Lena arrived back at the village. No one seemed to notice or care that she was gone the whole day. Something she was thankful for at the moment.
Entering her house, she saw her father sitting beside the fire pit. Not in the mood for a conversation with him, Lena slowly and quietly made her way up to her room, but one of the floor boards then crunched a bit under her feet, getting her father´s attention. "Lena..."
The young Haddock flinched. After what happened in the cove, she knew she couldn´t kill dragons. But this wasn´t something she wanted to share with her father... yet. Nervously, she walked back down. "Father ! ... um... I need to talk to you, father."
"I need to talk to you too." Liddan said as he stood up to face her.
"I´ve decided I don´t want to fight dragons." / "I think it´s time you learn to fight dragons." Unfortunately, both spoke at the same time. Looking at each other for a moment, they tried to get what the other said. "What ?"
"You go first." Liddan then offered.
"No, no, you go first, father." Lena replied, still feeling quite nervous.
"Alright. You get your wish. Dragon Training. You will start in the morning." Liddan announced, and Lena innerly started to panic a bit. After today there was no way she could go through with that training !
Lena rubbed her head, trying to come up with a good excuse. "Oh man, I should have spoken first ! You see father, I was thinking. The village already has plenty of dragon-killing vikings, so maybe it´s better for me to choose a different path-"
"You´ll need this." Liddan wasn´t listening and instead handed his daughter an axe.
Lena decided to just say it. "I... don´t want to fight dragons, father."
This made Liddan chuckle. "What are you talking about ? Of course you do."
"You really don´t get what I´m saying." Lena said with a sigh. "So let me rephrase this. Father, I can´t kill a dragon."
"But you will kill dragons after this training." Lidden said, still not getting it right.
Lena shook her head. "No, I´m pretty sure that I won´t."
"Your time has come, Lena. The dragons are getting more presistent. We can´t afford to wait any longer." Liddan said, his voice now more serious.
"Why can´t you hear what I´m saying ?!" Lena was getting annoyed with her father. Just why couldn´t he listen to her for once ?!
"This is serious, Lena. One day you´ll become Berk´s Chieftess. When that time comes, the villagers will count on you to lead them with courage and strength." Liddan said before grabbing the axe Lena was holding. "When you carry this axe, you carry all of us with you. Which means you walk like us, you talk like us, you think like us. No more of... this." He gestured to Lena
"You... just gestured to all of me ?!" Lena said in disbelief. Was her father really serious here ?!
"Do we have a deal ?" Liddan then asked.
"This conversation is feeling very one-sided." Lena tried to argue.
"Deal ?" The chief asked with more force.
Lena sighed and reluctantly agreed. "Yes Sir."
"Good." Satisfied, Liddan then grabbed his bag and walked towards the door. "Train hard. I´ll be leading another hunt for the Dragon Nest. I will be back in a few weeks." With that he left the house.
"Now I wished that Night Fury killed me..." Lena said sarcastically. It was more than clear that she wasn´t excited about tomorrow.
/ ... /
The morning came way to fast. Lena was on her way to the Great Hall to have some breakfast with Sieglinde, and to fill her friend in on what happened yesterday. To say Sieglinde was shocked was an understatement.
"Okay, okay. Let me get this right." Sieglinde said, holding up her hand. "You wandered off into the forest upon hearing a dragon´s roar... you then find yourself face to face with one of the most feared dragons in the world... you actually manage to trap it... you had the one-in-a-lifetime-chance to kill a Night Fury and become a legend... and in the end... you let it go ?"
"Yep." Lena nodded, sounding like it was no big deal.
"Why ?" Sieglinde asked softly, and with a hint of curiosity.
Lena shrugged with her shoulders. "I don´t know. I just couldn´t."
"That´s not an answer." Sieglinde said back. She really wanted to know.
Lena sighed, a soft expression on her face. "I couldn´t kill that Night Fury because it looked as frightened as I was. I looked at it, and saw myself. It sounds strange, but that´s honestly all I can say to it."
Sieglinde nodded at that. "I think I can understand. Now what will you do ?"
