The dynamic between myself and Nightshade went on for a few weeks. Whenever I hunted, I made sure to bring enough meat back for her as well, at the very least, a good pile. If she was still hungry after, which was most of the time, she'd go out and hunt for something else to fill her belly. Every time she hunted, she would give me a portion of her kill. Most of the time, she would bring a dragon carcass back. Sometimes it would be a mouthful of fish, and other times it would be an uprooted tree or bush with fruit on it.

Hence my naming her Nightshade.

One afternoon, she'd brought back a bush of those suspicious berries I'd seen on my first day on this island, and stayed away from ever since. With me having eaten my fill of leftover meat and apples for the morning, she decided not to bother leaving a share behind for me, and proceeded to dig in. I was surprised to find she would eat fruit and plants, but I digress. It was only after she'd eaten more than half of those berries that I'd realised what she'd brought to the campsite.

I wasn't sure how I was supposed to approach her about my concerns about those berries, but as luck would have it, I didn't have to. Just moments after I realised what she was eating, I heard an unpleasant rumble coming from her stomach. Her head shot up as she too realised that it came from her, and turned to face me. We shared a look for a moment before she heaved, gagged, and then puked all over the ground. A disgusting purple ooze covered a large chunk of my campsite, and though cleaning that up was going to be a pain, I had to laugh out loud.

Totally worth the zap of lightning she gave me.

And that's how the name Nightshade came to be for her. She didn't like it at first, always growling at me whenever I used it, but it eventually grew on her, especially when I pointed out that nightshade berries, and the beautiful flowers that grew alongside them, were lethal to humans. I also settled on calling her species the Deathstorm. It reminded me of the villain in the DC universe, and it just seemed appropriate. She had several different ways of causing death in anything she encountered, and harnessed the storm as a weapon; ie, her lightning. Deathstorm was just a good fit.

Her tail healed up nicely, that's for sure. After the first two weeks, the swelling went down and her tail looked normal, and she was even able to fly a little bit. Unfortunately, a 'little bit' was the best she could do. It seemed my earlier assumptions of it being a sprain were wrong. She may have actually bruised the bone or fractured it. I didn't think it was broken. I was hardly a doctor by any stretch of the word, but I knew a break would be far more painful and severe than what Nightshade was showing, so I figured a fracture was the worst it could be.

So, with that in mind, I went into the forest to pick up some more branches and vines to make a new splint, this one with thinner branches, and a little more space in between. It should allow for a bit more movement of the tail, whilst still keeping the injured area straight and undisturbed. It'll also need to be narrower, just a little, because of the decreased swelling. Finding the branches and vines was easy enough, but putting the splint together was admittedly a pain. Not so much difficult as much as tedious, but it needed to be done.

After making the splint, I gathered a bunch of eels from the lagoon, not nearly as much as I did the first time I put a splint on her, but enough to get her attention, and keep her docile. I wasn't sure how she'd react if I only brought her one or two, and though I'd have liked to think she wouldn't be upset, I wasn't willing to take that chance yet. So, with that in mind, I got about twelve in my net bag, decided that was enough, and headed back to my campsite.

"Hey Nightshade!" I called out to her as I returned. The sound of my voice, and the scent of the eels, caught her attention immediately. "I've got lunch. You hungry?" I asked. She eagerly trudged up to me in response, her pupils dilated as she sat in front of me expectantly. She was actually much taller than I was when she sat down. Her torso was longer than her legs, so when she sat down, using her hind legs and tail to support herself, she towered over me. "Here ya go." I said, dumping the eels on the ground. She drooled at the sight, a habit I noticed she had whenever she was hungry. Literally, whenever she was hungry, she salivated. I wondered if I could do anything with it like Monstrous Nightmare drool.

Anyways, she leaned down and started slurping up the eels. It was always funny watching her slurp the things down like ramen noodles. It took all of thirty seconds for her to down those things, licking her chops in satisfaction. The eels I fed here weren't the stripey yellow ones you see in the show and movies. They were, well, eels. The ones you see in seafood shops and markets, with the white belly and dark grey skin. That either means I'm dreaming, and my brain is filtering what I see into something familiar, or this is all real, not a TV show where flashy colourful fish are more important than real world accuracy.

