Berk's Forumvine

Naxu's POV
'Rwwwarrrr!' I roared playfully, tackling the young female Night Fury to the ground.
I loomed over her, growling.
'I am Naxu, the mighty Alpha of the Night Furies' son.'
She pretended to cower.
'Have mercy!' she whimpered.
'Very well. But be grateful; for not many other Alphas would be so generous as to let you leave- and live.'
She got up, her tail between her legs, pretending to be obedient- but then turned around, with all the speed our species is known for, and this time it was me staring up into her face.
I heard a gentle purr, sounding like laughter, and a familiar snout nudged me up onto my feet, and I found I was looking at my father- the Night Furies' Alpha, himself.
'Come on, young darklings,' my father purred fondly. A 'darkling' was the name for Night Fury hatchlings, such as myself, and the female.
'Rutkei.' he adressed my friend. 'Return to your mother and father. It is getting dark.'
'Yes, Alpha.'
She bowed, and ran off to her cave. The soft purrs of greeting from her parents could be heard.
I, however, was more persistent.
'But, Father, dark-time is the best time for us- when we hide in the skies.'
'I know, my son. Which is why I will be going out hunting- and you will be staying at the cave.'
'Father-'
'Just think of it like this. Pretend you are me, protecting the Nest, and the other Night Furies.'
I was made happier by his words, and bounded off to our cave, which was bigger than the others.

---

Vahlin's POV
I sighed, in a mixture of happiness and sadness, at the sight of my son bounding off.
You might have thought that I would have proceeded to take to the night sky, and begin my hunting- but I was not going to do that.
I had lied to my son- but for a good reason.
Because I instinctively knew that all was not well in the Nest tonight.
Which was why I had told him to go to the cave- I just wanted to keep him- and the other Night Furies- safe, safe from whatever thing that I knew was going to happen tonight.
Once I was sure that my son had reached the cave, I turned around, and began to walk to a cliff-top.
From the highest point in the Obsidian Isles, I could see everything.
Even the thing which I was correct about; the thing that was going to cause all to not be well in the Nest.
And that thing happened to be humans.
But not just any humans. These were not those that fled at my mighty roar; this was an army of humans.
There was an Alpha-human leading them, who had stopped at the little beach at the bottom of the Isles- and was now waving some sort of stick around his head, which gleamed with the glint of metal, like my scales when the moonlight hit it.
The Alpha-human appeared to be screaming some sort of... command- which I found to be the strangest thing of all- at the sea, which I presumed contained a creature- a dragon, perhaps?
No, no. That could not be right. Humans screamed at dragons- but in fear, and terror, not in command. They were puny, weak little things- not capable of commanding dragons.
Or were they?
Eventually, the thing that came out of the sea was a dragon- one far more terrible than I ever could have imagined.
Its scales were grey-black- like the scales of old Night Furies- and it was huge.
I recognised this dragon to be a Bewilderbeast.
But it did not smell like a Bewilderbeast- it smelt of fear.
A mighty beast, like itself, had fear?
Surely it could not be the Alpha-human that it was scared of?
Why? The Alpha-human was tiny compared to it- the dragon could crush it with one stamp of its foot and not even realise.
Something told me that it had once tried that, but it had failed, and as a result, had not dared to any more.
Perhaps it was the scars on its face, and tusks which told me this- the Alpha-human's punishment for it. But it seemed that scarring the dragon was not punishment enough. The Bewilderbeast was not scared enough of the Alpha-human then- so it had made it scared.
One look at its red-and-blue eyes, burning with rage, and misery, was sufficient enough to tell me that the Alpha-human had suceeded.
And, I was presuming, the huge dragon did not fight the Alpha-human- it couldn't; it was too broken.
Why was the Alpha-human trying to break the Bewilderbeast?
Then I realised.
The Alpha-human had been trying to break the dragon to become its master.
My theory was proved, when my green eyes caught the glint of metal- not the metal of the Alpha-human's stick- but the metal of armour.
And, wearing that armour, on their heads, were some dragons.
I actually growled out loud at this- quietly.
It was bad enough that the Alpha-human was breaking dragons to make them become obedient to it- but armouring them, turning them into weapons of war?!
War machines.
That was all these dragons were to the Alpha-human- expendable weapons, to be ridden into war, like mere horses.
Dragons should not be like this. They should not be made to fight humans' wars, against their will, and too broken to fight back. They should be fighting their Alpha's wars- at least then they are fighting for good.
The Alpha-human walked up to his dragons- and they moved out of his way, and whimpered low, purring sounds of submission.
The Alpha-human seemed pleased with this- and growled in satisfaction, which made him sound more dragon-like than human-like.
'Dragon?' one of the subjects asked its Alpha.
Wait- no. That could not be the Alpha-human's name- the subject had not said the 'n'. It sounded similar enough, though.
I repeated the Alpha-human's name inside my head, and took away the 'n'.
Drago. The Alpha-human's name was Drago.
Strangely, I thought I had heard his name before- although I had never asked any of the dragons who had mentioned him to tell me what he looked like.
But I would have never thought he would come here.
So, why?
The smell of the Bewilderbeast's fear of its master provided me with my answer- there were other things mingled with that fear-smell.
You see, there is one dragon in particular that rules over its species, the Alpha- and I could tell by the different smells- which were sort of like medals- that they were all dead, defeated by the Bewilderbeast. Now I understood what Drago was trying to do.
He was taking his Bewilderbeast to all the different locations of the dragon species Nests, and getting it to defeat the Alpha of that species. As they travelled to different Nests, the Alphas would get harder and harder to defeat- but they would be no match for the Bewilderbeast. By doing this, the dragon would be made stronger, and now Drago thought that it was finally ready to take on me- and then it would have enough strength to fight the Alpha Bewilderbeast.
And, also, if the Bewilderbeast killed me, Drago would probably make me into a cloak.
But that wasn't the only reason he was going to kill me.
Night Furies, especially Alpha Night Furies, are considered prizes- mostly due to the fact that nobody has ever killed one of us. So, of course Drago was going to kill not just me, but all the other Night Furies, too.
Although, I was not going to let that happen.