Lena sighed once more. "No idea. Thanks to that Night Fury I realized I won´t be able to kill dragons, and for some reason I feel okay with it. And now of all times my father wants me to attend Dragon Training."
"Why don´t you try and talk with your father ? I know it´s hard to make him listen to you but I can help. He can´t ignore us both." Sieglinde suggested.
"Already tried, but as usual he wasn´t listening. Good thing he is gone for a while." Lena said with a frown.
"Well, at least it´s nice to know I won´t be the only one forced into Dragon Training." Sieglinde said, then she looked a bit conflicted. "My father expects me to surpass you all, even my brother."
"We should get going. Gobber will be mad if we end up late for his training." Lena said a she stood up. Sieglinde also got up and the two then left the Great Hall.
/ ... /
The Dragon Fighting Arena lies far outside the outskirts of Berk. The arena is carved into the rocky ground, with a wooden platform on the outside. To prevent the captured dragons from flying away during fights, a large chain-net covers the arena.
"Welcome to Dragon Training !" Gobber threw open the gate to the arena with an excited smile on his face.
Drake, who was leading the group, had a determined look in his eyes. "This is it. No turning back." He said while walking in. The other teens followed and looked around the inside of the arena with awe and thrill. All of them are holding different weapons. The twins each had a double bladed spear, Nuffink has a hammer, Spitelout comes with a mace, and Drake has a sword strapped to his back while also holding a crossbow. Sieglinde had her special double-edged axe while Lena carried the axe her father gave her.
"I hope I get some really serious burns." Yang then said excitedly.
"I hope for a nice flesh-wound on my shoulder or lower back." Yin said, sounding just as excited as her twin brother.
"I can do without that, thank you very much." Sieglinde said, wondering why someone would freely want that.
"Come on, sis. It´s only fun if you get a scar out of it." Drake said with a grin.
"Of course you would think of something like this as fun." Lena said sarcastically, making her presence known to the others who missed to notice her being there.
"Oh great. Who let her in ?" Yang asked annoyed.
"The chief enrolled her here. So if you have a problem with it, go complain to him." Sieglinde retorted, making Yang go quiet.
"Let´s get started !" Gobber then called out as he wanted to avoid an argument. "The recruit who does best will win the honor of killing his first dragon in front of the entire village !"
"Lena was already brave enough to go up against a Night Fury so... doesn´t that actually disqualify her... ?" Drake mocked, making the Henderson-Twins laugh along with Spitelout.
"Can I please transfer to the class with the real vikings." Spitelout added in on the teasing.
"You can´t, Spitelout. You´ll feel out of place in that class." Sieglinde replied with a smirk, making Lena and even Nuffink chuckle a bit. She then grabbed her friend and whispered. "Ignore those idiots. You´ll do fine."
Lena nodded with a small smile, then the girls went up to stand in line with the others.
"Behind these doors are only a few of the many species you will learn to fight." Gobber said loudly, marching around several cages. The dragons trapped inside them were roaring and trashing around. "Deadly Nadder... Hideous Zippleback... Terrible Terror... Monstrous Nightmare... Timberjack..." Gobber stopped at the last cage with an evil grin on his face. "And... the Grapple Grounder."
Realizing what Gobber is about to do, Spitelout started to protest. "Whoa, whoa, wait ! Aren´t we supposed to watch how you do it first ?!"
"He´s a blacksmith. He believes in learning on the job." Lena said smugly.
"Even I saw this coming." Sieglinde said, having hung around the forge plenty of times to knew the blacksmith´s unique teaching methods.
"Grapple Grounders are jummpy and can be quite aggressive. And they eat rocks to gather energy for their pulse-like blasts of fire. So good luck." With that, Gobber unlocked the cage and a black and green scaled Grapple Grounder charged out of the cage.
The teens quickly rushed off into all directions to get out of the path of the apparently angry dragon. "Today´s lesson is about survival ! If you get blasted, you´re dead !"
The dragon jumped around the arena until it saw rocks lying on the ground. It didn´t waste time and ate them. "Quick ! What´s the first thing you´re going to need ?"