It gives me a headache to think about it…

"Alright then Girl, time to change your splint." I said, holding up the new splint. She looked at it for a few seconds before turning around and setting her tail down on the ground. Smiling, I knelt down and carefully removed the old splint from her tail. Putting the new one on was a lot easier than the first one, I'll say that much. "There, how's that?" I asked, standing once I was done. Nightshade turned to face me, wriggling her tail side to side, and then up and down a bit. I took the low warble she gave as acceptance. "Good." I smiled, turning to pick up the old one. It's only use now would probably be as firewood. The vines were dried out too.

A shadow engulfed my whole body as I bent over to pick it up.

Turning to face the dragon that was standing right behind me, her head towering over my own, and her forelegs tucked into her chest as she stared down at me with the softest look I'd ever seen in her golden eyes. Her mouth was closed, which was unusual. Almost always, it was slightly open, showing off her razor sharp teeth. Now, there was no sign of them.

I couldn't begin to describe the feeling I had as her molten gold eyes stared right into my soul. It was like the first time I shot a bow. I remembered how the weapon felt so right in my hands, and the jolt of euphoria as I let that first arrow fly. The first time I went hunting with my grandfather, him with his rifle, me with my bow. The way we laughed when I killed my first Red Deer. At the same time, I almost felt like I was looking in a mirror. It was like the creature standing before me reflected my very soul.

I don't know when I decided to do it, or when I started, but I found myself reaching out with my left hand. She looked at it weirdly for a second, letting out a huff. I pulled back my hand in slight hesitation, but I knew that it was not the time to hesitate. I had to go all in. Swallowing the bite of fear I felt show itself, I looked away, and reached out, my palm facing her snout. I let my arm out as far as it would go without being tense and stiff, like when pulling a bowstring. I stayed like that for a few seconds, though it felt like an eternity. And then, I felt it.

Nightshade's scaly snout against my hand.

My breath hitched as I felt the warmth of her skin on my hand, and I was able to stiffly turn my neck to face her, seeing her head pressed against my palm, her eyes closed. Seconds passed before she pulled back and opened her eyes, giving me a weird look. She shook her head with a huff before jogging into the forest, probably intent on finding something to fill her up after the eel snack I gave her. I didn't care though. I wasn't focussed on that.

I stared at my hand for a moment, before looking at the area of the forest Nightshade had entered, and then back at my hand. I had to grin.

I was almost off of this godforsaken island!

OK, in retrospect, this may have been a bad idea.

After a few more weeks, Nightshade had finally let me on her back. Her tail was fully healed, or at least very nearly so, enough to fly well. At the base of her neck, there was a spot where there weren't any of the spines that ran along her back, nor any of the fleshy, scaled spikes from her crown. It was perfect for me to sit, and after a bit of coaxing, and bribery by way of a shit ton of eels, she finally let me.

And then…

"Stop laughing!" I snapped at the reptile as she grinned up at me. To anyone else, she would look like she was snarling, ready to bite their heads off, but I could see the amusement in her eyes. The baring of her fangs was her attempt to mimic my smile, and not a very good one at that. If it weren't for her eyes, she'd look fucking scary like that.

I would have found it touching if it weren't directed at me whilst I was hanging from a vine…

Upside down…

Nightshade and I had gone for our first test flight together. I knew that if we were going to get off this island together, I'd need to get used to being on her back and in the air, so we started small, staying just above the trees. We started slow, and it was easy enough. Then I decided to try going a little faster. Bad idea. The backlash wasn't the same as driving a car, and I think I may have subconsciously compared the two, when they were actually very different.

No doors keeping you inside for one…

One burst of acceleration was all I needed to be knocked off of Nightshade's back by the wind, and then into the trees. Thankfully, the leaves, branches, and vines broke my fall. Unthankfully, those vines found themselves wrapped around my ankle, and I was left hanging upside down, just barely higher than Nightshade when she stood up straight on her hind legs.

