Chapter 4

Over time, the mother Deadly Nadder had continued to provide the baby Night Fury with enough food to sustain his needs. She was compassionate enough to make sure that infant dragon had enough to survive on, but she remained leery on being seen with the dragon for long periods of time. The Night Fury never understood why, but it was becoming clear that there was something out there that she was afraid of. Could it have something to do with what happened to his parents?

The events of those days have become nothing more than a blur. He had no idea what happened or how his parents died, but the one image that did stick to him was that of a giant shadow. The shadow had a frighteningly loud roar, and boar dozens of large, jagged teeth. Having never seen this shadowy beast again, he was beginning to chalk the memory up to merely a bad dream. Perhaps it was a bad meal he had some time ago.

Another morning had arrived, and it was time to begin another day's worth of routines. As the weeks gone by, things had changed and surviving had started to get easier and more natural. Having grown a little, he was no longer the scared and confused infant that he once was. The only thing he still could not grasp was fishing. Somehow, he was never able to master that technique. As he made his way to the river front, he found the family of Terrible Terrors already at work for their breakfast.

As he crouched behind a shrub, a grin developed on his face. Those were the same dragons that had bullied him as an infant. Perhaps he could have some fun and have and not have to wait for the mother Deadly Nadder to come and help him acquire his meal. He had been hoping for such an opportunity to arise where he could pay those tiny dragons back for everything they had put him through.

Without hesitation, he leaped out of the shrub, flapping his wings and hovering slightly above the ground to appear more intimidating. Roaring like an angry predator, he charged towards the family of Terrible Terrors. The tiny dragons were startled into a frenzy. The entire family of dragons frantically scattered in all directions, eventually coming to their senses enough to retreat back into the forest. All of them retreated except for one. That one tiny dragon was not willing to be bullied away from his meal.

The two dragons stood before each other, as the Night Fury was now the bigger of the two of them. The same tricks that the Terrible Terror used on him, while he was a smaller dragon, would no longer work. Of course, Terrible Terrors were not known for their intelligence. The smaller dragon bobbed up and down in an attempt to intimidate him, anyway.

The Night Fury stiffened his back, lowering his chin nearly to the ground, and growled in response to the threat. There was no more taking advantage of this young dragon. He would not be bullied any longer. Seeing that this was the case, the Terrible Terror took it to the next level. The tiny dragon took a deep breath and released a puff of flames. Easily dodging the fire, the Night Fury tried to retaliate in kind, but only succeeding in letting out some smoke. He had yet to master the technique of fire breathing.

Taking advantage of his inexperience, the Terrible Terror further provoked him by firing a puff flames directly into his face. The suddenness of the attack took the young dragon by surprise and the flames splashed across his face. As with most breeds of dragons, their skins and scales made him impervious to the burning sting of flames, but the brief remnants of gas, which was responsible for a dragon's ability to breathe fire, ended up being breathed in. The awkwardness of the sensation caused the dragon to shake his head. It tickled his nose until he could hold it no longer. He let out a violent sneeze and with it... a powerful blue puff of flames came slamming into the Terrible Terror, sending him running for his life. He didn't just dodge the flames; he decided that the fish was no longer worth the fuss, and he retreated back into the forest.

Feeling the rush of triumph, the Night Fury chuckled at the turn of events. Now, it was his turn to steal breakfast. Not taking the chance that the Terrors might decide to come back, he went to work on his hard-fought meal. It turned out, he had nothing to fear; the family of dragons did not return, giving him plenty of time to finish it.

The single fish proved to be satisfying... not filling. As a growing dragon, a single fish was starting to not be as filling as it once was. One more fish would do the trick; all he had to do was wait for the mother Deadly Nadder to come with her three children. She would help him get another fish to fill his stomach.

The Night Fury waited patiently by the bank of the river. When the leaves started bustling, the dragon quickly became tensed. At first, he thought that the family of Terrible Terrors was coming back for another round, but then he realized that they were too small to cause this much disturbance. Movement in the sky stole his attention and when he looked up, he saw the mother Deadly Nadder and her three children fleeing the area.

Moaning, the young dragon found himself confused and bewildered. He could not comprehend why they were leaving without him. As he watched them fly off into the distance, the rustling of the trees and became more violent. Everything inside of him started to warn him to run.

Before those warnings could be registered by his brain, a large red Monstrous Nightmare plowed through the brushes with an angry roar. A whole group of various types of dragons were behind him, and all of them had their sights geared toward the Night Fury. The young dragon could feel their ill intentions radiating from the group; the one dragon, which he knew he needed to worry most about, was the Monstrous Nightmare. The other dragons seemed more than content to follow the terrifying red dragon.

With every pair of eyes upon him, the Night Fury's instincts took over and he ran for his life. The Monstrous Nightmare and the other dragons pursued with alacrity and intent. The Night Fury followed alongside the bank of the river, unsure of what else to do. The herd of dragons were quickly gaining ground and blocking any path back into the forest. They were slowing closing in around the young dragon. Options were quickly diminishing. The dragons knew full well his inexperience in self-preservation would work against him. He was knowledgeable enough to enough to know that going into the water would only make things worse for him; he was nowhere near strong enough to out swim the larger and much stronger group of dragons. It was also becoming evident that he was not going to be able to outrun them; they were too cohesive of a group.

