~Ouroboros~
.
1st – 15. From the Other Side
.
.
The world was eerily silent when he woke up, and that by itself puts him on guard. Looking around he can tell that he was in his room within the house he and his father lived in. It had been several months since they had to rebuild it and he was still not used to it – although it was built the same way as the previous one, there were some subtle differences that stuck out to him – too many planks of wood along the wall, a certain 'freshly cut' wooden smell still lingering within the house…
His mother's now burned up cape missing from the hooks near the door…
But none of that was what brought him on guard. Several months in dragon training had given him a good feel for danger, especially after he got his mind straightened out and realized just how… necessary this training was. Unfortunately that was after Tuffnut's death – but no one could have done anything about it, and at least it got all the others to nearly redouble their efforts at training.
It had been that sense that allowed him to survive his encounters with the Devil, and that same feeling was now screaming out at him. Something was wrong, and as had been pounded into him by Gobber, there was nothing worse than to feel something off and not know what was causing that feeling.
Scrambling out of his bed he didn't even bother to throw on a vest, even as his hand grabbed at the axe leaning against the corner of his bed. He carefully moved through the unsurprisingly empty house – Stoick having likely not returned home after the fiasco of the last raid – not his fault for the first time. At the doorway outside he paused with his hand on the handle. His feeling of unease had intensified to levels where it was impossible to ignore.
Taking a deep breath he opened the door and rushed out, ready to take on whatever was there.
The first thing that hit him was a literal wall of sound. There simply was no explanation for why the cacophony of screams, yells, and roars had not been heard through the walls – by all rights the house should have been vibrating from the noise – but now was not the time to wonder about such minor matters.
Even though the last dragon raid had been just a day ago, it was obvious from the dragons filling the air that they had decided to return – and in much greater force than before. No matter – the village would survive as it always had.
Running off towards the nearest roars he hefted his axe and prepared for battle. From the looks of it there were over twice the number of dragons as compared to the amount that normally came during raids, and he could only thank the gods that the Nightfury that he had released in his temporary bout of insanity (the same one that had taken off the moment he did, not even bothering to kill him before flying away) had not been seen since.
Skidding along the cobblestones he pushed everything away as he took in the battle before him – two Vikings facing off against a group of Nadders. Steeling his resolve the way his father taught him before the last training session against that Devil he ran in, not even bothering to yell out a battle cry that he always found to be good only for alerting the dragons to his position. Even as a Viking warrior he was… different – but no longer in a bad way.
Luck was on his side this time as the Nadders did not see him until he had his axe lodged within the first one's throat. The other three turned around upon hearing the gurgling death cries, allowing the other two Vikings to narrow the distance between them and take down two more, leaving only one Nadder against the three of them.
Pulling his axe out he prepared to rush the last dragon when the ground shook under his feet and his instincts went wild. Subconsciously he noticed that the other two Vikings and the last Nadder were no longer there, but that did not matter. What mattered to him was the dragon that had landed behind him. Turning around to gaze into the open maw of a monstrous Nightmare, he knew he was not getting out of this alive. Letting his muscles sag in defeat he could only utter one thing before the liquid fire consumed him:
"Oh Hel take y– "
.
.
Hiccup woke up with a yell, flailing his arms against the material that seemed to be suffocating him. Still half asleep he rolled off his bed and onto the floor, his arms too tied up to be of any use to break the fall.
His head hitting the wooden floor stunned him for a moment, the pain shooting through his head being enough to finish waking him up and causing his scream to abruptly cut off. His heart was still frantically attempting to escape from his chest, and for a moment he just lay there blinking away the white stars swimming through his vision while trying to understand where he was.
It took a moment longer for him to successfully calm down enough to realize his awkward position which he quickly attempted to rectify by freeing himself from the furs that had tangled him up as tightly as his own bola had tied up the Nightfury before he released it. Tossing the furs back onto his bed Hiccup looked himself over before making his way out of his room to wash away the sweat coating his body.
