It was just another day for Harkon, performing his duties as First Officer of the ship. Sailing along the open sea, ensuring the crew did their job, ensuring their cargo was under control, keeping stock of their ammunition, and various other jobs. Most days not spent on dry land were spent like this, and sometimes the tedium was unpleasant, but then there were days where the crew would dock on an island in search of new cargo, and that was what Harkon lived for.

The thrill of the hunt.

Having spent several hours waiting in a tree for the ideal prey, his patience finally paid off. The beast he stared down upon was massive. A large, bipedal creature, with large claw-tipped forewings used for support when walking. It had a long, snake-like neck, leading up to a head with four large, twisted horns, a long, ovular snout, and a maw with crooked teeth sticking out from the jaw. The beast had an unusual array of colours, including teal, scarlet, and violet. The colours themselves were not unusual for this manner of beast, but to see all three of them on one specimen was not common.

With narrowed eyes, Harkon took a deep breath, and gently tugged on the string of his bow, applying more force with every passing second, until he reached full draw. He held for a few seconds, ensuring the beast hadn't noticed him yet. The green substance coating the tip of his arrowhead glistened slightly as he aimed.

"Healthy, fit, male, early adulthood." He analysed in his mind as he stared down at the beast, ready to release. With one final deep breath, he relaxed his fingers, allowing the bowstring to spring back into place, sending the arrow forward. In an instant, the arrow buried itself in the beast's side, eliciting a loud cry of pain.

Suddenly, the beast's entire body set ablaze as it thrashed about, the toxin on the arrowhead doing its job. With the beast's senses overwhelmed, Harkon had no reason to fear being detected at the distance he was, so he lined up another shot, and fired. The second arrow found its way into the beast's shoulder. Its hide was too thick for it to be seriously injured by a couple of arrows, but not so thick that the arrows wouldn't pierce. The beast would only be in real danger if Harkon had shot the soft underbelly at much closer range, which, in most situations, wasn't possible.

It didn't take long for the combined toxicity of two arrows to knock the beast unconscious. The flames on its body eventually died out, and the beast fell to the ground, its eyes fluttering closed, and its forked tongue hanging out. Harkon smirked as he jumped out of the tree and jogged up to his prey.

"Let's get you back to the ship." He said with no small amount of satisfaction as he looked at the Monstrous Nightmare he'd taken down.

XXX

After bringing some of the crew to aid in getting the Nightmare to the beach they were docked at, and into a Dragon-proof cage, Harkon set to work on getting his next catch. It was well past sundown when he returned with news of a Deadly Nadder he'd shot. Once he'd gotten the Nadder to the beach and caged, he decided to turn in for the night in his private quarters on the ship. Being second in command on the ship had its benefits.

The following morning, now well rested and with a belly full of breakfast, Harkon got to work on having the men load up their spoils. With the two dragons he'd brought in, and the other four that the men had trapped and seized, they had a healthy half a dozen new dragons for their cells. After some work, there was only the Nightmare he'd taken down, and a Gronkle left to load. The Nightmare started to kick up a fuss as one of the men got close to its cage, and the man responded with a sneer.

"Quiet down, ya useless lizard!" The man snapped at the dragon. The only response he got was a massive hand grabbing the back of his head and shoving him into the cage door.

"Just load them up." Ryker growled at the hunter. He was a tall man, taller than Harkon at least, a good 1.9 metres(that's 6 foot 3 or 4 to you yanks.) And Harkon wasn't exactly short himself. His head was shaved bald, and he had both a moustache on his face, and a chin stripe. His piercing brown eyes glared at the Hunter he held. And he was incredibly muscular.

He wore a leather tunic, one made of dragonhide, 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 dragon cages, Dragon-proof metal.

Harkon himself had medium black hair that he tied back into a short ponytail, and dark hazel eyes. His build was lithe and muscular, perfect for sneaking through bushes and trees whilst hunting. He wore a simple grey tunic, with a black leather vest over it, also dragonhide. His pants were black as well, and he wore a pair of simple dark brown boots. He also wore black wrist guards on his forearms, over the sleeves of his tunic. These were made of dragonhide as well, with thin sheets of steel inside them.

On his hip, he carried an Ulfbert sword, a very rare and strong weapon made of crucible steel. He also carried a rather unique bow, one made purely of Gronckle Iron. The design was that of a simple recurve bow, but the thin Gronckle Iron limbs coupled with the Silkspanner silk bowstring made it incredibly powerful.

"Look at him." Ryker growled at the Hunter he held in place, ignoring the man's apologies as he stared down at the Nightmare in the cage. "Powerful, perfect. He's smarter than you, remember that." He said warningly. Right as the Nightmare made to attack the Hunter, Ryker pulled him back, and the only thing the Nightmare got in its jaw was the bars of its cage. "But not me." Ryker laughed darkly as the Nightmare growled at him.

"Was that really necessary?" Harkon asked with a sigh. Though before he could get an answer he felt a tingle in his spine, one stemming from almost 15 years of hunting instincts. Right as Ryker made to answer him snidely, Harkon held up a hand, stopping Ryker in his tracks, and pointed to two big boulders at the edge of the shore. Ryker's eyes showed understanding as Harkon slowly stepped into a good shooting position, readying an arrow.

"Get that Nadder!" Ryker ordered the men when he received the positive signal from Harkon. Several of the men brandished their axes and maces and ran to the boulders Ryker pointed towards. Seconds later, a blue and yellow Deadly Nadder flew up, out of the Hunters' reach. Harkon nearly lost his grip when he saw there was a blonde girl on the Dragon's back. Sure, he knew there were people out there who rode on the backs of Dragons, but he never imagined he'd find one such person on the remote island they were currently hunting on.

"Be ready to fire." Ryker barked at him. For a fraction of a second, in the privacy of his own mind, Harkon hesitated, but then hardened himself. Right as the girl commanded her Dragon to flee, and they took off towards the ocean, Harkon followed their path with his bow and fired. Hitting a moving target was hard, but when the moving target was up in the air, showing off its belly, that meant that, if one's aim were true, they'd hit their target almost every time.

The girl let out fearful sounds as she and her Dragon went down. As she fell off of the dragon, the Hunters aboard the ship fired a chain at the Nadder's from the winches that wrapped around its body and wings. Couple that with the Dragon Root arrow, and the beast wasn't going anywhere. Both the Dragon and Rider fell into the ocean, and as the Dragon was reeled in by the winches, Ryker and Harkon made their way to the ship.

"What are we going to do about the rider?" Harkon asked as he and Ryker observed the unconscious Nadder being pulled up onto the deck by the men.

"She's not our concern." Ryker waved him off. "Move out!" He ordered the helmsman.

"This dragon doesn't belong to us, Ryker." Harkon called out to his Captain. "We are Hunters, not common criminals." He spoke in an accent that was similar to Ryker's, though it was lighter.

"There's nothing criminal about us taking in a beast that was stalking us." Ryker responded with a smirk. "If that beast happened to have a Viking on its back, that's not on us." He said, walking off.

"Whatever you say, Big Brother." Harkon responded with a sigh.

Yeah, one little tidbit that wasn't mentioned earlier.

Harkon Grimborn, the youngest of the three Grimborn brothers. This is his story.

XXX