---

The rumble of thunder, and the crash of lightning could be heard, as I ran back to the caves. The thunder boomed again. It sounded like a roar- a Thunderdrum roar. So, the reason for the lightning could only be a Skrill.
'Naxu!' I shouted, running in.
He was already wide awake with terror.
'Gather the other darklings, and fly!' I grabbed him by the scruff of his neck, not waiting for a response.
'But, Father, I can't fly!' he protested.
'Would you rather be captured by Drago, instead, then?' I snapped, my fear making me angry.
'Who is Drago?' he asked.
'An unexpected visitor...'
I did not say any more, and he didn't either.
'Now, go!'
I threw him, firmly but gently, onto the ground. He did not move.
'Whyyyyy?' he whined, with all the inquisitiveness of the five-darktimes old he was.
I walked over to him, and purred and nuzzled him.
'Because...the Alpha protects them all.'
His huge green eyes blinked understandably. Then, he ran to wake the other darklings, not glancing back.
I myself ran to gather the Night Fury warriors.

---

Naxu's POV
'Rutkei, wake up!' I whispered as loudly as I could.
She was already awake.
'What is it?' she asked anxiously, glancing around to the back of the cave, expecting to see the shapes of her mother and father, who were not there.
'Where's my mother and father?!'
'My father has gathered them, as we are supposed to gather the other darklings.'
'Why? What's going on?'
'I don't have enough time to tell you. Now, come on!'

---

Vahlin's POV
'Night Furies, we have a crisis.' I announced to the dragons who were assembled in front of me, inside the Great Cave.
'And what is this crisis?' asked one.
'The crisis, is a human called Drago.'
As soon as I said 'human', there were growls of fury.
'A human ?!' they all snarled in unison.
'Yes. We must prepare for war.'
At my order, their anger disappeared, and they bowed.
'Yes, Alpha.'
'Here is the plan...'

