It was early in the morning when Farran woke up to the sounds of someone whacking the bars of his cell with something metallic. He blinked the sleep out of his eyes to find the blond haired girl from yesterday tapping the bars with the side of her axe, staring at him with a glint of malice in her eye. The hunter sighed. He had a good feeling that he knew what this was about. Either this rider was planning on interrogating him or was just trying to annoy him. Hopefully the latter. He slowly sat up and stared at the girl, waiting to see what she would do next. The look on her face was almost the exact same from when she locked up her pet. Full of anger. All of it focused on him. He dared not admit it, mostly because he expected the rider to use it against him, but his body still ached. He wasn't a healer so he didn't understand the full extent of his injuries, but it didn't seem to be anything he had managed to get himself upright, the rider stopped.

"Morning." She greeted grimly. Farran did not offer her a reply back. Instead he watched as she merely pulled up a small wooden stool from nearby, dragging it across the floor until it was placed right in front on him. She then sat down on it.

"If you're planning to get answers out of me, know that you are wasting your time. I will not deliver them." Farran predicted. His comment was met with a sharp chuckle as the girl crossed both her arms and her legs.

"That's what they all say. Many of them have worked for Ryker for years too. You've been with the hunters for... what? A couple of months perhaps?" She smiled. "This will be too easy."

"Then I look forward to your disappointment."

"Let's try this the easy way. You tell us what you know, and I won't have Stormfly nail your body to the wall. Okay?"

Farran narrowed his eyes. He tried to mentally prepare himself in the short time he had for what he knew was going to be a long torturous questioning session. The first of many to come in the near future. He clung onto the thought of knowing that in a way, the fate of numerous dragon hunter operations relied on his ability to keep the riders at bay, though for how long he did not know.

"Now, first question. Where is the base you are stationed at?"

Farran huffed. "I do not know."

Astrid gave a smile at this. Farran wasn't sure why until seconds later. "Stormfly?"

A squawk came from the nadder. As Farran looked over to the animal he quickly found something too fast to properly see imbed itself into the wall, barely an inch from his face. Not surprisingly, it caused him to flinch and almost exclaim in surprise. Almost. In a matter of seconds his thoughts caught up to him and he found that the speeding object was a blue nadder spine. A scare tactic, nothing more. While it had certainly caught him off guard, he continued in his efforts to remain strong. He breathed in and out slowly and readied himself as best he could against the rider. Here he would show her the strength and resolve a dragon hunter could muster.

An hour painfully dragged by for the hunter. Again and again it was the same questions such as where are you stationed, who do you work for, what ships you've been on and plenty more. She was trying to dig her way into every point of his life since joining the dragon hunters and exploit even the tiniest bit of information no matter how irrelevant. She even attempted to loosen his tongue with another couple of nadder spines and ferocious screeches that indicated that the dragon was hungry. Unfortunately for her, her adversary did not show any signs of breaking. At least not yet. Every time she asked a question she received the same answer. 'I do not know'. The words had been said and heard so many times that they were starting to lose their meaning. Thankfully for Farran, the rider had decided to call it a day and decided that she had other duties to perform. She wordlessly collected the spines that had impaled the wall while her dragon kept a watchful eye on the hunter and locked the cell

"Okay, I'll admit that you're a little tougher than you look." She spoke with a modicum of respect. "But that only means that you're going to be spending a lot more time trapped behind those bars. Let's hope you have a good long think about that before we continue tomorrow."

With that, the rider left him all alone once more. The hunter sighed and laid down on his back and allowed himself to feel prideful that he had held her off this time. But how long would it take before she started using more physical methods to extract information from him? How much pain would he be able to tolerate before he screamed out the answers she wanted to hear? Would they even resort to such methods? He did not know. All he knew he that he was their enemy and they were his, and only a fool weeps for the enemy.

Of course, the gods seemed to be expressing their dislike towards him today as he wasn't left on his own for long. He had about ten minutes to himself before another rider came to see him. This one was a little more familiar. It was the hefty one who rode the gronckle. The one he had taken out of the sky during his attempted escape. As they approached, he noticed that the rider was carrying something under his arm. It looked like a very lumpy rolled up piece of animal hide of some kind and seemed rather old. Other than that it could have been anything. Unlike the blonde female, this rider seemed much more relaxed and didn't seemed to attempt mocking him from the other side of the bars. Though this one seemed to take it a step further as he decided to invite himself into Farrans cell and greeted him a joyful morning in a bit of a nervous fashion. Though the hunter would much rather feel more comfort kicking the rider out, his curiosity got the better as the lumpy rolled up animal skin the rider carried was placed in front of him.

