Berk's Forumvine

Previous Chapter

Rated T for Violent/Morbid content, Viewer discretion is advised.

The teens were fast approaching the island, its form rising out of the fog, silhouetted in the morning sun. The dragons gracefully weaved through the destroyed sea stacks, “Where did you see them again?” Hiccup turned to Thorin as they broke through the wall of fog, “Climbing up towards the entrance of the mountain” he pointed at the gaping hole in the rock face. “Though I did destroy their ship before I left to get you guys, They have no way of getting off the island” Astrid turned to the rest of the group, puzzled “Who or what Tribe wants anything to do with Dragon island? I mean its infested with dragons and it has no fjords or bays that can safely stow a ship, like the area around Gobber's outhouse, the land has no value.”.

The riders brought their dragons into the mouth of the cave, where they set down on a flat area in the midst of a jagged sea of rock. Scattered all over the ground were the bags and rope left behind by the men who Thorin saw early in the morning, the rock lined fire pit was still hot and glowing, the embers softly cracking in the cold air. The cave reeked of the musty smell of dragons, but another faint odour played in Thorin's mind. A disturbing dragon screech echoed within the cave, startling the group, the dragons Shivered, their large muscles contracting violently. “I know that sound...” Hiccup looked up disturbed “That is the sound of a dieing dragon” his face paled the the sudden realization. Hiccup hopped onto Toothless's back and lifted up into the air, the rest of the riders followed him as he entered the darkness.

The daylight slowly petered out as they flew further into the cave, but the strange smell intensified, they finally crossed into the centre of the mountain, a large cavern that reached upwards for hundreds of metres that broke through to the morning air. The walls of the cavern where scorched and riddled with the red stains of blood, the air, stiff with the smell of dragon blood and death. The teens landed on one of the many pillars sticking above the dense smoke. There was a rope strung all the way down into the fog's depths, and scattered on the ground where weapons and tools, many of the the blades where caked in dry blood.

Thorin dismounted Bolt and walked up to the pillar wall, there where old unreadable runes covering its surface, the stone caked in the ashy soot from a dragons flame. He started walking around the edge of the wall, it was curved out of sight, He passed the corner and saw it, a dead Monstrous nightmare pegged to the wall with two large spears, the blood soaking the stone beneath it. Thorin jumped back with a startled yelp, the other teens and their dragons came racing around the corner and was met with the sadistic scene. The dragons reared back and threw their riders to the ground, their faces contorted in fear, Meatlug took off into the stuffy air, and yelped to the other dragons. One by one the dragons took off, Bolt turned to Thorin, and looked at him with a confused face, there was another screech from the deep, it was too much for the scared skrill, his massive wings brought him into a hurried dash out of the mountain along with the other dragons. Toothless brought himself into a defensive stance, and raised his wing over Hiccup's head, with each echo he brought himself in front of his friend and the sound.

The fleeing dragons wailed in fear as they flew through the opening in the cavern's roof, but something else was startled in the thick smoke below, A Nadder emerged from the smoke in a mad dash to the exit. From it's neck it trailed a thick iron chain that left bloody gashes where it touched the creature. There was a loud wail as the chain reached its limit, followed by a gut-wrenching snap, the dragon came crashing down onto the pillar, its massive head flailing around on it's broken neck. The dragon's lifeless body ploughed into the group of teens, taking them over the edge of the pillar, toothless screeched as his best friend fell into the foggy void.

Thorin drifted back into conciseness, his body aching from head to toe, he tried to inhale deeply to rid his body of the pain, but a crushing force lay across his chest, making his breathing shallow and heartbeat fade. His eyes slowly fluttered open to meet with the Nadder's head, it's eyes where cold and sad, the last emotion it had. Around Him he could hear the groans and the coughs of the other teens. A figure rose in the haze a few feet away from him, Astrid's voice broke the silence “Hello? Is anyone there?” The groans ceased, and another figure joined her “Where is everybody else, And where is Toothless?” Hiccup said concerned. “That was Awesome!” Tuffnut exclaimed in the distance followed by the twins giggling. “Alright that is now four out of seven, where is fish-” “Meatlug!? Where are you girl?” “...legs” Hiccup continued. “Hey! watch where your going” Snotlout sneered “Uh, oh I am sorr-” “You better be Whale-legs” Snotlout continued, “That's enough!” Hiccup interrupted “Guys help look for Thorin, he must be here somewhere” the remaining figures rose, obscured in the mountains thick smoke. Thorin opened his mouth to speak but not a single word came out of his mouth, his strength was slowly fading as each shallow breath brought him nothing.

A figure approached where He lay, Thorin gathered all of his remaining strength and reached out his arm, he grabbed the ankle and squeezed, Astrid yelped and jumped back, their eyes met, but Thorin's vision was fading, “I found him! He needs help” the other five figures joined her, their faces nearly obscured, “We need to get the Nadder off of him” Hiccup added, Thorin closed his eyes as the darkness started to consume him. He could hear the others speaking but he was unable to put the words together, a flood of air surged through him as the dragon's head was lifted off of his chest. he was laying in the centre of the group again, gasping for air, with each breath his vision was slowly restoring, the pulse of his heart beat in a uniform rhythm, He was back, thanks to them. “Thank you” he breathed out, the words almost silent.