The nightmare he had just experienced was much more vivid than those he usually had, and even now he could feel the phantom pain that had woken him up just moments before. He shivered at that thought. Even though it was only in a dream, the burning sensation over his entire body just seemed so real…
His breath hitched and he almost screamed as pain needled its way through his chest before realizing that in his dazed state he had unconsciously started scratching at the still healing wounds along his chest, which were now complaining about their treatment. Carefully untying the bindings Hiccup sighed in relief to see that the bindings over his wounds prevented him from opening them back up, otherwise he would have had to spend even more time taking care of them, instead of just grabbing a new sheet and wrapping it around his chest again after the mandatory bath.
That was of course the easy part of the day. After that would come dragon training, and he sincerely hoped to get through it today without coming as close to death as yesterday. Although if what he read about Nadders was true, it would perhaps be more prudent to just hope to survive instead.
.
.
I woke up earlier than usual for the second sun cycle in a row – early enough that the sun goddess had yet to rise high enough to shine through the cracks of the door of my cave, but it would not be long now as the darkness of her sister had already retreated.
The human that I heard referred to as Gobber by the others was once more going around the Kill-ring (the human name for this place) and checking the doors of the caves I and the others inhabited. Afterwards he would come around again to pass some food to us as well. I used to wonder just how far I and the others here had fallen to accept food and be cared for like a newborn hatchling, but over time I have come to terms with it. It wasn't like the humans would let us out to hunt for ourselves, and even though I had come to accept this life I knew that if I was given a chance I would try and escape.
Two sun cycles ago I heard the humans bringing in a RunaEfai and lock it up in one of the caves. Something within me wanted to attempt to free it from the darkness that I could still feel surrounding its mind, but I knew from the last few Cycles when the same thing had happened that the dark fog was too strong, even this far from the nest. Over time as skylust began to erode its way into its mind the RunaEfai may break out of the tumor like fog surrounding it, but it usually took over three moon cycles for it to accumulate to that level and I knew that this particular RunaEfai did not have that much time.
I felt sad for it, knowing that it would likely die without experiencing even a single moment of freedom, but there was truly nothing I could do for it besides pray to the twin goddesses that it would break free before the final blow brought about its death. All I could do was focus on myself.
A sun cycle ago Monzis, the AngaEcor in the cave alongside mine was let out to fight against a group of human hatchlings, and if things progressed the same ways as the last two Cycles, it would be my turn next.
As always, I would play around with them some and then go back here once more. The best part of course was the chance to stretch my wings more frequently than twice a month that I was… allowed… to.
Oh, I knew the purpose for this – I was nowhere near as naïve as Monziswas, unlike her I was much older – old enough to remember the time before the darkness consumed our entire tribe. She thought that every time they let her out was just a game – a tussle with the other hatchlings.
Sometimes I envy her for her naïve thoughts, other times I pity her – she had been caught under the darkness even before her hatching, which had the unfortunate effect of forever leaving her mind in a hatchling state.
Me? I knew that the humans were using us to train their young to fight against dragons – teach them how to attack and defend against us…
Teach them how to kill us.
I knew perfectly well that I was in fact helping them become better and more efficient at killing my own kin.
Perhaps humans, with their strange beliefs would consider this as betrayal – a word I learned only through watching and hearing their interactions before the descent of my entire tribe into the darkness.
Betrayal – such a foreign concept to me and my kin… At least I would like to think so.
No, I do not consider what I do as betrayal, instead I do what any other dragon in my place would have done – I accept my place as a 'training tool' for these humans and carefully guide them to become better at killing my own kin – for that is the only way that I can help release my tribe from the grasp of the darkness consuming them. My tribe in a sense that it could have been – as the second oldest elder in the tribe I should have become CoiraRei after the previous CoiraRei was killed defending our tribe, but considering the darkness that took over mere moments later it did not matter.
After all, what was a tribe without its people; and what was a CoiraRei without a tribe for it to protect.
But even so, I would do right by those that could have been a part of my tribe and break them out of the darkness, even if I have to take part in killing them for that to happen.