"So, are you going to leave me hanging, or…" I asked, leaving the implied question hanging in the air, much like myself. Nightshade responded by charging up some of her white flame. "Oh no…" I deadpanned as she realised the plasma torch-like burst of white fire. I felt the heat as it sailed past me and hit the vines holding me up. They didn't burn me, they weren't close enough to do so, but I did feel it. A split second after though, it stopped, and I fell to the ground, right in front of the dragon. "Thanks…" I let out a sarcastic groan.

Nightshade responded with another laugh before grabbing the back of my shirt and lifting me up to my feet.

"OK, next time, we're going to need a saddle or something for me to hold onto." I said with a groan, stretching out my back. That was not a pleasant fall. Nightshade let out a questioning hiss in response. "Yes, I would like there to be a next time." I told her. "Alternatively, you could just leave on your own, not like I could stop you." She huffed in my face in response. Good to know. "Or you could pull a raft and never go higher than just a few metres over the ocean." She pulled her head back in disdain at the thought. "Yeah, figured." I said, trying to click my stiff neck. "Let's get back to camp, I'll come up with something after we eat." I suggested. Nightshade's eyes almost literally lit up at the prospect of food before she bowed her head down, offering her neck. "Think we can handle the flight back to camp?" I asked humorously as I slipped on.

She rolled her eyes in response before pushing off.

So, we'd established that I could ride on Nightshade's back at the very least. Problem was, if she went too fast or changed direction too abruptly, I would have a hard time not flying off, not something I wanted to happen at high speeds and/or altitudes. So, I needed a way around that. I remember in the movie, during the montage, Hiccup made a seatbelt-esque construct on the saddle he made for Toothless.

I suppose a saddle would make flying a bit more comfortable, but I didn't know anything about turning skin into leather. Rawhide was a different matter. It would probably do the trick, at least until I either learnt how to make a proper saddle, or found someone able and willing to make a saddle for a dragon. I briefly considered trying to find Berk, but decided I didn't even know if it was real, or if I was even at a point in time where they weren't fighting dragons.

Anyway, with the idea for a saddle in mind, I waited for Nightshade to return with her kill. Sure enough, she returned with the decapitated corpse of a Deadly Nadder in her claws. Since being able to fly again, she'd become a lot more efficient in her hunting, and a lot faster. Thankfully, she allowed me to skin the beast before she devoured it. It was an exchange. I get the skin, and she can have everything else, a deal she was more than willing to take.

This Nadder was mostly dark blue, with light purple patterns going along its wings and back. Though I was more concerned with practicality, I was pleased that the colours would work well with Nightshade's scales. After removing all of the skin, or at least just from the back and legs, I got to work on turning the hide into rawhide. First thing I did was remove all of the excess meat and fat from the inside. It wouldn't do to have my saddle smelling like rotten meat. Afterwards, I removed all of the scales from the outer side of the skin. I was sure I could have used them for something, but at that moment, I didn't know what, so I just set them aside.

Next step was to stretch it out and leave it to dry in the sun until it was stiff and firm. That was going to take a while, a couple of days. Nightshade and I practised flying together a little more during that time.

Now, the point of the saddle was to make flying a little more comfortable and easier for me. Riding at high speeds and altitudes wasn't going to be as simple as driving a car, or even sitting in the passenger seat of a car and letting someone else drive. It was like two people driving the same car. When Nightshade did those sharp turns or accelerated, I needed to make sure I leaned in the proper fashion, or whatever else needed to be done in response to what she did.

That's where the bond between dragon and rider came, to say nothing about how much we need to trust each other. If I had to guess, that was probably why Hiccup and Toothless were the best of the Dragon Riders. Even if Toothless wasn't a Night Fury, the fastest and most powerful of the dragons they had, he and Hiccup HAD to trust each other and move together like one being in order to make that prosthetic tail work. They were that good because if they weren't, that prosthetic tail probably would have gotten them killed a lot sooner.

And now, I had to replicate that bond and trust. The only way Nightshade and I could do that was with practice, and a lot of it.

