The Norse Nerd

01 Aug 2014, 13:22

Cool chapter! I love it!

SplashTheScauldron

01 Aug 2014, 13:39

Anwesome!

Fireproof - Chapter Thirty-One: Betrayal

 

'I'll go in first.' I told the soldier.
He nodded and said nothing, but there was a gleam in his eyes.
As I entered the prison, and growling, screaming and squawking filled my ears, it became clear that there wasn't just human prisoners here. This was confirmed when I saw dragons chained to the bars of cages, some empty, some with dragons in them.
At times like this, I wished I didn't have the gift of understanding what dragons said: Dragonese.
The dragons that were chained to the bars of the cages were saying horrible things to the dragons that were inside them.
Nobody can save you now.
I assumed that Drago commanded these dragons to say these things to them, to break them, because he couldn't break so many all at once. And in my opinion, it's quite a degrading thing when you're bullied by your own species. Trust me, that happened to me for fourteen years.
Suddenly, I heard a dragon's happy snort of recognition. A Rumblehorn's.
Skullcrusher's.
Hatchling of my old master!
I followed the sound, and eventually came to a cage, which contained Skullcrusher, and a human whose back was facing me.
And, rather worryingly, there were dragons, much bigger than Skullcrusher (and Skullcrusher was the biggest dragon I knew), chained to the cage bars.
They growled menacingly, and lunged, but they couldn't move because of their chains.
Because of this, they were mostly defenceless to my dragon-training methods.
I lighted Inferno, and took some dragonnip from my pocket as a precaution.
For the first dragon, a Titanwing Monstrous Nightmare, I waved Inferno around, his eyes tracking every movement of the sword. I noticed that it appeared to have almost a hypnotic effect on him. Eventually, he got too dizzy from following the sword. I only had a short amount of time. Quickly, I closed my eyes, turned my face away, and held out my hand to the Nightmare. I felt him sniffing it. Although it tickled, and my instinctive reaction was to pull my hand away, in case he bit it, I resisted. To be a Dragon Trainer, and, indeed, a Rider, you need to disobey your natural instincts sometimes. You need to trust the dragon enough to know that it will not hurt you.
However, in this case I should have obeyed my natural instincts, because the dragon sensed something was...different. Perhaps, with his excellent hearing, he heard his master approaching. I opened my eyes and turned around, just in time, to miss the jaws that nearly took my hand off.
It seemed that I was indeed correct; the dragon had spooked out, because it heard it's master approaching.
'You nearly lost another limb there, boy. You would not want to lose an arm, as I have, would you, and become like me.'
'I will never, ever, be like you, Drago.'

The Norse Nerd

01 Aug 2014, 18:47

Awesome

Rocky Rose

01 Aug 2014, 18:54

Awesome

(This is a comparably short chapter! )

Fireproof - Chapter Thirty-Two: Dying Like a Chieftain

 

"Really?' Drago sneered. 'We are not so different, boy. I am what you could have become...We have both lost limbs, we can tame dragons, and...we have both lost our fathers to dragons.
'And I suppose you are wondering, where is the dragon that killed your father?'
'Yep. I was wondering that.'
'I am not going to kill you by turning your dragon against you. Only my greatest enemies are worthy of that death. You do not deserve to die the way your father did. You will die in the way that is appropriate for... lesser Chieftains, such as yourself.'
A cruel smile came over his face. He raised his staff, and struck the hook onto the floor, the way I had seen Valka do in the cave, five years ago.
I knew what this signal was.
When Valka had done this, flame had started coming out of her dragons' mouths, to serve as a light source.
But the flame that was coming out of the dragons' mouths here, was not a light source.
It was a death sentence.
'Goodbye, Chief Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third...Or, as I call you, Dragon Master...' Drago smiled. He walked out of the room, whirling his cape meaningfully behind him, as if to indicate that he was fireproof...
But I was not.