The Dragonborn book one: gifted

CHAPTER EIGHT: THE NIGHT FURY

*HICCUPS POV*

I woke up and glanced over at the sleeping form of my sister. She looked so cute when she was sleeping. I noticed the terror, Fern, I think she called it, sleeping on top of  her bed head. He noticed me looking and glanced in my direction before falling asleep again. I rolled out of bed and dressed quickly, then ran downstairs and opened the door only to shut it again immediately and press my back up against the solid slab of wood as a monstrous nightmare shot fire at me. The flame licked around the edges for a second before dying away again. I opened the door and, luckily, the dragon had flown off.

I walked outside and saw chaos, but I was used to the chaos of the dragon raids that had been happening since before the day I was born. It was a part of life now. I looked up to see a Viking holding on to the face of a flying gronkle whilst bashing it in the side of the head with the hilt of his ax. As I run for cover the man is thrown off and lands face first on the ground behind me his ax following, he gets up, dusts himself off, grabs his ax and rejoins the fray.

I run through the village towards the forge and am greeted along the way with calls of 'what are you doing out here' and 'get inside!'. I ignore them and keep running. I am about to run out in front of a dragon but am pulled back by a strong arm. "What is he doing out here! What are you doing out here? Get inside" I hear a very annoyed stoick the vast say. He puts me down and I run a few meters to listen to the dragon count report. "What have we got?" Stoick asks. "Gronkles, Nadders, zipplebacks, OH and hawk saw a monstrous nightmare." The watchman listed. "Any night furies?" Stoick asks. "None so far" the watchman replied.

"Good" I hear dad reply as I run off. I hear calls of 'hoist the torches' as I run through the main square. I get to the forge and am greeted by Gobber saying "nice of you to show up, I was beginning to think that you'd been carried off!". "Who me? Oh no, come on, i'm Waaay to muscular for their taste. They wouldn't know what to do with all this" I say flexing my nonexistent bicep muscles. "Well they always need toothpicks don't they?" Gobber replies as I open the front of the forge. People come forward with bent swords and chipped maces. I collect the pile and take it over to the main fireplace. I dump everything onto the hot coals and pump the bellows, heating up the metal, I take them off the fire and get to work bending them back into shape.

I am just finishing up on the first batch when I hear shouts of 'fire' and see Astrid, Snotlout, Fishlegs, Ruffnut and Tuffnut racing towards the source wit buckets. As Astrid throws a bucket of water onto the fire and turns back around a dragon blasts the house and it explodes into a ball of fire and rubble. I instantly fall for her. Ok I admit it, I love Astrid. Then the rest of the gang walk up behind her and the moment is lost. I move to climb over the bar at the front of the shop but Gobber stops me by picking me up. "Oh come on Gobber, let me out I need to make my mark" I whine. "Oh you've made plenty of marks, all in the wrong places" he answers poking me. "Oh come on Gobber, just two minutes, i'll Kill a dragon, my life will get infinitely better. I might even get a date" I plead. "You can't lift a hammer, you can't swing an ax, you can't even throw one of these!" He says holding up a bola. Instantly a man grabs it, turns around, spinning the bola above his head at the same time and then throws it at a gronkle that is flying overhead. "Ok fine, but this will throw it for me" I say as I pat the top of an automatic bola launcher, accidentally setting it off. The bola that was loaded into it flys through the air and hits a Viking in the head, knocking him out cold. "See now this right here is what I'm talking about!" He exclaims.

"I-I-it's a mild calibration issue" I stammer back. "I don't want to hear it! If you ever want to get out there, to fight dragons you need to stop all... this" he says gesturing in my direction. "But you just gestured to all of me" I say. "Yes that's it, stop being all of you." He replies. "Ooh no" "ooh yes" "you sir are playing a dangerous game, keeping this much raw, vikingness contained, there will be consequences!" I almost yell. "I'll take my chances. Sword, sharpened, now" he says dumping a blunt sword into my arms. I stagger over to the whet stone and start to sharpen it. 'One day i'll Get out there, because killing a dragon is everything out here. A Nadder head is sure to get me at least noticed. Gronkles are tough, taking down one of those would definitely get me a girlfriend. A zippleback, exotic, two heads, twice the status.' I think. "They found the sheep!" I hear someone yell. 'And then, there's the monstrous nightmare, only the best Vikings go after those. They have this nasty habit of setting themselves on fire.' "Reload!" I hear my dad yell as a monstrous nightmare climbs up the side of the tower, setting itself alight as it does. "I'll take care of this" he says as he bashes both sides of the flaming dragon's head one side after the other.