Death and rebirth were after all infinitely more preferable to the atrocious acts that were inflicted upon our minds and souls by IT, as I have started to call the darkness. I do not remember ever seeing what IT really is, for whatever IT is, IT covers itself in the cursed darkness both in the real world and the river of souls; but somehow the name seems to fit. Just like the cursed insanity that we all fear, IT wrests control over ourselves away and consumes our minds – turning us into nothing more than beasts under its control…
…And all dragons would agree that death is preferable to the cursed life of a NaaiNe.
As it was, I knew that I had only a couple more Cycles before I needed to take my own life as well – the chances to stretch my wings, few and far between as they were, were only capable of holding off skylust for so long. It had already been four Cycles since I had been released from the darkness – released and thrust into a different kind of captivity. No matter how much I try to hold on to my sanity, the short flights I am allowed are incomparable to true flight in the boundless expanse of the sky, and it gnaws away at me. It was slowly becoming harder and harder to ignore that itch in the back of my mind – still easy enough that I did it subconsciously and only felt it if I concentrated on it, but that would not last for much longer.
Some dragons like Ael-Lea, the AttaEcor caged several caves away from mine are capable of holding off insanity for quite a long time due to its twin mind providing a much stronger hold to fight off skylust – it had been living in these confines for several Cycles before I was captured, and during the times we converse I can tell that even though Ael finds the Kill-ring even more constricting than I do, together with Lea its mind is still clearer than mine, though of course not untouched by skylust.
Others like the petite nameless AiRei from the Gronn hatch-group and even Monzis were small enough that even the small confines of the Kill-ring we were kept in were expansive enough to sate skylust's thirst. I was unfortunately just a tad too large for that.
No matter though, I had long ago come to terms with the idea that I would die either by the claws of those I taught or through my own mind once the itch of skylust rose to levels where I had to consciously hold it down, representing that my mind was too close to shattering.
I had seen the NaaiNe born from one of my race that was held here, both through the cracks in the doors of my cave and within the realm of the mind. While the feral one winged beast that I saw in the physical world was horrific to see with its mindless eyes searching for prey, it was the sight of its mind that destroyed any lingering doubts about death being the better choice.
Everything that had at one point represented the dragon – the flames of energy surrounding its mind, the layers of thought and memory surrounding the soul, and of course the soul itself, seemed to have turned in on itself and burned itself out, leaving behind nothing but a black sphere that seemed to absorb light around it. A black sphere within which the soul must still be, stuck in a state between life and death – its mind gone but the connection between mind and body twisted beyond recognition into a chain to keep the soul from falling down into the realm of the moon goddess; back into the cycle of rebirth.
A NaaiNe – a burned out mind… An apt name for a being whose very existence was twisted away from a soul carrier and into that of a soul cage.
Worse than seeing the black sphere that took place of the mind of a dragon that has fallen into insanity was the knowledge that it had once been someone I knew from my tribe before the darkness consumed us – the body of the NaaiNe was certainly old enough for it to have been born before that. Now that its mind was gone it was impossible to know of course – I couldn't even tell if it had been male or female without coming close enough to check the physical body, not that it would ever let me approach it. What truly scared me though was the memory of the hatchlings of my own eggs and the knowledge that the fallen one could have been one of them – the knowledge that one of them could have been thrust into this cursed existence.
To be dead, and yet alive – to simply exist and not be allowed to continue on…
No, I would accept death a thousand times over to prevent myself from turning out like it, and if I could I would grant death to it so as to quicken the cursed soul's return to the cycle of rebirth.
By the eternal abyss, even the return to the darkness would be preferable to that cursed life.
Slightly more preferable perhaps, but preferable nevertheless.
That thought having run its course, I settled down to wait. It wouldn't be long now before I was let out to train this current batch of dragon killers.
I may forgive them for what they must do, but that does not mean that I must like them and praise them for it.
.
.