"There we go." I said, stepping back and admiring my handiwork. Nightshade took a few steps, turning around, trying to see the crudely made rawhide saddle I'd placed on her. "Does it feel alright?" I asked. She hopped around me a little in a very dolphin like manner, getting a feel for the saddle. She wriggled side to side a bit, trying to see if it would chafe, though I was sure her scales would protect from that. She even pushed off the ground, took a quick two minute flight before setting down in front of me with a satisfied look on her face. "Good." I smiled.

After the rawhide had finally finished drying out, I started measuring Nightshade with vines. I cut off pieces of vine, wrap them just snug around any one part of Nightshade, and then cut the vines at the connecting point. A vine for her neck, a vine for her forelegs, etc. I then used the vines to cut the rawhide to the shape I needed. It was a little tricky, and I was nervous about messing up and having to start over. I didn't want to kill another dragon just to get its skin for the sole reason of making flying easier for myself.

Anyway, after cutting the rawhide to the shape I needed, I soaked it in warm water until it was soft and flexible. That's when I attached it to Nightshade. The seat was a simple square that rested at the base of her neck, where I sat during flight, and it had four straps. The front two straps were very wide and went down to her shoulders, where there was a round hole at the end. She would slip her front legs through these holes, securing them to her body. The two straps at the back were much thinner, and wrapped around her torso, meeting at the middle. They each had much smaller holes poked through their ends, where I tied them together with a vine in a tight knot, though still loose enough to allow her to breath.

Her body was surprisingly skinny for her general size, especially given how much she ate. I would have been concerned if it weren't for her healthy appetite, surplus of energy, and significant musculature. I came to the conclusion that this was just how she was naturally built.

Anyways, with the saddle secure, we waited for it to dry and firm up again before making sure it felt comfortable on her, and I'd say I did a pretty good job. Especially since I hadn't ever worked with leather before.

"So, let's take it for a spin, shall we?" I asked. Nightshade warbled in agreement and let me on.

"Oh dear…" I whispered, swallowing my fear as I looked down. Terrible idea. Shaking my head, I took a deep breath, and focussed my the task at hand.

Nightshade and I had been practising for the past month, and today, we finally decided to go as high as she would usually go without me. I'd managed to get used to her sharp turns and steady acceleration, at least to some extent, but it was clear we weren't going to improve any further without taking chances, so we decided to just bite the bullet and hope for the best.

"Alright then, let's start slow." I said to Nightshade, who cooed in response as we sailed through the air over the island. I gave a light nudge to the left, and Nightshade followed, taking a wide turn to change directions. "OK, nice and smooth." I said, pushing down. The speed at which we descended got a little concerning, but Nightshade levelled us out before we got too close to the water. "That's it, that's it!" I exclaimed with a wide grin as we cruised over the ocean surface.

As we steadily sped up, I became aware of a pod of Thunderdrums that were swimming beneath us. One of them even roared in greeting. I had to wave in response. As we neared a small formation of sea stacks, I didn't need to steer Nightshade out of the way, which made sense. She wouldn't want to hit those rocks any more than I would. I had to admit, flying like this with Nightshade, with no holds barred, it was the most exhilarating experience of my life. I never wanted to set my feet on the ground again!

"Want to try going up again?" I asked the dragon. She looked up at me, and the look in her eye was as telling as it could be. We immediately started gaining altitude. With every passing second, the angle at which we faced the sky was less and less, until eventually, we were flying straight up. I could barely keep my eyes open as I ascended, though I was laughing with delight. "Holy fuck, this is amazing!" I laughed as we levelled out. The fear was still there, don't get me wrong, but the exhilaration and adrenaline far outshined it, even at the height we were at. "You're amazing." I added, petting Nightshade's head. She cooed happily in response.

"So, how about we destroy something before heading back to camp, eh?" I asked with a grin, one Nightshade returned before we descended once again. We dived down through the air, though I was certain Nightshade was keeping our speed steady for my sake, a sea stack caught my attention. I pointed at it, allowing Nightshade to see my hand, and let out a roar of affirmation. We levelled out over the ocean, and soared straight for the sea stack. "Nightshade, Thunderbolt!" I cried out once we were close enough. Nightshade immediately shot a bolt of lightning at the sea stack. It couldn't take the lightning, and tipped over like a Jenga tower. Nightshade and I flew right underneath it just before it hit the ocean.

