A Monstrous Nightmare bursts through the door in an explosion so sudden I'm thrown back before I even realize it's a Monstrous Nightmare.
I hit the stone wall and fall to the ground wheezing as the dragon roars and darts to the left, circling the arena, breathing fire everywhere. I push myself to my feet as the dragon has reached the top of the chain dome.
It dips its head down to me. Its eyes squint as it tries to see my predicament. I shift my weight, widen my stance, and crouch. The Nightmare drops down in front of me, sways its long body left and right, ready for any angle I might attack from.
The Nightmare is a brilliant shade of royal blue, several black scales sprinkled all across it back and at the tip of his tale. Its wings are wide, the skin between the talons a lighter shade, making it almost milky. His eyes still the same yellow color as Hookfang.
My chest rises and falls in quick breaths as we size each other up. I virtually might not have any real weapons, but my knowledge is all I need to get me to win, run, and escape the island. I could use a ride, and as long as he hates the Outcasts as much as I do, hopefully w can both make it out of here without throwing a punch or bite.
But getting my bow and other weapons is another task. I need to find the armory, since that's the one place it's most likely to be. Either that or somewhere in Alvin's place. So he can bask at it thinking he has me at his mercy. I need to find it, and the only way is by air.
I raise my hand and slowly walk toward the dragon. Tiptoeing like Skullette showed me when approaching prey. The Nightmare hisses and automatically my hands fumble to the notch on my cloak. I unbutton it with one snap of my middle finger and thumb, my cloak puddles around my feet.
With my Dragon Conqueror uniform exposed, the dragon raises his head in bewilderment. But his guard is still high. People are gathering around at the site of me in my uniform. They call their kids, their brothers, their neighbors, all calling and yelling that Alvin has the Dragon Conqueror captured.
The Nightmare stays put as I inch closer. He doesn't seem threatened by me, but something still keeps him hesitant. He snarls at my hand, but doesn't step back. As I'm nearing closer, I realize, I don't even know what Alvin wants me to do.
I lower my hand and step back a few feet before asking, "What exactly am I doing?"
"Training dragons obviously." Is all he says to me before taking a seat in a stone throne. His voice had an impatient tone to it. As if I've just asked him a question that was so obvious.
I sigh as I look back at the Monstrous Nightmare. His eyes are normal, body still swaying back and forth, but he's not snarling. I take a deep breath before I approach him slowly. He shifts his claws so he can push himself higher, towering over me like a dark shadow.
"It's okay." I say. My voice calm for the dragon. "I'm a friend."
He snorts out a small puff of flames. They dissipate before they can singe off my hair.
Intimidation.
I don't flinch or block my face, I stare at him head on. Showing him he has to do better than that if he wants to scare me.
"Come on, boy!" Alvin shouts, scaring both of us. The Nightmare and I both look in unison as Alvin's fist pounds the arm of his throne. "I'm growing impatient!"
The Monstrous Nightmare roars in irritation at him. Clearly he has a grudge against him. There's my chance. "You too, huh?" I ask.
The Nightmare turns and cocks his head in confusion. "I hate him too. He captured me and forced me in here, against my will." I say. The Nightmare lowers his head his defenses melting. "He took me from my family. He took my freedom. Now there's nothing in this world that I want more, than to be free."
He lifts his head, I extend my hand. He inches closer, and my hand touches his nose. A gentle hand on his snout. Then I remember something that Snotlout did. I thrust myself forward, grab both horns of the dragon and bend them to the ground.
The Monstrous Nightmare purrs and his tongue flaps out in pleasure. I chuckle and let the dragon up. After he shakes out, I climb up on his neck and grab the horns. "Let's escape together." I say. And then the Nightmare fires at the chain dome.
The entire thing shakes with the force of the explosion and smoke bellows out into the sky. I don't give the debris time to stop falling. I can't. The doors are already creaking open, and a guard shouting an alarm.
Snatching my cloak, keeping the hood over my head to protect myself from the worst of it, I pull the Nightmare's horns up and his head follows, facing the gaping hole of the chain dome. The circular opening is nothing more than an opening big enough for both of us.
Crumbled bits of stone and dust cloud the arena. Citizens scream and run for the hills, screaming that the Dragon Conqueror is on the loose. Up above, the sky beckons. We fly forward, scramble over guards and soldiers, and dive through the hole as someone pulls out their sword. We fly high enough to get a bird's-eye view of the entire village.
From the main compound, an alarm bell peals, disturbing the day with insistent clamor. I scan my surroundings, take in the distance between me and the armory – which I can spot with the help of a sloppily painted sword on the front double doors – and start flying.