---

Naxu's POV
Rutkei and I stood at the cliff-top, telling the other darklings my father's orders.
'We are going to fly off this cliff-' I began.
'But, Naxu, we can't fly yet!' protested the smallest of the group.
'I know, but we need to! Anyway, once we have flown off the cliff, we will need to get away from here as fast as possible.'
'Oh, you don't need to worry about flying,' a voice purred. 'We've got that covered.'
A two-headed dragon- a Hideous Zippleback, appeared, seemingly out of nowhere behind us. Its two heads were cruelly chained together by manacles.
One of the heads picked up the smallest darkling, the one who had spoken only a few minutes ago, gently in its jaws.
'Leave him alone.' I said boldly.
The other head narrowed its eyes, and moved towards me, its forked tongue flickering around me, sniffing me delightedly.
'You're a feisty one...' it sneered. 'My master likes dragons like you...'
'I don't care. And I'm not coming with you.'
'Okay then...' it hissed.
Green gas began to spew out of its mouth, filling the area.
I looked around- but I couldn't see anything- but I could hear something.
Wing-beats, from above.
I knew what was going to happen, but I couldn't do anything.
So, I let the dragon grab me in one of its clawed feet. With the other, it grabbed Rutkei, and, since they were smaller, it managed to grab the other darklings in the remaining feet, with the first of the other two feet still containing the smallest darkling.

---

The human's eyes lit up with evil glee, and a smile of savage joy split its face, disfigured with scars.
I guessed this human was Drago.
The Zippleback bowed its heads, in order to drop us. But it still remained in the same position.
Two feet- Drago's feet- were placed onto the Zippleback's heads.
This must be some kind of dominance thing.
The dragon made a groaning, whimpering noise- a noise of submission.
Why wasn't it trying to bite Drago's feet off?!
Drago seemed to be satisfied, and the Zippleback raised its heads again.
He grunted, and kicked the dragon. It did not fight back- just slunk off.
'I-is that what the human is going to do to us?' Rutkei whimpered.
'I-I don't know...' I replied, equally as terrified.
'QUIET!!!!' Drago roared.
We immediately did as he said.
He started to walk around us, curiously, inspecting, and growled in thought.
Seeming to have made up his mind, he made a small noise- like a bark. A dragon slunk towards him, and sat, expectantly.
'Kill them all, expect the two biggest ones.' he growled commandingly.
The dragon flicked its claws outwards, and smiled nastily at the other darklings.
Suddenly, a ghostly shriek pierced the night sky. Several more shrieks followed.
I was not the only one who knew who it was.
'Night Furies...' Drago snarled, slight awe entering his voice.
'W-what is that...?' some other humans asked.
'SILENCE!' Drago yelled in a strangled whisper.
A whistling, screeching sound began suddenly, growing louder and faster as it got closer.
The same terrible look entered Drago's face and eyes, once again.
Then...
'SHOOT THEM!!!!!' he screamed.
Immediately, bolases, and nets were fired into the air.