'And then there is the prize for the head of a dragon no one has ever seen they call it the-' "NIGHT FURY! GET DOWN!" I hear people yell as an unearthly screech fills the air. A split second later the tower my dad was on explodes with a powerful purple blast of fire. I see a silhouette of a dragon flying over as the tower is blasted. 'This thing never steals food, never shows itself and NEVER misses. No one has ever killed a night fury, and that's why i'm gonna be the first'. I walk over to Gobber as he says "man the forge while i'm gone, and DON'T go anywhere".  He charges off with a battle cry, leaving me alone in the forge. I grab a bola, load it into the launcher and race outside towing the contraption behind me.

"Get back in there" I hear someone yell. "I know, be right back" I call as I race past. I finally reach a likely spot for an attack from the beast, set up the bola launcher and wait. It's not long before I hear the screech of a night fury preparing to fire. "Come on, come on" I mutter as i watch for the blast. I finally see it, then the dragon's silhouette as it flys past the scene. I steady the launcher and pull the trigger. I am thrown backwards by the force of the launch. There is a few moments of silence before I hear a solid thwack as the bola finds its mark and then a screech of pain from the dragon.

I cheer. "Did anyone see that!?" I yell then turn, hearing a dragon's growl behind me. "Except for you... AAAHH" I scream as I run away from the beast. It roars and gives chase. I hide behind a pole just as the beast releases a stream of fire. The dragon stops suddenly and I look around the pole to see why. My father is there beating the beast around the head before it flys off. The pole, weakened by the fire gives way, toppling over and the flaming basket on top of it falls off and begins to roll down the hill. My dad glares at me.

On the way home he lectures me. "But I'd id hit one dad, I really did!" I complained. "It went down somewhere just past raven point, let's get a search party out there before it-" "STOP!" My dad interrupts standing just outside our house. A small crowd has formed to watch the argument unfold. "Just, stop. Every time you step outside disaster follows.do you not see that I have bigger problems? Winter is almost here and I have an entire village to feed" he says "well between you and me the village could do with a little less feeding, don't you think?" I ask. "This isn't a joke hiccup! Oh why can't you follow the simplest orders" he asks. I-i-I can't stop myself! I see a dragon and I have to just, yo know, kill it. It's who I am dad" I say. "Oh you're many things hiccup, but a dragon killer, isn't one of them.

Get inside" he says with finality. I sigh but go inside reluctantly. Once inside I rant on to myself. "He never listens and when he does it's always with this disappointed scowl like someone skimped on the meat in his sandwich. Excuse me, barmaid, I'm afraid you've brought me the wrong offspring. I ordered an extra large boy with beefy arms, extra guts and glory on the side. This here, this here is a talking fish bone!" I say in a very accurate impersonation of Stoick. Then suddenly I have an idea. I grab my notebook, charcoal pencil and dagger, sneaking out the back of the house and into the forest.

I aim in the direction of raven point. After a little while I begin to get frustrated. I slap at a branch and it flings back and whips me in the eye. "Ow" I say. I look up. The tree ha been broken off at the middle and is leaning against the ground. I follow the direction of the break in the tree and see a deep gouge in the ground. I follow it and see something lying in a crater a few feet away. It is the dragon that I shot down, still wrapped in the bola from my launcher.

I quickly duck down behind the crater rim before it sees me then peek over the edge and look at the dragon. It's eyes are closed and it seems to be unconscious. I creep closer dagger raised. "Oh wow, I did it. I really actually did it!" I say. "Look at this, oh this fixes everything. Yes, I have brought down this mighty beast!" I say placing my foot on the dragon's side. "Gerroffome" I hear someone groan. I take my foot off of the dragon and look around. There is no one there. I walk back towards the dragon dagger outstretched, ready to kill it but then I see it's eyes. It's eyes are wide open and staring at me with a look that clearly says 'well if you're gonna kill me get it over with'. I can't kill this thing, it's just as scared and vulnerable as me! It closes its eyes again and looks away. I come to a decision. I kneel down next to the dragon and start to cut through the bola's ropes. The bindings round it's legs loosen and fall away.

Suddenly the dragon is on its feet and pushing me against a rock. 'You May have saved me but if you come near me again I will kill you!" I hear a voice scream at me as the dragon roars in my face. And then, suddenly it just turns around and takes off deeper into the forest. That is the last thing I see as I faint from shock.