How to Train Humans
Ch. 2: Downed Dragons
(Windstrike POV)
How? I and my partner were so unbeatable! We had not been caught for years! Why then?
"Windstrike!" My partner screeched at me as we fell from our domain. I only let out a scream of fury and then pain as we hit a tree and continued to slide roughly against the ground. I felt only pain as I scraped against boulders and low branches. My partner not much better.
We finally stopped after rolling over a large boulder. I flopped onto my stomach roughly and my partner lay next to me on his left side. I looked up and saw that he was tangled up in some ropes. Ropes! I the examined myself. I too was caught. I snarled in discust and began trying to wriggle out of my bonds. If I could get free I could free my partner. I was not going to leave him to die.
Suddenly I caught the scent of a human. I turned my head to the sourse I then scented another comining from the opposite direction. I growled and nudged my partner. He grumbled and flinched.
"Get up you lazy salamander!" I growled at him.
"I don't want to!" He protested.
"Humans are coming!" I snapped angrily as the younger Night Fury shifted in his rest. I sighed and started to squirm around again. That was when my partner froze. I looked up again and saw a glimps of a human's head. I flopped back down and lay there, acting dead.
The footsteps were getting closer. I braced myself for the worse. I then heard an audible gasp.
"Night Fury..." The human whispered. I lay there still as the human came closer. I then flinched when I felt the human touch me with her foot. It wasn't hard but she did touch me. I knew my cover had been blown.
"Stay calm Nightdevil," I said to the other Night Fury. "Don't move a muscle." I didn't hear a reply but I knew he understood. I then opened my right eye to see the human looking at me in amazement. But not fear.
She was thin with long blonde hair and bangs that hid her right eye from view. Her eyes were saphire and her atire was plain. She held a dagger of pure diamond in her right hand. It wasn't in the position of one that would attack but it wasn't held loosly either. I stared at the weapon with fear. Diamond was the worse weapon to use against a Night Fury. It was deadly to us.
"Who could have done this?" She said more to herself than to me. I didn't even blink.
"Why would anyone want to harm such beautiful dragons?"
Beautiful? I didn't know what she was playing at or if she had drunk sea water, but I didn't like it. She suddenly bent down and held the dagger up. I eyed the thing with fear. She then placed it on the ropes binding me and I closed my eye again, waiting for the end. I then heard snapping. I opened both eyes and watched as the human cut away the ropes. She then backed away from me and I lept up. I glared at the human with anger as she walked over to Nightdevil. I kept my cool and watched as she got ready to cut away the bonds of my partner. I suddenly caught the scent of the human. It was getting closer. I lost all other thought and lept up. I began to fly away quickly when suddenly I fell.
...
(Hiccup POV)
I quietly made my way through the outskirts of Berk and into the forests towards Raven's Point. Everyone else in the village would be doing repair jobs to clean up after the raid and my mess. So I was confident that nobody would take any notice of my absence.
Everyone was most likely in the meade hall right now. That was where the villagers gathered whenever Dad made his plans for finding the Dragon's Nest; though every ship that went looking for it never came back. They all got lost in the fog known as Helhiem's Gate.
I opened my notebook to the map of Berk I drew last year, despite my impulsiveness and short attention span-I just tend to pay attention to everything all at once making it hard to listen to what people tell me-I'm actually quite observant and aware of my surroundings. I always keep my notebook on hand in case I find something interesting so I can take note of it or make a sketch. It's my only keepsake of my Mom, Valhallarama. I don't have many memories of Mom, and the ones I do have are fuzzy. She passed away when I was very young. My strongest memory of her is my third birthday when she gave me my notebook saying it might come to be useful one day.
"Alright…"I muttered circling the point from where I shot down the Night Fury, "If the Night Fury fell from there…it should have landed about here?" I drew a line from the origin point to the Raven Point area. It was time to start searching.
Several hours later, my map was full of cross outs and I was starting to go to any random spot, squeeze my eyes shut and pray that I got lucky and found the Night Fury. But, I had no luck.
Typical, just typical. It looks as if the gods finally cut me a little slack by giving me a chance to prove myself, then yank it back just when I can grasp it.
Come on…Now… I thought. I opened my eyes. No Night Fury. I took several deep breaths in an attempt to calm down and crossed out another spot on my map, then my frustration getting to me, started scribbling out the whole map.
"Oh the gods hate me…" I groaned. Everyone else did, so why not them too? I shoved my pencil back into my pocket book and tucked it into my vest, "Some people lose their knife or their mug, or even their left sock. But NOOOOOOOOOOOO! Not me! I manage to lose an entire Dragon!" I slapped a branch out of my way-which immediately snapped back to slap me right in the face.
THWAK!
"OW!" That was it. I was about the tear the branch off, when I noticed that the tree it was attached to was split lengthwise right down the middle. One half of the tree had been flattened against the hill and after, there was a huge trench as if something had plowed its way through the ground.
What came through here? I ran down the hill following the trail towards several large boulders and ducked down as fast as I could! Only a few feet away from me, was the Night Fury.
It looked nothing like I imagined. Except the color of its scales, jet black. But, I always imagined that the Night Fury would be this great beast with spikes all over its body, near impenetrable armored scales, and a wing span of over fifty feet!
In reality, the Night Fury wasn't that big. I'd put it at about fifteen feet long. It had slightly stubby legs, almost like those of a dog. The head was slightly triangular with floppy ears, two stubby horn-like projections from the back of the skull along with a net like flap from the cheeks, and the wings, when fully spread out must have had a wing span of close to twenty feet. I also noticed a second set of wings attached to its hind legs. And unlike most Dragons, the Night Fury had a short neck and no nose horn.
To sum it up, this Dragon was built for speed.