"A healer ?" Lena shouted without thinking first.
"A better teacher !" Nuffink yelled sarcastically.
"A shield !" The Eremiah siblings both shouted at the same time.
"Correct ! Go get one !" Gobber said and everyone ran to grab one of the shields lying around the arena. "Your most important piece of equipment is your shield. If you have to make a choice between a sword or a shield, always take the shield !"
Lena tried to hold her focus on the dragon who was jumping all around the arena but then saw the twins fighting over a shield. She shook her head. ("Are they seriously fighting at a time like this ?")
"Get your hands off my shield !" Yang argued to his sister.
"There's like a million shields." Yin said, trying to pull the shield out of her brother's grasp.
"Take that one. It has a flower on it. Girls like flowers." Yang said bluntly.
Yin then ripped the shield out of her brother's hands and banged it on his head. "Oops. Now this one had blood on it." She smiled.
They resumed fighting over it, not noticing the Grapple Grounder coming their way. A second later the dragon shot an orange pulse blast, destroying the shield the twins were fighting over and nearly knocking them out cold.
"Yin, Yang, you´re both out !" Gobber announced loudly.
"Aww man..." Both twins complained, still lying on the ground and looking dazed from the blast.
"Those shields are good for another reason... noise ! Make lots of it to confuse the dragon and threw of its aim !" Gobber instructed.
Lena quickly understood and started banging her axe on her shield´s rim, making a metallic sound. The others followed and it seemed to work. The Grapple Grounder appeared disoriented from all the noise and was shaking its head to try and clear it.
"All dragons have a limited number of shots. How many does a Grapple Grounder have ?" Gobber continued, pointing to the still confused dragon.
"Four shots ?" Spitelout guessed while making sure the dragon couldn´t suddenly sneak up behind him.
"No, six !" Nuffink said, raising his shield. He didn´t noticed the dragon regaining his senses.
"Correct, six. With the twins out, that´s still more than enough for all of you !" Gobber said, sounding amused.
Only a moment later, the Grapple Grounder fired another blast, knocking the shield out of Nuffink´s hand. "And I´m out." Nuffink sighed, walking over to the blacksmith.
Drake then snug up some distance behind the dragon, quietly setting down his shield and loading his crossbow with an arrow. He quickly fired the arrow, only for the Grapple Grounder to smack it away with its tail. Target now Drake, the dragon prepared a blast. Luckily, Drake managed to get his shield in front of him to protect himself, but the force of the blast made him stumble backwards. "Nice try, Drake !" Gobber shouted, earning him a glare from the sixteen year old boy.
Looking to her right, Lena saw Spitelout and Sieglinde not to far away from her, and for some reason Spitelout found it was the perfect time to start flirting with the female Eremiah. "So, Sieg, did you know I am going to move into my parent´s basement..." He started, not noticing that said girl rolled her eyes in annoyens. "You should come by sometime to work out. You clearly look like you work-" He got silenced as his shield got blasted while Sieglinde skillfully jumped away.
"Spitelout, you´re done !" Gobber said, matter of factly.
Sieglinde now was with Lena. She stood right next to her friend, appearing to be facing the dragon, but Lena knew her friend only tries to protect her. She smiled at that. "Looks like it´s just us now."
"I don´t mind that." Sieglinde replied with a wink.
The Grapple Grounder then roared and jumped over the girls, and the moment they spun around, it shot a blast that struck Sieg´s shield, which slammed Lena´s out of her grasp. "One shot left !" Gobber shouted from the side as the dragon then cornered the girls at a wall. It opened its mouth, its throat lit up with an orange blast, ready to be fired. In the last second, Gobber came in and grabbed the dragon´s neck hard, forcing it to miss the girls and shoot at the wall.
"And that´s six." Gobber said while he dragged the dragon back to its cage. "Go back to bed you overgrown lizard." He threw the dragon into the cage and locked the door. "You´ll get another chance, don´t you worry." With that Gobber turned to the seven teenagers. "Remember an important fact. A dragon will always... always ... go for the kill !" And he walked towards the gate of the arena. "Now, all of you, take some rest. You´ll be facing another dragon in the late afternoon."