Another deathly screech rang out within a distant passage, the sound echoing throughout the mountain, there was no time or place for Thorin to recover, whatever or whoever was doing all this to dragons would surely kill a group of teens without question. There was a deep silence as the dragons screeches died out, but soon another dragon took its place, this time the screams and yelps where too familiar “No! Toothless!” Hiccup tried to locate where the echo's were coming from, his eyes wide open in anguish. Thorin knelt down to pick up his iron helmet “We need to get out of here and find our dragons” He met the group with a hardened face. “No! We can't leave toothless behind!” Hiccup shouted, a sad, sad anger burned in his eyes while tears formed in their corners, “We can't save him like this! Look at us!” Thorin looked around at the battered teens, his own anger rose within his voice “Whatever it is, it will rip us to shreds! We need to re-group” Thorin looked at the group that stood in front of him, he could see it in the others faces, Fear gripped them... it gripped all of the riders. Hiccup turned his head and stared into the darkness, tears running down his cheeks “Alright...” Hiccup breathed out. “Take up arms, we have no dragons to defend us” Thorin said as looked around the dense fog, the other teen's faces paled as they were brought to the severity of the situation.

Thorin drew his broadsword from its sheath while the others drew their own weapons. Hiccup reached into his satchel and removed a thick stick with balled char cloth wrapped around one end, he unsheathed his dagger and started striking the the wall of rock. He slashed randomly at the wall until the dagger threw sparks out of the gash. He held the char cloth to the sparks, the cloth started to billow a thick white smoke as the embers multiplied. The cloth exploded into flames, its light cut through the fog in brilliant streaks, illuminating the area around the group. The light brought to detail everyone’s emotions, they all could tell, Hiccup was devastated by the thought of having to leave his companion behind in danger, or even worse, dead.

The floor was covered in blood, but not the blood of a dragon, but of something else. There where figures scattering the floor in the distance, Thorin took a few pained steps towards the figures, but to his horror, men, women, dressed in robes and armour that resembled metal chains. Through out their bodies where bite marks, as well as the scorched clothes and burned flesh. Most of the bodies where ripped apart, limbs where scattered on the ground, blood, and guts ripped from their torsoes . He had seen enough, he turned around and headed back to the group who where also staring at the morbid scene with glazed over eyes.

“We need to move, Now” Thorin looked over his shoulder at the mess of bodies and blood “You saved me twice, now I need to repay the favour” an urgent anger welled up in his soul, gnawing and twisting it. Snotlout watched Thorin as he frantically paced the area “He is right, there is a passage, a tunnel to the left, I smell fresh air seeping from inside it” “What about the hole that the red death smashed” Fishlegs voice quivered in a suppressed fear.“Uhh, That way is caved in” Everyone’s eyes shifted to Tuffnut “What, I needed a new soggy place” “Now's not the time for this!” Thorin exclaimed “We have to get out re-group and only then can we save Toothless” he said as he turned to Hiccup, who had his face buried in his hands. “Alright t-t-then- Lets go...” he said, each word was more pained than the last.

oh my thor odin help us

Chances of surviving is dwindling to single digits now...

Great work, as usual your word choices are brilliant!

[quote=cometotheberkside,(time=1401501603)
Chances of surviving is dwindling to single digits now... [/quote]
"DWINDLING, I TELL YOU!"

The tunnel was dark and it's air was stricken with moisture, there was a stream running through the centre, its water, muddied and reeked of rotten eggs. The teens where moving with haste through it's twisting stone walls, it was not long before they came to a branch in the tunnel. The riders came to a dead halt, “Which way?” Hiccup looked up out of his focused trance “The right, take the right, there is fresh air coming from that passage” Snotlout said as he started wanking into the darkness that hiccup's torch did not penetrate. A howl broke the silence, it echoed from the right tunnel, Snotlout burst from the un-lit fog, “Nope!, not this way, defiantly not this way!” Snotlout yelped “But that's the way out is it not?!” Astrid turned towards Snotlout “There is something in there, and I am Not dieing toda-” creature-like howls broke through Snotlout's words, this time, more and more beasts joined in as the sounds approached the group from down the path. “Run you fools, Run!” the words flowed out of Thorin's mouth in a poisonous mix of fear and desperation.

The teens took off down the the left passage, the pack of beasts shrieking, and growling as they chased the group down the snaking tunnel. They ran for what seemed like forever, yet the walls of rock seemed to pass by slowly, the teens crossed into an opening in the narrow tunnel. A large break in the tunnel where it opened up to a cavern, there was silence, they had lost the beasts, for now.... Everyone collapsed onto the cool damp floor of the cave, the rock sapping the heat out of their boiling hot bodies, “It feels Soo good” Tuffnut exclaimed as he held two dew ridden rocks to his red cheeks.


