Chapter 4
I felt a lurching motion and opened my eyes. We had reached an island bustling with Vikings, big and small, though mostly big. I snapped my head up and growled dangerously when I felt a hand on my white head, but then the small, skinny boy came into view, whispering comforting nonsense in the hope of calming me down. Well, I can tell you right now, that is not going to happen, not when I'm surrounded by 7-foot-tall Vikings. However, the black Night Fury cooed calmingly to me and I felt more relaxed. Someone placed a ramp on the side of the boat and placed the other end on the dock, so the Vikings aboard the boat could come down, I guess. The small Viking led me gently down the ramp, closely followed by the black Night Fury. He's like an overgrown puppy, the way he follows the boy around like that, I thought.
As soon as I stepped onto land, I was surrounded by Vikings, peering at me and talking excitedly. Surprisingly, I resisted the urge to blast them all with a plasma blast and simply settled for snarling threateningly at them and hoping they'd get the message to back off. I hate being crowded and looked at like I'm some rare piece of art. At my snarl and a warning from the boy, they all backed away. I heard a flapping sound in the sky and looked up. The teen Vikings I had met on Dragon Island and their dragons were arriving. The Nightmare flew down in a steep dive, effectively throwing off the screaming bulky boy on his back, much to the red dragon's delight, apparently. The Gronckle circled down slowly and when they finally landed, the big blonde boy hugged the Gronckle, who returned the hug with a huge lick. Disgusting. The Zippleback crash landed on a house and the two similar looking teens on its back bounced off and hit the ground. However, they must've been fine because they both got up and started arguing about who could fly their dragon better. When they started punching each other, I turned away. I glanced upwards again and the blue Nadder and the spiky looking blonde girl landed gracefully, the Nadder preening herself (Vain creatures, I thought) while the girl jumped off her back and rushed over to me, the skinny boy and the other Night Fury.
"Hiccup, we need to get her to the Academy," the girl told the boy breathlessly. The boy (Hiccup? I thought) nodded and tugged on my left wing to get my attention. I looked at him and he beckoned with his hand to follow him. Having no other choice, I did so. A few minutes of walking through the Viking village later, we reached a large arena with a symbol of a Night Fury with a red tail over the entrance. Odd, I thought.
We all walked in and immediately, the stench of past dead and injured dragons hit me like a hammer. Why were they taking me into such a place? I reared back and shook my head frantically. I spotted cages around the circumference of the arena and backed away more. I will not allow myself to be locked up. I've been locked up way too many times in my life for me to let it happen again. The other dragons didn't freak out about the smell, but they must be used to it, I supposed.
Hiccup saw my panic, I guess, because he immediately stopped tugging me into the arena and knelt down. He started scratching my head and under my chin (which felt so good) and whispered, "Hey. It's okay. We're not going to hurt you. We just want to help."
I took comfort in his soothing words and let myself be led into the round arena. It had chains criss-crossing overhead, forming a sort of roof through which you could still see the sky grey with clouds. I heard the other dragons and their riders arrive and walk in behind me. I sensed another presence and turned to see the short, elderly woman from before who had disinfected and wrapped my wound back on Dragon Island standing there with a staff, holding more bandages, a large blanket and a bowl of something awfully smelly. Medicine? Or some kind of sedative? I wondered.
Hiccup and the Night Fury stepped back to give the old woman room and she approached me slowly with her arms full. She bent down and placed the bowl of green liquid on the cold stone floor and when she straightened, she unfolded the big woolly blanket and tossed it over me. I lied down, enjoying the warmth of the sheep fur. I was already feeling drowsy again before the elder had even fed me the sedative. For some reason, the fact that they were forcefully putting me to sleep in a dragon killing arena didn't worry me. Maybe it was Hiccup's comforting words. Or maybe it was the sedative talking. Speaking of sedative, the last thing I saw before falling into a deep sleep was the old woman standing back and starting to scratch something in the sand she threw down from a satchel at her hip with her staff.