As promised, a new story is here! This one should be quite short compared to my others, I hope. I don't want another one that goes on and on like The Runaway did (though I must say, I didn't plan the last few chapters in advance...). So, here we go, the preview for my next story! Enjoy.
The Death Of Berk- Chapter1
This was fire like nothing else. The kind of fire that you could feel meters away, scorching your clothes and singeing your hair. Fire so bright it dazzled your eyes. Smoke so black it blotted out the sun and the sky above, choking everything around it. Ash floating like tiny insects on the hot wind, embers nipping your bare skin if you were stupid enough to get too close. Funnels of thick fumes reached miles into the sky; great, swaying black beacons.
The trees around the devastation curled into black husks, twisted charcoal fingers grasping at their life force as the flames drew it away. Somewhere in that mass of chaos, there used to stand a town. In fact, if you were to peer close enough, you would find the broken shadows of buildings still burning. The lower levels of the village still stood, the barns, harbour, water tower and nesting places still tucked away in a bubble of safety. Ships cowered between the long platforms of the docks, some cut loose and floating away, others used as escape vessels for the villagers escaping their destroyed home.
Pounding footsteps disturbed the dust-covered grass that grew between the tall, thick pines. Spiky boughs shuffled and swayed as a blackened figure pushed them aside in her hurry to be away. She picked her way across the uneven ground, quick yet careful, jumping from rock to rock, grass to dirt, fleeing her village. Before her, she spotted an outcrop jutting out towards the sea, so close yet so far, twisting up into the sky, almost as tall as the trees themselves. With light precision, she scrambled up to the top, finally taking a moment to look back at the place she had fled.
Ruffnut doubled over, coughing wetly, spitting phlegm into the ashy bushes below. Her breathing was ragged and laboured, her lungs full of black. They had chased her clean through the village, between the rows of burning properties, relentless and cruel. The flames had blocked her view; she had been lost within her own home, such an unfamiliar feeling. Dashing from street to street, in a frenzy of fear and alarm...
Shaking her head, she tried to cleanse her thoughts of it, but every time she looked up at the smouldering wreck of Berk, it all came flooding back. Another bout of coughing consumed her, the taste of soot in her throat sharp and sickening. Everything she knew was gone. Everything; her friends; her family; her dragon: gone. She closed her eyes to the swelling feeling of tears, the heat rising in her cheeks. It felt like the end of everything, and yet, she still had to go on...
...And you have to wait to read the rest! I'm sorry. Aren't previews supposed to entice you to read on?
On a side-note, I have an idea for a sequal to The Runaway, if anyone is interested. I know there are a few of you who asked for it or about it. Well, if I get enough support and people wanting it, I will be happy to oblige you and to write out The Runaway 2: Under Siege.
That's all for now. Stay tuned for The Death of Berk. Dissidia180, out!