The human named Gobber was standing just to the side of the doors of my cave and I knew that any moment now I would be let out. I wondered briefly on how I should make my appearance – slamming my way out with a screech, or possibly releasing a cone of flame into the doors so as to both slam them open from the pressure while simultaneously providing a show of my power by having the doors be burning as I made my way out.
In the end, I decided to just slam my way out – it was a hatchling's mistake to use any of your limited weapons when you did not need to. Especially considering that even with my precise controls over my body each shot of my flames used up about as much magnesium as I collected from the fish over the course of a couple of sun cycles. In a way it was fortunate that I had been captured instead of a youngling MaegNur, as a youngling would not have been able to collect enough magnesium for its flames without access to the seawaters surrounding these islands.
Besides, during the first lessons I taught there were usually wooden barricades around to give the illusion of fighting inside caverns for the humans, so my grand entrance would probably not even be noticed in any case.
Hearing the grating sound of the doors unlocking I focused my mind and strengthened my bones and scales. Slamming into the door would not harm me, but from now until the end of the lesson I would keep my bones strengthened. I was sure that the hatchlings I was teaching would not be able to actually hurt me – definitely not on their first foray against an elder such as myself, but I have not lived this long by taking chances unless I absolutely had to.
Strengthening my muscles would come later – the mindless dragons during the raids never strengthened their bodies, and if I could teach these hatchlings to fight evenly against me when I increased my strength and reflexes, they would do well during the raids. For now though, I doubted they could keep up with me even at my natural strength and reflexes.
Slamming my way through the door I jumped up onto the barricades littering the entire Kill-ring and spreading my wings leapt into the air. The humans can think whatever they want about my behaviour, but I needed to proverbially scratch at that itch before I could start my lesson. Gracefully performing a tight turn as I neared the top side of the Kill-ring I grabbed at it with my claws and proceeded to run along it before jumping backwards and beating my wings once to fly paws up – a difficult maneuver that even an experienced OiraRae would be hard-pressed to perform to say nothing of a MaegNur such as myself, especially in the tight space such as this. Then again it is not a proper comparison, I have had over f1r12 Cycles to practice before the darkness came; and while I can fly better than most adult OiraRae I have seen during my long life, an elder OiraRae with similar experience would be able to fly circles around me.
Rolling over to right myself I landed right down in the middle of the Kill-ring upon one of the barricades.
Time to get serious.
Lesson start –
Opening my mind I sensed the humans around me. While most Dragonkin know how to hide their souls if they want to be stealthy, and most prey does not have souls that we can use to track them to begin with, most humans are not even aware of their own minds – not to mention the training required to sense other minds or hide their own.
Focusing, I allow myself to see both the physical world and the realm of the river of souls, which I align and layer over each other. Excessively taxing, quite limited by distance, and resulting in a headache like no other after a while from keeping the two views aligned; but so damn useful when searching for that wayward hatchling of your tribe… Or, considering the current situation, the human hatchlings hiding behind the wooden barricades surrounding me.
Seven ice shards in total – the coldest and sharpest of which was outside the Kill-ring – Gobber. The other five – no six, two of them were so close together I almost mistook them as one, were of varying coldness; looking more like smooth frozen orbs of ice than the jagged ice crystals resembling spherical quartz growth of the older humans. These were all within the Kill-ring, and were quite obviously the hatchlings I was to be teaching this Cycle.
Zeroing in on the closest one – female from her scent – I jumped in between the barricades she had been cautiously stalking through and landed directly in front of her. Letting off a squawk of warning I opened up my flame ducts to release the minimal amount of the magnesium rich mixture needed and prepared to let out a cone of fire at her. Watching carefully to make sure I did not accidentally kill off the first hatchling to cross my path, I let off the blinding white flames at the spot she had been at mere moments ago as she dodged away into a side passage. I was quite pleasantly surprised at her reaction time, although I did hesitate for a fraction of a moment before firing to make sure she got away safely, I really did not need to – had I instantly fired off she would have ended up with only superficial burns.
Quite good for a hatchling during its first lesson against me.
