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How to Train Your Dragon

By Thora Diana Haddock

Chapter 21 – The True Mastermind

I really wish this night can last forever. We were just flying over a random part of the Norwegian Ocean, enjoying the tranquility. Then Asgerd came up with a question I rather avoid. "So what are you going to do about it?" he asked. I sighed in uncertainly. "Thora, your final exam is the day after tomorrow. You're going to have to kill a…" he started to say, but stopped when he realized that Midnight will hear it. "…Kill a Dragon." he whispered in the lowest whisper he could muster. "Please don't remind me." I said, "My original plan was to leave this place, until you showed up."

While I was talking to Asgerd about what to do as we started to fly over a strange fog. Then Midnight's ears perked up and his eyes widen and the slits went very thin. He was hearing something, like it was calling him. Then, without warning, he sharply turned downward to his right and we dropped several feet down and regain a smooth altitude as fast as he could while me and Asgerd yelped in surprise as we went into the fog below.

"Midnight what's wrong?" I asked as Asgerd tighten his grip on me. Then we saw a shadow-like figure in the thick fog to our right. Then it came to view, it was a red Nightmare and it was holding something in its talons. "Get down!" I told Asgerd as we leaned forwarded closer to Midnight.

Before we knew it, dragons of all kinds of species were all around us, all carrying something in their claws or fangs, shrieking Dragonese, the long believed language of the dragons. I took a closer look at the Nightmare that almost rammed into us and saw that the precious cargo in it talons was in fact a dead body that I couldn't identify. "They must be hauling in their kill, and their stolen goods." I whispered to Asgerd. "Huh…what does that make us?" he asked nervously.

I gave him a deadly glare and he gave an apologetic look. He better not be seriously thinking that Midnight would be turning us in for food. I have noticed that his diet concerned mostly of white meat and a few various plants. Plus, he thinks of me as a part of his family, or whatever they call a large group of dragons. He would never betray me. The other dragons however, might have red meat in their diets. I silently hoped we weren't as a Zippleback gave us a hungry look.

Plus, dragons don't attack unless they feel threatened. And they have all this food in their clutches and they still come back with their ribs dangerously showing. I have a feel that there is something more to the dragons raiding the villages of our islands and I have a feeling that what ever is coming up ahead, we are about to find out.

Before long, we swooped down to a maze of tall rock structures zig zaged through it, and when we came to a clearing, we came face to face with a large smoking hot volcano. "Wait a minute." I said perplexed. "What is it?" Asgerd asked concerned, tightening his hold on my waist. "Ever since I freed Midnight, I have been having strange dreams about red mist, a golden wristband with a strange stone, the dragons calling for my help, me wearing strange armor that looked like it was made of scales, me riding a black steed, which I think was Midnight, voices calling me the 'Storm Rider' who I think is suppose to save the world or something , holding the Dragon's Storm Sword that I'm have in my sheath, me leading other dragon riders who are calling me 'captain', and a huge dragon that makes the Monstrous Nightmare look like a newt." I explained, "And now I think about it, in my dreams, I always see that volcano."

One by one, we saw dragons enter through a hole in the side of the volcano. Asgerd tightened his grip around me with nervousness. We yelped as we went into the volcano and navigated through a narrow tunnel. So we came to a large cavern with small plateaus scatter around.

There was lava giving off stream in the bottom, eggs on the plateaus, and dragons were everywhere; in the air, hanging from the ceiling, and on the plateaus and edges on the sides. And they were all huddled together. Then it hit me, this is the Dragon's Nest, the one that Viking tribes everywhere have been searching for over three hundred years. "What my father wouldn't give to find this!" I exclaimed as Asgerd hold me tighter with eyes going wider by the second.

We steer to the left to an edge that had a large stalagmite that we can hide behind. We can't risk the other dragons seeing humans, who knows what, would happen if they did. We all peeked behind our hiding place and saw something that bewildered us out of our minds.

They were all dropping the food into the lava below. Is this where all of the stolen food from our villages has been going these past three hundred years? But the food will be burned into nothing if they just drop it down there. I guess some dragons aren't as smart as some. No wonder these poor things are starving. "Well it's nice to see all of our stolen food has been dropped down a hole." I stated in disbelief. "They're not eating any of it." Asgerd stated as a Nadder dropped a large fish below.

Then a small Gronkle came into the cavern, flying awkwardly, as if it drank a whole barrel of barley beer. It didn't seem that it had any food to drop into the pit below. Then it slightly shook its body from tail to head, opened its mouth, and a small half-eaten fish was let go into the scorching lava below. After that, it scratched its left ear with its left hind leg without a care in the world, acting like a dog.

Then suddenly, there was a loud unearthly roar, a familiar one. It seemed to tell the little Gronkle that it needed to get out of here fast. It started to hover towards the nearest edge it could find. But it was too slow. Out of the blue… or red, a head that is larger than the size of my whole house, came out of the red mist and its enormous mouth closed over the poor creature and swallowed it whole.

Both me and Asgerd gasped in shock and disbelief. "What…is…that?" Asgerd asked in a hushed voice. I had no idea, but that the same monster that has been haunting my dreams these past few weeks. The dragons seem to have a good idea what that thing was as they sunk back into the walls nearest to them and huddled close together in fear. Even the Monstrous Nightmares were shaking in the scaly skin.

Then the head went back into the fiery pit below, where it seemed to live. Both me and Asgerd hold our breath, if the head was larger than a house, then its body must be the size of a mountain.