Letting that sink in, all the teens then left the arena except for the girls who nearly got killed.
"Are you okay ?" Sieglinde asked her friend with concern.
"Yeah, I´m fine." Lena said with a nod.
"You want to hang out a bit ? With my father out on the nest hunt I won´t mind skipping my family training schedule." Sieg offered with a smile.
Lena shook her head. "Sorry Sieg, but I was hopping to catch some need sleep. Haven´t had much the past days."
"Okay, see you later then." With that Sieglinde left the arena.
Lena watched her leave and felt a bit guilty. She didn´t wanted to ditch her friend like that, but there was something she needed to do. And she needed to do it alone.
/ ... /
"If a dragon will always go for the kill... why didn´t you ?" Lena wondered as she entered the path which leads to the cove. Despite the beauty and the peaceful serene, what happened yesterday... was the near opposite of what happened today in Dragon Training.
A very low roar caught her attention and she looked down into the cove, her eyes widened in shock and surprise at what she saw. The Night Fury was laying on the grassy ground beside the lake, relaxed and napping. ("The Night Fury ? It´s still here ?!") This was greatly surprising. Lena didn´t expected the dragon to still be here after what happened yesterday. ("Could it be that it sees this cove as its home ?") Slowly she started to step out into the open. Sitting down she continued to think to herself. ("Why would it willingly stay on an island that is inhabited by humans who wouldn´t hesitate to kill it when there´s a giant Dragon Nest somewhere out there ?")
Knowing nothing will answer this any time soon, Lena then shrugged and instead decided to take a little advantage out of this. She took out a notebook and charcoal pencil from the small bag she brought with her and began to draw the dragon, making sure she got every detail correctly. Within a few minutes she was finsihed. It looked okay but Lena didn´t really looked satisfied. "I wish i could get a closer look at it..." With a sigh she sat the book and pencil down. She didn´t realize until it was too late that she had let go of the pencil and it rolled off the ledge and down into the cove, catching the Night Fury´s attention. Its ears perked up a little at the noise. Raising its head, its greenish-yellow eyes spotted Lena. Its pupils widened slightly and, to Lena´s surprise, it started to growl lowly. Perhaps it recognized her ?
Lena then sat up on her knees and stared back. She titled her head to the side, and suprisingly, the dragon did the same. Then she lifted her hand and gave a small wave. The dragon´s ears completely perked up and its growling turned into slightly louder purring. The young Haddock couldn´t help but grin slightly. She watched as the Night Fury slowly made its way towards her. It then stopped on the rocks below her and looked at her for a moment, then it lowered its head to sniff the pencil. A few seconds later it grabbed the pencil with its mouth and tossed it upwards. The pencil landed on the upper rocks and rolled over to the young Haddock´s feet.
Lena picked it up and looked back at the dragon who gave her a somehow curious look. She gave a small nod. "Um... thank you." She said nervously.
The dragon blinked, a satisfied look on its face. It then walked away to lay back down near the lake.
Once again Lena had no words to describe what just happened.
/ ... /
Later in the afternoon, the seven teens and Gobber have returned to the arena, ready for the second round of training. The chain-net that covers the arena has been lifted up high. From its sides, another huge chain-net was spread out and secured firmly on the rock walls, making the training ground bigger. And that for a good reason.
"Welcome to today´s second round of training." Gobber annouced as he walked over to the cage on the far right. "Timberjack, a creature with razor sharp wings that can slice through nearly anything. Thick full-grown trees, rocks, even bones... yet it can´t go through metal. Your only chance to take it down is by using chains and nets out of metal to trap it and force it to the ground."
"And you´re still not gonna show us how to do that first ?" Nuffink questioned while he and the others went to grab the metal nets lying around them. He got his answer as Gobber smirked and opened the cage, letting lose an angry brownish-yellow scaled Timberjack. It started roaring and flaying around, trying to find a way out. "You´ll have a time limit. The one of you who can bring it down within that limit wins !" Gobber said as he stood next to a sun-clock.