---

Vahlin's POV
The good thing about darkness is that you cannot be seen.
But it also means that you cannot see what is coming at you until it is too late.
The bolas grabbed me, and with shouts of panic from the other Night Furies, I plummeted towards the ground.
I was not expecting the impact to be so painful, and I passed out from the shock.
I awoke to see the terrible, scarred sight of Drago's face, and I also saw my son, and the other darklings, huddled in a terrified group.
With a snarl of protective anger- Drago snarled back- I charged at the man. He did not move, and just as I was about to leap on him, my eyes caught the metal glint of his stick, but I could not stop now.
Something which felt like a claw sliced into my side.
I howled in pain, and stopped, crumpled onto the floor. I dared to look down at the wound. It was deep, deep enough for me to lose, and have lost, some blood. The red liquid was seeping into the nearby sea.
I tried to get up, breathing heavily, but I could not. It seemed that as well as the blood seeping out of me, there was also my fight to stay Alpha of the Night Furies.
The tired, close-to-death part of me didn't care if Drago's Bewilderbeast was the Alpha.
But the part of me, which upon seeing my blood seep into the sea, made the blood remaining inside me boil angrily, and as hot as my fire, knew that the Bewilderbeast could not become Alpha.
For I was the dragons' only hope. If I was defeated, the Bewilderbeast would be strong enough to fight the Alpha of all dragons, and win- and that did not bear thinking about.
The tired, close-to-death part of me, and the Bewilderbeast tried to make me give in to defeat.
Two negatives against one positive.
The Bewilderbeast and I were not fighting physically, but mentally.
Eventually, given the hopeless odds, I had to give in.
With my last bit of strength, I croaked,
'Fly...' to my son, and the other darklings.
They did, and the dragon that was just about to kill them before I showed up, and some others, did too.
My eyesight turned as red as the blood that was still seeping out of me, and into the sea.
No, no, no...
KILL THE OTHER NIGHT FURIES. the Alpha commanded inside my head.
I had no choice but to obey him...

---

Naxu's POV
'We have to keep flying!' I shouted to the other darklings.
They were lagging behind, panting with effort. Only Rutkei and I were able to fly fast enough to evade the dragons flying after us, soaring through the sky in our terror.
My father would be proud of me, if he was here, I thought, also wondering with even more terror what might be happening to him.
I turned around, without stopping, and saw a tiny black speck, which was bigger than the other ones, attacking another speck, which was rigid with what seemed like disbelief and fear.
Then the truth hit me.
The attacking black speck was a Night Fury...and it was my father...
Now, this time I really did stop.
And I saw the dragons flying towards me, and remembered my terror.
The darklings stopped too, in curiosity of why I was stopping. But, in their curiosity, they forgot that the dragons were catching up with them, deliberately flying slowly, taking their time, knowing that the darklings would not turn around and fly away until it was too late.
A claw grabbed hold of one of the darklings, and with a screech of fear, it was tossed up into the air... and into the waiting dragon's mouth.
'NOOOOO!!!!!' I screamed, but terror overcame me once again, and I didn't look back.
I heard wing-beats behind me, and I feared that it might be one of the dragons, having digested its darkling meal.
But it wasn't.
It was Rutkei.
We flew off together, as far away from the screeches of the darklings which were being devoured, as possible.

---

Vahlin's POV
Finally, finally, the red mist cleared from my eyes.
The dead bodies of Night Furies were scattered around the Isles, some of them with their entrails ripped out.
But how could I have done this? Surely it could not have been me...? I did not even remember doing it...
Drago delighted in telling me that I had.
'Poor dragon...' There was more sneering than sadness embedded in those words.
'You didn't know what you were doing... What a terrible burden to carry; to know that you have murdered your own family...'
He smiled cruelly, and glanced at the claw on the end of his stick, which he had stabbed me with.
'You must be feeling so guilty... Would you like me to take that guilt away from you...?'
I whined, covering my head with my paws in shame.
Taking this to mean 'yes', he advanced slowly towards me, like an executioner- which he was.
I was almost glad for the pain of the claw sinking into my throat.
Then I felt nothing.

---

Drago's POV
I kicked the Night Fury, to ensure it was dead- it was.
Glancing down at my staff, and discovering that it was of course covered in blood, I proceeded to cover my fingers with the red liquid, as a trophy.
But the biggest trophy would not be the Night Fury's blood- it would be its skin.
I raised my staff, and stuck it into the Night Fury's skin, smiling when more of the blood came spilling out.
Slinging my staff over my shoulder, with the dragon attached- like a gruesome knapsack of sorts- holding the rest of the beast with my metal arm, and deliberately gashing it with my claws, I simply walked off, the soldiers hanging around the other Night Furies like the flies that would soon devour them, boldly attempting to kick the beasts, but not doing so, for fear that it might wake up, or I would scream at them for doing so.
For once, however, I did not.