I was laughing like a maniac the whole time.

Ah Murphy, thou art a heartless bitch.

After a few days of flying at high altitudes and speeds, I finally felt confident enough to, at the very least, fly to a different island. I wasn't particularly attached to this one, and it wasn't as if I had anything worth keeping on the island aside from my bow, and the knife and spear I took from the ones who shot Nightshade down. So, with that in mind, Nightshade and I agreed to move on from this place. Staying served no purpose.

I left the net bags and rawhide scraps behind, as well as the eel skins I hung up to keep dragons away. The only things I took were my bow, quiver, knife, and spear. I had to have Nightshade carry the spear though. I couldn't hold it whilst on Nightshade's back, and I didn't have a sheath or strap to carry it on my back. I considered trying to make one, but that would just have me staying on this island for longer, so I just asked Nightshade to carry the spear in her claws on her hind feet. I didn't want to just leave behind something that could potentially be useful.

Anyway, with that in mind, I climbed onto Nightshade's back, and we took off. I had no idea where on Earth we were, so before we took off, I tossed my knife in the air, and let it fall to the ground, deciding our path. We went in the direction the blade was pointing, which seemed to be North East.

They're taking the Hobbits to Isengard!

Heh…

Moving on, Nightshade and I were cruising along through the air, happy to leave that Godforsaken island behind us. It had only been a matter of minutes before Murphy decided to screw us. One second everything was fine, the next, Nightshade gets hit with an arrow. Before I can say or do anything to even try and help, she goes down, unable to maintain her flight, and we plummet into the ocean. Before I could even think of swimming to the surface, we were encased in a metal net, trapped under the water.

I had vague memories of the feeling of being pulled, but other than that, the rest of that day is a blur. I blacked out.

I awoke in a wooden room, groggy and cold. I must have been out for quite a while, as my clothes were dry, and I was rather hungry. The room was quite small, just big enough to fit a dragon maybe, with a cage door made of some kind of turquoise metal I'd never seen before. At the back of the room, there was a small window, leaking a bit of sunlight in. I got up with a bit of a groan, and a massive headache.

As I leaned against the wall, standing to my feet, I heard a few voices speaking gibberish. Looking towards them, I saw two guards outside my cell, which I'm assuming that's what this room is. They were both wearing clothes that looked to be made of dragon skin, and their helmets had leather ear coverings, and a row of spikes down the middle. They were both speaking in a language I couldn't understand. It sounded like some kind of bastardization of Swedish or Norwegian.

Well, I AM in the world of How to Train Your Dragon. If the people here are Vikings, it makes sense they'd speak Old Norse.

One of them left, whilst the other leaned against my cell door, looking at me with a sinister glint in his eye. He spoke some more gibberish before moving on to the cell across from mine. My eyes widened as I saw the occupant.

"Nightshade!" I breathed out, running to my cell door. She hissed as the man approached her cell door. He rolled his eyes and banged her cell door with the axe he held, saying something and then laughing as he walked away. Nightshade hissed at him again, this time more ferociously than before, and struck him with her tail through the cage door holes.

The man's entire body stiffened, and he fell to the ground, unable to move. Nightshade and I shared a laugh at his expense.

I'd seen Nightshade's Tail Strike, as I'd dubbed it, several times. Mostly when she was hunting. Her venom was a potent paralytic. One sting and you lose all movement in your entire body, falling to the ground like an overcooked noodle, with none of your muscles listening to your brain. With a second sting, the paralysis spreads to the internal organs, and your heart and lungs will be the first to shut down, resulting in a rather quick, but still fairly unpleasant death.

After a moment, a new face approached, standing outside my cell.

He was a tall man, taller than me at least. Probably a good 1.9 metres(that's 6 foot 3 or 4 to you yanks.) And I wasn't exactly short myself. His head was shaved bald, and he had both a mustache on his face, and a chin stripe. His piercing brown eyes glared down at me. And he was incredibly muscular. Like, The Rock levels of muscle there.