The only thing that the dragons assumed was not an option for him was flying... and they would be right. He had yet to master flight; he had only been able to manage to float foot or two off the ground for no more than twenty seconds. Teaching himself how to fly had not been that high of a priority for him. He never had the real motivation to learn how to fly until this very moment.

With all the motivation he could possibly handle, the Night Fury had no choice but to learn to fly... and quick. He leaped up and flapped his wings frantically. He managed to hover for a second or two until his body weight pulled him back to the ground. He tried a second time, only achieving the same results. With the herd of dragons closing in, desperation amalgamated with his motivation. He tried again, flapping his wings with every ounce of effort he could muster. He bobbled up and down, fighting against the laws of nature and the weight of his body.

Yet, this time, something was keeping him in the air. Slowly and awkwardly, he bobbed upward until he was out of the pursuing dragon's reach. From there, his flight began to smooth out as he glided towards the tree tops of the forest. The dragons were surprised to see the little Night Fury flying, but the shock quickly wore off and commenced the chase off the ground.

The Night Fury had just figured out flying, but steering was now going to be an issue. He was heading straight for a tree. He swung his head to the right, in anticipation of a collision and in an attempt to preserve his skull from crashing into the tree. He was surprised to find that he was able to affect his direction in the direction he pulled his neck; but he avoided the tree only to be confronted with another. He swung his slightly elongated neck to the left, causing him to swerve left around the tree.

He quickly got that hang of swerving around the trees, and it did not take him long to do it at a faster speed. He was enjoying the sensation of the thrill of narrowly escaping collision, and at the same time, the other dragons were struggling to keep up. There were so many trees in the forest, the herd dragons were forced to fly in a near straight line. The Monstrous Nightmare, being the leader of the group, forced himself to lead the pack, and his length forced him to slow down the chase; he was too large of a dragon to fly at full speed in area plagued with trees. It was his pride in being the alpha dragon that was slowing the heard down.

The longer the Night Fury weaved through the forest, the more confident he became in flying, and the better he was getting. Having successfully put some distance between him and the other dragons, he raised his neck and pulled himself upward towards the tree tops. He pierced through the leaves and branches only to be greeted by the vastness and emptiness of the blue sky. There was an instantaneous feeling of freedom that hit him; more so than there was being on the ground. It felt like a long missing piece of his life had been put into its rightful place.

Looking behind him, he saw the swaying of the tree tops and the grunting and growling of the other dragons, but it was obvious that they did not see him, nor expected him to be able to, escape the island. They kept to their chase in the forest, but they would not be fooled for long. The Night Fury knew enough that he had to get as far away from there as possible. There was no telling how far he could go, or how massive this land was; all he could do was try.

The young dragon was surprised when the land mass came to an end. It gave way to a massive expanse of water that went as far as the eye could see. There was nothing solid anywhere to be seen. It was as if he had reached the end of the world, and there was nothing left but the wild and untamable ocean. The was something so exhilarating about it all.

The Night Fury allowed the thrill of exploration and his new found freedom to overtake him. He put his new capability to the test and swooped downward until his belly nearly scratched the surface of the water. The cold, crisp of the mist sprayed gently across his face and he found himself closing his eyes and opening his mouth to allow the moister to enter his mouth. Hit tongue, relaxed, flapped in the wind.

When the sting of the water's coolnes started to become more of an annoyance, he flapped his wings a few times and positioned his tail fins in order for him to rise back up into the air. He flew amongst the clouds which was another thrilling discovery he made. The mist in the clouds tickled his nose each time he swooped through a billowy cloud.

The young dragon was enjoying life, but it quickly ended when a puff of flames shot past him, nearly burning his right wing. Looking behind him, the herd of dragons and the Monstrous Nightmare were quickly gaining on him. It hadn't taken them long to figure out what had happen to him and to catch up. Unfortunately, they had more flying experience; therefore they were much faster than he was. There was no way he could out fly them.

Moaning in desperation, the little Night Fury pushed himself as hard as he could to go faster. Up ahead, the ever massive body of water was finally coming to an end. A small piece of land with lots of trees and a giant narrow mountain was quickly approaching. Just maybe he could lose them again in this forest.

The Night Fury fervently raced towards the mountain island, focusing solely on his destination and not on those that pursued him. Another puff of flames breezed by him, again stressing the urgency of the situation he was in. All his hope was on that island. With his wings getting tired, he could only hope that he could find a way to lose them there.

He was so close to the island, hope had begun to take hold. As the island came closer, the mass of the land proved to be bigger than it first appeared. There could easily be places where he could hide; but then the question would be: how determined were the dragons? Would they give up after a certain amount of time, or would they tear the island apart until they found him? He couldn't even figure out why they wanted to harm him in the first place.

Another puff of flame was not far off the mark as it grazed the top his right wing. The young dragon howled and began to spiral out of control. It wasn't from any pain that had cost him his control; the close call had distracted him and caused him to lose too much focus on flying, which he needed to be focusing more on. Unable to correct himself, he continued to howl as he spiraled towards the island.