Elements

Previously

Their side of the island was absent of any native activity. There weren't even footprints on the ground. No signs of them even looking in that place of the island. That made Chris's worries grow even more, when he remembered that during his stay at the island, he rarely saw Wilcoxians walking at these parts, and never understood why. They stayed specially away from the Mnia od Oiabd. Chris knew that there was a potential danger in the Devil's Mine, something that made them stay away from it. But it was the only place where they could be and be safe from the ruthless natives. But he knew that there was something eerie in the bottom of the mine, that lead to heart of the mountain. But he would never dare to dwell deep into the mountain roots. Somethings were not meant for humans.

It was then that Chris heard a faint scream on the horizon. Someone was screaming for help. Oh Odin, it's the big dumb bully. He's in deep trouble. He thought.

"Are you hearing this?" Chris asked Argus.

"Hearing what?" Argus replied, confused.

"The screams!How can you not be hearing them? They are pretty clear now!" Chris replied, starting to get nervous. It was true, the screams had become louder.

"I'm not hearing anything, Chris. This is not the time for jokes!" Argus was starting to get on edge.

"It's the boy, brother! He is screaming for help! There, to that direction!" and Chris bolted off, running at a single direction at full speed.

Suddenly, the screams stopped.

"What? The screams are gone! What is going on?" Chris said, nervously.

"Calm down, brother, it's just the island playing tricks on your mind." Argus said, trying to calm his brother down.

Chris was breathing heavily. The screams sounded so real. Maybe that's what happens when you're under so much pressure. The island was getting the better of him.

"You're right, Argus. It's just that I hadn't got any rest... Let's go back now, we should sleep. Tomorrow's going to be a busy day." Chris said, calming down.

Then the brothers started to walk back to the cave again.

It was then that Chris saw something at the corner of his eye. In the darkness, he saw something watching them. But he shook it off, saying that it was just the pitch black darkness playing tricks on his tired mind.

But Chris was trained in the darkness. He knew very well that it wasn't a hallucination.

He saw something he wished he didn't.

Chapter 9: Not So Tough After All

Snotlout - The day before

Snotlout was falling.
He couldn't believe it.

He always honestly thought that he and his Monstrous Nightmare were the greatest warriors to ever touch the Earth's soil, and that he was unbeatable. That just got proved to be wrong. As they tried to resist to the ballista projectile, it proved to be useless. They were going to fall and they would have to just accept that. After an useless struggle to break free from the ropes, they hit the shallow water by the beach at high speed and Snotlout immediately passed out.

He woke up what would it seem a few minutes after, dazed. His vision was blurry and his hearing was kind of confused. He listened to people talking nearby him, but couldn't make out the words he was hearing. Then he realized that it was because they weren't speaking his language. The language was completely different from every language he had ever heard before, it was really alien in nature. They seemed to be having an argument, or so he thought. He still couldn't adjust his vision to see properly what was going on. The only thing he knew was that he was on a beach now, judging by the sound of the waves nearby.

As his vision got a little better, he began to see two tall figures, almost undressed, with the exception of a purple loincloth both had. Their skin had a light brown color, different from Berk's vikings "so white that you are almost red" color. They both had long hair held tight by a ponytail and lean muscular bodies. They were smaller than most of Berk's adult vikings, and that made Snotlout a little calmer. He wondered what the two were arguing about.

Then he thought of his dragon, and realized that he wasn't anywhere in the vicinity. Has he scaped? He wished he had. The two natives then stopped arguing and seemed to have reached an agreement, or so he thought. He didn't want to show it, but he was starting to get very scared. The two figures walked up to him, and he thought about running. "Why didn't I try that before?", he asked himself. As he tried to stand up, he realized that both his hands and feet were tied up. The natives grabbed him by the ropes, one at the feet, the other at his hands, and started to drag him through the hard dark soil to the direction of a hill. He tried to be brave.

"Hey! You idiots have any idea who you're messing with?" He yelled. The natives didn't even look at him.

"I'm Snotlout! The greatest dragon rider of Berk, and the greatest warrior that has existed!" He yelled again. And no response from the natives yet.

"You two are making a big mistake! I can get out of here any time I want, and when I do, boy you'll be sorry!" He said, threateningly.

The natives then looked at each other and mumbled something in their eerie language. One made a gesture to the other and he agreed. Then, they dropped Snotlout on the ground. Snotlout was face down on the ground, and didn't see the native taking out a blunt weapon and hitting him in the head. He passed out again.

When he woke up, he was at the village, the one with the ballistas. In fact, he realized that he was tied up to one the ballistas that took him and his Montrous Nightmare down. The ballista was on higher ground than the rest of the village, and he could see the entire village from up there. The village was composed of a lot of small raggedy tents, made from what it looked like to be fur, surrounding a large tent, sitting by a cave entrance. In the middle of the village there was a huge lit bonfire, and natives were everywhere.