---

Naxu's POV
Rutkei and I flew until we reached a wooded area, with no humans, and a cave big enough for a Night Fury, if not two.
'Rutkei,' I told her, 'This will be our home from now on. I am going to go out hunting.'
She nodded tiredly, for our wings were both aching from the journey.
'Be back soon.' she yawned.
It turned out, however, that I would not be back soon, or indeed ever, as you will see.

---

After a while of flying, my nostrils caught the scent of sheep. My father had told me that whenever you smell sheep, there is a village nearby, for humans look after the sheep there.
Night Furies are the most intelligent known dragons, so I knew these humans would not take kindly- to say the least- to me snatching a sheep. But humans are virtually blind in the darktime- I could use that as an advantage- as a plan.
I flew as high up in the sky as possible, until the village looked tiny from the distance I was away from it, and went over to something I believe the humans call a 'watchtower'.
Then I gathered up a purple burst of flame in my mouth, from deep inside my stomach, and streaked straight towards the watchtower, in a black blur, firing as I did so- this was something my father had taught me.
It worked.
The humans cowered under their wooden circles- 'shields', and yelled something in their language which sounded like, 'NIGHT FURY! GET DOWN!'
It felt good to make the humans afraid of me, as I had once been.
But now the humans were distracted, it was time for me to grab a sheep.
I flew around, looking for where they were eating the green things, 'grass'. Then- I heard something.
'Come on, give me something to shoot at, give me something to shoot at...'
It was a human. A human child. Better known to us dragons as 'halflings'.
I flew over to where its voice was coming from. This was a mistake I would not regret- at the time, perhaps, but now, I could never dream of regretting it.
I was intending to kill the halfling. It could not become a full-grown human! I readied my fire, and streaked across the darktime sky, in a black blur, once again.
Suddenly, something grabbed me, entangling my wings, so that I could not fly.
I plummeted down towards an area filled with trees, a 'wood', shrieking.
Before I was out of earshot, I heard the halfling saying something.
'Oh, I hit it... Yes, I hit it!'

---

Just a small author's note for this chapter- a small point I'd like to make.
Drago's extinction of the Night Furies' was essentially the creation of his own downfall; if Toothless had not escaped, had not been shot down, he wouldn't have developed a friendship with Hiccup, and defeated the man who caused his species' extinction.
I'm going to leave you with a quote from 'How to Twist a Dragon's Tale'.
You see how good and evil are twisted together?

Drago's POV
Looking up at the sky, I could see several shapes returning to me.
My dragons landed, slinking towards me with bowed heads.
'Where is my Night Fury?' I hissed, not expecting a verbal answer, as the beasts could not speak.
One of them pointed with a claw at the remains of the Night Fury hatchlings which I had ordered them to kill, around its mouth, and then to the sky, far away in the distance.
I took this to mean, 'We killed the Night Fury hatchlings, but the ones you wanted alive got away.'
'WHAT?!?!?!?!?!' I screamed.
The beast whimpered.
'Did you track it?'
It nodded desperately, as if clinging to any hope at all that I would spare its life.
'Where did it go?'
It held up one claw, which I presumed meant, 'The first Night Fury'- the smaller one, which I guessed was a female. I knew enough about Night Furies to know that the females were smaller than the males.
Then it pointed to an area off in the distance, which I could not see, but the beast probably could.
'I can't see that!' I snapped.
One of the soldiers handed me a spyglass, and without turning around, I snatched it.
Now I could see where the dragon was pointing to.
I saw a wooded area, which had a cave, big enough to fit at least two Night Furies- but instead, it only contained one, which was sleeping.
Turning around, I told the soldiers what I had seen.
'Do you want us to keep it sleeping until you get there, sir?' one of the soldiers with the polar bear disguise asked, glancing at his blowpipe with a nasty grin.
'No. We will not be going there.'
On the soldiers' faces, was a puzzled expression, and they clearly wanted to ask why, but they knew better than that.
So I answered their unasked questions for them.
'We will return to its cave later- when it is grown up. I do not want a runt Night Fury in my army. And we do not need to worry about if it will leave the cave, and make a new home somewhere else. Night Furies stay in their caves for life.'
I paused for a few seconds.
'Any objections?' I snarled, with menace in my voice, seeing the soldiers' blank expressions.
'No, sir!' the soldiers practically screamed, in their frantic terror to show me that they all agreed.
'Good.' My sentence ended with a growl of satisfaction.
'Now,' I turned back to the dragon. 'Where did the other one go?'
It walked up to me, and pointed a claw at the map, with an expectant grunt, which ended in a whimper, which meant that it didn't mean to be rude.
Understanding what it meant, I knelt down, and spread the map onto the grass, where the beach ended.
A claw landed on a little island to the north, slightly ripping the paper.
The only memory that I had which made me remember the forgettable little island, was the Chieftains' Meeting...and a man with a red beard. He lived here. Well, he used to live here. I chuckled to myself at the thought.
What was the island's name...? Berk, perhaps.
Yes, that was it. Berk. That was where the other Night Fury was.
I stood up, and the dragon trembled, as if it knew what was coming, but could not do anything to prevent it.
I picked up my staff, and removed the Night Fury's body from it.
'You are of no more use to me.' I snarled.