The Timberjack was quite fast and the teens had trouble avoiding its sharp wings. Eventually, both Drake and Nuffink were the first to threw their nets, but the dragon easily dodged them. It roared angry and charged right at them but they manged to jump away.
"Here. Let me show you how it´s done !" Spitelout said as he placed himself in the way of the flying dragon. He waited until the Timberjack was as close as possible and then threw his net. The dragon quickly opned its mouth and shot out a fireball that knocked the net away. "Ahhh ?!" Spitelout yelled in fear as he barely managed to jump out of the way.
"While a Timberjack´s main weapon are its wings, it can still breath fire. And its shot limit is quite high." Gobber shouted from the sidelines.
"Couldn´t you have said that sooner ?!" Spitelout complained.
Yang then tried his luck, but the dragon easily dodged by turning sharply right, and the net ended up trapping Yin who just happened to be standing there. "Nice going, you idiot !" She yelled at her brother.
"Your fault for standing in the way." Yang said back with a grin, earning him a glare from Yin. The next thing everyone knew, the Henderson-Twins were forgetting about the training and were now fighting with each other.
"Muttonheads..." Lena sighed while shaking her head. She then looked at Sieglinde. "Maybe we have a better chance if we try from both sides at the same time ?"
"Good idea." Sieglinde replied.
Both girls then moved to be both in front and behind the dragon. They then threw their nets at the same time, but the Timberjack even had a trick to dodge that. It stopped flying and folded its wings around its body and the nets bounced of them. The next second, it charged at Sieglinde, ready to slice her in half. Thankfully, Lena pushed her friend out of the way in time. However, the tip of one of its wings still graced Lena´s right forarm, leaving behind a strong bleeding cut and making Lena cry out in pain.
"Okay. This has gone on long enough." Drake said. He then grabbed a single metal chain robe and swung it at the dragon. The chain wrapped aournd its tail and Drake pulled with all his strength and the Timberjack was forced hardly to the ground. Drake then quickly threw a net over the dragon, successfully trapping it.
"Well done, Drake." Gobber praised as he walked over to the teens. He then turned to Lena who was holding her bleeding arm while Sieg supported her with a worried expression. "You might want to go and see Grandeeney."
Lena nodded and left the arena with Sieg while the others watched how Gobber threw the Timberjack back into its cage.
/ ... /
The next morning, Lena left the house early. She wanted to sneak away into the forest without running into anyone, especially Sieglinde. Gobber said they wouldn´t have any training at the arena today as the arena was being prepared for the next lesson. However, he wants the teens to meet him on one of the watch towers tonight for dinner. Her wound from yeasterday´s training got stitched up and bandaged by the young village healer Grandeeney. It was quite the deep cut and Lena is lucky it won´t leave a scar behind. To cover it she decided to wear a long sleeved red shirt.
"I can´t believe I´m actually doing this..." Lena said as she stood at the entrance to the cove, holding a fish in her left hand. Carefully, she then climbed down into the cove, but the Night Fury was not there. Looking around, she slowly made her way around the cove, not sure what to expect. Was the Night Fury simply hiding ? Has it decided it was better to leave the island after all ? Or was it waiting for the right time to strike ?
"Come on out already. I know you´re still here." Lena called out.
To confirm her words, she then heard something shift behind her. "There you are..." She turned around and couldn´t prevent herself from taking a step back. The Night Fury was right there, crawling down from a pile of large rocks. It sniffed in her direction, then growled lowly. It didn´t sound threatening though, so Lena took that as a good sign.
Lena raised her free hand and gave a small wave. "Hi there."
The dragon blinked, its ears going up. Lena then held out the fish. "You want a little snack ?"
The dragon sniffed, slowly making its way towards her. It opened its mouth, letting out a soft noise. Suddenly its eyes snapped down and it jumped back, hissing. Lena immediately took a step back, her hand going to her waist and then feeling the hilt of the dagger she had on her.
The Night Fury hissed again and Lena quickly tried to calm it. "It´s okay ! It´s okay ! I´m dropping it !" She said and held out the dagger and dropped it.
