Chapter 8
It was on to a new section of this gigantic formation of nests. The Night Fury could not believe how massive this formation was. Some of the structures were made more of stone than wood, like that round pit-looking one in the heart of the area. It was a very unusual structure, with steel bars and chains completing the dome shape of the construction; it looked like a nest made from rocks and stones. There was something about this structure that sparked his curiosity and desire to see what was inside. The pit had to be big enough to hold at least a dozen large dragons.
A commotion inside of the dome-shaped, further stressed his desire to see what was inside. He cautiously pranced toward a long wooden walkway made of tree logs. There was a definite chance of being seen now that he was out in the open, but fortunately, there were no Vikings walking around at that moment. Most of them were the main concentration of nests. Taking advantage of this, he ran down the wooden walkway and turned right to the side. He didn't dare look down the main corridor into the structure; someone was inside, and the last thing he wanted was to be seen.
He was barely tall enough to look over the stone section of the wall, so he stepped up to the top with his front two feet and looked through the steel and chain barricade. Inside, there were three full sized, husky Vikings and the young chubby and small Viking. The young Viking was the same one he saw when he first arrived to this strange land mass. He stood by a very hairy Viking. Most of his pale, white face was covered in red hair. He also wore a strange looking helmet with horns on top of his head. The youngling seemed to be submissive to this full grown Viking. The other two Vikings also were taking orders from him, which would make the red-haired one the alpha of these creatures.
The dragon then noticed that the two Vikings had a young Deadly Nadder trapped in some kind of trap. The young dragon was freaking out underneath this strange looking thing that blanketed over him. The Night Fury looked up in the sky to see a mother Deadly Nadder with two other young dragons following her. It suddenly dawned on him that the mother dragon was the same dragon that had helped him survive on the other land mass. The young dragon in the trap was her other child.
Stoick watched by his father's side as the two Vikings made sure that young Deadly Nadder could not escape from the net. He managed to talk his way out of punishment for his little adventure earlier on, but he and his father were not much on speaking terms at the moment. He heard that a young Deadly Nadder had been captured and was being dragged into the arena. The moment the news hit his ears, he grabbed his ax and ran there in hopes that he could convince his father to allow him to be the one to kill it.
As soon as the two Vikings confirmed that the dragon was secure, Stoick raised his ax in front of his chest. Without asking, he slowly approached the dragon to get the kill he'd been itching for all day. "Stay your Ax! I was this dragon locked up; we'll use her to train new recruits."
"What?" Stoick dropped his ax on the ground in frustration. "Let me kill the beast! You never let me kill a dragon!"
The frown on his father's face was blaring. "And that will continue to be so until you've learned the meaning of the word: obedience."
Stoick grunted angrily. He seriously contemplated defying his father and killing the dragon in spite. Everything in his being wanted him to do so. He was a Viking; killing dragons was in his nature. His father had no right to deny him like this. He was about to tell him as such when a shadow caught the corner of his eye. He looked up towards the steel barricade where he thought he saw movement, but there was no one there. There was no one anywhere around the outside of the arena.
The Night Fury didn't dare stay any longer, for fear of being seen. He still wasn't happy that the Vikings took the young dragon away from her mother. For now, she seemed safe, but who knows what was to become of her if she was not reunited with her mother. Perhaps tonight, when all the Vikings were asleep, he could come back a free her. For now, though, he had to stay unseen. There was still time before sunset, so he was going to continue feeding his curiosity.
One of the things he was extremely inquisitive about was to know what was in one of these nests. He hadn't had the nerve to look into one before, but his interest had grown too much not to try. He would just have to be extra sure that no one was inside. He would also have to choose a nest in an area that had the least number of Vikings walking around.
He spent time looking in each area that he could from the safe distance of the forest. He carefully watched the traffic in and out of each area to see where most of the Vikings liked to hang out. After an intense study, he found the perfect nest. From what he could tell, there had been two Vikings in the nest at one time for a great deal of time. He waited until those two finally left. As he watched them walk away, he determined that they were heading for the opposite side of the mountain. That would give him more than enough time to just take a peek at what their nests were like.
He slowly made his way towards the wooden structure. There were only a few Vikings in the area, but none of them were looking in that direction and they were all heading in the opposite direction. He ventured to take his first step into the open and when nothing happened, he continued. He made it to the door without being caught, so he decided to see this through.
At first, he had no idea how to open this obstacle in his way. He used his snout to try to push his way in, but it would not budge like it did for the Vikings. There had to be a knack to it that he was unaware off. He looked to the right and saw a square opening in the wall. It wasn't big enough for him to climb through completely, but it was enough for him to look inside and see what was on the inside.
He climbed to the hole, and used his front two legs to hold him up so he could arch his neck through the square hole. What he saw alarmed him to no end. It was an entire room for of weapons of all different shapes and sizes, but that wasn't the distressing part. There were several dragon heads mounted up on the wall, along with dragon horns and a pair of dragon feet decorating the nest.
It quickly dawned on the Night Fury that these two legged creature, though small as they were, were a very dangerous lot. They killed dragons and used them for trophies. Only now did he understand just how much he was putting his life in danger by hanging around. He also realized that the young Viking that he had encountered early was most likely only coming to his rescue because he wanted his head mounted with these others.
He knew he couldn't stay on the island, but he also knew that he couldn't leave the Deadly Nadder in the hands of these cruel beasts. That youngling needed to be rescued, and he was going to be the dragon to do it. He was going to wait until nightfall, when all the Vikings were sleeping and none would be walking around. It would be much easier to sneak in and free the dragon then.