I'm still ten yards from the ground when someone shouts below me. I don't bother looking. It would just slow me down. Instead, I reach inside my inner cloak pocket and pull out a dagger I was able to keep hidden. From the guards. The never thought to look in a cloak for weapons. Their mistake.
I can hear Alvin shout orders to the guards to shoot me down. I know they don't care whether they hit me or the dragon. Either shot will bring me down. More shouts echo across the yard, and I catch guards with spears running along the causeway, primed to intersect me if it takes me longer than twenty seconds to fly to the armory.
I lunge forward, driving the dragon down and snatching a spear from on guard while the Nightmare's tale wipes them both away like pesky flies. I scan around and see a turret from the outer wall a few hundred yards from the armory. I squint to get a better look and see one of them possessing a bow. It'll have to do until I can find my own.
I thrust the spear forward and it shoots the man right in the heart, the dragon swoops down and in a millisecond makes a sharp left turn away from the turret. Thankfully I got the bow, but with only on arrow ready.
Good enough.
We fly to the armory and I pull back the string. The Monstrous Nightmare puffs its breathe out, and small flames jet through its nostrils, scorching the earth beneath and in front of it. The one guard gets incinerated completely. The other falls to my arrow. We reach the ground, the entire armory slowly being eaten by the flames as they start from the bottom. Slithering their way to the buttresses.
I need to find my bow and sheath and get out before the entire thing collapses. I leap off the Nightmare and turn back, "Can you handle it?" I ask through the flames. He roars and ignites his entire body.
He takes the oncoming guards as I frantically search through the weapons looking for mine. I need to find it quick, I don't want him facing the soldiers alone, even if he can keep it up.
Chucking the bow I stole from the guard on the turret, it slices through the air like a javelin and sinks in the neck of one guard who was about to attack the Nightmare from behind.
My eyes scan through the weapons on the wall, none matching my bow. I shift through the flames, constantly burning my hands when I reach anything metal. Which is everything.
I yelp in pain and grip my hand as I feel the heat scorch beneath my skin.
It's not here.
My hands are covered in red welts as I pry open a big wooden crate. Getting at least three splinters in my fingers. I rummage through crossbows, arrows, knives, but none are mine. But that doesn't mean I should waste them.
I hear the Monstrous Nightmare wail behind me and one Outcast has sunk his knife into the dragon's lower portion of his neck. Not too deep, but blood is already running down from the wound.
"Come on, come on!" I whisper to myself. Panic germinating within me.
My eyes dart back and forth until they home in on a golden bow just in arm's reach and I yank it free. I pull an arrow from the sheath that's still wedged in the crate and arm as I turn. I sink an arrow into the Outcast's calf as he plunges into the flames.
The dragon ignites himself again so no Outcast will try to come too close. He seems fine and I go back to rummaging through the crates. I yank another one open, and there's maces, swords, axes, hatchets, and medieval flails.
The flames continue to eat away the remains of the armory, and my nose and throat are burning. The coughing soon begins after and my lungs feel like I've just swallowed pounds of hot coal. The heat is horrible, but even worse than the heat is the smoke which is filling the armory even with the ceiling blown off. It threatens to suffocate me any minute.
Discomfort turns to distress as each breath sends a searing pain through my joints. I try to clear my throat, but it only burns, and my tonsils feel swollen. Finally my sheath is smashed between an axe and a handful of knives.
"Yes!" I say in a raspy throat.
All of the arrows are untouched, left as they were when they were taken from me in the dungeon. But I need my bow. My hands are blistering but I force myself to open another crate. Nothing.
The flames burn and destroy. I decide it's officially not here. But before I leave, I sling an extra bow and a second sheath of arrows over my body and slide two long knives and a small dagger into my belt to replace the ones I lost.
Smoke billows up, choking me, and flames crawl steadily inward. They've already devoured the walls. One simple blow from the wind, and the place is history. My lungs scream for air, my muscles shake with the need to run, and my skin feels dry and parched. I shoot one arrow before mounting the Monstrous Nightmare.
With one flap, we're in the air, my body gasping for clean air. Unfortunately, the height of the flight, mixed with the nausea from the smoke, I lean to the side and convulse. I can feel the toxins leave me, but my throat's drier than ever.
I look back and the entire armory collapses. The fire spreads quickly along the dry dirt to whatever warehouses were unfortunate enough to be too close. I began to rethink where Alvin would've put my bow and arrows.
Now that I really think about it, I should've figured Alvin wouldn't put a weapon of such value simply among his others. So that his soldiers were so easily capable of reaching it and using it. He would keep it somewhere where he could constantly look at it and feel empowered.