He wore a leather tunic, probably made of dragon hide, dark blue pants, and brown leather boots. He wore a spiked shoulder and arm guard on his right side, and just a plain unspike arm guard on his left. He had a studded belt around his tunic, with a big skull shaped buckle in the middle. It looked like it was made of actual bone. Finally, he had two large swords on his back, both made from the same turquoise metal as the cell doors.

He looked down at the man who was paralysed by Nightshade and rolled his eyes. I'm guessing that wasn't the first time Nightshade had paralysed someone, and they were all warned not to get too close.

Anyway, Tall, Dark, and Bald gestured to the men who entered with him. One of them pulled a lever next to my cell door. I wish I could say that a trap door had opened beneath him, but it didn't. The lever opened my cell door, and the bald guy walked in. I stared into his eyes as he approached, but he didn't care. He just grabbed me by my arm and forcefully led me out of the cell. Nightshade growled at his rough treatment of me, and looked ready to attack.

"Nightshade!" My voice snapped her out of her anger. "I'll be fine." I promised her. She looked at me for a second before standing down, though still glaring at the bald guy who'd grabbed me. He looked interested at the display he just saw, but opted to continue what he was doing: leading me by my arm to who knows where.

After a few minutes, we came to an elaborately decorated door, one with gold and gems adorning it. Whoever owned this ship, and I'm guessing it wasn't Baldy here, was probably quite wealthy. Baldy pushed the door open and shoved me in, closing the door behind him as he too entered. He leaned against the door with his arms crossed as I looked around the room I was in.

There were several markings and weapons on the walls, clearly decorative, and a number of maps and charts. In the middle of the room, there was a desk, and a man sat there.

He was about as tall as Baldy, if I had to guess, maybe a few centimeters shorter, and one or two taller than I was, and not nearly as muscular as Baldy. He had short black hair cut into a buzz cut, and a goatee on his face. His eyes were the same brown as Baldy's, though I could see the intelligence behind them far outshined the man behind me.

He wore a black leather tunic with some kind of red scaled vest underneath, sticking out at the shoulders and waist. His belt was also studded, but the buckle was round and metal, with a strange fist symbol on it. He wore light grey pants and more elegant brown leather boots than baldy. He also had black wristguards. On his back, there was a short sword with a fairly simple handle, but the round guard was bejeweled with rubies. The seam down the middle of the entire weapon suggested it could split in two.

"Welcome, Stranger." This man said, surprising me. He was speaking English! It was heavily accented, like someone who grew up speaking Swedish learned it when he moved to Scotland, but it was definitely English. "I must admit, it is rare to see someone from the English Islands in this part of the world." He commented. "Please, sit." he said, gesturing to the chair on the other side of his desk. Knowing that the only thing behind me was the bald guy, I decided that the best course of action was to just do as he suggested. So, most cautiously, I stepped forward, and made myself comfortable in the chair. "My name is Viggo Grimborn. A pleasure." He held out his hand.

"Seth. Bishop." I responded, shaking his hand out of courtesy, and possible necessity. It wouldn't do me any good to insult the likely leader of the people who have me prisoner.

"Unusual name." He said as we separated. "Now, what's a young man like yourself doing on an uninhabited island, all alone with a dragon?" He asked.

"I was stranded." I answered simply. "And I'm not that young… I'm 20 years old." I added blandly.

"Indeed." he said with a light chuckle, standing up.

"How did you know I was English?" I asked as he walked around the desk.

"So you don't remember then." he said, not as a question, but as a statement. I raised an eyebrow in confusion as he turned to face me. "When my men pulled you and your friend to the deck, you were still conscious, asking what was going on and who we were. You lost consciousness before we could establish a dialogue." He explained. He's right, I didn't remember.

"I don't remember, no." I confirmed.

"Now, I hate to dive right into business, but it seems the two of us are at a bit of an impasse, Seth. Do you mind if I call you Seth?" He asked.

"Not at all." I responded, narrowing my eyes. He nodded in response with a polite smile.

