I jumped onto Magi, newly found fear cousing through me like a river. Magi squawked at the sounds of fire burning as me and Aesa flew as quickly as our Nadder and Gronckle could. I looked below me to see the poor village scrambling to the worn out Forge, for any type of weapon.

I flew above them to the first house I saw, and landed Magi in front of it, my Raiding Job being to salvage as much from houses as possible. That was all the teens' job during raids. Magi roared at me in worry as I ran through the house, collecting the few items there were. I picked up a few blankets, a book, and some rope. I looked around at the place, and made my way out of the door just before it exploded.

The Dragon had some how shot a big bolt of fire at the baseodd the house, and I flew through the air. Magi screamed in alarm and flew up to catch me before I fell and hurt myself. I looked at the house and saw that the house's fire had spread to the one next to it. Aesa ran through the door, screaming, a sack trailing behind her. I screamed and ducked as a bright fire erupted in the one last sheep pen we had in the Village, making the sheep run around and bleat in fear.

Vikings scrambled all around, and I turned around to see some poor woman trying to protect what seemed like an eight year old girl from the raid. My heart went out instantly, but Aesa gasped loud enough for me too hear. I turned to her and in the light I saw her pale face, and she shakily pointed to the sky. I slowly turned my head and against the bright moon's light I saw Draki, his scales lit on full blaze, searching for something. The only part of him that wasn't on fire was anywhere on his head and neck. Replacing the fire was the smallest outline of a human, apparently looking for something too.

It was obviously Draki, he had the brightest, most orange scales then any Monsterous Nightmare they've ever seen. They looked even brighter with the fire. Draki was Runa's Nightmare, who's name mean "Snake" or "Monster". She usually called him Drake.

Drake's eyes focused on something in the night, or rather Runa did, because quickly enough, they were both riding to where the fire was all coming from; The Dragon. Me and Aesa's eyes widened in fear, knowing already how badly this was going to end. "Kadlin!" I heard Aesa shout. "We've got to help her!" I jerked around to face her, covering my face and blinking as something exploded from near by, sending ash and charcoal over me. "Are you insane?!" I just managed to shout over the corruption, despite being about 15 feet away from her.

"Probably!"

I groaned and rolled my eyes as she ran over to Hog and climbed onto his back, taking off with a rickety start. "Alright, alright, I'm coming..." I muttered to myself. I called for Magi, who I had forgotten was right beside me, and hopped onto her back, easily taking flight. It was so much better up here away from the fire, I looked down to see that the entire town was on fire. No exaggeration. I even saw a basket next tot he Chief's house on fire, along with their entire garden.

I focused back onto the task at hand, and saw that Draki had stopped. I caught up to Hog and Aesa, and found they were just as confused. We looked at each other and both seemed to understand that Draki had stopped in fear of the Beast. I turned to face said dragon, and shouted out to Runa, who wasn't that far ahead, "Come back! You'll never be able to do it, even with us!" I know. Nice self-estem booster. Runa looked back at us, with a confused expression. Suddenly her face lit with an idea, and she turned Drake away from his trance of fear, and started going...North of the Village?

My confusion etched across my face; why would she go in the complete opposite of The Dragon?

Both me and Aesa turned Magi and Hog over to follow her when the worst possible thing (at the moment) happened. A big, strangely colored, fireball hit Magi's tail, and she shrieked in pain like she's never screamed before. My eyes misted up; that meant certain death for us. If The Dragon was specifically aiming for us, there was no point in hiding. I felt Magi's wings alter as she was loosing balance. I looked up just in time to see Hog over top over and a sack tossed down on top of me. I growled at the fact I couldn't see anything, but I soon realized what she had done.

When we had landed, quite a rickety landing, Magi was crying her eyes out. I lead her over in a covered alley, and picked up a random stick. I placed the sack over the part of the burnt tail where the fire hit, no matter how many times she tried to bite and claw me, and wrapped it around, and using the stick to keep it in place. It was a messily made bandage with the wrong material, but that was the best we had for the moment. I looked down at the alley and saw many other useful items. None which we needed any time soon.

I lured Magi out of the alley, and gently climbed onto her back, and we took off after Drake.

Hog was right next to us when we took off, and Aesa shouted to me, "Did it work?" I nodded, with out saying anything; the firing had stopped and I had no idea if this meant the thing was tracking us or not. "Which was did you see Drake go?" I asked after a moment. A Nightmare-like roar erupted form the air, past the Mountain over the Great Hall. "Well, never mind then." I muttered as we followed the roar. We flew for about 5 minutes before we landed behind the mountain, and found Runa arguing with Drake.

"You pig-headed, dragon! Get back here!"

*Hiss*

"Fine, you want to stay here here that...that 'thing' can get you? Fine! Fine by me!"

Drake's expression revealed his consideration, and he slowly walked towards Runa again, hanging his head. "That's a good boy." She said, patting his head. His eyes turned to slits, but he ignored the comment anyway.

All me and Aesa could do was sit there and snicker.

Runa finally turned to us. She opened her mouth to say something, when suddenly she spotted Magi's tail. Her eyes widened, and she zhouted, "What happened?! Oh you poor thing!" she cried out as she rushed over to her. Magi ignored her as well, but she never let her near her tail. That was understandable. "So what now?" I asked. She turned to me, "We find that Dragon-thing of course! It's after us for some reason now anyway, so why not?" "Because we'll die." "But we'll die either way anyway. Hiding from it, which is pointless, and going after it (which I added in my mind, also pointless). You see?" I sighed.

At this time, Aesa stepped up to speak. "I honestly, agree with Runa at the moment. If we some how find something else that will help with the attacks, we could bring it back to the village!" I shook my head. "No, no, no, no, no, this is just suicidal! Any move we make is suicidal..." I muttered. Aesa looked at me with pleading eyes. "We can't go back to the village now. Now that I'm away from it I...I can't go back now...besides, I doubt we'll find anything to help poor Magi there." she said, gesturing to her. I turned and saw my Nadder lying on the ground, her eyes half closed in pain. My heart hurt at the sight, and i finally realized they were right...we can't go back now. I turned to them in defeat. "Well we can't stay here, it's too close to the town. We need to move farther up." Runa and Aesa's eyes shinned that I had agreed.

We set up camp after about 15 minutes of walking. Magi wouldn't go any farther. I sat down next to her and rummaged through the things I was still carrying during the raid. The book turned out to be some sort of history book (gross), but meanwhile I still had the blanket and rope. While I replaced the sack and stick with the blanket and ropes, Runa was tending to a fire, and Aesa was flipping through the book.

"Hold. Still." I muttered, as Magi kept jerking her tail away from me. I looked at her with pleading eyes and she finally gave in. I was just wrapping the rope lightly around the blanket so it wouldn't fall off, when suddenly, Aesa shouted, "Look at this!"

I sighed. "What now?" Aesa looked like she had discovered a gold mine. "Look look look look look look!" "Ok, geez! Calm down! What is it?" I made my way over from Magi, who was watching with curiosity, and Runa came back to look after getting the fire started. "Look there. And read it out loud." I looked at the part of the page she was pointing at, and read,

"Mysterious Disappearance of Wealthy Chieftain Family."

My eyes widened with the name underneath.