I decide to head to the "Great Hall" here on Outcast Island. Near that dormant volcano. Near the gallows. Behind us the fire chews through the warehouses and small storage shacks, spitting sparks and embers toward the sky and gushing a cloud of black smoke in my wake.
I need to leave, but I need to at least get either my bow or arrow. I can't leave without them.
I steer the dragon to the Great Hall and we land with no issues. The distance from the armory to here is a good long run. So no guards are present. Now's the time. I leap off and sprint through the thick door and the Monstrous Nightmare follows. I push the door open with my elbow and run in.
Inside, there's the smell of lava and smoke. There's a circular fire pit like on Berk, only it looks like it was poorly cut from the stone. I look all around for my bow. It would be hung, somewhere. Where Alvin can see it. I look up and around and I finally see my bow hung on two hooks and strings directly above the fire pit.
As I run for it, suddenly a fist slams me in the jaw. It was so hard I see stars and I fumble back a few feet from the fire pit. I push myself on numb arms and try to clear my eyesight. I look up and see Alvin. His shadow looming over my, cracking his knuckles.
"You've got guts, Hiccup. I admire that." He says, but the darkness in his voice is haunting.
In reply, I spit a mouthful of saliva and blood to the side. My lower lip is swollen and bleeding. And my jaw feels dislocated, but it's probably not. I'm breathing heavy, and before I get to say anything, the Monstrous Nightmare pounds on Alvin, locking his jaws around him like a vise. I push to my knees and rush for my bow as Alvin tries to pry the dragon's jaw open.
I sprint toward the fire pit and with my momentum I flip to my hands and push myself upward. In midair, I turn so my back's facing the fire, and snatch my bow as I dismount. I scream to the dragon, "I've got it!"
He looks and then throws Alvin all the way across the room, slamming him against the wall and falling. His impact against the wall left a wide, cracked dent. I climb onto the dragon and pat his neck for a job well done. We fly out of the Great Hall and into the village.
By now, the fire's starting to grow closer, but I can tell it's being contained. There's a forest not too far from the village, and there's a river less than one hundred and fifty yards to the west. I know it, and the dragon knows it too. We head for it in unspoken agreement.
As we fly, we avoid flaming arrows and catapults. I fire arrows at any I can get into range. And once we make it over the wall, freedom devours me from the inside. Finally being out of there, it's rejuvenating. But I need to stay focused as we aren't out of range of the arrows and that guards are pouring out of the iron gates.
The Monstrous Nightmare turns and bursts a fire that cuts off the guards' access to the woods. It chews through the forest like it's nothing. For two minutes, we fly with no problem. In the distance, I see the deep blue-black surface of the river glittering beneath the afternoon sun.
We fly further, and just when I think we're in the clear, suddenly the Monstrous Nightmare bucks up and down, screaming and wailing. "Whoa! Whoa!" I say, but it's too stunned. I look down and an arrow has shot it in the heart.
"No. No!" I scream. I look ahead and we're within jumping distance within the river. "Please, stay with me buddy. Just a little bit longer." I plead.
The dragon shakes his head and level's out, but the ride's rockier than before. We fly further down to the ground so we're no more than a few meters. The fire follows us, and catches on the dragon's tale. The smoke's increasing and the burning sensation returns times forty. My lungs burn, and my hands are raw from prying at the crates.
But I increase the pace as the wall of heat behind me whispers along my skin. We don't crash into the river, but a gigantic puddle of mud. I'm flung off the Monstrous Nightmare and land at the outside border of the puddle.
The Monstrous Nightmare screams and wails as he tries to move out of the mud. The substance making a deep slosh sound as he moves. But it's no use, the mud saturates his wings, making it impossible to lift them. I crawl toward it as the flames come closer. I extend my hand to no avail.
But creature wails at me, telling me to run. But I can't leave it behind. Not after what it's just done for me. I whimper, unable to speak from the smoke. The dragon cries, but lowers his head into my lap. Tears sting my eyes, and suddenly I cradle the dragon's snout in my arms. I sob and suddenly I don't want to go.
The sound of pursuing Outcasts is heard in the distance. I jerk my head up and then look down to the dragon. The color fading from his eyes. He breathes and a few of my tears drip onto his snout.
He lifts his head and roars at me to move. I force myself to stand and turn my back to the dragon. I sprint on my legs, refusing to looks back. If I do, I'll never slip away. The fire is now ahead of me, and I have to climb up a tree to avoid getting burned.
I make my final leap and skid along a branch. I catch myself and grip a branch. I hold my bow close to my chest, and with on leap, I dive out of the trees and into the crisp, icy cold water.