The dragon shook its head, snapping it to the side. It was like it was saying get rid of it . Lena nodded at that. She slipped her right foot under the dagger, lifted it up and tossed it into the lake. Seeing this, the Night Fury sat up strait, looking completely relaxed. "That was easy." Lena said, slightly stunned. Then she held the fish out again. "You still want it ?"
The dragon blinked at her, then at the fish. Slowly, it started walking towards her again. When it was only a foot away it lifted its head and opened its large jaws. Feeling a bit curious, Lena peered inside to look and saw... gums ! Soft, squishy, harmless gums !
"Wha... toothless ?" Lena mumbled, a bit amazed. "Funny. I could have sworn you had-" Suddenly and with a loud squishy sound, sharp teeth shot out of the gums and the dragon reached forward and snatched the fish out of her hand. Lena gasped and pulled her hands back right away. She watched as the dragon munched on the fish. Swallowing it, the dragon licked its scaly lips, looking satisfied. "... teeth."
The dragon´s eyes snapped towards her. It bent down and started walking forward, letting out a low deep noise which sounded like something between a growl and a purr. "Uh, no... no, no... !" Lena quickly backed away, but eventually tripped and fell onto the ground. She moved back as far as she could until her back hit against a rock. "Please don´t hurt me. That- that was all they fish I got." Lena pleaded as the dragon was now dangerously close to her.
She flinched as the Night Fury brought its face very close to hers. It then made some strange sounds before opening its mouth and spitting out half the fish it had just eaten... right into her lap. "Eww..." Lena moaned, feeling a little disgusted.
The dragon then finally got some distance back between them and sat straight. Lena didn´t know what to say or do and so only let her eyes look left and right. The Night Fury nodded at the fish, then at Lena. The young Haddock did the same and sighed. Now she understood what the dragon wants her to do. Hesitating for a moment, Lena slowly raised the fish and took a small but convincing bite. She forced a smile as it took her everything she had to not spit it out.
The dragon then mimicked swallowing and Lena stared at it in disbelief. ("Are you kidding me ?") She thought, then took a deep breath and swallowed. The first try she gagged and nearly pucked, then she forced it down. The taste was terrible and made her shudder.
The Night Fury licked its lips as if asking how the fish was. Not knowing what to do, Lena simply smiled awkwardly. The dragon tilted its head in confusion, then slowly and just as awkwardly its lips parted and the corners of its mouth pulled back, exposing its gummy jaws. Lena could hardly believe what she was seeing. "Are you... trying to smile ?"
The dragon nodded, still showing its gummy smile. "Wow..." Lena placed the rest of the fish aside and then gently moved her hand towards the Night Fury. At once its mood changed. Its smile fell and all its teeth popped out. With a growl it then flew away to the other side of the cove.
Not feeling so scared anymore, Lena went after it. With a grin she sat down near the dragon, waiting for it to notice her. A moment later it whipped its head around to look at her. "Oh, don´t mind me." Lena said teasingly.
The Night Fury appeared to groan. It shifted itself so it could use its tail fin as cover. ("First it feeds me, now it´s allowing my presence. I´d say we´re off to a good start.") Lena thought before shifting closer to the dragon. She reached her hand out to touch its tail fin, but the fin shot up and the dragon made a snapping noise. It then groaned again before getting up. It shook itself, spread its wings, and then flew off into the sky and away from the cove.
Lena stood up. "This might take a while."
/ ... /
Lena returned to the village to join Gobber and the other teens at having dinner up on the centre watch tower. Reaching it she saw Sieglinde waiting for her at the bottom of the wooden stairway that leads up to the top of the tower.
"Hey ! Where have you been the whole day ?" Sieglinde asked as they made their way up.
"I went to visit my mother´s grave, then I started to practice with my bow and arrows and totally lost track of time." Lena lied. She hated lying to her best friend, but for now it was probably the best.
"So you both finally decided to join us." Gobber greeted them. He handed them both sticks with half a chicken on each and they sat down around the fire pit. Gobber then lounched into tales of his various conquests in dragons.
