The Black fire (BOOK 1)

Discovery

-Narrator: Astrid.

The axe cut the wooden piece in half.

I was training in the forest, I've always been a very competitive person, if somebody is better than me on something, I must become the number one, no matter the cost. That day, however, I was there for another reason. That morning I was talking with Stoick about what happened the other day, when Mark came back with his plane and, unaccountably, nobody attacked him. But neither him or Gobber told me anything about it, it seems that they wanted to keep it in secret for some reason. But there was another thing that bothered me; and it was the fact that the chief looked really bereaved when I asked him about it. I decided to left the topic and ask him later on.

Also, there was the problem that Hiccup hasn't been seen in days. It was strange to see him anyway, but it could be usually found in the armory working, but when I went looking for him, he wasn't there. I looked everywhere in the village, but he had vanished. Not like I care that much, but when ANYBODY needed a hand, I think ANYBODY should help. 

A crazy thought flashed in my mind. ''What if...? No. That isn't possible. He doesen't know how...''

Or was it?

I threw another axe, the blade sunk deep into a tree.

When I came to get it again, I saw a plain behind the last row of trees. I peeked my head, looking around. ''I've never seen this place...'' I said, my voice echoed in the mountain near the plain. I walked around for a few minutes, smelling the flowers and feeling the grass in my feet. Suddenly, I saw something, it was a trail in the ground. In fact, the trail was formed by two grooves on the land, going directly to the cliff and from the other end of the plain. I followed them to an strange cave in the bottom of the mountain. The trail ended right in front of it, so whatever it was what caused it, was inside.

I holded my axe with both hands. The cave was completely dark, only iluminated by the sun in it's few first meters. I entered and I soon found myself in complete darkness. I continued foward, leaning in the cave's wall, not to lose myself in the mountain, as I didn't know how big the cove really was. But, all of a sudden I felt something in my hand. I passed my hand around it and I realize that it was a torch.   I took it from it's support and lightened it.

And I froze.

The cave was full of drawings of the machine, there was a puddle of some black liquid on the floor and pieces of whood and metal everywhere. There was an improvised piece of metal that served as a desk. In it, another set of strange pieces that looked broken, and a opened black box in the edge. Near the desk, there was a metal basked we used for gather the gas of the dragons. It was empty.

I walked to to the desk, very slowly. I took a quick look at every piece in case anything remembers me of something. When I found out that it didn't remind me of anything, I looked for the box. I looked inside and I found a note and a bullet. I took the note and read it carefully.

''Build... understand... fly a plane?'' I muttered. ''Socialize with the teenagers? Never come after me? What the hell is this place?'' I was weirded out by everything around me. But then I read the last phrase of the letter. 

''Your best friend, Mark.''

''Hiccup.'' I thought, and then frowned. ''That stupid crazy pilot causing problems even when he isn't here.'' He gave Hiccup the tool for making another one of those... things, and, of course, as usual from him, he built one and went after him. Now all the pieces were in place, that was why Hiccup was missing, and that was the reason for Stoick acting so strange all of a sudden. But I could not blame everything to Mark. He wrote on the note, specially NOT to go after him, and that calmed my nerves a little. Then, I left the note back in the black box.

After a couple of minutes of assimilating information, I ran outside the cave with the box in my hand and headed to the village.

''I need to tell this to the others.''

Narrator: Hiccup.

The travel lasted one entire day for me to finally spot the island I was looking for. A little green and brown dot, highlighting over the big blue ocean around. One day might not seem like much, but that is if you are on a ship, with a little to walk on, at least. But fourty eight hours were incredibly hard to get over with when you are in a two meter square cockpit. But at least there was always something to keep you entertained: for instance, the I was running low on gas by the time, so my engine power needed to be as low as possible, but maintaining a cruising speed in order to keep flying. I was constantly throttling up and down, changing the speed every couple of minutes.

My altitude was around 1000m above sea level, and the speed around 200km/h. I couldn't tell exactly, as the speedometer broke a couple of hours earlier. When I got a little closer, I saw a trail of black smoke coming from one side of the island. Now I knew where the runway was at least.

''There you are... buddy.''

*AUTHOR'S NOTE*

This chapter is a little shorter, but I think it's I made it made out a little better than the previous ones.

I was inspirated about this one :)

Also I owe a huge thanks to everybody that follows this amazing story.

Thank you all so much.