---

Kicking the dragons' bodies disdainfully away from me, I turned to my soldiers, who had witnessed me murdering the Night Fury, and now, one of my dragons. They grinned at me with bloodthirsty smiles, understandably, since they had killed dragons themselves, before I had rescued them- or so they thought.
I smiled back, and began to speak.
'Ready the ships; we are going to Berk...for the Night Fury.'

Hiccup's POV
I studied the map of Berk which I had drawn in my book, a stick of charcoal hovering over the area where I believed the Night Fury had went down last night.
Raven Point. Just off Raven Point- which was where I was.
With eyes closed, I inhaled, then opened them again, looking into the huge sea of green that was the wood.
This was impossible. How would I ever find the Night Fury here?! I thought, as I scribbled over the map in frustration.
Sighing, I closed the book, and put it back into my furs.
'Oh, the gods hate me. Some people lose their knife, or their mug. No, not me; I manage to lose an entire dragon?!'
My frustration not yet gone, I whacked a tree branch.
'OW!'
Clutching my head in pain, I looked up at the tree. Really? Even trees hate me?! I thought- but that thought was interrupted as my eyes travelled from the tree, until they reached a path leading down to somewhere.
Curiously, although with fear, I stumbled down the path, grabbing hold of a tree root growing out of the ground, to prevent myself from falling.
Looking back at the root, I continued walking until I reached the end of the path- a mossy log, which, behind it, was my Night Fury.
Seeing the dragon, I instinctively ducked behind said log, with a gasp of terror.
Once I judged it was safe, with huge, terrified eyes, I peered over the log.
Yes, it was indeed my Night Fury...
It was perfectly still. Perhaps it was dead...? Breathing fast and hard with terror, I pulled my knife out of the pocket of my furs.
Holding the knife gave me courage, and I wore on my face an expression of grim determination.
Running to a rock, putting my back to it, and edging along it, I got a closer view of my Night Fury.
I stepped out from where I was, and began to gloat to the Night Fury, which, although breathing, didn't seem to be listening.
'Oh, wow. I-I-I did it. Oh, I did it, this- this fixes everything! Yes!'
Placing my foot onto the Night Fury, I continued to speak.
'I have brought down this mighty beast- WHOA!'
I shouted in surprise, as something small and red narrowly missed me, and pierced the skin of the Night Fury.
The dragon stopped breathing immediately.
'So you have, boy. You've made it easy for us.' a voice sneered.
Two men walked out of the bushes. They were wearing polar bear heads and skins- some sort of disguise?- and carried blowpipes, which I assumed contained more of what they had shot the Night Fury with.
'We could use you- anyone who can shoot down a Night Fury is worthy of being in our boss's army.' the one who had spoken before said.
The other one nudged him.
'We'd have to ask him first, don't forget... And he told us to only take the Night Fury!'
'Yes, but I'm sure he'd be extra pleased if we take the boy too.'
'I'm not sure... Let's not, just in case... You don't want to die, do you?!'
The one who had spoken first grudgingly agreed.
'What did you do to my Night Fury?!' I demanded. 'Did you kill it?!'
'No, no...' the man reassured me. 'It's just sleeping...'
Now that question had been answered, I no longer cared.
'Who are you? And who's this "boss" you keep talking about?'
The man laughed.
'You don't need to know who we are. And as for our boss... Well, you'll meet him soon enough.'
'But you said you weren't going to take me to him!'
'No... but he'll come to you.'
'What do you mean-'
'Stop asking questions!' he snapped.
'Anyway,' he continued. 'This Night Fury isn't "yours" anymore. It's his. Isn't that right, sir?'
'Yes...' another voice agreed, different in the sense that it was more harsh and angry.
Another man came out from the bushes, brushing a few leaves from the dragonskin cloak which covered his shoulders.
As soon as I saw him, I got the same feeling that a lot of people got when they first met my father- this man was powerful, scary, and, unlike my father, thank Thor, had probably done a lot of bad- terrible- things.
'Who are you?' he asked me immediately.
'I... I'm...' I stammered, my terror of this man making me unable to form words.
The man glared at me, and I gasped, and flinched- but to my surprise, he started laughing, chuckling.