/ ... /
Two hours later, Gobber had reached the story of how he lost his arm and leg. "And with one twist, the Monstrous Nightmare tore off my hand and swallowed it whole. And I saw the look on its face, I was delicious. It must have spread the word because it wasn´t a month before another Nightmare took my leg."
"Isn´t it interesting to think that your hand was inside a dragon, like your mind was still in control of it ? You would have killed the dragon from the inside by like, crushing its heart or something." Nuffink commented, causing the others to stare at him.
"It does sound cool, but I don´think that would work." Drake said as he leaned back with an arm behind his head.
"I swear I´m so angry right now." Spitelout spoke up next. "I´ll avenge your beautiful hand and your beautiful foot. I´ll chop off the legs of every dragon I fight... with my face !"
"At least he´ll use his head for something." Sieglinde whispered, making Lena and Nuffink who sat next to her chuckle.
"Oh you´re nowhere near ready for something like that, Spitelout." Gobber said, then he pulled out a book with a dragon symbol in the centre. "You need to live and breath this stuff. The Book of Dragons. It´s filled with every information vikings gathered about the different dragon species through the past three centuries." He explained, and soon stood up. "That was it for today. Make sure to study it. Knowledge is an essential part for being a great Dragon Slayer." With that he left the group.
Most of the teens didn´t seem interested in reading that book. "Well, I don´t know about you guys but I´m not going to read anything while I´m still alive." Yin said in a bored tone.
"I agree. Why read words when you can just kill stuff the words tell you stuff about." Spitelout added.
"I already read it a few times. And I can only say that you guys miss out on some amazing stuff." Nuffink said with a smile. "There are dragons who spray boiling water right at your face. Or another one who posseses six row of rotating razor sharp teeth and hunts from underground."
"Well, while you enjoy reading about dragons, I will be out there to kill them." Spitelout said with a grin before he decided to leave along with the twins. Drake left soon after, as well as Nuffink once he finished his dinner.
Lena grabbed the Book of Dragons and looked at it for a moment, then turned to her best friend. "So, wanna share ?"
"Sure." Sieg said with a smile.
/ ... /
The girls went to Lena´s house just as a sudden storm reached Berk. They were sitting on Lena´s bed with the book between them. The atmopshere was filled with tension while candles were the only source of light.
Lena then opened the book. "Dragon Classifications." She said out loud. "Stoker Class, Boulder Class, Sharp, Tidal, Mystery and Strike."
Going for the first pages, they were filled with drawings and informations of many different dragons. "The Thunderdrum." Sieglinde started reading. "This reclusive dragon inhabits sea caves and dark tide pools. When startled the Thunderdrum produces a concussive sound that can kill a man in close range. Extremely dangerous, kill on sight."
Lena then turned the page and read the next. "Timberjack... this gigantic creature has razor sharp wings that can slice through full grown trees. Extremely dangerous, kill on sight."
Sieglinde then flipped the page again. "Changewing... even newly hatched dragons can spray acid, kill on sight." Suddenly thunder echoed loudly, causing both girls to jump and turn to look out of the window. The sky was flickering with lighting. The two of them eventually ignored it before going back to the book. "Whispering Death, tend to dwell in underground tunnels they burrow themselves, resurfacing to attack any oncoming prey. Kill on sight." Sieg continued before flipping to yet another page.
"Monstrous Nightmare... Grapple Grounder... Hideous Zippleback... the Skrill... Boneknapper... Sand Wraith." Lena continued, as she quickly flipped through the pages. "Burns its victims, buries its victims, chokes its victims, turns its victims inside out."
"Extremely dangerous, extremely dangerous, kill on sight, kill on sight, kill on sight." Sieg repeated over and over as they reached the pages of the more rare species of dragons.
Finally they arrived at a page which was mostly blank. "Night Fury... Speed - Unknown, Size - Unknown. The unholy offspring of lightning and death itself. Never engage this dragon. You're only chance..."
"Hide and pray it does not find you." Sieglinde finished. She looked up at Lena who, after a moment of hesitation, pulled out her notbook, opened the page of her drawing of the Night Fury and placed it down. Another thunder echoed outside as both girls got a strange feeling growing insid eof them.