Jumping into the intersection I prepared my quills and shot three at her position, even though I knew she had already left the line of fire by jumping into another adjourning passageway. It was more of my way of congratulating her for choosing the correct escape route than an attack; not that she would ever know that.
Ignoring the direction she went off into, I focused instead on the others and proceeded along the path she had come from. Two of the hatchlings were there, and it would be wrong of me to not greet them.
The moment I spotted the hatchlings – siblings most likely from the similarity of their souls, though even siblings shouldn't have souls as close as these two did – I once more let off a squawk of warning and rushed at them. They were quite obviously not nearly as good as that female I met, and I felt a moment of disappointment as they ran screaming away from me, splitting off into separate side passages as soon as they could.
Coming to a stop I momentarily debated about pursuing them before deciding against it – It was only the start of the lesson and I had several other hatchlings to meet before continuing to play around with these two. It wouldn't be fair otherwise. Jumping onto an adjacent barricade I made my way along to one of the three remaining hatchlings. I was not trying to be subtle about it, so I was not expecting him to yell out in surprise at my appearance on top of one of the wooden barricades next to him.
The correct action when facing a dragon of my species (besides attacking in a group from multiple directions) is to always have something ready to block the quills; which while slightly less dangerous than the magnesium flames, more than made up for that with the amount of them available. As such when the hatchling below me raised his shield and hefted his hammer (possibly to throw at me, though I did not spare him a chance to find out) I rewarded him with ten quills – three of which I specifically targeted at the shield while the rest pierced deeply into the wooden barricade behind him.
From his panicked glance at the quills stuck in his shield I knew he would not forget this lesson any time soon.
"I am beginning to question your teaching methods!"
I snickered at that which came out as several short chirps before checking the position of the last two hatchlings. One of them seemed to have joined up with the female, while the other…
"… so I was wondering, did we just run out of space in the dragon manual – because I couldn't find anything on Nightfuries…"
Was chatting up Gobber?
Oh this just would not do. Lack of attention when there was a predator around was a sure-fire way of being eaten. I hopped along the barricades towards him, not even bothering to keep out quiet or out of sight.
"… what they eat, or how to approach them – perhaps in another book somewhere?"
Wow. Just wow. I actually froze and my momentary lack of attention caused my view to shatter in two again and making me to lose track of the hatchlings as their souls were no longer aligned with the real world that the eyes of my body saw. The human was so completely oblivious that he did not even notice me staring at him from atop the nearest barricade. What was worse was that he wasn't even behind cover!
I considered my options. This lesson had to be as harsh as I could make, while at the same time not leave him crippled. What to do, what to do…
Ah yes…
I open my jaw slightly in a smirk – Perfect.
Releasing nearly five times the amount of fuel as I had against that female hatchling I tightened my blast of fire into a single beam, and aiming at the axe that he was so carelessly waving about turned it into a splatter of molten metal coating the wall behind him. It took quite a bit of concentration to get the fire that hot and keep it tight enough for the energy not to dissipate; but while a young MaegNur may have very well fried itself, as an elder dragon it was well within my capabilities.
The hatchling's stunned expression as he whipped about to face me before glancing at the piece of burnt wood in his paws almost causes me to break down in laughter. That would of course completely destroy the image I was trying to portray, so instead I move my tail into full view and spread the quills in an obvious show of what was coming next.
"Come on Hiccup – it's like yer not even trying!"
The hatchling was obviously not completely stupid, as the moment I spread my quills he scrambled off towards the nearest barricades. I could have simply let him go, but I really wanted to make sure the lesson stuck in his mind – or perhaps I was simply having too much fun by that point; in any case, shooting three quills at a time I made sure to aim at the point just behind his fleeing paws, giving a very convincing illusion that he was outrunning my shots. By the time he disappeared from my sight behind the barriers there must have been a moonfull or so of my quills stuck deep in the ground.
