Here's the next chapter(s) of Chance Untamed. Man I'm really kicking myself over not uploading these more often. Sorry guys!
~Silverleone
I tried stepping back out of reflex, only for my heel to catch on a rock. I landed on my back and looked up in time to see a maw full of teeth flying towards me. I shut my eyes, expecting to have my face ripped off, when I heard a heavy thud on either side of me. I felt the breath of the Skrill as it stood over me, the passive discharge of static electricity made my hair stand on end. When I opened my eyes, it was staring directly into them. I felt the same strange sensation that I had on Toothless' back.
Pain. Confusion. Fear. Anger. Countless emotions flashed into my head, each more raw and feral than the last. Images moved rapidly behind my eyes, shifting faster and faster in my head. I was getting a headache from the sheer amount of information. There was too much, and I felt like my head was going to explode.
It all came crashing down at once, stopping on one image.
Everything slowly combined into a beautiful scene. The sun was just about to sink below the water, a sliver of that grand ball of fire shooting beams of orange, red, and yellow across the purple clouds in the sky. A tall, thin sea stack sat off to the right, back-lit by the sun. A few dragons were soaring through the sky. It felt like I was really there, watching the sun set.
After who knows how long, the image slowly started to fade out around the edges, and I tried to remember as many details as possible before it was gone.
When I snapped back to reality, I found myself still laying on the ground with the Skrill standing above me, shaking its head in confusion. I looked to my right as I heard Hiccup calling my name. I saw Toothless leaping over to the sea stack the Skrill and I were on, wings spread, and a plasma blast charged. In what felt like slow motion, I pushed the Skrill back, jumped up, and drew my sword. Toothless' mouth snapped shut as they landed. Hiccup was livid.
"What are you doing?! We almost hit you!" I held my stance as I thought for a moment, my brow furrowing in confusion. I had only reacted out of instinct. I stood there, blinking rapidly to try and rid myself of all those images and emotions, they were messing with my train of thought. "Well? Are you going to say something?!" Hiccup demanded. I stood up from my stance and sheathed my sword, eyes on the ground in thought.
'Why did I jump to defend the Skrill…was it the memories it showed me…Did I feel sympathy for it…?' I looked up and shrugged my shoulder at Hiccup. He threw his hands forward and gestured to me in exasperation.
"What was-are you, did you just shrug your shoulders? Is that your excuse?! Because you don't know?!" Hiccup was rambling in his frustration and anger, I looked him in the eyes. I couldn't get myself under control at first, my mind was pure chaos. But my brain was starting to clear up, and I found myself frowning.
"Stop." One word, one action, that's all that was needed to happen right now.
"Excuse me?" The disbelief was apparent on his face.
"Stop." I stated shortly.
"I heard what you said! What are you-!" I interrupted him again.
"All three of you. Need to stop this pointless fight. Now!" My voice jumped in volume, and I shook my head, "It's getting nothing done!" Hiccup gained a look of slowly increasing anger. He jumped off of Toothless and walked forward a few steps, stopping two arm's length away when the Skrill growled in warning, Toothless returning it dutifully while stepping up next to Hiccup.
"This Skrill just blasted my father's house, almost charred our friends, and tried to kill us, multiple times mind you. And you want us to just stop?!" I gave him a hard look, and my tone was colder than the sea breeze whipping around us.
"You just don't get it, do you? You've spent literal years not even thinking about the Skrill, after you froze it in ICE. The Skrill finally gets out, and its first thought, after years of not being able to do anything, because of you, is revenge." Hiccup started to interject, but I held my hand up. "Blinded by the fact that you haven't been able to train this dragon, your only solution is to get rid of it. You could have gotten it away from Dagur, let it live its own life, not hurting anyone any more than any other dragon. But you couldn't, you just couldn't drop it. Because you were scared. You still are, aren't you?" I let the question hang in the air. Hiccup had lost his words and was looking at the ground. Toothless nudged his hand, rumbling in concern. Hiccup looked over and rubbed his head gently. He looked up at me slowly, and there were tears starting to form in his eyes, but a hard shake of his head cleared them up.
"You're right. I am scared. But not just because I can't train that Skrill. I'm scared because if I can't train it…it's going get someone seriously hurt, or worse. And it'll be because I couldn't do it, because I wasn't strong en-"
*SLAP* Hiccup raised his hand to his cheek, which was now turning slightly red. I dropped my left arm back down to my side. We made eye contact. Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III, the first known person to shoot down, train and ride a Night Fury, flinched. My voice was barely above a whisper, a low growl in my tone.