Surprise quickly turned to terror when I realised the true nature of this man's laughter. His laughter was not my father's hearty, happy chuckling when Gobber or one of the other Vikings had told him a good joke- no, this was cold, evil chuckling, and I got the feeling that he did this every time he finished one of the terrible things which I was sure that he had done, and was going to do, in his miserable lifetime.
'You know, boy,' he laughed, 'you remind me of how one of my best dragon trappers was when he met me!'
I didn't join in with his laughter.
'But, enough of this.' He stopped laughing with terrifying abruptness- which was strange, because with a normal laugh- although by now I had gotten the impression that this man was not normal- it usually takes you a while to stop- and returned to glaring at me.
'WHO ARE YOU?' he repeated, much louder this time, to the extent of his voice echoing around the wood.
I had a feeling that this time he would not start laughing if I stammered, and so I gulped back my fear, as if it were a piece of food- if only it was- and started to speak.
'I am Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third, only son of Chief Stoick the Vast.'
Although their boss did not laugh, the disguised polar bear soldiers did.
'Look at him,' they sneered, 'saying his father's name even though he's dead-'
Their laughter died away to nothing as they saw their boss glaring at them.
'My father's not dead.' I protested.
The man had been quiet for a while, so I jumped at the sharpness of which he spoke with, when he finally did.
'Give me the Night Fury.' he demanded.
'No.' I replied, stepping in front of it.
He smiled, seemingly amused.
'Go ahead, dragon master.' he sneered.
'What did you call me...?'
The amused smile still remained on his scarred face.
'Do you really want to know why I called you that?'
'Yes.'
'You see, boy, there is an enemy of mine...'
'Yes?' I snapped.
He paused, and glared at me, and for a second I was scared that he was going to kill me for daring to interrupt his story, but he continued.
'...and she is a dragon master. She reminds me of you...maybe you are related to her...?'
No. No. It couldn't be her... she was dead, taken by a dragon... Dad had told me... This man was lying... or was he?
'N-no. She's dead...'
'Believe that if you want, boy. But I know the truth.'
'No you don't.'
The amused smile disappeared, and was replaced with the glare that he had given me for interrupting his story.
'Are you saying that I am a liar, boy?' he snarled.
'N-no... sir.'
'Good. Now, aren't you going to tame that Night Fury?'
I didn't answer him. I went over to the Night Fury, knelt down next to it, and pulled out the red thing- which on closer inspection, turned out to be a dart of some sort- from its scales.
The dragon groaned slightly.
Quickly, I got out of its way, because I knew that it would attack the first thing it saw, when it woke up, and I didn't want that thing to be me.
It started to stand up, in a way that reminded me of a lamb standing up for the first time.
Thank Thor, its head didn't turn to look at me; instead, it saw the man, and started to walk towards him slowly, growling.
The man raised the staff which he was holding in, strangely, the only hand which he seemed to have, and opened his mouth, as if to scream at it. But he looked like he was having second thoughts, because he lowered the staff, and closed his mouth.
He muttered something, which sounded like:
'Night Furies. Always harder to break.'
'What was that?' I asked.
In answer, he growled at me, like the Night Fury.
Turning to the polar-bear-men, he screamed, 'SHOOT IT!'
They promptly ran away in terror, screaming.
'Enjoy being torn apart by the Night Fury, boy.' he sneered, before doing much the same as the polar-bear-men, except that he wasn't screaming.
While he was running away, I could have sworn that my eyes caught a glint of metal- which might have been the reason why I could see that he only had one arm.
I hated to disappoint the man, but I didn't think I was going to enjoy being torn apart by the Night Fury.
I stood there, frozen in fear.
The Night Fury leapt on me, and pinning me to a rock, it opened its mouth to blast me to Valhalla...
But it didn't.
Instead, it screamed into my face.
I couldn't understand Dragonese, but I could tell that the dragon was saying two words.
'Thank you.'
Then, it flew off, out of sight, like the polar-bear-men, and the man.
'Uhhhhh...you're welcome?' I replied. Then, I crumpled to the ground, and passed out.