The rider then proceeded to unroll it until its contents were spread out. Inside of it, Farran saw all sorts of medical supplies tucked into makeshift pockets of all sizes that ran across the inner hide. Though he dared not say so, seeing these brought him a bit of relief. Since he had first woken up in this cell of his, he had suffered some pain throughout much of his body. Nothing major but enough to keep him from fighting. But before he got his hopes up, he quickly asked himself the question of WHY these had been brought to him? A new way to make him talk maybe? There's no way they would just so willingly patch him up unless they thought they could gain something from it.

"Let me guess." Farran began as the rider combed through his tools. "Answers for treatment I assume?"

A look of confusion crossed the riders face. It didn't take long before he realised what Farran meant as he seemed shocked at the assumption.

"What?! Oh no no no of course not! We're not barbarians, are we girl?"

The gronckle smiled and made some sort of strange gurgling noise in reply. The rider continued.

"I honestly hoped I'd have done this sooner but... we figured it would be easier to wait until tomorrow morning when you were in a... calmer mood." He speaks cautiously, as though concerned that the wrong choice of words were enough to set Farran off. Something that now left Farran confused. He seemed to have no fear of this when confronting him yesterday. Maybe it was because he thought that he was in control of the situation then, or just felt more confident on the back of his dragon.

"Then you're a fool. Wasting valuable resources on the enemy."

"And yet we foiled your little invasion." He smirked confidently. "What does that make you?"

"Right now? Confused."

This caused the rider to look the hunter face to face.

"How do you mean? That we're keeping you here where we keep our dragons? Heh. Yeah, you can thank Heather for that."

"You mean the traitor." Farran spoke bitterly. The rider on the other hand kept his composure.

"Well technically speaking, she's not exactly a traitor since she was never really a part of the dragon hunters to begin with."

"And her brother? He's a spy of yours too I imagine?"

The rider gave an amused chuckle.

"Who Dagur? Pfft! Hardly! He's been our enemy for years."

Farran grunted in acknowledgement. Secretly relieved that there was only one traitor among the dragon hunters ranks.

Other than telling the rider that he'd rather suffer than be treated by the enemy, of which the rider ignored and patched him up anyway, the two said nothing more during their time together. Farran learned that his injuries were minor and needed to rest for a few days, but was otherwise fine. Physically anyway. Keeping his word, his healer never once probed for answers. At least these riders had SOME honor, even if it was only a little. He left soon after, claiming that he would be back to check later on the hunter.

The rest of the day came and went quickly enough and Farran was blessed with privacy. During which he chose not to merely waste time sitting around doing nothing. The first chance he got he immediately analysed his cell, trying to find anything that would give him even the slightest hopes of escape while making sure that no-one was watching him. If there was so much as a scratch or a loose splinter it could have meant freedom. Others prisoners had been known to escape with less. However as luck would have it the gods did not grant him any such opportunity. By the time it had reached night, he soon found himself plagued by the sounds of the riders dragons as they too were locked up until daylight. He had survived a single day but he did not need to be told that things would slowly become worse over time.

When morning arrived, he found himself put through the same routine as yesterday. Woken up by the blonde female rider who put through more questioning. When she had rapped on the bars enough to get his attention, the hunter noticed that she wore a more confident smile, as though sure that today would be the day that she would be successful.

Understanding that her last attempt at getting information did not go as well as she had expected it to, she had decided during the night that she would need to change tactics in order to make him talk. She admitted that he was slightly tougher than the hunters she had dealt with, but this time would be different. There was more than one way to make a dragon hunter squeal.

Farran watched as she undid the chain to the cell and opened the door as far as it would open. Her smile grew becoming sinister and uttered two words. Not towards him.

"Stormfly? Fetch!"

In a split second the once calm beast by her side became fixated on the hunter and immediately let itself into the cage, charging directly towards Farran before he could react.

Not two minutes later, Farran found himself free from his prison and miles from the edge. He also found himself thousands of feet above the ocean with both arms caught within the talons of the blue nadder, with the rider on top of its back. And though Farran couldn't see her from his unfortunate position, he could still picture her smiling at his torture. And right now, torture was the perfect word.

