can, or join us. Then, we'll come back again at full force and drive them off of the island through a series of waves (of dragons). Then, they will most likely come back, so we'll defend the island with all we've got.

"Hmm…" I say, thinking, "Maybe the Smothering Smokebreaths could make a cloud of smoke around us? Or how about we have Zylah teach us how to ride lighting bolts?"

"That would be hard," Skurge comments, "but effective. I guess we could learn."

I nod and yawn, "What time is it?"

"Dawn."

"Ugh, wake me once all the hunting patrols are out." I curl back up again, pushing the rest of the fish away, "You can give that to Nightwhisper." The great thing about being a leader is that you can wake up whenever you want.

Skurge nods and goes to put the fish carcass in front of the omega's den. With a long sigh, I relax. A few minutes pass and I'm still awake. I simply lay there, not wanting to get up.

Before I know it, I can hear dragons shuffling in the clearing. Suddenly, Skurge starts barking out orders and I groan.

"Swiftstrike, Amber, and Sawyer and Willow, patrol the northwestern side of the island. Skull, Snapper, Skyflame and Brook, check the other side. Aquamarine, Nixie- I don't care if you're not a Fang, just deal with it- Ash, you take the sea patrol."

Blinking my eyes open to the darkness of my cave, I stand up and stretch. Yawning, I walk outside onto the Leader's Ledge and overlook the camp. The hollow seems a bit stuffy now, since there are getting to be a lot of dragons. We've got to take Berk before some of the dragons start taking mates.

Looking around, I spot Zylah and call her over. She looks up and flutters over to the pool. I pause and then call out, "Whiplash! Crag! Skurge!"

The three walk over to the pool and I say, lowering my voice, "Come to my den." I turn around and wade into the darkness. The sound of footsteps and beating wings tells me that they're following.

"Whoa!" Whiplash says in awe, "It's so dark in here. How do you see?"

"I used to it." I rumble, turning around and curling my tail over my paws as I sit. They do the same, except for Skurge, who doesn't have paws, and I begin, "I hope you know that the reason I'm including you in the thing I'm about to tell you is because that you all hold high rankings in Infernious."

They all nod and Crag asks, "What about Dracen?"

"This does not concern him." I say, lifting my chin a little, "This is about our attack on Berk-"

"Ooh, am I going to lead an attack?" Whiplash interrupts, crouching down as if to pounce.

I glare at him and he sits back down. "Though some of you may be a pain in the tail sometimes," I swivel my head towards Whiplash, "You are my most trusted dragons. So, it is only the five of us that shall be doing this."

"Doing what?" Zylah asks and I explain, "I want you to teach us how to ride lightning bolts."

"What?" Crag exclaims, but I ignore him, "It occurs to me that you are able to create storms, right, Zylah?"

She shuffles her paws, "Well, usually when there's a lot of Skrills in one place, lightning clouds just seem to form around us. But I guess if I try hard enough I can create a decent sized one."

"Good." I nod my head, "Then, I want you to create one and teach us how to ride bolts."

"Why?" Whiplash asks.

I turn to him, "What would you think if you saw dragons riding down to Infernious on lightning bolts with a big storm cloud behind them?"

Whiplash looks up and a few moments later mutters, "Oh."

"Yeah."

I stand up and look at Zylah, "You ready?"

She nods and asks, "Where?"

"The cliffs."


A burning sensation fills me and I tumble down towards the ocean.

"Frostbite!" I hear Whiplash call and I regain flight. Peering through the dark clouds, I see Zylah flying around, trying to teach us how to ride lightning bolts, which is surprisingly hard.

"Come on, Skurge!" she yowls, "You can do it! You almost had it!"

Skurge grumbles but hops on as Zylah sends another lightning bolt his way. A moment later, he falls off.

"Zylah!" I call and she turns around, "Bolt me!"

She nods and with a flick of her wings, a lightning bolt shoots towards me. Determination surges through me and I catch it just in time. I almost yelp as my paws start burning again. Distracted, my paws slip and I fall back into the clouds.

"Are you sure you still want to do this?" Zylah, who is suddenly at my side, asks. I nod vigorously, "Yes! Yes! It just takes practice."

"It's not in your nature to do this." My delta shoots back, "You might not be able to."

"I can!" I snap, "Now shoot me another bolt!"

Zylah sighs, but does as I say and sends another bolt. I jump onto it, again with the burning in my paws, and start moving my paws around to balance myself. For a few moments, I actually manage to stay on all right, but in my surprise I get distracted and fall off.

"I almost had it!" I bark to Zylah. The other dragons fly over to us and I say, "You've just got to keep moving your paws so you can keep your balance as the bolt shifts."

Suddenly, Crag sneezes. I look over at him and he says, "Frostbite, I don't think it's good to stay in these clouds for so long. We're all soaked, and tired. I don't think Dracen would appreciate us getting sick."

"Just until one of us gets it right!" I say, and back up to get a good jump on my bolt, "And anyway, it would be good practice for Poppyseed."

Crag huffs and I grin. "Zylah!"

"On it!"

The bolt streaks towards me and I hop onto it. Once again, I shift my weight over and over, balancing on the bolt of electricity. The wind whips past my face as I move at the speed of lightning.

Literally.

Soon, I find myself at the ocean and jump off the bolt. Quickly, I surge back up to them, feeling excitement flowing through me like electricity.

Oh I can just imagine what dragons everywhere will be calling me. Frostbite, The Wild Queen, The Pure Fury, The Lightning Rider, The Bloody Moon…hmm, I kinda like that one.

Review please!