The Monstrous Nightmare kept it's eyes narrowed at you both, a growl emitting from the throat of the threatening dragon. You knew that this one wouldn't miraculously end up to be friendly, so you drew the sword on your back and stood your ground alongside Nightsong.
The two dragons before you were having a standoff, circling one another but neither one advanced any closer than eight feet from the other. While the Nightmare growled and bared its teeth, Nightsong hissed in reply and extended her wings out from her sides. You didn't know how, but you knew that she was issuing a threat to the other dragon: either attack and suffer, or flee and survive. The Nightmare probably figured this out too: after a few growls and another half circle, the wild dragon shot a blast of fire at the ground in front of it in annoyance and turned towards the village.
You followed it's path to the village with your eyes, and even though you had no connection with the village, you felt pity and surprise at what had happened. Several homes were ablaze in the night, illuminating the vikings which were running about with weapons glinting red and yellow in the light of the fires.
Amid the chaos of dragon versus viking, you noticed that same boy from earlier. He was pushing a rather heavy looking contraption. This rather intrigued you, and you followed him with your eyes as you watched him make his way through the crowd of rushing bodies and towards your location on the edge of the forest. You were so fascinated by his… difference, you almost didn't register that he was about to come running straight into you if you didn't move. Nightsong roughly nudged you with her nose, nervous about his closeness. Jumping out of your daze, you also started to panic.
He was too close for you to run away without getting his attention with your noise, so there was only one thing to do. "Nightsong, the trees!" You hissed under your breath, pointing up towards the branches. She understood, and she took your jacket in between her teeth and she frantically clawed and flapped her way into the branches. Just as you both got settled on a high branch, the boy came close, but he turned sharply away from the trees, following the treeline and down a worn path along the forest edge.
You crouched on the branch, gripping the rough bark tightly as you watched him continue along the path. You couldn't help but tilt your head in confusion of why he was running away from the battle, not fighting alongside his fellow villagers. You were also confused about what the weird contraption he had with him was. You knew that not getting involved with him would be the best course of action for both you and Nightsong's safety, but you were not the most well known for taking the best course of action. Your curiosity took you by storm, and your body started to react without your control in following the boy.
Jumping from tree to tree just inside the forest edge, you stripped your shirt off in mid leap, unwrapping your wings and pulling out your tail, taking flight. It was faster than just trying to jump from tree to tree, and you quickly caught up to the boy, but he had run into a clearing by the cliffside, and you dared not expose yourself in the open. Instead, you glided over to the roof of a nearby home, wanting to get closer, but also stay as hidden as possible.
He was turned towards the edge of the cliff, facing the ocean. The only light supplied for him was the light of the moon and it's reflection on the unsettled water. You could just barely make out his face. His face was tensed in concentration, his hands flexing on the contraption you saw with him earlier, the contraption having the resemblance of a large crossbow. From your position, you could only see one of his eyes, but that one eye shone a deep, dark green in the pale light.
He was muttering something under his breath, but you were too far to make it out. However, you did hear a faint roar in the distance. You turned towards the sound, looking over at the sky beyond the cliff. The color of both the sky and the ocean made it difficult to distinguish between two, melding water and space. It was here that you saw a darker shape against the dark blue space. A lone watchtower stood unmanned and unlit.
Another roar sounded, followed by the hissing of a buildup of energy. You knew what was going to happen. Your foresight proved you right as you saw a ball of dark fire hit the watchtower, and a dark shape followed suit, flying by in a blur of black, and the boy fired the crossbow contraption while falling to the ground in recoil.
However, what you did not foresee, was that the net that was shot from the crossbow made a direct hit on the dragon. Your jaw dropped in surprise as you heard the downed dragon make a pained roar as it sailed towards the far side of the island. Turning your eyes from the fallen dragon, you watched as the boy did a jump in the air with a double fistpump. "Yes, I hit it!" He yelled out, "Did anybody see that?" Waving his arms about, he failed to notice a clawed hand come up from the cliffside. The hand came down, smashing his contraption in the process. You crouched down in fear of being spotted again, flattening down your body and wings to the thatched roof of the home. The sound of his contraption being crushed caught his attention, and he turned around from his celebration to come face-to-face with the same Monstrous Nightmare you had previously encountered. "Except for you."
The Nightmare drew back it's massive head, eyes narrowing and teeth bared. With a roar, the boy sprinted away from the mad dragon as it snapped its jaws at the air the boy had been standing previously.
The boy's yelling faded as he ran back down a path alongside the cliff edge as he was followed closely by the Nightmare, leading it back towards the village which had mostly contained fires. Your curiosity was even more piqued. He came from a family of vikings, it should have been in his blood to face the dragon head on. Unless, he was either not taught to face them yet (which is surprising given his assumed age), or, he wasn't really a viking?
After you made sure there weren't any other vikings in the area, you lept from the roof of the current house and onto the next. You continued to jump from roof to roof, following the boy and the dragon closely.
The dragon shot fire at the boy, but he dodged it just barely. Taking refuge in the shadows on a nearby roof, you watched nervously as the boy took refuge behind a large wood pillar. The Nightmare shot a blaze of fire at said pillar, melting the iron ring around the base of the wood, and torching the wood on that side. A few moments passed, and the Nightmare had managed to sneak around to the other side of the burning wood as the boy's head poked out from around the other side.
Before you could leap out from your hiding spot to warn the boy, a rather large viking came barreling in, knocking the Nightmare away in a body slam. You stopped mid-step on the roof, looking at this viking in disbelief. After a few well aimed punches, the Nightmare fled, clearly defeated. This large viking turned to the burning pillar, arms crossed, clearly radiating anger and frustration. The pillar broke, as if by his gaze alone, and fell to the side, revealing the rather startled and nervous looking boy. He, as well as yourself, cringed as the flaming top of the pillar broke free and rolled down the hill, leaving a burning trail of disaster in it's wake.
Turning your attention away from the blazing trail of destruction, you watched closely as the bigger viking clearly started to yell at the boy. You didn't want to hear this verbal anger. You felt this was a personal matter between them, even if the village vikings were starting to circle them.
Getting up from your hiding spot, you flew off towards the forest. You doubted anyone would be paying any attention to the roofs when their attention was focused on other things. But you felt sympathy for the boy. He was getting yelled at in front of the entire village, for something that wasn't directly his fault.
Reaching the safety of the forest, you met up with Nightsong and hid in the safety of the trees, watching the dawn lay its light upon the land. Unbeknownst to you as you escaped, one viking had not been focused on the yelling, catching sight of you.