I had used up perhaps a third of my quills by now, but the rest would be more than enough to last the duration of this lesson and with enough food I could replace all of them within half a moon cycle at most. In any case, if that did not teach him to focus during battle, it would be better to put him out of his misery with a quill between the eyes to spare him the virtually guaranteed and possibly gruesome death during an actual battle.
I started to make my way back in, but my sight flashed white and staggering along the top of the barrier I lost my balance, falling in with a squawk. It felt as if someone was driving my quills slowly into my head, and it was all I could do to just lie there as the world swam around me. Having been surprised into releasing my dual view of the physical and soul worlds without any preparations was taking its toll on me.
Fortunately the hatchlings did not come across me while I was in such a condition as I couldn't even keep strengthening my body from the pain – which meant that a well-placed hit could very well have killed me. Would have been quite ironic to be felled due to the after-effects of one of my best techniques.
Oh f-
A lengthy tirade of human swear words in all fourteen languages I knew, each laden with the pain I was feeling followed, which strangely enough made things just a touch more bearable.
As the pain lessened and the world righted itself I shakily stood back up and strengthening my bones again looked around. I could no longer clearly see the locations of the hatchlings and with their smell crisscrossing all around it was impossible to track them – and I was definitely not starting my technique back up again. After a quick comparison of my options I decided to just wonder aimlessly around and see who would pop up. A surprisingly good strategy considering there were six of them that I could stumble across and the kill ring was quite small even with all the barricades providing places to hide.
Funnily enough the first one I stumbled upon was that same Hiccup that I had so successfully played with last. Or perhaps it would be better to say that he stumbled across me as he simply walked into my path from one of the sides. Spotting me he froze for a moment before making an about-turn and retreating hastily back into the path he came from.
Naturally I leapt after him with a grin on my face.
"Oh gods why me? Why is it always me!?"
Noticing he was about to run off into a side passage I released a blast of fire that carried past him and onwards along the passageway before breaking to the sides upon encountering yet another barricade. Letting him go I looked at the other passageways available and picking one continued on. There was other prey around.
Several turns later I suddenly felt like someone was watching me. Slowing down my pace I started looking carefully into every path I came across, and yet as a hammer flew within inches of my head I knew that I had messed up. It was only the horrible aim of what looked like the final hatchling that saved me from a bad concussion, even with my hardened skull. Making a show of glancing in the direction where the hammer flew off into I released a crackle of laughter and aimed several quills in his direction.
"You did not just laugh at me!"
Dodging under my quills the apparently angered hatchling grabbed at my quills stuck in the barricade behind him and wrestling them out of the wood proceeded to throw them at me; most of them missing or hitting me along their length to cause no harm whatsoever. With another crackle of laughter I rushed at him.
The hatchling must have understood his position as he paused mid-throw and proceeded to run off, with me – and more importantly my flames – directly behind him.
He must have managed to scramble off while my view was blocked by my flames as the next thing I knew the passageway I was running along was empty causing me to skid to a stop.
Now what?
My decision was taken away from me as the two sibling hatchlings ran in from the side and skid to a stop directly in front of me.
I couldn't see them because of my horn blocking my view, and couldn't yet smell them after my most recent release of fire – all I could smell at the moment was ash and that specific after-smell of my magnesium flames. My natural response of turning to the side so as to put them in my line of sight and the range of my quills was impossible to complete due to the constricting barricades around me.
"…Hide in their blindspot – remember, every dragon has one, so use it. Hopefully ya remembered to read the dragon manual and at least know where it is. Here's a hint – it's a place it cant see you."
Slightly opening my jaw I came closer and slightly shook my head when I noticed that the two of them were busy trying to push each other into my line of sight than anything productive – like say attacking the exposed flesh under my jaw (the scales of which I had reinforced even further just moments before specifically for that reason).
Letting off a single growl I watched them scream and scamper off as I released yet another bout of white flames after them. It was time I took this hunt more seriously.
"… I am serious Astrid! The dragon was nearly on top of me before I grabbed at the quills I had so expertly dodged and wrenching them out proceeded to fight it off! It ran off before I could…"
"Shut up! Do you want the dragon to find us?"