"If you finish that sentence, not even Toothless would be fast enough to stop what I do to you." Toothless growled a little, but otherwise didn't do anything to object what he felt was a low shot to his pride. "You are the first person to ride a dragon, a Night Fury, no less. You have changed an entire dragon-killing tribe's ways, making them a dragon taming tribe. You have little to be scared of compared to that…but I understand completely." Slight shock and disbelief covered his face. My brow furrowed more when I tried to get my point across.
"Hiccup, I've lost my friends. I've lost my family. I've lost everything to some sick person's game. I have no idea how I'm going to get back to my time, I have no idea if there even is a way back. I've been scared, no…terrified since I woke up two weeks ago. But your leadership, your courage, and your friendship have all kept me believing that there is a way home. You may be scared, but this ends today." There was silence save for the ocean below us, crashing into the sea stacks with an immense force. He started to say something, but I turned towards the Skrill, letting Hiccup think on those words for a bit.
'Your turn…'
"I don't know exactly what you've been through, but I do know this. You're just as scared." It growled and shuffled backwards a bit. I was done beating around the bush with it. Not that I'd been doing it anyways… "Don't give me that. I know most of what happened, and the way you reacted was appropriate…at the time. Yes, you had every right to be mad at Hiccup, heck, I wouldn't have just burnt his house, there wouldn't be anything but ashes if that had been me." The Skrill just rolled its eyes, not interested in talking to me in the slightest. It turned and started to raise its wings when I landed in front of it, planting m sword into the dirt. It snarled at me in frustration. I stepped around my sword.
"I. Wasn't. Finished." It stepped back and growled, electricity starting to spark across its back spines. "Don't you sass me. You're the one with the bad attitude." Lightning was now dancing across its body, and Hiccup and Toothless were growing worried. I took another step.
"I'm the one stuck here, not you. I've been taken from my home! And unlike you scaled hides, I can't just fly off into the sunset!" The Skrill lightning grew in intensity, and the clouds above us were darkening. "You think just because you're the Big Bad Skrill you can just do whatever you want! Well newsflash! You CAN'T! There are consequences for everything you do! And if you think I'm going to just let you fly off and do whatever you want, then you're horribly. Mistaken." My voice had dropped to barely a whisper with those last two words.
The Skrill had enough and fired the lightning. I spun around, grabbed my sword, finished spinning all the way around, and slammed the sword back into the dirt, stepping back and watching the makeshift lightning rod do its work. The lightning blast hit the sword blade and went into the ground, dispersing harmlessly.
The Skrill looked on in shock. No human had ever deflected its bolts. Plasma blasts from a Night Fury? More of an annoying explosion than anything. Human bodies? Nothing more than stinking, burning flesh. How did this one human do this?! I stood up and looked at the Skrill.
"You see, Skrill, I have no interest in 'training' you. I simply want you to stop your assault on Hiccup and Toothless. If you stop, then I don't care what you do. Stay in the area, find a new home somewhere far away, it doesn't matter to me. But this pointless fight ends here and now." The Skrill didn't move as it stared at me. I grabbed my sword, sheathed it, and walked over to Hiccup and Toothless.
"Are we good to go? I'm starving."
Chapter 9
I hopped onto Toothless and looked at Hiccup expectantly. He looked in between me and the Skrill. He was still trying to wrap his brain around the whole scenario that had just played out.
"You just-wha-I mean-." I held up my hand.
"He's no longer a threat. Save the questions for later when everyone can hear them. Let's get back to the Edge." I looked over at the Skrill. "As long as you promise not to try and kill the others, you can come too." It almost looked appalled at the thought, then sunk into its own thoughts. It shuffled its wings quite a bit while thinking. I got tired of waiting and looked at Hiccup.
"We're going to the Edge. You coming or not?" Hiccup slowly mounted up after a moment of hesitation, and Toothless looked at him in confusion.
"He's right bud, it has been a long day…Let's go home. With or without the Skrill." Toothless grumbled and shot into the air, obviously still worried about the other dragon. Once we got into a more stable flight, I laid back and shut my eyes, just letting the wind blow my coat and hair around.
We had been flying for a good five minutes before I gently rubbed my throat. I spoke up, propping myself up on my elbow.
"Hey Hiccup? You guys have any honey laying around at the Edge? I've heard it's great for sore throats. I've talked more in the last few weeks than I have in the past year, and it's killing me." Hiccup just laughed softly at my comment as he looked back. His eyes flicked past my head for a second, but then he faced forwards.
"Yeah, we should have some somewhere. By the way…I think you just tamed your first dragon." He looked back at me again, this time with a smirk on his face. I felt a shift in the static in the air and heard a flapping sound behind us. I smirked and raised an eyebrow in a " this'll be hilarious, watch me get killed" expression. I laid back in a bit of a condescending manner, waving a hand lazily in the air.
"What are you talking about? I did nothing of the sort. That Skrill had too much static in his brain to possibly understand what I was talking about." *Smack* "I was kidding!" I shouted in exasperation, my head reeling from the tail hitting it. The Skrill floated down to fly level with Toothless and just snorted.