Thorin looked around the cavern, it's walls were unusually square, as if men once lived in this foreboding mountain, there was a square passage in the centre of one of the walls. There was an dim white glow emanating from within the passage while clear fog-less air flowed into the misty room. Thorin was not the only one to notice it, everyone rose to face the passage, it was their only hope for freedom, it brought them one step closer to escaping and saving Hiccup's best friend. Thorin's legs ignited in pain as he rose from his kneeling position “We should keep moving” he said as he entered the dimly lit passage.

The tunnel opened up to a small room, the floor was made out of old rotting wood that groaned each time someone took a step, the walls, covered with old runic inscriptions, the symbols lost in time as their meanings had been long forgotten. There was a skylight in the ceiling, with old rusty iron bars blocking the way out. Light seeped through the long narrow tunnel of the skylight and illuminated the old wooden floor. “I- I know these runes” Fishlegs said as he ran his fingers through the carved grooves of the inscriptions. “Yes, they are very old, they where used a thousand years ago, so maybe they can show us the way out, Hiccup, you have a charstick and some parchment, right?” Hiccup reached into his pouch and pulled out his note book, ripped out a blank sheet and handed it to Fishlegs. Fishlegs immediately started translating the runes into readable symbols.


“This nest is secured by the great king to the East, and shall exist to the end of Denatta's days, she shall reign over the dragons of this region with an iron claw. Denatta, daughter of the brood-Queen Benalia, Benalia Queen of the mountainous dragons of the south. The order of the king's realm shall keep the assigned region under...” Fishlegs paused “Did you hear that? Whats that sound” Fishlegs looked down the hall and squealed. The rest of the riders all turned to look down the hallway, beast after beast the size of wolves poured into the passage way. The beasts looked like wolves with no fur, with the wings of a bat, areas of their skin stripped off their flesh in bloody patches while black patches of hair lined their spines, their eyes blood-red in the torchlight.


The beasts approached the teens from the tunnel, trapping them in the room and forcing them to the back, Fishlegs softly whimpering against the wall waiting for the demonic creatures to strike. Thorin unsheathed his sword and brought it across his body, The creatures grunted and scratched the floor, readying themselves to pounce, Thorin stood in front along with Astrid, and Snotlout. One of the creatures lunged at the group, but only to fall flat in the streaks of sun light that poured through the skylight, its flesh bubbled and singed as the beast screeched in agony. It managed to crawl out of the sunlight and rejoin it's peers, the creatures started to growl as their wounded friend lay in the centre of the pack.

The pack caved in around the wounded creature, their teeth ripping it's flesh off as the beast screamed in the centre. The room became quiet, all that was heard was the trickling of the blood and the crunches of the beasts devouring the bones of their deceased companion. One of the creatures broke from the feast and faced the teens, its mouth and snout caked in blood, it started growling, as it inched it's way around the patch of sunlight, drool forming in the corners of it's mouth.


The other creatures turned to meet the riders, all that was left of the dead beast was a few bone fragments and a pool of clotted blood. The beasts howled and sneered at the frightened teens, their teeth as red as their eyes, one of the beasts broke through the pack and leapt through the sunlight, this time it landed just feet away from the group. The wooden floor groaned and gave away under the combined weight, sending them tumbling into a room below.


The creature had fallen through the floor along with the teens, there was a yelp as the creature pinned Tuffnut down on the floor, and was about to rip into his throat. Like an instinct, Thorin's hand flew down to meet his sword in its sheath, but to his surprise his hand did not meet the hilt. There was a loud thwack, something struck the beasts head. An axe blade lay embedded in the skull of the creature as a steady stream of dark red blood seeped between the flesh and the cold iron.


“W-we have to keep moving” Thorin shuttered, the cave was getting at him, fear penetrated his soul, everyone could see it in him, yet the fear they saw in each other kept them from saying anything. There was another two passages that split off of the room, each passage as black as pitch. The beasts stirred in the room above, scratching at the wooden floor, trying to get through to the teens. “This way” Hiccup said as he sprinted down one of the dark hallways, the light of his torch leaving Thorin behind in the darkness.

He was quick to rejoin the group as they ran down the dark corridor. The light silhouetting seven figures on the walls and on the floors, howls and screeches echoed down the passage, they where closing in on the group. A sharp left turn brought the teens face to face with an iron door. The lock had been struck off of it long ago, rust and time had long welded it's iron to the ground, staining the rock beneath it with an orange hue. There was a loud sequel as the iron door opened, The teens rushed through and slammed the door behind them. Hiccup removed his dagger and wedged it into the crack of the door to keep it shut. A unknown man's voice broke through the group's gasps in an accent that was unfamiliar “I see you found our pets, or should I say they found you” the man sadistically laughed “Its a shame they did not eat you, the death you kids are in for now, is a far, far worse death then being torn to shreds”

ahh it is getting creepy

Great job of keeping me intrigued!