Slowly shuffling around I surveyed the barricade behind which the voice was coming from. Perhaps they did want me to find them…
Well, who would I be if I did not oblige?
"… fine, but still, you should have seen me…"
The voices were quieter now, but I already had their position so it did not matter. Silently aligning myself with the wall my prey was hiding behind I strengthened the tip of my tail and rising slightly higher on my paws shot my tail clean through the top half of the barricade before spreading the quills out almost perpendicular to the tail.
"OH THOR AL–"
"Move you idiot!"
I waited another second before shooting all of my quills. I could not see what was going on, so I could only hope that they managed to get out of the way. As with my entire race, my quills always shoot straight forward, so it should not have been difficult for the hatchlings to spot the area they were aiming towards and get out of there. I was even nice enough to give them a seconds warning!
"By all the gods did you see that!? The thrice forsaken dragon just nearly skewered us!"
"Will you shut up before I do it for you!"
There – they obviously survived, and will hopefully know better than to give away their position next time.
Further strengthening my tail I forced it downwards, simultaneously breaking it free and splitting the barricade it had been wedged in completely in half, metal plates and all. Pushing my way through it I spotted the first and the last hatchling I had come across flee into another side passage. I sped off after them.
Three intersections later they split up, and I followed the female which seemed at least slightly more competent and thus more fun to chase after. I was almost on top of her when she made a tight curve and forced me to slam my side against the barricade which promptly tilted and began to fall over, bringing with it several other attached to it. I didn't pay much attention to it, for as loath as I am to admit it, I had forgotten what I had set out to do and was now chasing her for the thrill of it – like a young hatchling chasing after a rabbit.
Following her up a falling barricade I jumped up over her and just barely missed grabbing at her with my claws as she fell down. With an indignant squawk at my failure I flew a bit further and with a sharp turn landed before proceeding to run back towards the female hatchling that seemed to have somehow gotten tangled up with another one – the one named Hiccup if I remembered correctly. Spotting the rapidly approaching figure of Gobber I knew that my time was up, so speeding up slightly I rushed towards the two hatchlings still rolling on the floor to snap at them and give them one last scare.
The next thing I knew, something heavy had smashed straight into the side of my face, nearly causing me to lose consciousness.
As the ringing in my ears and unsteady walk towards my cave clearly showed me, I had severely misjudged the young female human that had managed to get up from her awkward position and slam at me with her axe. If it hadn't been for the shield the axe had been imbedded in changing the blow into a bludgeoning force, I may very well have ended up dead – her impeccable aim had brought the axe perfectly down along my left eye ridge and from the force she had swung with even my strengthened bones would have yielded under her attack.
The next time I come out to train these hatchlings and fight this youngling, I will not make the same mistake again.
Still, at least I had hopefully managed to teach some things to the other five hatchlings – lessons that would serve them well if they followed them.
"Is this really some kind of joke to you!? Did you not listen to Gobber when he told us that this is not a game? And the rest of you just standing around laughing as the dragon was rushing in!? Am I the only one taking this seriously?"
For a moment I smiled – no, while this had been nowhere close to a real battle, it was most definitely not a game. Considering my behaviour today, that lesson was something that all of us needed to learn – or relearn in my case.
One close call had been enough – there was no way I was underestimating the hatchlings I had to teach ever again.
.
A/N
I have not read any stories that cover dragon training from the POV of dragons, and in the interest of fleshing out some characters more often than not forgotten, I give you my take on the second day of dragon training.
Also just a little something – each dragon type has their own way of naming themselves – for Nightfuries it was based on something they notice during their first flight to follow their wanderlust (Toothless - Nightwing as an example); for the others I will leave it to you to try and guess.
As always, thanks to everyone who reviewed (E, CrackTheSkye,Darlene10104 especially for reviewing just about every chapter and anhedral for his in depth reviews – nothing really inspires writing better than knowing that some people appreciate your work(s) ).
.
Saienai