I quickly drew my dagger from my belt and taking a few deep breaths to gather up my courage, sprinted down the slope leaned back against the boulders. Then taking another breath and holding my dagger at the ready I stepped out from behind the boulder. It was rightly called "Night Fury" among other more important things; I couldn't help but wonder if the night sky itself had come to life in the shape of a Dragon. I inched closer holding my dagger up in both hands.
"I…I…I did it…" I gasped amazed at my own success, "Thi-This fixes everything! Oh YES!" If I brought home proof that I had indeed felled a Night Fury, everyone would finally stop giving me a hard time and start singing my praises of how I felled the most feared of Dragons using my ingenuity.
"I have brought down this mighty creature!" I shouted proudly planting a triumphant foot on the Night Fury's side, then without warning it shifted under my foot causing me to lose my balance, "WHOA!" I stumbled backwards nearly falling over. I somehow managed to regain my footing and glanced back at the Dragon.
One, bright yellow green tinted cat-like eye was staring right at me. I gulped, still pointing my dagger at its belly, right about where its heart should be. I took a deep breath and gathered up my courage.
"I'm going to kill you Dragon." I said in a low voice, "I'll cut out your heart and take it back to my father…" I turned back to glare back at the Dragon to show I meant it. And yet…something in the back of my head was telling me not to strike.
"I…Am…A…Viking." I said, my words shook slightly.
No… I can't back down now! Not when I'm so close! I took another deep breath, raised my dagger high above my head squeezed my eyes shut and readied myself to strike. I took another deep breath, and another, and another…I opened one eye and saw that the Dragon's eyes had gone slit in absolute terror. My arms froze in place.
No! Not now! Please Odin not now! I prayed frantically and squeezed my eyes shut again and once again readied to strike! I had to, I had to cut the Dragon's heart out and finally prove myself as a man to Berk!
This is slaughter. A voice in the back of my head said, The Night Fury can't even move while it's all tied up. Killing it while it can fight back is one thing, but while it's defenseless…And I then realised how majestic the dragon was.
"I'm…a…Viking…" I groaned my arms going slack the dagger's flat coming to rest on the top of my head. No…This…wasn't what I was meant to do. The more I thought I found I really didn't want to kill the Night Fury. Dad was right, I was no Dragon Slayer. I was doomed to be a weakling for the rest of my life.
I lowered my arms to look at my dagger, then at the Night fury tied up with the bola I shot at it. I sighed heavily knowing what I had to do.
"I did this…" I said and got down on one knee, and started cutting at the ropes that held the Night Fury constrained.
"One more…" I gasped somehow knowing the dragon could understand my words (and I wouldn't have been at all surprised if it had some idea of what I was thinking too), "And you're free!" With those words, I cut through the last rope. I was about to tell the Night Fury to fly away, go home, get far away and stay where ever it and the other dragons lived, when suddenly, the Night Fury sprang up onto its feet and pounced!
"AGH!" I yelped and tried to get away, but the Night Fury was faster! It pinned me against the boulders, one powerful paw around my throat making it difficult to breathe! My dagger had been knocked out of my hand and skittered away out of my reach. I gasped and tried to pull the paw off me, only a little more pressure, and my throat would've been crushed!
I stared into the Dragons green tinted yellow eyes terrified! Either I was about to be burned to a crisp or have my head bitten off! The tables had been turned. Now I was defenseless and in the Dragon's exact position only moments earlier.
The Night Fury glared at me, then…miraculously, impossibly, it let me go! I coughed clutching at my throat trying to get some air into my lungs and felt the large bruise left behind. I looked back up. The Night Fury rose onto its hind legs roared at me showing its fangs, then turned and flew away crashing into the trees. I stood up shakily using the boulder behind me for support. I stepped forward to watch the Night Fury vanish into the forest.
I shakily got up but only took a few steps before I fainted.
...
(Shelen POV)
After freeing the first Night Fury I made my way over to the second. I was about to cut the first ropes when the first Night Fury, the one that was pitch black, lept up and flew off in a panic. I then heard a voice. I looked up and heard the words.
"...Some people lose their knife, or a mug, or even their left sock. But noooo, not me! I had to lose an entire dragon!"
I then heard a thwacking sound. And a cry of pain. I quickly found a tree to hide behind and hoped the other bola was hidden behind the still captured Night Fury. I peeked behind my tree and saw...Hiccup? The chief's son? What was he doing out here?
Hiccup was staring at the Night Fury I had failed to save. He then began to rejoice. I glared at him from behind my tree. How dare he be happy about this! But then I remembered he was still a
"proper" Viking.
He placed a foot on the Night Fury's front paw. The dragon flicked him off with a twitch of it's paw. I held my breath knowing the Night Fury's chance of survival was going down. Hiccup raised his knife.
'No!' I thougt, 'Please, Hiccup, don't!' I wanted to run out and take the knife from him. But something was telling me that it was fate that the two encounter. I could only watch. When I thought Hiccup was close to killing the dragon, I looked away.
I suddenly heard a sigh. I looked back and saw Hiccup backing away. He then began to cut the ropes himself. I held my breath again and as soon as the ropes were all loosened. The dragon pounced. It glared at Hiccup as he gasped for breaths. The dragon then raised it's head and I thought that it would bite Hiccup's head off, but instead, the dragon screeched in Hiccup's face and flew off after the other. I waited till the dragon was out of sight to walk out from behind my tree. I watched as Hiccup was walking back to the village. He then collapsed. I walked over, slightly confused, then I rolled him over with my foot. He had fainted. I sighed and picked him up. It wouldn't do any good to leave him in the woods. So I took him back to the village. Could Hiccup be a supporter of dragons now? I wondered. I would have to find out.
Chapter Two. Did you like the left sock joke? I had been dying to add that XD