/ ... /
The next day, Lena had some free time before Dragon Training and decided to visit the cove again. She wasn´t surprised to see that the Night Fury was still there. It was laying under a tree, sleeping.
Sensing the young viking´s presence, the dragon opened its eyes and lifted its head. It yawned and then slowly approached her. Lena quickly opened the bag she was carrying and revealed four fish inside. But to her surprise, the Night Fury didn´t seem interested in the little snack she brought along. It looked at her bandaged forarm which was no longer hidden as she returned to wearing a short sleeved shirt. It carefully sniffed it before looking up at her and letting out a worried sounding growl.
Lena was even more surprised now, but also felt quite touched by it. She gave a small smile. "I´m fine. Just a little scratch. It´s almost completely healed."
That seemed to calm the dragon and it then went to eat the fish before returning to lay down under the tree. Lena decided to take this visit to learn a bit more about that Night Fury. The next three hours she simply watched it. It went from jumping around in the lake to catch itself some more fish to flying fast and gracefully through the sky and then taking its rest while bathing in the warm sunlight.
She added a few more details to her drawing of the dragon that she missed. The two small nubs on each side of its jaw, and the hidden set of extended spines that run down its back and tail. Also, judging from the dragon´s behaviour and strong appearance, she's pretty sure its a male.
Soon she started doing more drawings of the Night Fury. One were it flies through the sky, and another where it stands near the lake while looking ready to jump in. Finally, she started making one were it sleeps in a grassy meadow.
While doing so, she suddenly felt a slight breeze behind her and a shadow caught her eye. She knew it was the dragon. Not wanting to startle it, she continued to draw, adding in the smallest of details. The dragon then made a pleased cooing sound, apparently liking the drawings. A bit later, Lena heard its feet shuffle away. She turned to see the dragon had picked up a large tree branch. Then it started moving all around, dragging the end of the branch around. It didn't seem to be making a certain shape or form, but it continued to go everywhere with the branch.
Once when he went behind her the leafy part hit her head and she winced slightly. He then stopped for a second to looked at her, as though looking to see if I was okay, then went back to work. After another minute of moving the dragon finally set down the branch, and nodded, obviously pleased with his work.
Lena then stood up, examining the completely wild picture in front of her. She walked forward, accidentally stepping on a line, and the dragon growled. She flinched, then raised her foot. The dragon purred. "Hmm…I wonder..." She repeatedly continued this, making the dragon growl and then purr again.
After a couple times Lena finally stepped over the line, and the Night Fury purred even louder, looking very happy. She smiled at that. This was kinda fun. She continued to step over the lines, holding her arms out to keep her balance. Turning left, then right, forward and backwards. It really seemed like something without an end. Then she turned and took one last step backwards, and she felt it. A warm, strong breeze (almost like breath) blowing on her back, ruffling her hair.
Lena slowly turned around. The Night Fury was sitting there, towering over her while looking into her eyes. It was then that Lena noticed how deeply powering its yellowish-green and bluish-silver eyes were. They showed so many things at the same time. Courage, strength, kidness, and a hint of wildness.
Lena stood still for a moment before raising her hand. The dragon growled lowly, but it didn´t sounded threatening or angry. Sad, she pulled her hand back, and the dragon stopped. Lena gave the situation some thought. This dragon had to see that she trusted it - completely. Then it would trust her. Sighing, she closed her eyes, turned her head and held out her arm.
She didn't hear any growls, snarls or anything dangerous, so she took that as a good sign. She knew this dragon could kill her, but for some strange reasong she knew he wouldn´t do it.
At that point she felt something smooth and scaly press against her hand. With a gasp she opened her eyes and turned her head back. The great Night Fury had its eyes closed and its snout nuzzled into the center of my palm.
Lena smiled gently as she reached out to the dragon who was now looking at her with curious eyes. "A strong yet gentle wind... a shadow dancing through the glittering sky at night... with beautiful eyes... nice to meet you... Odd-Eyes ..."
TO BE CONTINUED