Farran had managed to survive her questioning yesterday. But this? Being caught in the claws of a dragon introduced him to some old emotions he hadn't felt in a long time. While not afraid, at least that's what he told himself, he found himself VERY uncomfortable. Helpless even. Doing the only thing he could, he shut his eyes as tight as he could and imagined himself somewhere else. Anywhere else.

"Ready to give up those answers?" He heard the rider call from above. Glee filled her voice.

"I do not know anything!" Farran tried sticking to the plan, blocking out the harsh whistling of the wind as he was pulled through the air at incredible speeds. It was unlike anything from the time he had rode Windshear. At least back then he didn't have to worry about being dropped into the ocean for sharks or sharp claws digging into his arms.

It was a shame that the rider was only just getting started.

"If you say so! Come on girl, let's try out a few tricks!"

Just like at a snap of her fingers, Farran was suddenly jolted to the side and was spun round over and over and over again as the nadder twirled without a care in the world. It performed all sorts of manueveres. Twists, turns and loops of all sorts. To anyone watching from a distance, its tricks looked magnificent and graceful. But being held in its claws while it performed was another matter entirely. To Astrid, it was all meant to be another scare tactic. She didn't actually plan to put the lad in any real danger, even if he was a hunter. The only problem was that this one was unknowingly far more effective than she expected, not that she realised it in that moment.

Farran fought desperately to block out everything. The spinning, the questions, the feeling of claws squeezing his limbs, everything. It reminded him of the only other time he had been in this position and it had almost cost him his life had another not been spent. One of the worst nights of his entire life now played out before him, unintentionally triggered by the blonde rider.

How long did he endure the horrific experience for? Hours? It seemed like it. He felt as though he would throw up any minute. He wanted to pass out, make his mind forget. But it would not let him. He was forced to suffer through this cruelty for fifty minutes before the rider had decided to give it a rest and question him again.

For a brief moment, he could see it all flashing before his eyes once more. The chaotic scene of Vikings either fighting or fleeing from the unending hordes of hungry dragons which flew above his village. His younger self barely able to grasp the concept of what was happening before him. So caught up in the sight of burning buildings and the feeling of smoke filling his lungs, he had no chance of seeing the one dragon from behind which had its beady eyes on him. His arm suddenly screamed in pain as it dug its filthy knife-like claws into the skin of his arm and lifted him off the ground with very little effort. He would have most likely been carried off, never to see his village again. This was the memory that played through his mind again and again. Strong enough to cause him to freeze up.

"Ready to talk now?" She asked playfully, only to receive no response. "Hey! Still with us?" Again, no answer.

Believing that he had passed out, she flew back to the edge, back to the holding pens. Only when he was back in his cell did she see the damage she had caused.

Farran was indeed still conscious. He was on his hands and knees facing away from her. His breathing clearly erratic. When he moved one hand off from the ground it shook uncontrollably. It was as though he had just gone through Hel. Though she had rarely used this method against hunters, none had acted this way up until now. She could only imagine the look on his face, though she didn't dare walk forth to check. An uncomfortable amount of time passed before Astrid carefully spoke up. Only this time she seemed more concerned. Had she gone too far? She didn't know but she couldn't leave him in this position. Especially since she had had a hand in it

"Hey. Are you okay?"

Her words reached him right away as he flinched. The hunter, as though only just now realising that he wasn't hanging hundreds of feet in the air, seemed to gain some composure. His breathing eventually became more regular and he managed to carefully rise back up onto his legs, using the wall on his right for support. When Farran turned round, instead of the face of panic that Astrid had expected it had gone back to its regular stoic self. Aside from the still twitching hands, he looked fine. He then spoke.

"You will have to do worse than that rider." His voice was strained and not as strong as it was before.

The rider said nothing nor did she do anything. She soon managed to get over her thoughts and proceeded to lock him up before leaving. As she walked away, Farran noticed her posture was somewhat sluggish. Only was she out of his sight did his legs give out and he fell on his back. He rested against the wall and placed his hands over his head, closing them into fists. For now, the only thing he had to keep him company were his haunting memories.

./././././././././././././.

Wow. Last chapter got quite a fair few comments. It's always good to see so many people giving this story support, thank you so much :D

So anyway, bit of interesting news guys. When the next chapter comes out I'm actually going to bring a couple of things to light that may or may not be of interest, depending on whether you've been enjoying my content (hopefully so ;) ) Still a couple of things that I need to set up but I'm quite excited to bring it up when its ready. With that in mind, thanks for reading and I'll see you all in the next chapter :)