"Oh, the big bad battery came to join us, did he? Decided being a loner wasn't much fun?" I ducked under a small spark it shot at me. "Oh, you did not just shoot at me!" The Skrill just smirked and flapped its wings, sending another spark my way, I barely dodged it because I was one Toothless' back. I pulled the same move I did earlier and was sitting on my knees. Hiccup looked back and he groaned audibly.
"Oh Thor, not again! Would you for once in your life ride a dragon normally?!" I looked at him and shrugged. I slowly shifted onto my feet, crouching on Toothless' back like a surfboard.
"I mean I would, but that's no fun. And how else am I supposed to do…this!" I jumped when the Skrill wasn't looking, landing on its back. It jerked in shock and looked back at me. "Hey, just came to hitch a ride." I plopped myself onto its neck and patted its side.
"Hope you don't mind, I'm sure Toothless is more than capable of carrying both of us, but he's had a long day." I leaned back and rested against the Skrill's back, running my hands over the scaly hide in curiosity. It just rolled its eyes and kept flying. After a moment of silence, I spoke up.
"You know…We can't call you "The Skrill" all the time. Would you like a name?" I felt hard muscle beneath me tense. I sat up and looked over the Skrill's head spikes. It glanced back, then snapped its eyes forward. Its flight had become ridged. I leaned forward and rested my hands against its head gently.
"You've never thought about having a name…have you…?" It shook its head quickly. It looked back at me, deep in thought. It shook it head slower this time, indicating a "no". I sat back and thought about it.
"First…and this might be a bit awkward…are you a female?" It just glowered at me, and I felt a small zap right where it hurts. I hunched over in pain. "HNNG! Okay…that's a definite no…ow." It took me a minute to recover. The Skrill just laughed at my pain.
"Hey! That's not fair…I just asked you a question. You didn't have to get violent about it…" I just sunk into a deep train of thought, leaving the other three in the real world. After a minute or two, I broke out of it with a small smile on my face.
"You know…In my time there was a famous historic inventor. He specialized in controlling and manipulating electricity. You wanna know his name?" The Skrill thought for a minute, then nodded. "His name was Nikola Tesla." It dove towards the water, roaring. I gasped at the sudden change in motion and grabbed its head spikes. It was pulling various moves that showed its excitement, loops, corkscrews, etc.
"Whoa!" I ducked as we corkscrewed in between sea stacks, then the Skrill leveled out. My breathing was heavier than normal because of the adrenaline rush, and I laid out against the newly dubbed Tesla's back, enjoying the sea breeze. Hiccup was full on laughing as Toothless caught up. I looked over at Hiccup as he was still chuckling.
"What?!" I called out.
"First, your hair is a mess. Second…what did you say to him? I couldn't hear you."
"Bah, I'll fix it later. But I didn't expect the joy ride after I asked him if he liked a name."
"A name huh?" He paused for a second, waiting for me to answer the unspoken question. "Well, are you gonna tell me?" I put my chin in my hand and pretended to think. I leaned forward so Tesla could see me clearly.
"…Hmm, should I tell him, or make him wait…?" An evil grin crossed both of our faces and I leaned back into a sitting position. "I guess you'll have to wait." With that, I nudged Tesla with my left knee so Hiccup didn't notice. Tesla pulled his left wing in, and we dove towards the water again. We rolled left once and leveled out. Then I tucked in tight as Tesla sped up, challenging Toothless to a race with a roar. I heard Hiccup shout and the flapping of wings that weren't Tesla's. I looked back in time to duck as a black blur shoot over our heads. Hiccup whooped as they pulled up, gaining height. I had a spark (no pun intended) of a thought and mulled it over for about two minutes before leaning forward.
"When you saved me earlier, you didn't just dive did you…you somehow moved faster than normal." An unspoken idea passed between us, and Tesla pulled up towards the clouds. Hiccup and Toothless were still ahead of us, but they wouldn't be if this idea worked. Toothless had leveled out at this point, but we kept climbing. I noticed two changes in the air. One, it was getting thinner. Two, the static was building. Another thought occurred to me, and I leaned forward to look Tesla in the eye.
"This shouldn't hurt…right…?" He looked surprised at the question and thought about it for a minute. He glanced back and shook his head, though he still looked hesitant. "So, it might hurt…but if so, not very much at all…?" He nodded and I settled in. "I can handle a bit of pain. Let's do this." His eyes stayed on me for a second before clouds started gathering, getting darker and darker as lightning started flashing. I felt Tesla tense up and look back at me one last time. I nodded after a moment and closed my eyes.
Blue lightning flashed all around us, I felt a strong electric surge rush through my body, and then nothing.