Blood of a Dragon (HTTYD)

CHAPTER ONE: THE ARBITER

Song above dedicated to this story as a whole. (go follow my Spotify playlist called "Blood of a Dragon" by Olivia Dehart for more!)

The moon shone bright over the northern islands that dotted the Norwegian sea.

A soldier dressed in his usual golden armor sat atop the walls of the small outlet of a fortress called Conviction and spit into the fire pit to watch it sizzle in the flame while the others sat around, lingering as they fulfilled their duties of a night's watch.

"Black as the night sky without stars, they said. It would come here and there, making sounds like a banshee and be gone as fast as a lightning strike," Elijah was saying in an over-dramatic way, hunched over as he sat on a barrel. "It came and took men one by one like a ghost. And it's breath... nothing but a bolt of blue fire that shattered the strongest towers—"

"Shut your damn mouth already about Night Furies," Epaphras told them when he walked to where they sat. "They were always talked about like they were some great mystery of evil like a demon in the flesh... until a bloody twelve year old tamed one."

Uriah snickered.

Their accents were thick northern English as were their origins. But since they were Christian and not Catholic, they became their own Empire separate from the King of England.

"Some people call that twelve year old the Dragon Keeper. And we know for a fact that he has the most dragons in one area than anywhere else in the north," Titus added.

"It's because the Night Fury," Elijah said. "He's the new alpha. He commands even the wildest of them."

"Well that's why he should be killed. While he's alive, they'll all be in danger..." Epaphras said with meaning behind his words.

"And what about the boy?"

He turned his back to look at the sky. "Him too..." As he walked away, he failed to notice a shadow moving up the wall in the distance...

(track: "Here's the Plan" by Joseph Trapanese)

Astrid climbed the stones that made up the southern guard tower, pulling her way upwards with only the dim moonlight to aid her. Luckily she had some stealthy leather armor for this job courtesy of a certain lovable scoundrel. Stealth was never her thing. She had more of a love for brute force when it came to combat, but after realizing with a few dragon raids that that tactic wasn't the most effective, she agreed to do this the more efficient way. She got a pretty nasty scar across her abdomen to remind her of that...

When she reached the top she hopped up and found the guard there, throwing a kick to the side of his head before he could speak or attack, a clanking sound occurring when his head hit the stone barrier and knocked him out cold.

She immediately took out her crossbow when the soldier on the lower wall ahead heard this. Aiming carefully, she let her dart fly through the air and pierce the exposed neck area, the fluid in the dart making him pass out.

She then expanded her weapon and took the grapnel hook and string from her belt, attaching it to the crossbow and firing at the tower ahead. The metal head hooked between the stones of the tower barrier and was secure there, the other side hooked on her end. She then used a leather strap to hold as she leapt off the edge, sliding down the rope using the strap in both of their hands until she makes it to the western door, hopping down swiftly.