From where he was, he noticed that all natives looked a lot like each other. They all had similar height, hair, body type and clothing. He noticed that there were women, but they also looked very similar to each other. There weren't any children around. The most concentrated place was around the bonfire, where it seemed to be having some kind of reunion. 8 natives were sitting in formation, as if waiting for someone. Then, after a short time, a hooded figure came out of the main tent, and headed to the bonfire. It stood backwards to it, and spoke to the natives. It seemed to be giving orders. Something about this figure was not right. The figure's robes and hood were so black that Snotlout couldn't even see his face.

Snotlout wasn't feeling all that brave anymore. He was now feeling hurt, scared and hungry. Maybe he was not made of steel like he wanted the other vikings to think. Maybe he actually had feelings. And then he remembered of Ruffnut, and their little romantic adventures. He wasn't quite sure of what she made him feel, this feeling that whenever he was away from her, it seemed like a part of him was missing. Was this love? It couldn't be. "Love is for the weak, like Hiccup and Astrid. There's no way I can be in love with someone. I'm the great Snotlout!", he thought. He was so busy telling himself that he was too strong to feel love, that he even forgot that he was on the island. It was then that he heard his Monstrous Nightmare fainted cries in the distance.

He immediately became alert. His dragon didn't scape. He was somewhere in the village, very probably in the main tent, the only place large enough to house a dragon that size. He wasn't the only one that heard the cries. The hooded figure had just finished to speak with the natives and also got alerted by the dragon's cries. He ran for the tent, and a few seconds after that, the cries had stopped. Snotlout was furious, screaming.

"Hey! If you as much as touch him, I'm going to kill you and then wear your face over mine! You hear me!? You'll regret this, native bastard!"

The natives that were sitting by the bonfire then stood up, and started to walk in Snotlout's direction. They untied him, and then grabbed him. He resisted as hard as he could, but these natives were a LOT stronger than they looked, and Snotlout was hungry and tired. They almost efortlessly dragged him to main tent.

When he entered the tent, he realized that the tent was set up adjacent to the cave entrance, but the cave was blocked by a huge old stone door. What was behind that cave to be blocked by stone gates, he thought, was something that he wasn't very eager to meet. He then noticed that his dragon wasn't there. Where else could he have gone? The only ways out of the tent were to the village or to the cave. He saw then huge marks on the ground, indicating that his Monstrous Nightmare was dragged to the inside of the cave. Just the thought of going inside to rescue him gave him shivers down his spine.

The tent didn't have a bed, or anything that looked like a place to sleep. The only thing it had were some weird contraptions, like traps and chemical compounds. It looked more like a lab than a place to live. Snotlout noticed that there were dragon skulls piled on the side opposite to him. They were from different kinds of dragons than he had seen, and didn't recognize any of the species. The natives were sitting on the ground, as if waiting for the hooded figure to appear again.

The huge stone doors opened, and indeed he appeared again. Even up close, his clothes were so dark that his face was completely shrouded by the shadows. Not even his eyes could be seen. Snotlout couldn't understand why, but the figure had a really eldritch presence, like something was definitely very wrong about him. He stood in front of the natives, and said something that didn't look like the same language that the natives were speaking on the beach. The natives heard him, and as soon as he finished talking, they looked at Snotlout. But there was something different in their look. It didn't look like the look of anger, or hate... It looked more like a look of pity. It looked like that they had to do something they didn't want to. Then, they grabbed him one more time, and the figure opened the stone doors again. Snotlout was now facing the door, and was able to take a look at what was inside.

Inside the stone doors, there was a dark corridor. And it wasn't a normal kind of darkness. It was completely dark. Every light coming out from the torches inside the tent died right before the entrance to the cave, like if the darkness actually repelled it. And from inside the dark abyss, Snotlout could hear faint whispers, faint words, and even faint laughs in the distance. What the figure had of wrong in his presence, the cave had it tenfold. Snotlout tried as hard as he could to get away, but it was useless. The natives themselves seemed to be scared of the dark. Some of them didn't even seemed to like to look at the cave, and the ones who did had a scared look on their face. They began to tie Snotlout up and his hands and feet again.

When they finished, the figure then grabbed him, and proceeded to drag him into the direction of the cave. It was then that he heard a sound he couldn't be more glad to hear. It was the sound of a Night Fury's wings. Shortly after this sound was heard, the sound of a big explosion outside followed it, and the natives inside the tent ran to the outside. It was just him and the figure now, that didn't even look like the Night Fury's attack had bothered him. Snotlout would tease him and say that he warned that he would kill them, but he didn't have the energy to do it. The figure then dragged him to the inside of the cave and once again shut the doors, sealing them in the pitch darkness.

Whatever it was in that dark, seemed to get excited with the arrival of new meat.

Hey guys, sorry it took me a week to write it. It's just that school is really taking up a lot of time, and I also had some kind of writer's block coming back. I promise I will try to do it faster next time, but I think that probably every chapter will take a week or so to be written, I'm sorry...

Hope you enjoy it, anyways!

Please review, your feedback is very important to me!

Lima