The Black fire (BOOK 1)

A deal is a deal.

-Narrator: Hiccup.

That last sentence made my memories come back like a fist in my face. The fist night he came here... the Black fire came here. He was gliding at me, Gobber thought he was going to attack me and he threw an axe at him. I understood then why Mark assaulted the village: he considered us as enemy's.

I had, however, bigger problems. And the most important one was pointed right to my chin. I calmed down, breathing heavily. I slowly let my body go limp. He seemed to calm down as well.  About a minute later, my dad couldn't take it anymore and ordered: ''Leave my son alone, devil. Why don't you pick somebody of your own size?'' He waved the hammer in front of me. I turned my head slightly in order to see Mark's face. Surprisingly, he smiled in front of my dad's menace. Suddenly, he released my arm. I scrambled and ran away from him a few meters almost getting next to my dad. 

Mark was ready for the fight, and so was my dad. He placed the weapon in his pocket and raised his fists. My dad grunted, he prepared his attack. My legs were shaking, I really wanted to make my dad and Mark stop, but both of them were terribly menacing. I looked at Gobber, trying to make him reason and tell my dad to stop. I'm sure Mark wouldn't hurt me anyways! He was just angry... But he wasn't going to be so merciful with Stoick, and vice versa. 

My dad made the first movement, he charged at Mark, shouting. Then, he made the hammer swing through the air, trying to hit him. Mark crouched just before the hammer passed above his head. Then, he took the moment he had before my dad attacks again to get to his back and kick him in the knee. My dad growled, then he charged again, with no luck. This time agility and speed were  winning against the strong. However, this wasn't going to last long; my dad finally land a hit on Mark, a huge one. It made him fly a few meters before crashing against the plane. He quickly got up, but he was hurt, he wouldn't resist another strike like that. 

''This is it.'' He said ''I didn't want to waste one of my bullets, but you leave me with no other option.''

My dad looked at Mark, then he smiled. He settled himself into a defending position, in order to block Mark's next attack.''Bring it on, devil.''

Mark pulled the revolver out of his pocket.

-Narrator: Mark.

An idea raced through my mind: If I kill the chief now, the most powerful of all vikings, I'll show them that I'm stronger, and they will obey me. I will be the alpha, the strong leader. Then, I will leave the village, and don't come back.

It sounded good to me.

Stoick smiled at the gun. It was obvious that he wasn't scared from it, but that was because he didn't know what it could do. I pointed the gun directly at his head. He started running towards me, swinging his hammer again.

I pulled the trigger.

Hiccup appeared out of nowhere, grabbed my arm and pushed it downwards. Instead of making a prefect shot between the viking's eyes, the bullet went to one of his legs, piercing a knee. Stoick shouted in pain and dropped the hammer. I immediately turned the gun at Hiccup's head again. Surprisingly, he didn't move. He stayed there, waiting for me to shoot. ''Do it.'' he said.

Now, that was a surprise.

-Narrator: Stoick.

It was black magic, sure. Somehow, in the moment just before landing my hammer on Mark, I saw a flash in the kid's weapon, followed sharp pain in my knee. Then, it started bleeding heavily. I took a better look at it and I saw a hole in it, about one finger wide. It was horribly painfull. I  looked at Mark again, waiting him to finish me, but instead, I witnessed how my son was standing up against him. With no fear in his eyes (strange fact in him). The weapon was now pointing at his head, pressing against his forehead. At the same moment, Gobber got next to me: ''Stoick! Are you ok? What happened?'' I was as confused as him, so I didn't say anything, I just continued looking at my son. ''If the same thing that happened to my knee happens to his head, he will not survive.'' I thought. I immediately tried to stand up, but it hurted so bad I fell on the floor almost as fast. 

My son was doomed, and I couldn't do nothing to save him... I cried at the situation; Me, the chief of Berk, the great Stoick, who killed his first dragon with his bare hands when he was nine, now was defeated, badly wounded in the floor and uncapable of protecting his son. Understanding what was going to happen, Gobber charged with his hammer to Mark.

Narrator: Mark.

There I was, with the scope of the revolver pressing against his face. When I was working with him, repairing the plane, it seemed like a shy viking. Unlike the stereotype I knew since I was a kid, Hiccup was timid, skinny and... well, tiny. Compared with the others of his age, at least. I got to know him a lot more than I spected, and that made some sort of... connection. I felt that, of all the vikings living here, Hiccup was the only one that wanted to try something new, or even give mercy to a stranger that destroyed his home dozens of times. In that aspect, we were no different. But there was I, with the finger on the trigger.The same feeling that begged to see Hiccup dead back in the arena was shouting me to drop the weapon and let it be. A pair of minutes passed when I realized something... 

I couldn't do it.

And I finally accepted it.

I slowly placed the revolver in my pocket again. Hiccup smiled: ''A deal is a deal after all.'' he said, and held out his hand. I smiled, tired of this situation, and handshaked with him. ''Now, let's try to fix this thing again, If we did it once, we can do it again.'' He said, he sounded surprisingly optimistic. I turned around and there was a viking with a stump running at me. It surprised me, but I tried to evade the attack, my ribs, however, didn't allowed me: the hit Stoick gave me before broke at least two.

I standed as the hammer striked me right in the left cheek.

Then everything went black.