---

Eventually, I woke up, and saw that it was getting dark. I made my way back to the house.
Running up to the door, with footsteps as light as I could make them, I opened it, entered the house, closed the door quietly, and tried to not be seen by Dad.
I'd climbed a few stairs before he said, 'Hiccup.'
Reluctantly, I stopped.
'I have to talk to you, Dad.'
'I need to speak with you too, son. But first- I haven't seen you all day. You must be hungry.'
'Uhhh... no, Dad, thanks, but I'm not hungry.' I said to a happily deaf Stoick.
Sighing, I waited until he placed a plate containing two massive chicken legs onto his side of the table. Then he pushed a comparably small- this was intentional- plate of fish towards me. One of the fish, I noticed, had been stripped bare, with only the bones remaining.
'Hey, look, Hiccup. It's you.' Dad laughed.
'Yes, I know, Dad. I made that joke to myself already.' I sighed.
'It's probably those Terrible Terrors in the rafters that did that to that fish.' he grumbled, and began eating his chicken.
I guessed this would be a good time to talk to him.
'Listen, Dad, about what I wanted to talk to you about...'
'Yes, Hiccup? You didn't burn down a house, did you?'
'No, not this time. Actually, I... there was an unexpected visitor in the woods today... he was tall, wore a dragonskin cloak...'
The piece of chicken that was halfway to Dad's mouth fell onto the floor. I pretended not to notice something small swooping down from the rafters with a squeak, and grab it.
'No, no, don't worry, son. Probably nobody...' It sounded as if he was talking to himself, more than me.
His expression suddenly turned from worried, to urgent.
'Repeat after me, Hiccup. PROBABLY NOBODY.' he demanded, as if he could make the man who I saw disappear with his words.
'Probably nobody.' I repeated.
He sighed, and got up.
'Dad, what about your food?'
'I'm not hungry. You eat it if you want.' he replied, slinging a sack over his shoulder, and walking towards the door.
'Where are you going?'
'To find the Dragons' Nest.'
'Again?'
'Yes.'
The door slammed behind him.
'So... bye then, Dad...' I called after him hopefully.
There was no reply.
Sighing once again, I walked upstairs, and got into bed, wondering about who that man was.
Unbeknownst to me at the time, I would be seeing Drago Bludvist again, five years later.