"That dragon you were riding on, very impressive, I might add, I've had men tracking it for months." he told me. "Such a unique specimen could be of considerable use to my operations. I trust you can ascertain what they are?" He asked with an expectant eyebrow raised.

With the cage that Nightshade hadn't broken out of, the arrows laced with a toxin that knocks dragons out, and some kind of net projectile that can reel dragons in from the sky, it wasn't hard to guess.

"You're dragon hunters." I said, getting a pleased smile from the man.

"Yes, yes we are." He confirmed. "That dragon's lightning attacks and venomous tail could have been incredibly useful in subduing wayward and feral dragons." He explained. "And even if I couldn't accomplish that, it would have sold for a small fortune to the right buyer." He added.

"She." I said with a frown. "It is a she."

"Very well then." Viggo nodded. "I'll admit, when I first saw you with that dragon, I considered throwing you back on that island and leaving with her." He told me, moving back to his desk. "Then I saw how she was willing to defend you from my men, even whilst being under the influence of Dragon Root." Well, that answers that. "And then, when my elder brother started manhandling you towards my office…" His eyes went up to Baldy for a second. "... she was willing to attack even from the confines of the cage to protect you. And she listened when you told her to stop."

"I know. I was there." I said drolly.

"Yes, you were." He smirked in amusement. "After much deliberation, I came to the conclusion that you and that dragon could both be considerable assets to my business." He said.

"Where are you going with this?" I asked wearily.

"Judging by the powerful bow and arrow you had on your person, and the Deadly Nadder skin saddle on your dragon, I'm going to hazard a guess and say that you are a hunter, like myself, yes?" He asked. I gave a single nod. "You have experience tracking and locating creatures in the wild, and on top of that, you tamed, to an extent, an incredibly powerful dragon that is now willing to do as you ask, and is likely enough of a carnivore to indulge in what I have in mind." He leaned forward, resting his arms on his desk with his finger intertwining his two hands. "I'm offering you a job, Seth." He said.

"What?" I asked, utterly bamboozled by the statement.

"Think about it. With you and your dragon as part of my organization, being properly honed and utilised, my profits could soar. And that means profit for you as well." He told me, looking into my eyes. "I offer a fair stipend to those who hunt for me, and considerable bonuses for every dragon they bring in."

"And you think that if Nightshade and I hunt dragons for you, we could utilise her abilities to not only increase the number of dragons you bring in, but also bring in the rarer and more dangerous ones?" I asked. He nodded in affirmation. "And why would you just offer me this job out of the blue? You don't know me. You can't possibly know what my intentions are, or what motives I may have for, well, anything."

"I know more than you might think, young man." Viggo told me, still smirking. "I am an experienced and seasoned Businessman. I would not be nearly as successful as I am now, if I couldn't see a potential asset or opportunity when it shows itself." He explained. "Then there's the look in your eyes. The look of a predator. Even without the bow and arrow, or the Nadder saddle, I could tell that you are a hunter."

"And if I were to refuse?" I asked, suspecting I knew the answer.

"It seems to me that you don't really have that option, is that not true?" He asked calmly. He wasn't even threatening me, just stating a fact.

It's not like it's the worst deal I could have been offered. It would be a great way to properly integrate myself into the world without any suspicion of where I came from. I got the feeling that as long as I produced results, Viggo wouldn't care about that. Not to mention a working salary. If I refused, Viggo would likely cut his losses and either kill me, or drop me back on that island, and without Nightshade at that. I don't want to think about what he'd do with her if he couldn't use her venom or lightning as an asset, and that's if he doesn't sell her to the highest bidder.

After a very long and painfully quiet moment, I replied.

"I'll need lodgings, and someone to teach me to speak the language here." I said.

Viggo grinned widely in response.

The plot thickens!

If you want a visual on Nightshade, go here:

grayjedi101/gallery/all

Add this text to the end of DeviantArt's homepage link.

It should be fairly obvious which one it is, but there is a slight spoiler regarding her species on the page, so be warned. I mean, half of you probably already guessed, so its not a huge issue, but if you haven't, maybe wait a few chapters.

Credit for the art goes to GrayJedi101 on DeviantArt, not me. She's got good stuff.

That's all for today folks.