The Black fire (BOOK 1)

Dragon's breath

-Narrator: Hiccup.

I was outside the death arena when Gobber told me to pull the lever. It was right above the closed cage of the Monstrous Nightmare, so I ran to reach it. The viking moved to the center of the circle that formed the death arena, holding a chain and a muzzle to immovilize the dragon's mouth. 

It wasn't the first time he collected the dragon's flamable gas, we rarely used it for anything, but when we had the necesity for, as an example, flaming the proyectiles of the catapult, we used to collect it with the help of a group of about ten other vikings. This group prepared themselves for two days before they entered the death arena for the fight.

The problem here was, Gobber was the only one in the village willing to help me. And so, he was alone fighting against the beast. A Monstrous Nightmare nevertheless! He had no time for prepaing himself, because I needed the gas as fast as I could get it. Now, looking back to that night, I can see how ungratefull I was to him...

... I didn't even thank what he did.

When I pulled the lever on the ground, a cracking noise could be heard, and after that, the ground crumbled. The big piece of wood that was locking the door started moving up. When the door was finally unlocked, a low growl could be heard inside the cave. Gobber stood there, waiting to the dragon to come out. Luckily for him, the beast was chained to the wall of the cave, so if something went wrong, I could drag the Monstrous Nightmare back to the cell like I did in order to save Mark's life a long time before.

Suddenly, in the darkness of the cave, two yellow spots iluminated. They were rounded and with black slits in the middle. Then, the red dragon slowly but surely crawled outside the cave, still chained up. When he saw Gobber, he extended his wings and roared menacingly, preparing himself for the attack. When he tried jump on the viking, he founded himself falling to the ground as the chain on his neck didn't let him get any further. 

Taking advantage of this, Gobber grabbed his hammer and threw it at the beast while it was still on the ground. The weapon landed right in his head, and the dragon whimpered, stunned from the impact. Gobber jumped to his head, trying to wrap the beast's mouth with the muzzle. The Monstrous Nightmare shook his head, and the viking fell to the ground. The muzzle went flying across the room and landed at the other end. The dragon got up and striked against Gobber, whitch rolled left, evading the attack. Then took his hammer from the ground again and sticked in his stump. The dragon got into a defensive position and waited. Gobber looked around, searching for the muzzle. He spotted it at the other side of the room. And then faced the beast, who was still waiting for him to move. 

The viking started walking back, slowly, and the dragon followed him, taking a step foward every time Gobber treaded back and breathing out black smoke everytime he got closer to his prey. At one point, Gobber went running towards the muzzle on the floor. A moment later, the red beast was chasing him.

Gobber ran and ran, as fast as his legs allowed him. He grabbed the muzzle, but the dragon was already on top of him, jaw hanging open. I noticed the dragon had burned the chain when he wasn't looking, and so, he was completely free. Before the beast could eat him, the viking held the muzzle in front of him, like a shield.

Then, he just waited for the impact.

-Narrator: Gobber.

''Am I going to die here?''

I whispered, and I actually thought it was true. Was I going to die there? Was I going to get eaten because the weak son of the chief wanted something from one of the most dangerous creatues of the world, and nobody but silly me was going to help him?

No. Of course I wasn't.

I placed the muzzle in front of me, acting as a protection against the beast's bite, and at the same time he reached to me, his mouth got trapped in the muzzle. Then, I rolled left again and wrapped the chain around his body, making sure he could not move. The enraged dragon roared very loudly and tried to get me with his sharp claws. I got him completely immovilized, however, so he didn't even got close to hit me.

''Get me the basket!'' I shouted to Hiccup, who was still outside, looking at the scene I was in. He gasped, like I awoke him from a dream and threw the metal basket inside the death arena. I grabbed it mid-air and placed it in front of the muzzle. 

The basket was made of metal and prepared specifically to contain such a dangerous material, like the gas of any dragon. We had a lot, and when I say a lot, I mean hundreads of them on the warehouse. So, using one for Hiccup's needs wasn't really bad, was it?

After five minutes of struggleling with the dragon, things finally calmed down a little. The dragon slowly stopped moving and then went limp. His heart rate went down and he breathing became slower. When I ensured it was safe, I told Hiccup to come down and to help me with the gas. The small viking entered the arena and opened the basket, ready to be filled to the top. Now the only thing left togo was making the dragon breathe out some gas.

Without burning us in the process, this is.

Usually, the team of ten vikings would torture the beast until he spat out some, but the time wasn't in our favour, so we used the only solution we had. I connected the tube of the muzzle to the basket and looked at the dragon to the eyes. ''Now, you will give us what we want, or you will miss your little firends.'' I whispered to him, hoping he could understand me. Hiccup looked at me, surprised: ''what are you doing?'' he asked. ''Ssssh!'' I said, ''Trust me...'' Then I faced the dragon again. ''Don't think I am just playing around with you. I will cut their heads off with this axe, one, by, one.'' I said, so harshly I even scared myself. But that kind of mood was needed when dealing with a dragon, so I continued. '' And then, I will get their corpses in YOUR cell to give you company, because I am not going to kill you, oh no. I am going to lock you in there until you die from starving, but I'm sure that is going to take you a long time, so in order to help you, your daily food and water will stop coming.''

The dragon looked at me, very nervous. It was working, just a little more persuasion will do the rest. ''You can do that... or you can simply give us what we want. Because I'm sure you know what we want already, don't you? Judging by this canister here.'' I lifted the basket, so the dragon could see it. ''So yeah, make a decision. Fast.'' 

The red beast looked at the cages all around the wall of the death arena. A single dragon of every type was inside. Then his eyes looked for mine's. We had a staredown for like a couple of mintes before the dragon looked down and opened his mouth a tad bit. Just enough for the gas to come out an fill the basket.

Minutes later we were out the arena and on our way to our home.

-Narrator: ?????

I was dragged by the chain to the cave again, with my dignity on the floor. 

''Hey! What happened out there?'' I heard a female voice say. 

I approached the hole on the side of the room and looked through. The deadly Nadder was a at the other side.  ''Didn't you hear me? What did they want?'' He roared louder. 

''Agh- shut up! I just saved your life. Thank me later ok? Now leave me alone.''

I walked on a circle twice, then layed on the floor and tried to sleep a little.