The head of the colossal creature came as it sniffed the air. It looked like it smelled something that was foreign to the nest. Something like…humans. It must smell me and Asgerd. Even in the most putrid of places; dragons have the keenest sense of smell. I leaned forwarded and whispered in Midnight's ear. "Okay, Midnight we got to go…NOW!" I said as the monster pinpointed our scent.

The monster lunged towards us, but got out of the way in time. Thank goodness for his speed. The sudden lunge from the hideous giant must have terrified the dragons and they all scatter in a circular motion rising upwards towards the large hole at the top of the nest. As we flew higher and higher, the monster lifted its body higher to try to catch us. Fortunately, it missed us, unfortunately its jaws clamped on the tip of the tail of a poor green Zippleback and it pulled it in.

In an instant we shot out of the volcano and flew as fast as we could to the areas of ocean that didn't have the fog. After we made enough distance, we settled down and tried to find Berk. But no such luck. It's a good thing that dragons have exceptional navigational skills to find their way in the most impossible situations.

Sure enough, after a few minutes, Berk was in our sight to our left. Although, I'm pretty sure that it was to the other way. That fog must have messed up my usual good sense of direction. At least, Midnight didn't lose his sense of direction.

"What was that thing anyway?" I asked, looking back to the fog. "I'm not sure, but I think that could have been a supposedly mythical dragon called the Seadragonus Giganticus Maximus. Sometimes called either the Green, Purple, or Red Death, due to the color of the coral-like horns on its body." Asgerd said.

"You kind of sounded like Fishlegs there for a moment." I stated. "I told you I've read the Dragon Manual. There was even a section of dragons that are assumed to be of myths and legends. And I'm pretty sure that dragon was one of them." he explained. "I must have skipped that part, because aside from the strengths and characteristics of dragons, it only showed that all dragons are 'extremely dangerous and had to kill on sight.' Well… except the Night Fury, which said that we should 'never engage and our only is to hide and pray that it does not find us.' So I skimmed through most of it." I said.

"Anyway, I think you were right about the dragons', they don't want to steal from us, but that monster makes them fight." Asgerd said. "That's why the dragons look half-starved with their ribs showing, because that thing is hogging it all." I said. "Yes, it totally makes sense, it's like a giant beehive, they're the workers and that was the queen." he said as we got into the cove.

As soon as we touched the ground, Asgerd released me and jumped off Midnight. "Let's find your dad." he said. "NO!" I yelled, getting off Midnight and chased Asgerd. Luckily, thanks to my speed, I grabbed Asgerd by the right arm. "No, they'll kill Midnight." I explained as I turned him towards me and started to walk back to Midnight, "Asgerd we need figure this out carefully."

"Thora, we've just discovered the Dragon's Nest. The very thing that we have been looking for since Vikings first settled here." Asgerd said, "And you want to keep it a secret? To protect your pet dragon…" I Asgerd started to say, and then Midnight growled at him.

"I don't think that he likes being called a pet, he probably prefers to be called 'friend.'" I explained with my back faced towards him. "Whatever you're doing this is to protect your dragon 'friend', are you serious?" he asked. I turned around and gave him my answer. "Yes." I said as sure as I have ever been in my life. I'm doing this to help my friend and friends don't let their friends get hurt. There's got to be another way to do this. I scared, but I won't let fear keep me from doing the right thing.

After giving Asgerd my answer, his mouth started to hang and his eyes widen with amazement. I suppose I've impress him or something. I turned away to my right to try to figure out something, anything.

"Okay," he said shrugging his shoulders, "So what are we going to do about it?" "Well… just give me until the day after tomorrow. I'll think of something." I said. That's when my final test with the Monstrous Nightmare is. I have until then to figure out a plan.

"Anyway, I'm sorry about the mean things I did to you." Asgerd said. I looked up back at him, surprised that he has the guts to apologized and admit he's wrong. "And I'm sorry for thinking that you were a jerk." I said feeling guilty about what I thought about him for the past few weeks. "Apology accepted." We both said.

"Um…Thora, you know the festival is tomorrow, and unless you have something else to do or going with someone else…" Asgerd started to say. "Asgerd…are you asking me on a date during the festival?" I asked. "Well… yeah." he answered. The festival was to celebrate the founding of the village almost three hundred years ago. I have dream that I could go to the festival with him, but I never thought it would be possible. "I would love to go." I said turning my head in a different direction shyly.

Then suddenly, I hit him on his right upper arm. "Ow!" Asgerd shouted, holding his arm. "That's for almost telling the others about Midnight." I said. Midnight grunted in amusement. Asgerd just had a confused and slightly embarrassed look on his face about a girl hitting him. He was about to say something, but I pulled him by the collar of his shirt and pecked a light kiss on his right cheek. "And that's for understanding so much he means to me." I said. "Well um… you're welcome, see you tomorrow." Asgerd said as he awkwardly left the cove.

I still can't believe I did that. Maybe Asgerd can be that special person in the future after all. I had a dazed look on my face, actually looking forward to tomorrow. I felt something come to my left side, grunting softly. I turned and I was face to face with Midnight. "What are you looking at?" I asked slightly embarrassed. He just grunted in response, as if to say 'nothing.'

I sighed and turned to face him, holding his head with my hands. "Don't worry Midnight, we'll figure something out." I say as I hugged his neck. Midnight covered his right wing over my body as to return the hug. After I while, we released each other, and I gave Midnight a kiss on his forehead. "See you tomorrow." I said.

After that, I went out of the cove, through the tunnel, and out of the hole. This time, I made double sure that the log was over the hole. I looked up to see if anyone else was watching. Once I was super sure that the coast was clear, I left for the village to get a good night's sleep.

Don't forget to read, comment, and review what you think of my other fanfictions, you might just like them as well.