Hunter's Nightmare

🔥Prologue🔥

Viggo sighed, pacing back and forth in front of the tent. The medic refused to let him in until after his wife Reatha gave birth. His brother Ryker watched from the side, an unimpressed look on his face.

"Calm down, brother. She'll be fine." Ryker said in an annoyed tone. He'd never seen his brother so worked up about something before.

"And how do you expect me to be sure of that? What if she dies?! What if the baby dies?!" Viggo threw his hands up in frustration. His brother just rolled his eyes.

"If father was here to see this then he'd laugh at how pathetic you're acting." Ryker sneered quietly.

Viggo sent a glare at his brother. "Your lack of compassion is astounding sometimes."

Finally, a short old woman with braided hair stepped out of the tent. Viggo didn't notice her, however, as he was too busy arguing with his brother. The old woman rolled her eyes, grabbing her staff and whacking Viggo on the shoulder. The man whirled around with a furious look, but his expression turned into a worried one when he saw the medic.

"Are they both okay?" he frantically asked, rushing inside the tent.

"Yes, Viggo, they're both-" Before she could finish, Viggo was already crouching beside Reatha, a woman around his age with messy raven-black hair and hazel eyes. She had a tired smile on her face as she stared down at the small bundle in her arms. The baby she was holding was babbling, trying to open his eyes and reach for his mother's face.

"It's a boy," Reatha told her husband in a soft tone. "Do you want to hold him?"

She carefully placed the baby into her husband's arms. The two new parents leaned against each other as Viggo cradled his newborn son in his arms, smiling for the first time in a while.

"What should we name him?" Reatha asked quietly, glancing up at Viggo.

The dragon hunter chief thought for a moment. "His name... will be Asger."

———

•A few hours later...•

Not long after Asger's birth, chaos erupted in the village. A Skrill that one of Viggo's best hunters had caught managed to escape its cage, and was now rampaging across the island, electrocuting every hunter that crossed its path as it soon made its way to the town.

Viggo got word of it soon after it escaped. He was walking back to his house, and as soon as he reached his front doorstep, his brother had run up to him and grabbed his shoulder.

"Brother! One your stupid beasts managed to escape!" Ryker said, pointing towards the smoke rising in the distance.

"Which one?" Viggo asked, drawing his sword and ready to go after the dragon.

"The Skrill."

The hunter chief's brown eyes widened, his heart beginning to race in panic. Of course of a dragon had to escape on the day of his son's birth of all days, and it was one of the most dangerous dragons in the world no less! "Gather a search party and contain that dragon immediately." Viggo ordered. "I'll get the villagers to safety."

"Alright, but you won't have to search for long." Ryker shrugged, then pointed up at the sky, where as if on cue the Skrill soared overhead. Lightning came down from the sky, striking the dragon and allowing it to shoot a beam of electricity and leave a trail of destruction behind it.

Growling under his breath, Viggo shoved his brother out of the way and ran after the Skrill. He ran all the way to the town square, where his hunters were fighting to the death with the electric dragon. Bodies littered the ground, and only a few hunters remained, dodging the dragon's attacks and waiting for an opening. As it was distracted with the other hunters, Viggo took this chance to stab the dragon's leg. It screeched in pain and spun around, knocking Viggo away. His weapon clattered to the ground as he rolled across the dirt, dust flying into the air. He coughed, trying to wave the dust away as he watched the silhouette of the Skrill take off. Once the dust cloud was gone, he could see the dragon fly in the direction of his house just before it disappeared from sight.

"Oh no..." he muttered, grabbing his sword. "Reatha!"

———

Hearing the commotion outside, Reatha grabbed a battle axe off of the weapon rack on her wall, ready to run outside and join the fight until she heard a crash upstairs.

"Asger!" she exclaimed, running upstairs as fast as she could. She heard her baby screaming and the sound of a dragon's growls. Once she made it upstairs, she could see the Skrill crawl through the hole it made the nursery's ceiling, making its way towards Asger, who was still bundled up in his crib.

"NO!" she screamed, hurdling her axe at the dragon. It jumped away just in time, the axe striking the wall beside it. Its head turned towards Reatha, a low growl rumbling in its throat. The woman gasped as the purple and black dragon lunged at her, baring its fangs. She let out a horrified scream, reaching her arm up to try and block the dragon, but it was too late.

Viggo burst into the nursery right as the Skrill threw a limp Reatha across the room, flashes of lightning traveling through its scales. It noticed Viggo immediately, running towards him and standing up on its back legs while charging a blast of electricity.

Just as the dragon was about to finish him off, Viggo stabbed the dragon right in its heart. The beast let out an agonizing roar of pain as it stumbled back, falling onto its side. Once it was down, Viggo immediately ignored the lifeless reptile, dropping his sword and running to the other side of the room where Reatha lay.

She was unmoving, with a pool of blood surrounding her. Viggo fell onto his knees next to her, picking her up and holding her close to his chest as Asger was crying in the background.

"Reatha? Reatha!" he cried, shaking her to try and wake her up. Tears streamed down his face when she gave no response. He couldn't even hear her breathing.

"Oh, no..." he sobbed, hugging his dead wife closer. Ryker ran into the room, weapon in hand, but lowered it once he saw the dead Skrill and his brother holding a bloody Reatha in his arms on the other side of the room. His eyes were wide with shock, before he sighed and stepped over the Skrill's body, standing next to his brother and placing a hand on his shoulder.

Not long after Ryker found Viggo mourning his wife, the two brothers left the house to prepare for her funeral and inform the village that she'd been killed. A woman and her daughter who were close friends with the Grimborn family took care of Asger, as Viggo could not bring himself to be near his son at the moment.

Reatha's funeral was held the next day. Viggo stood in front of everyone else, firing the first flaming arrow at the ship sailing away in the distance. Ryker was next, and after that countless of flaming arrows shot into the evening sky, hitting the small ship and setting it ablaze. Ryker expected Viggo to give a speech of some sort as the ship sunk in the distance, but his brother remained silent for the rest of the funeral.

Viggo came back home that night, hearing his son wailing upstairs. He knew the child wasn't even a week old, but he still wondered if Asger knew Reatha was gone. She did die right in front of him, after all. The woman who was taking care of Asger with her daughter, who's name was Olga, had come downstairs to greet Viggo and apologize for not attending the funeral, but all he did was say it was alright and go back to his bedroom.

Olga sighed as the chief shut his bedroom door. She gently shook her head. "That poor man." she muttered before heading back upstairs where her 21 year old daughter, Toril, was cradling a now sleeping Asger in her arms.

"He finally fell asleep," she told her mother, whispering.

"That's good," Olga sighed, sitting in the chair next to her daughter.

Everything was silent for a moment, until Toril quietly spoke up. "Mother... What will happen to Asger now that Reatha's gone?"

Olga glanced at her daughter, before looking down at the ground with a sad expression. "I'm not sure how capable Viggo is to raise a child all on his own. I think the best chance Asger's got to survive is if we help raise him..."